Second Kengan Theory, more serious this time:
At the end of Part 1, we're introduced to our three presumed antagonists for Part 2. None of them have names, but one is seemingly Chinese, one Caucasian and one is hidden under a large white cloak. This is puzzling, since neither of the other two are hidden in any way; the only reason you'd hide only one of the three is if he was a character we already know.
The tale begins with one of my friends mentioning that the hidden man has a peculiar way of walking (he's portrayed as overlapping his steps in the final panel, in contrast to the other two). This brings something to mind but I don't know what. After a few minutes of thinking, I realize that his outfit brings to mind (to me at least) something that someone would wear in the desert.
And wouldn't know it, Hassad, the desert whirlwind, seems to be drawn as walking similarly the rare times we see him do so. Of course, by itself that means nothing; it could be a coincidence.
However upon looking at it further, Hassad has a similar build to our mystery man, and his eyes are drawn in a similar manner. Additionally, the seemingly Chinese man says that "We all had to come all the way to Japan.", indicating that none of the trio are native to Japan.
But that's still not conclusive, so let's go deeper.
Six characters were given a prequel chapter in Kengan Asura Zero. They are; Imai Cosmos, Wakatsuki Takeshi, Gaolang Wongsawat, Hassad, Hanafusa Hajime and Katahara Metsudo. Hassad is by far the least important of the lot so one might wonder why he even got one, but the chapter establishes a few things about him; he would have been the first in line to rule his country but left in search of knowledge, he's a good enough martial artist to reconstruct Shuri-te just from reading about it, he's not as morally upstanding as you might think (he gets drunk because "Allah's eyes don't reach Japan") and he says that he's ready to fight even while drunk - something that seems humorous in that chapter.
Going back to his introduction in the preliminary fight, we learn a few things about Hassad; he's 17-0 in Kengan matches, he has the record for the fastest match with it only lasting two seconds (later beaten by Mikazuchi Rei's "immeasurable" in the first round of the tournament) and he's so fast that his opponents in the preliminary don't understand when he's moving.
Then chapter 30 comes and it's all downhill for Hassad. He steps up to the chairman and is effortlessly defeated by Yodoe in two hits to establish how strong the bodyguards are, to everyone's shock. He just wasn't as good as he thought... not.
Come chapter 175, Hassad returns to fighting - by knocking out Yodoe with the latter being unable to see him move, along with two other bodyguards who also can't see him move. So that first fight? Hassad
wanted to lose it and get knocked into the water. This leads to him being on the island unsupervised except for Kaburagi, but as established in Hassad's chapter in Kengan Asura Zero, they frequently split up.
Why does this matter? Well, there's another character who's noted to vanish for extended periods - Long Min, one of the two confirmed members of "Worm". In chapter 163, Long Min asks Mr. Takada to meet "(his) master" in private, complete with quotation marks*. He reappears in chapter 170, and is questioned about his disappearance by Kito Gunji, establishing that the master in question doesn't refer to his official employer. Since it never comes up again, the only reasonable explanation is that the meeting has to do with "Worm", so we know for certain that a member of "Worm" higher ranked than Long Min is on the island by that point. This meeting also ties with another unexplained plot point, which is the reason why Bando was conducting his murders; Yamashita's son asks to meet him in the final chapter, indicating that he'll play a role in the sequel, likely related to the meeting that Takada had with "Worm".
*: In the final chapter, it's established that the cloaked man killed Long Min, and his explanation is that Long Min was always trying to prove that he was better than him; this matches with Long Min using quotes when calling him his superior.
Hassad is also given absolutely no attention in the epilogue, despite getting a fair amount of screen-time throughout the manga - and remember, he's the rightful ruler of a small country, so you'd expect him to get at least a newspaper mention like Gaolang if he went back home.
But I suppose it's possible that all this is just a giant set of coincidences. Maybe Hassad really is just a comic relief character who got a prequel chapter and shares some similarities with this mysterious villain. It's not as if he's shown to be wearing the same outfit or any...thing...
Oh.