Special Police Shinsengumi
Shinsengumi Recruitment Exam
The Shinsengumi's request: Please watch this program in a bright room and at a safe distance from your TV.
P-Point! The match is over!
Wow, just who is that newcomer?
He's gone through thirty opponents now.
If he's that good, he'll be an immediate asset.
A real monster has arrived.
Looks like we've got ourselves a pretty spirited newcomer this time.
I can't believe there was still such a masterful free agent out there.
Toshi, who is he?
Uh, how is this read?
Hashira...
...Afuro?
Nah, it's probably "Afro."
It's not Afro. It's Katsura!
Crap! I slipped!
"It's not Afro, it's Katsura," huh?
I feel like I've heard that phrase before.
Also, you look kinda familiar...
Stop it, Toshi.
He means that while his name's Afro,
that's a wig, a "katsura," on his head.
Don't pry too much.
But...
That aside,
mind if I take him on next?
It's about time we taught him how tough the Shinsengumi are.
Did you forget already, you sadistic instructor?
Just the other day, you rendered all our new recruits
useless in the name of training or whatever.
Instead, we should interview him and run a thorough background check...
Oh?
Now this is unusual.
Looks like this has fired up someone far scarier than me.
Rejoice, new guy.
He says he'll accept you into his squad without an interview...
If you can defeat Shinsengumi Third Squad Captain,
Saito Shimaru.
Shinsengumi Third Squad Captain Saito Shimaru
Wolf of Afro
Shimaru-niisan, the man feared as the Wolf of Afro, or "Wolfro."
Wolfro
Afros of Life and Death
Odd Jobs Gin-chan
Snack Otose
Huh? What are you doing?
Infiltrating the Shinsengumi to make them crumble from the inside...
...was the plan, but they beat you up and threw you out?
Sugar Content
Zura, you should first realize that you're crumbling on the inside yourself.
Still, he beat up Katsura-san so badly.
Just who is this Third Squad Captain?
You lost the moment you resorted to cheap tricks like infiltration, Zura.
Leader...
I'm not Zura.
I'm the Special Vice Captain of the Third Squad,
Hashira Afuro!
Katsura-san?!
Did you really think I'd lose to a bakufu lapdog?
We exchanged blows for an hour,
but if Kondo hadn't stopped us, it wouldn't have ended in a draw.
I was exhausted due to fighting thirty straight battles before,
felt alienated in unfamiliar territory,
had the afro wig prickling me,
was wrought by anxieties about my future,
and irritated by a mouth ulcer.
Had it not been for those, I would've won for sure.
Just how many excuses have you got?
You barely escaped with a draw, didn't you?
That said, he was an opponent worthy of respect.
He was so skilled, even Okita had high praise for him.
I'm impressed that you fought Shimaru-niisan on equal footing.
While you didn't win, your abilities are on par with mine.
You pass.
And Shimaru-niisan said he wouldn't hold your stealing his afro gimmick against you.
He picked a fight for such a stupid reason?!
Most of all, he had a shockingly discerning eye.
He recognized my talents and made me his vice captain out of the blue.
Third Squad Saito Shimaru Hashira Afuro
He's no ordinary man.
There are only two members!
Why was this captain the only person in the squad he's running?!
It's not that he was the only one,
but rather that he was the only one cut out for it.
Unlike other squads, to maintain Edo's public order is not the Third Squad's job.
Due to its special duties,
it's feared as the "Silent Squad."
Excuse me.
I'm Hashira Afuro, and I am part of the squad as of today.
It's a pleasure to work with you, Captain Saito.
Toilet
Zed...
S-So this is the Silent Squad?!
It just has nothing to do!
On top of being a man of few words, I believe he's also a foreigner.
All he ever said was "zed."
Those weren't zeds!
They were just the Zs of his snoring!
And all he did was take a dump and sleep!
Special duties, my foot!
That's not all.
Don't take it the wrong way.
Shimaru-niisan may have flashy hair, but he's extraordinarily shy.
I'm closer to him than most, but the last time I heard his voice was two years ago,
when he was holding up the line at a convenience store.
Sorry about that, everyone.
Please heat up the lunch box.
Is that okay, Shimaru-niisan?
Zed...
...was his only reply, apparently.
In the end, he didn't say anything at all!
He can't even buy a lunch box! Of course a captain so quiet would end up alone!
Everyone else must've run away 'cause they couldn't deal with him!
That's not it.
As things stood, my infiltration would've been for naught.
So I started making contact with him in a bid to gain influence in the third squad...
Zed?
Zed.
Zed!
Zed...
But no matter what I said, I only got Zs in reply.
All you said was Zs, too!
Captain Wolfro doesn't just take dumps all day.
He was always working on some sort of document.
When he was in the toilet, I checked it out...
A diary?
That silent guy was writing a diary?
"Today, a new recruit joined my Third Squad.
The Shinsengumi doesn't have room for two afroz.
I considered eliminating him,
but it's a fact that the Third Squad needs more memberz."
What's with the Zs?
Does he end every sentence with Zs?!
"I have no choice but to let him join...
...zzzzzzzzzz."
He dozed off!
Even in his diary, he wraps things up with Zs?!
All it took was one look to realize that I could use this.
Oh, an exchange diary?
Even if he gets tongue-tied easily, you might still be able to communicate on paper.
Write this part with more flourish. - Afuro-sensei
"Write this part with more flourish."
Who are you, a teacher with a red pen?!
Why are you criticizing his Zs?!
Starting an exchange diary out of nowhere is scary.
Playing a teacher with a red pen should be scarier!
After that, I found this entry.
Hashira Afuro ¯
Huh? What is this?
What does it mean?
When I replied to that as such...
Hashira Afuro ¯
Boop Beep Bam Boom Chaka Boom Beep Boop Bow Boom Shakalaka - Prince of Cannock's Theme
What the hell are you writing down in someone's diary?!
...I found this written the next day.
Hashira Afuro 7
Boop Beep Bam Boom Chaka Boom Beep Boop Bow Boom Shakalaka - Prince of Cannock's Theme
And the day after that...
Hashira Afuro z
Boop Beep Bam Boom Chaka Boom Beep Boop Bow Boom Shakalaka - Prince of Cannock's Theme
Wait a second.
This thing under your name...
He's trying to write "Z," isn't he?
What happens once it's complete?
When I took a closer look at the diary, I found this...
What the hell?!
You found something totally terrifying!
I checked,
and the names written there belonged to former members of the Third Squad.
They had all broken the Shinsengumi Code,
and were suspected of having shady links with Joi Rebels.
In other words, they were men who'd betrayed the Shinsengumi in some way.
And as is obvious from looking at the Third Squad now,
their names are all gone from the roster.
You get it by now, right?
Basically, the reason the Third Squad has no members
is because they were all purged by that man.
He deliberately recruited traitors into his squad and punished them in secret.
That's the secret behind the "Silent Squad," Shinsengumi Third Squad.
That means...
He knows who you are already!
Doesn't that mean he let you join so he could kill you?!
Doesn't that mean you'll be dead when the Z in the diary is completed?!
If he knew who I was, the Z would've been completed by now.
He probably only suspects me at the moment.
Zura.
You're free to be purged or become an afro,
but could you not bring me trouble?
I'll kill you, seriously.
What are you saying, Gintoki?
Sure, it's risky, but if I play my cards right,
I could use the Third Squad to purge the Shinsengumi brass in one fell swoop!
Hey, could this be...
It's already too late?!
Odd Jobs Gin-chan
That silhouette which resembles a younger Tsurube II...
No doubt about it. It's Captain Wolfro.
Did he finally figure out who you are and come to kill you?
Do something about this.
At this rate, we'll be mistaken for terrorists, too.
What are you saying, Gintoki?
Aren't we afro bros, bound by frizzy hair?
Whose hair are you calling an afro?!
Huh?
The afro silhouette's gone—
Eek! He broke in from the back?!
Hide Zura! Hide Zura!
Wh-Who is you?!
How dare you barge into someone's house with an afro?
D-Don't you think you're being rude?!
Hey! What do you think you're doing?
Take off your afro first!
We're not cultivating any shady afros here!
Hey, hold up!
Give it a rest.
Gin-san!
I don't care if you're a cop or whatever.
The Sakata house is governed by its own laws.
If you keep dropping your filthy, frizzy hair all over the place,
you'll have to pay with more than your pubes, boss.
He just took a dump and left!
What did he even come here to do?!
We didn't get it because he was silent,
but it looks like he simply wanted to use the toilet.
Could he have been any more misleading?!
Guess it's true that he's a man of exceedingly few words.
He was going around searching for a toilet, not Zura, huh?
Just how close was he to soiling himself?
What kind of cop takes a dump and leaves without saying a word?
It wasn't just nuggets he left behind.
Application To Odd Jobs
He was here with a job request?!
H-Hey...
Zura, this...
Wait, where'd Zura go?!
If I don't strike first, I'll be exposed and purged before long.
I must kill before I'm killed.
"To Odd Jobs,
I apologize for this sudden letter."
I'm Z, a civil servant working in Edo.
I seek your help to resolve a long-standing problem of mine,
which is why I'm writing an anonymous letter to you folkz.
Uh, it may be anonymous, but it couldn't be more obvious.
A bunch of things are totally exposed here.
I've always been called a silent, cool person,
but that's not true.
What if my small talk falls flat?
What if I stutter?
What if they find my voice weird?
What if they think I'm getting cocky because
I suddenly speak up after staying silent for so long?
I have all these negative thoughts before I speak, so I stay silent out of fear.
But in truth, I'm just a normal guy who wants to have fun conversationz.
He was troubled by it!
Captain Wolfro is surprisingly timid!
But whenever I try to talk to people, I get nervous and my tummy aches,
so I always end up in toiletz.
That's why he's always taking dumps?
What if they think I do nothing but take dumps?
What if they think my lower mouth's awfully talkative even though I'm so silent?
What if they think, though my name means "end," my own end doesn't work so well?
Thinking about all that put me at an even greater loss for wordz.
Just how delicate is he?!
Ironically, the higher-ups liked my silent nature
and put me in charge of secret investigations.
Before long, I could only speak in diary entriez.
And one day,
my men found my "Prospective Friendz" list,
the Z List in short, which I'd been compiling in secret.
That's what the Z stood for?!
They read too much into it and fled,
and even though I'd finally found people I might be able to talk to,
I ended up having to punish them with my own handz.
He has an innate ability to fish out shady people!
I feel for the guy, but he's perfectly suited for secret investigations!
I didn't want to kill my comrades anymore, even if they had broken the Code.
So I gave up on talking and was living my life in solitude
when that man suddenly appeared in front of my eyez.
I kept silent, but he didn't let that faze him.
He kept talking to me frankly multiple timez.
Looking at his brazen yet resolute figure
cleared my mind of all doubtz.
The one who would be my friend...
Hashira Afuro z
...was Hashira Afuro, and no one elz.
Uh, that guy should be at the top of your hit-list!
"But as for how to talk to him, I'm completely out of ideaz.
I'd be forever grateful if you could offer me some advice."
Oh my God!
Never mind purging Katsura-san,
he's trying to make friends with him without realizing he's an enemy!
We should tell him that
the moron has infiltrated the Shinsengumi with evil intentions in mind.
But then Katsura-san will get purged.
Gin-san, what do we do?
Man, this has turned into a pain in the ass.
We ended up accepting a lot of money, too.
But he's saying he doesn't want to kill his friends anymore,
so we can't make him kill Zura.
In which case, having them truly become friends
might be the easiest way out of this mess.
They're enemies, but if Zura gets attached to him,
he might withdraw.
Is that even possible?
The two of them are Shinsengumi and Joi Rebel, you know.
Who the hell do you think I am?
I was born through a pair of smooth-talking lips...
Down there, that is.
That goes for everyone.
I'm well aware of Zura's quirks.
Bring me a pen and paper.
Z-san, I understand your long-standing loneliness so much, it hurts.
But don't you think you're being a bit overeager?
You've been silent for years,
so it's impossible for you to become talkative overnight.
Besides, Zura—
People don't pay too much attention to what others say.
Why don't you start off with listening to them?
Captain Saito.
I made you tea.
It's about time for a break, wouldn't you say?
I must get rid of this man at once
and gain control of the Third Squad, no matter what.
While it pains me to use such a dirty trick, I poisoned this tea.
It is for a just cause.
I cannot be picky about my methods.
Help yourself.
Even if you can't speak, you can listen to others, nod, and smile.
That's all it takes to have a successful conversation.
A smile, especially, can be used in any situation,
making it an excellent communication tool.
If you're at a loss, smile.
Please keep that in mind.
Wh-What's with that smile?!
Don't tell me... He realized?!
Impossible!
This poison has no taste or odor!
It should be impossible to notice with the naked eye!
But this smile practically screams that he's realized!
He's totally realized!
Is he telling me he'll accept my challenge head-on with a smile?
No, it can't be. I must be imagining things.
A smile this creepy couldn't possibly exist!
His face is probably just twitching out of exhaustion!
This is the end, Wolfro!
When you're the listener, there may be times when the other person stops talking.
At such times,
try causing a minor "accident" of sorts.
Mishaps are a far superior conversation topic than mere words.
F-Forgive me!
That tea was too hot!
I'll go make some more!
His smile is way too scary!
That was a total bust.
Odd Jobs Gin-chan
Instead of making him Wolfro's friend, it only made Katsura-san more cautious!
I thought it'd be better than making him talk unnaturally,
but even his smile was unnatural, huh?
What now? He sent us a letter to complain.
I've been doing as you said and smiling since then, but people are keeping their distance even more now. Even my diarrhea's gotten worse. Did I do something wrong? Did my asshole do something wrong? Please respond. - Civil Servant Z
This is bad.
He's dropping that smile all over the place.
He's growing more and more isolated!
Man, screw it.
Z-san, let's move on to the next step.
Small talk might make you self-conscious, but making necessary conversation is easy.
Among those, conversations about work are most effective.
Try taking him along for work and answering any questions he may have.
Well, he managed to bring him along all right,
but Katsura-san's being super wary!
He's not going to ask any questions!
Now, now.
Once they get to work, they'll have to talk, whether they like it or not.
Now he's speechless!
This sucks! Unknown to us, Elizabeth-san was captured!
What's worse, Saito-san is also in charge of torture!
Wait, why is he wearing a Shinsengumi uniform, too?
Was he trying to sneak in with that? Did he really think they wouldn't find out?!
A conversation's out of the question now.
Katsura-san's going to explode for sure this time!
K-Katsura-san!
This is a great sandbag!
He cast him aside without a moment's hesitation!
Where'd you find this?
I'd love to have one at home, too.
Damn you, Wolfro!
Did you think you could trap me with this?
Elizabeth, now is the time to endure.
I promise to avenge you—
Elizabeth...
Feeding Zabeth Rotation Mon - Saito Tue - Hashira Wed - Saito Thu - Saito Fri - Hashira
He domesticated him?!
I thought he caught and tortured him, but he was just keeping Elizabeth-san as a pet!
There, there.
Purr, purr.
He's really taken a liking to him! The two silent types have made a connection!
H-How could this be?!
In such a short time, he tamed Elizabeth even more than I did?!
Say it isn't so, Elizabe—
I can't believe it.
I don't believe it!
What is he doing?!
Never mind throwing the Shinsengumi into a panic, he's the one who's panicking most!
But this might be for the best.
A Shinsengumi officer and a Joi Rebel becoming friends was impossible to begin with.
Zura will surely learn his lesson and withdraw.
This was for the best. It really was.
One Month Later
Let's go,
Shinsengumi Third Squad!
Afro Squad, charge in!
Yeah!
To Be Continued
Afuro and Wolfro
Next week, "Afuro and Wolfro" airz.
We thought this story would end in one episode,
but in the Third Squad, for some reason Hashira Afuro's in charge of thingz?
The strategy used by Katsura (currently Hashira) puts Saito Shimaru in a real predicament.
What will happen to the Shinsengumi and Shimaruzzzz...