MARUYAMA SHIMAKGAI

Hero or villain? Silver-haired Maruyama Shimakgai says she's the former, while Japanese law enforcement says otherwise. Her body count (of various drug runners, gangsters, gun runners, and white slavers) tends to add weight to the allegations of the police, although Maruyama says she is no different than Demon Hunter Kamu. They both hunt monsters after all, it's just hers look human.

These pictures were taken at an undisclosed location when Maruyama took the time to meet and talk with a reporter for WIRED magazine, as part of that periodical's story on the Japanese metahuman scene.

Aside from her mastery of Shimakagi-ryu Kenjutsu, Maruyama has reflexes far faster than the human norm and an almost supernatural sense of balance and danger. She says she can see in the dark, walk along telephone wires, and leap to the roof of a three story building from a standing start. Interestingly enough, she doesn't wear any form of costume and says her sword is a legendary Hanzo blade.