Ending the final battle means going back to the beginning in Undead Unluck chapter 230 as Julia explores her memories with Victor as Juiz in the previous loops. Along the way, we even get to see how Negators came about in the first place, filling an important gap in the series’ lore.

Undead Unluck’s climatic arc has been going on for a while now, but finding an excuse to talk about it has been hard. While series author Yoshifumi Tozuka’s decision to ice one of the main characters and embark on an ambitious time skip at the end of part one seemed exciting at first, part two has experienced a gradual but distinct dip in quality mainly due to the absence of its core dynamic and the introduction of more forgettable characters to make up the difference. Nothing really has measured up to the Autumn arc and Anno Un, in my opinion.

In this sense, Undead Unluck chapter 230 succeeds because it goes directly against this trend. Rather than focusing on new characters, it instead centers around two faces we know very well: Juiz and Victor. Of course, Juiz is actually known as Julia now as she lost all of her memories after going through the loop normally for the first time, but it’s basically the same person. Her relationship with Victor has been a major driving force behind the story since arguably the very beginning, so it should come as no surprise that it would turn out to be important at the end too.

More specifically, the meat of Undead Unluck chapter 230 revolves around Julia literally diving through Juiz’s memories in an effort to find Victor and bring him to the battle against Soul. She ends up awakening to her Unjustice abilities along the way due to a charitable interpretation of the word “tragedy,” but arguably the most interesting thing that happens here is when she accidentally witnesses the birth of the first Negators: sometime in the distant past, Juiz and Victor stand before the Round Table where Luna declares that “the fifth rule” has taken a fancy to her as the “vessel of Justice.” This implies that Negators came about as a byproduct of the Master Rules, either by accident or design.

Putting aside all of the lore and plot for a second, it’s just nice to have Juiz and Victor’s relationship in the spotlight again. Their connection has always felt so genuine and rooted in deep mutual trust, only made that much more compelling by the tragedy Yoshifumi Tozuka crafted around them: they love each other so much that one of them literally has to be sealed away. Getting to see them in action one last time before the end honestly made me slightly emotional, even if Julia awakening to her powers and Victor joining the fight was entirely predictable.

You can read Undead Unluck chapter 230 for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.