The First Shot

The First Shot (始まりの一矢, Hajimari no Isshi) is a special bonus chapter of The Promised Neverland. It was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on October 5, 2020.

Synopsis
Set in the year 2039, 5-year-old Ray finds out the truth about Grace Field House. He sadly watches as his siblings are shipped out. He wants to run away with only Emma and Norman.

Plot
The spin-off chapter shows us the early days of Ray and the dark secrets he uncovered long before his friends had come to him for aid. Ray was one of the most interesting characters in this dark fantasy story, originally starting off as a "traitor" who was feeding information to "Mom", he eventually found the strength within himself to rebel and offer his friends the opportunity to escape from the horrifying situation within the orphanage.

Ray, who was actually the biological son of "Momma", has more light shed on his past with this new chapter, as the manga dives into the fact that the one time traitor had discovered the secret behind who was "chosen" to be food for the monsters that were secretly running the world. Every two months, the child who scored the worst on the test that was administered to the occupants of the orphanage was "adopted", aka fed directly to the monsters. Faced with this horrifying revelation, there was little Ray could do as even if his friends studied their hardest, there was always going to be a child that was sacrificed to the ever growing hunger of the monsters.

On top of this horrific discovery, it was clear that Ray knew about the secrets of the orphanage long before Norman and Emma, proving that he had been dealing with the stress of the situation for months, if not years, prior to his friends discovering it. In working with Mom undercover, Ray set a goal for himself that if he could not save everyone, he would work his hardest to save Emma and Norman if nothing else.

Characters

 * Ray
 * Isabella