Second Chance

Second Chance follows Giovanni “Gio” Vittori, a young man who grew up under constant stress and instability, relying heavily on a close group of friends for belonging and emotional safety. That fragile support system collapses after a single night out: while celebrating together, Roland drives Gio’s car, hits a pedestrian, panics, and flees. Faced with the consequences, the group collectively decides that Gio—who owns the car and had been drinking earlier—is the most convenient person to blame. Gio is arrested, jailed, interrogated, and publicly branded a murderer. Although the case is eventually dropped due to lack of evidence, his life is effectively over. His father disowns him, employers refuse to hire him, and his former friends move on publicly, posting parties and smiling photos online while Gio is left isolated, angry, and emotionally hollow.

Just over four months after the incident, Gio is sitting alone beneath a streetlight at night. While replaying everything he has lost, Gio meets Mori, a calm, unsettling woman who seems to know exactly what he is thinking. Mori offers Gio a deal: revenge without legal consequences. She promises that those who ruined his life will face what they deserve, and that Gio will never again be arrested or punished by the law. Believing he has nothing left to lose, Gio agrees, knowingly trading away the remainder of his lifespan, claiming "not much I can use that for, anyway," feeling he no longer has anything good in his life, and therefore has no reason to go on living. With a kiss on the forehead and a chain necklace gifted from Mori, their deal is set.

While searching for work the following day, Gio unexpectedly encounters Madelyn on the street while job hunting—his first direct contact with any of his former friends in months. The moment is tense and volatile. Madelyn attempts to flee, clearly afraid, but Gio catches up to her and demands answers about the night of the hit-and-run. His anger boils over as he points out the discrepancy in their stories, specifically that Roland was driving, not him. Though Gio stops short of physical violence, his confrontation is intense enough to leave Madelyn shaken. As they part, Gio explicitly promises that she—and the rest of the group—will “pay” for what they did to him. Immediately afterward, Gio questions whether this encounter was pure coincidence or the result of Mori's interference, wondering if she engineered their paths crossing as part of their deal.

While hanging out with the rest of the group later on, Madelyn mentions her run-in with Gio, and the rest of Gio's former group is introduced. Jayden dominates the room with crude jokes, drug use, and open contempt for Gio, treating his downfall as entertainment rather than tragedy. Lucy, emotionally dependent and already slipping deeper into addiction, clings to Jayden and avoids engaging with the situation beyond surface-level concern. Emilio, physically imposing and eager to please, positions himself as the group’s protector, quickly offering to “handle” Gio if he becomes a problem, though his loyalty is rooted more in instinct than reflection. Madelyn, shaken from her encounter with Gio, reframes him as frightening and unstable, using fear to justify the group’s betrayal and reinforce her own sense of victimhood. Oscar remains quieter than the rest, observant and reserved, uncomfortable with the conversation but not yet willing to challenge it. Overseeing it all is Roland, calm and controlled, subtly steering the discussion to ensure everyone maintains the same story about the accident and reassures them that blaming Gio was necessary. Together, the scene establishes the group’s core failure: not one of them is willing to accept responsibility, and each relies on a different coping mechanism—cruelty, denial, fear, force, silence, or manipulation—to live with what they’ve done.

Not long after, Gio meets Sueña, a barista who initially rejects his awkward attempt at flirting. When they meet again, however, Sueña gives him a second chance, and the two slowly begin dating. Their relationship grows through ordinary moments: getting ice cream, going to an arcade, eating at a nice restaurant, watching movies... Sueña represents a version of Gio’s life that could have existed without betrayal or vengeance—a normal future built on patience, affection, and mutual care. Around her, Gio softens. He laughs. He imagines a future. For the first time since the incident, Gio starts to feel at peace.

Meanwhile, Mori remains ever-present in Gio’s life, watching closely and intervening when necessary. Her interest in Gio is not purely transactional; she displays a subtle infatuation, remembering his favorite drink and keeping it waiting for him in her home, speaking to him with a familiarity that borders on intimacy. Where Sueña offers warmth, grounding, and connection, Mori offers validation of Gio’s anger and a sense of control over a world that once crushed him.

As Gio confronts his former friends, the cost of the deal becomes clearer. Jayden, openly cruel and consumed by drugs, mocks Gio’s suffering and admits to sleeping with Lucy, Gio’s ex-girlfriend. Their confrontation escalates into violence, and Gio kills Jayden. Rather than guilt, Gio feels relief. When Lucy later realizes what Gio has done and attempts to call the police, Mori intervenes directly—ripping Lucy’s head off without hesitation. This act reveals a crucial rule of the contract: Gio cannot be arrested again. Lucy’s death is not about revenge, but enforcement. From this point forward, it is undeniable that Mori will kill anyone who threatens the agreement, regardless of Gio’s feelings.

The most emotionally complex confrontation comes with Oscar, the one friend who truly reflects on their shared guilt. Oscar recognizes that what happened to Gio was wrong and tries to reconcile, admitting regret and expressing a desire to start over after “getting what he deserves.” Gio confronts Oscar, but after a long and intense fight ultimately chooses to spare him, unwilling to kill the only person who showed genuine self-awareness. In that moment, Gio attempts to assert agency—to stop the cycle. Mori immediately appears and cuts Oscar in half, overriding Gio’s choice. The aftermath devastates Gio in a way the earlier killings did not. For the first time, he understands that the deal has stripped him not just of consequences, but of control. His anger no longer fully belongs to him.

As the story, as well as Gio's life nears its end, Gio realizes that staying with Sueña will inevitably destroy her. Though deeply in love, he breaks up with her in what becomes his most selfless act, asking her to forget him and live a better life untouched by the violence and fate surrounding him. Finally, Gio confronts Roland, who coldly explains that betrayal is simply how the world works—and reveals that Mori also benefited him. Mori’s feelings toward Roland are notably different from her fixation on Gio: she sees Roland as a detestable coward, and . In the final revelation, it is shown that Mori herself was the pedestrian Gio’s car hit that night—she deliberately jumped in front of it, setting the entire chain of events into motion. The betrayal, the deal, the revenge, and Gio’s eventual end were all part of a closed loop.

The series ends where it began: Gio beneath a streetlight at night. Mori arrives to collect what she is owed. Gio does not beg or resist. Having lost his anger, his fear, and his hope for redemption, he accepts his fate calmly. When Mori asks how he feels, Gio answers simply that he feels **complete**. Second Chance concludes not as a story of triumph or damnation, but as a tragedy about choice—about two paths offered, one taken, and the quiet, irreversible cost of believing peace can be bought without consequence.

• Second Chance takes place in the same world as Strings of Fate, around 8 and a half years after Chloe defeated Shem. This is never explicitly stated in either story, and knowledge of one story isn't necessary to enjoy the other; however, there are a few references to this fact.

• In Strings of Fate, when Chloe is holding onto Shem in Chapter 247, he mentioned he's locked away lots of dangerous magic; such as 'beasts' and Dark magic.

• In Volume 6, Mori tells Gio that her attempts at using Dark magic didn't work until her 17th birthday. Mori's age in Second Chance is 25, meaning that her 17th birthday would've been mere months after Chloe defeated Shem; hence Dark magic being unsealed.

• In a flashback, Madelyn states that no one has been able to use Dark magic for thousands of years.

• On top of taking place after Strings of Fate, the two stories also share a number of similarities, including:

1. The protagonist of both stories makes a deal with a magic-using woman to assist them with someone they used to get along with.

2. Both Shem and Mori have four-letter names that directly translate to words in other languages (Shem being 'name' in Hebrew, and Mori being 'death' in latin).

3. The main antagonists of both stories have their names kept secret for around half of the story's length.

4. Both stories' midpoint antagonist (Rhiannon in Strings of Fate and Oscar in Second Chance) have significantly more 'screentime' than other minor antagonists, and seem to share a respect for their respective protagonists.

• Second Chance used to feature Strings of Fate's magic system more prominently, with Gio and each friend using a different kind of magic. The decision to make everyone except Mori unable to use magic was extremely last-minute, being made after the script had already begun writing.

• Despite similarities to real life circumstances, the general idea of a revenge plot regarding a group of friends betraying the main protagonist was conceived before a similar situation would happen to Gaboza.

• Despite characters like Gio, Sueña, and Mori existing as far back as 2020, Emilio was made in 2023, to tie together Gio and his friends as embodiments of the seven deadly sins.

• Gio, Oscar, and Roland were originally made for a slice-of-life series, before aforementioned real-life circumstances caused Gaboza to pivot to using them in Second Chance.

• Sueña and Madelyn were both made as one-off designs before being used for Second Chance, with Sueña being a depiction of Gaboza's "dream girl" (hence the name), and Madelyn being Gaboza's attempt at a "shortstack" character after a friend expressed appreciation for the archetype.

• Second Chance is the first Gaboza story to have an official theme song, after Gaboza asked permission from indie band The Vanished People to use MOKA! as the comic's theme song during a TikTok live, to which they agreed.