A Man's World (story arc)

A Man's World (男の世界) is the seventh story arc in Steel Ball Run.

It narrates Johnny and Gyro's meeting with Hot Pants and their duel against the gunslinger Ringo Roadagain.

Summary
The fourth stage begins: 1250 km from the Colorado river to Kansas City. At 650 km from Kansas City, Gyro and Johnny meet Hot Pants in a forest. Having taken some meat from a cow's corpse which belonged to Hot Pants, he accuses them of being cattle thief and attacks them, revealing his Stand Cream Starter. Johnny defuses the situation but Hot Pants doesn't apologize for the attack. Gyro used the occasion to scan Hot Pants' back, seeing the Corpse's Spine, and the world "Turbo". Coordinates are hidden in the word, leading Gyro and Johnny to locate the next Corpse's part in Kansas City.

After a while, Gyro and Johnny realize that they are lost. Hot Pants approaches them and proposes a truce for the time being, they go on to ask whoever inhabits a nearby house the way out of the forest. They cross path with fellow racer Gaucho, enraged at the house's inhabitant, who repeatedly told him that the way out of the forest would only come after he killed him. Gaucho shouts a challenge to him, and Ringo Roadagain comes out of the house.

Gaucho and Ringo begin to shoot at each other, but Ringo manages to land the first hit thanks to his knowledge about guns, and finishes Gaucho off to the trio's perplexity. They instead elect to find the way out by themselves. Still unable to get out of the forest, they decide to confront Ringo together, hoping to kill him. Hot Pants notably plants his Cream Starter on the roof of the house.

They meet Ringo burying the remains of Gaucho and ask him one last time to let them out of the forest. Ringo answers by suggesting to duel with Johnny first, finding Gyro to be a mere follower and thus unsuitable for the battles to the death he seeks. Gyro attacks Ringo, but he reveals his Stand Mandom which can rewind time by six seconds when he rewinds the watch on his right wrist, with the memories of the six seconds remaining within everyone. Hot Pants attacks Ringo by surprise but he manages to rewind time, evading Hot Pants' attack. Ensues a shootout in which Johnny receives a bullet to the head, Hot Pants one to the chest, leaving only Gyro seemingly alive. Ringo spares him, but witnessing one of his Steel Ball rolling toward him, Gyro realizes that Johnny's wound isn't fatal, there's hope that he survived the shot and Gyro finds in himself the drive to win.

Ringo Roadagain's backstory is revealed: he was once the sick child of an ostracized and impoverished family. One night, his mother and sister were killed by a deserter and he was nearly raped, only getting away by shooting the deserter. Ringo's sickness disappeared and he became a gunslinger seeking challenges to purify himself. Finally Funny Valentine employed him to retrieve the Corpse part from Johnny.

Chasing away the last doubts within him, Gyro clearly formulates his goals in this race: to discover whether Marco deserves his death sentence, and to discover the truth behind the Corpse. With a clear objective and not ideals in mind, Gyro challenges Ringo again. This time Gyro reveals that Ringo has a weakness, his left shoulder bearing an old wound which can kill him if the wound were to reopen. Both draw their weapons, and while Ringo kills Gyro, he is hit on the the shoulder and nearly dies himself. Rewinding time once again, Ringo protects his shoulder but is then impaled from behind by a splinter Gyro caused to fall the last time and whose trajectory was memorized by him. Gyro led Ringo under the splinter, and the splinter impales Ringo's left shoulder. Acknowledging his defeat and Gyro's growth, Ringo honors him and is finished off by Gyro.

Chapters

 * 033 (785). A Man's World (1)
 * 034 (786). A Man's World (2)
 * 035 (787). A Man's World (3)

Volumes

 * 07 (87). A Little Grave on the Wide, Wide Prairie
 * 08 (88). To a Man's World