Volume 15 Summary





Retribution Arc: Lost Children



We pick up here, where Gatts is facing the elf-girl, after Gatts had killed many of her smaller 'elves', as they were attacking Jill's village. The elf-like girl looks like a small girl, around Jills age, but with butterfly wings, a green hue, bug-like eyes, and strange antennae. She tells Gatts: "My, arent you strong for a Human...". Gatts replies with "You Must be the Queen Bee." The elf-girl insists that she is an ELF, not a BEE. Obviously a small skirmish must ensue.Elf-girl flies up, and then quickly descends, but Gatts did not expect her antennae to be used as a weapon. She uses them like a lance, and spears Gatts arm.



Pakk tells Gatts to hold off for a minute, but Gatts seems intent on fighting more, until Pakk mentions that the elves that are flying around arent REAL ELVES. They are acting like Children. Jill is taken aback by this. The elf-girl shouts out: "Dont you DARE call us children! We are Pirkaf! Not Children!"..."Pirkaf...?" Jill says, she seems to know something about this "Pirkaf." But thats for later...Elf-girl says "The pirkaf will punish ALL Humans!" And then she begins to attack more, but just before elf-girl is about to spear Gatts again, Jill runs out in front of her and yells out "Stop, ROSHINU!" The Elf-girl is taken aback by these words. Jill says it again: "Roshinu!! You're Roshinu arent you?" Roshinu then says" ....Jill." It appears as if these two characters know each other...Roshinu then flies away, leaving Pakk, Jill and Gatts behind.



Gatts is struggling to get up, apparently there was venom-like dust on Roshinu's wings.



A man approaches them, yelling about his Barn, and how Gatts blew it up ( i swear, Miura's the man and all, but he creates some DAMNED STUPID towns-people...If you're in Berserk, and live in a town, you simply MUST be an ignorant moron who lives only to rape small children and drink beer all day..) Then a mother approaches and yells " How could you use my Thomas as a lure to those THINGS?!" ( Thomas was the boy that Gatts used on the end of his sword to lure the elves into the barn, before he blew it up, Thomas is just fine, other than being a little scared. )



Gatts starts laughing at the towns-people. They see nothing funny about the situation and question him " What so funny about this!?" Gatts replies "You people make me laugh...Where the hell were all of you when thsi kid came running outside ? Huh? Who left the door unlocked?" The man who owns the barn, and Thomas's mother are angry...but the leader asks gatts: "At any rate....wont you hand over those children now?" Gatts begins to comply but all of a sudden, the Barn behind him collapses in the flames, and now it is filled with dead childrens bodies, all scorched and blackened. The Towns-people errupt in fury and fright.



Gatts says : "Feh...in death, they must revert their form..."



Gatts realises this must look really bad for him. So he grabs Jill, and puts a knife to her throat, taking her hostage "Change of plans...step aside." The towns-people part for Gatts, but they are obviously outraged at him. Pakk freaks out as well " I thought i KNEW YOU pretty well!!! But this time youve crossed the line!" The towns-people see Pakk, and yell out "An elf!! He must be in league with the elves!"



A villager attempts to attack Gatts, and as he runs towards them, Gatts tightens his hold on Jill with his knife, cutting her just a small bit, but enough to make blood come out. Then Gatts says something about how itd be insane to try to take him on in the mans condition...and the villager stops his attack..



Gatts escapes the village, and tells Jill to get lost. Pakk responds with " Thats it? Youre just going to leave her!? You cut her with your knife! Blood came out! BLOOD!" Gatts responds with " And then it stopped, shes fine now. Sorry, but seeya later..." Jill tells gatts "You're headed to Misty Valley arent you? To see that elf-girl...She might be a friend of mine, from a long time ago..." Gatts responds: "And...so what? You shouldnt follow me, Im headed to kill your friend. Why would you want to follow me to that. This isnt some childs game...You should go back home.”



Jill looks after Gatts as he leaves, and thinks to herself: “Am I supposed to Just start over again?...Dont go...Dont leave me here...But...I suppose this is normal for me...Nothing ever changes for me, Nothing ever happens..Not until now...I guess...”



Pakk chases after Gatts and screams at him: “ What the heck is your deal?! You can hurt a small girl llike that, being as blunt as you are!! Is that how you repay her for the food and shelter she gave you? Its just W-R-O-N-G!” Gatts tells Pakk: “I was a little edgy after all that. So i spoke a little sharply, so what? I dont remember making you my pet...and you’re attracting too much attention from the towns-people anyway...”



Pakk: “ Oh come on, dont act like that..Im not your PET! Without me around this story would get too dark! ( Our livelihood depends on this manga! ) [yes, thats what he says !] Gatts:” I should have said this before we fought the elves back there, but Ive been having this growing urge to crush you to a pulp...”



Gatts then throws Pakk away into the field,and walks away. Pakk mumbles about being mad, and then he is approached by someone...



Gatts makes camp, as night is coming. He realises that poison is spreading through his body, as he is coughing blood up. “Not enough blood in me...” Gatts says, and so... He catches a snake, and cuts it in two. Then drinks the yummy blood down. After a bit of time, Gatts finds a Coca Plant and chews on it, because it has poison fighting abilities, apparently.



Gatts says “Looks like its going to be a looong night.” and as he drifts away into sleep, his brand begins to bleed...He awakens to the visage of his deformed demon baby in front of him, looming in his fire. Gatts yells out :” SO ITS YOU!!...Just TRY and take me with you!”



As we pan away from Gatts, we see Pakk running with his unkown someoone, who turns out to be Jill...she finally decided to travel into Misty Valley...



Gatts is surrounded by babies, all of which are on fire, and crying out for their mothers. They are the ghosts/souls of the babies that he had killed in the barn and in the village, when they were in their elf/insect form. The demon baby, who first appeared begins to emit a sound, and Gatts responds while swinging: "Is your whining supposed to protect those babies from me?" The baby dissapears when Gatts swings at it. Then Gatts begins to lay the smack down to the defenseless babies: "You want to attack me? After Ive only had a few hours nights sleep, all of which Ive been coughing up blood?! FINE!"



We pan away from Gatts, we see Pakk and Jill wandering around a field. Pakk is asking Jill what she intends to do. She might not be able to help her "queen bee" friend. And Pakk tells Jill that she might end up sorry that she ever tried to help Roshinu...Jill acknowledges this, but says that she got a response out of Roshinu when they saw her in the village...And then Pakk and Jill come across a large cliff, overlooking a valley. At the center of it, are flames, all gathered in a circle.



Gatts is slashing away at the babies, and he becomes lost in his rage. Whether or not its directed at them waking him up in the middle of the night, or the fact that his deformed-baby was here, is left unclear (sure...). Eventually, as he hacks his way into the babies, Jill and Pakk catch up with him, and Gatts nearly slices Jill in two, in his rage. he stops just inches away from her, and regains his sanity, and begins to frown again =).



Gatts begins to become overwhelmed by the sheer number or wailing babies, distracted by Jills appeareance here, and he realises that fighting here is pointless. He takes Jill in his arms, and jumps off a cliff....they fall...daylight breaks over the horizon, and the demons vanish ( or so we assume ). Jill ends up laying on top of Gatts ( he broke her fall =). Gatts tells Jill: "Get off...youre heavy." Jill says "!" and gets off Gatts. Gatts asks if Pakk is still around, and Pakk appears at the 'cleavage area' of Jills dress, looking like SD-Pakk normally does (onion-esque). Then Gatts asks Jill to sprinkle some of Pakks fairy dust on him, as hes been wounded. She does so, as gatts asks her about Pirkaf, the boy that Roshinu mentioned, back in the village. Jill says that its a very popular story with the children of the surrounding villages...since this is long and I cant put it in any better words than this guy can [ this guy = Mcguffins (http://members.nbci.com/McGuffins/translations/berserkmain.html) where i got nearly all the dialogue for this summary ] I will simply cut+paste this mans translations of this story:




.........

Pirkaf, who had no one...
Any child around here could tell you...it's a fairy tale.
Once upon a there lived in a small town a pointy-eared red-eyed boy named Pirkaf.
His parents were kind and loving, but...
Since the boy had those eyes and ears he was always tormented by the other children in the town.
"Red eye Pirkaf," they called him, "Pointy-ear Pirkaf."
Pirkaf thought: "This is not my real home. These people are not my real parents..."

--

Because Pirkaf's father and his mother...
No, of all the people in the town...
Not one had red eyes, or pointy ears.
And so one night, he slipped out of the house,
Searching for his real parents, for where he should have been living.
Eventually, he came to a forest, where the elves lived, who had said they had no need of adults.
And Pirkaf found them there.
They had red eyes, and pointy ears.
They looked just like Pirkaf.
But seeing Pirkaf's delight, they said:
"Are you one of us? No, not quite...you have no wings to ride upon the wind."
Pirkaf was confused, so they told him one thing more:
"A long time ago, a human couple who's baby had become sick, and dying, came to us."
"They had come into this forest, against the laws of their town, to save the child."
"Please save this child's life somehow," the couple begged, holding the baby's body.

--

The elves listened to the request, and used their magic on the baby.
The baby's life was saved, but half of it had been replaced.
The couple shed tears of joy,
Because their child was alive.
When Pirkaf had heard this tale, he ran from them in great confusion.
Back the way he came he ran, crying all the way.
But when Pirkaf reached his house he found he was too late.
A mysterious forest had sprung up overnight, as if it had been there for a hundred years.
And on a little hill between the trees the elves had made because the were unable to forgive the people of the town for not telling people who they were,
Pirkaf, who had no one, cried and cried,
Until his red eyes were made more red, and swollen.

----------ends McGuffins translations of Pirkaf scene.


Gatts says that it is a depressing story. Jill says that Roshinu thought the story was wonderful. Roshinu always said that she was exactly like Pirkaf.



Jill begins to tell Gatts about her and Roshinu's past. She and Roshinu lived in the same village. Roshinu would often play in the forest, near the river-bank and collect odd, or rare objects. She had a treasure trove of strange objects that would washg up near the river. One of those treasures was a stone, in the shape of an egg, that had a mans face on it ...( at this, Pakk rises up and says "!", referring obviously to a behelit ) ...Roshinu never wanted to go back home whenever the sun went down, or if it was time for dinner. Jill says that Roshinu never really wanted to go back home. Roshinu's parents apparently argued a lot, and mostly about Roshinu herself...One day Jill asked Roshinu where she got her bruises from. Roshinu told Jill that there was a misunderstanding in the Pirkaf story that the children knew...Roshinu said that in truth, Pirkaf WAS a real elf-child, and he lived happily with his mother and father, in the Misty Valley. Roshinu told Jill that she was like Pirkaf, in that she belonged in the misty valley...



The truth of Roshinu's beatings is told to Jill after she had grown up a bit. There was a battle in the village, before Jill was born. In the battle,several of the women of the village were raped...and Roshinu was the product of one of those rapings...Her parents would often wonder if it was really their child, as it was never really certain. In truth, Roshinu's parents despised her..And then, one night, Roshinu appeared to Jill in the rain, saying that she was leaving, running off to Misty Valley. Roshinu told Jill that all the treasure that she had found now belonged to Jill...everything was there except for that strange stone...Later on, the villagers searched the surrounding forests, but never found Roshinu...Even later, her parents went to look for her, and even they seemed to dissapear off the face of the earth.



Jill finishes her story, and says that shortly after that, the elves began to attack our villages...Pakk asks Jill if the stone she was talking about looked anything like the stone Gatts carries around in his knapsack ( the behelit ). Jill says, YES thats it! Pakk says that they stole it off some guy. ( he refers to it as 'his becchi'...Pakk has a strange association with the Behelit. At first, in volume 2 of the manga, he found it disturbing, but now there is an apparent bond between the behelit and Pakk...) Gatts says that it is a magic stone, and that it has the power to summon an angel to give power to those who are weak...or maybe its just a devil in disguise...Gatts reveals his threory on Roshinu. He believes that Roshinu used her behelit, using her parents as sacrifices...and turned into an elf-like creature. He also goes into the Pirkaf story, poking holes in it: "that story you told so well...in it, Pirkaf's eyes and ears were alike to those of the 'elves' he found in the misty valley...He says that the Pirkaf story was the story of another apostle, one who sacrificed what he loved for his dream...Gatts tells Jill that she shouldnt hear such stories, they are for adults and are violent and filled with blood. She is just a child and should hide behind her nice, and cushy 'Pirkaf fairy tale'. Jill reaches out to slap Gatts, but he catches her arm, and tells her to get lost ,again. Gatts walks away, with Pakk complaining to him again about being so harsh on Jill. Gatts makes a pile of rocks, while Pakk is talking to him, and then Gatts throws pakk in, sealing the top with a rock. Pakk tries to escape, deforming his face, and it is very comical...



Roshinu flies down from the sky, landing in front of Jill. Pakk is freed by the air that she creates with her wings. Jil says "Roshinu.." Roshinu tells Jill 'Long time no see, Jill'.



We pan over to Gatts, as his brand starts to bleed...he turns back toward the way he came, and stares off...



Roshinu transforms into her more human appearance, to look more suitable to Jill, and sticks her tongue out. Roshinu tells Jill that she has grown up since last she saw her...Jill asks Roshinu about her body, as its very...different. Roshinu tells Jill that she was right, in her telling Jill that she was meant to be in Misty Valley...this is her 'true form'. A queen of elves. **Jill thinks back to what Gatts said before: "Roshinu offered them up. So that her dream came true, She doomed her parents...As sacrifices."**



Roshinu says that she misses Jill, and she thinks often about the times that they would play together, as children. And so, Roshinu invites Jill to come to the Misty Valley. She tells Jill that there, she wont have to worry, and that she can play all kinds of games until long after dark. She turns to her elves, behind her, and asks " All in favor?.... AYE!!!"



We pan over to the forest, as we see a black streak appear across the leaves and the trees...



and so, Roshinu rises up, holding Jill close to her, and begins her ascention into the sky, just as Gatts appears in the air, striking downward with his sword. Roshinu's tail is lost to Gatts attack. Roshinu then reverts to her elf-form, which is really frightening up close. Jill screams as she sees Roshinu's real face, one of black eyes, and gruesome antennea. The elves that were behind her also change form, into that of insect/human hybrids, looking like monsters...Jill tells Roshinu to stop. We see a close up of Roshinu's eyes, as she fells sorrow for Jill, and perhaps some lack of understanding as well...Why should Jill be frightened...Roshinu takes Jill off, far away into the sky.



Pakk and Gatts watch as the two girls fly off. Gatts says that he thinks he'll have to kill Jill too. Pakk freaks and slaps Gatts with large mittens on sticks ( pulled from his ass, no doubt...or the dreaded 'hammer space'. ) Pakk tells gatts that he has never thought this lowly of him before. 13 rotten zombies are less disgusting that Gatts. He tells Gatts that from now on, refer to himself as the Heartless Swordsman ( pun on Gatts name, 'Black Sowrdsman'). Pakk leaves Gatts, chasing after Jill and Roshinu. Gatts asks himself, while looking down at the part of Roshinu's tail that he chopped off. "is there something i could have overlooked? is it possible...? Heh, no way...not possible..."



Jill and Roshinu are high above the land. Roshinu tells Jill that this is a view that no human eyes has ever seen. Jill remarks that it is beautiful, "everything seems so far away." Roshinu tells Jill that "the world can be a beautiful place." They pass over the village, and Jill says "Its so small....i never knew the place i was so scared of was...so small, and insignificant." Roshinu, noticing Jills pleasure, tells her that she can fly as long as she wants, if she joins them.



Meanwhile, Gatts is wandering on the ground below. He enters the boundaries of the Misty Valley, and there he comes across a large mass of bodies, all bound into a ball. From the ball, rises a small man, naked and bloody, then another rises from around the area. It is the bandits from volume 14, that kidnapped Jill. Gatts recognizes them, and asks them if they're "back for more". The short one runs at Gatts and so Gatts fills him with knives, but he keeps coming. Other appear and attack, Gatts is forced to fill them with arrows. They fly backwards from the force of the bolts.



Then, just as Gatts regains his ground, and senses, he is attacked by a scorpions tail, he guards against it with the Dragon Slayer, he looks at the attacker and sees that it is the small man, only he ahs changed to the form of a half/man - half/insect. Another man appears and the same transformation had been done to him. Gatts wastes no time in lopping both of them in half with the Dragon Slayer. He stabs the last one in the head, and then another of the bandits turns into a giant beetle, which pins gatts to a tree, with his giant pincers. Gatts is being chocked by the giant pincers, and in desperation, he stabs forward into the beetle, impaling it. The man/beetle does not move, and so Gatts sprays multiple shots into him, still he does not move.



Then Gatts looks up, as he hears a sound, to see a man who has transformed into a spider, slowly crawling towards Gatts from above. The creature is almost upon him, when he decides to take action. Gatts pushes forward, knocking the beetle to the ground, then spins in midair, bringing the Dragon Slayer out from the beetle, and slicing the spider in half, all in one smooth flip.



Even though he had finished all of the bandits, still more appear. Apparently, whoever collected these creatures, or gathered them here, had been doing so for some time, as the entire forest seemed alive with movement. Most of the creatures were man/ants, some were man/grashoppers all, however were quite ugly. Initially he begins to pelt them with arrows, and after some time, realises that the arrows arent nearly powerful enough to either kill them or penetrate some of the larger creatures hides. And so, Gatts takes off the crossbow, drops it to the ground, and raises his Dragon Slayer.



Gatts begins his assault.



We pan over to Pakk who has taken refuge on the back of a crow, flying in the sky. Pakk is complaining about Gatts being an ass recently, and he begins to ponder over the God Hand, and just who the heck they are...( accompanied by the single most hilarious image in all of Berserk ). As he complains, in his head, he is picking at the crows feathers, one by one, eventually the crow is near bald, and has more than a few 'frustration veins' in his neck. The crow pecks Pakk to the ground, Pakk falls, telling the crow he could have said something!



Gatts is nearly done with his fight, or so he thinks. He had killed all of the lesser beings in the forest. And suddenly he notices two others tht he did not see before. One fat man, and one slim man. They say aloud: "Is it so? Are all of us guardians defeated by this one man? We will not let them die in vein, for they were the lesser of us." Gatts realises that they are more distinguished fighters than the others he had fought. They were once Knights. The two men morph, the fatter one into a beetle, the smaller into a praying mantis. The mantis attacks first, and rather faster than Gatts anticipated. Gatts is forced on the defense. Just as he turns to a defensive stance, the beetle/man attacks Gatts. They are using tactics. They are attacking. relatively all at once. It seems more than Gatts can handle.



We pan over to the village, where the towns-people are beginning to bury the dead/.burned children. Everyone in town is basically moping around, actin all depressed ( losers ). All of a sudden, the Holy Iron Chain Knights appear out of the forest. Everyone freaks out in the village, and the priest of the town wonders "what could the army of the Vatican want with us?" Farneeze addresses the priest of the town and asks him if he had seen a man in black around here, as they are searching for him. The priest informs Farneeze of the situations that had occurred the past few days...Blah Blah Blah, Jills dad listens in on the converstaion, and decides that hes going to go ahead and find the Black Swordsman for himself and earn a penchant, and be a hero and all that jazz. He heads off for his house, to find equipment, and then the scene is over. Yay...



Gatts is still fighting ( poor guy, it must have been like 8 hours by now =( ). And he is wearing thin. Eventually, Gatts realises that if they are attacking all at once, from both sides of him, he must attack them from both sides, at relatively the same time, as well. So he takes his Dragon Slayer, and turns it around in his hand, facing downward, and fires off his cannon at the man/beetle, then uses the force of the blast to propel himself, and his sword through the Man/Mantis...all at relatively the same time...style points for Gatts.



The battle is finally over with the apparent Protectors of the Misty Valley. His wounds are deep, and he wishes he had Pakk near him to treat his wounds...The creatures he has dispatched eventually turn back into humans, as he sits and recooperates..."Kuso..."



We pan back to Pakk who has lost his way, but then he comes across a swamp, or to him, a valley. It is a beautiful place, with lily pads, and long tall grasses, and of cource, large pools of water, surrounded by trees. Pakk says he could get used to this life, and plays in the water and the lily pads. Then he hears sounds from around him, he spies and sees that it is those bee/children from before, playing with a ball. Pakk says it looks like fun, and joins in on them, trying to move with them ( absurdly cute ), they stop and look at him, an obvious outsider. He realizes he is caught, and tries to mimick their appearance ( also absurdly cute ). He blatanly fails, and they leave him...but then...they come back, and hand him the ball they were playing with..............it is a human eyeball. ( ewwwwwwwww! ). Pakk freezes in mid-stance, and stares at the thing. The bee/children poke at him and say "stiff as a board!" They leave pakk there, and pakk eventually wakes from his trance and throws down the eyeball.



He chases after them, and comes across a large tree, filled with moss and vines. He feels the prescence of fairies that were once here. He feels them flying past them, all beautiful fairies, just like Pakk... and he has a look of sadness on his face...but they have been gone from this place for a long time now...



Pakk comes across Jill, talking to Roshinu, everyone is rather glad to see each other..Roshinu again tries to convince Jill to come and join her in her valley...Here there are no responsibilities, and no grow-ups to tell you where to go, or when to shut up...Jill asks for more time to decide. Roshinu agrees, and lets her and Pakk wander off into the misty Valley. Pakk tries to explain to Jill that joining with Roshinu is crazy, i mean they did hand him a human eyeball and all...But Jill says that theres not really much of a choice. She doesnt want to go back to where she was...here, she thinks she will be happy...perhaps the children here really are happy...



And then Pakk and Jill come across a large gathering of fairie/children. They are apparently preparing for a 'play-war'. All have little sticks in their hands and some carry banners. and as the two sides meet, there is evil in their little eyes. The fairies are really being attacked and killed. Slaughtered. One of the fairies catches up to another and performs an "adult attack" on it...which consits of an....ass stab...with its bee stinger....oh its rather disgusting..Jill watches in horror, her and Pakk try to escape, but they are chased by the enraged children/bee/fairies. They stumble into a cave, with eggs in it..cocoons...Roshinu is there, and tells Jill that this is the birthplace of the children, where they become reborn, into happy fairies ( or some jazz ). She tells Jill that whatever she saw outside, wont make a difference....Once she is a fairy, everything will be happy, in death or life. She cocoones Jill, and tries to kill Pakk with her antennae. Pakk dodges ( wily bastard ) and Roshinu spills the guts of one of the cocoons, spilling out a baby, and liquid goo! YUM!...this breaks the cocooning process on Jill, as she is screaming her heart out...then, roshinu rises up...something is amiss...



The cave is on fire, cocoons are being destroyed everywhere!! It is Gatts....He appears in the fire, to be a demon, slicing life away...Jill says that that cant be Gatts....it must be a Demon...that CANT be gatts...



End of Volume 15