Golden Experience Chapter 225 “Slums,”

Chapter 225 of Golden Kamuy, titled “Slums,”

opens on a freezing night in the poorest district of Sapporo. Prostitutes wander the streets, desperate for custors despite the bitter cold. One woman approaches a tall man wearing a top hat and tries to pull him in as a client. Without warning, the man clamps a hand over her mouth and slashes her throat. As she collapses, she weakly claws at his clothing, briefly exposing part of his chest and neck — enough to reveal the distinctive tattoos of an Abashiri Prison escapee. The man calmly watches her die, then begins mutilating her corpse in a disturbingly thodical way, establishing the grim, horror-like tone of the chapter.

By morning, police have surrounded the cri scene while a crowd gathers to stare. Ishikawa Takuboku, acting as a journalist, questions the local police chief. He quickly realizes this murder closely resembles another prostitute killing from about a month earlier. However, the police are tight-lipped and unwilling to share useful details. Ishikawa leaves with only fragnts of information but enough suspicion to know a serial killer may be at work.

He returns to Hijikata Toshizō’s group and reports what he learned. His usual flippant attitude irritates so of the n, especially when he makes tasteless jokes and asks Nagakura for money. Ushiyama comnts grimly on how terrible the victim’s death must have been. Beneath the banter, the group understands the seriousness of the situation. Hijikata begins analyzing the pattern logically. He asks Kadokura whether any of the 24 tattooed convicts had a history of killing prostitutes. Kadokura recalls a man who stabbed a prostitute in Yokohama years ago and was later sent to Abashiri. That detail imdiately raises suspicion that the Sapporo killer could be one of the escaped tattooed prisoners. Hijikata also realizes that if this is true, the cris will inevitably draw the attention of Tsurumi’s 7th Division, turning the hunt into a race between factions.

Elsewhere, Ogata is shown in a quiet marshland area, casually practicing his marksmanship by shooting at birds. He doesn’t even bother fully killing them, rely clipping feathers with precise shots, an eerie reminder of his detached, predatory personality.

The story then shifts far away to a coastal settlent near the Sea of Okhotsk. Usami Tokishige brutally kills a horse and runs off before the owner can discover what happened, reinforcing his unstable and violent tendencies. Lieutenant Tsurumi, anwhile, is reading a newspaper report about the Sapporo murders. He imdiately suspects the killer is one of the tattooed convicts. Seeing opportunity in the chaos, he orders Kikuta and Usami to head to Sapporo to investigate, while he stays behind to continue searching for Asirpa. Kikuta is visibly uncomfortable being paired with Usami, and their mutual distrust is obvious. Tsurumi, however, insists Usami will be useful. He warns them to avoid direct conflict with Hijikata’s group, knowing tensions between the factions could easily explode. Usami shows little interest in careful strategy, openly declaring he’ll just kill, steal, and take whatever he wants.

With that, both major forces in the story independently set their sights on Sapporo: Hijikata’s group seeking the tattooed convict for the map skins, and Tsurumi’s n pursuing their own agenda. The city becos the next inevitable collision point.

The chapter closes with a flashback to 1895 in Niigata Prefecture. A younger Tsurumi trains at a dojo under a martial arts master. After practice, he interacts with local children near a horse and is approached by a 14-year-old Usami Tokishige. Tsurumi notes how much the boy has grown, hinting that their connection goes far back and suggesting that Usami’s loyalty — and perhaps his warped personality — may have been shaped under Tsurumi’s influence from a young age. The flashback adds an unsettling layer to their relationship and ends the chapter on a note that ties past and present violence together.