Departure

Lore & Background

In the world of Hell's Paradise, the Oniwabanshu are an elite cadre of assassins serving the imperial court, men and women whose skills have been refined over generations into something approaching the supernatural. Gabimaru was once among their most feared blades, but he left that life behind to tend fields and live quietly. His master, Kozue, is the one person who still holds a thread to his past, and her slow, agonizing decline is the single force capable of dragging him back. The Elixir of Life—a mythical substance said to grant eternal vitality—is rumored to exist on a remote, forbidden island. No one who has sought it there has returned with certainty, and the island itself seems to warp the natural order, breeding creatures and phenomena that defy ordinary explanation. Yuzuriha, a bright-eyed young girl, is assigned to travel alongside Gabimaru as part of the expedition. Her role in the opening is that of a guide and observer, but the arc carefully withholds the full truth of her nature, planting seeds that will bloom in later arcs. The island they are bound for is not merely a distant landmass; it is a threshold, a place where the boundary between the living world and something far older and stranger has worn thin. What the Departure arc establishes is that this is not a simple treasure hunt. The island has rules, it has inhabitants, and it has a hunger. The emotional architecture of the arc rests on contrast: the softness of Gabimaru's farming life, the tenderness of his care for Kozue, set against the brutal, blood-soaked identity he is being forced to reclaim. Every quiet moment before the departure is a countdown, and the moment he steps onto the road toward the island, the reader understands that the man who planted those rice paddies is already gone.

In Their Own Story

The morning mist still clung to the rice paddies when the horse appeared at the edge of the field. Gabimaru did not look up from his hoe. He had learned, in the years since the Oniwabanshu, that the world still had a habit of finding him, and that most of what it brought was noise. He finished the row. He wiped his hands on his apron. Only then did he turn. The rider spoke in the clipped, formal cadence of the court. A name. A summons. A word that tasted like ash: *Kozue*. Gabimaru's jaw tightened so hard the muscles jumped beneath the sunburned skin. He said nothing for a long time. The horse shifted its weight. The paddies whispered in the wind. "Tell her," he said at last, voice rough as gravel, "I'm coming."

He did not pack. He did not say goodbye to the fields. He walked to the road with his hands in his pockets and his eyes fixed on a point somewhere beyond the horizon, and the quiet man who had spent three seasons coaxing rice from stubborn soil was, in the space of a single step, gone. In his place was something older, something the Oniwabanshu had once called a weapon. And the weapon was walking toward an island that should not exist, for a girl who was dying, to find a miracle that might not be real.

Reader's Guide

Working title: "Departure" (Chapters 1–~10, approximate opening arc)

Gabimaru, a former Oniwabanshu assassin now living as a country farmer, is summoned back to service when his dying master Kozue begs for one last thing: the Elixir of Life, hidden on a forbidden island no seeker has survived. He is paired with Yuzuriha, a young girl assigned as his guide, and the two set out across the sea toward a land that defies natural law. Pivotal beats: (1) Gabimaru's pastoral life is shattered by the summons and the revelation of Kozue's terminal condition, forcing him to reclaim the assassin identity he buried. (2) The journey to the island introduces the Oniwabanshu's operational structure and the political weight behind the mission. (3) Arrival on the island reveals its supernatural ecology—twisted flora, predatory creatures, and the faint presence of other seekers—establishing that this is not a simple expedition. (4) Early encounters test Gabimaru's combat instincts against foes that operate on rules he has not seen before, reminding him (and the reader) that his old skill set may not be enough. The arc resolves with Gabimaru and Yuzuriha firmly on the island, the mission underway, and the first cracks in the world's surface visible. The dynamic between the two—his guarded silence against her open, probing curiosity—becomes the emotional spine of the series, and the central mystery (what the Elixir truly is, what the island truly is, and who else is hunting it) is set in motion.

Did You Know?

• Gabiaku's Hell's Paradise debuted in Jump SQ in 2018, and the Departure arc's quiet, character-driven opening was a deliberate contrast to the high-octane action that dominates the rest of the series.
• Gabimaru's background as a former Oniwabanshu member means the 'Departure' arc is, in a sense, an anti-departure: he is leaving the peace he chose to re-enter the violence he once defined himself by.
• Yuzuriha's true nature and full connection to the Oniwabanshu are not fully revealed in the opening arc; her role as a simple 'guide' is layered with implications that pay off in later storylines.
• The island's supernatural rules—its creatures, its ecology, its relationship to the Elixir—are introduced gradually across the Departure arc, meaning readers are meant to be as confused and unsettled as Gabimaru himself.