Ragnarök is a delinquent gang of martial artists and the main antagonist of the first saga of History's Mightiest Disciple Kenichi. It was a gang founded to oppose and replace Yomi before its disbandment.
Summary[]
Ragnarök mainly consists of regular thugs, but its higher ranked members are skilled martial artists recruited by Isshinsai Ogata. There are different groups in Ragnarök, each with its own chain of command, run by the eight most powerful members called the Eight Fists of Ragnarök, formerly the seven fists until Kisara became the newest members. While the Eight Fists are the strongest in the whole organization, even they have their own chain of command as the first three fists, known simply as the Three of Cards were hailed not only as of the three founding members but also as the most powerful members of them all, with the First Fist, Odin being in charge of the entire organization.
Strength[]
Ragnarök's forces are divided under the command of each of the Eight Fists.
Kisara's group held many members, some of which were martial artists that made up their own teams or sub-factions. Her faction was constantly on the hunt for more skilled members.
Thor's group ran a fighting ring to attract and train new members.
Loki had one of the largest factions with many members at his command along with his own personal recon and decoy team of lookalikes called Shadows.
Freya was in charge of a group of female weapons users called the Valkyries, which Kisara was a former member of.
Hermit, Siegfried, and Berserker did not command any subordinates, preferring to work alone.
Odin wasn't shown to have any direct underlings but is in charge of the organization as a whole and has command over any member at any time.
Loyalty to the organization is demanded and betrayal and defection are punished by brutal beatings.
History[]
When Kenichi joins the Ryōzanpaku dojo to grow stronger and avoid being kicked out of his karate club, his sudden growth is noted by the club's leader, Saizō Tsukuba, who confronts Kenichi to test his skills. He soundly defeats Kenichi but is defeated in a rematch when Kenichi undergoes more training. Unbeknownst to Kenichi, this victory attracts the attention of Ragnarök, of which Tsukuba is a low ranked member under Kisara AKA Valkryie's faction. Kisara orders Tsukuba to leave town as punishment and orders the Technique Trio, a team of fighters consisting of Ikki Takeda, Kozo Ukita, and Taichi Koga, to search for Kenichi to force him to join the gang. To make matters worse, Harou Niijima, a devious schemer with aspirations of world domination, plans to use Kenichi as his pawn and publicizes his victory over Tsukuba, drawing even more of Ragnarök's attention. Ragnarök makes its first move when some of its thugs attack Kenichi and Miu while on an outing, only for them all to be defeated and the whole encounter turned out to be set up by the masters of Ryōzanpaku to test Kenichi's improvement.
When Kenichi learns the Technique Trio is hunting him, he lays low and hides from them until he can grow strong enough to face them. Koga is the first one to find Kenichi while he and Miu are out shopping, but he and his henchmen are swiftly defeated. When Ukita and Takeda fail to track down Kenichi, the decide to take two of Kenichi's old bullies hostage to lure him out, believing they are his friends after partially overhearing them scheming to be nice to Kenichi to get closer to Miu. Despite this mistake, the plan succeeds in luring Kenichi to the roof where he frees them. Kenichi easily knocks out Ukita then faces Takeda in a pseudo boxing match. Takeda overpowers Kenichi without even using his dominate left hand until the latter uses his preparation training to land a low kick that wears down Takeda's stamina. Kenichi gets the edge and almost defeats Takeda until the latter is literally saved by the bell. During the intermission between rounds, Kenichi learns that Takeda was once an aspiring boxer until his left arm was paralyzed while rescuing a friend from a mugging and that friend left him behind to go pro. During the following round, both Kenichi and Takeda fall through an old fence and the latter nearly falls off the roof until Kenichi saves him, rejecting Takeda's belief that friends will abandon each other. Ukita regains consciousness and pulls them both to safety, but when Miu arrives and sees Kenichi passed out from exhaustion, she thinks Ukita and Takeda beat him up and pummels them. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, Ukita and Takeda are brought to Ryōzanpaku for medical treatment. There, Akisame reveals Takeda's paralysis was improperly treated and that he can fully recover and resume his boxing career, prompting him to leave Ragnarök.
After the Technique Trio's failure, Kisara sends her top fighter, Shinnosuke Tsuji, after Kenichi. However, Tsuji instead tries to recruit Kenichi to join his faction, but Kenichi rejects his offer and criticizes Tsuji's short-sighted goal of forming the biggest gang. Angered, Tsuji fights Kenichi and despite the latter's best efforts, Tsuji's greater experience gives him the win. Before Tsuji can badly injure Kenichi, Takeda comes to his rescue, and they escape with some help from Kensei Ma. Kenichi's loss then attracts more delinquents wanting to fight him, further spurred by Niijima's scheming, prompting the Ryōzanpaku masters to take Kenichi on as a full-time disciple.
While Kenichi intensifies his training, Kisara is officially inducted as the Eighth Fist. This angers Tsuji, who wanted the rank for himself, and he confronts her. However, he is defeated by a surprise attack from Kenichi, who misunderstood the situation and is completely unaware of Kisara's identity. Kisara reveals who she is and prepares to fight Kenichi, only for the latter to refuse because he refuses to fight women. This angers Kisara, but the tense situation is interrupted when Kenichi realizes he knocked Tsuji out cold and tries to revive him. Kisara leaves after warning Ragnarök will be going after Takeda soon to punish him for leaving the gang. That night, the Eight Fists gather to fight a gang of 50 thugs, which are easily beaten by only Kisara, Loki, and Hermit. The next day, Tsuji challenges Kenichi to a third fight after his defeat (made public and exaggerated by a newspaper article created by Niijima) made all but two of his underlings abandon him. The much-improved Kenichi easily defeats Tsuji with a single attack and Tsuji admits defeat and thanks to Kenichi, realizes his remaining underlings are actually his real friends. A grateful Tsuji gives Kenichi his respect and decides to leave Ragnarök after warning Kenichi that the Sixth Fist Hermit will be taking action.
Later, Kisara's faction takes their revenge on Takeda by ambushing him on the way back from one of his recovery sessions at Ryōzanpaku. Despite Takeda deciding not to call Kenichi for help, fearing he would be injured like he once was, Ukita acknowledges his friendship with Takeda and turns on Ragnarök. Despite Ukita's help, the two are overpowered and Koga nearly breaks Ukita's arm until Kenichi and Miu, having learned about the ambush, come to the rescue. Kenichi fights Kisara's underlings while Miu handedly defeats Kisara. When Kenichi gets his hand stuck in a fence while fighting, Niijima arrives with his own secretly formed gang to help his plans of world domination called the Shinpaku Alliance that defeats the rest of Kisara's underlings and plans to make Kenichi its commander. After her defeat, Kisara receives an order from Hermit to stay away from the Shinpaku Alliance, but Kisara, eager for revenge on Miu for her defeat (and for her jealousy of Miu's larger figure), has no intention of following the order.
Hermit then makes his move by targeting Niijima, but the latter escapes using his unorthodox strategies. When Kenichi's school puts on the play of Romeo and Juliet, Miu gets the role of Juliet while being paired up with the school idol, Natsu Tantimoto. Despite his jealousy of Tantimoto, Kenichi comes to his defense when a group of delinquents target the acting club and defeats them. However, the delinquents are hospitalized with injuries and Kenichi is falsely accused of being the one responsible, with only Miu and Tantimoto believing him. Later, Loki meets with Hermit and learns Hermit is investigating Kenichi's masters and waiting for him to grow strong enough to be a fitting challenge. On the day of the play, Kisara plans to interrupt the event to spite Miu, but Kenichi reluctantly stands in her away. Unwilling to compromise his principles by harming a woman, Kenichi resorts to taking Kisara's attacks until she gets tired of it and leaves after losing motivation. After the play, Kenichi discovers Tanimoto's seemingly kind personality is fake, and his true self is a cynical deceiver that just used the acting club to hone his fake persona. Tanimoto believes that Kenichi is faking his innocent naivety and kindness, but Kenichi rebukes his claims. When Kenichi meets up with Miu, they are suddenly ambushed by Hermit, and he and Kenichi end up on top of a moving bus. Hermit questions Kenichi if one of his master's is Sogetsu Ma and when Kenichi explains his Chinese Martial Arts are instead taught by Sogetsu’s brother Kensei Ma, he reveals that his true identity is actually Tanimoto and he's attacking Kenichi not on orders from Ragnarök, but out of personal disdain for him. Hermit then reveals he's just using Ragnarök and plans to rule both the underworld and the public using his deception and that he was responsible for the attack on the drama club, hospitalizing the delinquents, and framing Kenichi for it. The fight continues, but despite Hermit attacking with lethal intent, Kenichi manages to force it into a draw by knocking them both off the bus. Kenichi is saved by his masters while Hermit clings to bus and is carried away. Kenichi then vows to defeat Tanimoto in their rematch.
With Hermit's failure, Loki takes over going after the Shinpaku Alliance and arranges a meeting between him and Niijima at a restraunt. Niijima attempts to ambush Loki, but Loki pulls an even bigger ambush and overwhelms Niijima's smaller force. The arrival of Kenichi, Takeda, and Ukita (lured by fake love letters courtesy of Niijima) allows the Shinpaku Alliance to counterattack and Kenichi defeats Loki, only to discover it was one of his decoy impersonator Shadows. The real Loki is revealed to be watching the fight from afar to find the Shinpaku Alliance's weakness.
When Niijima attempts to spy on Ragnarök, he ends up captured by Loki and his sidekick Number 20. Though he manages to escape the Fourth Fist, he is pursued by the Fifth Fist, Siegfried, who has joined forces with Loki. Despite Niijima's efforts, Siegfried is able to somehow recover from any hit he takes and Niijima is captured. Believing the Shinpaku Alliance's weakness is a lack of loyalty to its leader, Loki and Siegfried plan to put Niijima on a cargo ship and ship him out of the country. When Kenichi learns of Niijima's kidnapping, he reluctantly goes to rescue him with Miu. Kenichi battles Siegfried while Miu goes after Loki and Number 20 to get the location of the ship Niijima was put on. Despite landing several direct hits, Kenichi seems unable to injure the Fifth Fist and takes several counterattacks. Miu manages to catch Loki and Number 20, only to discover that Loki switched places with one of his Shadows and neither one knows Niijima's location. When Kenichi continues to struggle against Siegfried, he uses his masters' teachings to throw off the rhythm of the fight and discover Siegfried's invulnerability is actually him predicting the rhythm of his opponent's attacks and faking being hit at the last second to land a counterattack. Combing all his Martial Arts training, Kenichi combines multiple Martial Arts into a new punch technique (later dubbed the Mubyōshi) that Seigfried is unable to read and knocks him out. However, they are too late as the ship Niijima was on has already left (though he eventually returns after frightening the ship's crew who mistake him for an alien and getting stranded on an island). Afterward, Siegfried leaves Ragnarök to go on a training journey.
Sometime later, Hermit returns, but surprisingly strikes up a friendship with Kenichi's little sister Honoka, who reminds him of his deceased little sister, who ends up visiting him regularly. During one of these visits, Loki discovers Honoka is Kenichi's sister and takes her hostage. He also forces Hermit to follow his orders by revealing the Great Sage fist, Ragnarök's benefactor, has given him his authority. Loki contacts the Shinpkau Alliance on their newly created website, reveals he has taken Honoka hostage, and challenges Kenichi to a fight at an abandoned church. Kenichi arrives at the church where he discovers Hermit is his opponent and the two fight each other with neither able to get the upper hand. During the fight, Hermit reveals he disdains Kenichi's belief in justice and reveals that he and his little sister were once orphans that were adopted by a cruel businessman to raise Tanimoto as his successor in exchange for treating his sister's illness. His father ended up marrying the doctor treating Honoka and for a while, they became a real family until the doctor betrayed them by poisoning his father and attempting to take his fortune. The doctor was arrested and Tanimoto also discovered the doctor never treated his sister, causing her to die from her illness. Tanimoto inherited his father's business, but he was left unable to trust people. Despite his injuries, Kenichi refuses to let himself be tricked into pitying Hermit and letting his guard down. Using his faith in his friends and Masters,
Kenichi finds the resolve to keep fighting despite his injuries and lands a powerful palm technique on Hermit that knocks him down. Loki then intervenes and holds Honoka a knifepoint to keep Kenichi from taking action. He then taunts Hermit by reminding him that after his father died, his associates tried to kill him to take his fortune, but he was saved by the Great Sage fist who killed his attackers and inspired him to learn Martials Arts to gain strength. Using Honoka to keep Kenichi from fighting back, Loki beats Kenichi personally. Kenichi goes on the defensive to endure Loki's attacks and when Honoka cries out, Hermit is reminded of his little sister and turns on Loki. He frees Honoka, despite getting a stab wound in the process, allowing Kenichi to retaliate against Loki, who kicks Hermit out of Ragnarök for his betrayal. Suddenly, the First Fist Odin, the leader of Ragnarök who somehow knows Kenichi, appears and reveals Loki lied about having the Great Sage Fist's authority and admonishes him, forcing the Fourth Fist to retreat. Odin offers Hermit a pardon to come back to Ragnarök, but the latter refuses the offer and Odin leaves after promising they will be enemies next time they meet. With Honoka safe, Hermit insist on finishing his fight with Kenichi and after another clash, Kenichi comes out on top and Hermit passes out while standing. Hermit is brought back Ryōzanpaku for treatment and after speaking with Kensei and the Elder, he leaves on amicable terms. The next day, Tanimoto returns to class and clears Kenichi's name for the crime he framed him for, though he tells Kenichi he's only staying until he can defeat him.
With the many recent defeats Ragnarök has faced, including the loss of several of the Eight Fists, Loki blames Odin's lack of leadership and begins conspiring to usurp Odin with the Second Fist Berserker. The Shinpaku Alliance then begins to take the fight to Ragnarök and confronts the Seventh Fist Thor in his underground sumo ring. Kenichi challenges Thor to a fight with the conditions that Thor will leave Ragnarök if he wins, and he will become Thor's subordinate if he loses and help him with his goal of creating a martial art based on sumo. Despite facing Thor in his home field and his fearsome strength and durability, Kenichi manages to defeat him by throwing him out of the ring and Thor honors his agreement. Thor fears his dream has come to an end, but Kenichi points out the terms of the wager only included leaving Ragnarök and that he doesn't have to give up his goal, earning Thor's respect. For leaving Ragnarök, Thor is punished by the remaining fists and Thor points out the reason the Shinpaku Alliance keeps defeating them is that they are real friends with genuine loyalty unlike Ragnarök.
Later, Kenichi and Miu encounter Kisara again and discover she has a softer side when they find her caring for a stray kitten. They end up helping her care for it, but they are seen interacting by the Valkyries, a team of armed female fighters led by the Third Fist Freya, who used to be Kisara's superior until she left when she refused to use a weapon. The Valkyries brand Kisara a traitor for interacting with their enemies and attack her when she is caring for the kitten by herself. Kisara is unable to protect herself and the kitten at the same time and the kitten gets hurt. Kenichi and Miu arrive in time to save her, and Kisara sends Miu to get the kitten to a vet. Kenichi tries to protect Kisara but is unable to fight back because the Valkyries are girls. Fortunately, he is saved by Shigure, who came to bring Kenichi home for dinner. When the Valkyries attack her, she tears apart their weapons and clothes with nothing but a wooden spoon, causing them to flee in shame. Kisara later confronts Freya and officially leaves Ragnarök. Afterward, the kitten is revealed to be okay and is adopted at the vet.
The battle against Ragnarök begins to reach its peak when Kenichi and Miu encounter Odin while visiting Kenichi's childhood town. There, they discover Odin is actually Ryuto Asamai, Kenichi's old friend from when they were kids. They also discover both Kenichi and Ryuto had met Miu before in the past. While traveling with the Elder during her childhood, Miu went through Kenichi's neighborhood and traded a yin-yang badge with Kenichi for a cat badge. Later that day, they saw Miu defeat three robbers, inspiring both Kenichi and Ryuto to promise to pursue martial arts. However, Odin refuses to end the war between Ragnarök and the Shinpaku Alliance and claims they made a different promise. He challenges Kenichi and proves to be on a much higher level than the rest of Ragnarök. Despite Kenichi's best efforts, he is no match for Odin's "Seikuken" technique, which gives him perfect control over offense and defense inside his reach. After defeating Kenichi, Odin takes his yin-yang badge, gives him his own beat-up badge he bought 10 years ago after something terrible he claims Kenichi did to him, and scorns him as a loser before leaving. Meanwhile, Niijiama conducts a new plan to bring Hermit into the Shinpaku Alliance by having a returned Siegfried, who has been swayed into joining the Shinpaku Alliance by Niijima, impersonate Hermit and fight Ragnarök thugs to antagonize them so Hermit will have no choice but to join the Alliance for protection. Though this plan only leads Hermit to knock out Niijima in annoyance.
Frustrated by his loss, Kenichi undergoes special training in the mountains with the Elder to defeat Odin. To prepare for the final fight with Ragnarök, Niijima attempts get Kisara and her underlings to join the Shinpaku Alliance by blackmailing her with pictures showing her fawning over cats. Surprisingly, Siegfried destroys the blackmail material and instead bribes Kisara by offering to let her play with his many pet cats and dogs at any time. Kisara caves in and joins the Shinpaku Alliance, especially after she learns Berserker is getting ready to act. Meanwhile, Loki continues trying to convince Berserker to overthrow Odin.
Ragnarök soon launches its attack to finally destroy the Shinpaku Alliance while Kenichi is still training in the mountains. Berserker attacks and defeats both Takeda and Ukita while Freya and the Valkyries attack Miu and Kisara. Berserker defeats Ukita and moves on to fighting and defeating Takeda, who realizes Berserker isn't a martial artist, but a street fighter who uses raw talent, instinct, and rage that gives him an edge against martial artists. Niijima saves Takeda and Ukita by making himself a target and lures Berserker into a pit trap. Berserk easily escapes, but Siegfried battles him to save Niijima. However, Siegfried is no match for Berserker, and he takes drastic measures by launching a suicide attack to drown them both in a river. Even that fails when Berserker unleashes his "Berserk Mode," a state of rage and adrenaline that makes him even stronger and breaks free. Siegfreid is rescued by the Masters of Ryōzanpaku, but his severely injured. Miu and Kisara continue their fight against Freya and her Valkyries, struggling against Freya's mastery of the Bo Staff. Miu manages to beat the Valkyries and Kisara manages to break Freya's staff and land an effective blow by borrowing one of Miu's moves. Even though she can still fight, Freya concedes because fighting with a damaged staff that has exposed sharp edges is too dangerous. Despite the victory, Kisara is left too injured to keep fighting. Niijima then takes the remaining members of the Shinpaku Alliance into hiding to prepare a counterattack.
However, Koga, still loyal to Ragnarök, betrays the Shinpaku Alliance by revealing their hiding place and trying to poison Niijima with a laxative spiked drink. Niijima catches on to Koga's betrayal and incapacitates him by force feeding him his own spiked drink, but Odin, Berserker, and Loki have already arrived with the rest of Ragnarök's thugs and they set fire to the warehouse they were hiding in. Kenichi receives a message from Niijima hinting the final battle is about to start and cuts his training short to return with the Elder's superhuman help. The Shinpaku Alliance manages to buy time when both Thor and Hermit arrive to fight on the side of the alliance. Before and fighting can break out, Loki attempts his coup to replace Odin with Berserker and unveils six new fighters to make a new Eight Fists. Berserker seemingly joins Loki, only to turn on him and defeat him and his new fighters single handedly, having been warned by Odin beforehand. Furious at having his chance to take revenge of Loki stolen, Hermit challenges Berserker and Thor confronts Odin. Unfortunately, Odin easily wins by using a technique that causes internal damage, but before he can kill Thor, Kenichi returns and is dropped in the middle of the fight by the Elder. Odin has no intention of fighting Kenichi again and orders Berserker to defeat both him and Hermit. Hermit fights Berserker alone so Kenichi can save his strength and Hermit's superior training allows him to match Berserker's talent and instincts. Finally having a worthy opponent, Berserker unleashes his Berserk Mode to get the edge. Hermit defeats Berserker by landing a powerful counter, dislocating his arm, and dealing a direct hit that subdues the Second Fist. Hermit then tags out with Kenichi so the latter can face Odin in a rematch. Berserker refuses to yield but is finally stopped when Kenichi convinces him defeat can be a greater teacher then victory. However, Odin knocks Berserker out and faces Kenichi on the roof of the warehouse.
Thanks to his special training with the Elder, Kenichi is able to match Odin's Seikuken with his own. During the match, the observing masters of Ryōzanpaku realize the Great Sage Fist AKA Isshinsai Ogata is Odin's master and is also watching the fight. Odin attempts to gain the edge by having his Ragnarök underlings attack the Shinpaku Alliance to distract Kenichi. Fortunately, Takeda, Ukita, and Siegfried arrive to aid the exhausted Shinpaku Alliance despite still being injured and they manage to fend off the thugs and give Kenichi the change to face Odin without distraction. Empowered by his friend's trust, Kenichi confronts Odin again and manages to land a powerful throw on the First Fist. Odin decides to stop holding back by removing his glasses, and uses a method called the inner eye, which allows him to read of Kenichi's movements and patterns to predict his attacks, along with the Gungnir technique which has flawless accuracy. Odin's Gungnir gives him the advantage and even Kenichi's Mubyōshi fails. Kenichi manages to turn the tide of the battle by switching his patterns and rhythm to those of his masters, which throws off Odin's Gungnir and allows Kenichi to land several heavy hits and a powerful jujitsu throw. Odin lands on a sharp piece of metal that stabs his arm, but he rejects Kenichi's help and refuses to stop fighting. Furious that his unable to defeat Kenichi, Odin takes drastic measures and uses a dangerous technique that uses Sei (internal energy) and Dou (external energy) simultaneously to give himself monstrous strength at the risk of tearing himself apart. While pummeling Kenichi, Odin then reveals why he holds such a grudge against him. When they saw Miu defeat the robbers as children, one of them almost attacked Miu with a sneak attack, but Kenichi blew a whistle to alert her and passed out from panic. Miu defeated the last thug but mistook Ryuto for the one who blew the whistle. The experience inspired both Ryuto and Kenichi to pursue martials arts, but unlike Kenichi who wanted the strength to protect people, Ryuto aspired for power. Guilty about being given the credit and wanting the yin-yang badge that was originally Miu's, Ryuto fought with Kenichi over the badge which Kenichi won due to being bigger at the time. Despite winning, Kenichi tried to give Ryuto badge and the official victory, but Ryuto took the act of kindness as an insult to his pride. He then spent the whole night getting a new yin-yang badge only to realize it wasn't the badge he wanted, but the victory that came with it. This created a deep resentment in him, and Odin promised Kenichi to fight over the badge again and trained for 10 years so he could finally defeat Kenichi and claim his victory. This eventual led him to training under Ogata and founding Ragnarök. Furious that everything Odin did was just for the sake of winning, Kenichi wills himself to keep fighting and faces Odin to save him from going down the path of a murderer. Kenichi is able to match Odin even with his new monstrous strength and Odin's body begins breaking apart from the strain of his combining Sei and Dou. With one last punch, Kenichi defeats Odin, but the fire set earlier ignites some oil cans and causes an explosion. Kenichi avoids getting caught in the blast, but Odin falls through the roof and is left dangling over the fire. Despite everything, Kenichi tries to rescue Odin, still considering him his friend. This act causes Odin to concede defeat and he returns Kenichi's badge. Before the two can fall into the fire, Odin is rescued by Ogata, who used Odin to as an experiment to test the dangers of combining Sei and Dou, while Kenichi is saved by the Elder. Ogata warns Yami is coming and the Elder retorts that Ryōzanpaku shall raise Kenichi to be the strongest disciple in history to fight it while the other masters contain the warehouse explosion. With Odin's defeat, Ragnarök is disbanded with the Eight Fists, except for Loki, joining the Shinpaku Alliance or Yomi.
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Ragnarök Valkyrie | Thor | Hermit | Siegfried | Loki Three of Cards Other members Takdea | Ukita | Koga | Tsuji | Leader Unarmed Division One Shadow Nine Fists Alexander Gaidar | Akira Hongō | Agaard Jum Sai | Cyril Rahman | Diego Carlo | Isshinsai Ogata | Mikumo Kushinada | Silkwat Jenezad | Sōgetsu Ma Armed Division Hachiou Executioner Blade Seitarō Raigō | Rin Tachibana | Mihai Știrbey | Mildred Lawrence | Marmaduke Brown | Raki Hoshinano | Edeltraft von Schiller | Unarmed Division Armed Division | ||
