Banana Fish, Akimi Yoshida, volume 17
Sing brings Jessica and Eiji up through a manhole to see Max and the others under armed guard, and Ash being led away. Cain, also lurking, catches up with them. Foxx tells Ash that the others are going to Dr Mannerheim’s care. The truck that all the prisoners are on except Ash rumbles away, and Alex (who got out with Cain) is sent after it. Foxx takes Ash inside, ties his hands to a noose around his neck (there is probably a more technical description of this - is this hog-tying?) and goes on at him, hitting him and asking why Ash doesn’t want all the power Dino’s offered him, as well as offering to join forces with Ash and act as his dark side; Ash says he never wanted anything Dino offered, and he would prefer not to ever work with Foxx (okay, his exact phrasing is somewhat different!).
Foxx then tries to find out what Dino has on the US government, and when Ash won’t talk, holds him down and cuts his shirt off before we cut briefly to Cain, Eiji, Sing and the others contemplating their attack, and cut back to a much more battered Ash with his jeans undone. Foxx calls him stubborn, tosses a lighted cigarette down next to him and goes to take a call from Golzine. When the new guards come in and start roughing Ash up he breaks free, presumably having burnt through the ropes, and kills them both; the others outside hear shooting and attack. Ash breaks free and Foxx and his men retreat; Eiji and the others meet up with Ash in a touching moment of reconciliation (Ash: Morons! What’re you doing here?!). Later, Ash knocks Cain’s hand away when he tries to check Ash’s wounds, and then starts falling apart; Eiji holds him, not caring what the others think, and he calms down.
The gangs meet up. Sing gets told off by Lao for not going after his guys again, and then Lao calls Cain an uncle Tom for helping Ash, which goes badly (also, suddenly swearwords seem to be okay again, I note). Cain’s guys accuse Lao of being a traitor. Ash breaks the whole thing up, casually. Lao and Sing go outside and yell at each other, and it’s all so well done in such a short space - Sing feels he’s not in the same league as Ash, Lao wants him to be respected, Shorter’s death is hanging there between them, and Lao storms out. Ash and Sing share a tiny moment. Lao has gone to Yut-Lung, but tells him he won’t kill Eiji (although he’d try for Ash), even for Sing’s life. Yut-Lung tells Lao not to worry about it and, later, tells Blanca he has two more scorpions. Blanca is obviously having some issues. Dino is admiring Mannerheim’s new research facility (which appears to still be under construction?) and then tells Foxx to get Ash and the negatives. Meanwhile, one of Foxx’s guys is beating up Max in an attempt to further this goal, and then they inject him with what I think is sodium pentothal.
Jessica brings Ash into see Steven, who’s recovering, and they tell him about Max before picking up the negatives, just ahead of Foxx’s guys. Jessica is appalled by the photos, and Ash says it’s not a great tactic - exposing Dino’s blackmail - but it’s all they have. Jessica asks about Foxx, fishing, and Ash says Foxx raped him, which despite Jessica’s own experiences (back in vol 4) is not really a bonding moment.
Yut-Lung’s two scorpions tell Yut-Lung they’re finding it too hard to get Eiji alone, and Yut-Lung tells them to attack Eiji when he’s with Ash, and try for Ash as well. Ash works on his plan to free the prisoners. He tells Eiji that he and Jessica will be going under Newsweek’s protection while they make their attempt, and Eiji, to Ash's surprise, agrees, but says he wishes Ash never had to fight again.
Blanca tries to contact Nadia, to find Sing, and gets caught by Yut-Lung - and tells him he mustn’t kill Eiji. Cut back to Ash, saying he wanted to be like Eiji but now it’s too late, and Eiji tells him to come to Japan with him. Outside, the two scorpions (look, if I knew their names I would totally use them) are creeping up, and Yut-Lung tells Blanca it’s too late. Blanca starts walking out, and Yut-Lung, panicking (and possibly regretful) tells him where to go (aha - the two scorpions are John Lee and Shao Tai). Eiji tries to convince Ash that he can change, that Eiji won't leave him, and Ash gives in and asks Eiji to teach him Japanese (having already been led slightly astray by Ibe teaching him Kansai-ben, apparently). There are about four panels of entertaining Japanesee lessons, and then Eiji sees a gun around the doorway, yells, shoves Ash aside and gets shot in the gut.
Ash gets shot (in the side) rushing towards him, and then takes out both of the shooters, hunting one down to kill him rather messily in front of all the other, including Sing, who tries to intervene. Sing eventually gets in front of the body, and then Ash shoots Lao - who was coming up with a gun - in the hand but doesn’t kill him, before going back to Eiji. Eiji asks if Ash is okay before passing out. Blanca arrives with the ambulance, and stops Ash from going with Eiji, sending Jessica instead. Eiji is wheeled into surgery. Ash pulls a gun on Blanca. Ibe and Charlie show up at the hospital, and see Eiji getting wheeled from theatre to ICU. Charlie finds out Ash is still alive and asks Jessica for information, saying it’s relevant to his case. Blanca tells Ash he’ll be arrested if he goes to the hospital, and then he’ll get Eiji into trouble; he tells Ash that he knew this would happen, but he kept Eiji around anyway to stop himself feeling so lonely, but Eiji doesn’t exist in order to make Ash feel better - Ash, furious, starts shooting, but he aims just to the side of Blanca’s head, shooting only a few times before collapsing.
Sing and Blanca discuss Yut-Lung briefly, Blanca wanting Sing to forgive him (Sing: Yeah, right). Sing’s gang are furious about Ash shooting their guys. Lao apologises. Sing tells him to keep quiet and go along with him, and then actually starts crying, saying he wants things to be how they were when Shorter was alive, and he never wanted to argue with Ash.
Ibe watching over Eiji. Ash waking up alone and starting to plan again. Sing walks in, saying he wants his guys back (the prisoners) and apologising for his gang’s actions. He says he’ll take full responsibility, any penalty, but what he’d like is the chance to fight one-on-one with Ash. Lao tries to stop him, but Sing tells him to shut up (not all that effectively, as Lao then says that Ash isn’t human, that the only person he cares about is Eiji and the rest of them are just a bunch of cockroaches, a viewpoint that I do have a slight degree of sympathy for, as much as I love Ash, but eventually he stops talking). Sing kicks him out of the gang. Ash agrees to Sing’s deal. Cain calls Ash on it later, and Ash says Sing’s looking to die anyway. Cain asks about Eiji, and Ash loses it and says he can’t go, and then starts saying that maybe Lao’s right. Cain does a small amount of self-esteem building before leaving Ash alone, where he pleads with God to spare Eiji and take hiim instead…
Blanca catches up with Jessica, getting a progress report on Eiji (guarded, but cautiously optimistic), and, without clarifying his relationship with Ash, heads back to an alarmingly drunk Yut-Lung, who starts telling Blanca about his mother, a child concubine to the powerful Lee Hong-Lung, who when he died (Yut-Lung was 6) was raped and murdered by the other Lee brothers. Yut-Lung wants to know why Ash gets to find redemption and he doesn’t, and then he yells at Blanca for pitying him and storms out. I am simultaneously worried about Ash, Eiji, Sing, Max, Jessica and, much to my surprise, Yut-Lung.