Okay. Thanks for your patience.
We're all done now.
Better safe than sorry.
Huh?
Listen, after surviving a fight
with the strongest human in the history of the planet,
a full physical was in order.
As a matter of fact, considering the kind of life you lead,
someone should have run these tests on you long before now.
Not even professional fighters have incurred
the type of damage to their bodies that you have.
Medically speaking, that all makes sense,
but the thing is,
I can't change the way I live
even if you find something wrong.
No, I don't suppose you can.
If you don't hear from me, you can assume everything's all right.
Okay, thanks.
It's me.
Get over here! Right now!
No, it can't wait!
There are 60 million more women where that one came from!
Now, get over here!
It's unbelievable!
This better be important.
Mogi, look at this.
There may be sixty million women out there eager to meet you.
But someone like me?
I'll be lucky if there's six of 'em.
Shut up. Come here.
Huh?
Is that a brain? But from who? Or what?
Definitely hominid.
It's the cerebrum of an 18-year-old Japanese male.
But... but those folds and creases...
It's not possible.
No way...
So now you can see why I called you here.
I wanted the opinion of the country's foremost neuroscientist.
I've had a little experience in the field, too,
though nothing like yours, of course.
But I know that the folds of the brain aren't related to character.
That's just a given.
But still,
compared to any normal human brain,
this one has all the signs of being demonic.
Tell me, Mogi,
are we sure that the folds of the brain have no relation to a person's character?
Mm.
- Kureha... - Hm?
The only thing that we know for sure
is that we know almost nothing about the brain.
It's an incredible thing, the human brain.
The most awesome organ of all!
But in all my experience, I've never seen anything
even remotely as incredible as this!
Uh, yes, sorry.
Where were we?
As to your question,
I have to choose my words very judiciously and very carefully here,
being a neuroscientist.
Of course you do.
While it generally has been accepted
that the folds of the brain and character are unrelated,
in this case, Kureha,
there's no doubt the person that this brain belongs to is a demon!
Mogi.
I do believe you're right.
I never would have believed I'd actually be saying it!
That same evening, in a certain part of Tokyo...
My God!
Watch out!
...there was a brief article in the newspaper the next day
about a surging mob of panicking rats.
No mention was made of what caused the rats to panic
because no one could have known that the cause was a lone young man
who had happened to walk through that same park
just a few moments later.
That face...
It was hard to believe.
That face so handsome, so brimming with self-confidence.
To think that that face would turn into this,
when everything behind it had been stripped away.
All the pretense, arrogance, false courage,
self-importance, pride, and ego.
His tears,
his snot,
his saliva...
The liquid comprised of them all mixed together.
It was beautiful.
Was it wrong of me?
No.
I wonder how long we remained there like that.
Long enough for my clothes to become heavy with his tears.
Thank you
for all that you've given me.
Thank you.
Mm. Mm-mm.
- Can I ask you something? - Huh?
What did that mean just now? Why did you hold me for so long?
You held me with such warmth and emotion. Such passion.
I can't really explain it well.
But if your mother were here,
I'm sure she would have done the same.
Then it wasn't like I was your lover?
No, but it was love.
How can you say that it was love
when you just said yourself I wasn't your lover?
There's no need of romantic love in an act of love.
Your mother can love you
without her having to be in love with you.
Uh...
I fell in love with an incredible woman, didn't I?
I can really see now,
I'm just an amateur when it comes to love.
Hmm.
So, then,
I'm guessing it's not a mother's love that you feel for Baki Hanma.
I lost the fight.
And I lost my love.
But thanks again
for even loving me at all.
Do I feel like a loser?
Not at all.
Baki Hanma didn't even have to compete for it.
How can I be a loser
when I was never even in the running?
See you later.
Oh.
Hmm.
It's been a while since we've seen each other, hasn't it?
Yeah, I've been... pretty busy.
Oh yeah? Doing what?
Having a great time.
That's what I figured
Huh?
- Hey! - I was kidding, you idiot!
I just want you to be happy, Kozue.
It doesn't have to be with me.
Yeah, right.
There's no way I can be that detached about it.
I still want us to be together.
At least a little longer.
You want some more?
Hmm?
Hand over your wallet.
- Yo, Kure. - Hmm?
Why not cut him up?
Hmm...
Yeah, why not?
To a thug like this,
a clear assessment of his prey's strength can be a matter of life and death.
The young thug would later recall
that a strange thing happened at that moment.
The knife he held in his hand
suddenly started to shrink.
It shrank and shrank
until it was as small and useless as a peanut.
Really, my boy?
Picking on such a pair of weaklings?
Mr. Kuriyagawa!
You ought to thank me for intervening, young man.
If I'd arrived a moment later,
goodness knows what you'd be dealing with now.
A shattered kneecap, a broken jaw,
a fractured skull, a punctured lung, a concussion...
Need I go on,
or are you starting to get the picture?
Get out of here.
It's good to see you again.
You're looking well.
It won't be long now.
It'll be the greatest fight the world's ever seen.
The final battle between father and son.
It's not that big of a deal.
It's just a simple fight.
Avenging your mother.
There's nothing simple about that.
No, I know that.
It's been five years since then.
Baki.
Go on, now! Make your father happy!
Here I come, Father!
Trust me.
I have questioned myself
many, many times.
Hmm.
Do I actually hate him...
this man that I'm supposed to despise?
I wonder, Mr. Kuriyagawa,
is my father the only one
who deserves to pay for my mother's death?
'Cause I'm not so sure.
What makes you ask that, Baki?
Well, my mother,
she wasn't your ordinary mother, now, was she?
Emi Akezawa.
By marrying Eiichi Akezawa,
the head of a wealthy and internationally renowned family,
she had secured herself a life of magnificent comfort.
But then--
She met the strongest man in the world.
That changed everything.
Hi-yah!
She saw a man injured, crushed, killed,
and realized she enjoyed seeing it.
She wanted to see more.
There was a cruelty lying dormant within her,
and Yujiro recognized it at once.
I know what you want.
I knew it right away.
You like seeing blood.
You want it more than anything else in the world.
Look at your face in a mirror.
You're smiling.
You're the woman I've been looking for.
You will give birth to my child.
No, she was not an ordinary mother.
As the one responsible for raising Baki,
she gave him a place to live and money to live on.
She also saw to it that he had the best coaches and training facilities.
She raised her son to be an elite fighter.
She did all of this to gain the love of Yujiro Hanma,
the strongest man of all men.
The ultimate male.
Just one more week.
His son will be ready for him then.
Baki will be the greatest gift I can give him.
She cared little about this boy who shared her blood.
She had chosen romantic love over maternal love,
and Baki was nothing more than a tool to help her get it.
But as for Yujiro Hanma,
the only thing he cared about
was that Baki be strong enough to fight him.
That and nothing else.
The only purpose I ever had for you was to raise my son.
I expect him to be prepared for this fight,
and to meet all my expectations.
If he doesn't,
then you were never anything better than a middle-aged prostitute.
That's the extent of our relationship.
All she had wanted was his love.
Why can't I make him love me? Why?!
Because you're weak!
That's why!
You're weak. You're weak!
It's all because you're so weak!
Why did I have to have such a weakling for a son?!
Why?!
Mother.
Will you answer me one question?
If I win,
if I beat Yujiro,
do you think you'll love me then?
He, too, wanted love.
I was barely conscious.
But I could see them.
My mother standing there,
being embraced by my father.
And I thought,
"You're hugging her too damn hard, Dad."
But she was hugging him back.
And she was crying.
Those tears,
I wonder what they were for.
Come on. Are you kidding?
No, I'm serious.
Those were tears of happiness.
Huh?
Her deepest desires as a woman
were fulfilled in that moment.
Perhaps so.
But, Baki,
does that make what she did right?
So your mother finally felt fulfilled as a woman.
Let's accept that as true.
She fulfilled what she saw as the purpose of her life.
But what about your life, Baki?
You have a life and a purpose as well, son.
Your life is every bit as important as hers was.
Yeah, I know that.
Do you, Baki?
It doesn't always seem like it.
Are you really that worried about me?
No, son.
I'm trying to talk sense into you.
You are only given this one life to live, Baki.
You should not take it lightly.
Living only to satisfy your mother,
living to earn the respect of your father.
You hoped to make her proud by doing well.
You hoped to win his approval
and make him see that you have Hanma blood in you.
But none of that matters.
Baki,
you have to decide where you want your life to go.
You must not have heard it.
What? Heard what?
Like the... voice of an angel.
That punch my father hit me with
showed me how far I was from measuring up to him.
And that's when it happened.
My mom stood up to the strongest man in the world.
Stop, Yujiro!!
But she didn't just stand up to the Great Brute.
No. She punched him right in the face.
And then she looked him square in the eye and she said...
You're gonna have to fight me now!
You know what that means, right?
To go one-on-one with a fighter like my father?
And you know what you'll get
for even so much as touching him, let alone punching him.
So for my mother to stand there and challenge him to fight one-on-one
meant that...
she was giving her life
to try and save mine.
Hearing those words was enough.
It more than made up for everything else.
Hmm.
I could die happy right now
because of what she did that day.
The reason I'm alive at all
is because of her.
Hearing her stand up to my father,
it made me strong.
Whatever strength I have
every last bit of it comes from
those words of hers.
I see now.
That's what's driving you,
not just to be stronger,
but to be the absolute strongest of all.
I don't know about all that, but maybe.
Hmm.
I heard her speak the same words you did.
And yet, I wasn't listening.
I'm the one who was wrong.
Forgive me, Baki!
Oh, uh...
It's okay.
It was at that moment,
as he sat there with Mr. Kuriyagawa,
recollecting these memories from his past,
that Baki first began to understand just what it was,
that indefinable feeling deep inside him that compelled him into action.
His fierce desire to surpass his father,
to defeat his father...
It wasn't to avenge his mother.
It was to repay her love.