Near the Holy Cross Mausoleum, one of Souther's luckless troops gets a nasty surprise when he finds that Raoh has come to have a look at what is going on. After Kokuoh destroys the soldier just by stepping on him, Raoh surveys...



...the gigantic structure with a couple of his own men. Raoh fully knows about Souther, who is meant to be the strongest of all the Nanto masters. The troops mention that Souther's forces are invading and taking over nearby villages and capturing children, who are made to work on the mausoleum. Raoh gets angry, but he has yet to fully recover from the injuries he got fighting against Kenshiro, so he cannot challenge Souther yet. Instead, he tells the Holy Emperor to enjoy this whilst he can, and then vows to return to this place.



Souther's troops continue to make the children work as hard as they can, but they then see their leader returning. Souther steps out of his vehicle, but he says nothing and just looks at the mausoleum.



Bat and Lin have left the safety of Mamiya's village to go and search for Ken. They've found out that he was in a nearby town and trashed a bunch of evil-doers there, but he has once again moved on. So the two kids have stopped to take a bite to eat when Pell suddenly starts to bark and before they know it, two of Souther's troops are waiting for them. The soldiers are happy because they have another 2 kids to help out with building the pyramid.



Bat says he will protect Lin, but this just makes the troops laugh. One of them taunts Bat, only for him to get punched in the face. The other soldier decides to just kill Bat, but just as his axe is about to hit, he suddenly gets sliced into pieces!



Bat and Lin can only watch as the other soldier also gets sliced apart. Another man has arrived.



Meanwhile, Kenshiro has returned to being the wandering warrior and has set out across a desert by himself. He arrives in yet another town, only this one seems to be completely deserted. He eventually finds a young girl playing with a basketball, which she accidentally drops and it rolls to him. Ken picks it up and is about to give it her back when several men appear and tell the girl, Chiko, to move away!



The villagers had appeared and want to know if Ken has come here to kidnap their children. They then want to kill him instead, but the village elder appears and says that Ken is not a bad man. He then explains the situation to Ken about Souther having children taken away to work on the Holy Cross pyramid. Many bandits are capturing children to take them to Souther so they can join his army. Kenshiro cannot believe Souther's actions.



Punks around the place are on the look out for children to capture, and one fatty has arrived at a place he thought he saw some kids at earlier. He sees some movement in a small house and goes to investigate. There seems to be one woman inside, but he finds her son hiding in a box and takes him away.



As he leaves, the woman begs for her son to forgive her as by sacrificing himself, he let five other children remain undetected. But at that point another no good bandit appears and calls the first punk a fool for not checking out this place more closely, as there were another five kids for the taking! With those kind of numbers you can certainly join Souther's force, so the punk knocks the woman out of the way and then collects the kids.



He goes to leave, only to bump into Kenshiro. He seems to know that Kenshiro could probably beat him up, so he offers him some of the kids for himself. Kenshiro wants all of the kids, which makes the guy drop them all and pull out a shotgun!



Before he gets to fire it, Ken knocks the gun out of his hand and then punches him in the face. Ken then makes the guy sweat a bit by pointing the gun right at him, but then he drops it and walks away. The guy immediately grabs his weapon back and screams he'll kill him...



...only to find out he is already dead. Doka, the woman's son, then runs out as it turns out that Ken had also managed to save him. Ken then hears something and tells the others to take cover, so they run back into the house.



Some of Souther's troops have arrived and want to kill Kenshiro. Before they can fire their spear arrows, they suddenly hear whistling. And then, lots of arrows are launched at them -all but one of Souther's troops are killed within seconds.



The last surviving soldier has just enough time to ask who all these new guys are when one leaps down and destroys him. Kenshiro knows that the technique the man used was from a branch of Nanto Seiken.



The man introduces himself as Shuu, the blind master of Nanto Hakurou Ken (South Star White Heron Fist) and he recognises Kenshiro to be the master of Hokuto Shinken. He wants to fight him, and starts things off by wielding a double ended mace at him.



Kenshiro destroys part of the weapon, as Shuu realises toys like this are no good. He tosses what is left of it aside. Kenshiro wonders if this man has the same evil ambitions that Souther and Raoh have, yet there seems to be something different about him. Shuu says that when Nanto is in disarray, Hokuto appears, so they were destined to battle each other. Ken warns him that he always meets challengers with his fists, but Shuu just goes into a stance.


NANTO HAKUROU KEN OUGI: YUUGEN SHOU

(South Star White Heron Fist Secret Technique: Alluring Illusion Palm)



The technique seems to make Shuu impossible to see, as many images of just his palms spin round Ken in a circle, and Ken can't figure out where his new opponent has gone. Shuu says that the eyes do not see, but the heart does. Kenshiro closes his eyes and waits, until he can sense where Shuu is. Shuu dives forward, but Ken stops his attack at the last moment.



Kenshiro tries to punch Shuu, but he easily dodges it and then uses a flip kick move which hits Ken. He then leaps forward, using a technique called "Rek Kyaku Kubu" (Raging Aerial Kick Wave), where he does a series of fast rapid kicks.



Ken avoids some of these strikes, but then blocks one of them with a kick of his own. Shuu congratulates Ken on being the first person to ever survive against his moves, but how long can he keep this up? Ken thinks about what Rei said to him (for him to live on, as this era needs him) and tells Shuu that he will not die here. He then decides to show Shuu what kind of power the Hokuto Shinken style has.


Kenshiro unleashes a technique, but it is not one of his own -it is the Denshou Reppa (Legendary Thrust Split Wave). This strikes Shuu, who knows that this move is from the Nanto Koukaku Ken style, the style Yuda was a master of. Kenshiro tells Shuu that he can use the moves of others thanks to a secret technique of the Hokuto Shinken style, known as "Suieishin" (Spirit Reflection). If he witnesses a technique, he can also use it.



Kenshiro begins to spam this attack out, telling Shuu that the sounds of the Earth caving in on him must be terrifying. This is enough to put Shuu into confusion, and he loses his concentration. Kenshiro sneaks behind him and when Shuu turns around, he gets punched in the face.



Whilst he is down, Kenshiro goes to punch him again, only for fist to stop short. Shuu calls him a fool and wants to know why he doesn't finish him, but Ken wants to know why Shuu was holding back. None of his moves had any intent to kill, he could feel it. But he then hears Lin, who begs him to stop fighting Shuu.



She and Bat explain that Shuu is not evil, and that he saved them earlier. Shuu says that Kenshiro is strong, and he now knows why Rei sided with him. He wanted to see Kenshiro's power for himself. Kenshiro helps him up, and Shuu explains that he was one of Rei's friends. He is the Star of Benevolence, and he has been waiting for Kenshiro to come here -he is the only man who can defeat the Holy Emperor, Souther!


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

Shuu's fate began the moment he met Kenshiro -which was earlier that you may think! Tune in next time for "Shuu of the Nanto Hakurou Ken! What do you see at the end of this Century!!"