In the year 199X, the Earth was engulfed by nuclear flames. It's now a world where no living thing seems to be left... but, mankind hasn't died...

As Lin watches the sunset, she thinks about Ken. The village elder tells her that man will never come back. She could watch a hundred sunsets and he still wouldn't return. Lin is sure Ken will come back, but the elder then tells her to come back into the village, as the sun is about to go down. She still wants to wait for him, but he warns her that bandits come out at night. She decides to go back into the village with him.

The Deadly Fist of Lingering Regret!!
The Future is Sighted in the Barren Wasteland!!

Meanwhile, Kenshiro is under attack! Two men have grabbed him and a third, who does nothing but laugh, starts to use a technique that involves stabbing his finger into Ken's chest. Yuria is also present, but is held by two more men as she begs for them to stop harming Kenshiro. But the laughing man does not listen to her pleas.

Kenshiro then wakes up: it had just been a nightmare. As he realizes this, he sees an image of his beloved Yuria in the sky... where could she be? He then hears the sound of a vehicle heading towards him. The vehicle pulls up...

...and it's been driven by Bat. He looks around for Kenshiro, and wonders where he is. He then gets a surprise when he turns around and sees Ken sitting on the back of his car. He wonders when he got there -he's like a ninja! Ken says he thought Bat was one of Zeed's men. He jumps off, but Bat asks him if he wants a lift -he has a long way to go. He notices the look on Ken's face and tells him not to be so suspicious, he didn't steal this car. He built it himself, out of spare parts. He may not look it, but he's a mechanical genius, like Archimedes or Edison!

Kenshiro decides to take a ride. Bat asks him where he's going, and he says nowhere special. Bat thinks he's a drifter, and then finally introduces himself. But Kenshiro hears something, and suddenly jumps out of the car. He gets to the edge of a cliff and looks down below. There, he sees one man being hunted down by a gang.

The gang leader, Spade, tells the old man to hand over what he's got. The man, Smith, asks for mercy, saying that he must get these seeds to his village. Spade tells him to shut up, and just hand it over. Smith says that when the seeds grow, they'll share the rice with them. He begs them to just wait until then, as he went through a lot to get these seeds. Spade says if they're that valuable to him, it just makes him and his gang want to eat them even more. As Ken and Bat watch, Bat says they should go, this isn't their fight. This kind of thing happens all the time these days. It's the weak who always get the short end of the stick.

Kenshiro doesn't reply, but instead leaps off the cliff. He immediately takes out two of Spade's gang, and calls out to Spade. Spade wants to know who the hell this guy is.

Kenshiro tells him to let the old man go. Spade asks Kenshiro can't he see that he's got a bowgun? Kenshiro tells him not to try it -a bolt from that is just a dead tree branch in the face of the lone inheritor to the killing technique of the North Star divine fist! There's no way he can defeat him. Spade thinks otherwise, and fires. Kenshiro avoids the bolt just be tilting his head.

As Spade reloads, Kenshiro tells him he'll give him one more chance, so he should aim well. Because if this bolt misses, he will make him lose his right eye. Spade tells him to shut up, and fires again. The bolt heads directly towards Kenshiro's head, but he grabs it with just two of his fingers:

HOKUTO SHINKEN: NISHI SHINKU HA

(North Star Divine Fist: Two-Finger Nil-Space Grasp)

With just a flick of his fingers, Kenshiro sends the bolt right back at Spade, and it pierces through his eye. As he rolls around in agony, Kenshiro checks on Smith.

Smith says that the gang took the rice seeds. Spade and his gang drive away, as Bat comes down and tells Ken not to get mixed up in this anymore. Those guys were some of King's men! Kenshiro asks who King is. Bat says they're a gang of total lunatics, who control this area. Ken says Bat told him he was a break-in artist. Bat says he's pretty much the next Arsène Lupin -whatever he goes after, he gets! Ken tells him to go and steal back those rice seeds. Bat thinks he must be joking -those guys were King's men!

Ken says Bat is nothing but talk. He tells Smith to wait here, he'll go and get them back himself. Bat says he'll go with him, but Ken tells him to just go away. Bat quickly runes back to his car, realizing that if he makes Ken mad at him, there goes his meal ticket! He drives past Ken and tells him to just leave things to him. Meanwhile, at Spade's hideout, Spade rejects any first aid.

He says he still has one eye, and won't forgive that man. All this North Star crap can go to hell. He punches a wall in frustration, just as Bat rides up. Bat briefly plays his harmonica and says he wants to join the King gang. He's brought them this car as a present, which happens to be the world's only hand-made specialty car! Spade and the others think the car looks pretty cool, and start messing around with it. With them distracted, Bat sneaks off.

He heads inside a building, and finds the bag of seeds, guarded by a single man. He takes out a windup mouse toy, and lets it loose in the room. The guard sees it and thinks it'll make a good meal, and whilst he's distracted trying to grab it, Bat takes the seed bag, and heads back outside. He is immediately confronted by Spade, who calls him a little con man. He wants to know what he was doing in there. Bat says he was just taking a walk.

Spade tells him not to screw with them. Another gang member asks Bat what's with this car -it's a pile of junk, does he really call this a present? Bat says it's not that bad, and gets in it. He starts it up, but it blows smoke everywhere and stutters forward. Spade and the rest of his gang laugh, as Bat drives away.

Bat says he'll show them, but pretends that he can't stop. He drives out of the area, just as the guard comes out and says the rice seeds have been stolen. The gang realize Bat was the one who did it, and get ready to move out. Spade says they'll kill them all.

Realizing he's not being followed, Bat stops his car, and samples one of the rice seeds. He decides to cook them, since he hasn't eaten rice in ages. But before he can start, Kenshiro appears.

Before Bat can give a good excuse, Kenshiro slaps him around a couple of times, and then pours the seeds back into the bag. The two return to Smith, who thanks them for doing this. Bat asks him why he didn't just eat the rice -if he'd died, what would have been the point?

Smith explains that, eventually, all the food they have will eventually run out. But with this seed, they can harvest rice year after year. Once they do that, they won't have to fight each other for food anymore -the fighting will finally stop. Tomorrow is more important than today -a world without fighting, like the old days. When the rice grew in fields, and flowers covered the plains. He says it had taken him half a year just to collect this much seed, and asks Kenshiro to take it to the village. Kenshiro says they'll take the seed and him back to his village, and gets Bat to drive them to it. Bat says that if he'd known he'd be doing this, he would have stayed in that jail... at least Lin used to bring him food there!

At Lin's village, some trading is going on. The elder approves what can be traded, such as some meat for cans of water. One guy tries to trade a necklace for some water, but a guy says that jewels aren't worth anything anymore! He kicks it out of the guy's hands, and says that food and water are the only things worth anything now. Nearby, Lin sees a truck. She thinks that if she rides in this, she could go a long way -maybe even to where Ken is.

At Smith's village, the villagers notice a car coming, but are relieved when they see that Smith is in it. But what nobody realizes is that Spade's gang have been following. They keep their distance for now, but Spade vows to kill them all.

Smith reveals that he has the rice, and the villagers thank him for what he has done. Smith thanks Kenshiro for his help, as the villagers tell Smith to go and get some rest. Bat's happy as well, since he thinks it looks like they'll be getting a big reward for this. Ken tells him to start the car. Bat asks why -the villagers haven't given them anything yet! He thinks they deserve a couple of bowls of rice. He refuses to move.

Kenshiro asks him if he can hear that -the sound of a baby crying. Bat can hear that, but he says brats cry all the time. Ken says it's because mothers can't make their babies any milk. Everyone in this village is starving. Bat says he understands, and drives out of the village. As they drive away, Ken then notices something -Spade's gang!

He realizes they're heading straight towards Smith's village. Kenshiro leaps out of the car and runs back towards the village at superhuman speed, but he's too late -the gang have already entered, and begin attacking the villagers.

Spade finds Smith, and sees that he still has the bag of seeds. Kenshiro arrives just in time to see Spade throw a spear, which hits Smith's back and pierces through his chest.

Smith is still alive, and reaches for the bag of seeds, saying this is for the future. As he starts putting the spilt seeds back into the bag, Spade stabs his hand with a knife, and sees Kenshiro. He tells him he'll send him to hell, too. Smith sees Kenshiro, and tells him he wants these seeds to grow. Spade tells him to shut up, and stomps on him, which kills him.

Kenshiro, overcome with rage, destroys his jacket and shirt. He tells Spade scum like him and his gang don't deserve to live in this world. Bat is watching, and think Ken has really gone and done it now. Spade tells Kenshiro he's walking in a trap.

He has two of his gang attack Kenshiro with chains, which they wrap around his wrists. Spade says they've got him now, and asks him how it feels to be totally helpless. Kenshiro tells him, as he told him before -he can't kill him. Spade responds by throwing an axe at him.

Kenshiro is able to kick the axe, and it gets sent at an angle that hits one of the chain wielders right in the neck, decapitating him. He then turns his attention to the other man trying to restrain him, and throws a chain around his neck. The guy thinks Kenshiro must want to see which one of them is stronger.

Kenshiro tells him that people normally only use 30% of their potential strength. The secret of the North Star divine fist is tapping the other 70%! With a simple couple of pulls, he's able to drag the guy right over to him, and then hits him in the head with a chop:

GANZAN RYOUZAN HA

(Mountain Split Fissure Wave)

This move kills the guy instantly. Spade isn't put off by this, and pulls out two axes. He tells Kenshiro he can't mess with him, and charges. But Kenshiro hits him in the face before he can strike.

Spade sees that he's bleeding, as Kenshiro asks him what's wrong -was that all he's got? Spade charges again, but this time, Kenshiro avoids his strike...

...and locks up his arms. After a few seconds of straining, he breaks both of Spade's arms, and then hits two pressure points on both sides of his head:

HOKUTO ZANKAI KEN

(North Star Remorse Fist)

Kenshiro tells Spade he has hit the point called toui, one of the body's 708 hidden pressure points. He also tells Spade that he'll die seven seconds after he removes his thumbs. He can use those seven seconds to think about his sins. Spade tells him to wait, but Kenshiro pulls his thumbs out. Spade stumbles back, but gets up...

"I don't want to die!"



"I don't want..."

Lin has successfully stowed away on the truck with Pel, and thinks about Ken. She wonders where he is, and she's sure they'll meet again. The truck drives away from her village, Meanwhile, Kenshiro has buried Smith. Bat asks him what he's doing -if they don't move it, more of that gang are going to come here looking for them. King's people aren't just some simple little gang.

Kenshiro ignores him, and drops the rice seeds over the grave. Bat warns him that if he thought Spade was the gang's leader, he's totally wrong. He watches Ken dropping the seeds, and tells him there's no way those will ever grow here. Kenshiro says they'll grow... because the old man sleeps beneath here.

NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

An evil army forces the people of Dorado city to work as slaves. To save the captive Lin, Kenshiro's fists roar! Next time, on Fist of the North Star: "In the City Without Light, a Lone Fist Burns! The Furious Death by the Five Exploding Fingers".

Kenshiro: You are already dead.