Real Name:
Judge Inspector Shimura
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Ronin; formerly Judge-Inspector
Affiliations: Judge-Inspector Inaba, Judge-Inspector Itami, Junko, Michiko Sagawa, Asako Takumi
Enemies: Stan Lee, Masumune Taoka, Dragon Lord Ryujin, Oyabun Sagawa, the Shogun’s Executioner
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Ronin
Base of Operations: Hondo City’s Ronin District
First Appearance: Judge Dredd Megazine.
Powers/Abilities: Shimura is the best fighter ever produced by Hondo Justice Department. Only Judge Sado came close to his standard. As a Judge, he had the full arsenal- laser swords, traditional metal sabers, laser shruiken gauntlets, bio-feedback uniform and the Hondo version of Lawmaster bikes and Lawgiver rifles. As a ronin, he relies solely on laser-shruiken gauntlets and a traditional sword.
History: Shimura was a highly qualified Judge-Inspector in the Hondo City Justice Department, at one point viewed as a candidate for the Department’s Council alongside his friend Itami, but he lost the position for approving Cadet Inaba as a Judge- the first female one in Hondo. Alongside Inaba, he stopped the insane cyborg Masumune Taoka from conquering Hondo.
Shortly afterwards, Shimura, Itami and thirteen other Judges were caught in an ambush in the Chiba District. Twelve were killed, Shimura was thought dead and Itami was taken captive by Judge Tetsuo, secretly a Yakuza agent. Shimura was washed ashore on the Nii-Shima island, where the local villagers nursed him back to health. After recovering, he went rogue - “Ronin” – and waged a bloody war on the Sagawa Yukaza Society responsible for Chiba, aiming to get revenge on Sagawa and Tetsuo. He discovered Sagawa had performed a brain-swap operation with Itami, getting him out of his original dying body and into that of an up-and-coming Councillor, allowing him to assassinate the Chief Judge. Shimura, with assistance from Inaba, stopped him.
Shimura continued his revenge by wiping out the sentient Kyohen Network, a cybernetic network in a robot body that ran assassin negotiations and had executed the Chiba ambush. Shimura brought it to him by putting a hit out on himself - he killed the Network but as part of achieving its hit, it killed off everyone in Nii-Shima village.
Shimura would end up several times dragged into situations against his will. The most serious of these was when he ran up against the mutant druglord Ryujin, the self-styled Dragon Lord. Poisoning the ronin with his own blood, Ryujin attempted to blackmail him into retrieving a geneprint from the Psi-able Asako Takumi; if Shimura refused, Ryujin’s blood would kill him. With the help of Asako and child Psi Junko, Shimura was able to kill the Dragon Lord and his entourage whilst saving his own life.
Shimura remained in the Ronin District for years afterwards, dealing with the small crime-groups in it. In 2126, Judge Dredd arrived to hire him to kill Inspector Yoji Sesoku, the Shogun’s Executioner and secretly on the take from the Tsunashima Yakuza Society. He was responsible for killing a Yakuza turned witness that Mega-City One was questioning, as well as the man’s family and the three Meg Judges guarding him. Sesoku and Tsunashima took Judge-Inspector Inaba captive with intent to use her to force Shimura to desist - instead, this allowed him to know when and where to strike. Sesoku was called and Mega-City One channelled money into Ronin District in repayment, but Shimura was now a target again…
Comments: Created by Robbie Morrison and Colin MacNeil.
Profile provided by Charles Ellis.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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