Disclaimer: Hokuto no Ken (HnK) is a work by Tetsuo Hara and Buronson. I do not own Hokuto no Ken nor any of the characters that originally appeared in HnK. This is a not-for-profit work of fan fiction.
Under the yellow skies without clouds, an endless ocean of sand rolled without limits. The sun that once nurtured forests was instead searing the split lands. The occasional desert breeze only blasted in more heat. Without any clear signs of green or skin, the desert was hostile to life. A cloud of dust, however, rose in the horizons, appearing to warn about an incoming sandstorm.
It was instead a streak of sand trailing behind a jeep. The car charged as quickly as a cheetah sprinted across a savanna. In the roofless hulk of metal, two people hunkered down with heavy desert goggles. One was a well-dressed man handling the steering wheel. The other was a woman, bearing a golden cloak and a wooden crossbow.
"You sure this can't go any faster!?" The woman stood in the back of the jeep.
"No can do, Ruby!" the driver shouted.
"Damn it." Ruby glared closely at a cloud of dust, which appeared to follow them closely. She leveled her crossbow with both her arms, and her goggles looked towards the billowing sand.
"I'll do what I can," the driver said. "Just focus on them!"
An arrow soared from Ruby's crossbow, charging at the cloud that was giving pursuit. Behind the jeep, a fleet of motorcycles rushed forward like a furious flock of ostriches. The gang of the scantily dressed ruffians surrounded a lone pickup truck, weathered yet driven forward by years of desert battle. The leader Sado, for whom the truck was a throne, remained comfortably seated while eyeing his prey.
"Keep it on, boys!" The mohawked muscular brute roared like a voracious elephant.
"Woohoo!" The cheers of the hooligans vibrated, despite the howls of the engines and the flow of the rowdy desert air.
Ruby gritted her teeth. She scowled at the gang, though her face was shadowed by her hood. She slowly breathed out, then lifted her crossbow again and fired. The bolt sailed through the desert emptiness, before it jabbed a slab of leather. The twig planted just above Sado's left ear, and he could only give a smirk at Ruby.
"You aimed well, girl," Sado said. "But not well enough!"
He turned to his right, facing a thug also in the truck. "Give me the bow."
As Ruby reloaded her crossbow, she noticed an elaborate mix of steel and wood from Sado's truck. The gang leader held, in his hands, his own crossbow. Ruby – her eyes widened – let out a gasp.
"Ruby?" The driver sounded anxious.
Ruby lifted her weapon again. Rather than seeing a bolt charging from her crossbow, she instead saw a bolt coming towards her. It was too late. She shuffled aside, slipping and tumbling on the back seats.
"Gah!" Ruby groaned.
"Ruby!" the driver said. "You okay!?"
The bolt stabbed the back of the driver's headrest. At least Sado's answer missed her head.
"Yeah." Ruby struggled back to her feet. "I'll take him down…"
The driver gave a smile through the rear-view mirror. "That's the spirit. I'll make sure we get back before we run out – "
The engine abruptly churned, and the two villagers were tossed around in the jeep. The cheetah that was roaming freely was losing its will to run.
"No!" The driver banged the steering wheel. "Not now!"
The car gave its last fuming breath and its tires rolled to a halt. Ruby and the driver panted, their eyes after the gang of lowlifes just behind. Around the fallen cheetah, the hyenas cycled, their laughs and cheers taunting the helpless animals. They soon gave way to the leading truck, with a smile clear on Sado's face.
Sado stood up on his seat, towering above the captives. He was a shirtless beast, clothed only by wrinkled trousers and massive leather boots. The other hyenas pulled out their teeth – the thugs lifted out their machetes, swords, maces, knives. A few rolls of sweat streaked down Ruby's face, still shadowed by her cloak. The driver faced downwards, with both his fists rested on the steering wheels.
The sun too glared at the two villagers, refusing to forgive them.
"You sure put up a lot." Sado crossed his arm. "Too bad it ended earlier than expected."
"Shut up!" The driver turned around and stared into Sado's eyes.
Ruby still held her crossbow. "You're not getting away without losing something."
"You talk too much, girl!" A raspy voice erupted from the gang of thugs.
"See?" Sado said. "My boys are smart."
The gang leader snatched a machete and leapt out of his truck. His feet landed, arousing a fog of dust, and he found himself within reach of Ruby. The warrioress aimed her crossbow at Sado, even as her trembling arms struggled to keep it steady.
Sado responded with his usual smirk. "You still want to kill me?"
"Better than just giving up!" The driver took out a dagger from his pants.
Sado sighed, though not sincerely. "Now you're making this harder. We'll still make it easy. We all know that somewhere in the jeep, there's a good load of food and water. Just hand them over."
Ruby grunted. "Look, our village needs them!" the driver shouted. "We're running low, and we just want to live!"
Sado walked around the jeep, this time bringing his focus on the other bug in the car. The bandit's arms laid low and his face looked blank. He noticed a pathetic blade, shaking but pointed at him.
"You just want to live?" Sado asked.
The hooligan raised his machete.
"No!" Ruby screamed.
The dagger slipped out of the driver's hand. Sado's blade embedded deep within the man's body. The metal divided his head and torso nearly symmetrically. The driver's eyes were large and his mouth was agape – he barely had time to move. Dark red blood exploded from the driver, like lava erupting from a volcanic fissure. Sado pulled his machete back, letting the miserable split body fall forward.
Several drops of red rained down on Ruby's cloak. Fury was flushing out fear in her veins.
"Did you see that, everyone!?" Sado welcomed himself to the ravenous applause of his bandits. "That's the fastest way to take someone's will to live away!" He licked the fresh blood off his blade, wiping his machete clean.
"You MONSTER!" Ruby's crossbow was once again pointing at Sado. The giant looked down, facing the lone warrioress.
"How cute!" With his free hand, Sado swung at her. The slap knocked Ruby down, and the crossbow – snapping into useless splinters – flew out of the jeep. It also knocked away her hood and goggles, revealing her black hair and shining eyes.
The hyenas shrieked. Catcalls filled the air just as Sado shook his head. "A shame all this beauty is wasted away."
Sado pulled his machete. Ruby looked towards the sharp metal that murdered her fellow villager. She quickly wiped away the blood running from her mouth. Though she dirtied her hand with her own blood, it brought her some calm. A last moment of calm, it would seem.
A last drop of sweat fell from her face.
"Die!" Sado shouted.
The faces of the other thugs became a dictionary of shock and surprise.
Sado realized that his machete was not budging. It was as though it was sunk deep into a wall of stone, and it became impossible to remove the blade. Ruby squinted her eye, unsure why the blade had not yet fallen on her.
Behind Sado was a figure, cloaked by a wrinkled brown dress. A right arm had extended from the cloak, and it had two gloved fingers snatching the machete. There were only the index and middle fingers, yet Sado could not pull the blade away.
"Hey!" Sado shouted. "What the Hell's happening!?"
"The fun is over." A monotone male voice emerged from the cloak.
Ruby and Sado's gang heard a piece of metal being cracked. The man had in his two fingers the sharpest point of the machete. As Sado turned, he realized that his weapon was missing its pointed end.
"What did you do!?" Sado had no idea how his blade broke, especially under the pressure of a few fingers. "And who the Hell are you!?"
"I came from the north." The figure dropped the piece.
He threw a clenched fist towards Sado's torso. The gang leader was gigantic, bigger than mysterious man. Yet the fist pushed deep into Sado's stomach. He held his paining stomach as he fell on his back, shaking the ground and ripping up a cloud of sand.
"You bastard!" A few shirtless thugs jumped out of their motorcycles and ran towards the cloaked man. He turned to face the incoming pieces of metal. Ruby noticed he was not backing away; his leather boots only stayed entrenched into the rug of sand.
"Wata!" The figure launched his leg in a roundhouse kick. In one sweep, he planted his feet into the charging hyenas' faces.
While they stumbled on the ground, one thug lagging behind produced a mace. He brought the mace in an underhand swing, hoping to smash the strange man. Instead, the spiked metal was sailing through the sweltering air and not towards flesh. The cloaked figure – having dodged the attack – struck the thug's temple with his two gloved fingers. The thug slammed on the sand, while Ruby's eyes followed the hidden man's fingers.
Sado moaned, struggling to stand back up. The other thugs, however, lifted themselves upwards and stood again on their feet. They growled like infuriated dogs towards the man.
"How dare you!" One of the thugs shouted. "I'll fucking kill you – "
Agonizing pain rippled through the thug's head. The same, sudden phenomenon fell upon the other attacking lowlifes. Those who took on the cloaked men found their heads ballooning outwards. The brutes held both sides of their heads with their hands, trying desperately to numb the stabbing pain. They cried for help in muffled screams.
Then their heads ruptured.
Ruby gasped. So did the other ruffians. Sado held his mouth open.
Around the cloaked man, the ground was a landfill of flesh and reddened bones. Fountains of blood erupted from the attackers' now-topless necks. Their bodies collapsed and their blood streamed out like rivers.
"What…" Sado's mouth foamed with saliva as he got to his feet. "You… you'll pay for that! For whatever the fuck you did to my men!"
The hooded man turned around. He remained firm on his feet, standing as elegantly as a worshiping monk. He took one step backwards, with his head leaned slightly more back than the rest of his body. He dodged a swipe from Sado's machete, or whatever was left of it. His cloak, not so lucky. The machete remained sharp enough to tear and throw down the man's outer shield.
The cloak fell away, revealing the man's blue shirt and pants. His body was well-built, though a few round scars on his chest hinted of past penetrating wounds. Golden shoulder plates adorned his shoulders and his right forearm hid inside a black glove. The sight assured Ruby that he was no thug.
"Hah!" Sado spit a mixture of blood and saliva on the sand beneath. "I should beat the shit out of someone like you."
"Don't bother," the man responded.
"Why not!?" Sado lifted his broken machete. "I can still smash you with this!"
"You are already dead," the man said.
Ruby's eyes became widened.
"What?" Sado bit his bottom lip. "No way! You can't possibly just –"
Sado shoehorned into a ghastly scream. His head stretched upwards and outwards. His neck twisted around and his arms bent backwards. Crackling noises emerged, the result of bones fracturing and snapping throughout his upper body. The other lowlifes could do nothing beyond screaming for relief. A confused Ruby simply stared at the monster (perhaps now a literal one).
Sado's head detached from his body. Like fireworks, his head briefly soared towards the sky before rupturing. His arms and torso were also reduced to countless pieces, all exploding outwards haphazardly. The desert sand struggled to soak the raining blood, while Sado's lower body and broken machete landed next to each other.
The mysterious man took at glance at the remaining thugs. They made sure to not take their sights off the murderous man.
"If anyone else wants to die," the man said, "step forward."
One blood-curling scream came after the other. The desert floor filled with machetes, knives, maces, any pieces of metal that could remotely shed blood. Dust riled up into the air with the bandits scrambling away like mice. The motorcycles howled and the cries swept around, until the horizons swallowed the bandits whole and the only sound left was the gentle whistle of the occasional desert breeze.
Ruby sat still, again wiping free-flowing blood off her mouth. The warrior looked at the deceased driver, then at Ruby. She watched the bloody spectacle in full, with both her eyes. Even then, there was something with the man who made her calm. She felt safe with him around.
"Are you alright?" the man asked.
"I'm… okay," Ruby replied. "I'm not hurt that bad."
The sun no longer seemed so unforgiving, and the desert breeze felt rather cool. Ruby slowed her breathing, mustering enough strength for a question. "So, who are you?"
There was silence for a few seconds.
"Kenshiro," the man answered.