I hadn’t even noticed that! No idea.
Yeah, I took it as the flash going off too. I was reading on the iPad in portrait mode, with one page filling the whole screen, so this was really striking as I turned the page in a way it might not be so much in a physical copy. And if it’s the flash then it’s not a blank page, it’s a page full of white light! I agree the timeline is a bit odd in that we have the full page flash before Ray Lewis has his inner monologue weighing up his options, but I just took this as the whole thing taking place in a fraction of a second.
Ray Lewis down! Emma clearly has a wound that is impossible to recover from (that must have gone right through her liver) but it looks like we are into the realm where positive mental attitude and the support of good friends can overcome even the most lethal of wounds…
Chapter 94
They finish one impossible task and now they have… another impossible task! Taking a big group with wounded individuals back to the shelter is going to be no mean feat!
I liked alternate scene of the reunion between ojisan and Lucas at the end of the chapter.
Just four more, and then they can round it off with with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!
Chapter 95
And with that it feels like this arc is finished! It looked like the self destruct took down the village but not the mansion nearby, so presumably there are still demons that might be ready to chase them.
Crazy that this whole arc was left out of the anime. I’m really pleased to have read this section in the manga and discovered this part of the story. In regards to the anime we’ve been on episode 4 of series 2 for a long time now!
Ray looked quite different in this chapter, to the point I wondered who he was when he first appeared.
I hope Adam can fit through that fan at the exit of the bunker…
Yeah. Shame the anime only had one season.
Chapter 96
I’m glad they resolved things in one chapter. Although quite a bit of time has passed in the story, which makes sense. It would have been weird if Ema recovered quickly, given she was heavily injured and didn’t get fully treated for another couple of days. One thing I was glad did get resolved quickly though is Gilda’s misunderstanding, where she was threatening to blow up the shelter. I’m glad the other girl just went and checked if Ema was alive.
We finally know Yugo’s name! I found the extra between-chapter story to be pretty funny. I was wondering what Lucas would think if he knew about Yugo’s behavior leading up to their reunion.
Chapter 96
I read it as Hugo.
Chapter 96
Oh, I just did a straight romanization, and changed from Yuugo to Yugo since the second one didn’t have a red squiggly line 
Wouldn’t it be ヒュウゴ or something like that if it was Hugo? Looking it up, it seems like Yūgo is a Japanese name, and I don’t think we’ve seen any of those, so you may be right.
Chapter 96
Viz translation went with “Yugo”. And the kid on the left side of the panel calls it 慣れない, so perhaps it’s supposed to be a Japanese name rather than a Western one. I mildly pondered if there was some French pronunciation of Hugo that sounded like ユウゴ, and it turns out the Japanese Wikipedia article for Victor Hugo transliterates his name as ユーゴー, so I guess that does stand as a possibility. Hugo Weaving uses ヒューゴ, though.
Chapter 96
Yeah me too. I’m ready for a fresh direction of the story, and glad we avoided a long story arc making their way home.
Given it’s a black and white manga, the artist manages to make Emma look surprisingly pale and unwell looking in this panel! I think it’s the contrast with the other girl’s face, which has bits of shading giving it more “colour”.
Chapter 97 - nice way to finish the volume, I’m looking forward to what’s coming next!
I had to look back to chapters 72 & 73 to remind myself of what we know so far. I made some notes which I’ll share here:
Chapter 72&73 summary
At Goldy Pond, Emma and Lukas find an elevator and a phone. The phone rings and there is a recorded message from William Minerva. He says the elevator was a path to the human world, but can’t be used anymore as the path has been blocked. He had created the settlement at Goldy Pond as a safe settlement for children planning to cross to the human world.
His real name is James Ratri, and he is a descendant of the clan that came up with the promise 1000 years ago. His clan had been the mediator between the two worlds to keep the promise, and maintain the sacrifice of children to keep the peace. He slipped the clues into books going into the farms, to help children who followed the clues cross to the other world. But he was betrayed and now likely deceased.
However, there are multiple paths to the other world. Including Grace Field House, Glory Bell, Grand Valley and Goodwill Ridge. He offers two paths - escape in secret to the human world, and his supporters will help. Alternatively, break the promise and start a war with the demons, and his supporters will not stand in the way. Or (mysteriously) if the future you want is neither of those - “search for the seven walls”. (This is also what Mujika told Emma).
The rest of the details are “in Marvine’s bed”. Marvine is a character in Mr Minerva’s novel The Adventures of Ugo, he is a lemur who sleeps in a drawer. Inside a secret compartment in the drawer under the phone they find a memory chip which fits in the pen and gives a lot more information - including how to get in touch with James Ratri’s supporters, and information about the paths to cross over. It explains what is meant by the seven walls, but we don’t find out what that means. They also find a file about Project Lambda 7214 - a project to build in the far west a new experimental farm
Chapter 73 we also meet Peter Ratri, who takes over from James as head of the clan, and is friendly with Lord Bayon.
Wait a minute. Does every farm start with G? Or only the ones that have exits? How have I not noticed that before?
Yep, it sounds like the main ones do.
And just like that… it’s volume 12!