Yu Nanba (1978-) was a Japanese nurse who, in 2019, disguised himself as a homeless man to investigate the Geomijul's kidnapping of his brother Shoichi Nanba in Yokohama. Along the way, he befriended Ichiban Kasuga, learned that his brother was alive and well, and helped Kasuga in his battle against Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki, the Omi Alliance, and Bleach Japan, despite having briefly collaborated with Bleach Japan against the Geomijul.
Biography[]
Yu Nanba was born in 1978, and he was inspired to become a nurse after reading about the humanitarian work of Florence Nightingale. Nanba ultimately lost his license after he covered for a former colleague who sold medicine on the black market. In 2018, his brother, investigative journalist Shoichi Nanba, contacted him and warned him that the Korean Geomijul gang was watching him as he investigated money counterfeiting in Yokohama, and Shoichi went missing shortly after. Nanba traveled to Isezakicho, disguised as a homeless man, with the objective of keeping tabs on the Geomijul and waiting for an opportunity to get close to them.
That opportunity came a year later when Nanba patched up the gunshot wound of the ex-yakuza Ichiban Kasuga, who had been dumped in his homeless camp by the Arakawa-gumi. When Kasuga displayed to Nanba a counterfeit bill that had been placed in his pocket, Nanba agreed to follow him as he left the camp to find work, becoming his first friend in Yokohama. Nanba also befriended ex-policeman Koichi Adachi and hostess Saeko Mukoda, who joined in Kasuga's quest to investigate the Sunlight Castle healthcare scam, the death of their employer Isao Nonomiya, the Yokohama Liumang's role in the murder, Akira Mabuchi's planned takeover of Yokohama, and the Geomijul's intelligence network. During the group's visit to the Geomijul headquarters, the gang's leader Seonhee recognized Nanba and ordered her guards to take him away, refusing to tell him of his brother's fate even as he begged for any news about him. Kasuga fought against the Koreans and saved Nanba's life, but, having come face-to-face with the Geomijul counterfeiters, Nanba fled to the headquarters of the Bleach Japan anti-corruption movement and, in exchange for protection against the Ijin Three, offered up the location of the Geomijul base. Nanba aided Hajime Ogasawara, Sota Kume, Mabuchi, and Reiji Ishioda in their assault on the Geomijul, only for Kasuga and his friends to help fight off the intruders as the Geomijul erased all evidence of their surveillance and counterfeiting rackets. Nanba was devastated by his failure to help his brother's investigation, but Kasuga invited him to return to his party of friends, and Nanba ultimately accepted. Seonhee and Yeonsu Kim also revealed that they had kept Shoichi alive, and that he was engaged to his Geomijul chaperone, causing Nanba to forgive the Geomijul and rejoin Kasuga as he repelled Mabuchi and the Omi Alliance's invasion.
Afterwards, Nanba followed Kasuga as he helped the Omi and Tojo chairmen oversee the "Great Dissolution" of both the Tojo-kai and Omi Alliance, investigated the murder of Masumi Arakawa, defeated the three chairmen of the Tokyo Omi Alliance, and confronted Tokyo governor and Omi puppet-master Ryo Aoki at Kabukicho's Millennium Tower. After Aoki's death and the destruction of the Tokyo Omi, Kasuga agreed to remain in Yokohama with his friends, who were concerned that he might join Daigo Dojima and Masaru Watase's new security company. The friend group would go on to join Kasuga in finding his mother in Hawaii in 2023 and battling both the Palekana cult and Masataka Ebina's Seiryu-kai.