The awaited confrontation.
Having rescued Phil and his mother from the space station, the Union wait for a plane at the airport near the crash site in Hong Kong to go home. As they are waiting, a robed assailant challenges Fuuko to a fight. Fuuko is able to best the assailant using her Unluck, only for it to turn out to be Mei, Shen's sister! Having felt her strength firsthand, Mei begs Fuuko to enter a tournament called the Tenraisai to rescue Shen from Feng.
Chapters
- 161. Tenraisai
- 162. Master Be, Respect Me+
- 163. Bad Road
- 164. The Last Trial Is
- 165. As It Stands, You Are
- 166. Untruth
- 167. Dumb Son
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Fuuko thinks that Shen's tragedy will be related to his sister and even plans with that in mind. This loop's version of Shen's tragedy has Untruth manifest in the middle of his match with Mui, resulting in him sending her flying off the mountain top.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Played for Laughs and even invoked. with Feng's familial relationship with Shen and Mei. In order to keep his word so he can fight Fuuko, he raised Shen and put him through Training from Hell per their deal. Shen then used his life to blackmail Feng into taking care of his sister too, something he wasn't happy about.Feng: Why did I have to do all the cooking?! Why did I have to change all those diapers?!
- Cassandra Truth: Fuuko is extremely forthcoming with the world being on loop to Shen, but neither him or Mei believe her at all. Billy then reveals that he doesn't believe her either and only came along because she piqued his interest.
- Deliberate Under-Performance: None of the Union members go all out in their fights against Shen and merely wait once the judge starts the 10-count. Shen is not happy about this.
- In Spite of a Nail: Mui is shown to have a similar relationship with Shen like they were in the previous loop despite meeting him far earlier, her brother being alive, and her being much stronger in this loop. In fact, she says the only reason she entered the tournament was to help Shen.
- Irony: Feng in the previous loop was the reason for the string of events leading to Shen's tragedy with Untruth causing him to let Mei fall to her death. Here, when this loop's version of Shen gets Untruth resulting in him sending Mui flying off the mountain and he jumps after her, Feng ends up saving both them and the Union being the end of the human chain.
- My Greatest Second Chance: In the previous loop, Shen was mortally wounded when Feng targeted her and Mui with the Zuishin Tekkan Rod and had to be turned into a zombie to save him. Now, thanks to her training, she's able to counter the artifact by syncing her movements with Shen.
- Recruitment by Rescue: Much like the previous arcs, but is something of a Zig-Zagged Trope. Shen is not being held against his will, but he's entered the Tenraisai to prevent Mui from fighting Feng and Mei is certain that Feng will kill him.
- Somewhat played straight with Feng. While he also serves as the primary antagonist upon resolution of the arc he's saved from the destructive mindset looking for purpose and sees Shen as his son whom he can take pride in. The somewhat part comes in when he attempts to leave and Fuuko twists his arm to join up with the Union on a mission.
- Shout-Out: Fuuko's outfit, which is especially prominent in the colored cover for Chapter 166, makes her resemble Chun-Li, sans having only one hair bun instead of two.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Not taking any chances after fighting two Union members, Shen immediately punches Billy out of the ring during their fight.
- Training from Hell: Invoked Trope by both Feng and Fuuko both involving Shen. Feng trained Shen in order to keep his deal with Fuuko and it got to the point where Shen even ran away at one point. Fuuko wants Shen to become someone able to defeat Feng and gives him Unluck specifically to invoke the tragedy that will give him Untruth with him being none the wiser at first.
