Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Episode 11: Drip Painting Style

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Episode 11: Drip Painting Style(岸辺露伴は動かない ～エピソード11:ドリッピング画法 Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai ~Episōdo 11: Dorippingu Gahō) is a one-shot Manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki as part of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan series, and mainly featuring the Diamond Is Unbreakable character Rohan Kishibe.

The chapter was split into two parts, the first one being published on April 19, 2022 in Ultra Jump's May 2022 issue, and the second part being published on May 19, 2022 in the June 2022 issue.

Part 1
Bakin watches Rohan work on his manga, Pink Dark Boy, in his office, when Kyoka enters. She compliments Rohan's Drip Painting] Style, before proceeding to critique it due to Rohan's methodical approach of aiming his ink drops. She offers him some of her drink, but fakes spilling it on his art to attempt to startle him. Kyoka soon notices that Rohan is crying. Believing his story to have a happy ending, she is left confused by his behavior. Rohan then explains "Episode 11", a story about the time he was invited to interview at the home of a "decent person". In spite of sharing stories to encourage and give hope to the audience, he warns that there is no positivity in the chapter, and to be prepared for the episode.

Mitsuki Murase, a 37 year old woman, is in the middle of having an affair when she notices how late it had gotten and leaves the hotel. Her lover asks to give her a ride home, but she refuses his offer and heads for her car in the parking garage. Still anxious about her unfaithful act, she opens her car door and accidentally hits the SUV next to her, leaving a dent. Looking at her torn stockings, she panics further as she doesn't have time to buy a new pair and fears her husband's reaction, as she worries that he may already suspect her adulteress actions, regretting that she went all the way over to the next town, thinking he may check the records on her GPS. She takes the wedding ring out of her purse and returns it to her finger, as she takes a deep breath in hopes to relax herself.

On her way home, she gets caught in a traffic jam. Taking a detour through the mountains, she receives a call on her phone from her husband. She answers it and her husband is relieved, seeing that everyone had been trying to reach her for an hour. He tells her that their daughter, Emma, had been crying because her kindergarten closed and no one came to pick her up, as Mitsuki was the one with the car. She lies, saying that she had lost track of time and ended up caught in traffic due to a roadblock. Mitsuki's husband's suspicions rise, seeing that he has never seen a roadblock in their neighborhood before. In spite of being 20 to 30 minutes away from her daughter's school, Mitsuki lies and tells her husband she'll pick her up in 5 minutes.

Still driving while on the phone, Mitsuki notices a spiky dark figure outside of the car, on the passenger side. She swerves her car in an attempt to avoid it. She comes to a stop and realizes that there is nothing there. Her husband continues speaking, saying that he will go to the kindergarten himself without a car to pick up their daughter and that they will just talk then, but Mitsuki doesn't say a word. Her husband hears birds cawing, and asks where Mitsuki is, to which she once again lies and says it was simply the brakes. She hangs up on him saying that she'll be there soon, though she still pondered what that could have been that she saw. Mitsuki sees a sign saying, "Watch for Animals!", and figures it was only an animal, though she had never seen an animal like that before. Looking over the car, she sees that there is no damage and speeds toward the school.

As she continues her drive, a car begins tailing her closely. Mitsuki wonders if it is the same SUV that she accidentally dented, believing that they could have followed her all the way from the hotel because of what she did to the vehicle. She soon realizes that the car lacks any dents and that the color doesn't quite match. The car then speeds up on Mitsuki as they open their window. They pull out a fire extinguisher and aim it behind them, at Mitsuki's windshield, thoroughly covering it as she screams.

Part 2
The vehicle in front of Mitsuki stomps on their brakes which leads to her crashing right into them. She believes the person to be crazy as they are now blocking the road. The driver soon steps out, revealed to have been Rohan, as he throws the fire extinguisher at her windshield, cracking it, while she drives past his car, screaming in terror, ending up hitting his car's headlight in her attempted escape. Rohan keeps up the chase, as Mitsuki frustratedly shouts out that she will be the one to kill him, instead of him killing her. Finally catching up, keeping his car next to his, he yells for her to open her window, exclaiming that she needs to stop the car since a man had climbed into the backseat of her car and is now sits in the seat behind her.

In that moment, the man behind Mitsuki snaps her neck, causing the cars to crash into the guardrail. Rohan, having sustained injuries causing his head, mouth, and nose to bleed, climbs out of his vehicle and gets emergency responders on the phone. He asks why they aren't there yet, as well as warning them that the murderer may be more than they can deal with, and that they need to get all the help they can, such as roadblocks and riot police. As Rohan looks at the crime scene, he quietly ponders to himself why he even got himself mixed up in all of this.

The man climbs out of Mitsuki's upside down car, and climbs on top. He creepily makes note of Rohan's recently adopted dog, Bakin, before taking it down a dark road, stating that he will soon become a painful reminder as he wouldn't have but about 15 to 20 years to make happy memories with him until he meets his end due to the negative effects of climate change, even going so far as to mention a prediction about the alarming rising temperature rates made by the IPCC to back his previous statement.

The eco-terrorist continues his speech, soon giving his backstory. The man had joined an environmental organization 12 years earlier which was dedicated to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. However, a company that planned to invest in deforestation of tropical rainforests paid off their leader. He revealed that he still did his work, but his family abandoned him, he lost his job, he was arressted several times, he even had people attempting to kill him. Sick of it all, he divulges to Rohan his plan of taking down the power plant via a suicide bombing. The man is carrying liquid oxidizers beneath his coat and in his backpack, along with wearing 40kg of ANFO explosives with nails and screws. All of which are connected to switches he has strapped to his palms.

Rohan says that the man needs therapy and wonders why he was even invited to his house in the first place, as he is merely a mangaka and not a journalist. The eco-terrorist insists that Rohan would be able to clearly show the truth in his manga with what he is about to witness, and that a news reporter would just twist it and spread misinformation and fake news about the situation. The eco-terrorist lured Rohan all the way out here to keep him away from his target, having killed Mitsuki since he thought she was driving too closely to it. The man begins to make his move as police sirens can be heard in the distance. Rohan begs for him to stop and just go somewhere else since this is his home. Looking at the burs on the ground, he's thankful that Mitsuki's car is old and not electric. He summons Heaven's Door and writes on the burs to shrivel until they become hollow and to absorb the exhaust pipe's fumes of Mitsuki's totaled car, and to then stick onto the eco-terrorist. After the burs accomplish their purpose, the eco-terrorist passes out from the carbon monoxide released from all of the burs.

Back in the present, Rohan asks what Kyoya is doing. She had just warmed up some left-over pasta in the microwave and asks if Rohan would like some. Aggravated, Rohan states that he never gave her permission to bring food into his workspace, but Kyoya had already accidentally dripped two drips of tomato sauce on his page. After Rohan yells at her to leave, she looks at Bakin and says that she made a mess on Rohan's manuscript on purpose in hopes it would cheer him up since he cannot draw while in such a gloomy mood. In spite of her believing the story to have had a happy ending, Kyoya has a downcast expression when she leaves.

Trivia

 * This is the first chapter of Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe to be split into two parts.