He had never seen a monster like this.
It had the T. rex's teeth and tail.
The Triceratops' feet and horns.
The Pteranodon's wings and talons.
The weapons of three powerful foes combined in one creature,
each one of them already deadly enough.
Every aspect of their strength had been engraved onto his mind and body.
Here it comes!
The teeth.
The horns.
The talons.
The beak.
All of them at once!
Baki's going on the attack!
"Genius" is the only word to describe how he's fought so far.
But what will he do now?
He can emulate those dinosaurs,
but they're a hundred times bigger than he is!
He may have been the greatest fighter of the Cretaceous period,
but Pickle knew nothing of the martial arts.
Understandably, he mistook the pain he felt
as coming from a T. rex attack.
Hmm?
Now I get it!
Hey!
Baki, don't push it too far!
That's right.
No matter the opponent,
whenever they meet, it's their first fight.
He's just gonna rush in like that?!
Don't get reckless, Baki!
But Pickle had fought many first fights.
The search for the best stance from which to start a sprint
has gone on for a long time.
In the Olympics before World War II,
sprinters used various styles of starting positions.
Essentially, the history of the starting position
has been the history of getting as close to the horizontal as possible.
Eventually, a consensus was arrived at,
that the crouching stance was the best position
from which to start a short-distance race.
With the help of a device called a starting block,
the human body can get remarkably close to horizontal.
And yet, that's still not fully horizontal.
It was on this day
that a man achieved a fully horizontal starting position
for the first time.
But the man who accomplished this incredible and unprecedented feat
was no modern-day human.
The time it took for him to make contact with Baki Hanma
was less than a second.
Asked about it later,
Sea King Retsu had this to say about what he saw during that moment.
Or rather, what he sensed.
It all happened in the blink of an eye,
but I could sense many things in that moment.
First of all,
I sensed that this is what Pickle must have done
back in the Cretaceous period.
Sometimes he'd use a tree for leverage. Sometimes a boulder.
That's how he was able to stop a beast that weighed five tons.
And in that same instant, I had another thought.
Baki weighed only about 150 pounds.
If I, who weigh more than 220 pounds, couldn't withstand Pickle's charge,
how could he hope to?
What's more,
Pickle had only started from a crouch when he launched his attack on me.
This time, it would be even more devastating.
I thought, "I'm seeing the end of this fight right here."
Huh?
In such a brief period of time, how could I have so many thoughts?
Well.
You know what it's like?
It's like taking a bite of a truly delicious curry and rice.
It's spicy. Salty.
Sweet. A little sour.
There's the aroma. The richness.
The texture of the rice. The subtlety of the spices...
Describing every sensation triggered by that bite,
well, it would take a lot longer than it took to eat it.
Does that help you see what I mean?
Anyway, at that point,
what really surprised me was that Baki stood his ground.
He dropped his stance and faced Pickle.
He just stood there.
He didn't even try to dodge.
He took the full force of the attack.
Nevertheless,
it was Pickle who was sent flying.
Not just staggered or knocked backwards,
but literally sent flying high and far.
He nearly sent Pickle to outer space!
How did he manage that?
I don't Know.
As a matter of fact,
all that Baki had done was flick his hand.
Like shooing away a fly.
That's not a Jujutsu attack. Or aikido.
And yet, somehow, a man who weighs more than 450
was sent flying up into the rafters by someone half his size
with a flick of the wrist.
That Pickle, he's amazing.
- Hmm? - Just look at him,
It didn't even faze him.
Very impressive.
You're one tough bastard.
Why do you say that?
It was Baki who threw Pickle, wasn't it?
What's so amazing about getting thrown halfway to the moon?
I don't know the physics behind it, but it's more like he threw himself.
The stronger the forward thrust of an object,
the more vulnerable it is to a force from the side.
That's why a bullet fired into a body doesn't follow a straight line.
It can come out the side or the shoulder.
The path it takes can be affected by any soft tissue it runs into.
There are times when even something as flimsy as the leaf of a houseplant
can bend a bullet's trajectory.
So if you think of Pickle as a bullet,
with all of a bullet's force,
his path can be deflected with something as simple as that,
just the merest flick of the wrist.
Hanayama was right.
I was reminded of something.
A boxing match that took place in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964.
It was the heavyweight title fight
between the champion Sonny Liston and the young Cassius Clay.
At one point, Liston threw a powerhouse right,
and Clay brushed it aside with a flick of the glove.
The result of that one small move was that Liston's shoulder was dislocated.
Most experts credited Clay's strength for causing the injury.
But they had it wrong.
In fact,
it was the force behind his punch,
more than Clay's deflection of it,
that put Liston's shoulder out of action.
Huh?
Oh, that's good.
There.
You see that, Pickle?
I peed in eight different spots.
Since you've decided to cower in the shadows up there,
I've marked this arena as my territory.
What? What in the world's he thinking?
The audacity!
Okay, no more of that. I'm done doing tricks.
No T. rex, Triceratops, Pteranodon.
Enough of that, right?
Time to get back to basics.
I mean, we're both homo sapiens here.
Let's finish this thing man to man.
I want to do it this way at least once!
What a fool.
Yes!
A head-to-head fight!
More like a face plant!
More like a whole body plant!
I was just smashed right into the ground...
Was this what I expected?
Maybe more than I expected--
Oh. Yeah!
Oh-ho-ho-ho!
Oh! Oh man!
You really are strong, aren't you?
There's no doubt about that.
Oh!
Even when I try to protect my vulnerable spots by--
By blocking his blows with my arms,
then my arms become my vulnerable spots!
That's how strong he is.
Oh, look, the lights again.
That's the third time I've been up here today.
Ah, when I think of superhuman strength like this,
that's who I think of, Biscuit Oliva, Mr. Unchained.
Now, that's something I'd love to see.
And he'd do it, too.
He'd take Pickle on, head-to-head.
Man, that would be a fight for all ages!
And speaking of head-to-head fighters,
there's that guy standing right over there.
Those shoulders.
Those fists.
He's the same way.
Ain't no cheap tricks with him.
Yeah, he'd take Pickle on, face-to-face.
Well, of course face-to-face. What other way is there? Back-to-back?
Nah, that's not even a thing.
Talk about backs, what about his?
The Ogre's!
You know, I bet they'd even use the same stance.
Oh man, I wonder how that fight would end!
That's not it.
That's not what I'm really interested in.
What I wanna see...
what would Baki Hanma do?
How would Baki Hanma stop this guy?
I've lived for 18 years.
Mindfully.
Diligently.
I have lived to win.
To be the best.
And I've followed in the footsteps of the most powerful being on Earth,
Yujiro Hanma.
But why?
Why? What do you mean, "Why?”"
Why do I need a reason?
Do I need a reason to fight Yujiro Hanma?
Okay, maybe it's to get vengeance for what happened to my mother?
That's right.
That was four years ago.
Do I hate him?
Yes.
Do I admire him?
No, don't be stupid!
Why would I admire him?
But there is one thing.
I gotta admit, there is one thing I admire.
His strength.
There's no denying that, as a fighter, every inch of him is flawless.
In a way,
you could say I trust him.
That's why I've tried to copy that back.
Emulate those fists.
Emulate that speed.
That's how I can do this.
Dodge these attacks.
I know I'd be in serious trouble if just one of these blows landed.
But I can dodge 'em,
even if I wait till the very last second...
They came closer and closer, but still he dodged them.
With no time to spare,
he managed to move his body just enough to avoid contact.
Then, one blow touched his hair.
Another grazed his skin.
He wasn't just fighting anymore.
It was more like
he was performing a dance.
An intricate dance.
It was like he was in a bull fight,
and he was the matador.
Pickle had seen many kinds of speed before.
On land. In the water.
In the air.
But this,
he had never experienced this.
This was speed beyond speed.
Instead of ending up here,
Baki went there.
Then it hit him. A distant memory.
At first, it was just in sport.
He'd only wanted it for a snack.
He learned that it wasn't so easy to deal with.
He was sure he'd caught it that time.
That's when Pickle suddenly realized
that there were beings in this world that could travel through his body.
Late in his life,
the fighter known far and wide as the father of fighting karate once said...
"I have faced many blows."
"I have faced many kicks."
"I've been attacked with many elbows, knees, and headbutts."
"With steel pipes, stones, and even knives."
"But at the last second,
the last split-second,
in the very nick of time,
by a whisker's breadth,
I have dodged these attacks."
Then he said that once, during an ordinary practice session,
he experienced something extraordinary.
He passed through them.
He said he had passed through his opponent.
This, of course, was physically impossible.
But after countless hours spent honing his skills
at outmaneuvering an opponent,
his defenses,
his reactions,
his footwork
had all been stripped of any excess movement.
He had transcended merely circling his opponents,
and entered a state of passing through them.
What sort of man is this?
Just how many tricks is he capable of?
Incredible.
To think that Baki's fighting abilities have reached this level.
Could I have ever done that?
Done what he's doing? ...
The man known as the God of War, Doppo Orochi,
or that living embodiment of fighting, Goki Shibukawa,
or even my own teacher, Master Kaku,
the greatest living king fu fighter,
could any of those giants have done what Baki has done?!
It was little wonder that Pickle was confused.
This opponent, who was always just out of reach,
had suddenly appeared right at his feet.
In his hand, an invisible blade like a matador's sword,
which he now thrust into his prey's most sensitive spot.
It penetrated deep.
He could predict just how great the coming pain would be.
Just as when we stub our toe,
or when we're hit hard in the solar plexus.
In those few moments we're granted before the actual pain arrives,
our brain is already predicting the approximate intensity of that pain.
A moment later, the pain hits us
with an intensity every bit as excruciating
as our brain predicted it would be.
God grants us just those few moments to prepare ourselves for it.
He could predict what was coming
from similar blows in his two previous battles.
Here it comes.
And his brain told him
that this would be an even greater wave of pain
than those he'd felt before.
The pain!
Just as he had thought.
Even worse than he had thought.
Well, that seemed to do the trick.
Of course it did.
The trusty kick to the groin.
I've never known it to fail.
How is this so?!
How can a blow to two such tiny parts of the body cause so much pain?
It's not about size.
Their importance is far from small.
The testicles are vital internal organs.
Huh?
But they're fragile.
While in the womb, they're formed inside the abdomen
and only descend shortly before birth.
They're weak.
No part of a man's body is weaker.
Not the heart,
liver,
stomach,
or even the brain.
All those organs are kept safe and secure
by thick layers of muscle and fat,
by bones,
and by a sturdy skull.
Because they've been given the vital task of producing sperm,
the testicles must be kept cool for the sperm to thrive.
So they're kept outside of the body,
with their only protection a very thin layer of skin.
In this state,
they're totally exposed and extremely vulnerable.
Imagine it was your heart dangling there between your legs,
wrapped only in a layer of skin.
What a vulnerability that would be in a battle.
I don't think I'd ever leave the house!
So I guess it's over, then.
- Is it though? - No, it's not.
It's not?
That look.
The look on his face when he went down.
Huh?
Will you stay down or will you get back up again?
After a blow like that,
you instantly make a decision, deep in your heart.
It's either, "I'm done. I give up. Leave me alone,"
or it's, "How dare you? I'll make you pay for that!"
In that moment, as you collapse, your expression tells it all.
Your strength of heart.
Your will to get back up and fight.
It's written on your face.
And from the look on Pickle's face as he went down...
Not only is that caveman gonna get back up,
but I think Baki's really made his blood boil now.
Both their bodies were trembling
with nervous anticipation, with rage...
We're finally here.
It's been a long, hard battle.
Now comes the war.
That face.
That stance.
This is his final form.