A new frontier opens up in Sakamoto Days chapter 185 as Shin and Heisuke descend down the prison one floor closer to their destination: the JAA’s former fortune teller. While the end goal is now in sight, they’ll have to contend with a brand new set of challenges in a brand new environment first - even making an unlikely acquaintance along the way.

For fear of over exaggerating, Sakamoto Days’ prison arc has been nothing short of exceptional so far. While dropping your titular protagonist is always a risky move, focusing on Shin and Heisuke instead of Sakamoto has upped the stakes and increased the tension as both characters aren’t as powerful and more prone to making mistakes. The locale of the JAA jail has also proven effective in producing thrilling fights, nail-biting situations, and surprise reunions.

No sooner, however, were we just getting used to the first floor of the prison when we were suddenly being whisked away to the second. Putting to one side the issue of pacing for now, this does allow the series to keep things fresh by varying the locale from the gray backdrop of prison cells. Indeed, the second floor of the JAA jail  as shown in Sakamoto Days chapter 185 is anything but: it’s actually a labyrinth of different rooms and biomes created by the prisoners themselves without seemingly any interference from the guards.

It’s in one of these varied biomes that Sakamoto Days chapter 185 drops perhaps its most surprising reveal: the full appearance of Tenkyu, one of Uzuki’s companions from the Al-Kamar orphanage. Eagle-eyed readers with a good memory will remember him from all the way back in chapter 104, when he first appeared as a tiny illustration in the newspaper reproduced by Byodo, but the rest of us mere mortals will just have to rely on the wiki. Regardless, Tenyku’s sudden appearance here begs the question: does Uzuki have business in the prison too?

When one single fight between Shin, Heisuke and the sadistic warden Jo Shackles resulted in a swift transfer down to the second floor of the JAA jail, there was some trepidation that the series was going to speed through the prison arc in the name of getting back to its main character as soon as possible. Even so, Sakamoto Days seems to be setting up too many things in chapter 185 to be ending this particular story anytime soon: there’s the expansive nature of the second floor, for one, as well as the subplot surrounding Tenkyu. Will Shin and Heisuke realize who he is? Could he have vital information on Uzuki’s next moves?

As Shin and Heisuke continue to descend, the rabbit hole only goes deeper and deeper.

You can read Sakamoto Days chapter 185 for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.