Jiro is one of the main characters of the new manga Black Torch. It's an action manga and deals with ninjas, secret government teams, and demons eating humans for power. Jiro has the power to talk to animals and comes across a black cat one day. He acts like a badass (I mean he kinda is) but deep down he cares about people and doing the right thing, so he helps out the cat only to find out that it is a mononoke named Rago, one of the demons that inhabits the earth alongside humans. Rago is sought out by another mononoke and although Jiro tries to help, he is outclassed and killed by being pierced through the heart. Rago believes that he owes Jiro a debt, so he possesses Jiro's body and brings him back to life. Jiro is still in control but now has Rago living inside of him, able to call on his power when needed or when Rago is able to as he often sleeps a lot (he's a cat after all). Jiro ends up joining the Public Bureau of Espionage in a group called Black Torch and specializes in combating enemy mononoke.
Slight warning, some of the scans will have heavy language in them including the F-word.
This Respect Thread will be divided into and cover the following sections:
General Terms
Shinobi Training
Animal Speech
Partnership with Rago
Strength
Speed/Agility
Durability/Endurance
Gear/Equipment
General Terms
Mononoke
(Ch. 01) A mononoke like Rago is also known as a demon or evil spirit. Mononoke usually take the shape of humans and usually live peacefully in cities but also have been known to retire to forests and mountains:
(Ch. 09) Mononoke eat humans in order to eat their life energy, which is the only thing that can increase their power:
Public Bureau of Espionage
(Ch. 02) The Public Bureau of Espionage was once called the Oniwaba several hundreds years ago during the Edo Period and were an organization of shinobi tasked by the shogun himself. They eventually changed rules with the Meiji restoration and are now a shadow organization that doesn't officially exist and deals with matters involving mononoke:
(Ch. 05) The Bureau is divided up into different sections:
(Ch. 09) The Bureau has changed from mononoke fighters to spies and information specialists:
Hidden World
(Ch. 03) The "hidden world/realm" is a world inhabited by mononoke and half a step away from the real world. When a mononoke uses their aura to create a barrier of mist, everything in that mist is temporarily transported to the "hidden world":
Sealing
(Ch. 05) This is the process by which Rago and Jiro are joined together. When a mononoke seals itself inside of a human, they must expend all of their aura to do so, which is why Rago himself can't just undo the joining and separate himself from Jiro whenever he wants. Reiji then says that mononoke usually only possess living things but can also possess non-living things, like when Rago was sealed in the Killing Stone for not agreeing to team up with a certain group of mononoke:
Shinobi Training
(Ch. 01) Jiro's grandpa has been teaching him shinobi techniques his whole life:
(Ch. 02) The techniques Jiro's grandfather have taught him have been handed down through the Azuma lineage for generations and are designed to slaughter both humans and mononoke. He does admit however that he's only taught Jiro the fundamentals:
(Ch. 01) Thanks to his shinobi training, Jiro is granted enhanced agility and is very competent with a sword, as pointed out by an enemy mononoke who's first reaction to seeing Jiro jump up and slice his arm is to ask him if he's related to shinobi. And even after just learning about mononoke just hours prior, Jiro manages to stand his ground at the sight of a transformed one when most other humans tremble at the sight of it:
(Ch. 01) Jiro is still able to attempt a counterattack after being stabbed through the chest by a large mononoke's claws. The mononoke in question applauds his willpower and says it's to be expected coming from a shinobi:
(Ch. 03) Shiba Ryousuke says that Jiro is more promising than the recent spies who have joined the Bureau thanks to his shinobi blood and training:
(Ch. 04) In his first meeting with fellow teammate Reiji Kirihara, Jiro takes an immediate dislike to the "four-eyed playboy" and is too eager to have a quick sparring match with him. The fight starts with Reiji's back turned, his sword on the floor, and Jiro charging at him. In one smooth movement, Reiji picks up his sword and strikes Jiro in the jaw, sending him flying back. In the next exchange, Jiro charges at Reiji again but is able to time his swing and read his movement in order to break the wooden sword and then punch Reiji away. Section Chief Shiba notes to himself that Jiro's first attack was to measure out Reiji's range and learn his attack pattern and that the counter attack wouldn't have worked unless Jiro actually read the sword's movement perfectly:
Cicada Shell
(Ch. 01) This is a shinobi technique where Jiro substitutes himself with his jacket or a piece of clothing he is wearing. It's not shown or stated just how exactly he is able to do this, but it fools the opponent every time. The first instance we see him using it is when these thugs were attacking a cat and a crow and he intervened to stop them. He is able to switch himself out with his jacket without the thug attacking him noticing:
(Ch. 01) Jiro uses his Cicada Shell to swap places with his shirt, saving him from the deadly claws of a large mononoke:
(Ch. 10) Jiro uses his Cicada Shell to escape the gravitational grip of a large mononoke before he could crush him to death:
Animal Speech
Jiro comes from the Azuma bloodline, which was granted the ability to speak to animals in the past. Usually someone needs to spend lots of time together to speak to a single animal, but Jiro can speak to any animal right away:
(Ch. 01) Jiro has the ability to talk to animals. After he saves them from a group of thugs, Jiro talks to a cat and a crow:
(Ch. 01) Jiro then talks to the same crow and is informed that an injured cat is in the woods behind his house which leads him to Rago:
(Ch. 02) Jiro asks a group of crows for help in escaping from the Public Bureau of Espionage's custody. He screams in order to bring the guards right outside his door inside and has the crows distract them while he runs away. The key thing to note here is that all he can do is talk to and understand animals, he can't control them, which is why he cuts a deal with the crows to get them candy:
(Ch. 09) Jiro talks to a group of crows and has them help him out in locating four mononoke that were taking civilians hostage inside a city:
Partnership with Rago
(Ch. 01) When Jiro dies defending Rago and coming to his aide, Rago feels responsible and that he owes him a debt. To make up for that, Rago fuses himself with Jiro, bringing the man back to life and giving him the mononoke's powers:
(Ch. 06) Rago is different than other mononoke because he doesn't need to eat or drink to produce more aura like other mononoke do, leaving him with "unlimited power" so to speak:
(Ch. 10) Over the first ten chapters which took place over a few weeks, Rago has been subconsciously consuming Jiro's life force and has slowly been increasing his own power:
(Ch. 11) This is the exact reason that humans and mononoke aren't fit to symbolically live together and Jiro learns from Amagi that the more aura he and Rago use in combat, the quicker his life force will get consumed:
(Ch. 15) After meeting the head mononoke in-charge Amagi, Jiro is separated from Rago because Amagi planned to have Rago on his side in the upcoming war he wanted to start between humans and mononoke. Rago however leaves his tail and all of his power inside of Jiro, making him a normal cat while Jiro retained all of Rago's power. In an attempt to learn to control that power, Jiro went inside of Avidya forest to "lose his humanity". Inside of the forest Jiro comes across Monjumaru and the forest's leader and mononoke in charge, Ibuki, and learns how to harness and control Rago's power:
(Ch. 15/17) Jiro then trained for three days with Monjumaru to learn how to control and fight with Rago's power and is able to fight for thirty minutes in a controlled, calm state or for 15 minutes in a rigorous fight:
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Offense
(Ch. 01) Now fused with Rago, Jiro can borrow his power in combat situations. Rago tells Jiro to punch a large mononoke as hard as he can, and Rago's power kicks in to help, creating a massive arm that extends from Jiro's arm and punches the enemy mononoke in half:
(Ch. 03) Rago creates another large hand for Jiro to use which punches right through the upper body of a mononoke and takes his head off in the process. This mononoke before had already tanked bullets without any trouble and just toppled a large freight truck with a punch:
(Ch. 06) Rago creates an extremely large hand to strike at the mononoke Kouga and although it does massive damage, it only destroys most of the stone on his weapon:
(Ch. 08) In a flashback, we see Rago firing off a ball of energy at another mononoke, and that ball of energy ravished the landscape, destroyed the shrine Rago was at, and took Amagi's left arm:
(Ch. 10) Rago uses his power to layer himself onto Jiro and, using his new and increased power thanks to subconsciously consuming his life force and Jiro removing his aura dampening armor, creates a long thin arm and cuts a large mononoke in half:
(Ch. 13) Rago's power takes over Jiro, coating him with shadowy claws, a scarf, and covering his head and giving him ears, and allows him to overpower the deadly Takeru Inui and send him flying out of a warehouse by blowing the doors off:
(Ch. 13) In the same circumstances as above, being controlled by Rago's power, Jiro is able to pierce through Takeru Inui's jacket with his claws. Takeru's jacket is a specially designed armor that can absorb the impact of a bazooka but he says Jiro tore through it like it was tissue paper:
(Ch. 13) In this form, Jiro has access to Rago's energy attacks, where he can charge up a sphere of energy in his mouth and fire it off at an opponent. The one he used here was severely weaker than the one Rago used against Amagi in the past, so there are different level to the power of the attack:
(Ch. 13) In this form, Jiro's "scarf" can also be used as a weapon, extending towards a target with what I'm assuming has the power to rip something like a human in half:
(Ch. 18) Jiro, after learning how to control Rago's power, creates what looks like a scarf behind him, and the jaws of Rago's monster form over his mouth. This form allows Rago to blitz Amagi and create a powerful explosion from a punch that stretches longer than the large house he's fighting next to:
(Ch. 18) Jiro and Amagi fight each other at FTE speeds, moving fast enough to kick up the dirt, break part of a shrine, and create large explosions larger than themselves from clashing:
(Ch. 18) While Jiro had been thrown into the ground and had his face stomped on, the scarf-like thing he has and uses smacks Amagi away and frees Jiro from his foot:
(Ch. 19) Jiro fires off an energy ball attack that damages the main part of a house, blow off Amagi's arm, and was actually a ploy to release Rago from his prison and reunite him with Jiro:
(Ch. 19) Jiro and Rago use all of their power to punch Amagi and creates a large and deep crater in the ground:
(Ch. 19) Jiro kills Amagi by powering up a ounch with Rago;s power and having Rago use a alrge avatar to punch him towards Amagi, giving him immense speed and momentum:
Defense
(Ch. 02) Although they share a body, Rago can act independently of Jiro's wishes, here using a clawed arm as a shield to block a strike from Jiro's grandpa and swipe him away, all without Jiro's consent:
Sensing
(Ch. 03) Rago is able to sense the barrier of another mononoke. A barrier is mist made up of a mononoke's aura, or power:
(Ch. 09) Rago is able to sense out the four mononoke attacking a city and gathering up civilians for food as well as sense their power levels:
Strength
(Ch. 01) Jirou kicks a man and takes him off his feet:
(Ch. 04) Jiro jumps a far distance to attack Reiji Kirihara:
(Ch. 04) Jiro is able to time Reiji Kirihara's sword swing and break the wooden sword in half with a punch before sending Reiji flying off his feet with another punch:
(Ch. 12) Jiro kicks a small bed, bends the frame, and sends it up high in the air and a good distance away:
Speed/Agility
One of Jiro's ancestor's was granted enhanced athleticism by a powerful mononoke and Jiro gained these traits particularly strongly, more so than most of his other past relatives:
(Ch. 01) When Rago leaves Jiro's house, he is found by another mononoke who tracked him down and wants him to become his ally. Rago refuses and races off into the forest to lead the new mononoke away from Jiro. When the mononoke catches up to Rago and begins to attack him in an attempt to subdue the cat, Jiro jumps in and slices the mononoke's arm with a sword, showing that he had the speed to catch up to these supernatural beings thanks to his shinobi training and speed:
(Ch. 01) Jiro uses his Cicada Shell to save himself from a large mononoke's attack:
(Ch. 01) Jiro performs a very acrobatic and high leap in order to dodge an attack from a mononoke:
(Ch. 02) Jiro evades an attack from his grandpa who was out to kill him for becoming possessed by Rago. Jiro's grandpa is a former shinobi and a former member of the Bureau as well:
(Ch. 04) Jiro is able to perfectly time Reiji Kirihara's sword slash in order to punch and break the sword:
(Ch. 10) Jiro easily jumps over a large mononoke's strike:
(Ch. 13) With Rago's power taking over Jiro's body, he is able to blitz one of the deadlier agents of the Bureau, Takeru Inui, so much so that he could barely move to the side to prevent having his mid-section pierced:
(Ch. 14) Jiro is able to notice a snake mononoke speeding up behind him and jumping to attack him, sidestepping and catching it out of the air:
(Ch. 19) Jiro jumps up and onto a large spear thrown at him by Amagi:
Durability/Endurance
(Ch. 02) Jiro is slapped by his grandpa with enough force to go sliding back in the dirt:
(Ch. 02) Jiro is smacked away by his grandpa with a hit that leaves him coughing up blood and gasping for breath. His grandpa then tells him that the moves he's using are designed to slaughter humans and mononoke alike:
(Ch. 02) Jiro counters one of his grandpa's strikes with a headbutt and although he is sent off his feet flying back, he remains able to keep his balance and stays conscious:
(Ch. 04) Jiro is struck in the chin with a wooden sword by Reiji Kirihara, a young man who has been training in swordsmanship for his whole life. He told Section Chief Shiba that Jiro wouldn't be living much longer after that strike to the chin but Jiro just spat out some blood and told him that it didn't hurt. Jiro then tells Reiji that his grandpa has been working him to the bone since he was a little kid and compared to the level of strike he just received, Reiji's strike was more like a playground sword game or a mere trick:
(Ch. 04) After they both exchange an attack on each other, Jiro and Reiji then pummel each other in hand-to-hand until both of them black out:
(Ch. 06) Jiro is slammed into the ground by Kouga, a powerful mononoke, with enough force to crack the ground but remains conscious:
(Ch. 06) Jiro is then punched away by Kouga only to swipe at the blood in the corner of his mouth:
(Ch. 10) Jiro is pinned to the ground by a mononoke's powerful gravity manipulation and pressed down hard enough to create a crater. He is then picked up and squeezed to the point where he had to use his Cicada Shell otherwise he would have been crushed to death:
(Ch. 11) Jiro says that he definitely cracked a rib while being pushed into the ground by the above mononoke's power and Rago tells him that his exhaustion is most likely also caused by Rago subconsciously and unknowingly consuming his life force:
(Ch. 13) Jiro takes an off-screen beating from Takeri Inui and then has his head slammed into the ground hard enough to crack it and make his eyes roll back, but he recovers in the span of a few minutes to overpower Takeru:
(Ch. 18) Jiro is slammed into the ground by Amagi and then stomped on and is fine afterwards:
(Ch. 18) Jiro exchanges multiple blows with Amagi, creating powerful shockwaves from their clashes, and is then blasted by a powerful energy attack but is fine afterward and just brushes the smoke away:
(Ch. 19) Jiro tanks another energy blast by allowing more of Rago's power to take control of himself:
(Ch. 19) Jiro has his own energy ball attack shoved back in his face, begins having his heart pulled out by Amagi, and then is able to fire off a blast to defend himself:
Gear/Equipment
(Ch. 05) After joining the Bureau and making up the Black Torch squad, Jiro is outfitted with Type-B Covert Operations gear. This gear has a bunch of qualities and special abilities that I'll list as bullets below:
Heat resistant
Temperature resistant
Knife and bullet resistant
Insulated
Waterproof
Woven with artificial muscle fibers to increase combat ability
Quantum Camouflage: Panel on the left wrist that changes the outfit's appearance from the armor to street clothes as well as can turn the wearer invisible (other wearers of the suit can see each other) completely hiding appearance and shadow from enemies by double tapping the same panel. While this is active, the suits other capabilities aren't as effective however.
(Ch. 05) Here's the gear in action, switching from casual clothes back to the armor with the press of a button:
(Ch. 06) Reiji says that if he wasn't wearing the Type-B Covert Operations gear, he wouldn't have walked away from the fight with Kouga without any injuries despite Kouga being strong enough to tank a sword slash that should have cut him in half and slam Jiro into the ground with enough strength to crack it:
(Ch. 09) The Type-B Covert Operations gear also has an aura neutralizing effect which allows them to break through low-level barriers:
(Ch. 10) The one drawback to using this gear is that it doesn't just weaken enemy mononoke but Rago as well:
(Ch. 10) This is explicitly shown when after the armor is removed and Rago isn't having his aura weakened, he easily oneshots a large mononoke on accident, intending only to stop his attack:
(Ch. 10) Just earlier in the fight when Jiro was wearing his armor, Rago's attack was stopped and overpowered by the same mononoke:
(Ch. 13) Jiro is hit in the face by Takeru Inui, is able to keep himself very nearly rooted to the ground, and then recover immediately. Takeru even doubts that Jiro felt his attack:
(Ch. 15) Jiro's gear is able to protect him from Monjumaru's strike that was meant to cut him in half and still sent him flying dozens of feet onto a lake:
(Ch. 18) Jiro uses his suit's camo mode to sneak up in front of Amagi and punch him in the face:
Well well. Having recently finished Black Torch it’s nice to see it get some love. Good work Vivas!