WARNING: This book covers topics such as sexual assault, forced sex work and stalking, which some readers may find disturbing.

In the previous collection of Fable, I mentioned my curiosity about the future development of the storyline covered. At the conclusion of the last installment, the protagonist hitman known as The Fable, or Akira Sato, has embarked on survival training in the woods with a potential apprentice. Meanwhile, Yoko, who pretends to be Akira’s sister, is in a bar engaging in conversation with a man, with both of them progressively becoming more intoxicated.

Actually, all of this is sorted out in the first two chapters: Yoko out-drinks the guy, who ends up producing some “brown sauce” in his trousers; then she picks up the two campers, and the biggest misadventure they have at the end being the protégé getting his nose stung by a bee. Why these two chapters could not have been added at the end of the fourth omnibus, I’m  not sure, as it would have made more sense, as what happens throughout the rest of this fifth collection makes for more gripping reading.

The main focus of this collection is an organisation called the Taihei Detective Agency, run by a man calling himself Rei Utsubo. In fact, the agency is front for his various criminal activities, which including blackmailing people, especially helicopter parents, as well as kidnapping and murdering. If that hasn’t given you enough of a hint of how much a villain he is, in a later chat he also casually reveals that he once rang a paedophile sex ring.

Among the other members of Utsubo’s group is a woman called Hina, who’s confined to a wheelchair and whom Utsubo mainly uses for sex, as well as other roles in his crimes. We come to discover that the reason why Hina is in a wheelchair is due to a car crash, in which she was the passenger. The driver of the car was one of Fable/Akira’s targets, and she witnessed the killing. Meanwhile, another member of the group comes across someone for the agency to target. It just so happens that the target is Etsuji, one of Fable/Akira’s co-workers at the design company he works for, who has been stalking fellow co-worker Misaki, whom Fable/Akira previously rescued from another crime. It is not long before Fable/Akira himself is caught up in everything.

As mentioned in previous reviews of The Fable, the series frequently swings from drama and thrilling action to material that is more comic. In this collection, it’s very much stuck in the more dramatic side of things. The introduction of the Taihei Detective Agency makes for a great addition to the story, with an interesting bunch of characters to deal with, ranging from the morally reprehensible Utsubo, who will happily do anything to get money, to Hina, an unwilling victim of circumstance.

It is also enjoyable seeing how this gang work their way into the wider world of the story, with a stroke of bad luck for Etsuji resulting in him becoming a target for the gang. It is intriguing, mainly because Etsuji is himself a vile character because of his stalking of Misaki, placing hidden cameras in her flat, and only being caught out by the agency when he drops a stun gun he plans to use on Misaki for his own perverted ends. It’s bad guys targeting other bad guys. You are not rooting for either group. You just want to know how Fable/Akira is going to becoming involved. At the end of the collection, he does get involved in the most dramatic way, but that is for you to find out at your leisure.

Unlike last time, this review copy of the manga contained no errors (the previous edition I was given accidentally duplicated several pages). Once more, the translation from Adam Hirsch and the lettering from Arbash Mughal are all good. There is a small translation note section (by which I mean “note”, singular) as well as some good colour pages too.

Giving the conclusion of this collection, you can expect the continuation of the series to contain even more thrills and danger.

Our review copy from Kodansha was provided by Diamond Book Distributors.