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Club (クラブ) is one of the four lieutenants of Shin in the first arc of Hokuto no Ken, part of the "Trump Brothers" named after playing card suits alongside Heart, Spade and Diamond. Voiced in Japanese by Kōji Totani (who would later lend his voice to Jagi and Han), Club is a brutal fighter who uses the Tōrō Ken (螳螂拳, "Praying Mantis Fist"), a bare-handed martial art to which he has added steel claws attached to his gauntlets.
Serving directly under Shin, Club rules through fear over the city of Dorado, where he organizes cage fights against anyone who attempts to escape: those who manage so much as to touch him are promised their freedom, but none ever succeed. This cruel spectacle perfectly illustrates the logic of the KING organization: turning the surviving population into entertainment and livestock. Like the other lieutenants, Club acts to spread fear and crush any opposition in the subjugated territories.
His fighting style relies on the speed of Tōrō Ken and his lacerating short-range claws. He favors spectacular leaps to swoop down on his opponents, a posture characteristic of the praying mantis from which his martial school takes its name.
When Kenshiro enters Dorado to reach Shin, he is lured into Club's fighting cage. Convinced that his claws and speed will be enough to defeat the heir of Hokuto Shinken, Club immediately engages the duel. Kenshiro counters the first offensive by using the Goshi Retsudan (五指烈弾, "Five Explosive Fingers"), a Hokuto technique that makes Club's fingers explode, depriving him of the use of his claws.
Cornered, Club attempts one last desperate pass that Kenshiro dodges before striking the vital point Meimon (命門, "Gate of Life") on his back. Kenshiro informs him that he has one minute left to live (reduced to thirty seconds in the anime) before his own muscles break his spine in two. The countdown elapses and Club collapses, his body torn apart from the inside, after having revealed Shin's location.
The character makes a few reappearances in derivative works: in Ten no Haoh, he encounters Ryuga and Reina who have come to assassinate Shin, attacks Ryuga with his claws, is disarmed effortlessly, and only survives thanks to the intervention of Jūza, who prevents Ryuga from finishing him off. The one-shot Recollection of Heavy Metal reveals that before the nuclear war, Club and Diamond were members of a heavy metal band and gives Club's real name: Kōhei Shimatani (島谷こうへい).
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