Introduction Arc

## Arc Chronology

The **Introduction Arc** is the first story arc of *Ayashimon*.

The arc focuses on Maruo's and Urara's actions after entering Kabukicho, Shinjuku.

## Summary

### Prologue

After a funeral is held for Kio, the renowned chairman of the Enma Syndicate, the yakuza groups of the Kanto region gather together for a meeting to discussion matters on Kio's successor.

### The Sakazuki

After getting expelled from school for getting into a fight, Maruo Kaido tries to find work involving sports, such as wrestling and sumo, or even at a simple job, such as a bakery. However, due to his inhuman strength that he acquired from his childhood years imitating the training regimens shonen protagonist go through in manga, Maruo fails to land any of them as he easily breaks everything he touches. While feeling depressed, he sees a girl being chased by a yakuza gang and instinctively steps in to save her. After escaping elsewhere with Maruo, the girl named Urara demands to Maruo demands to Maruo to come work for her as her yakuza underling after becoming impressed by his strength. Maruo turns down her offer after he explains his story on how he wanted to use his strength to become a manga protagonist, which he eventually gave up on after realizing that there is no human alive that can present a challenge for him. Urara then becomes shocked to learn that Maruo is human and not "one of us".

Just as Urara realizes this, the Uwan Family, the yakuza gang who were chasing Urara, manage to locate the two and attempt to attack Urara from above. Maruo notices them on time and jumps in to move Urara out of the way, followed by him being shocked by their daredevil stunt. Urara then lets him in on the situation, telling Maruo that she and the Uwan Family are Ayashimon, which is proven by the gang's release of their true forms after declaring their plan to kill Maruo. Not wanting him to get involved, Urara tells Maruo to run as she prepares to face the Uwan Family by herself and then finds herself confused by Maruo unexpectedly shouting out his refusal to "have his hopes". After one of the members sends him crashing into a car that causes him to bleed, Maruo stands back up thrilled to have once again feel the sensation of pain and throws the car at the gang. Uwan, the leader of the gang, decides to face Maruo in a one-on-one battle in his true form but is instantly defeated by Maruo, along with the rest of the Uwan Family. Having felt excitement fighting Ayashimon, Maruo tells Urara that he is willing to take her up on her offer to become her subordinate, seeing it as the only chance in his life he can experience the joy of fighting. Urara becomes delighted to hear this and, instead of performing a traditional sakazuki, the two exchange each other's blood to officially formalize their oyabun-kobun relationship.

With Maruo as her first subordinate recruited in her gang, Urara tells him of her plan to rule over Kabukicho, Shinjuku after Kio's death left the underworld in a crisis. Wanting to enter Shinjuku illegally, the two travel to Shinjuku Gyo-en where Maruo is instructed by Urara to defeat Hashihime, the border guard and a secret member of the Enma Syndicate. Upon arriving, Hashihime easily knocks Maruo back into the pond and is left alone to talk to Urara in private. Hashihime requests to Urara to leave the area since the Enma Syndicate is much more dangerous than it was in the past and her life may be in danger in Shinjuku if word gets out that she is the illegitimate daughter. Despite her concern, Urara states her refusal to back down from finding her father's killer, taking back the family crest that was passed to her, and bringing down the Enma Syndicate. After Maruo resurfaces, Hashihime fights him again to convince Urara to give up on her ambitions but is defeated once Maruo brought out the strength to penerate her harden wax body. Before allowing the two to leave, Hashihime tells Urara that she was proud with the way she turned out ever since she stopped attending to her and warns Maruo of the four dangerous groups he should look out for when in Shinjuku, which are the newly reformed Enma Syndicate, the Todoroki Alliance, the Ayakashi ☆ B-Stars, and the Kori Hotel Group, and that he should learn the rules of the ritual duel.

### Welcome to Kabukicho

Upon arriving, Urara shows Maruo around to have him get the idea of Kabukicho, which is that it is a district that lures in humans and have Ayashimon prey on them. The two stop at a coffee shop where they notice an Ayashimon being harassed by another. As their first order of business, Urara tells Maruo that they will have to find an office but looks to see him reading a manga magazine while she was talking due to the young man thinking that his role as her subordinate is to simply fight for her. After the dispute between the two Ayashimon causes a scene, Maruo wonders to Urara if they should help the harassed Ayashimon. Urara rejects the thought of helping him and instead thinks of the idea of following the harassed Ayashimon to his gang's office and steal it for themselves. However, figuring that they were planning to confront him anyhow, Maruo chooses to step in to defend the harassed Ayashimon but tells him that he will only do so if he gives up his gang's office. The bullying Ayashimon named Nyudo Nyudo enters his yokai form in anger and fights Maruo for getting in his business. Using the water pipes in the ceiling, Maruo causes a downpour in order to subdue Nyudo's flames and defeats him with a special attack, much to Urara's objection since the battle did not start and end with it being a ritual duel, along with the fact that they were supposed to keep a low profile. Having became impressed by his strength, the harassed Ayashimon named Ten willingly offers to take Urara and Maruo to his gang's office for them to steal, while hoping that they can help him escape his forced labor work.

Urara and Maruo enter the office to find many gang members and hears Ten's declaration to them in that Urara and Maruo will make them pay for abusing him, however, the Ayashimon immediately turns on the Urara Family upon noticing his boss Amamehagi behind him. Moving on to the plan at hand, Urara challenges Amamehagi to a ritual duel against her subordinate and offers herself if Maruo should lose to him. Amamehagi accepts the challenge and has his men set up a ring for the ritual duel. While this is being done, Maruo learns from Urara the concept behind the ritual duel and enters the ring to fight Amamehagi. Although he has a hard time landing a blow on the Ayashimon, Maruo starts to get the idea on how the ritual duel is like a festival to Ayashimons and finally manages to hit him after Amamehagi suddenly hears Ten cheering on Maruo. After getting injured, Amamehagi states his refusal to continue on the fight until he fully recovers on the floor, which causes Maruo to become upset with him and demands that he either give up or fight him again. Maruo then unexpectedly wins his fight after accidently causing the floor to collapse with a punch, resulting in Amamehagi being crushed to death by a large piece of rubble. Maruo is then berated by Urara for destroying the office and receives praise from the Ayashimon around for entertaining them. Happy to hear Ten think of him as a manga protagonist, Maruo tells Urara that he is pleased with his new life as her subordinate.

Seeing as how Maruo survived an accident that not even a yokai could withstand, Urara concludes that Maruo is a rare human known as a Marebito and believes that he is well-suited to be her pawn. While the Ayashimon celebrate around Maruo, Urara goes over to the check gang's filing cabinets to gain information on Shinjuku's power structure and learns that the second chairman of the Enma Syndicate is named Doppo Akari. Seeing as how she has Hashihime on her side, Urara comes up with the plan to use her to get to Doppo, have Maruo defeat him in a ritual duel, and reclaim her family's crest. After suddenly notices that the noise coming from the Ayashimons ceased, Urara is approached by Number 11, a public safety agent from the Onmyo Bureau, from above after the man came to investigate the area. She then finds herself pinned down by a yokai after another agent appears wanting to take her in by force, which almost prompts Urara to use an item she has on her to defend herself. Not wanting to cause any trouble, Number 11 has Number 4 cease her hostility and cuts their meeting with Urara short. With the public safety bureau now knowing that the Urara Family are in Shinjuku, Urara and Maruo decide to quickly find a new place to hide.

Although he did not think much of the two undocumenteds, Number 11 reports back to the bureau that he detects Urara having strange aura and believes that she may be a potential problem in the future. This then leads to the agent contacting Doppo of the Enma Syndicate to have the yakuza group best handle the situation.

## Battles and Events

* Maruo Kaido vs. Uwan Family
	+ The Uwan Family, subsidary to the Enma Syndicate, is terminated by Maruo Kaido.
* The Urara Family is formed with Urara recruiting Maruo Kaido as her first subordinate.
* Maruo Kaido vs. Hashihime
	+ The Urara Family enter Kabukicho, Shinjuku as illegal immigrants after getting passed Hashihime.
* Maruo Kaido vs. Nyudo Inokuma
	+ The fight at Saraba alerts the Onmyo Bureau.
* Maruo Kaido vs. Amamehagi
	+ Maruo defeats Amamehagi and causes his gang's office to be destroyed.
* Number 11, Number 4, and Kagehito of the Onmyo Bureau approach Urara.
	+ The Onmyo Bureau become aware of the Urara Family in Shinjuku and reports them to the Enma Syndicate.

## Characters Introduced

* Kio
* Maruo Kaido
* Urara
* Hashihime
* Nyudo Inokuma
* Ten
* Amamehagi
* Number 11
* Number 4
* Kagehito

## Chapters

 2
 3
 4
 5

## References

*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (pp. 1-24).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (pp. 25-55).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 2.
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 3.
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 4 (pp. 1-5).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 4 (pp. 5-19).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 5 (pp. 1-8).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 5 (pp. 10-18).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 5 (pp. 19).