So as noted, between two anticipated game releases and the exhausting ordeal of employment, I am completely out of buffer and have basically been writing my updates at the last minute for a month. Fortunately, I have precedent working for me here! Just like the end of Round 1, I'm going to put this thread on Hiatus for a little bit while I build myself back up. Not for as long this time, though, since there's no actual break happening.
Updates will resume on October the 14th, when we will definitely get right back to the tournament and won't see any kind of interruption. Mhm, yep, no siree everything on schedule in Kenganland.
Welcome back, my beautiful readers, to this overlong bout of navel gazing. And to welcome you back, Kengan Asura presents a question. One that's been threaded, in varying ways, throughout the manga so far.
It's not exactly an uncommon question, is it? It's going to come up in any manga that leans on Battle as a major avenue of conflict resolution sooner or later. It's definitely threaded more deliberately through Kengan Asura than most, though, even outside explicit moments like Sekibayashi vs Kiozan. The nature of strength, how it expresses differently in fighters and non-fighters, the pursuit of strength and the forms that takes…thoughts for later, I guess.
Just as a side note, this is my favourite view of the Inside we've received so far. It's got a very Fallout New Vegas sort of vibe, the bleak, dust-blasted ruins of what we know as civilisation with a ramshackle layer of obstinate, resilient life clinging to it. It's grim, but it's vibrant, without the unbearable edge the place bristled with every previous time it had focus. That hotel or whatever to the right had to be pretty swanky once upon a time, look at that staircase. I wonder what happened to create this place.
(If Omega has answered this question, I don't want to hear it. Take your cursed knowledge elsewhere.)
Anyway, to get on with the show, we zoom through this view onto a particular alleyway. And there we discover, to noone's surprise, that Ohma fighting random toughs in dark alleys is not a phenomenon that started with Komaeda. Or, well, the manga tries to be cute about it at first. We only get a good look at the tough's face first, a guy in a black singlet and dogtags who muses on if the guy in the hoodie has the right guy. Don't you know who I am? And yeah, Ohma knows who he is. He's the drug pusher who runs this turf. And yeah, Ohma's in a hoodie with his eyes covered up but come the fuck on. We can see his hair and his smile, we know who this is. But yeah, Ohma doesn't actually give a shit about the drug dealer thing (it's the inside, there's no law here anyway) but rather the usual thing. Word is, Mr Drug Dealer is the strongest guy in this neck of the woods. And Ohma is gonna be Ohma about it. Oh you've got a death wish, you're a punk, they trade some trash talk and then it's off to the races.
By which I mean Ohma immediately nearly gets his shit pushed in.
Look at this smooth operation. Ohma throws a single punch and it's enough of an opening for this guy to slip underneath and mount him. There's no hesitation in the followup either, he's immediately beating Ohma's head in. Pay careful attention to the postures too, Ohma is much more static and planted than he usually is in the present, it's subtle but it's possible to parse that this Ohma is a significantly earlier, less skilled version even before you realise the obvious. This guy he's fighting comes off as significantly better for it, too.
And yeah. The next page, as Ohma covers his face, is half an admission from him that "he" was right, and this thug is stronger than Ohma is. Stronger in the holistic sense that manga often uses, to be clear. They're both hench as fuck. Though Mr Drug dealer is presently also much more stoic. No bared teeth snarl or anything, just a vaguely disappointed frown. The disappointment does disappear quickly though, as Ohma manages to throw him off with a hip thrust.
So things reset back to neutral, and Mr Drug Dealer wonders what the fuck Ohma even thinks he's doing. Which is fair, to all appearances he rolled up just to get whapped on the face with a rolled up newspaper like the misbehaving dog of archetype. Things change a little though when he takes up some of the random garbage in the alley. Place like this, alcohol's more valuable than water, and as such there's a lot of empty glass bottles about. So Ohma smashes a couple, and spreads them over the floor as Mr Drug Dealer watches in dubious disbelief.
Ohma, not to rain on your parade, but last time he got you on the floor you landed on your back and he was on top of you. All this is going to do in a repeat performance is get your spine perforated. Mr Drug Dealer isn't impressed either. He handily recognises the intent, and doesn't give a shit. He isn't a grappling specialist. This kind of shallow counterplay is only going to get you killed. Ohma doesn't bother responding, putting up his dukes for another square-off.
This times things seem more even, right off the bat. Ohma's actually standing his ground and getting some shots back. Even if closing off the option of ground fighting isn't all that much of a benefit, this is much more Ohma's comfort zone. And hey, there's even some unspoken developments you can parse out if you've been paying attention. Mr Drug Dealer quickly develops welts on the arm he uses to block Ohma's strikes, and while we obviously know that it's from Adamantine Kata technique, he immediately wonders what Ohma is holding. And that's actually very sensible, even if you don't have access to brass knuckles or whatnot, even a simple wooden rod or plastic cylinder held in your fist can help brace your hand against the forces involved in a punch, allowing you to hit significantly harder. Mr Drug Dealer also visibly changes tactics, rather than keep standing his ground he immediately starts dodging and making space, keeping Ohma at bay with kicks. They hurt, too, Ohma grits his teeth against a lashing side kick to his thigh and is promptly pushed back by a forward kick that blows the breath out of him. He makes a little space of his own then by kicking a bunch of the broken glass he spread about into Mr Drug Dealer's face. He has to pause and cover his face with a curse, which gives Ohma space to get his breath back and enact a plan.
The plan looks like it's to tackle Mr Drug Dealer. Given how the ground is presently covered in broken glass, by Ohma, specifically to stop these tactics? Mr Drug Dealer's confusion is palpable and understandable. It doesn't slow his reactions though. He's dropped to press down Ohma's shoulders before he's even close. Unfortunately for him, this is all according to plan. Ohma throws a hook from this low position, catching him in the jaw. Dazed, vision swimming, Mr Drug Dealer does nothing to stop the followup Ironbreaker from caving in his face. He drops like a sack of potatoes. The fight goes to Ohma.
…that guy just fell onto a lot of broken glass, will he be okay?
Well, Kengan Asura doesn't give a shit, we move immediately on to a sudden burst of praise from offscreen. The figure, a cloaked shadow at the end of the alley, congratulates Ohma on the stellar demonstration of how a fighter can take out even someone cleanly better with planning. That said, the praise doesn't come unqualified. Ohma wasted too many moves, he isn't getting full marks yet.
Yes that's right, the manga admits that it was Ohma and the shadow was Niko. We're in the fucking past, folks. Also holy shit, Ohma was pretty as fuck back then, what happened? Oh well, it's not like he isn't still hot, I guess.
All that said and done, we pull back a bit to a wider view of the Inside's skyline, which looks suspiciously like a rotoscoped photo of a japanese city. Along this view we get a repeat of the pitch of the Inside, as if we hadn't heard it a dozen times before, and we zero down into the subject of this little flashback. A true intro to this part of the story, about a Master and his pupil. Tokita Niko and Tokita Ohma, who survive the Inside.
Intro done, the first order of business is, well, resolving the rest of the chapter. It might have been kind of a throwaway fight with no actual stakes, but that doesn't make it useless to the canny storyteller. Fights can also inform, set mood, foreshadow, all sorts of things without being a direct source of drama in their own right. And in this case, it's a lead in to some training.
…and a little dunking.
God damn, look at those street-fighter ass proportions. Feet for days.
Anyway, Niko goes on to rip apart several further aspects of how Ohma executed on that fight, but ultimately his conclusion does a lurching about-face. Ohma has a lot to work on…but didn't do anything wrong. Ohma is confused, it sounds like an Oxymoron, and it kinda is. But after briefly taunting Ohma for shirking training with his questions (because taunting Ohma seems to be Niko's standard mode of being) Niko deigns to explain. Yeah, Ohma's obviously got a long way to go when you measure it against someone like Niko. But he survived, didn't he? You can know all the techniques in the world and their applications with encyclopaedic precision, but if you can't use it then it doesn't mean shit. He went out there, and while he didn't come back with glowing results, he still walked the walk. He fought someone who theoretically outclasses him, and seized the win.
There are no right answers in Martial Arts. But you can make sure you don't choose poorly.
I love this moment, I really do, it sells Niko so well both as a teacher of actual skill and as the sort of devil-may care personality he's come across as in Ohma's hallucinations. It's really strong characterisation but actually also pretty solid wisdom, making up for its lack of instructional specificity with broad applicability. Basically, what he's talking about is just taking each step of the journey to mastery as it comes and respecting it, building a firm foundation and not getting caught up in measuring yourself against the person next to you. It's a genuinely wide-ranging form of wisdom that applies to a lot of disciplines beyond martial arts. His next line notes that the Niko style teaches its practitioner how to walk, and once you can walk, you can take any path there is. Find your skillset, and then find your path, the closest thing to a right answer is the one that works for you. It's simple and direct, but fluid and accepting in a way that strongly characterises the manga's approach to combat so far. There's no singular power or ability that overcomes everything else, every fighter in this tournament has found their own answer and that answer is respected as long as the fighter approaches that answer with clear eyes and self-understanding. And yeah, several fighters had incomplete answers they hadn't put enough foundational thought into, and got rocked for it. But at the same time, their dedication to that answer brought them to the Annihilation tournament. In a way, Niko is kind of an avatar of the manga's philosophy, like that.
That said, that isn't where the chapter ends. Pivoting from more generalised teachings, Niko zeroes in on his student's specific state. He's grown from a boy into a young man, his body's just about fully developed. And when your body suits your style, everything comes much more naturally. I guess the "time" has come.
…yeah, that's how he says it. Cliche aside, what is it with these translators and quotation marks? I know it's trying to convey the emphasis on a specific but nebulous term in the original japanese, because japanese as a language can discuss subjects without conveying detail like that, but at this point it just looks kind of weird, right? I'm not alone in that?
Anyway, speaking of weird, superfluous quotation marks.
Wait, the volume didn't end last chapter? This chapter would be so much better as the intro to a new arc though, why use it as the final cliffhanger for the second round, that's such a strange structural decision.
Oh, uh, right. Ahem. Niko Style Secret Technique! Given how weird and yet simplistic the Niko style is this could probably be anything, but given how "grounded", for want of a better term, Kengan Asura is, we can be sure it's probably not a Hadouken. Probably.
Anyway, this is a volume end, so there's a Gaiden chapter, right? I wonder what's going on this ti-
It's a brief few pages of implication before Tomoko wakes up, roundly dismissing the whole scenario as the fevered trouser dreams of a woman the narrative generally doesn't take seriously on any subject. Especially men and relationships between them. It roundly mocks the whole idea and moves on to some admittedly funny jokes about the fighters doing Karaoke.
On the bright side, we got to see Adam in makeup!
See you all on the next step into this brave new arc.
Last time we ended with that most tantalising of rewards to come up in a martial arts manga. A Secret Technique. The most hidden and refined arts of a style, not simply by secrecy and exclusion, but by sheer difficulty. But with impact to match the rigours of their learning. Like any good fictional martial art, the Niko style has its own capstone, and this chapter launches right into things by putting one possible version of it to bed.
As an aside, I find it very funny that the Nil Kata is such a complete fucking afterthought that it's dismissed entirely for this purpose. Probably could have just left that one as an unattached meditative exercise, couldn't you Sandro?
That said, the point at hand is one I like a lot. Niko explains that the secret technique then, isn't just a particular strike or whatnot in its own right, it's an extension of the techniques he's already learned. In order to master the secret technique, he needs to master all four systems of the Niko Style. It's a compelling idea to me, well, first of all for aesthetic reasons, but especially because it just follows on so naturally from martial arts as an idea. It's very tempting in this sort of situation, when trying to come up with a secret technique for your fictional martial art, to go completely buck wild with it, make it the coolest, most destructive nonsense you can imagine. One more ultimate weapon in the Master's toolbox. And that's not even entirely untrue to life, plenty of martial arts have disconnected techniques that practitioners develop simply because it offers something that they want, or fills a hole the art's other techniques otherwise don't address. But at the same time, martial arts are generally based on particular ideas and fundamental principles of motion. Surely then, a secret technique that is the ultimate expression of that martial art should manifest those ideas and principles in their most complete form? Or perhaps synergise those ideas and principles together most completely. It has a pleasing symmetry to it, like that. A natural progression, a sense of focus and identity that the Niko style arguably lacks.
And as if reading my mind, Niko pauses to note that Ohma shouldn't expect anything like a Kamehameha, so he shouldn't get his hopes up. Ohma, surprising me by actually knowing what a Kamehameha is rather than being completely baffled, is only mostly baffled by the idea he'd expect that. But then, the specific anime angle isn't actually what Niko means. Rather, stumbling over his words a little, he elaborates that it's not an all-powerful move. It won't make Ohma invincible just because he knows it. Which, well, this guy's clearly been around the block a bit I'm sure he's met Arrogant Young Masters. It's a mental trap even relatively normal people can fall into. Ohma remains surprisingly grounded though, and just absorbs the point without question. Before surprising me even further with something else I didn't expect, even post-chill. Emotional intelligence.
Boy's hit some kind of nail on the head, there. Niko's an expressive guy, but still. Nice read.
And Niko's expression doesn't recover on the next page either, instead he does his best to make one thing clear. Ohma doesn't need to learn this. He can be strong, incredibly so, without it. Learning the Niko Style's deepest secrets means risking death. I don't think it even necessarily fails to penetrate, there's a beat before Ohma responds, but when he does it's with a line of thought these points just kind of bounce off of. Niko is his target, that's the level of strength he's seeking. He has to do this.
God, I can't tell you all how much I prefer this Ohma to the frothing asshole he became by the start of the manga. The firm, unspoken foundation of confidence that's been slowly returning to him over time. Niko isn't quite so happy with it though. In fact, his feelings are very obviously mixed. It's good character work, he's been so generally irreverent thus far, pivoting into being this serious helps layer some actual weight onto this technique.
Fun fact! Gaki is the japanese spin on the name of the Buddhist idea of the Hungry Ghost, souls driven feral with emotional need. Also prone to eating people. Is that what the kanji here mean? I'm not actually sure, but the notion of a Hungry Forest is apropos, as we'll soon see.
We zoom in on Niko, still uncharacteristically dour, walking with a visibly concerned Ohma as he explains that he hasn't been here since he learned the technique himself. Alongside a friend. Who died in the process. It's all very dramatic, but the death glances off Ohma's brain in favour of the contradiction of it. As far as he knows, as far as the audience knows, Niko developed the Niko style. It's sort of in the name. So what gives?
Niko brushes it off with a he'll explain later. Because of course he does. I'm not even mad, I like the slow pace with which the mysteries around Ohma reveal themselves.
Anyway, they arrive at their location, in a very poorly disguised photo edit of a forested glade. This, Niko claims, is the centre of the forest. And, Ohma notes, he hasn't seen a single sign of life since they entered. All that way, and not so much as a single tweeting bird. And the why? Well buckle your ass, because it's time for some manga bullshit pseudoscience! This entire forest generates an intense magnetic field. Somehow. This obliterates the sense of direction of all life that tries to persist within it, which will never find its way out. Somehow. Thus, everything that enters…dies? Of being lost? Presumably despite the goats whose skulls we see probably being able to persist on the nice, lush plantlife no matter how lost they are?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I would have been willing to just accept "This forest is mega dangerous yo", this whole magnetic fields business just raises further questions. I wonder if this is from Sandro reading a wikipedia article on pigeon navigation or something.
Anyway, Ohma being Ohma, he's not put off at all. In fact he likes it, and thinks it looks like a perfect training ground. While Niko ominously radiates malice in the background. The next page we see that malice take form as a bunch of training weights lashed to his ankles and wrists. He's not allowed to remove them until the training is over. 40kgs overall, or close enough to. This is confusing to Ohma, since each individual weight isn't really heavy enough to cause him much trouble, doing a few flicker jabs to demonstrate. I'm sure you've all grasped the trope at hand already, unexplained training ideas that'll come out to all make sense at some point in the near future. Now it's just a case of getting there. So, Ohma asks, what sort of training is this gonna be? Weight training? Katas? I suppose it makes sense that Ohma wouldn't have guessed. He never struck me as the sort of person to care much for fiction.
Take your stance, Niko says. They'll be sparring. Ohma will keep wearing his weights, and the training will end when he lands a clean blow on Niko. Who will, of course, not be holding back.
Yeah nah, he isn't fucking around. He even gets the intimidating loom treatment, as Ohma looks up at Niko from his knees, wheezing and hacking up blood-flecked phlegm. Eyes bright in semi-diegetic shadows. Without a hint of humour, he clarifies. If this was just a case of trying hard enough, it wouldn't be a trial. Ohma is going to have to accomplish the impossible, that's what the secret technique means.
Another classic element of martial arts fiction, of varying levels of fantasy. Things that, sure, you could try to teach conventionally, but that the Master argues need to be learned through the body. That this is the only way the student will truly understand. Or, in some cases, the only way the student will learn fast enough. This being a pretty clear case of the former. And, well, continuing the point I raised before about the contrast in Niko's mood. Escalating from dour concern to completely cold, humourless brutality. Is this a glimpse into what it's like to fight Niko for real? We can't really say, we haven't seen him fight for real (he might have said he won't be holding back, but come on. If that were 100% true Ohma would be dead right now.) and him being dead we aren't gonna see it back in the present. The effect is pretty stark in this moment, at least.
So, we have our setup. It's vague, but this plot beat always starts that way, it's a process of the student figuring out what the various elements are supposed to teach them. It's a question of how well that comes together in the actual learning, and how much sense it all makes in the end.
Thus, the training arc truly begins. It's an odd one, happening entirely in the past, but Ohma's arc has been like that generally. This isn't about growth per say, but revelation and reclaimed understanding. That said, it's also about beefy fellas punching each other in the face. Our master and pupil square up.
Ohma rushes in, as he is wont to do, throwing a sequence of straights and hooks at Niko. Achieving basically nothing but ruffling his hair. Niko derides him through the entire combo, asking what the heck he's even doing, until Ohma goes for a tackle. Niko doesn't even touch him, he pivots out of the way and Ohma flies face first into the mud all on his own. His footing in shambles.
I wonder if the idea here is coming together for any of you, yet?
It's certainly not for Ohma, that's for sure. He doesn't even pause before unhesitatingly resorting to dirty tactics. Literally, even, grabbing a handful of wet forest loam and hucking it at Niko's face. Unfortunately, not only does it whiff completely, Niko kicks him in the face in the same motion. Catching him by the hair before he can collapse completely. Neither of them are done yet.
The day progresses from there. The echoing clap of knuckles against meat a persistent accompaniment to the wind whistling through the trees.
Ohma's on the floor, completely incapable of moving. Both exhaustion and muscle pain. Niko caustically notes as much, and lets him off the hook early, since it's the first day of training. Albeit with a warning to recover quickly. Evening proceeds into night, and Ohma lies in the mud as still as possible. Panting. Everything hurts. His left leg especially isn't right, but all his muscles and bones are stressed to their limit. And yeah they are, he just spent at least an entire afternoon fighting. But, well, we know what Ohma's history is from here. He's used to pain, and muses on how complaining won't help. He's had some rest, now he just needs to deal with his wounds and find some food. Then he can sleep until sunrise.
Right?
The next training session greets Ohma with a kick to the face, and a grim reminder from Niko. His best friend fucking died in this forest. Normal training doesn't do that. Get your act together before you die too.
This is, in a word, fucking mean. It's brutal. Mr Miyagi style training taken to an extreme. Not without precedent in the manga though. Remember Rei's first match? More of it was flashback than fight, but we saw enough. His senses expanded by annihilation of the self through gruelling denial of food, water and oxygen. But then, that was being inflicted by himself, he wasn't being beaten up in the process. Still. Little fucked up, isn't it, that this trope is common enough to be a known thing. A straightforward exchange of suffering for a flash-increase in strength.
I guess we'll see what that looks like in Kengan, and maybe get to pick it apart a little more thoroughly by the end. See you all next time.
I wonder how far esoteric, harmful training like this can go before it loses the benefits and protections of the trope and becomes just unjustifiable violence. In the fiction I mean, obviously doing anything like this to anyone irl regardless of consent would not stand up in any court of law or ethics. It feels like people would object quicker to something like Niko is doing here, since he's directly punching Ohma in the face over it. And the Gu ritual that made Agito is pretty obviously out of bounds. But what about Rei? Bro was close to death, but by all visible accounts sticking at it that long was out of sheer force of will on his part.
Anyway, a few more unconvincingly grayscaled photos of random woodland with varying levels of lighting later, it's the second day. Ohma continues to flail at Niko, but as the narrator notes he's no closer than he was on the first. Further, even, since the accumulated damage was slowing him down. Sore muscles, exhaustion, and so on. We get a nicely drawn series of panels of Niko throwing Ohma and smooshing his foot into the guy's face to highlight just what a car crash the whole day was before taking a step back. Ohma lies on the floor, cradling the same arm Niko threw him by. Then, he yanks a few leaves off of small undergrowth plants, studying them for a second before pushing himself up. Time for dinner, he says.
The next panel is him holding a centipede.
I guess all that guff about Gakigahara being inherently inimical to all life because of magnetic fields and whatnot didn't amount to much after all. I could attribute this to Ohma being that much of a self-sufficient manly man, but then what about the centipede? Do bugs not count?
Also I hope he pinched the head off those at least. Aren't some kinds of centipede that big super venomous?
Anyway, self-contradicting context aside, Ohma is undaunted. Swallowing a mouthful of invertebrate he promises Niko that he's going to knock his socks off tomorrow. Disregarding the fact that Niko is barefoot, day three sees Ohma actually start to do better. To the point of performing big Niko Style rush techniques like Swimming Swallow, even. Niko doesn't look surprised, but there is an intense look of anticipation in his eyes. The narrator steps in here again to explain, with a little more of that classic shonen pseudoscience. Basically, more direct adaptation, in these extreme conditions Ohma's body started making super powerful endorphins "five or six times" more powerful than Morphine. Apparently, this enables him to move no differently than when he's fully healthy. I'm not convinced this is a real thing, but whatever. Niko tacitly confirms this to be part of the point of the whole exercise by noting what's happening himself, encouraging Ohma to memorise the feeling, and how he got here. Presumably to Lock In of his own accord later. And as if to highlight the progress, Ohma actually gets something here, locking a hand around Niko's wrist and launching him into the air with a Weeping Willow.
Of course Niko then immediately breaks free with a mid-air jacknife and kick to the mush before folding Ohma around his fist, but you know. Progress is progress.
A little over a full week into this exercise in violence, Niko shows a little mercy, or perhaps just rewards progress. He declares the results of the day satisfactory and gives Ohma until sunrise to rest. Until sunrise! How decadent!
Ohma just sort of falls over, which is confirmation of its own, I suppose.
While there he demonstrates just how different Ohma usually is from the way he started the manga with a bout of reflection. And just a sliver of defeatism. He's struggling to remember how long it's been since he got into this shitstorm, but more he's musing on how he'll never beat Niko. No matter how hard he tries. Not with these shackles on-
A brain wave strikes. After nine days of ramming head first into a brick wall, he begins to eye the seams between the bricks with thought. What are the weights even for? Niko was vague and dismissive about the actual weight of them, so that clearly doesn't matter. And it doesn't make sense to handicap the weaker fighter to begin with (Yes I know, how did it take him this long to realise, cut him some slack. His three brain cells aren't built for this). The train of thought is sadly broken as he sits up, some number of his muscles failing him and sending him back into the dirt. He hasn't even got the strength to sit up properly, he needs to rest as much as possible. Time to find a more comfortable posture-
Brainwave 2, revenge of the cells. This time we don't get to see what's struck him immediately, though. Instead we move on into the tenth day. Double digits.
And whatever it was?
It was on the money.
Now, of course, any competent training arc writer will tell you it's not gonna be that easy. And sure enough, Niko tempers his congratulations by declaring that Ohma has reached the starting line to learn the Secret Technique, and this is where the real training begins. Whatever Ohma figured out, it's a prerequisite to being able to understand the real deal. Niko tells Ohma to remove his weights…
This…is actually kind of funny. Okay, so on the one hand yeah, I'm weak to this sort of moment. I feel the hype, I love it when a master orders their student not to die during their training, I love it when a more developed fighter overwhelms the protagonist and is revealed to be sandbagging. It's a fun moment.
But also the way the weights are being worn completely undercuts the moment, and it's so funny to me. Even assuming double the weight, the ones Ohma are wearing are so much more significant because they're at the end of his limbs, not strapped tight onto his centre of gravity. Lever action, right? It's pretty basic physics, easily understood by anyone who's tried to hold something at arms length. By wearing the weights on his torso, and securing them to him, Niko allows his body to distribute that weight much more evenly, which makes it so, so much easier to support. I get that it's economy of presentation, and making sure it could be hidden under his cloak for the reveal, with a minor benefit of allowing him to just eat that hit to his chest. But still, the intended meaning is in shambles.
Moving on into the next chapter, just ignore the title for now, carries us through the same moment. And the same kinda funny emphasis on what a beast Niko is. More seriously, leveraged to highlight what a mess Ohma is right now. There isn't a single inch of him that isn't some flavour of fucked. Broken bones, bruised muscles, his hands are shaking and he feels cold despite the implicitly balmy weather. He can, by his own reckoning, barely stand.
And yet, he feels more stable than ever. Why? Is this what it means to stand with your bones alone?
I guess, whatever revelation he had on the ninth night, it wasn't enough for full understanding of the principle at hand. But then, training continues, doesn't it? Ohma must understand with his body. And after congratulating the slab of tenderised meat he's reduced his student to on how well he's endured this training, Niko gives him the last verbal lesson Ohma will receive before the final trial begins.
The thing you seek lies beyond death. So grab hold of life.
Unironically badass. And also kind of uplifting, in implication. Never go gently, never stop fighting to live. Find that shining, golden path through the world's wrath and seize it with both hands.
Then it begins.
Niko isn't fucking around any more. The gruesome detail, flaps of loose skin fluttering in Ohma's wake, decisively proves that. And it's interesting that Niko's first move is one of the Niko Style's counterattacks. Was he expecting Ohma to go straight onto the offence? It'd fit. Could also just be Sandro forgetting what the move's for and using it because it looks cool, but I think he's earned some benefit of the doubt where fight choreography is concerned. That said, with Ohma's first response being defensive, Niko pivots to more straightforward offence. Swimming Swallow, a combination of the redirection and water katas, an overwhelming multidirectional striking technique. And yet, Ohma stands strong. His body driven to its limits, Ohma's brain steps up to compensate, concentrating to a phenomenal extent. As if to demonstrate, Ohma nearly steps on an eye-wateringly jagged spar of exposed wood before sensing it almost without realising, adjusting his footing before his conscious mind has even caught up. In this state, every sense running at full tilt, he can feel everything about his surroundings.
Including Niko. He can feel what's coming. Niko's decisive blow.
Adamantine Kata: Ironbreaker. Without mercy or relent, from one of the strongest living fighters.
There's only one way for him to survive.
The Niko Style Secret Technique, Demonsbane, has been passed on.
And to do it, Sandro pulled out some fireworks. This is the first time one particular Shonen Classic has been let out to play in this manga, and it's arguable he shouldn't have. I don't have a specific name for it, but let's call it the Wide-angle Plume. If you're familiar with battle shonen you've almost certainly seen it before, to highlight the scale of a specific blow or exchange of strikes, the camera pulls WAAYYYYY out and shows you what the devastation looks like from a distance. A plume of dust and rubble usually, sometimes fire or whatever dreadful energy is relevant to the manga. It's rad, and I love it, but it's also possibly incongruous with Kengan Asura? It's not the most grounded story, granted, but this scale of destruction seems out of scope with the rest of the story, even including guys like Wakatsuki and Julius.
And that's the end of that scene, hard cut to black. It's not clear whether Ohma passed out or not, but when we enter the next scene it's to Ohma's face again. Albeit following some medical attention…presumably by Niko, they're sat on a cliff face overlooking Gakigahara. He may use reckless, esoteric modes of teaching, but honestly it tracks for him as a character that Niko isn't completely callous and brutal. He was as cautious about this as he could be, put as many safety nets in place as he could without ruining the exercise, and hell. He made an attempt to persuade Ohma out of doing this at all. So why, then, did he actually do it? This pretty frankly brutal, horrible process?
Well, I think he's been thinking about that too.
As if he's been reading my previous discussions on the subject of this kind of training, Niko doesn't agree. Ohma's fine with the whole thing, because of course he is, the weirdo. But Niko's aware of how terrible all this was, and it seems to linger on his mind. There could be a better way than this, a way to pass on the Demonsbane more efficiently. Without all the pain. Without wearing the student down to their absolute physical limit, to smash open all the floodgates on their senses, until the four kata blended naturally in their body to create the slayer of demons. This was just the only way he knew. The way he was taught, long ago. Ohma insists it doesn't bother him, but…well, we all know he's not a reliable perspective on these things. I actively like Niko more for this sequence's existence and its humanising influence, especially given its nature as a self-deprecating admission from a character who's largely been a flawless mentor figure so far. And hey, we've mostly only seen him as Ohma thinks of him, haven't we? Funny that. This is the first time we're seeing him in a less filtered form. Pure memory, without attached emotion, or Ohma awake. It's a compellingly downbeat conclusion, from a character usually more full of humour.
And then, because he's still Niko, he deflects all of that with Humour. Because it clearly gnaws at the back of his mind, but he's not quite mature enough to have an extended serious discussion about it.
Hm? Oh right, what's the humour. He claims that, as a man with more life experience, the one last thing he has to teach Ohma is to always have the composure to hit on a woman. In fact, if he sees a fine-looking dame, he should always hit on her. Because it's Kengan Asura baby, can't let a nice moment just sit without a little misogyny for flavour. I still appreciate the character note of Niko dodging genuine complex emotions while still clearly experiencing them, but…sigh.
And, just like that, the flashback ends. We return to the present, to the beeping of a heart monitor, and Yamashita's glum face. And Ohma's unconscious hand twitching, just a bit.
Meanwhile…
They see it too, THEY SEE IT TOO.
So, what are these respective couples (hehehe) doing, exactly? Well, the exact same thing, it turns out. Looking for their bosses. Or, well, Cosmo and Adam are looking for Nishihonji, but Adam words it as "our" boss, to Cosmo's consternation. Kaneda and Gaolang give each other a look. No, not like that, one of concern. Something's not right here. As noted, they've been looking for their bosses as well. All up and vanished, without even telling their bodyguards. And everyone gets exactly long enough to have a What The Fuck reaction before a loud noise attracts everyone's attention, and they all peek around the corner.
Finding a group of Hayami's white-uniformed Guardians, led by Long Min, standing over the bloody, battered corpses of several bodyguards. And upon seeing the fighters, Long Min corrects his last report. They missed a few, four more cockroaches left to exterminate.
Looks like Hayami has dispensed with Subtlety altogether, and is going for the smash and grab approach to claiming what he sees as his property.
See you all next time, for how this interruption escalates.
Things seem to begin well enough for the fighters. The first panel of the chapter is one of Hayami's goons getting his face turned inside out, and the next seems him still falling as Gaolang darts past, Adam fending off another behind him. Gaolang races right for Long Min, and-
A sibilant hiss. The air parted by naked steel. A sweeping slash splits Gaolang's shirt open, coming millimetres short of doing the same to his flesh.
It should go without saying, right? Since the earliest stages of human history, before humans were even human as we understand the word, we've taken sharp objects and lengths of wood and turned them against each other for a reason. The human body on its own is simply not that good at hurting other living things of similar size to us, and martial arts can only do so much to compensate. As we've seen, this is not a setting that uniquely preferences unarmed warriors. Murobuchi Gozo is as inhuman as anyone else here as an olympic athlete. Muteba uses weapons to dismantle battlefields. Even the Kure make heavy use of firearms and modern technology. These tools are important, and used as befits that importance.
A skill gap could cover for the difference of course, this is still a martial arts manga and Gaolang is among the world's best. But he quickly notes that Long Min is a master of his craft. Maybe not on Gaolang's level, but good enough. And Gaolang is injured. As is most of their group. Adam is the only person there who's mostly unharmed, and with his style? He'll get cut to ribbons.
Doesn't help that Long Min can wield his Dao with the rope hanging from its pommel, multiplying his range massively. The situation looks grim.
Fortunately, we have a nice little diagram laying out where everyone's at.
Seems like Agito's brooding on his own. Possibly still coping. But forget him for now, because the camera moves directly into VIP Room 2, on the opposite end of the dome, just in time for Yoshitake to step into the room. In case you forgot which one he is, he's met with homophobia almost as soon as he enters. Which I'm sure narrows it down.
That said, this seems to be where all the CEOs are at. Soryuin was the quick trigger finger on the aforementioned slur, but it's much more than her. I can see Ohya Ken here as well as Magatani Juzo, who wonders if this is to explain the loser's bracket. This gets dismissed because heyo, Nishihonji is here. And he's advanced to the third round, so what gives. Nishihonji explains shortly that he received a summons from Katahara, several other CEOs chiming in with the same story. Nobody knows what's going on. You've probably guessed by now, but shhh, let's let them have their fun. Especially since Katahara himself steps through the door along with Rama, Kure Erioh…and some questions.
First and foremost, what are you all doing here?
He's met with immediate confusion from most people, but a couple of CEOs have a different reaction. Magatani Juzo, one of his era's top Fighters, and Dazai Yukio, a man who unironically walks around wearing a Daito, both grit their teeth and sprint for the elevators. We've been had, Yukio exclaims.
Nineteenth floor, Menswear and Blunt Force Trauma
Well that's probably not good. The Guardians chase the two men back into the mass of other CEOs and surround them, all four elevators disgorging huge numbers of white-uniformed goons. And at their head? Come on. As if you even had to ask.
Hayami Katsumasa doesn't say a word, as the Bodyguards present square up. Unfortunately, there is in fact an actual twist here. Because for all of Mr Yodoe's posturing and fake(?) wounds, it turns out he's no match for the Arabian Whirlwind after all. Hassad flickers into the room more shadow than man, dropping all three men in as many seconds.
Was he sandbagging back on the SS Kengan? Or is it simply a mindset thing, now that he isn't acting on a flared temper and knows to respect the Bodyguards. Who can say. His only comment is that the debt is repaid. After a brief page to hype up the other head Guardian, a scarred up bloke with a Katana called Kito Gunji, Hayami calls forward a Guardian with a laptop to display the logical next conclusion of Hassad's involvement.
…I guess Kaburagi decided to clean up before this. And look, even the fishing Mayor is here, with a mildly bloody rag on his head. Alongside the CEOs of Byakuya news, Disney La- I mean Tochigi Destiny Land and a breathtakingly racist stereotype. Seriously, I'm sure I've said it before, but what the hell is up with that guy with the buck teeth? And what do you even say about a work of Japanese origin using that sort of character design?
Anyway, Hayami insists he has no patience for traitors and incompetents, and sure enough all four of the people Kaburagi is menacing with that machete were previously either in Hayami's camp or victims of his original ploy with the assassins on the ship. A singularly unimpressed Katahara proceeds to flex right back by basically calling out the CEOs of Boss Burger and Nentendo a being inches away from the same fate. He phrases it as "if you were just a few points short" though, which…I'm not sure what that means. It's not like either of them made it past round 1, and they aren't exactly topping the company success charts better than TDL or Byakuya news, so…who knows. It's a confusing little aside, but the fact they were apparently doing undercover work for Hayami at least fits. If I remember right, we've seen them skulking around suspiciously from time to time. The point is at least dropped mercifully quick as Hayami moves on to his ultimatum. Will the CEOs here join the four tied up in their fate, or will they join with Hayami in the formation of his new Kengan Association. Presumably with hookers and blow.
Thank you for joining us, Yoshitake.
For Katahara specifically, in service of this new agenda, Hayami has a demand. Cancel the tournament and resign as chairman, effective immediately. Pretty unreasonable, especially as a unilateral demand, so Katahara asks the obvious question. And what if he says no? Hayami gestures again to his man with a laptop (there had to be a more elegant, dramatic way to present this information man, come on. All those billions of Yen and you haven't a single bone of presentation in your body) who brings up a diagram of the Kengan Dome. With a bunch of little explosion markers.
If Katahara says no, Hayami will blow up the Kengan Dome. And everyone in it.
…right now that includes himself. And any men he leaves behind to make sure the CEOs don't just…run. I'm not sure he's thought this through.
Noone questions it though, instead moving to piece together the events leading up to this. Katahara notes the Black Messengers, who were given so much drama before dropping like flies in a blast furnace, were decoys. To draw security away from the northern cliffs, which further drew security away from the Kengan Dome as the Bodyguards searched for the new infiltrators. Hayami graciously confirms, the Heavenly Wolves installed the bombs, being covert ops specialists. And before anyone thinks of contacting the outside, he had a bunch of his Guardians accompany members of the society of a Hundred as bodyguards, so he has Big Number. Big Number will surround dome. Bodyguards small number. Cannot beat. Ho ho ho.
And then, on the next page and apparently without realising it, Yoshitake dismantles Hayami's entire plan without realising it. Sure, if Katahara accedes to these demands his career is basically over…
Trump and Putin, notoriously bros.
Hayami isn't making it out of this with anything. He's completely fucked himself. It genuinely does not fucking matter who his backer is or what they want, at the point where he's killed the figureheads of half the first world nations he's painted a target on his back so large it'll be visible from the fucking Oort cloud. He's all but declared War on every Superpower going, even if he survives the bombs lining the building he is presently standing in. Yoshitake is framing it as if this is Hayami's masterful checkmate, but the simple facts of the situation lead to only one conclusion.
Hayami's best case scenario here is that his men get beaten senseless and he loses. That way the matter remains internal to the Kengan Association, and he probably only suffers the usual CEO level of consequences. Which is to say, sweet fuck all. As opposed to the subject of a global fucking manhunt.
Like a gracious megalomaniacal dullard, Hayami turns around and points out to the CEOs present that the cancellation won't affect the people who've already lost. But it will present an opportunity. He will host a new tournament, with a new slate of prizes. Not Chairmanship, that this will go to him remains unspoken, but for key positions within Hayami's new Kengan Association. Which I'm sure will express all the values Hayami has demonstrated and fix all the problems with the current administration that he's spent this whole manga waxing lyrical on-
Wait, what do you mean he hasn't said a thing about that. He's called this whole thing his revolution, surely he's basing that on something? Some idea, some dissatisfaction with the way the Association works, some paradigm he wants to shift. He's clearly a villain, so his complaint will probably ultimately be either moot or something the protagonists will already fix in a less harmful and destructive way, but…
Oh, it's just that he isn't in charge? That's the only material complaint he's made?
Well fuck me for even trying, good lord, what a waste of space this man is.
After Hayami's incredibly stupid master stroke, we get a full page of theoretically building Omen. Large groups of white-uniformed men approaching various little coteries of fighters. Okubo and Himuro looking down on the Arena. Half the Kure group. A dude with a pickaxe approaches Setsuna Kiryu. Several burly men approach Rihito and fucking Kuroki. And each panel I can't help but wonder if Sandro really expects me to buy this. It's not even like with Gaolang's group, most of these people are largely uninjured or haven't even been fighting at all, and there's not a single weapon in sight aside from the fucking pickaxe. Which is a fucking pickaxe.
Fortunately, on the very last page, I do get a single frisson of meaningful concern.
Ngl, them playing football is just cute. Wonder if Inaba tried to use his hair for it.
The infirmary group are, probably, the people in the worst position to fight off a horde of Guardians. That, at least, I will grant.
God. Sandro really doesn't seem very good at this sort of thriller intrigue, does he? Kind of explains why all the background skulduggery we were told to expect from the cutthroat Kengan Association turned out to be so much vapour. Sure would suck if attempts at this exact sort of storyline were what composed most of the sequel, wouldn't it?
At 4:44pm, the Toyo Electric Coup begins. See you all next time for how it all breaks down.
