A Hero's Proof

Furious over Mark's death, Caesar takes on Wamuu, wrapping the Pillar Man in Ripple-charged bubbles from his Bubble Launcher. The moment Wamuu recognizes a Ripple wielder, he triggers the strange gear on his head to blast out a wind that pops every bubble and spins up countless tiny tornadoes, flaying Caesar's skin and leaving him blinded in one eye. His defiant claim that sight is not needed to fight only amuses the Pillar Men, who have heard such boasts from doomed Ripple users of ages past. As Kars and Esidisi climb toward the surface, Joseph reveals himself and announces a technique of his own, feeding the Ripple through a pair of clackers.

Wamuu grants the fight but slices open Joseph's wrist to cap the duel at a single minute. The Ripple Clacker Volley seems to whiff, lodging a steel ball in a pillar behind the enemy, but this sets up the Clacker Boomerang, a second charged pair thrown around Wamuu that hooks the first and strikes him. Wamuu absorbs further blows while readying his Holy Sandstorm, and although Joseph is left clinging to life, he plays dead and flees, seemingly abandoning Caesar and Speedwagon to lure Wamuu away from them.

Joseph draws Wamuu onto a minecart racing through the ruins, planning to blow him apart with dynamite, but the Pillar Man reads the trick and hurls them from the tracks. Rather than kill him, Wamuu is intrigued by Joseph's vow to grow far stronger within a month, and agrees to the rematch by planting a Wedding Ring of poison around Joseph's aorta set to kill in thirty-three days, the antidote hidden in Wamuu's lip piercing. Esidisi swallows the dynamite and joins the bet with a second ring at Joseph's windpipe, its cure in his own nose piercing, while Kars declines and the group departs for the Red Stone of Aja. As Joseph collapses from the strain, Caesar quietly resolves to train alongside him.

Wamuu counters Caesar's Bubble Launcher with his wind-generating headgear, disabling him and taking his eye. Joseph enters the battle wielding Ripple-infused clackers and lands hits through his Clacker Volley and Clacker Boomerang combination. Wamuu unleashes the Holy Sandstorm, and Joseph feigns death to draw him away from his allies. The failed minecart-and-dynamite gambit ends with Joseph proposing a one-month rematch. Wamuu and Esidisi each implant a poison ring, forcing Joseph to defeat them for the antidotes, and Caesar pledges to keep growing stronger.

Airing on January 19, 2013, the episode was written by Shōgo Yasukawa and adapts chapters 66 through 70 of the manga. It opens with BLOODY STREAM and closes on Roundabout. The poison-ring pact establishes the central stakes for the rest of the arc, giving Joseph a ticking clock tied directly to killing the two Pillar Men. Among the adaptation's small changes, Caesar reaches Joseph in time to witness his full attempt to persuade Wamuu, whereas the manga has him catch only the tail end of that exchange.