Inazuma, Kaze and Kaminari (Lightning, Wind and Thunder) – the Masters of Silence

Context

They’re called “the Masters of Silence” – and that alone should seal the deal.

This team appeared in 1992/94, in a few story arcs by Len Kaminksy. They’re also a scenario that practically writes itself, and can be encountered as either friends or foes.

Powers and Abilities

The Masters of Silence are highly trained, powerful warriors. They all are masters of numerous traditional Japanese martial arts schools.

They favour a range of traditional samurai melee weapons (but not the bow, which was the original symbol and preferred weapon of the samurai), including of course the daisho. But also infiltration and stealth skills most martial arts flick enthusiasts would tend to associated with ninja.

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Like a Shadow

Their one known superhuman power is the ability to cloud the mind of men and disappear. Even highly observant people cannot perceive them until they choose to reveal their presence. When they appear they can do so in a cloud of blue smoke, which is likely performed by a small gadget in their armour.

However, the most sophisticated surveillance systems can sometimes spot them. And I do mean the very best. While some cameras at a critical Stark Enterprises plant could spot them, even the systems at Justin Hammer’s famous floating villa could not see the Masters of Silence.

Their psychic invisibility talent even allows them to fight invisibly. But they consider this to be dishonourable against a worthy foe. Therefore, the Masters will become visible and issue a challenge before taking on a such an opponent.

The ageing of the Masters might be slowed down as they are bonded with the spirits. Member Daichi Sakamoto was clearly an aged man. On the other hand, having older persons still perform at peak physical efficiency is common in both comic books and various genres of demon-hunting fiction throughout Asian countries. So it might mean little.

Ordnance

The Masters are outfitted armour that :

• Is highly resilient  They could basically ignore repulsor fire from Iron Man.
• Includes some sort of image inducer. It allowed them to appear as if they were wearing conservative business suits. Howbeit, Iron Man’s sensor could still detect they were actually very heavily armed and armoured).
• Have strengthened striking surfaces.

The Masters wield weapons charged with some kind of energy that allow them to basically slice through a tank. The provenance of this gear is unrevealed. It could be Earth technology, it could be enchantments, it could be alien technology, or it could be something else entirely.

The story conveys the impression that this is technology. Perhaps this arsenal was given to them by a Japanese super-genius as payment.

It is likely that in the past, the Masters used masterwork weapons and armour, possibly magically enhanced.

The Masters of Silence were accused by a traditionalist Chinese mage of using ’motorbikes and electronics’. While it may just have been a turn of phrase on the mage’s part (no bikes were seen), they have to move around in some fashion. And motorbikes would fit their general “kewl 1990s hard-edged” vibe.

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Brothers in arms

Whenever a Master is fatally wounded, the corresponding spirit sent by the storm kami bonds with a new, worthwhile volunteer. It must be a person of great courage and significant fighting skill or talent. They must accept to dedicate themselves to the path of vengeance for the rest of their life.

Traditionally this role has been held by men. It is possible, but not confirmed, that McCall is the first Mistress of Silence.

The fatally wounded Master will be unable to die until a successor volunteers. The storm spirit is shackled to his flesh. It thus keeps the dying Master going and suffering until it can transfer away and expire in peace.

Though I don’t think it is worthwhile to write it up in DC Heroes RPG terms, this is a complicated Enchantment and Invulnerability. The person instantly gains at least the Attributes, Skills, Advantages, Drawbacks, etc. of a typical Master. The case of McCall also demonstrated that the newly ordained Master becomes fully fluent in Japanese if that was not the case before.

The knowledge or personality of the previous Master is not transferred, however. The new Master has to be initiated in the history and secrets by the oldest remaining Master. And McCall did not gain any special insight about the complexities of Japanese society despite her instant fluency in the language.

Being possessed by a storm kami’s samurai spirit creates an instant bond of understanding between all Masters. McCall described it as stronger than that of family or lovers. The Masters thus always operate as a trio.

History

The tradition of the Masters of Silence dates back at least two centuries. That is when a shinma, a powerful demon from the Japanese world of evil gods, came to Japan. Called Kao-Goto Suru (the Face Thief), the evil shapechanging god took great pleasure in tricking men into sealing their doom.

Soon, the shinma killed the lord Tezuka-sama and stole his face? It could thus take the shape of the great daimyo, reputed for his wisdom and honour. The Thief led Tezuka’s armies into a futile and shameful war against the Emperor. At the end of the campaign, only three of Tezuka’s faithful samurai remained.

Discovering that a demon had taken the place of their lord, these three fighters swore vengeance. Yet they knew that no man could hope to kill an evil god. Thus they prayed to the Three Storms, requesting divine assistance for their quest. Their pleas were answered, and fierce spirits were bound to the warriors. This gave them heightened skill and the power of invisibility.

In return, the warriors pledged that they would follow the cherished path of the kami who had blessed them — the path of vengeance — even beyond death. The three avenging samurai presumably then defeated Kao-Soto Suru.

Enjoy the silence

The Masters of Silence became well-known in Japanese folk legends and… certain social circles. Through certain yakuza elders, they could be petitioned by a wronged person.

After studying the issue, the Masters would determine (using whatever intelligence techniques and yakuza contacts they could muster) whether death was deserved. If so, the burden of vengeance would become theirs.

Apparently, the wronged person can never again call upon the wrath of the Masters of Silence. It also seems that it is customary to offer gifts to the Masters (and likely to the yakuza representatives) once the case has been solved. This tradition endured into the modern day.

Face off

The Masters of Silence would hunt down and defeat the Face Thief whenever the demon returned. They sought to prevent it from leading yet more mortals to their doom.

At one point, the Face Thief slew one Yuki Nakagawa, a loved one of Daichi Sakamoto – who was, or later became, the master of Silence named Kaze.

The last clash before modern times took place “decades ago”. This may have been the conflict during which Ms. Nakagawa was killed. At its conclusion, the Masters managed to imprison the shinma in a 16^th porcelain mask. This ornament presumably a magical demon-hunting artefact.

It is possible that Sakamoto-san had mystical skills allowing this for using the mask thus. Since he later demonstrated some paranormal skills.

Takahishi-san

In their first documented appearance, the Masters of Silence were summoned by Rei Takahishi. Mr. Takahishi was the CEO of energy company Akane Fusion Developments. A disaster caused by defective boron safety valves had resulted in the death of 59 employees. This had meant great shame and financial loss for Takahishi-san, who had personally recruited many of the victims.

The Akane staff determined that the substandard valves had been sourced from Stark Enterprises. Through underworld acquaintances, Takahishi-san requested vengeance against Tony Stark. The Masters of Silence accepted.

Soon, the Masters located Tony Stark, and invisibly broke in.  But the extremely sophisticated security systems spotted them. They thus were confronted by Iron Man before they could reach Stark.

At this point, Stark was suffering from a crippling medical condition and was practically paralysed. Thus, the armour was a remote-controlled unit. Using Team teamwork, the Masters of Silence dispatched the armour.

War machines

Despite the potential damage to his nervous system, Stark then switched an entirely new suit of Iron Man armour – the War Machine suit.

Stark retreated to a danger room with advanced holographic facilities. He engaged the Masters there. Even with the War Machine suit, the confrontation might not have ended well for him. But the spectacular and disconcerting illusions (especially the “War of the World tripods invasion” sequence, unfamiliar to the Japanese warriors) turned the tide.

James Rhodes then solved the situation. He obtained information from S.H.I.E.L.D. showing that the boron valves were cheap Hammer Industries falsely sold through Stane International. The Masters stopped fighting, left to verify the new information, then returned to express their apologies and great shame. Stark offered an alliance.

Despite support from Hydra and the Hand, Hammer’s defences proved negligible against Iron Man and the Masters of Silence. Stark dictated his terms to Hammer, including a huge zero-interest loan to Akane Fusion to rebuild the company after the disaster. The deal was to be enforced by the Masters of Silence if anything went wrong.

McCall-san

The Masters of Silence next appeared when an American captain of industry, Creighton McCall, was possessed by the Face Thief. While meditating, Kaze saw that the evil god had returned. But he did not know much about whose face had been taken. And their usual yakuza contacts were not optimal to investigate American old money.

Wanting to strike ASAP, the Masters asked Tony Stark’s help in identifying which businessman had been killed and replaced by the evil god. Explaining how the face thief usually operated, they helped Stark scan private databases for matching patterns of business practices, surfacing Creighton McCall.

McCall was a familiar name for Stark. He and Howard Stark had been vicious business rivals and bitter personal enemies. McCall’s daughter Meredith and Tony Stark even had a Romeo and Juliet moment while they were 17. But their fathers forcibly separated them. Meredith was sent to finish her studies in Europe.

(This appearance of Meredith McCall was definitely a blast from the past – I don’t think we had seen her since… Iron Man vol. 1 #28 in the summer of 1970.)

Stark had briefly seen Meredith again years later, during a plot of the Controller at the Pinewood sanatorium. Though Iron Man saved her from the Controller, Stark also discovered she was now an employee at Pinewood – and a married woman.

Thief of lives

Meredith’s beloved husband Richard Stevenson was killed by Kao-Soto Suru. Her distress was compounded by the outrageously heartless of her “father”, now secretly replaced by the Face Thief. At the wake, Stark was both reunited by the distraught Meredith and able to confirm that “Creighton McCall” was not human.

The next night, Stark and the Masters launched a two-pronged assault on the McCall mansion. A remote-controlled Iron Man suit took on the entrance while the Masters of Silence stealthily took out the rest of the security. At the same time, the Face Thief was holding Meredith in his study, threatening to kill her.

McCall clawed at him with her long nails. This ruined his face and thus his mystical disguise as Creighton McCall, revealing its shinma form. The four armoured fighters then engaged the evil god, after confirming to Meredith that the Face Thief was not her father.

Consumed by rage and a desire for vengeance,McCall grabbed weapons from the unconscious security guards. By the time she joined the fray Kaze, who had engaged the Face Thief ahead of the others, had been fatally wounded by the evil god. Supported by McCall’s gunfire, the surviving Masters and Iron Man destroyed the evil god.

Ms. McCall was then chosen by the spirits to become the new Kaze.

Tsui Wu-san

The Masters of Silence continued their international operations. In Hong Kong they heard one Tsui Wu. He was a representative of dozens of Chinese peasants who had had their children disappear while attempting to clandestinely emigrate to the US.

While Wu was Chinese, the daughter he had lost to the clandestine emigration railroad had a Japanese first name. It is possible his wife and the mother of his child was a Japanese woman with some yakuza contacts. Thus explaining why the Masters of Silence went abroad to consider a plea.

Investigating in the US, the Masters ran into the Ghost Rider. They mistakenly assumed he was a demon guardian and started carving him up with their blades. But they stopped when the indestructible Rider mentioned that he was the Spirit of Vengeance. They soon identified each others as fellow travellers and allies.

The immigration ring was protected by Golden Fist triad ninja, and run by Chinese necromancer Tsin Hark. He was using it to collect gallons and gallons of innocent blood for his magics, and turned the leftover corpses into gynosii – Chinese-style ghouls.

These ghouls bought enough time for Tsin Hark to complete his Ritual with the blood, summoning an endless army of darkness. Hark hoped that it would destroy all the technology in the world and return it to tradition. The Ghost Rider defeated Tsin Hark while the Masters were fighting his army, casting him into a netherworld where his undead servants followed him.

Shamed Japanese parents

The Masters of Silence were later briefly seen again back in Japan. They were hired by the parents of a gang of heavily-armed motorcycle hooligans. The Masters killed the hooligans, restoring the familial honour.

Description

See illustration.

Personality

Inazuma is headstrong, bold, decisive, full of fire. He’s now the leader and spokesman of the Masters. As such, he affects a formal, extremely serious tone and mode of speech, and will often be the sole Master speaking.

Kaminari is obsessed with physical mastery. He works out almost constantly. His rigourous self-discipline may be his way to wrestle with inner demons of his own. He never speaks, and may in fact be mute.

The Masters are warriors. Their normal approach is to state their mission and execute the wrongdoer (and possibly his allies). However they are open to alternative modes of vengeance mediated by an honourable third party. Such as a huge repayment to the wronged persons.

Meredith

Meredith McCall was raised in a world of macho captains of industry and great male engineers. They never paid attention to her or genuinely saw any woman as a full person. Trapped therein, she tried several feminine roles — upper-class suburban wife, successful professional, dutiful daughter — without ever finding her true self.

The death of her father and husband pushed her over the edge. She angrily claimed her freedom and chose the path of the warrior and agent of vengeance.

McCall discovered that her fellow Masters, despite being traditional Japanese warriors, were oddly devoid of misogyny. They fully considered her an equal – perhaps because of the soul bond they share.

Still, she was aware she did not understand the Japanese culture and the full heritage of the Masters of Silence. She thus did her best to be a quiet and respectful student of Inazuma, who has been turned into the eldest of the three with the death of the previous Kaze, his teacher.

Quotes

“Your situation is known to us, Rei Takahashi. We have examined your plea. We find this gaijin Anthony Stark without honour and deserving of death. We relieve you of the burden of vengeance. Do not seek us a second time.”

“Be warned, tin man – to oppose us is suicide.”

“If this is the truth… then we have nearly murdered an innocent man, and thereby broken our most sacred oath. We respectfully request the opportunity to verify this information. If it is true, then we have wronged you and your employer. Rest assured, if we have been deceived, the Masters of Silence will not rest until those responsible have been punished.”

“Pardon our rudeness. We have travelled a great distance, with considerable haste. We respectfully implore you to allows us to meet with your employer.”

“The Masters of Silence are more than the hired killers you believe us to be. We are instruments of vengeance, with a tradition stretching back generations.”

“I share your concern, my friend. But this is neither the place nor the time to confront our enemy. There are too many innocents there.”

“We [only] act in service to others. We [now] answer the pleas of the families to whom you have brought dishonour by your hooliganism. We come to avenge the unendurable shame your thievery and violence have brought to their houses. We were hired… by your parents.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel comics (chiefly Iron Man stories).

Helper(s): Loki, Expletive Deleted.