Hanzo

Hanzo's History

Hanzō Kawakami was a Yakuza enforcer and assassin who was kidnapped by the Super Predators and taken to the Game Preserve Planet in 2010. Together with the others dropped on the planet at that time, he attempted to find a way to escape and return to Earth.

Hanzō was an assassin for the Japanese Yakuza, specifically the Inagawa-kai. He would travel across the country and eliminate anyone his superiors deemed an enemy. In the year 2010, Hanzō was tasked with yet another job, where he swiftly killed a businessman in an apartment complex in Tokyo. He was suddenly captured by the Super Predators and transported to the Game Preserve Planet.

Upon landing on the Game Preserve Planet. He encountered several other survivors - Royce, Cuchillo, Nikolai Fedorov, and Isabelle. Hanzō remained cautious and followed them at a distance. After the group picked up more stragglers, (Walter Stans, Mombasa and Edwin) they would eventually come to realize that they were situated on an alien planet, and were subsequently attacked by deadly quadrupeds known as 'Hell-Hounds', resulting in Cuchillo's death.

Hanzō and the group continued onwards and came across a campsite with a captive Predator bound to a monolith, before they are all suddenly attacked by three Super Predators - Berserker, Tracker and Falconer. Mombasa was killed and the group fled, falling over a cliffside and into a lake, escaping the hunters. Isabelle went on to reveal that she had heard a report 23 years prior of an encounter with one of the creatures in Guatemala.

Hanzō and the others would go on to encounter Ronald Noland, a long-time survivor of the hunt, and he escorted them back to his home - an Abandoned Alien Drill. Noland revealed to the group that the Predators had been kidnapping personnel they deemed worthy to hunt, and then transported them to the Game Preserve Planet to kill for sport and to improve their skills. He also noted a "blood-fued" between the Super Predators and the Jungle Hunters. As Noland left them to their own devices, Hanzō examined an old Katana, and concluded that the Predators have been hunting humans for a long time. Edwin observed that he finally spoke, and questioned why he doesn't speak more often, to which Hanzō replied that he 'talked too much', showing him two missing fingers, the resultant of Yubitsume.

After Noland attempted to kill the group via smoke suffocation, Royce created an explosion to earn the attention of the Predators. Noland was killed by the Tracker Predator, and Nikolai sacrificed himself to kill the latter as the group fled. The group continued to flee after Stans was killed by Berserker.

Buying the group extra time to reach the Predators encampment, Hanzō would stay behind in an open field. With the Katana he had taken from Noland's lair, he challenged the emerging Falconer Predator to a one-on-one duel. Falconer obliged and drew his own elongated wristblade.

Due to his smaller size and agile reflexes, Hanzō was able to strike Falconer several times, but the creature's strength and constitution remained too powerful to be killed from blood loss. Realizing that he couldn't kill it with this method, he lunged at the Predator in an all or nothing charge and sliced its abdomen, fatally wounding it. The Predator dropped to the ground and died shortly afterwards, and Hanzō appeared victorious. However, Hanzō himself had his chest sliced open, dying shortly after noticing his wound.

Following Hanzō's defeat of Falconer, their duel was honored with a totem built by the Super Predators on the spot where they died. This totem was later discovered by Hanzō's brother Eiji, who was himself kidnapped by the Super Predators and dropped on the game preserve. It seems possible the Predator's respect for Hanzō as an adversary may have been influential in their decision to kidnap his brother to serve as prey.