Kapitel 1

Kapitel 1: Escape is the first chapter of Volume 1 of the 07-Ghost manga series.

The volume was released on the 25th of November 2005 in Japan, and November 29, 2008 in North America. Its ISBNs are 978-4-7580-5193-4 and 978-1-60510-032-6 respectively.

Summary
The story introduces the main character Teito Klein, who is a former battle slave and young student at Barsburg Military Academy, a military school that trains its pupils to become soldiers. Teito is Chairman Miroku's star pupil at the academy, but is plagued with recurring dreams of the past which he struggles to remember completely. Because Teito used to be a slave, he is routinely bullied by many of the pupils in the school (most of them from noble families), but mainly Shuri Oak, the son of respected Field-Marshal Wakaba Oak.

Teito and his best, and only friend, Mikage are getting ready for the final exam of the year, the Begleiter Exam, which they need to pass if they wish to graduate and become begleiters. The exam is notoriously difficult, with only 20 of the 500 candidates being able to pass, and the students are required to kill a criminal, which turns out to be a Troll.

During the exam Teito saves the life of his tormentor, Shuri Oak, but Teito refuses to kill the criminal he is supposed too, which disappoints his superiors, but he still passes. Later, when walking to return his documents to an examiner, Teito overhears his name and stumbles upon a dark secret, pertaining to his hidden past of the fallen kingdom of Raggs which he has been unable to remember until now.

Attempting to assassinate the Chief of Staff of the army, Ayanami, the man who he remembers to have killed his father, he is stopped, captured and sent to a cell where he is to await interrogation. However, he breaks free with the help of Mikage and escapes on a Hawkzile, being rescued by Bishops Frau, Castor and Labrador and taken to the Barsburg Church.

Quotes from this chapter

 * "For some reason, I'm a child of the curch in my dreams. I've never met this person before. I've never seen this pace before.And yet... somehow... it feels nostalgic to me..." - Teito Klein (page 01)


 * "You're too slow." - Ayanami (page 20)


 * "You know that I was a slave, right? Not just any slave... A slave used for battle... I was sold to the army when I was very young. I... I never knew the 'love of a family' but because you think of me as your 'best friend' I thought that it miught be the same..." - Teito Klein to Mikage. (page 23)


 * "I am a man of thrills! It's a hell of a lot more fun up here!" - Frau (page 42)

Trivia

 * On page 8, when Mikage is looking out the window, in the bottom left corner two cadets can be seen that look exactly like Yukinami and Suzunami.
 * Mikage makes a joke about having lunch together with Teito and states that the advantage of doing so is the fact that when eat together, the "lunch lady" gives them free food. Despite receiving much negative feedback from his peers for being a former sklave and Miroku Basburg's "favorite student", Teito is apparently favored by everyone else as even his teacher was saddened when he wasn't able to attend his lessons because he had been excused from all of it.
 * Teito in this chapter is portrayed to be a serious student with Mikage as his complete opposite. Mikage appears to be happy just being with Teito and takes interest more on his friend rather than his studies (although he has expressed deep interest to "fight for the empire" and protect his family when he'd get accepted). This fact is later confirmed in Volume 13 when, visiting the Oak Residence and meeting the rest of Mikage's family, Teito finds out that all Mikage ever tells them is about how happy his days had been with his friend.
 * The Eyes of Mikhail and Raphael have a way of detecting each other (Page 27) as it is said by Ayanami that Raphael is "still reacting", an indication that both stones know if the other still exists or not.

Differences between the manga and anime

 * The scene with Teito and Mikage waking up early and the female officer arriving to announce the exam does not happen in the manga.
 * Miroku does not appear in this chapter.
 * In the manga Teito smiles when Mikage mentions that he fights for his family, in the anime Teito instead becomes upset, and thinks of the family he (Teito) doesn't have.
 * In the manga Mikage was the one that mentioned sparring, not Teito.
 * Mikage used his Zaiphon to write 'chibi' on the floor during their sparring match, as a reference to Teito's small stature. This does not happen in the anime.
 * The conversation about their friendship Teito and Mikage had in the anime does not occur in the manga until after the exam, instead Teito and Mikage spent the night sparring.
 * In the manga, when confronted with the criminal they need to kill in order to pass the exam, one of the students assumes he is a hologram, like the ones they used for combat practice before, and throws a stone at him. This does not happen in the anime.
 * The female officer is in the arena alone in the manga. In the anime, officer Lloyd is with her.
 * Ayanami's Zaiphon takes the criminal's head off in the manga, whereas in the anime he (the criminal) appears to have been killed by internal injuries, as no blood was shown.
 * Ayanami calls Teito 'soft' in the anime, whereas in the manga what he actually said was: 'you're slow'.
 * In the manga Teito is delighted when Mikage wants to make a promise to fight for each other until the end. In the anime Teito reluctantly accepts the offer.
 * Mikage decides to sleep in Teito's bed in the anime. In the manga, Mikage sleeps in his own bed.
 * In the anime, Teito hears the jingling of the necklace in his dreams and follows the sound. In the manga, he hears people talking about him, and follows the sound.
 * In the anime, Teito's Zaiphon is destroyed by Ayanami's when he (Teito) tries to attack him (Ayanami), but in the manga, Teito is restrained by Hyuuga before he has a chance to cast his Zaiphon.
 * In the anime Hyuuga says: 'If you attack Aya-tan, he'll kill you', whereas in the manga Hyuuga says: 'If you attack Aya-tan, I'll kill you'.
 * In the anime, Hyuuga and Ayanami stumble across the dead guards. This scene does not happen in the manga.
 * In the manga, Teito mounts a Hawkzile that was next to him, whereas in the anime he (Teito) leaps off a balcony to land on a Hawkzile that was parked several floors below.
 * In the anime, Ayanami waits till Teito has flown several metres before casting his Zaiphon. In the manga as soon as Ayanami spots Teito making his escape he attacks.
 * When Ayanami fires his Zaiphon at Teito, Hyuuga is with him in the anime. Ayanami is alone at the time in the manga, and he (Ayanami) is the one that notes Teito's shield.
 * The first appearance of the Bishops, Teito's fall, causing of the land slide and subsequent collision with Frau happens immedietally after Teito is hit with Ayanami's Zaiphon during that night, in the first chapter of the manga. However this scene occurs in the second episode of the anime, strangely happening the next morning - which means that Teito would have had to be falling from his Hawkzile for the entire night.