A withdrawn student gains the ability to draw weapons from other people and becomes entangled with a resistance movement in a Japan governed by an outside authority.
Meeting the singer Inori brings Shu into contact with Funeral Parlor and a conflict that ordinary school life has kept at a distance. His new power makes personal relationships materially useful in battle, giving the language of using a friend as a weapon a literal form. The resulting action is bound to questions about authority and the demands placed on others.
Shu’s startled face is a counterweight to the commanding pose in the identification artwork. Acquiring an ability does not supply the confidence or judgement to use it. The story places that inexperienced teenager among people already committed to a political struggle. Its central device makes relationships part of the machinery of combat, rather than leaving them as a separate refuge from it.
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