- He's up! - Look at him!
I thought the fight was over!
Chairman! Get away!
I knew it.
All right, Pickle. I've had enough fun.
Take me, then. Go on and take my life.
Chairman, no!
So, what do you think, Pickle?
Do I taste good?
No!
I'll honor the bargain.
Having come this far,
I don't expect to get out of this alive.
You've won. Eat me.
Not just my arms.
Not just my legs.
Not just my head.
All of me.
Hmm.
Oh!
He's just gonna lie there and let himself be eaten!
Forgive me, Pickle,
but this is not the age of the dinosaurs.
I cannot allow it!
You must be tranquilized. I'm sorry.
Huh?
Doppo!
Director?
It's really him!
Order them to put those guns down!
Huh?
Really, Noble Elder, you surprise me.
Were you actually about to do something that would bring shame on my son?
Uh...
It may not have been spoken,
but there was a promise made between Katsumi and Pickle.
You have no say in this.
And no right to interfere.
My son will keep his promise!
Throughout all of history,
and across all races, cultures, and creeds,
there is one gesture common to all of humankind.
The forces of nature are often beyond human comprehension.
But when faced with forces they cannot understand or control,
humans display an incredible humanity.
When encountering unfathomable evil or inexplicable kindness,
humans, for some reason, bring the palms of their hands together.
What lay on the ground before Pickle was a trophy of war,
but it was given by a friend.
Though he may have been a savage, he was a human.
Though he was a primitive human, he was this man's friend.
To be challenged. To fight.
To win. To eat.
Be attacked. Fight back.
Battle.
Win.
Eat.
In that age of constant battles,
there was no scarcity of food.
There was no lack of opponents from whom he could take.
He was fighting the heaviest of heavyweights,
and he held nothing back.
He took from those who were far larger and more powerful than he...
and it made him proud.
Here he had faced a new and different kind of enemy.
An enemy smaller than he.
He kicked with small feet.
Landed blows with small hands.
He had no claws, fangs, or venom.
He should have been weak.
But his attacks had been staggeringly powerful.
Neither that one's fangs,
that one's horns,
nor that one's stomping power were any more formidable.
Some things can be understood, even without the language to express them.
Pickle sensed that this small male had done a great thing.
Pickle didn't know the word "sacrifice,"
but he understood the essence of what it meant.
Through his own strength of will and enormous effort,
this man had turned himself into a powerful fighter,
despite his small hands,
despite his small feet.
Even without knowing the words, Pickle knew this about Katsumi.
He had transformed those small, soft things
into fangs, horns, and claws.
Such an achievement must have been a priceless treasure to the man,
but it was a treasure he had willingly offered up.
Effort, sacrifice, weakness,
transformation, friendship, treasure...
Without knowing a single word, he understood.
For the first time,
Pickle chose to withdraw from the battlefield
with an empty stomach,
his body filled instead with a strange feeling of contentment.
Uh. Huh?
What's wrong?
Uh, where--
Where is everybody?
When did they leave?
Of the 55,000 members of Shinshinkai who had filled the stadium,
not one of them had left.
They were all still there,
but every one of them was on his knees.
Unable to bear the thought of looking down on their fallen leader from above,
they had all, as one,
without any spoken command, fallen to their knees.
By bowing their heads and averting their gaze,
they showed their devotion and respect.
Baki was filled with regret.
I never thought you'd get to fight him before I did.
It was a petty remark, made out of jealousy.
Who would have thought that this spoiled, frivolous man
could blossom into such a noble and inspiring leader?
Doppo was proud of him.
For even though they were not tied by blood,
they walked the path of father and son.
Doppo suspected that it was he himself who had set Katsumi on this path,
when he told him of Sea King Retsu's defeat.
Sir, I think maybe you're the one who doesn't get it.
The way you think about it,
not underestimating us is the same as underestimating us!
At that moment,
he had sensed something in his son that he'd never sensed before.
He's trying to change.
I was right about that.
That was one hell of a change.
- Where is Pickle? - Hmm.
That's him right now. Don't you hear it?
Like a howl of pain coming from the bowels of the Earth.
Pickle may appear to have been uninjured
but clearly this battle left a deep wound.
This is Chinese tea.
It's my own blend.
All right. Smells good at least.
Ah, very nice.
In Chinese tea, the leaves are fermented.
That's what makes the flavor more robust.
It's robust, all right.
Your Gyokuro tea just doesn't do it for me somehow.
I'll make you a cup. You'll change your mind then.
And then there's bancha and sencha,
to say nothing of hojicha.
All delicious.
I...
I realize this may sound rather strange,
considering that you've suffered the loss of your arm...
It's very annoying, but...
I envy you, Katsumi.
I won't pretend to be humble.
It's true,
I can understand a martial artist's envy of the way I fought.
I admit I am.
Of course, it goes without saying
I didn't accomplish it without some help.
There was the two of you, for example,
Sea King Retsu and Sea Emperor Kaku.
And all our many predecessors in China,
Okinawa, and Japan
who, for thousands upon thousands of years,
never once stopped evolving and improving.
I know now that the breath and spirit
of thousands, millions of our forerunners live on within me.
And they will keep on living for all of eternity.
It was they who really fought that match with Pickle.
I was merely there to represent them.
But you still didn't win,
did ya?
- Hey there. - How dare you?
No, no.
Baki only said what needed to be said.
Baki.
You can say that I didn't have what it takes to score a victory,
but you can't say I didn't give it my all.
I'll never fight a greater match.
So, tell me, you think you've got what it takes?
Oh, definitely.
It was a strange sight.
The man was merely walking down the street,
and yet all around him, people were stopping in their tracks,
staring at the man in fear and uncertainty.
But why, when all he was doing was walking along?
Imagine a young impala.
He's alone, walking through the African savanna,
when suddenly
and unfortunately for him, he comes across a young cheetah.
The cheetah can accelerate from zero to over 68 miles per hour in four seconds.
It is a pro among pros.
The impala instantly senses his misfortune.
His situation is so desperate
that his entire body freezes, trembling,
and he can't take a single step.
It was a similar thing that was happening here.
These people didn't know the man's name.
They'd never seen him passing by before.
They didn't know a thing about this man.
but sixty trillion cells in their bodies reacted
before their minds could even tell them why.
I'll go out on a limb and assume you haven't come here to fight me.
No, I was just hoping we could have a little talk.
Because of what I said?
Yeah. Looking back, I can see that's what started it.
If you hadn't ever said what you said...
See that's why no one wants you around Katsumi.
Not me, not Baki, not even your own damn father.
That was when my son decided
that'd he'd try to change his ways.
Just tip it back and sip it slow.
Hmm?
Even a cat can become a lion.
For a pampered, good-for-nothing little punk,
you gotta admit he did pretty well.
But now that you've brought it up...
...Doppo Orochi, you made a crucial mistake with him.
Yes, I did. You're right.
So, you know it too, then.
I was far too lenient with him.
Yes, that's perfectly obvious to me now.
Makes me ashamed of myself to think of it.
- You there. - Oh, uh, yes? Yes, sir?
What would you like?
Port Ellen single malt ten-year-old.
Uh, yes, sir. Right away, sir!
Uh, how would you like that, sir?
Straight up or with ice?
Just hand me the bottle.
He's going to drink s 140 proof, thousand-dollar bottle of scotch
like it was a two-dollar lite beer?
So, you agree you were too soft on him?
That's right.
I was so busy being dazzled by his progress,
that I forgot myself.
Watching my son grow and develop in leaps and bounds,
seeing how easy it was for him to make such phenomenal progress,
I forgot my duty to him as a father.
and I forgot my duty as a martial artist.
We must never be lenient, not even to our own flesh and blood.
I've preached that lesson myself.
It's a fundamental principle ♪ of the martial arts.
But that didn't stop me from getting soft and sentimental as I watched him grow.
The iron discipline of karate?
Don't make me laugh.
Doppo Orochi...
...what's important is now you've admitted it.
Buried deep beneath the ground under Colorado, in an old salt mine,
a discovery was recently made.
A warrior from the past,
frozen there for 190 million years.
And now this ancient warrior has been revived in the modern era.
Well, Doppo?
Don't you think that signifies something?
You there. Pen and paper.
Right! Coming right up, sir.
Pickle was asleep for 190 million years, right?
If we divide that by 50,
which is the number of years any of us can fight effectively,
give or take a few years,
then we're talking about
one in three million eight hundred thousand.
Aha. I see.
Saying that something has only
a one in 1.38 million chance of succeeding,
well, it's almost like saying it has a 0% chance, right?
So essentially, we're talking about something that will never happen.
Which means I see this number
as a provocation.
A challenge.
We should be glad to be alive.
It feels like powerful forces must be at work
to have made such a thing happen.
Yeah, it's someone or something up above.
And it's telling us that this is our chance
to finally determine who is the strongest of all time.
This is unbelievable.
It's never happened before.
I can't picture him at all,
not even the vaguest shadow of him.
Whoa...
Man, you're gonna be one bad-ass opponent.
Where the hell are you?
Why can't I get a clear picture?
After all, I've seen him with my own eyes.
How could I forget?
Those strong, savage hands.
Legs like steel springs that make him move like lightning.
Those eyes, lit by the flames of primeval times.
That jaw, that mouth, overdeveloped canines.
The way he moves when he fights.
But still,
I can't get a clear picture of him coming in for the attack.
Why can't I see it?
Huh?
Oh, hey, Retsu.
A-ha.
Your monster factory.
Just as I imagined, it's pretty basic.
Training, eh?
More like getting taught a very tough lesson.
That I'm not even close to being the equal of that savage.
Just how strong is Pickle?
Don't know And Katsumi doesn't either.
Oh wow, that's great. Even the guys who fought him don't know.
Sad to say,
but neither one of us
gave him enough of a fight to draw out his full potential.
Huh?
Hmm.
I'm not sure how much more of this I can take!
I mean, can you believe this?
I'm gonna get to go in the ring and slug it out
with an unfathomably powerful opponent!
Like you said, we haven't even seen his full potential!
We don't know how strong he is or what he's capable of doing!
Well, now we'll find out
'cause I'm gonna get to fight him!
Well, I see you're mentally ready.
I'll speak with Tokugawa tomorrow and make the arrangements.
Hmm?
What needs arranging?
I don't want to wait that long.
So tomorrow morning,
me and Pickle are gonna settle this once and for all.
Baki,
this may not be something you want to hear,
but looking at you just now...
...I saw in you your father, Yujiro Hanma.
It felt as if I were talking to the Ogre himself.
Ready to go a few rounds, caveman?