Gunnm: Another Stories

GUNNM: Gaiden is a Japanese manga by Yukito Kishiro containing three separate side stories for GUNNM, known as Battle Angel Alita in English. The stories were first published in Ultra Jump magazine in 1997, but have also been printed in the GUNNM Complete Collection Japanese special editions of GUNNM. No English version has been published. Several characters who appear in the side stories do not appear in the regular manga. The side stories also provide more background on the Factory and motorball.

With the exception of "Homecoming," the side stories use a chronology based on the year of Koyomi's birth (treated as Year 0) in order to relate how they fit within the overall Battle Angel Alita story. Events taking place before the year of Koyomi's birth are given the prefix "B.K.", while events taking place after are given the prefix "A.K.," (Anno Koyomi) with the corresponding number of years before or after, e.g. "B.K. 3." This reveals that Ido's discovery of Alita in the Tiphares dump heap and Koyomi's birth took place in the same year.

The Sonic Finger
The first side story takes place after Alita's fight with the motorball champion Jashugan and her retirement from motorball. An unnamed man in a bar watching Alita and Jashugan fight on TV sets his beer bottle rapidly spinning on its base with one hand before finishing it off. After the conclusion of the fight, he leaves the bar, later going to the Western Sector of the Scrapyard. Three months later, Alita is shot in the head by a sniper while out on morning exercises, but survives. A group of hunter-warriors led by Teito band together to hunt the sniper down. Alita, fully recovered and out exercising, is invited by a man working for a Factory disposal unit to have tea with him. She does not stay long, but borrows a book from his well-stocked library.

With the assistance of the investigator known as The Nose and the informant Walrom, the hunter-warriors discover that the likely suspect is a hardened criminal known as the Sonic Finger. The Sonic Finger was active in the Western Sector of the Scrapyard, where he killed 37 out of his 43 victims, including the hunter-warrior Macheko. Information on him is sparse and there is no Factory bounty on him, but Alita figures out who the likely culprit is. She sends the man who she had tea with an invitation to fight when she returns his book, which he accepts. After writing up his will, the Sonic Finger equips his specialized cyborg arms and sets off.

At an abandoned Scrapyard factory, the other hunter-warriors are lying in wait for the Sonic Finger as part of Alita's plan. He makes his appearance soon enough, and despite their best efforts, manages to take down in order, Beck, Blu, Tank Man, Skull, and Teito. Facing Alita alone on top of a high section of factory pipe, the Sonic Finger uses his best techniques on her, but is quickly defeated, falling to his death.

The Holy Night
The second side story takes place five years before the start of the main story. Ido, recently expelled from the floating city of Tiphares, rescues a young woman on a cold Christmas night in the Scrapyard. This eventually leads to him opening his cybernetic clinic featured in the main GUNNM story.

Homecoming
The third story takes place during Alita's days as a TUNED agent working for Tiphares before she encounters Figure Four. Deckman 50, the sole survivor of an attack on a Factory convoy, sets off in search of water across the desert in response to a dying guard's plea. Alita, lying half buried in the sand, is given the mission to terminate him by Chief Biggot. On her way, she takes great delight in killing various forms of desert life which she comes across.

Deckman 50 eventually reaches the sea, where he becomes the center of attention of a group of children from a nearby fishing village. Alita has him in the sights of a sniper rifle, but does not shoot because of the children. When night falls and Deckman 50 is left alone, he is shot.

Another Story: Bashaku Ando
This is the first side story set in the Last Order continuity and focuses on Koyomi, who is trying to earn a living as a photographer but without much success after breaking the scoop on the deal struck between Kaos and Vector to build the Tower of Tiphares. Following a tip that Den has reemerged and has been ambushing supply convoys bound for the Scrapyard, she journeys into the wasteland with a convoy in search of Den. The convoy she is with is attacked by Den, but he does not recognize Koyomi, who is injured. She is rescued and cared for by an old eccentric named Geriperi who lives near Farm 3. A week later, Geriperi is apparently killed and Koyomi discovers that Eakins, the head of Farm 3, is responsible for the convoy attacks by using a remote-controlled body of Den. Agreeing to help him with his plan to revive the Barjack for her own reasons, at the revival a large number of Barjack witness a duel between a second Den who challenges the first and defeats him. As he disappears after ordering the Barjack to assist with constructing the Tower of Tiphares, Koyomi begins to find a purpose in life.