is a Japanese manga by . It was serialized in Enix's shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy from 1999 to 2002, and Ichijinsha's josei manga magazine Monthly Comic Zero Sum from 2002 to 2019, and Ichijinsha's website from 2019 to 2022. Its chapters were collected in 24 tankōbon volumes. The manga was published in North America by Tokyopop; only the first ten volumes were released. A ten-episode anime adaptation, Hatenkou Yugi, aired between January and March 2008 on Kyoto Broadcasting System.
Plot
A young girl named Rahzel is abruptly sent off to see the world by her eccentric, doting father. She is alone on her travels until she meets Alzeid, an attractive, mysterious loner on a mission to avenge his father's murder. After aiding Alzeid in retrieving his stolen gun from a thief, Rahzel decides to follow Alzeid promising that she would make his "lousy and boring" life "more interesting and fun!" Alzeid grudgingly acknowledges that Rahzel will be traveling with him from now on. Soon after, a womanizing acquaintance of Alzeid's named Baroqueheat joins in their adventure.
Characters
Rahzel, born as , is a fifteen-year-old girl who was ejected from her house by her foster father to go out and see the world where she meets Alzeid, who is one of the three or four people she has ever known who can use magic other than herself. Rahzel cares a lot about fashion whereas Alzeid does not care at all. She is loud, outgoing, and very straightforward with a horrible sense of direction, but she is clever, sensible, and wise. She likes her father, tea, sweets, and chiffon, among other things; she dislikes boring things and smokers. It is later revealed that Rahzel's mother had the ability to see the future but, mad with her powers, tried to kill her nine-year-old daughter during her birthday. In the process, Rahzel murdered her own mother and was abandoned by her real father. He drew a circle around her and left her in the middle of the woods, telling her to wait until he returned (he eventually does, but Rahzel is already gone). Rahzel had always believed that her foster father had found her in the forest at that time, but a flashback reveals that it was actually Kiara. While talking with Rahzel, Kiara established that she would belong to him (when Kiara rescued a drugged Rahzel from a burning house, he handed her to Alzeid and told him that he was only 'borrowing' Rahzel). Afterwards, Kiara delivers Rahzel to her foster father and tells him to watch over her until his return. Apparently, Rahzel's magical abilities are very high (according to Shougetsu, she's rank B+, and he's never seen anybody who was that good) because she can incant one spell but summon an entirely different spell at the same time, as she did while fighting in Acanea. Rahzel holds a philosophy that by naming herself, she belongs to herself; in her memories, her foster father had suggested the philosophy and Rahzel had subsequently named herself. In reality, Kiara had been the one to both suggest the idea and name her, establishing her as his property. Rahzel and Kiara only occasionally meet each other whenever Rahzel is separated from Baroqueheat and Alzeid. She always identifies him as an enemy, and he always confirms this, but Rahzel presents a strong reluctance to fight him. After receiving wounds from Kiara that would have killed a normal human, her wounds close up at an insanely fast rate. This is when she and the ones around her realize that Rahzel is not a normal human. Rahzel then tests this theory by asking Baroqueheat and her father to see how far they could brutally hurt her until she nearly reached death. Even after getting beaten with so much force that she could have died many times over, she barely survived, and then her wounds healed, once again, at the same quick speed. In the present story, Rahzel has been sent back to the past by the elder (but smaller) Alzeid, to where both Alzeids were still just children, and Second was still alive (and in the lab). However, Rahzel only suspects that she was sent to the past for a moment, and then brushes it off. Later on, however, she does confirm that she's in the past, and after an encounter with Enero, she realises that her actions in the past she's currently in have had influence on the future she came from. Rahzel is in fact the one who killed Second in order to save Alzeid and his younger brother, as well as to end Second's suffering. She did so by being dragged into a time slip.