Chapter 1

* Intro
* Color Spread

**The Legendary Hit Man** (伝でん説せつの殺ころし屋や, *Densetsu no Koroshiya*?) is the first chapter of the Sakamoto Days manga series.

## Summary

Two young boys are playing on the sidewalk outside of Sakamoto's shop, poking with a stick at what appears to be a piece of poop as a man cloaked in shadow slowly approaches. Sakamoto is sitting inside the shop sipping cup noodles.

A flashback begins, describing how Sakamoto used to be considered the greatest hit man of all time. A younger, thinner Sakamoto is shown fighting a large group of men within a building, managing to kill them all with ease and even decapitating one with his knife. It's stated that he was feared by all of the bad guys and revered by the other hitmen, and that his dominance as a hit man only came to an end after he fell in love with Aoi at a convenience store. After meeting her he retired from being a hitman, got married, had a child, and got out of shape, becoming much fatter and growing a toothbrush mustache.

Back in the present, the cloaked man is revealed to be Shin who states that he'd been looking for Sakamoto as he walks towards the store. Within the store, a young boy draws a two-ringed target on the windowed door with a marker, telling Sakamoto that if he hit it with his suction cup arrow he would get a free juice. Sakamoto watches from behind the convenience table, with Aoi walking up in front of him and noting how often the boy had been coming to their shop as of late. The boy throws his arrow and misses the target, saying that he had one more try as he bends over to grab the fallen arrow, his backpack opening as its contents spill out, a bottle of juice falling out and squirting its contents onto the pant legs of a man in front of him. The man responds with anger, grabbing the shirt of the boy and pulling him towards him as he yells at him to look at his now-stained white pants, pulling his left arm back as to punch the boy before Sakamoto grabs his wrist. In his mind, Sakamoto contemplates grabbing onto the back of the man's head and stabbing a pen through his throat. He refrains from doing this however, letting the man walk off as he calls him a 'porky', the young boy crying as he thanks Sakamoto. Sakamoto is relieved, thinking about how he nearly killed the man.

Behind Sakamoto and sitting on the convenience table, Shin tells him that he saw what he was thinking, and knows that he was close to puncturing the man's carotid artery with the pen. Shin says that's it had been a while before stating his name within the hit man organization, Shin the Clairvoyant. Sakamoto hits Shin in the face with a palm strike, knocking him back as Shin holds the side of his face where the strike hit, asking why killing him was the first thing Sakamoto thought of. Sakamoto notes in his head that Shin shouldn't sit on the counter.

Sitting at a small table outside the front of Sakamoto's shop, Shin and Sakamoto talk, with Shin telling him that the rumor of Sakamoto retiring and opening up a store was true. Shin tells Sakamoto to return to being a hit man as working at an everyday store was a waste of his skills. In his head, Sakamoto says that he wasn't going to go back to being a hit man. Shin tells him that all of the bad guys feared him before, that he was a legend, and shows confusion and shock at how different he'd become. Sakamoto ignores him as he opens a cup of noodles, slurping them as Shin shows disgust, thinking about how Sakamoto only used to eat field rations as he takes out and moves to light a cigarette. As Shin is in the middle of telling Sakamoto that he was but a shadow of his former self the latter takes out a box cutter, the end of Shin's cigarette falling as it's cut off by Sakamoto. Shin looks over at him in surprise, with Sakamoto pointing back to a 'No Smoking' sign. Shin takes this as Sakamoto telling him that despite his worse shape, he could still kill him in an instant.

A man on a bike calls out to Sakamoto from the street, asking for his help with something. Sakamoto obliges, Shin following him as the neighbor leads them to a tree he needed to prune the branches of, complaining that he couldn't reach the branches at the top. Sakamoto prunes the top branches with ease. A mother is then shown complaining to Sakamoto that her daughter wouldn't eat her vegetables; Sakamoto gets her daughter to eat them with ease. Two boys complain to Sakamoto that they only had one ball to play with; Sakamoto rips their ball in half with ease. Shin falls to his hands and knees, in shock as he realizes that Sakamoto had become the town's jack-of-all-trades. Still attempting to hold on to Sakamoto's old hitman persona, Shin tells himself that Sakamoto was only doing what he was as a way to conceal his true identity, as it allows him to blend in well to the community. Shin then tells Sakamoto that his "new self" was nothing but a total joke. Shin begins to walk off before the young boy from before throws his suction arrow at him and sticks it onto the back of his head, with Shin grabbing the arrow and going to throw it back as he calls the boy a "stupid brat".

Back in his car, Shin thinks about how Sakamoto had become much softer in the five years since he had last seen him, yet was still as cool as ever. He slams his head into the steering wheel as he yells that he still had an incredible aura even with all the weight he'd gained, and about how he wished he could work together with him again. A boy looks over at Shin's car, watching as it shakes and bounces from Shin's breakdown as the boy's mother tells him not to watch and tries to pull him away. Having calmed down, Shin talks on his phone with the boss of the hitman organization, with the latter asking if he had killed Sakamoto. Shin responds by asking if he truly had to kill him, since he seemed much more passive now. The boss says that no matter what, any one who left the organization had to die, with no exceptions. He tells Shin that there were plenty of other hitmen who could be sent to do the same job, and if he kept refusing to kill Sakamoto then someone would be sent to kill both him and Sakamoto. Shin tells the boss to shut up before hanging up, deciding that since Sakamoto's death was inevitable, he would rather be the one to pull the trigger.

Shin goes back to Sakamoto's shop the next day, with Aoi telling the young boy with the backpack about his arrival. The boy asks Shin to play with him, and Shin responds that he couldn't, saying that it was "time for war" as he pulls out a pistol and slips a suppressor onto it. Shin enters the shop, Sakamoto noticing him as he sits behind the counter reading a newspaper, Shin telling him that he would have to leave town later that day, and stopped by to pay his respects. Shin aims the pistol at Sakamoto, firing a shot at his head as Sakamoto spits out a cough drop, the drop and bullet colliding as the bullet is sent off-course into a snack bag sitting on the counter. Shin reloads the pistol, surprised at Sakamoto's ability to block his shot with a cough drop before Sakamoto throws a popsicle at him, Shin dodging to the side as it flies past his head. Shin is shocked as he looks back at the counter, with Sakamoto no where to be seen as it's revealed he had moved back behind one of the store shelves, stretching a rubber band between two fingers as he holds a bag of cough drops in his lap as he sits on the ground. He peers through the mesh frame of the shelf, stretching a cough drop back in the rubber band, using it as a slingshot as he rapidly fires several drops at Shin, shattering some of the windows of the shop as Shin runs back to where Sakamoto was, jumping the corner as Sakamoto throws a cream puff at him, hitting him and covering the side of his head in cream. Shin takes a moment to wipe some of the cream off, licking it as Sakamoto runs up behind him, Shin noticing him at the last moment before Sakamoto kicks him, sending Shin flying through multiple rows of shelves and knocking him unconscious.

At some point later Shin awakens, laying in a bed in the upper level of Sakamoto's shop as Aoi and her daughter sit around him, with the daughter noting happily that Shin was awake. They invite him to stay for dinner, an invitation he accepted of or without his own will as he later sits at their dining table, with Sakamoto, Aoi, and their daughter all sitting around as Aoi asks how much rice he'd like. Shin takes a bite of a rice dish, believing at first it was poisoned before the flavor kicks in, Shin holding back tears as he notes how warm and delicious it was. Aoi notes how Shin's reaction was similar to that of Sakamoto's when they first met. Shin thinks about how at no point in his life had he ever felt the way he was before, coming to the realization that what he was feeling right then was what Sakamoto was protecting and why he had changed as much as he did. That night as Shin leaves, he thanks Sakamoto for the food outside the front of the shop, with Sakamoto pointing back to a "Please come again!" sign taped onto the window. Shin laughs before noting in his head that he was no match for Sakamoto.

At some point the next day, Shin sits in what looks to be a sort of warehouse, with several dozen hitmen standing around him as the boss stands ahead of him, asking if Shin wanted to speak with him. The boss tells Shin that it was disgraceful that he failed to kill Sakamoto, laughing as Shin gets on his hands and knees and pleads to him to let Sakamoto live. The boss asks Shin why he was defending Sakamoto, and Shin tells him that it was because Sakamoto had gotten himself a home. The boss tells Shin that Sakamoto had to die because he had broken the rules of the hitman world, and Shin responds by telling him that he would kill himself if it means Sakamoto could be spared. When asked why he would do such a thing, Shin responds that it was a valid punishment for pointing a gun at his hero. The boss tells Shin that he would spare Sakamoto if he killed himself, his thoughts however contrasting this as he innerly mocks Shin for possibly believing that he would truly do such a thing. Reading his thoughts, Shin takes out his pistol and points it at the boss, who yells out to the other hitmen to kill Shin as he notes that he forgot he could read minds.

Back at Sakamoto's shop, Sakamoto takes off a pair of headphones which are playing the sounds of gunfire from the battle Shin was currently engaged in. A section of the wall of Sakamoto's shop opens up, revealing a large collection of several dozen various weapons, ranging to and between assault rifles, grenades, and things as simple as a shovel or garden rake. Sakamoto picks up a handheld taser gun.

Shin is shown hiding behind a storage crate, the hitmen confused about how they were struggling against one person, and how it seemed as if he could predict their moves. Shin notes how he was running low on ammo as the boss tells the hitmen that Shin was clairvoyant, and could read the minds of those close enough to him. Shin runs out from cover, jumping as a hitman shoots two shots at him, hitting his jacket and upper leg as Shin fires a shot through his chest. Shin falls to the ground, blood spurting from the bullet wound in his leg as several hitmen surround him and point their guns at his face. Before they can fire, Sakamoto appears behind them, quickly tasing each of them as they crumple to the ground, with Shin shouting out Sakamoto's name in surprise. The boss notices Sakamoto and yells out for the hitmen to kill him.

Sakamoto rushes one of the men, grabbing his gun and partially disassembling it before punching him in the face, causing the man to fall to the ground as he questions what exactly had just happened. Another hitman runs up from behind Sakamoto with a knife, attempting to stab him before Sakamoto grabs his wrist, disarming him and clocking him in the face with the back of his hand. The man collapses as two other hitmen and the boss all aim their sidearms at Sakamoto, who was now wielding two knives. Sakamoto runs towards them, cutting their pistols apart as he slashes each of them, blood spurting from each of their chests as they all collapse. With the threat taken care of, Shin asks Sakamoto how he knew where he was, with the latter holding out his pistol and revealing that he had hidden a mic in it after their fight. Shin takes this as Sakamoto not trusting him, and notes how he never let his guard down.

Shin says that he had made a decision, about to say what it was as Sakamoto interrupts him, dropping an apron from his store on the ground in front of him. Sakamoto says in his mind that Shin would earn around 800-850 yen an hour working at his shop, and with extra for overtime. The next morning at Sakamoto's shop, Shin stands behind the counter as Sakamoto sits next to him, opening up a cup of noodles before beginning to slurp them. Shin asks for him to not eat ramen so close to him, as he was splattering the broth on his new shirt. Shin notes about how they were running low on cup noodles as Aoi and her daughter appear behind him, with Aoi telling him that he looked great in the employee uniform. He blushes at this, with Aoi and Sakamoto's daughter telling him that he fit right in. An old woman wandering around the shop thinks about how she can't find the detergent, and Shin, reading her thoughts gives her some. The woman responds with a sense of happy surprise, noting how she didn't even have to ask. Aoi tells Sakamoto about how handy Shin was as the young boy with the backpack thinks about how he liked how Aoi looked in her apron, and Shin tells him how he heard that.

The young boy asks Shin if it was fun working at Sakamoto's, and Shin replies that it was, and that even though he didn't really know what he was doing it was better than his previous job. When the boy asks what his last job was, Sakamoto thinks "Say it and die", prompting Shin to explain it in a roundabout way, saying that it was a sort of cleaning job for society. Shin greets a customer as he thinks about how the events of the past few days were how he came to work with Sakamoto again.

## Characters

* Taro Sakamoto
* Shin
* Aoi Sakamoto
* Hana Sakamoto