But Manji punches him in the face! And Giichi punches Manji- and it becomes a full-out fistfight!

As they rest for a bit, Manji starts pulling apart the sickle. Giichi tells him that there's no way it's going to break. After 3 LONG PAGES of grunting and pulling, and to Giichi's surprise...

...it breaks!

After that, Manji get's Giichi to admit that Manji won. THEN guess what happens?

He tells Giichi to bring him to Mugai-ryu, and that he's going to join up!

"So you planned to join from the beginning. After all that needless blood spilled..."
"Heh. I've been bored lately."

In other words: Manji is a total asshole.

"Thank God..."

But there's a shadow behind Rin... What will happen? Find out next episode!

Review of this month's episode and notes:

Art

4

Great art! Even the gruesome "cutting through Manji's leg" came off "artistic-like".

Story

3

Nothing too interesting, just a long fight with some choice words.

Length

3

Good length. For most of the fight, you could tell what was happening.

Surprises

4

So Manji was planning on joining Mugai-ryu from the beginning, and just wanted to bump blades with Giichi? Not only funny, but... well... "That's Manji".