Kihei Hanawa (died 2023) was a Japanese secret agent who served as a manager for the Daidoji Faction. He served as Kazuma Kiryu's handler during his service to the faction as Agent "Joryu", and the two of them helped oversee the joint dissolution of the Omi Alliance and the Tojo-kai.
Biography[]
Hanawa and Kiryu
Kihei Hanawa's early life is unknown; it has been speculated that the Omi Alliance yakuza Yu Morinaga, reported dead by the police in 2012, was recruited into the Daidoji Faction and given plastic surgery to give him a new life as a Daidoji agent. Hanawa would later reveal to Kazuma Kiryu that they had crossed paths in Fukuoka that year while Kiryu was going by "Taichi Suzuki," while hinting that both of them had started new lives.
Hanawa became a Daidoji agent in 2018 after being recruited by the Head Priest, and he served as Kiryu's handler during his time in the Daidoji, assigning him jobs that would not conflict with his philosophies about killing or harming innocent or defenseless people. Those missions varied from guarding over Daidoji officer Yutaka Ogikubo's granddaughter to helping escort a gold shipment through Yokohama to fund an Asian revolutionary group.
Joryu rescuing Hanawa
In 2019, while working with Kiryu to oversee the gold shipment, he was ambushed by masked men from the Watase-gumi and nearly kidnapped, although Kiryu managed to save him. Hanawa suggested that the Seiryu-kai may have been responsible, leading to the two men investigating their office in Yokohama. They instead captured Yuki Tsuruno, the Watase-gumi's acting patriarch, who had arranged the attack on the docks to lure out Kiryu and confirm that he was still alive after faking his death in 2016. Shortly after, Kosei Shishido rammed Hanawa's car with a truck, rescued Tsuruno, and kidnapped Hanawa, who was taken to Namiki No. 3 and interrogated by the Watase Family about the Daidoji's operations and their role in covering up Kiryu's death. Kiryu was forced by Hanawa to get in touch with the information broker Akame in Dotonbori, Osaka and prove himself in the coliseum at "the Castle" before Shishido would reveal where Hanawa was being held.
Hanawa preparing to execute Joryu
Kiryu proceeded to rescue Hanawa from Namiki No. 3 in Osaka, and the Daidoji took Tsuruno captive and brought him to their Osaka safehouse. There, the Daidoji officer Shunin ("Boss") ordered Kiryu and Hanawa to kill Tsuruno, Shishido, and all of Hanawa's kidnappers (around 25 men) to cover up Kiryu's unmasked identity, but Kiryu refused, instead helping Tsuruno to escape before Hanawa forced Kiryu to surrender, lest he send men to destroy the Morning Glory Orphanage and harm his adoptive children. Three days later, the Boss decided to test Hanawa by ordering him to execute Kiryu, but Hanawa could not bring himself to kill the man who had twice saved him. The Boss commended Hanawa for forging a strong bond with Kiryu, and he revealed that Tsuruno had been able to pay the Daidoji to allow the Watase Family to borrow Kiryu's aid with ensuring that the "Great Dissolution" of the Omi and Tojo-kai could go through.
Hanawa arriving at the Cabaret Grand
From then on, Hanawa and the Daidoji were sidelined by the Watase-gumi, although Hanawa continued to keep tabs on Kiryu's activities. After Kiryu and the Watase-gumi made a showy display of debauchery around Dotonbori to lure out their enemy Homare Nishitani III, and a fight broke out at the Cabaret Grand that devastated the venue, Hanawa stepped in to pay for the damages so that Kiryu's identity could once again be kept secret. Hanawa warned Kiryu about the consequences of getting the name "Joryu" to be famous around Osaka, but Kiryu was soon able to help the Watase-gumi seemingly eliminate Nishitani.
Hanawa driving Kiryu, Watase, and Tsuruno
With Nishitani supposedly dead, Hanawa advised Kiryu to spend the next month recovering at the Daidoji Temple before the Great Dissolution would occur. When the time came, Hanawa suspected that there would be trouble, so he and Akame drove to the construction site where Masaru Watase was supposed to meet up with Kiryu and Tsuruno on being released from prison. There, he witnessed Watase, Tsuruno, and Kiryu battling both Shishido and Nishitani's forces, who mutinied against their chairman on discovering his dissolution plans. While Kiryu bested Shishido, Hanawa struck Nishitani with his car and was able to have him kidnapped and forced into Daidoji servitude. Hanawa then drove Watase, Tsuruno, and Kiryu to the dissolution ceremony, after which he and Akame set out to bring Watase a new change of clothing, anticipating that things would get bloody when the Omi officers inevitably rebelled. Sure enough, they arrived in time to witness Shishido's defeat by Kiryu, and Agent Yoshimura kidnapped Shishido and forced him into Daidoji servitude while Hanawa and Akame gave Kiryu, Tsuruno, Watase, Daigo Dojima, Taiga Saejima, and Goro Majima a ride out of Omi headquarters. Back at base, Hanawa gave Kiryu a newly-forged identification as "Taichi Suzuki," revealing that they had crossed paths while Kiryu used that alias back in Fukuoka, and he saw him off as he headed on his vacation to Hawaii, although he half-heartedly attempted to remind him that they were (officially) not to be considered friends.
In 2023, Hanawa continued to manage Kiryu when the faction dispatched him to rescue Akane Kishida from the Palekana cult on Hawaii. He worked with three subordinate agents, and they provided Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga with shelter at a Daidoji safehouse after Kiryu's hotel was compromised. Not long after, however, Barracudas gang leader Dwight Mendez tracked down Kiryu, Kasuga, and Hanawa to the Daidoji safehouse in Honolulu, and Hanawa was mortally wounded with a shot to the abdomen while trying to fend off Mendez's henchmen. In his last report, he convinced the Daidoji to ally with Kasuga's party later in Japan.