Kaioh tells Kenshiro that he has hated how Hokuto Ryuuken has always been seen as the inferior style, and how Hokuto Soukei has always gotten in the way. He will destroy everything to do with Hokuto Soukei now. He then hits the ground around Kenshiro with an attack that makes it fall away, and sends Ken into the depths.



As Ken lands he wonders what this place is. Kaioh laughs from up above and says that the fumes down there are far from healthy. Kenshiro finds it extremely difficult to breathe and Kaioh says that the fumes effect a man by paralyzing his body! Kenshiro stumbles around...



..as Kaioh hits some of his own pressure points so the fumes won't effect him. He jumps down and smashes Kenshiro with several punches, and he can't fight back. Ken crashes into a pillar but he then notices something. He jumps up to higher ground and sees that the pillars are in the shape of the Hokuto Shichsei (Big Dipper).



This is all apparently some kind of plan as Kaioh says the more Kenshiro attempts to fight him down there, he'll keep moving around and getting too close to the pillars. Kaioh can easily catch him now. The effects of the fumes worsen and Kenshiro loses his balance, falling off the ledge and landing near to Kaioh.



Meanwhile Samato's group are trying to wake Lin up when another Shura runs over. He tells them that Lin has had one of her pressure points struck by Kaioh, so when she wakes up, she will fall in love with the first person she sees. Samato wants to make sure that person is him and he apparently knows the pressure point to wake Lin up. But as he grabs her, a familiar green aura surrounds his men...



...and destroys them. The aura then makes Samato's fist hit himself and it also picks up Lin. She lands in the arms of Hyo, who sees that he has arrived just in time.



He easily destroys Samato as Kuroyasha also arrives and tells Hyo not to strain himself to much as he's still injured. Hyo doesn't want Kaioh to control Lin's life like this and sees her eyes start to open. He puts his hand over her eyes and tells her that there is only one person she must see first.



Meanwhile Kaioh throws Kenshiro a knife and tells him to commit suicide with it. He doesn't want to kill him with his own fists now, he'd rather it go down in history as Kenshiro being a coward who killed himself in front of Kaioh's awesome presence. Kenshiro slowly takes the knife, stands up and shatters it...



..and shards go everywhere, with one going into Kaioh's head. He laughs and tells Ken that it is pointless to try and fight, as he can't even breathe. He starts to walk towards him, but Ken suddenly shows the palm of his hand and a quick streak of light is thrown from it, hitting Kaioh's neck.



Kaioh stumbles -now the fumes are also effecting him! He sees that Kenshiro threw a single strand of hair at him, but it hit the pressure point he himself hit earlier, disabling it. As he is no longer protected, he leaps up to the outside.



Kaioh hasn't been hurt, but he watches as Kenshiro jumps back up. Kenshiro hits some pressure points on his own chest and it repairs any damage the fumes did to him. Kaioh tells Kenshiro not to underestimate his power, as he is not like Raoh or Toki, men who gave in to compassion.



He goes into a stance, which Kenshiro recognises straight away: it looks a lot like that statue he saw with Shachi and Leia. Kaioh runs towards Kenshiro with a fury of punches and swipes, which Kenshiro avoids.



He hits back with his own multi-punches and one of his hits just misses Kaioh's head, cutting off some of his hair instead. But behind the hair is what seems to be a birthmark...a very familiar looking one. Kaioh has the mark of the big dipper on his head.



Kenshiro then stuns Kaioh by telling him that he is part of the Hokuto Soukei family! The birthmark on his head is proof. He explains to Kaioh that he learnt a lot when he found out about the history of Hokuto Shinken...



2,000 years a go, the world was in chaos due to the many warriors constantly fighting each other. The members of Hokuto Soukei gathered together, wanting a savior to appear who would create a new assassination style art which would rule supreme and bring the world back in order. However there were no new male members of the Hokuto Soukei, but there were two sisters who each gave birth to a boy on the same day. Shume (one on the left) gave birth to Shuken. Meanwhile Ouka, the older sister, gave birth to Ryuoh.



Shume was sick, but the two sisters would look out for one another as they hoped their sons would. However, the problem was that there were two children now. They would compete and potentially destroy each other in combat. Therefore, the Hokuto Soukei elders took the two babies away, with a horrible fate awaiting one of them.



The babies were taken away to a sacred place where a pack of wolves would kill one of them -the surviving one would become the savior. However Shume couldn't stand it and on the night the event was to take place, she took her child and hoped Ryuoh would forgive her. She ran away as the wolves closed in on Ryuoh, but they were destroyed by the Hokuto Soukei elders. They tracked Shume down as Ouka asked her sister why she did this. Shume suddenly coughs up blood. Her illness has worsened.



In fact, she won't live much longer. She wanted to raise her own son with the little time she had left and planned to hide in a nearby village. The elders decided that Ryuoh could become the savior but Ouka told them no -Shuken can become that instead. She doesn't care what happens to her own child, as long as he isn't killed. She knows the rules of Hokuto Soukei but rather than have Ryuoh die, she offers her own life instead.



Saying that she was doing this for the love of her sister, Ouka jumped off the cliff and killed herself. Honoring their agreement, the elders kept both babies alive. They said that the sister's love for Shuken was a sign from the heavens, and that he must be the savior.



Shuken grew up and developed the most powerful assassination style ever seen -Hokuto Shinken! Later on, the elders built that female statue to honor the art's history.



Ryuoh, who had the mark of the Hokuto Shichsei on his head like Kaioh now has, went on a journey. Without his mother's love, he did not realize that love had any power. And because of that, he was the one who created Hokuto Ryuuken. Back in the present, Kenshiro tells Kaioh that if he defeats him, he will no longer be able to turn his back on love any longer.


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

Kenshiro and Kaioh continue to fight, whilst Hyo becomes exhausted trying to protect Lin. However, another man arrives on the land of Shura to decide her destiny. Find out who it is in "The Last Introduction! The Third Man Who Holds Lin's Fate Appears!!"

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