Nanbu's attempt to scout a high-ranking opponent for Joe's next match lands the 17th-ranked boxer — his ex-student Aragaki, who fell out with Nanbu after a military deployment led to him losing his legs in an explosive trap. Nanbu — then a legitimate coach – believed Aragaki dead after an initial news report mistakenly listed him as killed in action; when Aragaki returned to the gym, he was crushed to find it derelict and eventually demolished, and in his grief nearly kills himself...