HSDK Chapter 500 Discussion / 501 Predictions

[Zatono]

Well the latest chapter's been out for a few days, I apologize for being late.

Discuss it here!

[El Maco]

Great mix of the old and the new. It's like we went back to the early days of this manga but everyone has now advanced enormously. There were some nice continuity touches, like the flashback to the scene with Nijima in his underwear. I do hope Matsuena gives this arc the attention and care it deserves.

However, what's with the "Continues in next year's #1 issue"??? Is there a 6 week break or something? Cruel.

[KingJames]

I really enjoyed this chapter. Going on break to the first of the year not so much.

Now the Match ups

Kenichi vs Beserker - Going just about what I thought. There is going to be a lot of feeling other out before either one of them start bring out the techniques. It seems that Beserker is not into winning by any cheap tricks, because he has respect for Kenichi. Not saying of relationship that Akira and Sasaki have but I think that Beserker has that type of respect for Kenichi. Kenichi finally got him to take his hands out his pockets at the end. I think Kenichi is going to try to take it to another level again because he wants to take it to protect the others.

Natsu vs Sieg - Like I thought Natsu is there to test his self he has not said a single word yet, but he is there just to have a great fight. I think he is allowing Sieg to get himself to worked up in order to get him to give his best performance.

Renka vs Rachel - About what I thought it doesnt seem that Renka hasn't got serious yet, and for that much neither has Rachel. Boring for right now unless your ecchi fan.

Odin vs Freya - I dont think Odin is even there to fight. I think he there simply because his master sent him and I doubt he would want to fight Freya ever as he is now mentally. I think he will say something like " I need for you to stay put until everybody is done fighting. I didn't come here to fight you." She will want rush to side of everybody else, he will own her because he cant be seen as weak in eyes of Kensei.

Chikage vs Kisara - Kisara will get owned and for some sad reason I feel that before Chikage knocks her out Ukita will jump and try to stop her.

Takeda vs Lugh - Lugh is going to win it's just a matter of how long the author wants this fight to go on. It's not a matter of talent or even power but of styles.

Miu vs Rimi - It's like I said Miu is going to be pressured for a while because she hasn't gotten into it fully yet. But the second she does Rimi is going to be in for a world of hurt.

[Buggy]

Really awesome how author made an unconventional transition between fights using Nijima running around. If that pattern follows, we will be seeing Miu vs Rimi, Takeda vs Lugh for the time being.

I hope Kenichi won't be distracted by thinking about his nakama fights. He showed great calmness and analytical skills. Berserker has respect for Kenichi and is not underestimating him one bit. It's true hard work vs genius fight, it won't go smooth but I think Kenichi's special techniques will make the difference.

I just thought about how Shiba put Takeda into training the day before "to show him how hell looks like", he just might have shown him one of the secret techniques that could help him against Lugh. Of course, he couldn't have mastered it in that short time, but it's better than nothing.

And did anyone else hear "pika pika pika pika!" while Rimi was attacking?:P

On a side note: apparently, the "next year issue" is next week in December, not in January.

[Impossibility]

I like the setup of, and the build to, the fights. But, some of these fights are obviously not going to really happen, and some are obviously ridiculously unbalanced. Kisara stands no chance whatsoever against Chikage, Rimi shouldn't be able to pose a serious threat to Miu (I'm rather tired of this match-up). I'm actually only interested in the Takeda v Lugh and the Sieg v Hermit fights. I'm wondering what we're going to see from them.

[kkck]

The only interesting thing about the rimi vs miu fight is seeing how the dou ki thing works. I think we will get further insight on the matter. Of course, once miu releases her own dou ki against rimi she should have a rather easy time. Even when they last fought miu actually held back as much as she could. MIu has been training to release her dou ki with kensei, once she crosses that line during her current battle with rimi it will be a defining moment to her as a katsujinken.

---------- Post added at 04:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:03 PM ----------

I wonder if kenichi should try fighting berserker's tiny seikuken with a tiny seikuken. The idea of the tiny seikuken is that it is small but incredibly strong overall. In that regard kenichi should be well able to make one himself. To boot he is a mua thai user so his abilities should be a tad more fitting for such a thing. Or perhaps kenichi using a tiny seikuken won't have as good a result as berserker's as he is smaller? In turn kenichi's training could easily make him more physically powerful that berserker to make up for that....

I guess there is another issue with berserker's tiny seikuken. Given that it is strong once it is defeated it won't simply break like an ordinary seikuken. As far as berserker is concerned breaking that tiny seikuken means breaking his elbows and arms. Kenichi has the means to do that through his kurou nuki as far as we know. I wonder if berserker's instincts can deal with kenichi's myoboshi too. Would a feral beast be able to dodge an unreadable attack?

I still don't see how kisara can possibly win this. She showed some skill but a yomi seems like too much. I really do wonder if kisara's dou ki and feral nature can actually help her land a hit on chikage....

I wonder how long it will be until the masters show up in the park. Tanaka must have known something was weird at the park and he must have seen the disciples fooling around there so naturally he would inform the masters that there might be trouble. I guess that even if they show up they won't interfere in a battle between disciples. I guess they could just postpone the fights and give the shinpaku guys the time to train in preparation for their battles.

[Jorge D. Dragon]

Well, in this chapter it became quite obvious that there is quite a differense in the overall level between Yomi members. We should all agree that Kenichi is the strongest member of Shinpaku Alliance (excluding Miu and Renka and this is also doubtly) and Berserker stated that Kenichi is a slow starter, but is still better than other Yomi in dodging his attacks... So for now Berserk might actually be the strongest Yomi with maybe an exeption of Kajima Satomi.
So this fight seems to be the most interesting as for me. Other fights aren't interesting. With maybe an exeption of Natsu against Sieg. It's just interesting how they fair against each other.
Also about Miu against Rimi. Noone expected Rimi to do already this good just with speed and power. And even Miu herself states that she can't counterattack, but only defend. That actually surprised me. But still I think Miu will still win.

[BASED Shinigami]

Good chapter. Berserker seems to be quite powerful being able push back and destroy Kenichi's seikuken. Kenichi should use RS from this point it will probably be a effective counter to Berserker's small seikuken because it reduces seikuken to a thin layer and requires less movements conserving energy. It may not work out, but it's certainly a better solution than using a regular seikuken that being dominated right now. However, in order for him to use this technique effectively he must not let his thoughts drift away from him. He's clearly upset his friends are being attacked as well, so that might interrupt his focus. Berserker is certainly a troublesome opponent. Right now he's fighting purely on mere instinct, and going with the flow meaning he has no definite pattern of attack. All of his movements are unpredictable making it incredibly difficult for Kenichi to read and react. Just imagine how strong Berserker will become once he fully develops his style and refines it. Kenichi will have a hard time beating him. Also, Kenichi needs to warm up faster. Berserker could of landed a lethal hit on Kenichi if he really wanted to, but instead he prompted him to hurry up and build his seikuken. The masters really need to fix his "slow start" problem. His next opponent may not be so honorable as Berserker.

Kisara absolutely has no realistic chance at winning her fight. She has no business fighting Chikage, but let's see what Matsuena will do to surprise us.

So Freya left her wooden staff ......Well, all her chances of winning this fight have gone completely out the window. If she had her staff I was imagining she was going to use its long reach to attack Ryuto and keep him at a distance, but that will no longer be the case. A weapons user without a weapon....I guess it's safe to assume she's pretty much helpless in this situation. Perhaps she'll run a find a weapon..maybe a long metal pole similar to a wooden staff? idk I'm just throwing ideas out there..Even without a weapon she should be skilled enough to evade Ryuto's attacks...so maybe this fight wont be too boring.

---------- Post added at 04:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:43 AM ----------

Berserker stated that Kenichi is a slow starter, but is still better than other Yomi in dodging his attacks... So for now Berserk might actually be the strongest Yomi with maybe an exeption of Kajima Satomi.

Take in the consideration that Kenichi at this point in the manga has profound mastery of Seikuken and RS thanks to the Elder it's no really no surprise he's dodging his all of his attacks even though he's being pressured. Despite the fact Kenichi is basically a tank and usually takes a lot of damage in fights, he's shown rather quick elusiveness when it comes to dodging attacks early in the fight (example Koukin or Bulu fight he was dodging all of their techniques at the beginning as well). Also, you have to include the fact that Berserker has no style or form and fights purely off instinct, so his training partners in Yomi most likely have the hardest time in the world defending against his unpredictable attacks. I believe it's far too early to think Berserker is the strongest Yomi. He's been impressive so far putting pressure on Kenichi (which we all expected him to), but he still hasn't done anything yet that leapfrogs him past all the other main Yomi disciples in terms of power neither has Lugh for that matter.

[Jorge D. Dragon]

BASED Shinigami
Well, Kenichi only showed Seikuken in this fight. He hasn't tried Ryusui Seikuken yet. So, maybe he would fair a bit better as before. Also I doubt that Kenichi's Seikuken is better than Ryuto's now. I feel that it might be one of Ryuto's specialisations.
As I see Berserker now, his fighting style is adaptivness. He might be one of the strongest Disciples as for now. Along with the likes of Kenichi, Miu, Renka and Kajima Satomi. I do hope this guys will eventually promote to Masters. And I do like Berserker's fighting style.
We should also remember that Berserker has his Berserker mode under his sleeve, so he might show some devastative moves at some point. And even though Kenichi is a tank, Berserker is also a tank to some degree and seems to be the best in adapting to other fighters.

[KingJames]

Like we have seen power doesn't always your going to win, skill doesn't always overcome technique. But Beserker is an impressive "Son Of A Bitch" I believe he could have made Kano Sho piss his pants as impressive as he was. Remember Ragnarok, was formed by Kensei, to combat Yomi so it would only make sense that some of them would be able to go head to head with them. Kajima Satomi would be a tough match for Tanaka (who is over-hyped if you ask me), his master probably has been putting him through the same training program that Kenichi and Natsu have been currently going through. When fighting somebody when your heart is strong and refuse to give up you can overcome the gap in ability. I think when disciples become Yomi most of them quit fighting opponents that are stronger than they are. Ryouzanpaku, One Shadow, Kensei, Ma Sougestu, God Hand, and Bewitching Fist are the only people that continually have their disciples fighting stronger opponents and it showing now and through out the series.

[BASED Shinigami]

@Jorge I can't argue with you today man , but you know I definitely don't agree with you . You believe Lugh is just as strong as Kenichi or even stronger (after his short skirmish with Takeda), and now you believe Berserker might be the one of strongest disciples in Yomi even more powerful than official main Yomi? I still don't understand how you came to either conclusion in such a short amount of time when we've barely seen either of them in action up to this point. I don't know, maybe you're seeing something I've looked over and may have missed. However, that's your opinion so we can pretty much agree to disagree

---------- Post added at 01:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 PM ----------

@KingJames Well, we don't know if Kajima Satomi would be an actual match for Tanaka. We mustn't forget the expert class is the widest and largest of the three (disciple, expert, and master). Both Kenichi and Miu are now considered low level experts IMO, but if they fought against each other again we can conclude without a single doubt Miu could outright murder Kenichi if she desired as she proved in the last arc. That's how much of a difference in power separates them despite the fact they're of the same lower echelon in the expert class. Furthermore, Pengulu was of the expert class, and he was able to completely dominate the both of them with relative ease. We don't even know his exact place within the expert class, but it's certainly at the higher levels albeit inert because it was stated by Jenezad he hasn't made anymore progress towards becoming a master (probably due to the fact his training or methods turned Pengulu into a mindless killing machine). Tanaka is a high level expert close to master class (he might of already ascended to the lower levels of the master class during the past 100 hundred chapters, but that remains to be seen) meaning he could effectively beat Pengulu without any help on his own. All we know is that Kajima Satomi is most likely the last disciple of Yomi Kenichi will have to fight in the future. We can infer he is a expert class fighter as well, but without any solid evidence there is no way we can ascertain his level within the expert class. We don't know if he's slightly stronger than Kenichi or slightly weaker than Pengulu or at the same level as Tanaka. There is no way to tell for sure if Kajima Satomi would be an actual for Tanaka given how wide the expert class is, and we are unsure about his place within it meaning the difference in power here could be minuscule or as large as the difference between Akira's strength compared to Fortuna's.

Also, how is Tanaka over-hyped?

[Jorge D. Dragon]

BASED Shinigami
Well, about Lugh, yes it seems I was overestimating him.
But well, Berserker clearly outspeeded and outdid Kenichi easily in this chapter! Kenichi barely managed to escape his attacks and couldn't counterattack, while Berserker was clearly holding back and could actually take an easy shot on Kenichi in the begining of the fight as Kenichi obviously couldn't react to Berserker's speed.
Even though Kenichi looked quite bad, compared to Berserker in this chapter, Berserker still stated that Kenichi was better in dodging his attacks that any Yomi. So I do believe it's quite logical that Berserker should currently be if not the strongest, but at least second after Kajima...

P.S. Being that good against Kenichi is a very impressive fit. Especially since Kenichi won against such monsters as Kano Shou, Koukin, Boris, Ethan and after that he also progressed quite considerably.

[kkck]

Well, in this chapter it became quite obvious that there is quite a differense in the overall level between Yomi members. We should all agree that Kenichi is the strongest member of Shinpaku Alliance (excluding Miu and Renka and this is also doubtly) and Berserker stated that Kenichi is a slow starter, but is still better than other Yomi in dodging his attacks... So for now Berserk might actually be the strongest Yomi with maybe an exeption of Kajima Satomi.
So this fight seems to be the most interesting as for me. Other fights aren't interesting. With maybe an exeption of Natsu against Sieg. It's just interesting how they fair against each other.
Also about Miu against Rimi. Noone expected Rimi to do already this good just with speed and power. And even Miu herself states that she can't counterattack, but only defend. That actually surprised me. But still I think Miu will still win.

While there should be a difference between yomi members I don't think this chapter in particular made it all that obvious. It is not the strongest who wins and the fights have barely started. Not to mention that we don't know if berserker has actually fought a fellow yomi and even if they didn't avoid his attacks it doesn't necessarily mean he won the fight. Even if we could make something out of this chapter the result would be that rachel is actually one of the strongest yomi out there considering that she is still a match for renka and rimi would perhaps be her superior given the fact that she is pushing miu back (and she can give the fodder treatment to the likes of kenichi).

Miu is gonna clobber rimi once she releases her own dou ki.

[Jorge D. Dragon]

kkck
Well, I can't agree that there is a differense between Miu and Kenichi. Actually Kenichi's actual problem is that Miu is a girl. And he also loves her. So it's obvious that she wins against him, because he is never serious against her. Well, he is never serious in training fights. He is only serious when he needs to protect his friends or loved ones. He is at his full power only, when he is unconcious (it was shown in his fight against Kano Shou), while in other situations his real power is always hel back by his heart.
Thus, I can agree that Rimi can win against Kenichi just because she is a girl. The same way with Rachel. But I agree that they should be among the strongest Yomi currently as shown by their current fights.

[kkck]

Kenichi can actually get past the fact that miu is a girl he is in love with when they "spar" though. Still, miu did not actually try during their sparring sessions until halfway through the manga (which in terms of time is not more than a couple months from what I gather). Kenichi not fighting her seriously would not explain what we saw during the junazad arc for that matter. Kenichi was outright almost killed almost three times and he could not even defend himself. Even when he did attack miu actually blocked everything kenichi could throw which include meotode and his strongest combo which should be quite hard to deal with as it implies using several martial arts at once. Even in the previous chapter we saw that in terms of speed kenichi does not even vaguely begin to compare. The manga might be called history's strongest disciple kenichi however at every turn the manga makes it a point to show miu is still objectively stronger and an overall better fighter. Heck, miu is so strong kenichi today might not even be any closer to her than he was at the very start of the manga. To boot right now she is due her dou ki powerup (which she has been training specifically to control). Once she gets a hold of her dou ki she probably will have an increase in strength as significant as rimi did now.... As far as we have been shown kenichi loses to miu in terms of speed, technique (even though kenichi is significantly superior to his other peers more than significantly in this area). Miu is infinitely more talented than kenichi and was in fact trained by the elder on top of being trained in martial arts from the day she was born. There is no scenario where kenichi is even vaguely comparable to miu as far as the manga has actually shown.