Don't let him get away!
Get ahead of him and cut him off!
What's all this fuss?
Look, I'm a ninja!
Try and get away from this, Escape King!
Golden Kamuy
Episode Sixteen The Great Plan to Infiltrate the Asahikawa 7th Division!!
Shiraishi was captured by the 7th Division?
Was it Lt. Tsurumi?
No, I didn't see Lt. Tsurumi.
It was another unit.
According to the locals, they were on their way back to Asahikawa.
There were too many for me to try a head-on attempt to rescue Shiraishi.
But we'll have serious problems if he's taken all the way to their HQ in Asahikawa.
Knowing Shiraishi, can't he just get away on his own?
Maybe he's been killed, and they're flaying him as we speak!
If they lock him away somewhere in their HQ,
it might take him months to get out on his own.
Nagakura, Ienaga, wait for Sugimoto's group to return here.
Once they arrive, head to Asahikawa.
Kiroranke and I will get Shiraishi back!
He's the only one who can enter Abashiri Prison and contact Nopperabo.
Jintan
Iwamizawa
You've already met the person you're fated to be with.
Who? Who is it?
What is it that you sell, merchant?
I don't sell anything.
Your friend there is a fortune-teller, huh?
Lucky guy... I want to be the gigolo for a pretty girl like that, too.
Gigolo? I'm not a gigolo...
Inkarmat, give me money!
There's a bean candy seller here!
Three men with a little Ainu girl?
I saw them in Yuubari.
There were these three nasty-looking men who tried to sell me a liver.
That guy with the hat was probably some kind of terrible criminal!
I can tell these things!
Otaru
Sapporo
Iwamizawa
Yuubari
Ashibetsu
Yuubari, huh?
I should've guessed.
If you take the fastest route to Abashiri from Otaru,
you run into Asahikawa.
Yuubari
Abashiri
Asahikawa is the 7th's base of operations.
Asahikawa
I thought they'd go around it.
If they passed through Yuubari,
Tokachi Region
maybe they passed through the Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group and the Hidaka Mountains,
and headed to Tokachi.
Tokap?
Tokachi.
What's tokap?
It means "boobs."
Tokap! Tokap!
Cikapasi, enough of that.
Tokap!
Stop glancing back at Inkarmat, Cikapasi!
Look!
We've been waiting for you.
I've got news. Bad news.
What is it?
Let's hurry! We need to get ahead of them!
How do we get him back?
Strike the 7th in their sleep?
Blast a few of them with a bomb to throw the rest into chaos—
Is that how you fought at the Amur River?
Why did you abandon your home and come to Hokkaido?
Or did the czar's men chase you here? You and Nopperabo both.
Do you know Nopperabo's real name?
Mikawa Village
Give one sen to the Inari in that alleyway,
and pay your respects. Once Osen arrives
at the tea shop and has a seat, serve her some bitter tea.
A bean candy seller!
I want some! Can I buy some?
Give me bean candy!
Thanks for your purchase.
After the bitter tea...
Kamuy Kotan Hanging Bridge
Kamuy Kotan?
The Kamuy Kotan is the domain of the gods.
Kamuy Kotan
It's always been said that humans have no place there.
To the Ainu, this valley is a dangerous source of many accidents.
They've always feared those accidents as the work of an evil god.
So there's lots of interesting stories about the Kamuy Kotan.
Stories of katanas that devour men.
Katanas that devour men?
The Ipetam.
The Ipetam is a cursed sword that flies through the air in search of men to prey on.
Bury it in the mountains, throw it in a deep river,
and it will come back anyway.
Bury it in a coffin with rocks, and it will eat the rocks with a crunching sound.
But once the rocks are gone it will leave the coffin and start to attack people,
so in the end, they threw it in the bottomless swamp of the Kamuy Kotan.
And then it didn't come back.
I see.
Then I shall be an Ipetam. One that climbed out of the bottomless swamp.
Cross ten at a time!
Kamuy Kotan. Hanging bridge...
What are they going to do?
You've gotta be kidding me!
Sure, we're on a bridge, but is he still going to fight this many people with a katana?
You stupid old man!
Bridge collapse! Several men fell!
Turn back! We're going to save them!
I'm gonna die! Somebody save me!
Shiraishi!
Don't let go!
Shiraishi!
Kiro-chan!
Just wait!
Grab on!
I could get rid of these any time I wanted!
Shit!
Shiraishi, hang in there!
Almost there! Reach out!
Come on, Shiraishi!
What's wrong? Hurry!
Shiraishi!
I believe he's already arrived at Asahikawa by now.
Even if he can escape on his own,
we can't wait for him when we don't know how long that will take.
We don't even know if he can.
He may be the Escape King,
but that's not a prison.
Who knows what they're doing to him?
They may be flaying him right now!
You go look, Ogata.
You're with the 7th, right?
I'm considered a deserter right now.
What about you, Kiroranke?
You were with the 7th, right?
They saw my face at the Kamuy Kotan.
Well, I guess it's okay.
We've got a copy of his tattoos.
No, I want to save him.
He's a ridiculous man, but there's still uses for Shiraishi.
But how do we save him?
Knowing that man...
Golden Kamuy
Nikaidou, let go!
Give me that vial!
No!
What's all this fuss, Sergeant Tsukishima?
Lt. Tsurumi!
No!
Nikaidou stole a whole vial of morphine, and was taking extra doses of it in secret!
Don't blame me if he dies from an overdose.
Nikaidou, you know better than that.
You need to follow the doctor's orders.
Give it back.
No, Nikaidou! Bad!
Youhei's right leg burned.
Along with Edogai-kun's house.
I can't track down Sugimoto without a leg.
Nikaidou, it's not right to just give up.
No!
Nikaidou, no! No!
Lt. Tsurumi, somebody's there.
Who are you?
You want to know who I am?
I'm the one who made that rifle you're carrying!
Lt. General Arisaka, sir!
I'm sorry to keep you waiting.
Arisaka!
The genius weapons designer.
A lieutenant general in the army.
Arisaka Narizou!
I'm sorry, sir!
How've you been, Tsurumi-kun?
I see you're doing well, sir!
Lt. General Arisaka's lost much of his hearing after spending years making weapons.
I see.
How was Asahikawa?
Asahikawa's made a hot air balloon unit of their own,
and they want to put some kind of weapon on it!
Those things use hydrogen to float. One puncture and they're done for,
so recon is the most you'll ever get out of them!
And they're slow, too!
The age of airplanes is upon us!
Morphine
Is that morphine, Tsurumi-kun?
Does your head wound still bother you?
Actually, Tsurumi-kun, has your attempt to grow poppies
that can thrive in cold climates gotten anywhere?
I'm trying to get money so I can expand the size of the fields.
Opium makes money!
International opinion has turned against England,
and they're getting out of the opium business, you see.
Lt. General Arisaka, please don't tell people about the poppy fields.
Lt. General Arisaka came all the way to Otaru to see Lt. Tsurumi?
There's no end to how deep the rabbit hole goes with him.
I've brought the latest in domestically-produced weaponry.
A Type-38 machine gun and Type-38 infantry rifle,
developed by Nambu-kun, one of my men!
Beautiful...
The beauty of the gun testifies to its function.
You'll sell a million!
But the more that sell, the more people will die!
This is a cursed business I'm in!
The things you make are beautiful, so make them!
Beauty and power are one and the same.
In search of functional beauty, you created a powerful weapon.
And that which is beautiful should be praised!
The 28 centimeter howitzers were gorgeous!
The fire support they provided did not discriminate between friend and foe.
It ripped apart the bodies of young men,
and made the skies rain with gore and blood!
I ran through those rains of blood,
and it was beautiful!
Your head is messed up, Tsurumi-kun!
Correct! I'm missing my frontal lobes!
A large war will increase demand for painkillers...
Morphine
And Japan's high-quality weapons, too.
That's what the Ainu gold will be used for.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
War will bring jobs to the people of Hokkaido.
Bap-bap-bap.
More wars will need to keep happening.
It doesn't go bap-bap-bap!
Get 'em! Shoot 'em all up!
It's a war addiction!
Bears attack humans with overwhelming power.
But who blames the bear?
Other bears.
One of my men was attacked by a bear, and this is what he said!
"It was a beautiful creature."
That's an interesting guy you've got working for you!
Lt. General Arisaka!
He's very depressed right now!
I know it's asking a lot, but do you suppose you could help him?
Several Days Later
You stole it again, huh?
Give it back!
I'll tell Lt. Tsurumi on you!
Give it here!
Nikaidou!
You've got a wonderful visitor!
A visitor? Who?
Come in, sir!
Who's that?
Who is it?
Who... who are you?
I'm scared!
Who the hell are you?
Get lost!
So you're Nikaidou-kun, huh?!
Who's this?
I've come to give you a present!
A present? What is it?
I hope you like it!
Your new leg!
Aw, it's just a fake leg.
Not just any fake leg, though!
I made it on short notice, but it's got room for three rounds of buckshot.
I could've put in more if I used rifle bullets,
but a weapon like this is only useful at close quarters and in a surprise situation.
If you want to make sure you stop an opponent at short range,
buckshot's the way to go!
Thank you, person I don't know!
What are you doing? This is a hospital!
Congratulations on your wonderful new leg, Nikaidou!
Outskirts of Asahikawa
Who the hell is this?
His name is Suzukawa Kiyohiro. He's a marriage fraudster.
A genius at disguise.
We met in Abashiri.
Abashiri?
You were hiding that?
I didn't say I'd share every bit of information I had.
You didn't tell me either, old man.
Don't worry. I was intending to meet him on the way to Abashiri.
You crafty old geezer...
What can a marriage fraudster do?
Fraud involves the use of the brain.
Don't compare me to a violent prison escapee, who steals things from others by force.
So, what do you want me to do?
Save Shiraishi from the 7th.
We won't know where in the 7th's Asahikawa Barracks he's being kept
unless someone gets in.
So I pretend to be one of them?
After the incident at the Kamuy Kotan, they'll be on their guard.
You'd have to be someone important to get them to tell you.
One of the upper brass from the division in Tokyo?
No, the further up in the military you get, the more you know the people around you.
A fictional officer would be found out instantly.
A dog (inu)?
How about Inudou Shirosuke?
Inudou? The Warden of Abashiri Prison?
Do they look similar?
Nope.
The odds of anyone in the 7th knowing the Warden of Abashiri are low.
But unless you look almost identical,
someone who knows him will see through the disguise.
Will this work?
Inudou is stern and fastidious.
He's obsessed with following rules,
but also willing to secretly lock me up forever out of personal hatred.
His twisted nature appears on his face.
It's true. Your personality shows on your face.
For instance, if you see a bear with a face like a fox,
it's one that's got a nasty temper.
Right, Asirpa-san?
No good. It's past her bedtime.
How about this, then?
So, how will you fool the 7th now that you look like the Warden of Abashiri?
Don't be in such a hurry.
I have an idea.
I'll let you handle the rest.
Leave her be. She's nasty when she's sleepy.
Hah! She'll be a fine woman someday.
What's wrong?
I just remembered...
You're the old man who showed up at the herring longhouse, aren't you?
Was Shiraishi working with you?
Shiraishi was working with them?
Yeah. If that's true, it probably started a while ago.
When Shiraishi reached out to grab my hand,
I saw a clear hesitation.
Given the situation, can't you look past that?
So you admit it, then.
There are no enemies or allies here. All that's important is information.
He probably figured you'd kill him if you found out.
That'd be just like him.
What will you do? Will you still save him?
And then kill him when you do?
Someone who betrays you once will betray you again and again.
Sugimoto...
Don't kill anyone you don't have to.
Asahikawa, the military city.
Asahikawa
As the czar's forces tried to sweep south,
fortifying it became a critical mission.
The establishment of railway tracks and a 7th Division garrison
made it one of the largest cities in Hokkaido at the time, after Hakodate,
Otaru, and Sapporo.
The 7th's base is huge. Where is he?
It's not a prison, so it can't be that hard to get on base, but...
There's no way we can check out each individual building.
Should we make them hand Shiraishi over to us?
The insignia number of the men who took Shiraishi was "27."
That's one of the four infantry regiments at Asahikawa...
The 27th Infantry Regiment.
This is their barracks.
Wait a second. The 27th?
What is it, Ogata?
Are you guys idiots?
Oh, right!
So they're in the same regiment as Lt. Tsurumi?
It's very likely that the 27th is hiding Shiraishi.
The regiment is lead by Lt. Colonel Yodogawa, who's under Lt. Tsurumi's control.
Lt. Colonel Yodogawa Terunaka
What? The Warden of Abashiri wants to meet me?
What does he want?
I am Inudou Shirosuke, the Warden of Abashiri Prison.
Nice to meet you.
Inudou...
Next Time: Inside the Belly
Next Time: "Inside the Belly."