Shakugan no Shana I is the first volume of Ayato Sasakura's manga adaptation of the Shakugan no Shana series.
Publisher's Summary
Japanese
Viz Media
Saving the World Is Easier Than Falling In Love
Yūji Sakai is beginning what he thinks will be another boring year of school. But everything changes when the world around him stops, the surrounding people are engulfed in blue flames and a freakish doll-like creature begins sucking them up! Before Yūji suffers the same fate, a young redheaded girl with a sword appears and saves him. Yūji is drawn into the struggle between these creatures from another world: the Crimson Denizens and the girl Shana, called Flame Haze. He too has a crucial role to play in the conflict, despite the fact that...he's dead!
Chapters
Prologue
A narrator describes the world as being overrun by Denizens from the Crimson Realm. They say that the Denizens take the "Power of Existence" from humans to fuel their own powers, with the humans who have had their existence taken being wiped out from existence and slowly distorting the world. They describe the Crimson Lords, powerful Denizens who had begun to hunt down their brethren because of the distortion. They talk about the Flame Haze, the Crimson Lords' weapons of destruction, who were hunting the illusive Denizens.
Yūji Sakai walks down the shopping district of Misaki City before entering a book store. In the store he drops a book. He later leaves the store.
Characters in order of appearance:
- Yūji Sakai
- Merihim (narration only)
- Shana (unnamed, narration only)
- Margery Daw (narration only)
- Marchosias (narration only)
- Wilhelmina Carmel (narration only)
- Mathilde Saint-Omer (narration only)
- Sophie Sawallisch (narration only)
- Takemikazuchi (narration only)
- Karl Berwald (narration only)
- Khamsin Nbh'w (narration only)
- Domino (narration only)
- Dantalion (narration only)
- Orgon (narration only)
- Tiriel (narration only)
- Sorath (narration only)
- Vine (narration only)
- Marianne (narration only)
- Friagne (narration only)
Episode 1: The Deviant World I
The cover of Episode 1: The Deviant World I
Outside the store, Yūji sees a huge monster resembling a baby, who was eating the flames that were coming out of the frozen people around him. The baby, as well as its companion, a floating sphere of heads, notice Yūji, who is still able to move after everyone else was frozen. The heads call him a Mystes and become motivated to take him to their master. The baby grabs Yūji and is about to eat him when he is saved by a flaming-haired young girl with a sword, who cuts off the baby's arm.
The girl calls her pendant Alastor and it tells her that the two monsters are Rinne. The enraged baby Rinne attacks, but the girl counters with her sword. As the baby lies motionless on its side, it notices that the girl has flaming-hair and burning-eyes. Yūji watches as the girl walks up to the baby and kills it. He thanks her, but receives a cold glare from the girl. Alastor also refers to Yūji as a Mystes, saying that there is something inside him, before the girl saves Yūji from the heads. As the girl walks away, Yūji grabs her coat, receiving another cold glare. She hits his hand away before saving him again, this time from a lady Rinne. The girl puts her sword to the lady's face, saying she is disappointed to defeat her so easily. The lady responds by calling her Alastor's Flame Haze and a Tool of Destruction. The girl is about to kill the lady when Yūji protects her, only to have her reach inside him. The girl slashes through Yūji's body to attack the lady and watches as a doll floats out of her. The head Rinne attacks the girl and she kills it, but not fast enough to stop the doll from escaping.
The girl then yells at Yūji for screaming, with Alastor saying that he would have died from his sword wound if he was human. Yūji stops screaming when he notices that he can't feel any pain. The girl then leans close to his face and pushes his split shoulder back onto his body. Yūji then sees a flame-like light inside himself. The girl puts her sword away and creates the people that were eaten by the Rinne, with flames like Yūji's. She uses some of them to fix the distortion on the street caused by the fight. As the people around him begin to move again, Yūji wonders why they didn't notice what happened to them or their flames. He asks the girl, who now has black hair, but she twists his hand. She asks if she should erase him, but Alastor advises against it because of an incident with Tenmoku Ikko. He advises that they should tell him the truth. Yūji notices that they refer to him as a thing, causing the girl to say that he isn't a human.
Characters in order of appearance:
- Big Baby Rinne
- Yūji Sakai
- Multiple-Headed Rinne
- Shana (unnamed)
- Alastor
- Lady Rinne
- Marianne
Episode 2: The Deviant World II
Yūji wakes up in his room, wishing that yesterday was just a dream, before looking down and seeing the flame in his body. He remembers what the girl had told him yesterday; that he was the remnants of the real Yūji Sakai.
Yesterday, the girl tells Yūji that he will burn up and vanish because he is a Torch. She explains that Torches are replacements to maintain the connections between the original person and others. The girl then leaves the disbelieving Yūji.
Back in the present, Yūji hears his mother calling him, making him realize that he is late for school. While eating breakfast with his mother, he looks at her chest and is glad to find that she doesn't have a flame. He thinks that his slow disappearance as a Torch would be better for his parents than suddenly ceasing to exist. Yūji's mother wakes him from his daydream and he heads off to school feeling sad after talking to her. While walking to school, he sees a boy Torch disappear without his friends noticing, making Yūji wonder if he will disappear like that.
Yūji enters his classroom and wonders where Hayato is, before talking to his friends Keisaku and Eita. Yūji sits in his seat and starts to ask Yukari, the girl next to him, about their upcoming Japanese history test, before stopping when he sees the girl from yesterday in Yukari's seat.
Characters in order of appearance:
- Yūji Sakai
- Shana (unnamed, flashback only)
- Chigusa Sakai
- Kantarō Sakai (Yūji's thoughts only)
- Hayato Ike (mentioned only)
- Keisaku Satō
- Eita Tanaka
- Yukari Hirai (mentioned only)
Episode 3: The Sunset I
Yūji is in shock after seeing the girl in Yukari's seat, causing her to explain that she is staying near to capture the people that are after him. When Yūji asks why Yukari isn't sitting there, the girl explains that Yukari was a Torch and that she forced her existence into the Torch's. Yūji shouts that Yukari and the girl don't look alike, but no one else in the classroom notices. Yūji understands what the girl is saying, but doesn't want to accept that the girl is the new Yukari. Yūji barely remembers the real Yukari, but concludes that his knowledge of her is the only proof that she existed. He asks the girl her name and she responds that she is referred to as "the Flame Haze of the Nietono no Shana", making Yūji decide to call her "Shana". He asks if she will be alright as a high school student, which she think won't be so hard.
As the teacher scribbles notes on the board, the whole class is silent because Shana is staring hard at the teacher's back. Yūji claims that this had been going on for four hours, with this chain finally broken when the frightened teacher turns around to confront Shana. She tells him that he made mistakes in his fill-in-the-blank questions on the board and that he is only reading from his manual. She tells him that he has no academic skills, incompetent, and that he should "do his homework", causing the class to fall silent and the man to seemly faint.
After class, Keisaku and Eita notice Yūji ask Shana out to eat and are shocked when she says yes. On an outside bench, Yūji watches as Shana eats melonpan and tries to asks why she had to go that far with the teachers but gives up. He then asks if Alastor's pendant is a communicator, with the Crimson Lord explaining that it is his Vessel. Shana tells Yūji that she used to be human, but doesn't tell him why she wanted to became a Flame Haze. Yūji then asks about the Crimson Realm.
Characters in order of appearance:
- Yūji Sakai
- Shana (named)
- Alastor
- Yukari Hirai (Yūji's thoughts only)
- Lady Rinne (Yūji's thoughts only)
- Matake Ogata (cameo)
- Mr. Okada
- Eita Tanaka
- Keisaku Satō
Cultural References:
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Shana refers to a question on the board with the line: "That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet".
- Shana eats melonpan, Japanese sweet bakery products.
Episode 4: The Sunset II
Shana and Alastor explain to Yūji that the Crimson Realm is next to the human world and that the Crimson Denizens that inhabit it manifest by controlling Power of Existence and can affect natural phenomena. Shana states that Denizens need Power of Existence to survive, which is why they attack humans like when Yūji was at the book store. She says that the Denizens hunting can lead to the distortion of the world, which is why the Flame Haze fight them. Alastor tells Yūji that it is he Denizens' duty to put a stop to their own kind if they are doing wicked deeds. Shana concludes that they will stay with Yūji until he burns out or she exterminates all of the Denizens who are after him.
Behind the nearby bushes, Keisaku and Eita watch Yūji and Shana on the bench, thinking that they are having lunch together and are on a date. Hayato notices them and asks what they are doing, notifying Shana of their presence. She activates a Fuzetsu before rushing to the bushes, only to find out that what she heard was just Yūji's friends. To make sure that Yūji's friends didn't hear their previous location, Shana and Alastor decide to change locations.
While walking through the school, Yūji asks about the Fuzetsu and Shana tells him that it severs the area from the surrounding world to create a cause-and-effect isolation space. Yūji asks why he can move in it while other Torches can't, prompting the answer that he is a Mystes, a Torch with a Treasure Tool inside it. Shana releases the Fuzetsu and Yūji asks if it would alert the enemy. To Yūji's shock, Shana says that she used it intentionally to lure them to their location; the school. He asks if she will protect not just him but everyone, walking away when he realizes that she won't.
Yūji walks, wondering if that is Shana's personality when he encounters Keisaku, Eita and Hayato. They asks why he was eating lunch with Yukari (referring to Shana), but Yūji knows he can't tell them the "truth". They shout at him to tell them what moves he pulled on Yukari.
Elsewhere, in a department store building, a man in a white tuxedo floats among a pile of toys, holding the doll that attacked Yūji the day before. The doll notices the Fuzetsu that Shana released, with the man taking it as an open challenge to him. He looks forward to the "hunting".
Characters in order of appearance:
- Yūji Sakai
- Shana
- Alastor
- Big Baby Rinne (Yūji's thoughts only)
- Eita Tanaka
- Keisaku Satō
- Hayato Ike
- Friagne
- Marianne
Episode 5: The Sunset III
In class, a girl watches Yūji and Yukari (referring to Shana), wondering if they were that close before. She thinks that they are going out. She becomes determined and goes up to Yūji, albeit when a Fuzetsu is activated.
Shana gets ready for battle, causing Yūji to stare at her, before he asks why they must fight in the school. After Shana tells him that the enemy chose the fight location, Yūji begins to move one of his classmates outside. When he returns to the classroom, Shana is confronted by a large playing card. The card transforms into a whole deck, which surrounds Shana and Yūji. The cards fly at Yūji, but Shana destroys most of them with her flames and blocks the rest with her cloak, stabbing the doll in the chest while doing so. The doll creates an explosion which damages the entire classroom and creates an electrical field around Shana. As the doll transforms into multiple dolls and then an enormous one while attached to the Nietono no Shana, Yūji notices the girl that had tried to approach him before, who was now frozen and had severe cuts to her head. Yūji blames himself as he asks her if she is okay, while the real doll goes for Yūji. Shana leaps and throws the large doll, still attached to her sword onto the real doll, stopping her attack. Shana asks the immobilized doll the name of her master, when he appears. Yūji can tell that he is a Crimson Denizen.
Characters in order of appearance:
Episode 6: The Rainy Night I
The doll's master introduces himself to Shana as Friagne, who Alastor says is the Flame Haze killer known as "the Hunter". Friagne has heard of Alastor as well, but claims that "her radiance is overdone". Alastor tells Shana that Friagne is a powerful Crimson Lord. Friagne screams when he sees his battered doll. He collects his damaged Regular Sharp, the playing cards, before holding the doll in his arms and calling it "Marianne" while talking to it. Yūji wonders how Friagne retrieved Marianne off the floor so fast, watching as he heals the doll with a breath. He tells Shana that her fighting style is undeveloped and that she can barely summon her inner flame through her sword. He claims that he staged their rematch from the other day to confirm his suspicions about Shana's powers. Friagne tells Shana that she is limited and is not using Alastor's powers, agitating her. Friagne states that he doesn't want to damage the Mystes and will arrange to meet with them again, before leaving, taking a look a Yūji and wondering what's inside him while doing so.
After Friagne leaves, Alastor tells Yūji that Friagne is far stronger than an average Denizen and that he is an enemy to all Flame Haze. He is told to not judge by appearances when he comments on Friagne's looks. Shana tells Yūji that she will use the girl he is still holding, Kazumi, to clean up the building. Yūji objects and Shana explains that there are no Torches around and that Kazumi is near death and so should be used. Yūji screams that he doesn't want her to die, causing Shana to state that he could choose someone else and that everyone will die if she releases the Fuzetsu without fixing the distortion. Shana asks if he will choose himself to fix the damage and explains that he will lose the time his has remaining, but is surprised when he immediately agrees. Yūji tells her that he isn't abandoning his existence, but is making use of it.
On the roof of the Sakai residence, Shana sits in the rain with an umbrella and complains about Yūji, remembering his smile as Shana fixed the distortion in the school. She says that Yūji is strange and detestable when Alastor asks why she is letting Yūji affect her so much. They conclude that Yūji will eventually fade away, before Yūji himself arrives, climbing up the roof with a ladder.
Characters in order of appearance:
Cultural references:
- In the Viz Media translation, Yūji states that Friagne resembles Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
Episode 7: The Rainy Night II
Yūji feels awkward that Shana is on her roof. Shana says that what she does is none of his business before asking how he knew she and Alastor were on his roof. Yūji explains that he felt a smaller version of the Fuzetsu, which Alastor confirms as a possibility. He asks why Shana is not with Yukari's parents and she explains that they are already Torches. Shana states to Yūji that she and Alastor are busy and that he should go away, despite only sitting down. To Shana's anger Yūji laughs. Yūji moves up the roof towards Shana as Alastor reinstates that what they do isn't his business. Yūji says he has something to ask Shana and offers her a cup of coffee. He asks if she and Alastor would remember him, unlike everyone else, with Alastor answering that they will. Shana states that Yūji will still disappear, but he is glad that she and Alastor will be watching over him. Shana sips the coffee but begins to cry because of the bitter taste, scaring Yūji. He exclaims that he already put two sticks of sugar in and rustles his bag looking for more. Shana snatches them off of him and outs all of them into the coffee. Yūji asks if she will be on his roof all night and she says yes before asking for a spoon. He asks her to come inside his house which she agrees to, but threatens to knock his block off if he tries anything weird. Yūji jokes that Shana isn't his type of girl, getting the coffee cup thrown at the back of his head.
In Yūji's room, he protests to Shana's idea of sleeping in the same room. Shana puts Alastor under Yūji's pillow and is getting ready to change, with Alastor warning Yūji that he should hide. Shana states that she will slash his butt if he peeks at her changing. Yūji begins to enter his closet and gets his alarm clock thrown at his head when he remarks that Shana doesn't have a pin-up figure. As Shana changes, Yūji asks if she has anything to wear in bed. She says that she only has underwear and that Alastor purifies her body, causing no need to change clothes unless she wishes to. Yūji offers the sweat suit in his dresser. Yūji hears Shana changing and begins to imagine the act, before bumping a pile of books. One book drops on his foot, causing him to fly back through the closet door. He sees Shana changing. She becomes enraged, activates her powers, and brings out the Nietono no Shana before hitting Yūji.
The next morning, Yūji wakes up with a sore neck and is scared when he sees the Nietono no Shana lying against the wall. He remarks that Shana won;t heal him next time, which Alastor agrees to. He watches Shana sleep and wonders if she went easy on him before trying to wake her to go to school. She wakes but hides under the covers after seeing Yūji. She and Alastor notice something about Yūji, and as he leaves to get ready for school, Alastor states that it is the Reiji Maigo.
Characters in order of appearance:
Trivia
- The contents page for both the Japanese and English versions of the volume mistakenly show the second chapter beginning on page 51, when it really began on page 47.
Gallery
