At Banten Middle School, surprised kids watch a determined blonde girl stride into the building with a sheathed sword at her back. Inside, Thobari-sensei and Kouichi are sparring while Miharu watches a ladybug crawl along the windowsill. Thobari scolds Miharu for his inattention, saying it's crucial for him to train his mind and body to keep the shinrabanshou from going out of control, but Kouichi quietly calls sensei's attention to the roof overhead. Shinrabanshou, prepare to be judged!--cries a female voice, and the same blonde girl drops into the room. She and Aizawa-kun have a brief tussle before he can inform her that he's not the one she's after--it's the one standing behind her. She's quite unimpressed: that scrawny kid is the shinrabanshou?--but Thobari intervenes, asking "Shimizu, did you come all the way here from Tokyo?" She was his student at another school, sensei explains; her clan's influential in the Kanto region, and she comes from a long line of Fuuma ninjas. Fuuma? you're shinobi as well? asks Kouichi. She sniffs scornfully, presenting her blade. I prefer not to rely on tricks like ninjutsu; I trust only my own skills and this sword, she says, and strikes a dramatic pose. I'm Shimizu Raimei--a samurai.
Unimpressed Miharu is already headed for the door, and she indignantly calls him back, saying that the Shimizu family is the guardian of the world of Nabari and she's come to see if he's worthy to be the bearer of the secret technique. Yeah, sure, he says, walking on.
Raimei observes Miharu throughout the school day, growing more and more exasperated with his dispassionate, low-effort attitude. She confronts him, saying that the power inside him could swallow not only him but the entire world, and he should at least be interested in defending himself. He smiles that odd little smile and says that she only came here because she wants that power herself, but she angrily says she'll become stronger than anyone through her own power alone. (She asks Kouichi if he always behaves this way, and he sighs and says that Miharu is a master of indifference.)
We see Raimei haranguing a bewildered kid in the lunchroom, calling him "Thobari-sensei" and saying she doesn't feel sure the technique can be left to Miharu. Thobari himself calls to her; it seems she's always had this tendency to get confused about who she's talking to when she's agitated. She says that just because Thobari is watching over Miharu doesn't mean the technique can't consume him. Thobari tells her that Miharu isn't the type to hand his life over to it, saying that "if he did die, he'd probably think the worst part was having someone mourn him". She says grimly that the Ash Wolf Men are also after the hijutsu, and she'll personally slice up Miharu if he joins them, a statement whose vehemence startles Thobari.
We see Miharu reading a beginners' book Thobari gave him (the title translates as "Ninja Skills for Dummies" =) and wondering if he should take up Zen meditation or something...he sees that a cliff-swallow fledgling has fallen from its nest on the side of a sheer wall, and is peeping pitifully in the grass below. Raimei comes along just in time to see him lean down to drop the baby back into its nest, lose his grip and hang precariously by one hand from the top of the 20-foot wall. She races up and hauls him to safety, amazed at his calm and his sincere thanks. So he's not a guy with a closed heart, after all...she asks what he's going to do next, and he says that Kumohira-sensei told him to study ninjutsu while he looks for some way to seal the technique. Well then, she has a perfect idea...
We see her and Thobari arguing furiously while Miharu stands in the middle holding them apart (and yawning). Raimei wants to take Miharu to her clan's village and introduce him to Fuuma Kotarou [1]; Thobari says that while he'd be glad to accept help from Fuuma-dono, he doesn't feel at all safe letting Miharu leave the protection of Banten village. When she learns that they've already been attacked by the Kairoushuu, she becomes adamant, insisting that Kotarou is extremely smart and knows everything about ninjutsu (Kouichi smilingly agrees with this =); they'll be much better off hearing what he has to say than leaving their hopes in Thobari-sensei's "not-so-capable hands". Poor Thobari flinches helplessly under this assault and gives his consent.
Thobari has to be forcibly dragged onto the train the next day, confessing his extreme phobia of traveling in vehicles ("Riding in a chunk of metal going at ridiculous speeds is insane! I've never even ridden a bicycle!"). It takes Miharu's best big-green-kitten-eyes routine to overcome his terror (he's surprisingly good at playing the don't-be-mean-to-me bishie when he needs to) and the kids note his diabolical skills as Thobari sits there in raw terror. Kouichi and Raimei chat (and do a little light flirting =); Miharu notes that the new beginners' ninjutsu book he's reading has Fuuma Kotarou's name and photo on the back cover, and Raimei and Kouichi confirm it's the same guy they're off to see, saying he's the author of just about every ninjutsu guide published in Nabari. Raimei says her father is a friend of his and she saw him a few times when she was small. A master of disguise, he's been undercover for years, but the news of the re-emergence of the shinrabanshou caused him to emerge from hiding and command the Fuuma clan to convene at its home village. Raimei assures Miharu he can relax; the Fuuma can definitely guarantee his safety. [Hush, Goemon.]
Fuuma Kotarou's book cover portrait; Thobari and chibi-Miharu in his flashback.
As the kids converse, Thobari has a nightmare placed in the scene that opened episode one--"that sinful memory". They race thru the rain; tiny Miharu, riding on his back, asks fearfully what happened to mom and Grandpa. Asahi and Grandfather, he thinks, I...I... [In the manga, he mentions three names--the other is Miharu's father--and specifically says that he killed them all.] The ninjas close in around them, seeking "the new bearer of the secret technique". You want it too, they tell Thobari--that's why you killed them. --I won't let anyone take Miharu, he thinks, flinching in his sleep.
From Shin-yokohama station they take a bus into the mountains toward the ninja village. Kouichi tells Raimei that Thobari was born in Ireland, and his grandfather brought him to Japan to learn ninjutsu; the kids wonder however he reached Japan if he's so phobic about travel...
Mihari sees nothing but forest when they disembark, and Raimei says with some amusement that it wouldn't be much of a ninja village if just anyone could see it. The Fuuma cast kasumi-no-jutsu--mist spells--to hide it from view, she explains as they bound down the cliff and off into the foggy forest, as protection from both normal humans and other shinobi... But they can all see the village; the mist spells are gone. It can't be, cries Raimei, racing ahead. Miharu hears something--and suddenly bodies in ninja dress fall to the forest floor, blood spattering the leaves. --These people are Fuuma-nin, Raimei says...
Footnote:
[1] It is insanely cool that the Fuuma ninja master's name is Kotarou, since Fuuma Kotarou was a notable figure
of the Sengoku Jidai (Warring States Era). Their stronghold was then based in the Kazama valley of Sagami, and they served under the lords of Odawara--the Hojo clan--from 1495 to 1590.
Dig it: "Fuuma Kotarou was the leader of the Fuuma Ninja Clan, who loyally served the Houjou clan. His best deed was when the Houjou fought the Takeda at Osegawa, where his ninja army had crossed the
river and
infiltrated the Takeda camp, causing huge chaos. After Toyotomi's Campaign of Odawara which ended in the fall of Houjou,
the Fuuma Ninja Clan was reduced to a band of wandering rogues. --There is a famous tale about Kotarou that he was the
one responsible for the death of Hattori Hanzou, that he trapped Hanzou's ships on a channel and then set fire to
the channel with oil. However this tale isn't true as Hanzou died of old age." ==all these years later, and the Fuuma and Hattori are still at swordspoint...=)
--"fuuma", incidentally, means "wind demon"; the "ma" is the same as in "akuma" (evil demon, devil).
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