For much of Love of Kill volume 11, I was yelling, “Let’s get on with it!!” in my head. The book looks shorter than its 160-ish pages, and the main story ends around page 135. Again, that’s in the realm of normal, but time is (pages are?) a-tickin’ when you know there’s a Ryang-Ha backstory coming and Chateau believes he’s too stubborn to die.
She hasn’t known where he’s been hiding (at an old woman’s restaurant), but she has received a report about his death and a blurry photo of his supposed body. Chateau doesn’t believe it’s him, but she is restless until she is able to go to see for herself. You could argue Chateau was trying to hide her worry, but I personally would have liked to see her go straight into investigative mode with the determination she displays here.
Fe admits she broke her self-imposed rule about no Ryang-Ha monologues, and this is a rare moment when we see the assassin with his emotional guard down. It’s always been known he approached Chateau to mess with her a bit (“mere curiosity” in his own words, although I also thought he viewed it a bit like a science experiment), but this chapter truly hammers down how far his feelings have come.
But the tone and tempo strongly indicate the manga is heading toward a flashback. Chateau has already had her past resolved, and now it’s Ryang-Ha’s turn. However, between his scenes with his captor and Chateau’s search for Ryang-Ha, it takes longer than I would have liked to get the party started. And so far, there hasn’t been much revealed that is intriguing or surprising. We already know Ryang-Ha has physically and emotionally struggled and got involved in some shady organizations. That’s basically all we see here: him relying on the true Ryang-Ha’s memory as he fights to survive and ends up connecting with the Triad. I would think the manga will dive deeper into his kidnapper’s grudge against Ryang-Ha, but I’m also skeptical there is more to the story besides jealousy and/or ambition.
With Chateau searching for Ryang-Ha as the latter is chained up for most of the book, Love of Kill has limited opportunities for some of Fe’s Hollywood-style action productions. Volume 11 isn’t devoid of them, but they lack the thrill in other volumes. After all, Chateau must first affirm Ryang-Ha is alive and wants to find him, and Ryang-Ha can’t bust out this early. The coolest sequence takes place at a high-class bar in File 65, but it ends too soon.
In fact, Fe mentions she had a lot of difficulty with this chapter and couldn’t include all her ideas. When she wrote her comments, File 65 didn’t even have a title yet. Plus, the Chateau pallor in-betweens didn’t end up making it into this volume. I get the sense perhaps Fe was under a lot of pressure around this time, and she couldn’t organize well how to segue from Ryang-Ha’s hiding out to a flashback to his and Chateau’s presumed reunion. I wish her editor had advised her to cut down on some of Chateau’s scenes for more of Ryang-Ha, which would allow the flashback to start earlier.