Chapter 22

**Chapter 22** is the twenty-second chapter of the *Astra Lost in Space* manga. It is the fourth chapter of the Arispade Arc and, in the compiled volumes, the fourth chapter of the third volume.

## Synopsis

As Ulgar holds Luca at gunpoint, Kanata rises to his feet, meaning to reason with Ulgar. In response, Ulgar shoots a branch from a nearby tree, establishing firmly that his gun is real and that he is serious about his actions. Kanata silently wonders where Ulgar found a gun before demanding that he hand the weapon over. When Ulgar refuses, Kanata states that one person having a gun in a zero-gun environment essentially makes the gun-wielder a king of sorts, an idea to which Ulgar verbally objects. He also claims that he is not the assassin they are looking for, further confusing and terrifying the group. Having been told this, Zack demands to know what Ulgar's motivations are; Ulgar vaguely states that the matter is personal, telling Luca that he needs to die.

Angrily, Luca demands to know for what reason Ulgar is threatening him, asserting that he thought they were friends; Ulgar pauses briefly before telling him to voice his complaints to his father, Marco Esposito, the man who, he says, took from him the thing he cared for the most in his life. As an act of vengeance, Ulgar states, he will take from Marco the thing he most cares about. As Kanata confirms for Yun-Hua that Marco is a senator, Ulgar continues, stating that he has been pursuing Marco for years and plans to kill Marco with his own hands.

He then proceeds to tell Luca the group the story of his life, and of his older brother, Finn. He and Ulgar were the only children his parents had, and they favored Finn over Ulgar, treating the former as superior to the latter and ignoring Ulgar whenever possible. Finn, however, disregarded his parents' treatment of Ulgar, making him the only person in his family to treat him with respect and kindness. When Finn finished school, he took up a career in journalism, focusing on freelance work that allowed him to conduct private investigations and publish articles exposing political corruption. Amazed by his brother's work, Ulgar resolved to follow in his brother's footsteps and work as an investigative journalist as well. He remarks that it was like living in a world of darkness and seeing a light for the first time.

Ulgar remembers a moment he spent with Finn on the banks of a river, in the shadow of Mousanish's downtown district. Finn had asked Ulgar if he wanted anything, wondering if his friends had anything popular that he wanted to be a part of. When Ulgar said nothing in response, Finn ruffled Ulgar's hair and told him to enjoy his youth. He states that once a person turns twenty, regardless of how they spent their teenage years, their life will be their responsibility; he urges Ulgar to live his life the way he wants, to the end that he not be left behind by others who live their way. Hearing Finn's admonition, Ulgar tells him that he wants two things: a cloth hat like Finn's, and to be like Finn himself.

Some time afterward, Finn fell from a building and died; his death was ruled a suicide by the police, who insisted he had suffered a work-related mental breakdown and killed himself. This information clashed with what Ulgar knew of Finn; while his job was stressful, Finn had spoken privately with Ulgar about having uncovered a conspiracy deeper than he had ever encountered before. At the time, he had been investigating Marco Esposito; rumors around him suggested that he had accepted illegal donations to an election campaign; Finn had wondered aloud if someone might make an attempt on his life to stop him from pursuing the lead. While searching Finn's personal effects after his death, Ulgar discovered a hat identical to Finn's, which Finn had apparently been planning to give to Ulgar as a gift, a discovery which both devastated Ulgar and strengthened his resolve. As he believed then, Ulgar maintains that Finn would not have committed suicide if he had yet to give the hat to him.

Ulgar's flashback ends, with Ulgar again asserting that Luca's father is responsible for murdering his brother. Kanata demands to see proof; Ulgar angrily admits he has none, but ignores the demand, asking Luca if he has anything he would like to say before dying. After giving the matter some thought, Luca, to Kanata's horror, tells Ulgar that such behavior seems fairly typical of Marco. Ulgar describes the painstaking efforts he has gone through to train for Marco's death, from practicing with an air pistol to tracking his everyday movements; the act of training itself has been the only thing that has kept him going, but he admits to Luca that he knows he will never be able to kill Marco, despite his best efforts. That said, he believes the next best thing is taking Marco's oldest son and heir from him, and that killing Luca will be sufficient to satisfy his thirst for revenge.

Kanata interrupts, apologizing for leading Ulgar to divulge the painful details of his past to the crew; he remarks that they have seen a new side of him and understand him a little better, something he appreciates. Aries tries to talk Ulgar out of killing Luca by citing his purported mutual friendship with the group as a whole, a line he furiously discards; he believes the only friend he ever had, and the only person who treated him with understanding and unconditional kindness, was his brother. Declaring himself to be utterly unloved, and the world to be unjust, he trains the gun on Luca's head again and prepares to fire.

Luca speaks directly to him, however, giving him pause: he asserts that nothing Ulgar does to him will cause Marco any pain in the slightest. He goes on to explain to the increasingly confused Ulgar that Marco feels nothing for him but indifference at the most, that his younger brother is listed as Marco's heir instead of him, and that, unlike Ulgar, he has proof of his claims. Slowly rising to his feet, Luca unzips his vest and pulls it down to his waist, staring at Ulgar as he and the crew regard Luca with a sudden, unprecedented shock. Luca has revealed to them all that he has the breasts of a girl.