"2nd Up to Bat" is the second chapter in volume 1 of the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens manga.
Synopsis[]
A nervous Kazuki Saitoh arrives in Fukuoka, wondering how his life has led to this point.
His job now completed, Xianming Lin enthusiastically helps himself to the women's clothes in Takashi's apartment. After leaving, he receives a call from his boss, Zhang, who tasks him with killing a detective named Takeda. As he makes his way to Takeda's apartment, Lin looks at an old family photo he keeps on him and remembers life with his mother and little sister ten years prior, when he lived with them in China. They were a very poor family; his father had run off and left them with a lot of debt, and eventually Lin was sold to human traffickers for money, but with his debt nearly paid off, he promises to rejoin his family soon. When Lin reaches Takeda's apartment building, he learns that the detective is already dead.
In Kego Park, Detective Shigematsu meets up with his friend Zenji Banba during a speech by Mayor Harada. There, Shigematsu requests that Banba investigate the death of his colleague, Takeda. Upon seeing photos of the detective's body, Banba swiftly concludes it was not suicide, as officially ruled, but the work of a professional killer.
Shigematsu gives Banba a photo that had been sent to him by Takeda just prior to his death. The photo, depicting Mayor Harada with two unknown men and a woman, leads the pair to quickly deduce that the detective was killed for conducting an investigation into the mayor. Banba's interest turns to the woman in the photo, who is currently with the mayor in the park. In order to gauge her reaction, Banba pops a balloon to replicate the sound of a gunshot. His suspicions are confirmed when he sees her stance - she is certainly a killer hired by the mayor.
The woman, Reiko Asakura, later meets up with her colleagues Ryuuji Munakata, Hisashi Ivanov, and Shinohara. Ivanov reports that he has successfully taken care of the troublesome detective, Takeda, and made his death look like suicide.
Character Debuts[]
- Zhang
- Takeda (mention only)
- Qiaomei Lin (flashback)
- Shoutarou Harada
- Reiko Asakura
- Hironobu Shigematsu
- Zenji Banba
- Ryuuji Munakata
- Hisashi Ivanov
- Shinohara