No.6 (Volume 2) - I Knew Nothing Before Today

Shion struggles to come to terms with the way his life has suddenly spiralled out of control. Outside No.6, he is shown the brutal and unforgiving nature of the world as he desperately tries to find his mother.

No.6 (Volume 2) – I Knew Nothing Before Today

What happened?

Amazingly, Shion survived the thing that killed the people he had been accused of killing. It looked like the chrysalis of a bee. Rat had been able to remove it from Shion’s body, although it wasn’t without complications. Shion’s hair turned a brilliant white and a red scar snakes its way around his entire body. He tries to hypothesize as to why he didn’t age suddenly and die like the others, although removing it when they did may have something to do with it.

Rat revealed that he had been in contact with Shion’s mother using a mechanical rat. She had even been able to send back a message, giving Shion an address to go to. Rat took Shion into the streets outside the city of No.6 and showed him what life was like when you had to fight to survive. In a short period of time, Shion was almost shot, seduced, swindled, and picked up. He was lucky to get out alive, although Rat offered little to no assistance.

The message from Karan took them to an old hotel run by the Dogkeeper. She told them about a connection to the message she had discovered which took Shion and Rat to a former journalist that knew Karan before No.6 was locked down. He didn’t offer them much assistance, but a photo showing Karan with the man that named him Rat. What secrets does No.6 hold?

What did you think?

This volume felt like a bit of a step down from the first one. I get that it’s showing us the world in which Rat (Eve) lives is harsh and unforgiving, but I feel like they are just drumming it in a little too far and I don’t like the way Rat is prepared to step back and let whatever happen, calling is a learning experience for Shion. There were also no answers. Not one. I had hoped that we would have been given something to keep us interested, but that was not to be.

I also feel like they deliberately used Shion and Rat’s ideas about what happened as a way to throw us off the scent. My gut is telling me that No.6 is a colony for the bees and the people inside are purely hosts to ensure they can grow. I think they are put in there when the people are young and left to develop for many years. The gestation is probably similar to a human life span. Something, however, is making them hatch early or at an accelerated rate, hence the rapid ageing and death.

I was hoping for more with the second volume, but it failed to live up to my expectations. There’s still time to save the story though as there are nine volumes in total.