Battle 5

Battle 5
Volume:	1
Chapter	5
Japanese title	奈落の罠
Romanized title	Naraku no Wana
English title	Sanctuary of Drain Hell Trap (Viz)
Subtitle	Responsibility
Total pages	53 (51 in VIZ Media Edition)
Released	1991
Story Arc	Makaku Arc
Chapter Navigation
previous Battle 4	next Battle 6

Hell Trap (奈落の罠, Naraku no Wana^?), subtitled Responsibility is the fifth chapter of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita.

Cover

Alita's body being scanned.

Summary

Inside the wrecked Bar Kansas, Makaku makes himself comfortable and notices that Alita has gotten a new body, which he probes electronically. He tells her that his desire is not to kill her, but to rip off her limbs and turn her into a living pendant which he will wear, enabling him to hear her pleading voice daily. Alita comments on how sad this is, prompting Makaku to extend his snake body in reply. He notices Koyomi, which causes him to reveal some of his background and express his philosophy that pain and terror can be overcome by continuously subjecting others to terror and pain, thus protecting himself. To do this however, he requires power to inflict both sensations on others. To demonstrate, Makaku extends one of the grind cutters and threatens Alita, but she does not flinch, instead kicking it away. In response, Makaku uses it to tear along the floor, forcing Alita to dodge while he increases its speed. She tries to counterattack by running along the grind cutter to attack Makaku, but he responds by deploying two additional cutters. Alita cannot dodge these and is thrown into the wall.

As Makaku toys with Alita, Daisuke Ido rails at how powerless he is with his injury, but comes to the sickening realization that Makaku's attitude towards Alita suggests that he is in love with her. Makaku takes advantage of Alita's temporary incapacity to take Koyomi and hold her hostage. He briefly plays peekaboo with her, then threatens to eat her. This causes Alita to call out and tell him to let Koyomi go. When she responds to his query that Koyomi is not her child, Makaku stomps on the floor, opening up a large hole that leads into the sewers. He then leaps into the hole with Koyomi, closely followed by Duke Fang. Alita hesitates to go and Ido warns her not to follow, but she says that she has to take responsibility and promises that she will be back before she jumps in.

Inside the sewers, Alita falls onto a worn down column and tries to break her fall, but falls into the sewer water anyway. Back in Kansas, Ido regrets having given Alita the Berserker Body while Master questions Alita's chances against Makaku. Ido theorizes that the Berserker Body has a survival mode which may have capabilities that will allow Alita to defeat the grind cutters. Below, Alita reaches land and sets off in pursuit. She pauses as she notices her fear, realizing that she still has a heart even with her cyborg body. She is shaken out of her thoughts by Koyomi's cries, which she follows to an open area. Makaku is not visible, but Alita can feel his presence. Her senses warn her just in time to evade the grind cutters just before Makaku appears. He welcomes Alita to his old home, pointing out that the Scrapyard sewers are amid the ruins of a city, where he was born and raised. A column then threatens to fall onto Koyomi and Alita is just able to save her in time. Her action causes Makaku to vow that he will not let her live for risking her life to save someone else's child, which contrasts with his abandonment by his own mother. He also points out that while Alita is carrying Koyomi, she cannot move her body at supersonic speeds at the risk to the baby's life. Just as he is about to fire the grind cutters, Duke Fang bursts out of a nearby pipe and leaps onto Makaku's face, pulling out the arm from Alita's previous body that had been stuck in his right eye. This reopens the wound in the eye, forcing Makaku to eat the hunter-warriors' brains that he had taken earlier in order to stop the pain. The distraction allows Alita to give Koyomi to Duke Fang to take to safety. Makaku notices this and tries to stop the dog with his left hand, but Alita fires a Plasma Jet, severing his arm below the elbow. She then takes some sewer muck and traces eye black beneath her eyes, telling Makaku not to touch the baby or the dog while she is his opponent.

Debut appearances

Attacks

• Plasma Jet (not named)

Locations

• Scrapyard Sewers

Trivia

• This is the first instance of Alita using plasma.
• Makaku states that the grind cutters are built into his left hand in both Viz Media printings. This is true in the first printing, which was mirrored, but the VIZ Media Edition is printed from right to left, making it his right hand. The error remains, however.
• Elements of the fight in the sewers were incorporated into the fight between Gally and Grewcica in the OVA, such as Alita dodging the grind cutters and then running on one of them to get at Makaku. In the OVA, Gally uses dog's blood as eye black.
• The sewers are a location in Gunnm: Martian Memory and can be revisited after Makaku is defeated to hunt bounties. A part of the story not found in the manga has Gally later returning to the sewers to rescue a kidnapped Shumira.