Waldemar separates from his usual group of friends to go look for Evan Armstrong. Upon finding him, he wraps his arms around him.
- "So, what do you think of Katsuya?"
Evan cringes and removes Waldemar's arm.
- "I'm proud of him. That's all I'll say."
Waldemar scoffs.
- "Seriously? You have no right to be proud of him."
Evan glares at Waldemar.
- "I mean come on, you abandoned the dojo on your silly quest for revenge and now that you finished it you don't even have the balls to go back and apologize?"
- "That's enough!"
Evan throws a straight punch at Waldemar, which he blocks. Waldemar prepares to retaliate before he sees tears drop from Evan's eyes.
- "I know…You don't have to tell me."
Evan turns away.
- "That kid still believes in you, y'know?"
- "I know."
- "Isn't that enough?"
Evan looks back, before turning away again to leave.
- "I don't deserve to come back."
Waldemar returns to his usual group.
Leonardo and Jack have grabbed some snacks.
- "What do you think of Karate, Mr. Jack?"
- "Hmm, let's see. Practitioners are super tough, and they hit really hard. Their shins and knuckles have been conditioned to an insane degree."
- "So, what do you think of Katsuya Masamichi?"
- "I've seen him on TV. Honestly, it's crazy what he's able to do. I mean, he can literally slice people with the heel of his foot. The heel, a blunt part of the human body. And I've heard his Nukite are especially dangerous."
- "Nukite?"
- "It stands for spear hand. Basically, he has turned his blunt hands and feet into weapons that can be used for slashing and stabbing. If you ever face him, he'll give you quite a difficult time."
- "What about the Sambo then?"
- "Sambo is much trickier to fight against. I remember you told me you fought a Judoka before?"
- "Yes, I have."
- "Right, try to remember that feeling, but instead of the "soft way", think of it as a hard, forceful type of grappling. Practitioners are very heavily built, using their weight to force their opponents into submissions. I've also seen this Petro guy on TV, and to be honest, he's much scarier than any Sambist I've ever fought. Let's just watch and see."
The two continue eating their snacks.
- "Now it's time for round 1, match 3! Enter, Katsuya "The God Hand" Masamichi versus Petro "The Ukrainian Bull" Volkov!"
The fighters enter from their respective entrances and start staring each other down.
- "I'm going to make you eat your words."
- "Sure, I am a bit hungry after all."
They get into their respective fighting stances.
[https://imgur.com/vtc5w2j] - Illustration of their stare down.
- "Fighters are you ready!?"
- "Ready as I can be."
- "I'm ready."
- "Then…BEGIN!!!"
Katsuya switches into the Maeba stance, putting both of his open palms forward. Petro knows getting too close means defeat, so he circles around Katsuya. Petro goes in for a tackle but gets kneed in the face. He continues going for the tackle anyway and pushes Katsuya onto the ground. Katsuya rolls before Petro could get into position for a ground pound. Katsuya kicks him away, gaining some distance. Petro goes in for an elbow shot to the face, Katsuya counters with a straight punch to the solar plexus. Both fighters back off.
- "And what a dizzying exchange to get this match started!"
- "What the hell was that!? It was a just a regular straight punch, but my insides are burning."
Katsuya brushes the sand off of himself.
- "You look like you're hurting, here, let me stop the pain."
Katsuya closes in and goes for another straight punch, Petro counters with an uppercut.
- "That won't work on me twice!"
- "Idiot."
Petro gets hit in the face with a Mawashi Geri, or a roundhouse kick, tilting his vision and dropping him to his knees. Katsuya grabs him by the chin.
- "Come on, weren't you going to prove that Karate was a thing of the past?"
Petro shakes Katsuya off and goes back into his fighting stance. Katsuya continues staying in the Maeba stance. Petro is visibly shaken, from both anger and fear.
- "This guy is a monster, I'll have to be more careful."
Katsuya smiles, pissing Petro off. Petro goes in for a tackle, Katsuya moves to block, but Petro uses the tackle as a feint for a right hook to the face. Petro follows up with a left hook and then goes for a flying arm bar.
- "Katsuya gets showered with hooks left and right, and Petro gets him in an arm bar!"
- "Yes, I've got him! His arm is done for!"
Petro thinks to himself before realizing that Katsuya hasn't even fallen to the ground. Katsuya raises his arm up, with Petro still attached.
- "What's this!? Katsuya's monstrous strength is lifting Petro's 129kg body up with ease!!!"
Petro is petrified.
- "Going down."
Katsuya slams Petro into the ground, causing him to cough up blood.
- "A massive body slam from Katsuya! Is the fight over already!?"
Petro recovers and goes for a leg sweep, but Katsuya doesn't budge. Katsuya counters with a front kick to the solar plexus. Petro is writhing in pain. Petro backs off again.
- "I hit him in the face multiple times, so why…why is he unharmed!?"
He thinks to himself as he catches his breath. Katsuya closes in and prepares a kick. Petro guards, but Katsuya goes for an Ura Mawashi Geri, or a hook kick, going above Petro's guard and hitting him in the face again. Petro is stunned, but he crashes into Katsuya with his shoulder, knocking him off balance. Petro lands a leg sweep, knocking Katsuya into the ground. Petro goes for a leg lock, but Katsuya kicks him off. Katsuya tries getting up, but Petro grabs him, lifts him up, and throws him back down into the ground. Katsuya is finally getting damaged.
Petro goes for a stomp, but Katsuya rolls away. Katsuya chuckles.
- "Finally, and I thought this was going to be boring."
Katsuya changes stance, to the Tenchi-Jouge stance, or Heaven and Earth stance. His right arm is raised, and his left arm is lowered, both with open palms. Petro's stance gets lower, preparing for a high-speed tackle. Petro goes in, with a tackle faster than before. Katsuya tries to block, but the speed and weight is too much, and he gets sent to the ground. Petro gets on top, getting ready for a ground and pound, but Katsuya launches him off balance with his hips. Petro goes in for another tackle, but Katsuya stops him with a knee kick to the face. He then goes for another Mawashi Geri, sending Petro tumbling. Petro gets up, blood gushing out of his nose. Katsuya assesses the situation.
- "I see. His durability isn't that great, but his tenacity is what makes him a "bull." Let's see how much he can take before he goes down."
Petro goes in with his guard raised. Katsuya starts with a hook kick. Petro tries to predict where it lands, but Katsuya changes the trajectory of the kick and turns it into a Question Mark kick, hitting Petro's shoulders. Petro drops to the ground once more.
Petro gets up, but is met with a Gyaku Zuki, or a reverse punch, directly towards his solar plexus. Petro coughs up blood again. As he stands up, he is met with a straight punch that falls short of hitting him.
- "Karate doesn't allow hand strikes to the face."
Petro, distracted by his words, gets elbowed in the chest which Katsuya follows up with another Mawashi Geri to Petro's temple, dropping Petro to his knees.
- "And another roundhouse kick thrown! Petro has taken quite a beating I must say!"
- "You're really quite tough you know that?"
Petro coughs up blood and clears his nose.
- "Thanks, but I don't wanna hear it from you."
Petro gets back up again. He takes a deep breath to recompose himself and gets back into his fighting stance. The two fighters close in slowly. The final exchange was drawing near. The two of them start reminiscing about their past.
Katsuya remembers the time his father and Evan Armstrong took him hiking and encountered a bear. Evan grabbed him, while his father held the bear back with just his brute strength alone. He later learned that his father scared the bear off without injuring it. In a sense, Petro reminded Katsuya of his father in that he was pretty much unstoppable. Despite the many injuries he sustained, he kept getting back up. Katsuya smiles due to the memory.
Petro recalls his endurance training. In the hellish cold that were the Siberian mountains, he would bring back tons of logs on a sled. His master had overcome this trial before him and decided to pass on the training method. Every day, Petro would go uphill carrying these logs, and every time he felt like he could go faster another weight was added. Despite the hardships he went through due to his master, he was a father to him. He can't let up now, not when his martial art was getting made fun of. Petro heats up, and his heart goes into overdrive. Katsuya recognizes what had just happened.
- "Our dojo doesn't really have a name for that technique, but I heard it's called the Devil's Engine around here."
- "It's all I'll need to defeat you."
Katsuya smiles, welcoming the challenge.
- "Then come and get me!"
Petro takes a deep breath, before charging in with a barrage of heavy blows.
- "Petro has tapped into what we here at Paraiso call the Devil's Engine! Will he make the best use out of this devilish technique, or will his soul be sold!?"
Katsuya blocks them all with a Mawashi Uke, a type of block that involves both hands moving in a circular motion. Katsuya counters with a straight punch, but Petro parries and hits Katsuya with a backhand before throwing him to the ground with a shoulder throw. Katsuya recovers and gains distance with some backflips, but Petro closes the distance and gets a body blow on Katsuya. Katsuya winces. Petro goes in for a Scissor Takedown, but Katsuya pushes him away in time. Petro goes in for a much faster and much stronger barrage of punches, but Katsuya shoves him away. Petro's vision blurs, the effects of the Devil's Engine are starting to show. Petro is bleeding profusely, but he still stands and continues to fight.
Narso, watching from the infirmary, takes notice.
- "You see that Narso? This is what happens when you overuse the Devil's Engine."
Josol says, as he notices Narso's interest in the transformation.
- "Yes, fighters should use everything they have at their disposal, but this is too much."
Petro's getting sloppier and more inaccurate with his attacks, despite the speed he is showcasing they cannot hit Katsuya. Katsuya clicks his tongue.
- "I want to win, but I don't want you to die, so…"
Katsuya then readies his Quadruple Median Line Strike. He jumps in the air, and kicks Petro in the philtrum, throat, solar plexus, and groin. Petro falls to the ground, knocked out.
- "A Quadruple Median Line Strike! What a masterful technique, hitting an opponent four times will still in the air! And Petro goes down!"
Katsuya turns away, but he immediately turns back as Petro gets back up.
- "What's this!? Petro gets back up even after all of that!? Is he truly unstoppable!?"
Katsuya gets into a stance, until he realizes that Petro was already unconscious, and that his fighting spirit was the only thing propping him up. Katsuya bows in respect. The referee calls the medical team as he approaches Katsuya.
- "And the winner is…KATSUYA "THE GOD HAND" MASAMICHI!"
Petro grabs the attention of Katsuya before he is taken to the infirmary.
- "Sorry for disrespecting your martial art."
Katsuya smiles and bows.
- "Men let their fists do the talking, I already accepted your apology long before you spoke those words."
Katsuya leaves the arena. In the hallway, he meets Evan Armstrong heading towards the arena. The two stopped to glare at each other, before the moment broke as Evan walked away. Katsuya turns back to see him walking towards the light of the arena. The scene of him leaving reminds him of when he left the Dojo.
- "Evan-san, you're really going to leave us?"
A young Katsuya said.
- "Yes, I'm sorry young master, but there is something I must do, and I cannot proceed without leaving you all behind."
Evan says before leaving.
- "Wait!"
Evan turns around to be greeted with a bag flying at him. Evan grabs it. The one who threw it was none other than Katsuya's father.
- "Sensei?"
- "Bring that with you at all times, you are one of our most important students."
Evan opens the bag, and it his gi and belt.
- "…I'll be off."
He says turning away to not show his comrades his tears as he walked out.
- "I'll get you for this, Markus…"
He mutters to himself.