Chapter 11

**Eleventh Bone: "Nightmare Before--Disguise-Handoff Relay"** is the tenth (numbered eleventh) chapter of the manga *B. Ichi*. It was collected as part of Volume 3.

## Featured Appearances

### Characters

**Shotaro's Group**

* Shotaro
* Mana Hinoki
* Yohei Nanami
* Tool

**Fear Factory**

* Rodigy
* Zuno
* Assi
* Nofix
* Lackeys

### Locations

* Japon
	+ IC Prefecture
		- Fear Factory
		- Sewer Drain

### Objects

* Fear Factory wetsuit
* Fear Factory robots

### Techniques

* Rising Sun
* Bone Powers]
	+ Bone of the Cat
		- Cat Strike

## Plot

### I. C. Prefecture

The I. C. Prefecture might as well be Fear Factory itself: the Dokeshi criminal organization exerts control over the region. After the destruction of the Robot Fighting Tournament Stadium by the Fear Robot, Fear Factory lackeys use robots to over-work humans to construct more weapons. When one human asks for a break, a robot tells him to return to his position immediately.

### Vice President's Office, Fear Factory

Rodigy calls Dr. Agei for updates on repairs to the Fear Robot, after Charisma Justice, whom Rodigy still does not recognize, destroyed the robot's right arm. While pleased to hear from Agei that repairs will be completed quickly, Rodigy grows annoyed with Justice's interference until, in rage, the Dokeshi uses his electrical abilities to overload and destroy all lights in his office.

### Intellitence Listintelligence Division Office, Fear Factory

Assi holds a knife over the unconscious body of Mana, laid out on a makeshift operating table. But Assi cannot bring himself to follow Rodigy's earlier instructions to kill Mana. Zuno buries his head in his hands, peeking at Assi and hesitantly ordering him to execute her already. Assi turns around to face Zuno, the knife still in his hand, now pointing at Zuno. Assi explains that he cannot bear to kill Mana and asks that Zuno do so. Zuno refuses--then tells Assi not to point the knife at him. Assi points out that Zuno will his Dokeshi condition will make him forget killing Mana ayway, so he might as well do so. Zuno cries and accuses Assi of "discrimination." Assi says it is hardly a stereotype when it is true, especially when Zuno always borrows money from him then conveniently forgets his debt.

Zuno and Assi grow silent. Zuno sits at a table and puts his head down. He asks Assi how he came to join Fear Factory when he is just not interested in "doing bad stuff." Assi answers that Zuno has asked this question 300 times already: because Zuno cannot work at a normal company due to his memory loss, Fear Factory was his only option. Zuno then asks why Assi works for Fear Factory. Assi answers that he just isn't smart enough to work anywhere else. Zuno and Assi clutch each other and remark how "heartbreaking" their situation is.

Assi then turns attention to Get, the robot Yohei built for Mana's tournament. Zuno complains that Assi is trying to "escape reality" by obsessing with how cute the robot is. Zuno then realizes why, despite the lethal damage that the Fear Robot did to the Stadium, Mana is still alive: Get must have saved her. This fact motivates Assi and Zuno to decide that, as Get saved Mana, they too want to let her live.

Zuno then realizes how they can save Mana: they can put her down the garbage chute to the basement, where she will end up outside the Fear Factory, at which point she likely will regain consciousness and can escape on her own. Assi reminds Zuno that the garbage chute leads to a canal, so she could catch a cold from the water. Zuno screams that they can put her in a wet suit. Assi then reminds Zuno that Mana could drown, so Zuno suggests putting an oxygen tank onto her. Assi grins, realizing Zuno is about to disobey Rodigy's order. Zuno then explains, honestly or facetiously, that his Dokeshi condition made him forget Rodigy's order--and Assi claims he too has forgotten.

After placing a wetsuit and oxygen tank onto Mana, Zuno and Assi carry her unconscious body to the garbage chute, dumping her body down to let her escape.

### Sewer Drainage

From the shadows inside a drainage pipe, Tool explains to Shotaro that he has been consulting with garbage itself to find their path to let them enter the evil organization's headquarters secretly. Tool then asks Shotaro whether he is ready for their mission to rescue Yohei. Shotaro shouts that he is fired up, while Tool is proud of their costumes: Tool wears a snake-themed biker's jacket announcing "No Littering," while Shotaro wears a sailor fuku uniform, his bone-decorated boxers seen under his skirt. Shotaro even remarks how nice the breeze under his skirt feels. Tool interrupts Shotaro's fixation on his skirt to confirm that the young Dokeshi still remembers their mission. Shotaro confirms: "To save Yoh-kun!" But then Shotaro starts twirling to continue enjoying his skirt. Tool again demands that Shotaro repeat what their mission is--and after Shotaro does so, the two prepare to enter the sewer drain to rescue Yohei and return to him his Law-Abiding Silver Gun.

Then Tool and Shotaro hear something rolling down the sewage drain. Rolling past them is Mana, dressed in a Fear Factory wetsuit, complete with flippers and an oxygen tank, as she crashes into the canal. Tool and Shotaro then realizes that they had forgotten about rescuing her, too.

As they look down on Mana, floating in the canal, they wonder why she came out of the garbage chute. Shotaro then refers to her as "Mana garbage." Mana's body begins to twitch, as she is regaining consciousness in annoyance at this nickname she has had since childhood. Tool, giggling, then explains why Shotaro's remark is funny: "Mana" is an anagram of "nama," Japanese for "raw," as in "raw garbage." Shotaro repeats "Nama Garbage" until Mana, increasing with fury, rises from the canal and kicks Shotaro in his face.

While Shotaro lies on the sidewalk, bleeding, Mana realizes she is wearing an oxygen mask and wetsuit--and feels her head, noticing she is missing her hat. She asks what happened to her, and Tool says he would like to know as well.

Mana removes her wetsuit and changes into Shotaro's fuku uniform (after he removes it, now standing in only his boxers). As she dresses, she complains that she was attacked by the Fear Robot, then put into "some weird suit," and falls face down into sewer water--without earning any commendation. Her body is still wet as well from the sewer water, evidently having changed from the wetsuit directly into Shotaro's outfit without drying herself first. Annoyed at how wet is her hair, Mana ducks under Tool's biker jacket and uses it to dry her hair. Tool complains until Mana glares at him with the reminder that "a girl's hair is her life!"

### Fear Factory

As the reunited trio climb up the garbage chute and into the Fear Factory, Mana learns that Yohei has been captured. Tool warns his colleagues to be quiet as they enter the garbage room--but Shotaro still lets out a loud sigh of relief. Shotaro still has on his shirt, shoes, and bone satchel, yet as he gave up his fuku uniform to Mana, he lacks pants, his bone-covered boxers on display. Tool complains Shotaro is inappropriately dressed for this mission, but Mana points out that Tool's attire is hardly better.

Tool explains that he will listen to the objects in Fear Factory to locate where Yohei is held, so he orders Mana and Shotaro to be discreet. He is then dumbfounded as both Mana and Shotaro begin calling aloud for Yohei. Tool complains that the duo are going to get themselves caught--so he will just have to catch them himself: he lifts both of them and carries them out the garbage room, much to the teenagers' embarrassment.

Having now listened to Tool's orders this time, Mana and Shotaro skirt along the hallway wall. Approaching an elevator, Tool presses the down button. The doors ring, so Tool, Mana, and Shotaro turn from the hallway to enter the elevator--and find it full of Fear Factory lackeys. The lackeys simply and politely say, "Going up." Tool is sweating nervously as Mana and Shotaro stare with bemusement. Tool simply says that they are actually waiting for a down elevator, so the lackeys depart with a pleasant "Very well." After the doors to that elevator close, Tool sighs in relief that the lackeys are stupid.

Then Tool hears the elevators behind him all chime. He turns to find an embarrassed Mana explain that, in her impatience, she had pushed the buttons for all the elevators to make one arrive quickly. Tool shouts at her that she was to be discreet. Tool and Mana are then spotted by a Fear Factory lackey. While Tool worries, Mana asks where Shotaro has gone. Shotaro reveals he has returned with numerous Fear Factory robots, offering one to Mana. She chooses the one of the right, claiming it seems "like the most tolerant." Tool says her choice is wimpy.

Tool then reminds himself that these robots are their opponents and knocks one with his pickaxe. A robot strikes at Shotaro, who leaps to dodge. But another robot wraps its limbs around Mana, her hands dangling underneath its. As the robot squeezes, Mana is not scared but simply annoyed: she complains the robot feels cold and hard, that its squeeze hurts, and concludes robots are not tolerant--so she flips the robot over her shoulder and lands a punch into its chest. As Shotaro begins to battle with Bone of the Cat, Tool again complains that the teenagers were to be discreet. But he concludes that, if Fear Factory wants a fight, this team will give one to the evil organization. Mana reiterates her desire to earn a commendation, while the cat-influenced Shotaro hisses.

More Fear Factory lackies arrive, intending to kill the trio. Shotaro and Mana dash at the lackeys, as she performs the Rising Sun kick and Shotaro follows up with a Cat Strike slash.

### Yohei's Holding Cell

In a solitary jail cell (labeled "Salitery"), Yohei is shackled to a cross. While he is imprisoned, words appears: "Up" (next to arrows pointing down) and "Into Mind" (below a twisting left arrow). Yohei is barechested, a bullet wound in his left shoulder and numerous additional injuries seen along his head, arms, and chest. Barely conscious, Yohei remembers his time working for the Dokeshi Hunt, when Nofix killed his entire squad.

### Battle Scene (Past)

Yohei is calling to his teammates, promising to come. One of his colleagues is struggling to breathe, as Nofix's fingers wrap more tightly around his neck. Yohei calls to Nofix and aims at the villain. But it is too late for Yohei's friend: with his last breath, he blames Yohei.

From a wound in Nofix's back, feathers flutter out. Amidst the beheaded and desiccated corpses of his colleagues, Yohei watches the feathers floating in the breeze. He wonders whether this scene makes Nofix an angel or a demon. When Nofix asks what Yohei wants, the Dokeshi Hunt commander aims and prepares to kill Nofix. Nofix chuckles, claiming many want to kill him but can never follow through. Yohei repeats that he will kill Nofix. But Nofix can see how calm Yohei looks, a calmness he has seen many times in his opponents.

Nofix removes his bandanna to reveal his forehead. With his own blood, he writes a message on his forehead: "Rape me." He makes an offer to Yohei: aim at that forehead message and fire. Without hesitation, Yohei fires, the bullet going through Nofix's skull. Nofix keeps a frozen grin, the words "Hit me?" appearing behind him. The words "Fuck you" appear behind Yohei. Nofix giggles, complimenting Yohei's shot. As he falls backwards, Nofix says, "My head's spinning..." while the words "Thank you" appear behind him.

Yohei remembers that he thought he had killed Nofix. He also remembers that, as Nofix landed in the grass, he seemed to drown in a sea of blood leaking from his numerous wounds.

But at the next moment, Yohei was now wearing a tux--and Nofix, smoke emanating from the bullet wound in his forehead, was standing behind him, arms draped over his body. All of a sudden, a cigarette appears in Yohei's mouth, with Nofix offering a lighter. "It's been awhile since we've seen one another," Nofix says. "Let's have a smoke and catch up a little."

Yohei knocks Nofix away. "Don't fuck with me!" Yohei shouts. He finds that he has slammed his hands down onto a table in a breakfast nook, in a traditional household. "Papa Nofix" is reading a newspaper, while "Yowhey-chan" is dressed in the high school uniform of a Japanese student. Papa Nofix continues to stare at his newspaper, with headlines saying "KillKill," as Yohei demands to know how Nofix could survive a bullet to the head. Even as Yohei stares at Papa Nofix, "Mama Nofix," wearing an apron, appears behind Yohei to explain: "Did you take good aim?" "Mama" tugs on their shirt, revealing their jugular and offering to let Yohei take the fork on the table to stab into their chest. Yohei hesitates. Mama Nofix therefore offers to do so herself--taking the fork and jamming it into the chest of Papa Nofix.

But as the corpse of Papa Nofix falls back, the newspaper flies away, revealing the face of Kevin, Yohei's Dokeshi Hunt colleague. Shocked, Yohei, now in his checkered pants and Japanese high school uniforms, turns to see all of his colleagues on the floor, forks jagged into their jugulars, all chanting "Yohei" at him.

Yohei begins to hallucinate Nofix's sharp-toothed appearance. Nofix mocks Yohei's "stupid, pitiful look in [his] eyes," asking what happened to his "killing spirit," his ability to laugh about his murderous nature. Nofix blames people like Yohei who refuse to kill for how Nofix has "sunk so low." Nofix claims he refuses to let others impose their outdated ideals onto him.

The hallucination fades away for Yohei to find Nofix has unbuttoned his shirt, pointing a fork at his jugular. Yohei tries to push away Nofix's fork-armed hand, but Nofix is still able to shove the utensil into Yohei's throat. As Yohei bleeds, Nofix explains that he had promised to kill every person involved with him, in the hope of making Yohei into a god of death.

Yohei finds everything going white. But then he hears someone calling to him.

### Yohei's Holding Cell

Yohei can hear Tool, Mana, and Shotaro calling to him, as they knock back Fear Factory lackeys. Yohei's friends approach him, Tool and Shotaro happy to have managed to defeat the Fear Factory opponents and find Yohei in time. After removing him from the cross, Mana tends to Yohei and asks whether he can stand. Yohei only asks why they bothered to rescue him. He tells them to not worry about him, to leave him behind, and to escape to save themselves. Otherwise, Yohei worries, the three of them will get themselves killed. Remembering Nofix's words, Yohei says he is nothing but a God of Death.

Shotaro immediately disagrees, saying Yohei is his friend. Shotaro then says he has no idea what a God of Death is anyway, while Mana starts sobbing over the idea of friendship. Meanwhile, Tool removes from his pants' pocket something for Yohei: the Law-Abiding Silver Gun. Tool explains the gun is proof that Yohei can trust others and is willing to fight beside others. By throwing away that gun, Yohei showed he lost that trust, but having it now in his hands, Yohei must start trusting his friends again. Shotaro adds that his friends will trust and believe in him, hence they will be saved. While Mana continues sobbing, Tool mocks that Yohei is about to cry, too.

Yohei tenses up. He then tells the trio not to get cocky: he decides whether they regroup, and he has thus decided to do so. Yohei aims his weapon at the trio and tells them they are simply "pawns in my game," so they better be ready for him to use them to reach his goals. While Shotaro smiles (and has "King" written on his forehead), Tool and Mana express annoyance at how mean Yohei is acting. But the two then smile, teasing him for being so mean when they have better things to do than rescue him. Yohei replies that he himself has better things to do. As he tries to stand, Yohei mocks the trio's attire, which causes Tool and Mana to become upset again and criticize how poorly dressed is the beaten and bloody Yohei.

Shotaro interrupts to remind everyone that, now that Yohei is saved, they are ready to fight again. While other become excited to fight, Yohei manages to stand, put a cigarette in his mouth and light it, and quickly say, "Having a smoke with everyone actually isn't so bad!" Tool turns around to ask whether Yohei said something. As the group leaves the jail cell, Yohei says it was nothing.

## Trivia

* Zuno's office at the Fear Factory is listed as "Intelligence Division Office" in bold, but the first character ("chou") in "intelligence" ("chouhou") is crossed out and replaced with a made-up character, which appears to be a combination of the characters "chou" and a character meaning "listen" (which can also be pronounced "chou"). Hence, the Yen Press English translation uses "Listintelligence."
* The Yen Press English translation has Tool refer to Mana as exiting from the "garbage shoot." The typical spelling is actually "garbage chute."
* Headlines in Papa Nofix's newspaper include "KillKill," "Fear," "King of Spin," "Natural-Born Killers," "Demon Sakrifises" (a misspelling of "Demon Sacrifices"), and "Skinfaces."
* The writing on the back of Tool's jacket is "No littering," and the writing on its shoulder is "Man." His headband changes between listing "Guts" and ""oushou" (the king piece in shogi).
* Yohei's jail cell is labeled "Salitery" in the Yen Press English translation. This is an intentional misspelling of "solitary," as in Yohei's solitary confinement. The pun is based on the original Japanese: in Japanese, "solitary" is spelled "dokubou" ("single room"). In the original Japanese in *B. Ichi*, "doku" is changed to a character meaning "poison," which can also be pronounced "doku."
* "Demon Sacrifices" is misspelled in the Yen Press English translation as "Demon Sakrifises" to reflect the pun in the original Japanese: "sacrifice" in Japanese is "ikenie" ("living sacrifice"), but *B. Ichi* spells it with characters for "lake picture."

### Cultural References

* The title "Nightmare Before" may allude to the 1993 stop motion animated film *The Nightmare Before Christmas*, directed by Henry Selick and conceived by Tim Burton. The title of that film is itself an allusion to the opening line, " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas," from Clement Clarke Moore's 1923 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Selick and Burton's style resembles Okubo's, especially in his subsequent series *Soul Eater*.
* Tool's jacket is typical of long jackets worn by Japanese biker gangs.
* The Skinfaces on Nofix's newspaper resemble Leatherface from the 1974 United States slasher film, *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre*.

### References in Okubo's Later Works

*Main article: References to B Ichi in Okubo's Later Works*

* Shotaro's boxers, decorated with bones (apt for his Bone Powers), are similar to boxers also decorated with bones as worn by Soul upon being stripped of his clothes during the Ultimate Written Exam in Chapter 12 and Episode 14 of *Soul Eater*.
* Nofix is killed by a bullet wound directly in the center of his forehead. Sid Barett in *Soul Eater* and *Soul Eater NOT!* would die with a wound directly in the exact same spot on his forehead, although he was killed by a replica of the Statue of Liberty shoved into his forehead. Both Nofix and Sid would be resurrected, although Nofix emerges due to his spinning healing powers while Sid was turned into a zombie.
* The Skinfaces on Papa Nofix's newspaper resemble Leatherface from the 1974 United States slasher film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface will be alluded by the chainsaw weapon and stitched-face appearance of Texas Mask, an alias used by Meme Tatane in *Soul Eater NOT!*
* Okubo's stylized portrayal of Yohei's hallucination of Nofix, with incomplete lines and little shadowing, resembles the hallucinations experienced by Soul Evans, Franken Stein, and the DWMA army at various times under the influence of Asura's madness, the Black Blood, and Arachne's madness magic in *Soul Eater*. The jagged teeth and one eye of one creature in Yohei's hallucination resembles some forms of madness in *Soul Eater*, especially Crona's Screech Attacks.

## References

1. ↑ *B. Ichi* Volume 3: Yen Press English eBook pages 36, 189
2. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 3, Yen Press English eBook, Pages 72, 189
3. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 3, Yen Press English eBook, Pages 55, 189
4. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 3, Yen Press English eBook, Pages 63, 189
5. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 3, Yen Press English eBook, Pages 45, 189