In the middle of a desert is a large castle, and inside a woman can be seen playing a harp. She is not alone though as there is also a man in the room, who talks about how he will rule the world and he still has many more moves to make yet. He knows that Spade, who he refers to as one of his "Jacks" (as in playing cards) has fallen, but he still has three more Jacks left to use.



Meanwhile, Bat is hungry. He can't understand it because he thought if he hung out with Kenshiro he'd get loads of free food. Kenshiro is such a great fighter and he could just go around taking it, but that hasn't happened. So instead, he attempts to overpower a vulture to try and kill it, only for it to chase after him and then get away. As Bat gets up he sees something heading his way, so he hides behind a rock.



The something is a truck full of imprisoned people and to Bat's shock, one of the prisoners is Lin! Bat runs back to where his car is and tells Kenshiro that Lin has been taken prisoner and the truck she was on was heading to Dorado city -a city which happens to be controlled by King's men. Anyone who is taken to it is made into a slave, and has to perform hard labor all day.



Kenshiro finds it unbelievable that Lin managed to get out to here, but the pair get into the car (with Ken driving for once) and head towards the city. And at the city, slaves are being beaten and abused as they go around constructing buildings. Ken and Bat make it into the city without detection.



Bat says how easy it was to get in, but Ken notices a flag with a symbol on it...it is the Bloody Cross! Ken recognises this symbol, but he doesn't tell Bat about it. He and Bat then notice that some of King's forces are abusing the villagers. One man is being forced to shoot a tin can off his son's head.



The man says he can't do it, so one of the punks offers him some help. An arrow is fired but it is aimed too low and is about to hit the boy in his throat when Kenshiro leaps in and catches it between his fingers. After tossing the arrow straight back into the punk's arm, the man is reunited with his son as the leader of the punks, Diamond, wants to know who this new guy is.



Kenshiro says he has no name to scum like him, but this just irritates him so he and another two punks start to move forward. Diamond uses a staff to fight with and swings it at Ken...only to miss and end up taking out his buddies instead.



Diamond then manages to hit and rip Ken's shirt and he sees the scars on his chest -he works out that this guy is the one who killed Spade, but that doesn't mean he'll be able to kill him and he tries to hit Ken with his staff again. However, Ken blocks the attack with just the palm of his hand and tells Diamond that he is "boring him" before using just one hand to lift the staff up into the air with Diamond still clinging on to it. Ken then tosses the staff upwards and as Diamond starts to fall back to Earth. Ken leaps towards him.


KOUSHU HAGAN KEN!!

(Neck-twisting Face-breaking Fist!!)



Diamond gets back up, saying he didn't feel a thing and that this fight is only just beginning. Kenshiro tells him that he is already dead. And about three seconds later the effects of the move take place: Diamond's head begins to explode and his neck snaps, killing him.



As the slaves of Dorado wonder who this man is and if he could be the one who could save them, more of King's men arrive in the city with the task of finding the man with the seven scars. The leader of this group of punks is Club, a villain with steel talons on his hands who tells his men that he will avenge Spade and Diamond. As there are now many men looking for Kenshiro, he and Bat are hiding in an old building, but it means their mission of finding is Lin will be a lot more difficult.



Bat makes it into the city without detection, but he cannot find where Lin is. In another part of the city, Lin is in a small, rundown house and is being made to shrine shoes. A large man comes in to collect something and shouts at her for not getting even half of them done yet, and if she doesn't get them all done by nightfall she'll be killed. The man then takes interest in Pel, but the puppy bites his finger and then runs off.



Bat has returned to the outskirts of the city. He thinks about Lin whilst starting to play his harmonica, when he sees something heading towards him: Lin's puppy! He works out that the dog knows where Lin is so they both head back into the city and soon find her. The problem is that her left ankle has been chained and despite Bat's best efforts he cannot remove it. They then hear someone heading towards where they are so Lin makes Bat leave. As he goes, he promises to get her out of there.



As day turns to night, Bat and Kenshiro return to where Lin is. There is a single man standing guard. Kenshiro sneaks up on him and presses the man's "zuzetsu" pressure point. This doesn't kill him, but it just makes him enter a state of unconsciousness and that he won't remember them when he wakes up.



Some screaming is then heard not far away from where they are, so Kenshiro tells Bat to go and save Lin whilst he checks out what is going on. The screaming is being caused be people meeting their deaths at the talons of Club, who is fighting people one at a time in a caged arena. Bat takes the guard's axe and uses it to start cutting through the chain.



Meanwhile, Club kills another man and demands that the next be sent in, but his own men suddenly fall over, dead. And then another man walks slowly into the arena. It is, of course, Kenshiro, who charges up his power which rips away his shirts. He tells Club that he does not deserve to live in this world.



Club finds it funny as it makes a change to fight a man who wants to go to hell in a hurry and begins his attack, successfully slashing Ken's chest. He then leaps up to try and attack from above, but Ken is ready for him. As his opponent lands in front of him, he hits his hands.


GOSHI RETSU DAN!!


(Five-Fingered Explosive Burst!!)



Club's fingers explode and as he stands there screaming, Kenshiro asks him if that was all the fight he had in him. Club makes another attempt to attack but is easily bested by Ken who vaults over him and then strikes his knees directly into his spine. He then tells him that he has pressed his "Meimon" pressure point and that he only has 30 seconds left to live before his own muscles snap his spine in half.



With just 10 seconds left Spade begs to be spared. Kenshiro says that the villagers he has killed would have said that to him and he didn't show them mercy, so why should he? And with that Kenshiro leaves, Club dies, whilst Lin is freed and is happy to see Ken.



Back at the castle, two of Club's gang who didn't get killed report back to their leader: King. They tell him that a man came into Dorado city and killed both Diamond and Club, and whoever he was, he used Hokuto Shinken. King wonders if it could be Kenshiro, and as soon as he mentions his name the woman playing the harp suddenly stops. King then gets angry, as he is not pleased that the two men fled rather than fought. He begins to walk towards them with a blue aura surrounding him.



Both men are killed when King uses one of his own moves to stab them in their hearts with his fingers. He then calls forward his "martial artist killer", Heart, to go out and destroy Kenshiro and to be as painful as possible. Heart says it will be his pleasure. King says that Kenshiro is still a man he has beaten once before, and that he'll give him another taste of hell.


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

King's men have assembled! Will Kenshiro be able to stand up against the techniques of Heart, the martial artist killer? Next time on Hokuto no Ken: "Attack the Bloody Cross!! Secret Technique, Ju Hazan".

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