Until Death Do Us Part (Japanese: 死がふたりを分かつまで, Hepburn: Shi ga Futari o Wakatsu made) is a Japanese manga series written by Hiroshi Takashige and illustrated by Double-S. Until Death Do Us Part began its serialization on Young Gangan's December 2005 issue and ran until November 20, 2015. The story centers around a young girl with strong precognitive abilities. Due to these abilities, she is held hostage by a Yakuza group looking to make a profit off of them. However, knowing what was to come, she spots a blind swordsman in the crowd and immediately recognizes him as her only way out. She hires him to protect her "until death do us part", and thus begins a long road of action-packed confrontations to keep the young girl safe and her abilities out of the hands of those who would exploit them.
Contents
Plot
Haruka Tōyama, a young girl, is kidnapped by agents of a company named Ex-Solid due to her precognition abilities. She quickly finds sanctuary with a man named Hijikata Mamoru, a blind swordsman, Koryu swordsmanship master and also an ex-kendoka, and convict who is proficient in the use of a katana, and desperately runs him down in the street. Upon meeting, Haruka told Hijikata to protect her "Until Death Do Us Part." Confirming the terms of the contract, Mamoru quickly dispatches the pursuers on her tail and took her in for protection.
Soon it becomes apparent, however, that nearly the entire underground is targeting Haruka. It is then up to Mamoru, and his partner Igawa, to provide consistent and unending protection for Haruka. Needing a bit more help, contact is made with their parent company, a secret and elite vigilante paramilitary group called the Element Network. Many different members of the Network get involved in protecting Haruka and placing her under EN protection from unknown forces who seek her ability. In turn, Haruka assists EN forces in defeating mercenaries and assassins who are out to get her and the network.
Characters
Blade
Mamoru Hijikata (土方 護, Hijikata Mamoru)
The protagonist. Despite how he is almost blind, he is a kenjutsu master. That use many koryu school sword style. not only mugai ryu as his main sword style, but also itto ryu (whom he killed his teacher, makabe), nen ryu, shinkage ryu. To compensate for his vision, he uses glasses that project a wire-frame model of his surroundings onto his retinas. He mainly fights with a katana hidden inside his walking stick.
Haruka Tōyama (遠山 遥, Tōyama Haruka)
The female lead, who is 12 years old at the start of the series. She uses the fake identity "Haruna Tachibana", posing as Sierra's daughter.
Ryōtarō Igawa (井川 良太郎, Igawa Ryōtarō)
Mamoru's teammate, and deals with the technical aspects of Blade's operations.
Dai Ibuki (伊吹 大, Ibuki Dai)
A newly assigned Blade member.
The Wall
Alpha (アルファ, Arufa)
The leader of the Element Network's international anti-crime unit, The Wall. His real name is Jack Garvey (ジャック・ガービー, Jakku Gābī).
India (インディア, India)
An ex-Marine who joins The Wall after losing his child to a terrorist.
Juliet (ジュリエット, Jurietto)
Specializes in infiltration, and looks after Haruka in Sierra's absence.
Kilo (キロ, Kiro)
Specializes in covert ops, using knives, and is Sierra's ex-husband.
Sierra (シエラ, Shiera)
The mother of Cindy and ex-wife of Kilo, and a member of The Wall. Her real name is Serena (セリーナ, Serīna).
Others
Teppei Genda (源田鉄平, Genda Teppei)
A detective assigned to solving the attacks Mamoru caused when protecting Haruka.
Inaba Tesshuu (稲葉, Inaba)
Mamoru's kendo teacher.
Makabe (真壁, Makabe)
Mamoru's itto-ryu swordsmanship teacher, a sword lunatic that trapped Mamoru to end his life in a sword fight to the death.
Tatsumi Daiba (台場 巽, Daiba Tatsumi)
The wealthy manager of Element Network, famous for having created the search engine MENTOR. He also appears in Takashige's Alcbane.
Aegis (イージス, Aegis)
Called "The Praetorian": the strongest underground bodyguard, capable of deflecting any bullet. He also appears in Aegis in the Dark.
Senji Tamagawa (玉川 千冶, Tamagawa Senji)
A swordsman and a member of the Yakuza in Kakuhōkai.
Pyro (パイロ, Pairo)
A man who is ordered by Daiba to support Haruka from behind the scenes.
Anna Riddle (アナ・リドル, Ana Ridoru)
The broker of "Aegis", and only provides service to clients who can answer her riddles. She also appears in Aegis in the Dark.
Jesus (ジーザス, Jīzasu)
An underground hitman who seeks his kidnapped pupil. He also appears in Jesus.
Antagonists
Zashid Turus
He is the substantial controller “hero” of Galboa and Duhana though also the backbone to the country's black ops. A person whose alas is called “Mr. Dark Side” in the underworld and Gene's real father (chapter 156).
For generations, his ancestors have been a freak family that's been testing tons of possibilities. Brought into existence from various lineages of beings of superior physical strength, intelligence, and speed, and the result is Zashid Turus (chapter 176). Since he is the pinnacle of superhuman, he plans to clone himself (chapter 179) and add Haruka's clairvoyance into the mix (chapter 180).
Other than his four likely successors (Edge, Taos, Gido, and Misalt), Gene and Fen, he has many children who don't fight or are women. There are rumors that he has over 100 children (chapter 176).
Zashid, after being severely wounded by Mamoru, requests Haruka to look after Galboa and Duhana (chapter 213). He agrees to all her conditions and grants her full authority, with Gene as his successor.
Edge Turus (エジー・トゥルス, Ejī Turusu)
He is the Galboa ambassador to Japan. He had plans to kidnap Haruka due to her precognitive abilities as well as the EX-SOLID biochip. Since then, he has been obsessed over kidnapping Haruka. He was disabled by Mamoru when he sliced his right arm after Alpha led 'The Wall' commandos to storm a freighter he used to meet with Mamoru (chapter 22). Later on, Mamoru cut off his left arm (chapter 74). After the incident, Komura took over Edge's position. He currently hospitalized (chapter 100 and after). Gene gave him the prosthetic arm that was stolen (chapter 100).
With artificial left arm and right leg and what supposed to be Aegis's new right arm, Edge is able to fight Aegis and Genda while standing up (chapter 151) but was ultimately defeated and captured (chapter 153). Mamoru uses the captured Edge to start an internal dispute within Duhana and against Zashid for what Edge did to Haruka (chapter 176). He is “rescued” by Gido in chapter 197 where Edge got new limbs in Dante 313 (chapter 199, chapter 206) though the limbs were imperfect, as seen in chapter 214.
Publication
Until Death Do Us Part has been published in Japan with 24 volumes by Square Enix after it was initially serialized on Young Gangan's December 2005 issue. In France and other French-speaking countries and territories, it is being published by Editions Ki-oon under the title Jusqu'à ce que la mort nous sépare with its 1st volume published on March 27, 2008. In South Korea, it is published under Haksan. It is published in Taiwan under Tong Li. It is published in Hong Kong by Jade Dynasty. It is published in Indonesia by Elex Media. It is published in Italy by J-Pop. It has been licensed for English language release by Yen Press, who released the series in a 2-in-1 omnibus format.