Ginnosuke's Arrival and First Encounter

Lore & Background

Sakamoto was once the most feared name in the assassin world, a figure whose mere reputation could end careers. He chose to walk away from that life entirely, shedding his identity, his physique, and his purpose in exchange for fluorescent lighting, stock counts, and the soft hum of a refrigerated drink case. His convenience store is not just a job; it is a deliberate monument to the life he decided to build instead. Every shelf he restocks is a small act of renunciation.

Ginnosuke's arrival upends that carefully maintained stillness. The boy is young, bright, and carries his own grief and uncertainty into the store. For Sakamoto, the boy is not a mission or a target—he is a reason to stay soft, to stay human, to keep the retired-assassin identity buried under aprons and customer service smiles. The first real threat they face together forces Sakamoto to remember what his hands used to do, and the contrast between his current waddling, out-of-breath self and the lethal precision that flashes through him is the arc's most striking image.

The arc also plants seeds for the wider world of Sakamoto Days: the assassin community still exists, still operates, and still remembers the name Sakamoto. The convenience store is not a retirement home; it is a hiding place, and the people who come looking for the old killer do not care that he now argues with a vending machine about its settings.

In Their Own Story

The evening shift was almost peaceful. Sakamoto hummed a tuneless melody while restocking the onigiri shelf, his apron stained with a smear of soy sauce he'd never quite scrub out. The store's little bell chimed, and there he was—Ginnosuke, backpack too big for his shoulders, eyes scanning the ceiling tiles like he was memorizing escape routes. He set a duffel bag by the register and said, very quietly, 'I'm here to stay.' Sakamoto's hand paused on a package of rice crackers. He did not turn around. He did not need to. He simply nodded, once, and went back to arranging the shelves in tidy little rows. Outside, the streetlights flickered on one by one. Somewhere down the block, a car idled with its engine off, and a pair of eyes watched the lit window of the convenience store, waiting for a name to be spoken. Sakamoto heard none of it. He was already pulling a warm milk carton from the back and setting it on the counter for the boy, who was already pulling out a chair and sitting down like it was the most natural thing in the world. The bell chimed again. This time, the person who walked in was not here for rice crackers.

Reader's Guide

The central conflict of this arc is the collision between Sakamoto's chosen peaceful life and the violent world that refuses to let him forget who he was. Ginnosuke's arrival makes Sakamoto vulnerable in a way that no professional rivalry ever did: he now has something to lose that is not a contract or a reputation. The first assassination attempt or direct threat forces him to react, and his reaction—brief, brutal, and almost involuntary—confirms to both him and the reader that retirement is a performance, not a cure.

The arc spans the opening stretch of the manga, covering roughly the first several chapters of serialization. Pivotal turning points include Ginnosuke physically arriving at the store and declaring he will stay, the first external threat that tests Sakamoto's defenses, and the moment Sakamoto's old combat instincts visibly override his current physical limitations.

This arc sets up the larger story threads that carry through the series: the ongoing threat from the assassin community, the question of how long Sakamoto can keep his son safe, and the slow unraveling of the networks and relationships from his past. It also establishes the series' signature rhythm—domestic comedy punctuated by sudden violence—and the emotional promise that Sakamoto's love for Ginnosuke is the one variable no amount of training or old skill can replicate.

Did You Know?

• Sakamoto's convenience store is not a random setting choice; it functions as both a literal workplace and a symbolic 'retirement' from the assassin world, grounding the series' action in an oddly mundane environment.
• The contrast between Sakamoto's current out-of-shape, waddling physique and his flashes of lethal precision is a recurring visual gag and action set-piece throughout the series, first established in this early arc.
• Ginnosuke's presence transforms Sakamoto's motivation from self-preservation to something far more personal, shifting the series' stakes from professional rivalry to parental protection from the very first pages.
• The convenience-store setting gives the manga a distinctive visual identity—fluorescent lighting, product shelves, and aprons—that contrasts sharply with the dark, high-stakes assassin world it keeps referencing.