The fight becomes vicious, as Toma fills his rage-meter and becomes more aggressive. They punch and kick each other, but nobody seems to have the upperhand. Meanwhile Kurogawa seems to have seen enough and leaves the visitors-seats. He descends the stairs of the deserted inner halls of the stadium, vomits a real gush of blood, tumbles and falls down the stairs. He seems to be talking to himself (and possibly about his life as a karateka, as his bloody fist is constantly put into focus), while a little kid emerges and stares at him, incredulously. He screams at the kid, the kid cries and races away, and Kurogawa looks at his clenched fist, which slowly slackens and he dies.
Yes, I am NOT shitting you. This is it. Kurogawa is dead.
Meanwhile, the fight becomes ferocious as Toma and Ryu fight each other.
It looks great, as all kicks and punches are "traced" by watertrails, which their fists and feet pick up from the soaking ground of the stadium and the pouring rain.
Ryu quietly starts to have developed an injury, as his leg gets bloodier and bloodier. The source seems to be from under his pants, so I GUESS it's the knife-wound inflicted by Naomi, back in Vol 25.
A big strike of lightning suddenly hits and the whole stadium looses its electricity and the light shorts out. Ryu and Toma don't seem to care and the fight reaches its conclusion, as Toma drives his knee into Ryu's wounded thigh, and Ryu's elbow lacerates Toma's face on the side, and above the brow; a lot of blood gushes out, but Toma still stands, while Ryu slumps to the ground.
At this exact moment another lightning illuminates the whole stadium, and the audience is left in an uproar. Toma is dragged away, screaming, while Ryu is taken care of by his long-hair-buddy and the drunk doctor. The fight is over.
Yes. It's over.
We see Toma at home, with his brother, looking crazed and out of his mind, clutching his head, as his brother, gently tries to molify him.
Later his brother burns Ryu's old drawing of the bird, which Toma acquired (in Vol 18, I think), and from the smoke and flames some demonish kind of shade emerges, and frightens his brother, but very quickly desolves.
At the hospital, Ryu visits the dead Kurokawa and seems to make fun of him in his usual asshole-Ryu-style. This scene pretty much screams at me: "Hey, you old fart, now you are really dead. And look at me, I survived all of this and even outlived you!"
The next one is really, really horrid. We see the usual, old-young Natsume-smiling-into-the-camera-at-the-beach picture, which was shown often enough in the manga. It's a beautiful splashpage. Turning to the next two, one can see a terrible, horrible mirroring image of Ryu's sister, as she is at this moment. But she is fucked up.
I mean it, FUCKED UP, like never before. She's a total vegetable, drooling and slobbering, almost as thin as a rigid skull, with dark, hollowed cheeks and big, bulging eyes.
Tokichi and Natsuma sit at the beach, as Ryu walks up to them and Ryu and Tokichi share a happy moment of bro-hood. Ryu seems like getting up to speed, what's the situation with Tokichi and Natsume, gives them cash, and so on.
He then visits the doctor (I really can't say if it's his (new?) doctor or Sugawara's. I guess it's the latter. They talk something about braindamage, they get into a quarrel and Ryu leaves.
Meanwhile, in a darker corner of the city, at night, a whole group of guys (probably Banryu kai? I absolutely cannot say...) gets fucked up, by two, big, dark shadowy figures. You can only make out a very long haired, buffed up guy and behind him, a thin figure, walking on a very thin, ellegant stick, wearing a hat. Could be a guy, or a chick, you cannot tell the difference. But they are introduced, as if they are some returning charakters, and/or the next big villains for the upcoming storyline.
The situation with Ryu's sister gets worse, as she is still struggling and doesn't recognize her brother, and even throws stuff after him. Ryu then wanders around and finds a stray , wild puppy. It's really small and sweet, but has guts as it bites Ryu and shows a very ferocious surviving will. Ryu flips it away and leaves, but the puppy follows him later on, and he decides to keep it (Hell yes, I am serious. Ryu and his OWN PUPPY!! He even carries it with him in his jacket, where only the head shows from his half-closed zipper!)
He brings it home, his sister has another of her seizures, but the small puppy seems to molify and soothe her. She gradually becomes her old self, at least she seems to get better.
In the meantime, Mochizuki, the old coach of Sugawara seems to talk business with his board of directors and with the Dark-Banryukai-guy (the creepy one, with the bald head.). Dark-Banryu-dude seems to quarrel with Mochizuki and also seems to have a hard-on for Naoto's old dad, as he seems to hug his picture on a wal... Mochizuki leaves, and gets attacked and stabbed by a couple of people out in the street and bleeds to death.
I am not kidding you, Kurogawa AND Mochizuki are BOTH dead.
Ryu later has an unexpected visitor at his and his sisters house by the beach, who turns out to be no other than Isao Kanayama/Myeong-Hoon Kim from the SECOND VOLUME, from his juvi-days! It's the one he almost gets burned in the barn-thing, who tries to kill Ryu with a pick-axe, the big, burly guy. They fight, he recognizes Isao and they talk a little bit and then Isao leaves. Ryu is able to see that Isao was carrying a gun, which he never used in the fight however.
What exactly the significance of this whole encounter was, I truly cannot say... It seemed so random and... without point?
We near this volumes conclusion, as Ryu investigates a ruckus, outside his house, as a couple of teenagers/inbetweeners light some fireworks and are having a beach-party.
Ryu deals with the problem Ryu-style as he beats them up and in the end uses the fireworks himself.
He seems like he is eager about something, like he's wild for something to go down, you kniw what I mean? Ryu seems as if some big fight or something is going to happen, and he is wild for it. But there is no chance of being able to discern it, so I hope that Edited Mangas are available soon...
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