An American orphanage serves as the front for a human trafficking ring, secretly selling children to black markets in Asia. This is the grim reality at the heart of Canis: The Speaker, a manga by ZAKK (also known as Hachi Ishie) that functions as a prequel within the larger Canis series.

In the winter of 1980, three young boys—the impulsive and protective Harold "Har" Miller, the quiet and observant Tadanobu "Nobu" Miller, and the intelligent and articulate Samuel "Sam" Miller—share a room in a religious orphanage in the United States. Bound by an unbreakable vow to stay together forever, their world shatters when they uncover the dark secret behind the orphanage's farewell tea parties, realizing that children who leave are not being adopted but sold. Their investigation leads to their separation as punishment: Nobu, being of Asian descent, is trafficked to Japan, while Hal and Sam are sent to different institutions within the United States.

The story then leaps forward twenty-two years. The three friends have risen to powerful positions, each shaped by their traumatic past. Nobu, now going by Tadanobu, has survived the brutal underworld to become a formidable lawyer and vice president of a company controlled by the yakuza. Hal has become a determined police officer, while Sam has built a successful career as a political operative or financier on Wall Street. Their reunion is not one of simple sentiment but the beginning of a calculated and meticulous operation to track down the people who destroyed their childhood and exact a far-reaching revenge.

While The Speaker focuses on this trio, its story is deeply connected to the main narrative of the Canis series. The first two parts, Dear Mr. Rain and Dear Hatter, center on the relationship between Satoru Kutsuna, a Japanese hat maker, and Ryou Kashiba, a young American man with a mysterious and dangerous past tied to the mafia. The Speaker serves as a prequel, revealing the origins of the shadowy world that characters like Ryou inhabit. Characters from The Speaker, including the three protagonists and a young Ryou, appear in the later volumes of Dear Hatter, providing crucial context for the main story's conflicts and character motivations. The narrative weaves together multiple international crime syndicates, including the Japanese yakuza, the Italian mafia, and American intelligence agencies, creating a complex and interwoven thriller that extends beyond its boys' love genre origins. The series concludes its run across four collected volumes, bringing the childhood trauma and adult schemes of its characters to a final resolution.