Inochishirazu
"He who fears nothing is either a liar or a fool. "
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Contents
The Ninja, Today
"Be resourceful, the environment is your ally."
Some say, the more the Japanese change, they only become more Japanese.
Just like the once "ignoble merchants" rose into the bourgeosie that would seize the world, the ninja clans that once gathered in secluded regions of the Mie prefecture now do so at chairholder meetings inside tall skyscrapers.*
Their lives, however, are no less harsh.
The ninpo, the way of the ninja, is all about teaching perspective, and its way of imparting said perspective is by making a disciple go through hell during training. Once you have lived through ninja training, everyday problems like getting a flat tire during a summer day or being denied a raise at work no longer seem so bad.
*: Actually, this vision doesn't deviate from the norm, given how ancient "ninja villages" looked just like any other farming village of ancient Japan (partly to "hide in plain sight," but mostly because the ninja were peasants themselves). Furthermore, in the feudal age, agriculture was an important part of a kingdom's (or shogunate's) wealth, so it's only natural that such families would now work at a similar contributor to the country's economy.
The Gift
While Chisato was daughter to one of the Oboro's inner circle, she was far from being the head of the family's favorite.
Japan's social crisis has reached deep, and not even the ninja clans are immune from being plagued with deviants such as herbivore men, shut-ins, or the much more maligned "independent women." Chisato combined being independent with a complete disdain for her homeland's more restrictive social customs, and that meant both a disgrace to her parents and a lack of favor from the Jōnin. Still, they put up with her. After all, ninja clans are all about family, and that's what families do.
In addition, Chisato possessed a redeeming virtue.
Chisato was born gifted, and at the tender age of five everyone in the clan was already talking about a new "Flying Kato"*. Her prodigious affinity with Zen enabled her from early childhood to do feats of chi manipulation that were usually left for adults to try. Her talent was great and further skyrocketed as she grew up. Alas, her fame and skill warranted her enemies in high places.
*: Kato Danzo or "Flying Kato" was the ninja who popularized the notion that the ninja wielded supernatural powers. In a world with superheroes, it's reasonable to assume a fictional Flying Kato would have been more than just an illusionist.
Jealousy: All she could have been
"Simply the thing I am shall make me live."
As the daughter of the clan's second in line, Setsuna's tuition was the best, she was trained by the clan's best and brightest, and her marriage to Jō, the clan's heir, had been arranged since before she was born. Because of this, a lot was expected from her, and that's why having her tutors rub the performance of "lowly Chisato" in her face all the way through childhood was such a big trauma for her.
By the time both reached late teens, Chisato's skill had earned her several nicknames both in and outside the clan, from "Flying Chisato"* to "Musashi's Dragon." As Chisato's reputation grew, so did Setsuna's resentment and bitterness, which affected her relationship with Jō (which, as with most arranged marriages, never involved a lot of feelings to begin with) to their further detriment. Even at their "regular jobs," Chisato's initiatives at Hotsuma Electronics (the family's legal front) were more succesful and, when possible, listened to more often than Setsuna's. Furthermore, as Chisato grew in skill, she started to get assigned to Jō for high priority tasks for the clan (tasks that usually would have been entrusted to Setsuna if only her skill matched Jō's, let alone Chisato's).
Dutiful and analytical, Jō learned from Chisato to tune his stress down and carry better his burdens, and appreciated the way she reveled in the thrill of their missions. Aggressive and lively, Chisato in turn learned from him some of the finer points of prudence to stop jumping before looking, and she came to admire the way he kept cool under pressure and how easy he made everything look.
Eventually, they clicked and started having an affair. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for Setsuna.
The two women's fight lit Shinjuku's nightsky as an enraged Setsuna tried to kill Chisato then and there, and soon enough it reached the Hotsuma corporate building, where Chisato stopped her, defeating her in front of Jō and the clan's inner circle who were in the middle of a meeting.
Humiliated and broken, the way Setsuna saw it, Chisato had stolen everything from her, from the renown that should have been hers to her face** to her very own man. Giving in to despair, she rose her fist in anger for a last time.
...and killed Jō.
Then she killed herself.
Two years since the tragedy, the Oboro clan remains without a heir, and no plans have been made to elect a new clan head to succeed the current Jōnin. The Jōnin decreed the family had suffered enough lossess already and no formal action was taken against Chisato (a ninja clan is still a family, not a tribunal), but from that point on she was kept busy elsewhere with all kind of tasks overseas in an informal exile. While she keeps her executive position at Hotsuma, her job now is limited to attending meetings (and by telepresence, at that).
*: See "Flying Kato".
**: As in the Japanese concept of "losing face."
Daimyo: 'Til Death Do Us Part
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The Yakuza's activity got a recent increase that started at the same time a new metahuman yakuza enforcer started operating. This "Daimyo" as people and the media have started calling him, has been targetting people in positions of power that were known to have former ties with the yakuza (and then cut them in order to straighten up). Whether the mobile behind these assassination is merely acts of vengeance or a warning to those still in the yakuza's pockets is still unknown.
Two years ago, the Michiguno criminal family stole the body of Jō Ishikawa from his grave. Being the strongest ninja in the Oboro clan, his body's chi generation put him in the metahuman scale, and upon hearing of the Oboro tragedy, the Michigunos had no intentions of letting that potential go to waste. Reanimation processses mixed with bionic reconstruction brought Jō back from the dead. His muscle memory retained all of his years of training. While his Chi levels decreased post mortem and days of clinical death and decay damaged the brain beyond repair (even after reanimation), lost faculties were restored with the cutting edge of metahuman-grade bionics. The result was the perfect enforcer, fully under their control and capable of dealing even with Delta-class nosey metahumans.
Daimyo never works unsupervised, and whenever he is released for mission, he has a team of operators overseeing the operation. While Daimyo's assault can be overpowering, his operators are quick to make him retreat whenever they perceive a tactical disadvantage.
Star-Crossed Lovers
"Better to be humble than humbled."
Chisato's latest task for her clan involved getting an invitation to a fake Tournament of the Dragon organized by the Red Banner. The clan was hired by the Michiguno family to assassinate a long-time enemy of them who was rumored to have received an invitation.There, she met her quarry, Sumaki Aikawa.
...and lost.
While losing to a teen was a big blow to Chisato's ego, she took a liking/respect for her opponent, enough to want time off to prepare for a rematch. Meanwhile, she used her right to turn a job down and returned the Michiguno's money.
The clan respected her choice. The Michigunos, on the other side, took big offense at being denied.
Daimyo has been given a new target, and he's on the move.
Trivia
- "Inochishirazu" is the Japanese for "daredevil."
- She speaks five languages fluently, but uses her telepathy to help herself with any other language as needed.
- She has worked for three governments, but never for UNTIL.
- The character has many references to Sega's Shinobi games.
- Her full list of nicknames: Inochishirazu, The Gift, Ninjutsu Ryu (Ninjutsu's Dragon), Musashi no Ryu (Musashi's Dragon), Flying Chisato.
- For someone trained to be "one with everything," she's starting to develop both an adrenaline addiction and a drinking problem. Chances are, she's not quite over the loss of Jō or being basically persona-non-grata to her clan.
- Her "theme songs" would be "All that Matters (The Beautiful life)" by Ke$ha and "Breathe" by Superchick.
