ANBU

something island, 07:31, 26.07.1962

Inari (Hunter) traveled to a rich island. The island was a meeting place for decadent young
people, yakuza fuckboys, and nepotism kids in the Admiralty. Tropical. The streets were full
of pachinko parlors and brothels with ladyboys. There was a small castle taken from a
daimyo by force and now it was used as an Admiralty resort for young officers.
Inari was coming here a few months after the Owari mission. His leg had healed but it was
still hurting him. He was still morose and upset by Sleepwalker’s betrayal in Owari and
forcing him to kill a father in front of the child.
He was flicking the zippo on and off, while sitting on the rails of the ship. He had a cigarette
in his hand but he didn’t light it. It was just faintly shaking between his fingers. He was
focusing on the rhythm of the click of the lighter. Click on. Click off. Getting faster and
faster. Then he saw Seiko (Pill) at the pier.
Seiko came to pick him up from the transport. Hunter was traveling civilian, just a young
man seeing the world, detached, smoking on the ship railing. Seiko was his on again off again
girlfriend, fond of him. She was a medical ninja in the ANBU, casually intimate with death
and possessed a disarming, almost cheerful demeanor despite her grim nature. She was a
blend of goth and approachable, a beautiful face with black lipstick, nails, and a leather jacket
worn with nihilistic indifference. She had long, dark, messy hair, and a serene, knowing
smile. Her ANBU mask was white and featureless but its curves suggested a soft femininity.
Maybe she was also a dealer. She blinds/strangles victims with her hair. Her clan is keeper of
the Kiri Ghost jutsu, she kind of assumes this supernatural stance of crawling out of mirrors
or the tv. But she also uses drugs to induce hallucinations, fear, obedience, or augment/heal.
Wears a loose fraying dark grey swrater and paints her nails.
When Inari arrived, she was hunting him and tricked him. Inari suffers her Phantasmal Killer
genjutsu where she makes a ghostly (Japanaese) clone of herself that crawls out of Inari’s
shadow and kills him. While he stands there, heart throbbing, having suffered the attack, she
appears leaning against the car. But Inari was detached so they just got into a car (50s, 60s
style old car, rare) and they Seiko drove.
She blabbered on about something vaguely Kiri-related, probably killing Masaru, then about
some party in the castle, then made a comment about him being pale.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Thanks for the ride.”
He stared out the window then got out of the car.
“No hug? Shame. Don’t OD on those knock-offs. You know where to find me if you need the
good stuff.”
She leaned in to kiss him but he pulled away. She looked at him.
“Try to enjoy yourself,” she said. “This town’s a party.”
She dropped him off at a hotel and was confused by his lack of affection then left. Inari
drifted in the hotel, looking at the spa, taking pain killers. He watched people in the hot bath,
smoked on the rooftop, moved like a ninja. He probably went out half-dazed for a walk and
met some giggling drunk girls and went home with one but the girl threw up and he left her
sprawled on the futon, not wanting to take on responsibility for her.
Later he goes to Seiko’s party in the castle with Kaneda (Rack), another ANBU. They meet
other ANBU there, as well as young yakuza hit men, smugglers, dealers. Really, a
reimagining of the bleak character portfolio of Bret Easton Ellis (full of models, dealers,
teenage actors, students). Toshio, Kayako.
Seiko was genuinely comfortable in the decadent, party-going world. She understood the
scene and casually talked to people without self-interest. Inari liked her because she wasn’t
trying to fight everybody and prove she was the toughest. She loved him because of how
uniquely broken he was and how surprising his core protector value was hidden under the
façade.
Their relationship would be teasing on the surface, but both of them would be open to
intimacy and gentleness. Seiko more so, but Inari would draw away frequently, disappear on
missions. Seiko would let him but she’d always think they would be ending up for good after
a time. She would be hurt after being dismissed after not seeing each other for months,
believing the time for the “smile period” that is the distancing was done.
The would navigate the party, talking to different people about different gossip (about
murders and crimes), laughing performatively, however we would see Inari’s sarcastic social
dominance. He would be cutting and observative about weaknesses, exposing truths no one
would be comfortable saying.
Everybode would react to him a teasing way, not taking him seriously, telling him he was
pale or that they would beat him in a fight.
Kaneda would protect Inari in situations like this, but in private he would tell him that he
would really kill him in a swordfight, to which Inari would ask whether he saw Seto
(Sleepwalker).
Inari would ask several people about SW throughout the night, and get some fake gossip, but
ultimately Seiko would tell him that Seto went to a back room alone. Inari would leave the
party only to find him half-knocked out on his special drug on a balcony, obsessing about the
struggles of a spider trying to kill a wasp.
Inari would try to confront him but Seto would be out of it, high and dumb from the drug.
Inari would then physically attack and hit him, and clamp his hand on his head in the Echo-
Point pose, which would sober Seto up enough to recognize him. Seto would dare Inari to kill
him to end the pain.
Inari would release him and Seto would tell him about his first kill, the rabid dog on the
flower field. Inari would listen while writing on a cigarette. Seto would then ask about Inari’s
first kill, to which he would say the initiation (the one Masaru presided over). Seto would
immediately understand because they both went through the same thing just a few years
apart. They would then go on to talk about being killers for hire, not able to decide what’s
right or wrong, just drifting with no purpose.
Inari would provoke Seto about his decision to offer amnesty to Masaru, a renegade. Seto
would explain a part of his dream, reforming Kiri, to which Inari would answer that he
sounds an awful lot like Yagura when he talks like this.
18:21, 30.07.1962., log off.