Kenichi the Strongest Disciple is property of Syun Matsuena.

Hokuto no Ken is property of Buronson/Tetsuo Hara

So it happened. His disciple, the disciple of Kensei, was defeated today.

It was an unexpected outcome, to have his pupil pushed so far as to completely lose control of his Sei form and dip into the raw power of the Gou form. Mixing those opposite energies are just asking for his body to give up and break itself, but the overall performance may be worth the risk if mastered.

Too bad his pupil was the first to try it. Pity, since he had too much potential. Unfortunately he will be crippled for life after this, but considering him it will need more than that to make him give up on martial arts.

But those questions aside, why the form he saw his disciple display was oddly familiar?

"Because you saw it before and were allowed to live."

Jumping to face the voice and cursing under his breath for being careless, he saw the owner of the voice and felt his blood freeze.

Him. What one of those things are doing here?

"Oh, it wasn't because you couldn't kill us at the time?"

Stepping from the shadows a silhouette of a young man no older than his apprentice walks to Kensei, only his brow eyes being barely visible in the darkness. Sizing Kensei up the young man let out a small chuckle, the older man tensing at his reaction.

Kensei knew it was a gamble to show such bravado but he could not afford to show weakness now. He knew they are bound to a special law making the two strongest of them slightly above himself, and the one in front of him bellow himself but above his apprentice at this point, rivaling Kensei's other associates more experienced disciples.

However, if he was wrong and that thing in front of him was allowed to use his full strength, none of the Nine Fists could hope to defeat him in single combat. The only one that even hope to stand a chance was the Ninth Fist, and even then that wasn't guaranteed.

"You clearly are full of yourself Kensei, but that doesn't matter right now. I'm here because I wanted to talk with you concerning some of your associates."

Of course, what else they would want from him?

"I'm sorry but I'm of little help this time. It's been a long time since I last meet them and my information is outdated. Maybe we can arrange something later, but my partners also need to lay low for a while."

The young man nodded in agreement, sparing a glance at Kensei's burden.

"Do you… need help with him? It was reckless to let him fight while maintaining such power."

The older man just shrugged. "It was his fight" told him, "you better than those of Ryosanpaku knows about the way of warrior and how one choose to die".

Again he just received a nod before a long pause and a deafening silence fell over them.

"If you need help" the young man continued, "my brother can take a look in secret."

At this Kensei let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "I'd appreciate that" now looking more relieved he dared to voice his curiosity, "but why do you want to help him? Wasn't he supposed to be killed for performing such technique?"

The man just shrugged. "Not really, we work at 'finders keep' and if you can stole it and get away with it then it's yours. His case is different though since he created it from zero, even if it's a crude bastardization of the original, we have no rights to go after him." He let a small smile appear on his lips. "It's unethical and hypocrite of us, since one of our secrets involve stealing other people arts."

"I see." Said Kensei before adjusting his disciple on his shoulders. "Well, I will take my leave now. Got to put him in a hospital and all that." After hearing this the young man turned his back and was about to leave before being interrupted by the older man. "We meet a few times but I never got the chance to know who you were. Care to humor me on your name?"

Without turning, the young man answered.

"You will know my name in due time."

"I see…" Kensei tried to press his luck one last time. "Say, are you authorized to use it?"

The young man turned slightly, "No, since it isn't an emergency", the young man cracked his knuckles before continuing, "but if there isn't a corpse, they can't blame me."

Not wanting to call on any hypothetical bluff, Kensei bid farewell and ran from that place, never looking back.