Yuuji Kanbara

Biodata

Background / History

Police Career and the Shimonakano Case

Kanbara had twenty years of police experience when he investigated Miyui Ogura’s murder at Nakano Police Station. Although neither a renowned detective nor an ace officer, he recognized that the detained murderer’s apparent suicide by self-strangulation was impossible. His superiors were prepared to close the case, but he returned to the crime scene to investigate further 2.

At the apartment building, he glimpsed a woman in white through Ogura’s window. Initially attributing the sight to exhaustion, he then considered that someone might have entered the crime scene. Outside Room 201, intense dread and scratching noises prompted him to draw his gun. As the door began opening from within, a monk calling himself Chiriku appeared and forced it shut 2.

Encounter with Miyui Ogura’s Spirit

Kanbara entered Room 201 with Chiriku, unaware that the monk was Uchiha Naruto in disguise. He recognized Ogura’s manifested spirit from the corpse and photographs he had examined. When her shadow connected with his, she forced him to strangle himself. Chiriku’s fireball interrupted the control, allowing Kanbara to escape and warn him about the spirit’s shadow ability 3.

When Chiriku proposed burning the room to destroy the spirit, Kanbara objected on legal grounds and suggested obtaining the landlord’s permission. Unable to persuade or restrain the supernatural monk, he evacuated the residents instead. He then returned through the smoke to check on Chiriku and witnessed him draw in the spreading flames, extinguish the blaze, and disappear 4.

Transfer to Supernatural Investigations

Kanbara faithfully reported the encounter despite expecting disbelief or reprimand. Instead, he was taken into custody the following morning, repeatedly interrogated, and examined by psychiatrists and psychologists. After signing several confidentiality agreements, he was released and transferred directly to headquarters’ Fourth Investigation Division, which handled supernatural incidents. His promotion to Assistant Inspector also brought a salary increase—a significant advancement for a non-career-track officer 33.

Under Uchiha Senmon, Kanbara began learning the department’s classified supernatural terminology and attended a joint meeting with the Public Security Bureau’s Fifth Division. The meeting exposed him to the rivalry between the two investigative divisions and footage of another human superhuman 33 34.

Asked by the Superintendent General to assess Chiriku, Kanbara described him as a good man who had extinguished his flames to protect innocent people. He tentatively supported the possibility of cooperation, though he privately doubted his own certainty. The Superintendent General subsequently withdrew Chiriku’s wanted notice 35.

Appearance

Kanbara is a middle-aged man whose tired appearance becomes especially pronounced after his prolonged questioning at headquarters 2 33.

• Stubbled chin 2 33.
• Faintly gloomy expression, also noticed by Naruto when following him to the apartment 2 3.
• Severely exhausted demeanor after repeated interrogations, which drained his energy and left him looking close to collapse 33.

Personality

Kanbara is conscientious even when his superiors show little interest. He refuses to dismiss an unexplained death merely because the people involved lived on society’s fringes, and he records his supernatural encounter honestly despite anticipating professional consequences 2 33.

His skepticism gives way to acceptance through direct experience rather than immediate belief. Although frightened by Ogura’s spirit and overwhelmed by Chiriku’s powers, he continues performing practical duties: questioning an unauthorized visitor, raising concerns about arson, evacuating residents, and checking on someone still inside a burning building 2 3 4.

He is deferential toward senior officers and uneasy in headquarters’ unfamiliar environment. His promotion does not erase his discomfort with induction training, departmental politics, or speaking before the Superintendent General 33 34 35.

Abilities & Skills

Police Investigation

• Uses twenty years of experience to identify the implausibility of the murderer’s supposed self-strangulation 2.
• Recognizes Ogura’s spirit from previously examined evidence 3.
• Produces a detailed incident report later reviewed alongside interview transcripts and a psychological evaluation 7.

Threat Awareness and Emergency Response

• Experiences strong instinctive warnings of danger; compares the sensation outside Room 201 with an earlier encounter in which an apparently harmless office worker attacked him with a folding knife 2.
• Checks his service weapon’s ammunition and safety before approaching the apartment door 2.
• Identifies and communicates the spirit’s shadow-control mechanism after surviving it 3.
• Evacuates the apartment building’s remaining residents before the fire spreads 4.
• Has no demonstrated supernatural powers and cannot resist Ogura’s control without Chiriku’s intervention 3 4.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Nambu M60 — His service handgun. He draws it against the presence in Room 201 but recognizes that it offers no practical means of stopping Chiriku’s firepower 2 4.
• Police car — Used to travel to the murder scene 2.
• Spare apartment key — Obtained from the landlord before his return to Room 201 2.

Relationships

• Chiriku / Uchiha Naruto — Rescuer whom Kanbara knows only as the supernatural monk Chiriku. Kanbara later questions the decision to list him as wanted 2 3 33.
• Uchiha Senmon — Immediate superior after his transfer; offers him food, explains supernatural classifications, and introduces him to headquarters’ investigative politics 33 34.
• Section Chief Akagi — Head of the Fourth Investigation Division and Senmon’s superior. Welcomes Kanbara but unsettles him by mentioning the death of Senmon’s previous assistant 34.
• Miyui Ogura — Murder victim whose case he investigates; her vengeful spirit nearly kills him through shadow control 2 3.

Notable Quotes

“Master Chiriku! Watch out for the ghost’s shadow. If it catches your shadow, she can control your body!” 3

“S-Superintendent General, Master Chiriku was certainly a good man. After laying the evil spirit to rest, he was worried the flames might harm innocent people and withdrew them of his own accord.” 35

Trivia

• Repeated servings of pork cutlet rice bowls during his detention leave him sick of the dish by his first working day at headquarters 33.
• He struggles with the English term “Unidentified Supernatural Object” and prefers the investigators’ informal labels, “yokai” and “evil spirits” 33.