Hokuto no Ken Rei Gaiden : Karei naru Fukushūsha

Hokuto no Ken Rei Gaiden : Karei naru Fukushūsha (北斗の拳 レイ外伝 華麗なる復讐者) is a two-part story, published in two special issues of Weekly Comic Bunch, the Hokuto no Ken tribute issue dated April 5, 2006 and the Souten no Ken tribute issue dated January 8, 2007. The art is by Nekoi Yasuyuki, based on an original concept by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara. The first story dedicated to Rei, it preceded the launch of the series Sōkoku no Garō, whose creation it motivated through its reception. The two parts take place at two different points in time: before the encounter with Kenshiro for the first, and in the heart of the original story for the second.

Synopsis

In the first part, Rei, searching for the man with seven scars, encounters Sai, a boy whose father was killed and whose sister was kidnapped by a band of raiders. He infiltrates their hideout, eliminates them one by one, up to their leader, a staff master of the Taizan school, and reunites the brother and sister before resuming his journey, swearing to find Airi.

The second part takes place in Mamiya's village, after Kenshiro's victory over Jagi and before his reunion with Toki. True to his promise to protect Rin and Bat, Rei defends the village against a unit of Kenoh's army commanded by Karen, a Nanto fighter who was once his traveling companion. Having switched to the enemy's side after her brother's death, Karen faces Rei in a duel. Defeated, she warns him that Kenoh intends to prevent Kenshiro from meeting Toki, and dies at peace.

From pilot to series

The first installment was published alongside a joint interview between Tetsuo Hara and Nekoi Yasuyuki, conducted in February 2006 in Hara's studio and printed at the opening of the story. The magazine's biographical sidebar introduces Nekoi Yasuyuki as an author duo from Hyōgo Prefecture, discovered through Drop☆Kick in Young Gangan. The pair present themselves as readers from the very beginning, with an openly stated preference for the early Rei, the one who looks like a villain, and Hara encourages them to draw according to their own sensibility rather than effacing themselves before the original work, going so far as to invite them to demolish Hokuto no Ken. The positive reception of the first installment led to the commissioning of the second, in which Nekoi introduces Karen and brings in Mamiya and Rin, who were absent from the first story. The series Sōkoku no Garō was launched in Weekly Comic Bunch four months after the second installment.