Chapter 236

## King

**King**, or **The King** (王様, *Ōsama*) is the 236th chapter of the *Golden Kamuy* manga.

## Synopsis

Reeling from Sugimoto's punch, Boutarou attempts to shoot Sugimoto but Sugimoto quickly stops the trigger from activating and pulls out his saber to force Boutarou to let go of the gun. In response, Boutarou kicks Sugimoto, sending him flying into the rails. Meanwhile in the passenger's room, the postal worker continues to fire at Boutarou's henchmen until he runs out of ammo. Asirpa calls for the postal worker to come out as there are more ammo outside, but proceeds to kick him into the water and tells him to flee for his life.

Sugimoto and Boutarou continues to fight each other until Asirpa calls out for Sugimoto and Boutarou's underling informs him that the postal worker has left the money behind and ran away. At Shiraishi's begging, Sugimoto throws Boutarou's gun into the water as Boutarou notes Sugimoto's name. With the situation having de-escalated, Shiraishi questions Boutarou about the rumour that the tattoo code cannot be solved and if he has given up on looking for the tattooed skins. Boutarou tells Sugimoto's Group about meeting Wakayama and his belief that looking for the tattoed skins would be pointless as even just one missing piece would render the code useless.

Hearing about Wakayama, Sugimoto's Group believes that his statement might be related to the candy peddler that they had encountered earlier. Boutarou declares that he also gave up on looking for the tattooed skins and Shiraishi wonders if he had figured out where the Ainu had hidden the gold. Boutarou gives an ambiguous response and exclaims that Noppera-Bou wouldn't hide the gold that they could find easily just because they happened to be nearby. He then suggests that they join forces to find the gold, professing that he likes funny and strong guys like Shiraishi and Sugimoto.

Shiraishi says that they will just end up fighting over how to split up the gold but Boutarou offers to let them become vassals in his kingdom, proclaiming his dream to become a king of his own country. Sugimoto scoffs at Boutarou's aspirations and Boutarou asks him if he has any family, to which Sugimoto states that he does not. Boutarou asks if Sugimoto's family died and Sugimoto confirms that they died from tuberclosis.

Hearing this, Boutarou sympathises with Sugimoto, saying that his own family had died from smallpox and that he had decided to stop living in fear of getting smallpox as well in order to have a dream and a bright vision for the future, a mindset which had helped him to survive. Sugimoto thinks back to his father’s last moments and his final words to him to not succumb to Tuberculosis and to live for his own sake. Taking his father’s words into heart, Sugimoto decides to leave his home and become “immortal”.

Boutarou asks Sugimoto how he would use the gold for his own happiness and whether he has any dreams or not. Upon reaching Ebetsu, Boutarou heads down to apologize to the civilian passengers for the trouble and commotion that he and his men has caused them and swore not to take any of their valuables, only taking the money that had been sent as registered mail. He looks down and spots Heita’s Ainu tobacco case in Sugimoto’s knapsack.

## Character Appearances

* Yoshitake Shiraishi
* Fusatarou Oosawa
* Saichi Sugimoto
* Asirpa
* Tatsuya Nakazawa *(Flashback)*
* Kiichirou Wakayama *(Flashback)*
* Hidoro Boss *(Flashback)*
* Shinpei Hidoro *(Flashback)*
* Tamotsu Hidoro *(Flashback)*
* Kazuo Henmi *(Flashback)*
* Gotou *(Flashback)*
* Sugimoto's Father *(Debut)* *(Flashback)*