Jagi's buddies have arrived on the scene. Jagi kills the two guys who were going to attack him, and the other villagers are shocked -they believe that they are seeing Kenshiro, the one who defeated Devil Rebirth and the Fang Clan, but is he really this evil? As his followers declare that he is indeed Kenshiro, the successor of Hokuto Shinken, Jagi begins to laugh.



Back in Mamiya's village, Kenshiro is about to leave again and asks Rei to take care of Bat and Lin whilst he is gone. When Lin hears this she doesn't want him to go again already as he only just got back from fighting, but everyone shuts up when Ken says that his next opponent is someone who also uses Hokuto Shinken. Rei questions this as the style is only meant to have one successor, but Ken goes on to explain.



Kenshiro and three other children were adopted and trained in Hokuto Shinken by Master Ryuken. After Ken was chosen to be the true successor, the other three split up. The tradition was that those who were not chosen were forced to give up the style, but it seems this did not happen if Jagi is still alive.



Kenshiro says that he may not return and then sets off alone into the desert. Mamiya has also seen his departure and the village elder tells her to go after him, but she says that as long as the memory of Yuria is still in his heart, he will go on fighting. She chooses not to follow him.



Back at the other village, the punks who work for Jagi are busy causing panic and despair as they beat people up, capture women and loot the place. They bury one guy in the ground with only his head on show and grab another guy. They ask this man to say who the statue is of, but he doesn't know. For that, he is told that he must saw the buried man's head off. The man gets the saw and tries to do this but then refuses, saying that he hasn't got the guts to kill another man.



The leader punk is not pleased and asks if he thinks Lord Kenshiro will come and save him now. An older villager steps forward and says that this Kenshiro is nothing more than a thug and murderer. These statements that again do not go down well with the punk, who has his men bring him over. He lets him know that he now has the honor of killing the guy in the ground.



He doesn't notice that another man has arrived until he has his head shoved into the ground by him. The punk gets up and tells the man, who is the real Kenshiro, that he has some nerve and tells him to name the statue. Kenshiro says that he doesn't know who that person is.



Since he doesn't know, that means that he must saw the man's head off. The punk tells Ken to pick up the saw and he does, only to swing it right into the punk's head. The punk says he meant for him to saw the other guy, before he falls forward and dies. As he does so, he happens to knock Ken's cloak off.



This reveals to the punk's friends that he is also a man with seven scars. He tells them all that he knows what the real name of the man the statue is based on...it is Jagi. He use to refer to Jagi as his "brother" but now he wants to know where he is. The punks are happy for another reason though as Jagi, their leader, told them to find Kenshiro.



This leads to a flashback of Kenshiro and Jagi sparring against each other. Each of them had several pressure points marked on their bodies and Ryuken told them that they must strike every one of their opponent's points to win. The two clashed, but as they landed, Ken realised that Jagi had spat some needles at him, which almost went into one of his eyes.



Jagi told Ken that a loser like him could never win, and that it doesn't matter how you win -as long as you do. He then leaped up into the air and used the Hokuto Senjuu Satsuu (North Star Thousand Hand Smash) to knock his opponent down.



This move knocked his opponent to the floor and Jagi claims to be the victor, and that with his skill he is clearly the one who should be chosen to be the successor to Hokuto Shinken. But Ryuken called him a fool and told him to look at his chest: all of the pressure points had been hit! If it was a real battle, he would be dead. Humiliated, Jagi told Ken that he is still the stronger of the two and that he will never, ever beat him.



Jagi then walked off and Ryuken asked why Kenshiro let his opponent hit him...and then guesses that it was because he was too kind. He warned Ken that if he lets his opponents get away with that they will bring him much suffering, and that someone like Jagi would really bring him pain.



The flashback ends and Jagi's punks have decided to attack. Kenshiro kills one of them and the rest band together, but none of them last for much longer either. Only one is left and he tells Ken that he is different, as Lord Jagi has taught him some Hokuto Shinken techniques! Kenshiro ignores him and rescues the man trapped in the ground, which annoys the punk and makes him charge. However, Ken elbows him in the face.



He gets back up and Kenshiro tells him to go ahead. The punk hits pressure points on Ken's head and tells him he only has 10 seconds left to live! He counts them down, only for his own head to explode after the time expires. Ken says that Hokuto Shinken is a martial art with a 2,000 year history, scum like him could never hope to master it.



One punk who was hiding is spotted by Ken, who makes him reveal the location of where Jagi is hiding, at some place with an oasis not that far away. The punk wants to be sparred, but instead Ken shoves him into that hole in the ground and tells the villagers to do what they wish with him. Ken then starts to make his way towards Jagi's place, thinking about what Ryuken told him.



At the city when Jagi is at, one of his minions runs in to tell him that Kenshiro is on the way and has already killed several of his men. He suggests going into hiding, but Jagi does not like this suggestion as he believes his underling does not believe that he has the power to kill Kenshiro.



The price for his talk is death, and after reminding the punk that Kenshiro would never be able to defeat him, Jagi presses two pressure points on the man's arms which cause them to explode and fall off, killing him. Jagi says that there can only be one true successor to Hokuto Shinken per generation, and he is the one!


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

Jagi was the one pretending to be Kenshiro, and Ken must find and face him. Tune in next time for "The Hellish Iron Mask! He Who Terrorizes in the Name of the North Star!!"

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