Rokujou Miharu is his name; a passive, indifferent
middle-schooler with emotionless emerald eyes, who shuns involvement with anything.
A cheerful, glasses-wearing albino classmate,
Aizawa Kouichi, tries to befriend him and get him to join the nindou ("Way of the Ninja") club he's started under the
sponsorship of English teacher Kumohira Thobari. Thobari-sensei joins them and they both try to persuade him, explaining that
it's not a competitive martial arts club but one exclusively devoted to the study of ninja techniques;
but elusive Miharu gives them both the slip. Kouichi is worried: there's something in the wind, he thinks...
Yamase, a teacher they'd bumped into on the way out of the school, is watching from the roof as he walks away.
[There's a lovely, eerie bit in the manga here: as Miharu walks away from Kouichi, he steps on a seedling plant growing from a crack in the sidewalk, and before Kouichi's eyes it grows into full bloom.]
We see Miharu cooking okonomiyaki [1] at his family's cafe', his aunt and uncle proudly saying he's come even closer to his grandmother's level of skill. (She agrees.) They're watching
a talk show discussing the future of Japan, and they speak admiringly of one commentator,
a political columnist named Hattori Tojuro, who believes "the world must settle with such things as history,
nationality and religion".
They're big fans of his, Grandmother especially. Uncle says he's as cool as a movie star, even if he's not always easy to understand.
--Thobari-sensei visits the cafe (to his credit, flinching only briefly when two sharp spatulas nail into the doorframe
the instant he shows his face--oh sorry, my hand slipped, says Miharu)
and gives reluctant Rokujou the lowdown. Kumohira and Kouichi aren't just admirers of ninjutsu, he explains, but the real thing; a secret ninja world still exists,
hidden under the surface of the modern world. (Miharu's
unexpectedly dry, wicked sense of humor shows itself for the first time in this
chat, as he responds with sarcastic mock awe to this revelation.) The shinobi, he says, call their hidden world
Nabari, and Miharu must join their club and begin training,
because he's being stalked and his life is at stake. But aren't you the one stalking me? asks Miharu with an innocent smile.
Miharu breaks off the conversation to go grocery shopping for his aunt (she's out of bonito flakes), but thinks as he steps out
into the wind that he has
felt something lately...as if he's both watching for something, and being watched himself. Very soon you shall awaken, says a voice in his mind.
Yamase has followed Kouichi; the boy confronts him at a shrine, and Yamase puts a kunai dagger to his throat, asking if he's the keeper of the hidden technique. I'd expect no less from one of Iga's Kairoushuu (the series translates it as "Ash Wolf Men"),
says the silver-haired boy calmly. Miharu, drawn up the steps to the shrine by the inner voice, sees what's happening; Kouichi yells for him to run, but Yamase quickly throws a shuriken at him. Instantly a whirlwind bursts from Miharu throwing the star aside.
I see now--you have the hijutsu, snarls Yamase; he charges Miharu, but Kouichi calls on the five elements and
whisks them away. Yamase whistles up his reinforcements, and battle ensues.
They tell Miharu that they want "what you have inside you" to make their leader the Nabari no Ou, King of Nabari.
The voice in his mind--soft, insinuating and feminine-- suggests that he kill them all.
Thobari finds that Miharu never reached the dried-foods store, and is taken aback by something he senses in the rushing wind; surely Miharu isn't capable of activating it already?
--Miharu demands to know who the speaker is, but she only continues to speak: Everyone wants you for themselves...you don't like being
used, do you, Miharu? --Clouds gather and the wind rises sharply as the Kairoushuu draw back in alarm from the surge of spiritual pressure. I'll protect you, the voice promises, and just as before, huge
vines burst from the ground, grabbing and throttling the enemy. Kouichi snatches up a dropped sword, rushes Miharu and
runs him through, then raises his hand and commands, Spirit seal!--as Thobari races onto the scene.
Miharu sees the silhouette of a robed female figure, who tells him --it's her voice he's been hearing--that inside him is a
place of wisdom that can make any wish come true. "Time, nature, the ability to control anything at all...even people's hearts. Whatever you desire, shinrabanshou
will heed your call." What does he want?--she asks. All he needs to do is wish for it... he remembers the voice that told
him to forget, and hurls Kouichi away to be caught by Thobari, who angrily asks if Aizawa
really thought his powers could combat such a force. The Shinrabanshou asks Miharu why he won't wish for anything.
The Ash Wolves retreat; Thobari runs in, pulls the sword from Miharu and cries, Seal cancel!
As Miharu collapses, he tells the Shinrabanshou that he doesn't need anything, but she serenely replies
that he will definitely call upon her.
Miharu is not happy to find the two shinobi there when he wakes in the hospital; Kouichi protests that he didn't think
there was any other way to stop the technique, and he was careful not to hit any organs or bones, honest! Thobari-sensei
says that wasn't a real activation of the technique,
just its power overflowing: Miharu doesn't have the power to activate it yet. Miharu finds that the sword wound has healed
completely without even a scar, which Thobari says is also part of the technique.
They explain that shinrabanshou is a hijutsu--a 'hidden technique'--developed long ago, the greatest of all shinobi skills,
and can control creation itself. The Writings of Shinrabanshou are hidden within you, Thobari says [this is apparently why it manifests itself as visible characters on his skin].
But it's a very hard power for the body to assimilate, and to use it is even harder. Previous owners have had their brains
exploded when they tried to activate it by force. But why is it stuck in me? asks Miharu. (Thobari just sighs) --I couldn't care less about some secret technique; hurry and get it out of me.
Thobari says that's not possible--it would have been done long ago if it were. --Miharu gets out of bed and changes into the clean shirt Thobari brought him; meanwhile, silent, shadowy figures are closing in on the clinic...
The reason ninjas still exist is due to a "circulating diplomacy" centered on this hidden technique, their sensei explains,
and they'll need to look out for all those connected with its birth, especially an Iga ninja sect called the
Kairoushuu. --The ones who attacked us earlier, adds Kouichi, listening at the door.
The teacher takes Miharu by the shoulders and tells him dead seriously that he mustn't let anyone get hold of that technique or allow it to consume him, then steers him toward the door, and they run for it as enemy ninja crash through the windows.
Rokujou, your life of indifference is over! barks Thobari as they fight off the attack. You must become stronger than anyone else--become the King of Nabari!
Miharu asks why they're willing to be hurt for him; they should stop it, it's not their concern. Thobari smiles to himself and presses his thumb into a bleeding gash on his arm.
As Miharu walks away, Thobari catches him by the arm and turns the boy to face him. I am a shinobi of Banten village,
Kumohira Thobari Durandal [2], he says solemnly; marking a kanji character ("death") on Miharu's brow in blood, and kneeling at the boy's feet, he
pledges his unconditional allegiance and protection until Miharu becomes the King of Nabari and ends the long war over the hidden technique. But Miharu, utterly unimpressed
by this handsome gesture, wants none of it whatever and walks away, saying he wants only to
resume his detached life. Besides, he never did pick up those dried bonito flakes.
At school the next day, Thobari-sensei tells Miharu's class that their teacher Yamase-sensei has "been involved in an accident" =) and he's their substitute teacher, and encourages Miharu to join the nindou club; and we see a posh high-rise office,
where the political commentator, Hattori Tojuro, tells an aide "at least now we know who the keeper is."
After hiding in the shadows for ten years, he says, the time has come for us, the Ash Wolf Men, to claim the Shinrabanshou...
Footnotes:
...go on to next episode.
--But the kid bolts the scene, determined not to become involved; only to be cornered by
Yamase and rescued again by Thobari, who snaps "don't you dare touch my dear student" and straight-arms the Iga ninja so hard that teeth go flying. --Take your chief a message from me: 'we're not handing Rokujou Miharu over to you', Thobari tells him sternly.
[1] --Okonomiyaki is a kind of omelet-style stuffed pancake. The batter is made of flour, grated yam, water or dashi (soup stock made from kelp and dried bonito flakes), eggs and shredded cabbage;
other ingredients can include green onion, meat (generally pork or bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi (fermented cabbage), mochi (sticky rice), or cheese.
Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and -yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba); thus,
the name of this dish basically means "cook whatever you like". The sharpened spatulas
Miharu throws at Thobari in this ep are quite typical--they have a sharp edge since they're used to slice the okonomiyaki
when it's done.
[2]--"Durandal" (or Durendal) was the blessed sword of the medieval hero Roland.
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