Rei is explaining a little bit about the history of Hokuto Shinken. He says that it is passed down from one son to the next -but as Ryuken, the current master of the style, had no sons of his own, he decided to train the strongest in the art. In the end, he had four adopted "sons" -Raoh, Toki, Jagi and Kenshiro. Of these four, Kenshiro, the youngest son, was chosen to become the next successor and was shown the secret techniques of the Hokuto Shinken style.



Rei mentions that those who failed to become the successor are meant to lose any knowledge of the art, even if it means they have their fists smashed or memories erased. Bat then dashes over and has a letter a traveling merchant has bought: a letter from Ken! Rei opens it and starts reading, and tells everyone that Ken's journey is going to go on for a little while longer. Kenshiro wants to find his other brothers. Rei is to continue to look after Bat and Lin in the meantime. The kids are a bit upset that Ken won't be coming back yet.



Out in the mountains, Kenshiro stands alone in a lightning storm. He wants to meet his other two brothers, especially Toki. The next day he arrives in a town, but he isn't there for long when he finds a fight going on. A very large man with a black shirt is claiming that today is his last day on Earth, so he'll do whatever he wants. Kenshiro watches some villagers try and stop him, only to get swatted aside. He then sees a small store and walks towards it, right between the two men fighting.



He reaches the shop, which is run by an old man. He wants to trade some gasoline for food, but he also wonders what that man was on about when he said today was his last day to live. The old man tells him that he was a survivor from the "village of miracles" -a place when the Messiah reportedly appeared and started to perform miracles on anyone who was sick just by touching them -anyone who was ill in the entire town was cured by him.



One of the large guys gets punched across the store and he asks Ken for help. Ken gets up and decides to do something about the angry man, picking him up with one hand and throwing him up into the air. He hits pressure points on his arms and when he lands, he stops fighting. He says that Ken can use the same "magic" as that other guy in the village of miracles. Ken asks about this village, so the man starts to explain.



The village was swept by a plague and there seemed to be nothing anyone could do for the sick apart from wait for them to die. But then one day, a man called Toki arrived in the village and started to cure everyone. Just by touching them, he could heal people and soon he had revived the entire village. Kenshiro is glad that Toki is still alive.



However, the man then says that one day, Toki became a demon! He started to kill people instead of cure them and soon most of the village was wiped out, the only ones left to live were the ones that followed him and the ones that he turned into beasts! The beasts were people that Toki gave superhuman powers, but in the process, they lost their own minds and became his slaves. He then reveals that Toki poked him and said that he had just three days left to live. He begs Ken to reverse the effects. But times runs out and before Kenshiro can do anything, his mouth and then head explodes. Kenshiro stands there and cannot believe what has just happened -the Toki that he knew would never do something like this, is it true that he has turned to evil?



Back at Mamiya's village, Mamiya and Rei are looking at the stars and see a group of stars in the shape of the big dipper (also known as the Hokuto Shichisei) and Rei says that it foretells death. Meanwhile, Lin is worried that something is about to happen to Ken, and has decided to go and try to find him. She leaves Pel behind and runs off, but she is unaware that her dog soon escapes and then starts to follow her.



Back with Ken, the store owner, Ellery, is telling him not to go out at night as there have been reports of monster attacks in the mountains close by. Ken says that he wants to see them for himself and gets up to leave, but Ellery tells him not to get himself killed and gives him a free drink. Ken promises to return again someday, but he departs for now and is soon at his destination. As he has a drink he starts to think of an event that happened before the nuclear war...



Toki was still a great healer then. He used his Hokuto Shinken to cure anyone and in the case we get to see he heals a child in no time at all. As the child's mother takes him away she thanks Toki for making her son better. Kenshiro then walks in and the two head up to the roof of the building to talk.



Up on the roof, Toki tells Kenshiro about his dream: there are millions of sick people all over the world who cannot be cured with even the latest medicines. But with Hokuto Shinken, things could be different. Striking a man's pressure point hard enough would cause him to explode, but touching it gently will unlock the body's natural healing powers. Toki wants to turn Hokuto Shinken into a medical art rather than just a assasination art. Kenshiro seems to be the only one who understands what he wants to do. Back in the present, Ken thinks about Toki's words and doesn't believe that he has become a killer, but some other people seem to have seen him.



Meanwhile, Jagi has returned! Oh wait, no he hasn't, it was just Airi having a nightmare. Despite being safe in this village with her brother, she stills has these dreams with the man who captured her in it. She then sees that Lin is missing and goes to wake up Bat. He tells her not to worry as she's just probably around the village somewhere, and she is just weird like that.



Airi is not convinced though and gets Mamiya and Rei to search for her, but none of them have any luck. They notice that Pel is also gone and Rei guesses that she must have gone off to find Ken. He gets Bat to drive his car up to them and says that he must go and find her, as Ken has trusted him to look after the children. Mamiya volunteers to go too whilst Airi stays behind in the village. She tells them not to worry about her and to go and find Lin.



Meanwhile, Kenshiro finds him under attack from three mutants. Two of them leap up to attack and Ken sees that these freaks are much faster than normal humans. One of them manages to get him in a headlock...



...but then the largest guy punches all three of them off the side of a cliff. Ken takes care of two of the guys whilst in the air, as the large guy jumps down to where he is. Ken demands to know who it was that changed him, but the man doesn't go into any details.



He instead attacks Ken, using his powerful fists to try and crush him into a rock. His first strike misses as Ken calmly moves out of the way, but he tries again. This time, however, Kenshiro stops his fist and crushes it.



Despite losing one of his hands, this doesn't stop the guy from using his other fist. Kenshiro destroys his fingers with the Goshi Retsu Dan technique. Even then the man doesn't give up, revealing razor sharp spikes on his head which he tries to stab into Ken with.



Kenshiro uses a technique called Hokuto Soryu Ha (North Star Twin Dragon Wave) which strikes the man's chest. This is enough to stop him from moving and Ken finds out that it was Toki who did this to him and the other two guys.



The man then dies as his insides were broken by the attack. Kenshiro thinks to himself: did Toki, the one who wanted to heal and save people, really do this? Meanwhile, in another city...



In a large, tall building, Toki sits on his throne and hears a report from one of his troops: Kenshiro is coming and he has killed three of their beasts. Toki is pleased, as he wants a strong person to experiment on and Kenshiro will fill that requirement just nicely.



He then says that with his hands, he will restart the Hokuto Shinken school and make it into what he wants. Meanwhile, Rei, Mamiya and Bat are looking for Lin but they are in a sandstorm, making it difficult to see anything. Pel has found Lin, but she has collapsed in the desert and it doesn't look like there is anyone around to help her.


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

Kenshiro must find out if Toki really is the one responsible for killing and mutating people, and he searches for his old friend. Tune in next time for "Toki! Are You an Angel or a Devil!!"

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