At the city of Southern Cross, Shin is in his fortress and he takes Yuria to the top floor. They both look out across the city and Shin tells her that everything she can see -every tree, every building, etc -is hers. But Yuria tells him that he just doesn't understand what she really wants (Kenshiro) and she runs off.



Shin is confused. Why can he not get Yuria to open her heart to him? Joker then appears and delivers more bad news: it seems that Kenshiro has survived and someone saw him in the desert. Shin is irritated by his persistence, but it does not concern him that much. With just one word, he will send thousands of men in to kill him and that he will be reduced to dust in the desert.



Meanwhile Kenshiro resumes his search for Shin, and he and the kids are out in the desert. They see a small city in the middle of nowhere and go and check it out, finding that despite the small size it is a quite populated place with a lot of market stalls which have a lot of food for sale. Kenshiro reckons that there must be a water source close by because that is one reason why people will gather together like this. As they venture further into the town someone suddenly shouts that "they're here!" and people run off in panic.



As everyone flees Kenshiro grabs somebody and asks what is going on. He is told that "God's Army" has arrived and whilst they have no idea what that could be, they see several motorcycles heading in their direction, so they quickly also run off and hide. However, an elderly woman falls down as the bikes head her way. They are about to run her over when Kenshiro leaps in to save her. The bikes all stop.



Ken calmly walks back and collects all of the woman's food and then takes it back to her. All of the guys on bikes watch but one of them simply points forward and they are on the move again. Another man then explains that those guys on bikes were part of God's Army -an army that claim to be the army of God, and when they arrived at this town they said they would protect it.



But their protection comes at a price: they take food, women and whatever they want. If the villagers try to fight back, they die. Lin is distraught that this is another place where force rules.



The trio move on and Bat says to look on the bright side, as this town has a lot of food and it should be easy to get some. He declares that he is now Ken's manager. As they walk on a man is thrown through a window and then a very large man crashes though the door: he has just thrown the owner out of the bar because he wants to eat at his place for free.



Bat sees this as his first opportunity for free food and asks the bartender that if he gives them three days worth of food, they can get rid of the really large man. At first, the bartender says no, but when Bat tells him that the large guy will get through more than 3 days within seconds, he haggles it down to giving them 2 days worth of food. Bat tells the large guy that they will deal with him now, but the big man thinks that he will be fighting Bat. He crushes a bike to show off his strength.



Bat has Kenshiro fight him. The big guy swipes at Kenshiro with his right arm, but Ken just stops his attack with one of his fingers. Ken then does the same to the guy's other arm, and then kicks him twice.


HOKUTO GOUKIN BUNDAN KYAKU

(North Star Muscle Cutting Kick)



This saps the man of most of his strength and makes his arms mostly useless. Ken tells him that he has left him with just enough strength to make an honest living and he waddles off, leaving Bat to claim the reward. The bar owner, Johnny, takes them inside his place and shows them where he keeps his food supply: in a large vault. He can't leave it out in the open like in the old days as food is so valuable now, and he then gives Bat some.



It isn't as much as Bat had hoped for, but he takes it anyway. Three men from God's army then appear and walk into the bar, as they have come to collect this month's ration of food.



Kenshiro watches as Johnny nervously goes over to the vault and gets out a huge bag of food, but even this isn't enough for the army. Johnny has to give them a big bottle of whiskey to stop them from trashing the place. The soldiers then say that if he has any trouble, he can tell them and they will sort it out. One of the soldiers notices that Pel is licking his boot, so he kicks the puppy away. Lin picks up her dog and calls the man horrible, but he is more interested in who they are as he hasn't seen them in town before.



Kenshiro steps forward and one of the soldiers recognises him from earlier, he was the one who saved the old woman. They are about to start a fight with him when Johnny begs them to take it outside. They all go out and the soldiers reveal that they have nunchaku weapons. The Captain of the soldiers starts to attack.



However, Ken dodges his moves and then strikes back with one of his own: the Koushu Hagan Ken. With their Captain killed, the other two soldiers pick him up and leave on their bikes. As Lin and Bat cheer they then all head back inside and Johnny is amazed that Ken managed to beat God's Army. But he warns them about what the members of God's Army are: former red berets. He tells them that a single red beret is meant to be able to kill 500 normal soldiers single handedly, and if one of their own is killed they will kill 10 in retaliation, that is the way they work.



At the base of God's Army, only the chosen get to join. Hundreds of men are there and they must endure God's training, which involves several tough exercises all performed under the supervision of SGT. Mad, a massive man who kills anyone who isn't up to the grade. The promise is that when the unit is ready, God will help them build a new nation to live in.



One soldier defeats another, but this is seen by Mad and another God's Army Major. The Major tells the victor to kill his opponent, but he doesn't want to because he is his brother. The Major tells him that that doesn't matter -he was better than his brother, and God's Army only accepts those who are superior. Mad grabs the guy's hand and forces him to kill his brother.



Back at the bar, Johnny say that the leader of God's Army is a man with superhuman powers, and something that Ken finds disturbing is that this leader has been trained in a style of Nanto! Bat thinks he must have Shin's techniques, but Ken reveals that with Nanto Seiken, there are many different styles to the art. Back with God's Army, the Major of the unit is informed about the death of the Captain, and is told that his death was caused by a martial artist. A wanted poster with Ken's face on it is then thrown at a wall.



The leader of God's Army, Colonel, appears and says that there is a search order from God: find the man with the seven scars. This man is Kenshiro, the master of Hokuto Shinken. Colonel then vanishes as the Major says he will find the man. He takes a unit out with him to head back to the city where Kenshiro killed the Captain earlier.



As they head there though some of the townsfolk have banded together with the intent to take on God's Army so they can be free of their evil grasp, and as the unit moves closer they fire a lot of arrows at them. But the unit skillfully blocks all of the arrows and tells the rebels that they may have weapons, but they don't know how to use them. The army then strikes back by throwing knives at the villagers, killing many of them.



Word of the uprising gets through to where Ken is at. Johnny calls them idiots for going up against a professional army. But Kenshiro runs off, leaving Bat and Lin behind, to go and see what is going on. Meanwhile, the attack has not gone well as most of the townsfolk have been killed and any left alive have ran away in fear. The Major says that he is tired of fighting these people as he just wants to find Kenshiro...who happens to appear above him.



He tells the unit that they work for a false God and then he charges up with energy, ripping his shirt and telling them that they will be the next ones to die. They respond by throwing knives at him but Kenshiro reveals his secret weapon: nunchaku. He uses these to deflect the knives and send them back in the direction they came from, and soon nearly all of the unit are killed, except for the Major.



The Major is pleased as he hasn't got to have a fight with someone as strong as Kenshiro for quite some time, but Kenshiro says that he will be the last man he'll ever fight before he is sent to hell. The Major then goes on to say that his whip isn't just any whip and it can cut something like a knife. He attempts to use it to cut Kenshiro in half but Kenshiro leaps over his attack, and then kicks the Major twice.


HOKUTO SOUKIN JIZAI KYAKU

(North Star Muscle Control Spin Kick)



Kenshiro has pressed the Major's "Meiken" pressure point, and it means that he no longer has control over his body. Ken the sets up the Major's whip so it is wrapped around his neck and his arms then start to move by themselves, strangling the Major. He begs for mercy only to be told that he belongs in hell. He falls over and dies just as the sun rises up. Kenshiro's last words to him? "These are tough times."


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

God's Army move out to capture Kenshiro and resort to horrendously cruel tactics to achieve their goal. Tune in next time for "Villains! Shall We Have a Countdown to Death".