Could it really be?
No! I thought that he was dead!
MATCH SEVEN
That's right. This monster is still alive!
This titan is the worst killer in the history of Japan!
The Grim Reaper has looked him in the eyes and told him to calm down!
201 cm tall, and weighing 147 kg,
he's had one win and zero losses in the Kengan Tournament.
He's sponsored by Juoh Communications.
It's The Bloody Tusk,
Yohei Bando!
YOHEI BANDO JUOH COMMUNICATIONS REP. FIGHTER
RESURRECTION
What?!
-Uh-- -Doctor!
How can this be possible?
He was supposed to have been killed.
There shouldn't be a hospital anywhere on this island
that could cure the virus I used on him.
HAJIME HANAFUSA
Is there another facility somewhere? One that we didn't know about?
Or did Bando have some sort of immunity against it?
Oh.
I get it.
-It's all so obvious to me now. -Huh?
I have to check my facts,
but when it comes to companies that can manage that virus,
there is only one.
YUKIO DAZAI UNIVERSITY OF TEITO PRESIDENT
Explain yourself.
Why would you ever agree to treat Bando?
HEIHACHI FURUMI
Answer me, Heihachi Furumi!
Bando was supposed to die.
How you answer will determine exactly what I do next.
I'm the CEO of a pharmaceutical company,
so I consider myself duty bound to offer help to anyone that is in need of it.
Lots of people could die someday,
and all because you suddenly decided to grow a conscience.
That's not going to happen.
President Takada isn't panicked.
There's no way he doesn't have some kind of backup plan in place.
You should know this.
Yes, but what would happen in the match?
Bando isn't a fighter.
The only way he knows how to win is by killing his opponent!
Oh, you don't need to worry about that.
The poor schmuck he's up against first is Sen Hatsumi.
TAKESHI WAKATSUKI FURUMI PHARMA REP. FIGHTER
TEN MINUTES AGO
How is it the old sayings go? "True self-defense
is making friends with the person who came to kill you."
NOGI GROUP REP. FIGHTER SEN HATSUMI
And, uh, "You should avoid all possible conflict."
The ultimate state in Inner Tactics. Or that's what I heard.
But still, I can't really say that I agree with that.
It's supposed to push us to train harder. But the idea is never to have to use it.
All right, enough of that, Wakatsuki. You're far from the perfect student here.
All these respected people that are called masters today?
They're the same people who were scolded
for doing all sorts of crazy shit when they were young.
And the second they start getting a bit older,
they start talking down their nose at everyone
like their shit doesn't stink anymore.
Drives me freakin' nuts.
We're fighting because we wanna win, right?
That's why I'm here, and you too.
The more I think about it,
I don't think I've ever met a fighter so inconsistent as Sen Hatsumi.
When he's not in good condition, he'll tend to struggle,
even if the opponent doesn't outrank him in skill.
But then there are times when he gets in peak form,
and even I have trouble being able to keep up with him.
There are only two fighters that have made me surrender.
The Fang of Metsudo, Agito Kanoh,
And The Floating Cloud, Sen Hatsumi.
Hatsumi tends to get himself back in shape quickly
by fighting lots of matches in rapid succession.
This is stage two, so let's see how much better he is now.
TOMOKO MATSUDA SHION SORYUIN
Look at Hatsumi. He's out there acting like some kind of tough guy.
Huh?
That is so unlike him.
Let's try again.
Can't say I'm used to fighting in matches quite yet.
Yeah, same with me,
so it's a bit awkward for the both of us.
Truth is, out of all the scenarios I could have predicted,
this was probably the least ideal.
Bando has gotta be one of the worst opponents for me to face.
Are you ready?
Begin!
He's swooping in real hot. That's not like him.
Uh-uh-uh.
What exactly is his plan here?
If he just keeps jumping around like that, he's gonna wear himself out too fast.
Huh?
I don't understand this.
HARUO KOHNO JUN SEKIBAYASHI
What is Hatsumi trying to accomplish here?
Good luck with that. No one can figure out how he thinks.
That's him.
But you know, Doc. There's one thing I know I can say for sure.
Hatsumi is not the type I'd call diligent.
He wouldn't waste energy if he didn't have to.
I see.
So he knows then.
Hand chop?
An elbow drop?
What's he doing?
Kill him!
Incredible!
SAYAKA KATAHARA JERRY TYSON
His left eye! It's been poked out!
Hmm? What? Seriously?
The spot where Hatsumi was standing has exploded!
What the hell just happened?
That was a pretty good attempt, Hatsumi.
His eye has burst open!
Wait. Looks like it was just the eyelid.
It's just a bit bloodied. His eye appears to be fine!
Well, that was unlucky.
MUTEBA GIZENGA
Whoa! Again?
Another narrow miss. And an explosion?
I can't see anything! He's too fast.
HIDEKI NOGI NOGI GROUP DIRECTOR
Hatsumi.
Don't think Sayaka's noticed it yet, but I can see why.
His arm stretched! Did I just see that?
There's only a few fighters out there
who have what it takes to see through that move.
None of the audience members are able to perceive it.
Not without knowing what to look for.
I'm lucky I'm even managing to dodge them.
Hatsumi realized that something was wrong
when he noticed the lack of any defensive wounds.
None of the victims that Bando had killed in the past
had any defensive wounds on their bodies.
This can only lead to a single conclusion.
Every single one of Bando's victims was caught off guard when they were murdered.
But according to testimonies gathered from the survivors at the scenes,
Bando would attack his victims head on.
It was physically impossible that any of them could have been taken by surprise.
Hatsumi took some time before the match
to study the records from Bando's time on death row.
Bando had survived 45 separate execution attempts.
This caused Hatsumi to put together a crazy hypothesis.
Hmm.
Swelling in the areas around both shoulder joints.
And a tear in the bandages covering his right shoulder joint.
I think I get it.
It must be his hand.
He was right. Bando had super flexibility!
Ah, I see.
I thought I'd seen his arm stretching a bit earlier.
So that wasn't just an illusion.
So he dislocated his joints, then used his skin to close the distance.
Huh?
What's wrong, Doc?
Okay, why has he waited until now to pull this move out?
-Uh… -Yeah. Why has he?
That move seems pretty problematic if it fooled multiple trained fighters.
Why wait till now? Why wouldn't he take advantage of that sooner?
Maybe he didn't plan to use it. Or…
What if he couldn't use it?
Explosions keep hitting the ground!
But how? What's making that happen?
Hatsumi missed his chance.
Poor guy. If he'd been able to blind him, things would be different.
That technique requires Bando to move with a high degree of precision.
If he were able to wreck Bando's depth perception by popping his eye,
then he could have avoided all these attacks.
Too bad you couldn't make it happen.
I can see what game you're playing.
I know why you were hopping around at the start of the match.
You were trying to test the waters to see how far my arms could reach.
But you were sweating and were running out of breath.
I know you were moving around a lot,
but it's not a very good idea
to wear yourself out at the beginning of the match.
It causes mental fatigue.
Which means you must have been scared.
You knew you were at risk of dying from a single wrong move.
You waltzed right into the maws of death to try and hold them open.
I'm impressed.
You were strong enough to overcome your fear and fight back.
Hatsumi, I'm enjoying this.
He's been using the same four patterns for his arm movements.
From the top, or from the side. From the right, or the left.
I need to see what he does at the start.
A sweep from the left?
Uh, no, above!
Sen!
Whoa! What's going on?
Hatsumi fell forward. It looks like he was hit!
That was close.
He changed the trajectory of his swing at the last second.
You think you're the only one who can see through your opponent's moves?
You're getting careless.
The moment I connected the strike,
you relaxed your body into the force of it to parry the attack.
Oh! So he used the same move that Kanoh did.
You won't need to worry much longer.
I'll put you down with my next attack.
You're an idiot.
Now that I've figured out exactly what's behind your little trick,
it's only gonna work on a second-rate fighter.
Sorry to say, I'm better than that.
You're the one who's done for.
He went left?
The right was a fake out?
The ground's exploding again!
Is it a terrorist? Why isn't the referee stopping them?
It must be some kinda weapon!
Sir! Are you sure? Shouldn't we stop the match?
METSUDO KATAHARA
I told you, I'm sure. You should just ignore the audience.
They're a bunch of idiots who can't see it's a trick.
Let them believe what they want. Why ruin their fun?
The match is going to be over soon anyway.
You think you're a snake or what?
You think you were gonna wrap yourself around my throat and choke me to death?
Go for it!
That last technique was aikido, right?
None of that is going to work on me.
Didn't you watch the first round? You pathetic fool.
You're fighting the wrong guy. Your move set is inferior to mine.
You are going to die today!
Bando was having fun prolonging the hunt.
He was wearing out his prey by keeping him on the defensive.
I have no need to rush this.
One of my attacks will eventually land, then this will be over.
It wasn't long before Bando's plan became crystal clear,
which prompted Hatsumi to leap straight back into the jaws of death!
There you go. That's the only way to do it.
This was playing out exactly as Bando had thought it would.
Until suddenly,
it wasn't!
Huh?
Hmm, that was clever. I wouldn't have thought of that.
-What? -He's locked down Bando's arm.
He's adapted it a bit.
It was originally supposed to be used to pin down a shoulder or elbow.
But with the amount of flexibility Bando has,
holding him down by his joints wouldn't do much.
So Sen decided to use the move on the bone instead of the joint.
Amazing!
So that explains why you attacked one of my joints earlier in the match.
You wanted me to anticipate the same move again.
Everything played out in this match exactly like you wanted.
Well, shit.
I guess the joke's on me, huh?
HATSUMI STYLE AIKIDO HUNDRED MEETINGS THROW
Wha…
Hatsumi Style aikido, hyakue throw.
You were probably the most incompatible opponent
I could have faced in this tournament.
But I'm glad it worked out this way.
You really helped me out.
I feel like I'm in better shape now than I ever was.
Match over!
The winner is
Sen Hatsumi!
Hatsumi!
-Huh? -Uh…
Oh.
Whoa! Finally.
Damn it!
Hey.
You're not dead or anything, are you?
Oh!
Huh? Hey, Bando!
Yeah. I think I give up.
How is he still alive?
Huh.
You sucked your cervical vertebrae into your body to lower the damage from impact.
Any other human would have died from that attack.
I've taken a hell of a lot of hits over the years.
I don't think I'll be able to move for a while.
So if you were wanting to kill me, now would be your chance to get it done.
That's not gonna happen.
Personally, I'm morally opposed to killing other people.
Oh, I see.
But what about the deal with your boss?
I thought he had some kinda contract with Dazai. Was I wrong?
Well, uh, I'm sure he can work something out.
The boss man always has some sort of backup plan.
You're definitely a strange one, aren't you?
Yeah. Enough with the small talk. I wanna ask you something.
Why did you hold off on using that arm attack in the first round?
Oh, that's what you wanna know?
That's an easy question to answer if you've seen my medical charts.
That move places extraordinary strain on my muscles.
My body has bulked up a lot more than it used to be,
so it's been able to handle the pressure.
It's still a high-risk move for me to use, so I was planning on waiting.
But once I won the first round,
I couldn't help but feel restless.
I thought a lot about it,
and I wondered if this is what it feels like to really want to win at something.
I guess this must mean I really wanted to make sure I beat you.
Well, I'm honored to hear it.
You think the two of us could have a rematch someday?
Don't think so.
You're one of those death row convicts, aren't you?
Doubt you're gonna be around.
SEN HATSUMI ADVANCES TO ROUND THREE
If I can get myself back in shape,
even the Fang can't match me.
So stop worrying already.
Peace and love, man.
The next director of the Association is gonna be you.
That is if everything goes well.
You are the poster child for irresponsibility.
Do you have any idea how many losses I had to suffer because of you?
Hmm. Well, I know I shouldn't rub it in.
I'm already well-acquainted with how much you hate losing.
OHMA TOKITA YAMASHITA CORPORATION REP. FIGHTER
KAZUO YAMASHITA YAMASHITA CORPORATION PRESIDENT
Ohma…
Yamashita Corporation…
Is going to withdraw from the tournament.
Unwavering resolve!
Confidence in his strength!
Is it pride, or is it vanity?
The Fang of Metsudo.
Are you going to challenge the Thai God of War to a boxing match?
Next episode, "Superiority."