Kamihate/Synopsis

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History

An unknown number of years before the present day, Kamihate was sent on a mission alongside Taro Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Hyo in some foreign, war-torn city. As Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Hyo found themselves in a pinch, surrounded by at least 10 enemy snipers aiming to kill them, they watched on as Kamihate, hidden someplace away, shot down all opposition for them in rapid succession, sealing their victory.

Kamihate's hit nine years ago being interrupted by Sakamoto.

Nine years ago, Kamihate was on a mission to assassinate a foreign child murderer, the painter John Paichy, whom he was particularly eager to gun down as the last kill needed for his Guinness World Record — to become the world's best sniper. Preparing to take the shot from eight kilometers away while his target was busy drawing a painting inside his country residence, Kamihate was surprised to see a rookie Sakamoto suddenly arriving at the scene, sneaking up behind the target and aiming to shoot, which Kamihate tried to preempt by firing his rifle first. Thinking he succeeded, Kamihate was awarded the kill and recognized by the Guinness Book for his record in long-distance sniping, and in the following year become the first Japanese person ever included among the KILL TIME's list of the world's most influential assassins. However, a year before the present day, Kamihate found out that the painting drawn by Paichy when he was shot was to be shown in the Assassin Exhibit of the Century, held in France. Wanting to see what he considered an artifact commemorating his kill, Kamihate traveled in order to see the painting in person, despite not having been outside in three years. Once at the exhibit however, to his shock, Kamihate realized that the killshot had been Sakamoto's all along. The painting was blood-splattered, which could have only been caused by Sakamoto's bullet given the shooting angle. Now knowing that Sakamoto had been faster and the kill that earned Kamihate his acclaim was, in truth, not his own, the sniper swore on his assassin's pride that he would never let Sakamoto see the painting and find out.

Plot

Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc

After having returned to Japan not long ago, Kamihate joined his fellow Order members Shishiba, Osaragi, and Nagumo in apprehending Heisuke Mashimo, who had borne witness to the recent killing of Order member Hyo in Bangkok, Thailand at the hands of a member of Slur's Group. While Kamihate kept at a distance, the other Order members snatched Heisuke into a car to question him about Hyo's killer. When Heisuke made a hurried escape attempt on the back seat, Kamihate was flustered enough to immediately shoot at the captive, missing only due to Nagumo pushing Heisuke's head down. As the conversation in the car proceeded, Kamihate, wanting to say something, phoned Shishiba and had him hold up a hiragana chart on a paper, allowing Kamihate to shoot the characters that spelled out "Osaragi cute".

Kamihate aiming for Sakamoto's Store from downtown.

Later, Kamihate — anticipating Sakamoto's aim to infiltrate the upcoming Assassin Exhibition of the Century at the Okutabi New National Museum of Art — sought to prevent the retired assassin from doing so. Predicting Sakamoto's plan to submit his Colt Government pistol to be able to enter as an exhibitor, Kamihate submitted a fake gun posed as the real one, under the alias "The end". Thereafter, when Sakamoto tried buying a ticket for the exhibition on a black-market auction website, Kamihate used the aforementioned alias to outbid Sakamoto's one million yen. Subsequently, the two assassins had a bidding war trying to rapidly bid over the other, ending with Sakamoto offering 500 million yen. Kamihate, revealed to be located in some high-rise building downtown, then opted to simply snipe the laptop that Sakamoto was using inside his shop, before complaining about Sakamoto forcing him to spend his savings.

Heisuke shoots Kamihate.

Examining the leftover bullet that had entered his store, Sakamoto immediately identified the shooter as Kamihate. The latter aimed a second shot at Shin Asakura, who avoided being hit thanks to Sakamoto pushing his head down. Kamihate's third snipe was yet another miss, due to Sakamoto throwing his aim off by holding up a picture of Haruko Wataru, a female weather girl of the morning news. Sakamoto revealed Kamihate's status as a girl-crazy shut-in, causing the lip-reading Kamihate to retort that, for a sniper like him to whom the weather matters, adoring weather women only made sense. Sakamoto's group then made for the shop's garage through a secret passage, quickly taking to the streets in Sakamoto's car and speculating on Kamihate's motives for targeting them, with Sakamoto deciding on beating Kamihate and snatching his ticket for the exhibition. Kamihate responded by shooting a civilian's car tire in front of Sakamoto's group, causing the former's vehicle to pull sideways. Quick to react, Sakamoto grabbed hold of a streetside post to stop their own car and prevent a collision. Kamihate promptly took this chance to shoot Sakamoto's arm outside his car window. Yet another snipe attempt followed, deflected by Sakamoto using said signpost like a bat. With his sight still set on Sakamoto, Kamihate's follow-up shot was thwarted by Heisuke, who had arrived at Sakamoto's location and countered with a snipe of his own, hitting the window at Kamihate's hiding spot and startling the latter.

Heisuke fires a ricocheting bullet at Kamihate.

Intent on fighting Kamihate alone to recover his recently lost confidence as a sniper, Heisuke (outfitted with a bulletproof vest from Sakamoto) went off to find the opposing sniper, with Sakamoto and company staying close by. Kamihate, in the meantime, had moved to another building. Assuming that his targets were trying to disturb him by splitting up, Kamihate remarked that such teamplay was unbecoming of Sakamoto. The Order member then observed as one of his fired bullets was picked up by Heisuke, who threw it up to shoot out of the air. Taking this as an invitation to battle, Kamihate declared that he was going to kill Heisuke first and aimed for his head. Heisuke, however, predicted that Kamihate would go for a headshot, jumping up to instead take the bullet with his protected abdomen, at the same time spotting Kamihate's location. Changing places yet again to a window somewhere else (in turn spotted by Heisuke's bird Piisuke), Kamihate subsequently read Heisuke's lips as the latter proudly declared having seen right through Kamihate, causing the latter to embarrassedly insist that his shot had just been for practice. Thereafter, the Order member sniped the jib of a crane on some roof near Heisuke, causing its rope to fall complete with the hook. Kamihate's second shot was made to send a street sign flying at just the right angle to have its pole end pin the falling crane rope into a nearby house wall. This made the hook swing around to strike Heisuke, sending him flying. Heisuke, undeterred, fired a twice-ricocheting bullet at the window that Kamihate was now at but missed, recognizing that his aim was still off. Angrily saying that Heisuke was a show-off and not the only one able to change a bullet's trajectory, Kamihate shot down a civilian motorcycle, causing its wheel to fly off, spinning in the air, and then fired a bullet at its rim so perfectly, the spin altered its course to go into the side street where Heisuke was, squarely hitting him (but still only his vest). Upset, Kamihate declared that anyone who hurt his pride would pay.

Heisuke shoots the same path as Kamihate, finally landing a hit.

Thereafter, Kamihate changed locations again to the top of some other building, which Shin tracked with his mind reading. After Shin had inquired of Sakamoto why Kamihate might be targeting him, which Sakamoto had no clue about, Shin then conveniently received Kamihate's thoughts of him narrating what happened 9 years ago. On a certain mission to kill a foreign painter, Kamihate tried to go for the very kill that would earn him his sniping world record and thus recognition as the world's best sniper. When Sakamoto unexpectedly arrived at the target's scene, also aiming for the same kill, both assassins took the shot. Kamihate assumed that he had been faster and only found out eight years later, during the Assassin Exhibit of the Century in France, that Sakamoto's bullet had outsped his (since the aforesaid painter had been shot mid-painting and his artwork was exhibited in a blood-splattered state, Kamihate deducing that Sakamoto was responsible based on the shooting angle). Realizing that the kill that had earned him his record was actually Sakamoto's, Kamihate swore at that moment that he would never let Sakamoto see the painting, hence his current efforts to keep Sakamoto away from Japan's exhibit. Meanwhile, back in the present, Kamihate's duel with Heisuke continued. Kamihate grazed the wheel of a car with a bullet to make it swerve off-course and nearly hit Heisuke. Another snipe from Kamihate followed, barely missing the bystanders in-between him and Heisuke, yet still hitting the latter. Kamihate asserted that he and Heisuke were on different levels as snipers since the latter's trust in others made him weak, and then attempted to take the finishing shot. Via Kamihate's bullet, perfectly on course to hit Heisuke's rifle scope, Heisuke discerned a pathway that he could absolutely trust would lead back to Kamihate. As Heisuke's scope was thus struck with inch-perfect precision, Heisuke responded in kind by taking the same trajectory with his own bullet, which in turn hit Kamihate's scope back.

Kamihate and Heisuke have a bullet exchange while trains run between them.

An increasingly frustrated Kamihate went on to respond with two successive shots, one bullet hitting a water hydrant to make water gush out and form a puddle below Heisuke's feet while the second one snapped an overhead power line, causing its cables to fall at Heisuke. The latter was saved by Piisuke flying into and knocking him away before he could be electrocuted. Upon seeing Heisuke (on accident) make a rebounding shot like Kamihate had before, Kamihate noted how ricocheting bullets required convenient walls and perfect angles, making such trick shots ill-suited for sharpshooting — which should be as swift and efficient as pizza delivery. While saying as much, Kamihate began moving again, jumping between rooftops. While in midair facing an office tower, the Order member fired a bullet into a window to go straight through and out the other side of the building, straight at Heisuke. The latter responded immediately, swiping his rifle to make a countershot that instead curved around the same building. Both snipers' bullets successfully struck the other person, and they fell down next to each side of a railway crossing. Just then, two train ran between them, but that did not deter the two assassins from continuing their gun battle, each firing a bullet right through the train windows over the passengers' heads, with Kamihate's bullet striking Heisuke and hitting him where a bullet had before, thus piercing his vest. Once the train had passed, Heisuke saw Kamihate had vanished, the latter revealing himself to be standing behind Heisuke as he lay on the ground. Kamihate admitted that Heisuke's rebounding shot had freaked him out a little but noted that Heisuke, too concentrated on the shooting itself, was not vigilant enough about his surroundings. Heisuke smiled, pretending to be about to fire yet another rebounding bullet, before turning around instead to try to land a surprise shot up close. Kamihate was able to dodge, and as the hooded cape he was wearing fluttered, Heisuke caught a glimpse of Kamihate's face.

Kamihate pretends to want to shoot himself over his hurt pride.

Upset about his face reveal, Kamihate dramatically exclaimed how it was all over: his streak of letting no one see his face as the ultimate, solitary sniper was broken. Pretending to be about to shoot himself, Kamihate failed to get a reaction out of Heisuke, who saw fit not to interfere. Upon telling Heisuke to take responsibility for hurting his pride and cheer him up, Heisuke agreed and, having misunderstood Kamihate, remarked that he was grateful for Kamihate battling him, assuming that he had wanted to help Heisuke overcome his complex. Kamihate played along, confirming that wrong assumption along with Heisuke's thinking that Kamihate had missed shots on purpose. Just as Sakamoto and Shin arrived at the scene, Heisuke happily expressed a desire for him and Kamihate to become friends, which Kamihate was about to reject initially (believing himself as an Order member to be above that). He then reconsidered allowing a friendship in earnest, as no longer being alone might allow him to reach yet greater heights as a sniper. Sakamoto subsequently greeted Kamihate, who first felt relieved about seeing a familiar face but was then irked to hear Sakamoto state that he cared nothing for Kamihate's world record, wondering how Sakamoto knew of his dilemma anyway. When Heisuke declined coming with Kamihate but offered to hang out soon, a sullen Kamihate left in a cab, but not before leaving Sakamoto and co. with a phone that held tickets to the exhibition.