The trio are heading towards Cassandra, and have stopped to take a break. Mamiya asks Rei what exactly Cassandra is and he says that he has heard that it is a prison created by the mysterious Ken-Oh. Ken-Oh is using it to detain many martial artists who survived the nuclear war and to steal any techniques they may have. Nobody can get out of the prison, it is a place of death. Ken gets up and they are soon on the move again, as they head towards the prison.



At Cassandra, Uighur is listening to the screams and moans of the prisoners when one of his henchmen, Targel, arrives with a family of three. These prisoners want to leave and the father has heard that if he hands over the secret techniques of his fighting style, Uighur will allow them to go. Uighur confirms that this is true and promises to let them go if he hands over the techniques, so he reveals a scroll with them all on, and hands it over.



But Uighur then changes the deal because he says that he will give the scroll to Ken-Oh, meaning there will be two successors to the style -something which is not allowed. The man is separated from his wife and child. The man begs them to stop, but saying something like that is breaking one of the prison's laws. The man doesn't care and quickly takes out the two guards holding him.


SUUZAN TSUUHI KEN

(Song Shan Passing Elbow Fist)



Uighur grabs one of his whips and is about to get up to fight the man when Targel tells him that he will take care of this, as it is something that the prison warden shouldn't have to do. He then begins to laugh and goes into his own fighting stance.


KOKUSHO JYUJI KEN

(Black Cross Fist)



There is a brief fight between the two. but Targel is the better warrior and after avoiding all of his opponent's attacks he strikes back with a move so fast you don't even get to see what he does -but it splits his opponent to pieces! Uighur congratulates him on a job well done, as the wife and child are taken away.



Meanwhile, some of the prison's guards have seen Ken, Rei and Mamiya's approach and they introduce themselves before attacking. They are no match for Ken and Rei however and are soon all wiped out. When Targel finds out about this he reports it to Uighur and says that normal men cannot beat them, but Uighur tells him not to worry as he knows Kenshiro's weakness: women. He is too kind and would not dare kill one, which is going to be the key factor of a special plan.



He has a female martial artist known as Bella brought before him, but she wants to know if her mother is still alive and safe. Uighur ignores her and gives her a simple task: to kill Kenshiro, the master of Hokuto Shinken. He believes that her style is more than capable of doing such a thing. She refuses, so Uighur gives her a choice: either do what he says and kill Ken, or he will kill her mother who is indeed still alive, as Targel proves to her. Bella decides to follow out Uighur's instructions.



Bella's mother tells her daughter to forget about her and to just go back to her old life of being a woman -as Bella walks out of the prison, she thinks back. Long a go, as her father was about to die, he passed down the secrets of the Ranzan Kurenai Ken style to Bella, despite the fact that she was a girl (which was a bad/strange thing, apparently) and he also told her that from this day forward she was no longer a woman. Back in the present, Bella leaves the prison.



Ken's group have come across a cart loaded with supplies, along with a little girl and an old man who were traveling to the nearest village. But the old man got worn out and needed a drink to keep going. Kenshiro hands over a bottle of water which revives the old man, and as the little girl thanks them for their help, Bella leaps down from above and says her destiny is to kill Kenshiro.


RANZAN KURENAI KEN

(Lanshan Crimson Fist)

"Its movements are as elegant as petals scattered in the wind, but concealed within its beauty, lies immeasurable force!"



She takes her stance but Kenshiro doesn't move yet, and simply comments that her eyes look sad. She tells him to mind his own business and then starts to fight. As this is going on Darvy has Bella's mother with him, along with a couple of guards. They watch the fight, and as Uighur predicted, Kenshiro seems incapable of killing Bella as he hasn't struck her yet and her fighting style really isn't a match for Hokuto Shinken. Ken continues to just avoid Bella's attacks.



She eventually throws one of her needle like roses at the little girl, but Ken blocks it with his arm and takes the hit. It doesn't hurt him, but Bella finds it incredible that he'd just risk his life like that and then she says that she has already lost. Kenshiro and the others leave as the little girl once again thanks them, and then heads back to her grandfather.



Bella hears her mother calling and turns to see her stumbling towards her, eventually falling over to reveal a knife plunged into her back! She says sorry for making Bella the successor to the Ranzan Kurenai Ken style, but dies shortly afterwards. Targel starts laughing, but this makes Bella challenge him.



As the two clash, the old man tells his granddaughter to go and call back those three people who just helped them. Meanwhile, back at the fight, the two fighters charge up with energy and then have one last clash against each other -Darvy survives, but Bella does not! Kenshiro and friends arrive just in time to see Bella's rose split into pieces.



Targel says that Bella's fate is the same given to anyone who dares to defy the rules of Cassandra. Kenshiro and the others arrive and get extremely angry over what has just happened. As Rei and Mamiya destroy the lesser guards, Kenshiro takes on Targel.



The two clash once, but both survive. Targel congratulates Kenshiro on being the first person to evade his attack, but he doubts that he can do it again. He charges towards his opponent, but Ken is ready for him this time.


HOKUTO GEKITSUI SHI

(North Star Shoot Down Finger)



Kenshiro tells him that when he removes his fingers, he'll have three seconds to live before he explodes. Three seconds later, bye bye Darvy. All that is left of Bella is one of her roses, as Kenshiro reflects on the burden that was given to her and what a sad fate she met. Meanwhile, at Cassandra, Uighur finds out about Darvy's death and that Bella is also no more, but he just calls Kenshiro a fool for daring to challenge them.



Another guard then runs in with some earth-shattering news: Toki has just smiled! This is amazing because ever since he arrived here he has never shown any emotion. Uighur guesses that he must somehow know that Kenshiro is on the way!


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

Kenshiro, Rei and Mamiya finally reach the gates of Cassandra, but two giants are waiting for them -are they really that evil? Find out next time in "A Wicked Legend! The Gates to Cassandra Open Now!"

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