Punch Your Way to the Truth

Nostalgia's a hard drug to kick, take it from a comic book fan.

Volume 3 is the finale for Steel Fist Riku, which means series creator Jyutaroh Nishino's only got 173 pages to wrap things up. Which means first dealing with the story arc of Riku and Chikara's training with the sadistic old lady martial arts master.

The master separated their energies into each other's bodies, so when they exert themselves, they're drawn together like magnets. Nishino thankfully doesn't use this as an opportunity to push a romance angle (although there is one sequence of Chikara walking in on Riku in the bath). Instead, he uses their competitive rivalry as a way to use this problem to make the improvements they wanted.

The payoff doesn't come until the very end, when Riku gets her rematch with Kuro, the dark sunglasses guy who has the same ability to turn a limb metal as her. The fight goes on for several pages, and it turns on something Nishino threw in for one panel during the training chapters in an unexpected way. It's enough for Kuro to tell what he knows, so the last 10 pages are devoted to explaining Riku's origin and a reunion with her mother, which we're told about through a letter from one character (not Riku) to another. Which is kind of an odd choice.

Nishino breaks up the training with a short chapter about Fumika, the rich girl Riku befriended in volume 1, trying to learn to cook with the help of Riku's father. It's quick and allows Roku to show a more friendly side than he does around Riku, but seems mostly to be set-up for a last panel reaction gag that's only so-so.

After the training, there are two longer one-offs. The first involves Riku meeting Kuro's partner, who kicked Riku's ass in the previous volume, on his day off. He actually wants to buy stuff from Roku's shop, but Riku won't take money earned on criminal jobs, so it turns into a theme of her lining up ways for Shozaemon to earn money legitimately, only for each attempt to backfire. Shozaemon's ability to grow two additional arms requires a particular brand of vegetable juice to work properly, so Riku naturally keeps grabbing the wrong bottle. The payoff at the very end is actually pretty funny, though.

The other, and my favorite, starts with the return of a childhood friend of Riku's. At least, Riku thinks they're friends. Aguri remembers their childhood somewhat differently, and it turns into an almost Looney Tunes-esque attempt to get revenge. Complete with trying to get Riku to step on a land mine and chasing her around with a mace. It cracked me up, especially when Nishino mixes in Riku taking a "troubleshooting" job to track down a stolen ticket granting a 3-month supply of salted pork buns. That'll give you some heart disease. That allows just enough space for more "happy memories" gags and for Riku to ultimately remind Aguri she means well, at least.