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| “ | Gather round people, all together now! Nobody likes a lonely only. Everyone's your friend! Everyone's your friend! When you join hearts and sing- Army of one, We're an army of one. Everybody join hands now, everybody join hearts now, Army of oooone. | „ |
| ~ The eerie song sung on the surprise radio broadcasts. |
Army of One is the titular main antagonist of the Junji Ito manga Army of One.
Initially a lone assailant, their influence gradually increases until the Army is not a singular person, but an entire cult. They are an unidentified criminal who sends down thousands of fliers on masses of people via plane, detailing that no one should be alone, and telling people to stay together or join in groups. Army of One also seems to take hold of various radio stations, singing an unnerving song reiterating the message of the flyers. These flyers, combined with the song, are enough to cause mass-hysteria, driving almost anyone who experiences loneliness to insanity. The victims then kidnap and sew people found together in groups together with fishing line.
Biography[]
In a city park, a man walking his dog finds the corpses of a couple once thought to have gone missing. However, he is in shock to realize that the both of them have been sewn together by what appears to be fishing line. This is later broadcasted on the news, which makes a recently graduated high school student named Michio become aware of the murders.
After reading about a class reunion, where his childhood friend Natsuko Horie will attend, Michio hears a strange surprise radio broadcast, with an unknown voice singing an unnerving song about people coming together in groups and how they're an "Army of One". He initially dismisses the song as being pretentious, assuring himself that he is fine on his own. After going to a cafe with Natsuko, where he reunites with past classmates, he sees a large group of people looking at something in a canal, asking if it linked to a group of missing people. Michio takes a better look, and discovers that they were looking a group of 6 people, all naked, sewn together with the same fishing line that he saw in the news.
Just then, Michio spots a plane sending down thousands of sheets of paper onto the site. He picks up one of the sheets of paper, and finds that it is a flyer reiterating the same song that he heard on the radio. Back at home, while emailing a friend, the friend makes mention of "Army of One" and rumors of how they were involved in the recent stich murders. Afterwards, Natsuko decides to call him about the recent disappearance of one of the people they met at the cafe, Keisuke, telling them that he was stitched up with a bunch of other people that attended, where their bodies were found hanging from the trees in a mountainside forest, which puts Michio in shock.
The news then broadcasts a rise in disappearances linked to the stitch murders and of there being cases of large groups of people dissappearing at once from the same location, only to then wind up in the same location dead and sewn together. In all of these cases, the same fishing line was used, which has directed experts to believe a group of criminals were responsible for the murders. Michio emails the same friend from earlier about the rise in murders, to which the friend further specifies that rumors state that the murders have specifically occured in large groups. The murders have gotten so bad that guards have been sent to watch over large groups of people to prevent the murders from occuring again.
Michio, concerned about the implications of the song, the fliers, and the recent news about the murders, decides to call Natsuko, telling her that the class reunion should be postponed for everyone's safety. However, due to Keisuke's death, Natsuko felt that the class reunion should occur as scheduled out of respect for him, while also inviting Michio to the event. Michio is understandably hesitent to still go to the event, but still considers it.
Later, a large group gathers at the city square for a Christmas Eve celebration. The radio at first advertises the event, but then mysteriously switches over to the eerie song Michio had heard earlier. This time, Michio is much more unnerved about what is to come. The next day, it was found by a group of spectators the entire city square has been adorned with the sewn together corpses of everyone who had attended the event. This is later broadcasted on the news, where the name "Army of One", and the plane dropping down the thousands of flyers, is connected with the alleged group. By this point, a joint investigation into the murders had been launched, though the murders themselves have still remained a mystery. It has later been affirmed by officials that staying together in groups is not safe until they get to the bottom of the mysteries.
As a result of this, all councils had cancelled or postponed their ceremonies. However, Natsuko's class reunion has been rescheduled after officials had bragged about their tight security. Hundreds of people join the ceremony, all the while Michio trying to investigate on it, while avoiding being spotted. This initially causes suspension in the guards, though Natsuko comes in to tell them that he is her friend. When the both of them go inside, they find that everyone who had attended the event had suddenly disappeared. Days later, the bodies of everyone who attended were later found on the mountainside forest again, as the result being a massive web of people tied together on a bunch of trees.
Following the large-scale murder, people were less and less willing to congregate outdoors, and even couples and families started to stay away from another. Michio calls Natsuko again, the latter of which being saddened by the loss of all of her friends. As a result of this, Natsuko feels an overwhelming sense of loneliness, and Michio decides to come over to her house to rectify her situation. As he's walking to her house, he sees the same plane sending down the fliers again, but this time chased by group of military jets. This puts Michio at ease that the killer is being taken care of, and rushes over to Natsuko to tell her the news.
Unfortunately, when Michio makes it to her house, he sees Natsuko, now turned completely mad from her loneliness, singing the eerie song from the surprise broadcasts, and stitching together both of her parents, and their dog together. The last panel of the comic then shows that the military jets are now also sending down the flyers, indicating that Army of One was able to infiltrate the government.
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