Catwoman Annual #2

Issue Details

Synopsis

SHOSEN Eiko Hasigawa's destiny was to inherit the biggest Yakuza family in Gotham City, until the day she first met Catwoman. She had been tasked with overseeing a deal at the docks, but it was thwarted by the Catwoman, and when she returned home to face her father. Her father was a master strategist - a fan and expert at the game of Go. She had never been able to best him, and he hadn't lost a game in thirty years.   By the time she reached adulthood, Eiko had shifted things in her favor by making losing her strategy. Her father had been playing her against her cousin Ken, but Ken had fallen out of favor. When he learned with disappointment of Catwoman's interference, he tasked Eiko with taking care of it. Despite the intention to make them fight for his legacy, Eiko enlisted Ken in helping her.   Hoping to see her excel, Eiko's father had given her a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War - and she had learned from it, but not nearly as much as she had learned from her mother's gift of The Pillow Book. From that book, she learned that writing things down is an act of self-explanation. Making lists betrays how you think. So, her list of methods for hunting Catwoman was a dead giveaway about both of them.   With Ken, she tracked the Catwoman, and hoped to just follow her home when her plan was altered suddenly by Catwoman's altercation with Batman. Their fight was interrupted by the sound of a crash, and both of them leapt down in the street to deal with a riot by the Sons of Forster Lane gang, though Catwoman impatiently abandoned it - giving Eiko the chance to follow on the rooftops, much to Ken's annoyance. She followed her to her home, and saw Catwoman without her mask, but was glad enough to leave it at that for the time being.   She reported to her father that she had seen the Catwoman, and intended to find her out soon. Her father responded, though, that for her safety's sake, she should have made Ken follow Catwoman instead. In the meantime, he had Ken waiting in a car downstairs to learn whether Eiko would decide to see him punished for failing to follow her or not. Her power as a leader would be determined by that decision. Annoyed, Eiko decided that she would continue her search alone. But she never saw Catwoman again.   But Selina Kyle became very prominent thereafter. Rex Calabrese had seemingly pulled her out of thin air as his long-lost heir, and she took action before anyone could challenge her authority. She gave up doing her own dirty work soon after, using her cousin Antonia for that, and playing the diplomat herself. Eiko had watched Selina rise to power by uniting the crime families, wondering what her backup plan could be. It was clear, though, that Catwoman was no more, and Selina Kyle of the Calabreses had replaced her - and she was going to be even more of a nuisance to the Hasigawas in this form. Still, Eiko was obsessed with finding out why Catwoman had had to go away.   After Selina approached Eiko's father, he insisted that she help to increase the Hasigawas' territory while the Calabreses were relying on them too much to strike back. He required Eiko to handle the takeover because she carried the family name, and if she could not lead she would at least follow his orders. In the mean time, he ordered her to get her Yakuza tattoo completed, which had been left unfinished for five years.   One of the territories she was required to take back belonged to the Sons of Forster Lane, a member of whom she had been warned away on the last day she'd seen Catwoman. She hoped to return the favour. With Catwoman in retirement, the position was open for her to take over. After creating her own costume, she went out into the neighborhood and waited until she saw the man who had warned her again. She warned him that the neighborhood would be contested territory in the near future, and suggested he leave.   When she travelled to the neighborhood as herself, she found that Nick Calabrese had already won the territory for Selina, and the man she'd warned had been a part of the negotiation. Smirking, she promised to inform her father of her failure. She reported that the Sons of Forster Lane must have gone to the Calabreses for protection.   While Selina lived a double life as the brutal head of a crime family and a prominent philanthropist, Eiko lived one as the daughter of the Hasigawa family and Catwoman. She would sometimes check in on Selina, and she admired how well the woman kept her mask on until she was alone in the dark - something she would have to learn as well.   When her father had an overseas deal to make that was threatened by the Calabreses grip on the market, he tasked Eiko with handling it. Ken had been sent back to Japan, and Eiko made a secret call to him, warning him to stay away from that deal.   As Catwoman, Eiko enjoyed the luxury of being able to be her father's daughter, and still look herself in the eye. As Catwoman, she could undo some of the more evil things he did. Unfortunately, he found out that Ken had tried to get out of the deal, and insisted that he be included. Frustrated, Eiko put on the catsuit, and decided to follow Selina Kyle some more - until she was interrupted by Batman.   He was quick to call her out on the fact that she wasn't the real Catwoman. He warned her against following Selina if she didn't want a fight - and further against wearing the suit at all, if she didn't know what it meant to wear it. Knowing her hunt was done for the night, she intended to return home, but ran afoul of the Sons of Forster Lane. Fortunately, the man she had warned previously helped her to escape.   Upon her return home, Eiko was confronted by her father, who delivered the news that Ken had been killed because he was not up to the task. Despite her loss, she would have to meet with Selina Kyle the next day. Angrily, Eiko determined that she would never give her father another tool to use against her. She had won this game against her father - at the cost of her cousin's life - but she was about to start a new game, and her meeting with Selina Kyle would be her opening move.