- Kroel: Would you be able to risk your life for the things you desire?
Ryouma needs one billion yen to save his terminally ill sister. Upon being given the figure by the hospital, he encounters a mysterious nurse clad in black who asks him if he would be willing to kill someone to get the money he needs through a game that's being held soon. After he confirms that he would, he turns around only for the woman to be gone only leaving him with a ticket. After he steps outside he begins to have his doubts, only to be suddenly hit by a truck, ending his life in a grisly fashion.
However, that was not the end, as he soon awakens in a girl's body and meets others who were also involved in various accidents shortly after receiving their own tickets. The group is then greeted by the self-proclaimed angel Kroel who informs them that they are all dead and are now at Limbo, the entrance to hell. Having all agreed to the game, should they win they shall be brought back to life in their original body with a combined total of 999,900,000,000 yen.
As they will die if they or anyone else say their real name, Ryouma chooses to operate under the name Yuki and dedicates himself to winning the game so that he can return to life with the money he needs to save his sister, no matter who he has to sacrifice.
Though You May Burn To Ash is a horror Deadly Game manga created by Kakashi Oniyazu that started in Square Enix's seinen manga magazine Young Gangan. It ran for six volumes from 2015 until the mangaka's unfortunate passing in 2019. Tsujimori wrote a spinoff called Though Everything Becomes Ash that ran for five volumes from 2018 to 2020.
- Body Horror: Lots of it throughout the entire series. Every time a character dies, a punishment is doled out by one of the angels, or even just some of the participants having an encounter, it is usually accompanied by lots of gore.
- Break the Cutie: Many of the participants are ruthless at best and downright crazy at worst. Those that aren't usually get run through the ringer either by the angels or the other participants. Noteworthy examples include:
- Meganeko-kun receiving a "loan" in which Kroel removes her fingers through various painful means. Adding insult to injury Yuki immediately targets her and leaves her with only a single yen to her name.
- Meganeko-kun realizing after the game ends and he has died that Yamada was her husband Haruaki. She immediately says her own name out of despair and dies.
- Exact Words: Many characters utilize this, with some, like Kroel, being more frequent users than most. Chances are, you need to take time to examine everything a character states from their words to the rules and analyze them before moving.
- Gender Bender: Regardless of their gender prior to entering the game, everyone is transformed into girls during the game itself. Some attempt to use others lack of experience as females to determine if they were male and figure out their identity.
- I Know Your True Name: If any of the participants have their real names said during the game, they will immediately die, meaning that everyone has to operate under false names and keep their real identities a secret lest they be killed by their opponents. Kroel even "jokes" to start saying some of their names if they put her in a bad mood.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Many players were not really ruthless people in life, but the promise of coming back to life and money brings out extremely determined people who will manipulate, backstab, and condemn others to death in order to win.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Yuki already had a Hair-Trigger Temper whenever the matter of his father is brought up but in order to achieve his goals he will condemn whomever stands in his way to death. Even other characters like Yamada who are shown to be fairly moral become unhinged as their goals are threatened.
- Morton's Fork: Only one participant can come back to life in their original body with the money they need. Yuki goes through with these horrible things motivated by coming back to life with the money for his sister's operation. However, unbeknownst to him, his sister is also participating as Reina Joushouji meaning either he wins and she's dead anyway or he dies for her sake.
