We open volume three some time after the climax of the previous volume. Tetsuo is missing and the city of Neo-Tokyo is now under martial law. Robotic drones patrol the streets in order to maintain control and simultaneously search for the now-missing Akira. In Lady Miyako's temple we are introduced fully to Nezu, a member of the government and member of the resistance movement. Lady Miyako informs him that Akira must be found before the military or worse can get ahold of him. As Lady Miyako distrusts Nezu, she asks a hidden child named Sakaki to move to find Akira first. Sakaki and two other children, with powers similar to the Espers (though on a lower level) are dispatched and move to get Akira before the military and Nezu. From this point the story moves rapidly.
The third volume is primarily a long chase between Kaneda, Kei, and another woman, Chiyoko, as the three work to hide and protect Akira as they are pursued by Nezu's people, the military, and Sakaki. The pace is intense and the battles are exciting. Nezu is revealed to be the weasel that Lady Miyako suspected as he is only interested in harboring Akira's power for himself. Meanwhile, the military is desperate to get Akira back and is using the Espers to hunt him down. In the face of all of this, the military leadership begins to doubt the worries of the Colonel as he seems to be dangerously obsessed with Akira at this point. Kaneda, Kei, and Chiyoko face a number of battles and hurdles in the course of the volume, losing Akira and getting him back at multiple points. Throughout this all, Akira is unconscious, though the Espers warn that soon he will awaken. The chase and battles converge at a late point in the story as the military finally orchestrates a coup on the government of Japan, as they sense urgency at the loss of Akira.
When the sides meet the battle is fierce, as homes are leveled, people are killed (including Sakaki and her two friends), and finally, Akira wakes up. The Espers are overjoyed and seem to hint at a long friendship between the three of them and Akira that had been interrupted. As one of the Espers, Takashi, is speaking to Akira, Nezu takes aim, hoping to kill Akira. He fires and misses, killing Takashi instead. This drives Akira into a rage and his psychic powers erupt in a blast that devastates Neo-Tokyo, leveling much of the city. As the destruction subsides, we have no idea what has become of our heroes; Kaneda, Kei, Chiyoko, the Espers, the Colonel, Lady Miyako...all are left to mystery. In the ensuing silence, we see a shadowy figure emerge and walk toward a small block of concrete in the waters at ground zero where Akira erupted. Sitting on that block is Akira himself, playing with stones as if they were wooden blocks.The shadowy figure is revealed to be Tetsuo, who is smiling down at Akira, who looks up at Tetsuo. With that, volume three ends.
Volume three is a rollercoaster ride compared to the pacing in the first two volumes and reads very quickly. The action is perfect and it leads to the reader cheering even more for Kaneda and Kei. In fact, the reader is so swept in the action that it is very easy to forget about Tetsuo and when he emerges at the end it is like a swift kick to the gut as you remember that he hadn't gone anywhere at all. When I review volume four it will be important to contrast that to this volume as the two are almost two sides of the same coin, like mirror images of the same story. More on that next time. Until then, mata ne!
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