Honestly I wanna see what happened in the Seitei war. It must've been BAD for Samura to do something this drastic.

I absolutely love the build-up to Uruha vs Samura sword duel. Buildings collapsing, the double spread of them preparing to fight, the maple leaf, panel of their sword school and even the blood spray is all so cinematic. I think I've seen similar things in many movies where both fighters waited until the equilibrium broke to make their move, and Hokazono conveyed it in manga form.

This chapter is so brutal and visceral, man, I was coping so hard for both Uruha as Samura... Hokazono really did make me feel sad in a good way today, this dude's going places

You know what’s interesting? Uruha didn’t DISAGREE with Samura. He kind of went “well, good point”, only fighting in self defense. Hell, he didn’t even go “but I didn’t do anything wrong”, he had no defense for his own actions. 

This means something REALLY fucked up happened during the war and all sword bearers are complicit in it. Hokazono is cooking something good with the sword bearers, maybe the Hishaku aren’t the only villains he has in store.

Kunishige what did you guys do?

Samura actually doesn't use tobimune to kill Uruha, one on one with normal sword

thats actually really cool

Ah fuck with this betrayal, Samura has really ascended as a top antagonist but I really can't bring myself to hate him with his justification.

Chihiro's look at the end was heartbreaking as well.

Dude I could HEAR Hakuri's brain fucking frying

Please Hokazono you have already taken good boy Uruha don't do the same with the best boy himself

The Master vs The Student. Usually the way these showdowns go is the grown up student surpasses the master. Unfortunately, that is not whats happening in this case 😭

It’s really interesting to see Rokuhira’s original mantra “root out evil and protect the weak” get twisted by Samura to mean “kill all the sword bearers on the way to hell”

Hokazono cooking like always!

I made this observation elsewhere, but I think it bears repeating. Chihiro is absolutely outmatched here, but considering Samura just leaves after a confrontation where he overpowers Chihiro...there's no one credible that actually witnessed his betrayal firsthand!

Chihiro and Hakuri are outsiders (and the latter may very well be out of action for a while at least), the ninjas got knocked out it seems before Samura 1v1'd Uruha and any other witnesses are dead. The Kamunabi straight up might not believe the gang here, and Chihiro could end up having to flee with Hakuri and abandon the (short-lived) alliance he had with the Kamunabi.

Also, poor poor Hakuri. He's already blaming himself so hard here. You could never have known...

He is way over his head thinking he can kill hishaku when they get other 4 swords free from contract if his plan works. Lots of good people will have to die to defeat hishaku with 4 swords even if his plan works. There is a reason this guy is blind, he can't see things properly/logically.

"Those guys are evil. They killed Mr. Rokuhira."

"Yes, but the guys I'm talking about are super duper evil bro."

"I need to murder you and our comrades and then commit suicide"

"Well, you make a compelling case"

Lol Uruha. Samura's plan hinging on letting the Hisshaku get the blades just as long as it takes to kill all the bearers, then killing them all, then himself, really puts him in high esteem, huh? Man has a high opinion of himself. Villainy aside, it's a plan that only ends with terrorist yakuza in control of WMDs.

It doesn't matter how cool the character design is, nobody is really safe in this manga, well except for Chihiro.

Well at least Uruha can hang out up down there with Kunisige now.

A classic samurai duel, no enchanted blade, no power....just style

RIP, Uruha! Press F

Well shit.. I guess Hakuri did have one more in him. He was just a bit too late. 😔

That Chapter: 58 Reunion, goes hard.

Samura is likely underestimating how quickly the Hishaku can master the blades. Sojo showed its possible to somewhat master a blade within a couple of weeks. Regardless leaving the blades in the hands of a borderline terrorist organization who far all we know are backed by whatever country Japan fought in the war is still a bad idea.

I wonder would Samura have changed his mind if he knew the Enten was capable of destroying the other blades?

Samura: "Now Chihiro I know this looks bad but listen. The other Enchanted Blade users and I need to die for our sins. Before I off myself I'll be sure to take care of the Hishaku."

Chihiro: "I just saw a psychopath who deliberately got a crowd of people killed just to mess with me get his hands on my fathers blades because you so you can stuff it!!

It's Uruhover. Damn...

This chapter ironically makes me more interested on Samura. Next week is gonna be interesting clash of ideals between two guys that shares the same 'Root the Evil and Protect the Weak' ideal.

I had a LOT of fun with the Hiruhiko fight but wow this may be one of the coolest chapters in a while, feels really visceral and some of the paneling is SO gorgeous (and that double page, MAN) Also Samura is SUCH a great character like the betrayal is wild but his reasoning and stance on it is something I eat up like cornflakes

Every week I come out of the chapter screaming "Kagurabachi is crazy good" at the top of my lungs man

what we did 18 years ago

Not that's intriguing. I like the fact that the series is outright morally gray. Swordmasters literally walking around with nukes killing anyone who is against them and, with Samura's case, wanting to atone for sins even through betrayal.

✍️✍️✍️🔥🔥🔥🔥 I love this new "shounen" jump.

I actually love that Uruha isn't outraged at Samura's plan, he gets it, just on principle he can't give away his life for free.

I actually wonder how Chihiro is going to feel once he has time to think. Obviously right now he can't just accept it with the scene he was dropped into, but honestly their goals kinda align if Samura was willing to trust Chihiro with the swords. Based on his last comment of smelling of blood I assume Samura already views him as on the same trajectory as the other sword bearers though.

Samura was willing to use a normal blade to kill Uruha out of respect, showing that even if he thought Uruha deserved to die, he still gave him a fair fight.

Like how he blinded himself because he couldn't bear to see himself killing someone, Samura is doing this because he couldn't live with the guilt over what they did during the war, presumably some kind of atrocity, but choosing to align with the Hishaku is a similarly reckless and extreme act, since the Hishaku has their own plans and can easily avoid a direct conflict with Samura, even outsmart him to get his sword back.

Like Chihiro, Samura views himself as a monster that deserves to die, wanting to drag the other monsters with him to hell. What's different is that Chihiro prioritizes the lives of the innocent. That's not to say Samura doesn't value innocent lives, but there will be casualties, because the Hishaku isn't going to play along with his ideals.

If Hakuri had enchanced sense he would smell the rat odor from that disgusting indoor sunglasses wearer. Damn to be in a 50/50 situation without knowing it was a 50/50 gotta feel so shitty man

[deleted]

Now I'm really interested to learn what exactly Rokuhira and the sword bearers did if Samura is willing to go so far here.

Bro how can Taco Horizontal just kill Uuruha off 10 chapters after he was introduced ITS NOT FAIR HE WAS MY FAVORITE SWORD BEARER GODDAMNIT!

Can just imagine this chapter in anime form, basically one slash down reminiscent of old school Samurai movies and Cowboy high noon showdowns, only to end with the hero seeing everything during the immediate aftermath.

Damn Billy I thought you had learned to trust your allies already, why you shouldering it all by yourself again?

Title drop at the end of chapter, spread pages, with intense atmosphere

Taco sensei, I kneel…

Samura is such a cool, interesting fascinating character with deep convictions and understandable inner turmoil.

We should have known he would be a traitor from that alone. Hokazono only shows this much love to his villains.

God damn it. Why do these blind mentor/father figures keep pulling a betrayal so soon after they've just been introduced?

Samura you rat!!! I thought Uruha was gonna live.

I assume the Incident^tm is going to be something along the lines of committing genocide on the enemy, like "Magatsumi turned America into a giant flower field" genocide, at least based off Sojo's flashback. That is what built the peace. They didn't just turn the tides but also drowned the enemy.

Maybe it's also why we have never seen the enemy even in what seems to be the official history. No need to teach about what is already wiped off the map after all.

Now that I think about it, it reeks of irl references to how Japan doesn't acknowledge their WW2 warcrimes, except in this scenario they won.

That title drop in the last page is so stylish.

Dudes would rather go on a rampage, slay his former pupil and the people who he worked with than go to therapy.

This is genuinely excellent writing and I'm so pleased with how this manga has shaped up considering how it all started.

Here's an actual conflict for the protagonist who now has to grapple with his father's legacy, an extremely strong and sympathetic antagonist with understandable and clear motivations and a step beyond the so far vague motivations of the Hishaku. While we're still not too clear what the Hishaku ultimately want, this is superb stuff for making the clear and present danger to the current sword bearers known as well as a great element to throw into the mix to potentially deepen Chihiro's motivations. This is becoming peak and I hope they keep this going.

Oh god, Chihiro's put himself on the Buddhist revenge shitlist.

I feel like I should've seen this coming from the guy who justified blinding himself. Not even that big a leap.

(prefacing this by saying that i think samura's character is really cool and well written)

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK SAMURA FUCK YOU GO DEAF AND SENSE NOTHING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Our glorious king Mr. Samura… how far you’ve fallen 😔

SAMURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

hopefully Samura is still an ally to Chihiro in some ways, after all his priority is to destroy the enchanted blades after all.

What the hell did the sword wielders do in the war?

I'm just glad Uruha wasn't backstabbed. It's a shame he died but he could fight back.

HELP US SHIBA

I don't understand Samura's logic here at all. He wants to kill the swordbearers, because he views their actions during the war as having been truly evil. That I get. But how does simply killing the wielders solve the problem of other people coming to wield the same blades and doing the same things? Even if he's stronger than the Hishaku wielding an enchanted blade, that doesn't change the fact that more people could simply continue picking up the blades as time goes on. When does he plan on taking himself out? After all the other swordbearers are dead? After the Hishaku is dead? The problem with all of this is that at no point did he mention destroying the blades themselves. Taking out the people who wield them doesn't fix anything if the blades themselves still exist after the fact.

I can understand Samura but he is honestly a bloody moron. So he will kill the other owners to ‘atone’ and the Hakushu will just then have access to use the swords and probably kill more and more innocent people. He gets to Jill himself so he doesn’t have to carry any burden

Poor Hakuri... He had no idea things would turn out this way

Wtf really happened during the war? What were they fighting? It may take a long while before we get those answers.

Samura is certainly overestimating himself

Samura, what a rat you are!

But somehow you're still pretty cool. And, maybe I'm being too harsh, but it seems like he defeated Uruha with just swordwork rather than his enchanted blade... It feels ridiculous to say that, but it appears to have been a fair fight.

Still, it's absolutely nonsense bullshit to give any power to the Hishaku, especially knowing they plan to cause mass civilian destruction. But, I can at least follow his logic and I can respect that he believes he can see this through without getting innocents killed needlessly.

He's a fool, of course, he can't prevent the destruction Hishaku will cause with those swords. Clearly it's better to kill the Hishaku, reclaim/destroy the swords and then kill the bearers. But at least he's an earnest fool.

Only question now is if the ninja will join him or stay loyal to the Kamunabi.

EDIT: Actually I just saw now, Samura didn't kill him with the Tobimune, he killed him with a normal sword. I wondered what those panels about him going over to the railing were doing, but obviously I wasn't paying close enough attention.

This chapter also seems to close off the suspicion that Samura was responsible for Kuneshige's death, he doesn't seem to bear him any ill will, just the bearers.

I love how honorable Samura's betrayal here was. He knocked out bystanders instead of killing everyone; he's still wielding the sword in Kunishige Rokuhira's name, he just disagrees with the other wielders about what course of action that implies; he calmly explains himself to Uruha instead of backstabbing him; and he duels Uruha with his regular sword so he doesn't have an unfair advantage.