Abe

* Manga
* Anime

**Abe** (安倍) is one of Genzo Gohda's freelance killers who works on a team with Yamamoto and is one of the primary instigators behind the events of the Niwaka Samurai Impersonator arc.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

Abe is a young man with a nondescript face. He wears overalls and a cap, giving him the appearance of an ordinary, blue-collar worker. He sometimes wears a ski mask while killing.

## Personality

Due to being partnered with the careless, drug-addicted Yamamoto, Abe is weary and frequently frustrated. He displays a high level of patience in dealing with his partner and picking up Yamamoto's slack throughout most of the story, and despite calling their partnership his greatest regret in life, Abe exhibits his own laziness in choosing to stay partnered with him rather than seeking out a replacement. He considers himself naive for choosing to trust in his partner repeatedly. He appears to understand the consequences of his actions in a way that Yamamoto does not, as he works hard to perform his job well and worries after the wrong target is killed. He favors guns as his primary weapon and handles his firearms skillfully.

## Background

Six months before the start of the story, the number of teams of killers in Fukuoka began to increase. Abe decided to look for a partner and sent out a notice on the Fukuoka version of Undergroundjobs.com, and Yamamoto responded. Abe was wary and distrustful of the younger man from the start, but he accepted him as a partner due to time constraints. Yamamoto has nearly killed Abe at each of their two previous jobs together.

Abe bought his white van from a stolen car dealer and began living in it prior to the start of the story.

## Synopsis

### Niwaka Samurai Impersonator Arc

Abe entrusts Yamamoto with watching their targets enter their office. Grabbing his firearms, he enters behind them and shoots each man inside twice, leaving them badly injured but alive. Another man appears, having been miscounted by Yamamoto, and he manages to shoot Abe in the hand. Abe kills him and the pair leave, with Abe resignedly permitting Yamamoto to drive their van. In a paranoid hallucination, Yamamoto drives between two lanes of traffic, hitting countless cars stopped at a traffic light on Watanabe Street, while Abe and other drivers yell at him.

After Abe's hand heals, he and Yamamoto visit their mediator, Genzo, and overhear him talking about the Niwaka Samurai. Genzo tasks them with assassinating another one of his killers, a man who had killed the wrong target and is blackmailing Genzo for consolation money. The pair tail him after he arrives to exchange words with Genzo and departs Gen-chan, but they lose him in traffic. They split up to locate him in Nakasu, and Yamamoto calls Abe shortly after to report that he has found the target. When Abe meets him in a hotel parking space, Yamamoto is standing over a bloodied corpse in a blue shirt different than their target's. Abe finds identification for Tadafumi Izuku in the man's pocket and realizes that they have killed the wrong person.

They stuff the body into their van and dispose of it in Hakata Bay, and Abe devises a plan to use Genzo's help in finding the target again. Yamamoto volunteers to talk to Genzo and reveals that they killed the wrong target, causing their mediator to cut them off from his business. Once again, Abe regrets leaving important tasks to Yamamoto and laments having an idiotic partner.

Thanks to Genzo's influence, other mediators in Fukuoka are aware of Abe and Yamamoto's blunder and turn them away when they come looking for work. Defeated, Abe returns to the white van parked near Canal City and informs Yamamoto that their partnership is over. Almost in tears, Yamamoto threatens to go to the police, and Abe resignedly continues their partnership.

Yamamoto decides to buy Abe some food in consolation and returns two hours later with a small sum of money, some food, and his clothes dyed orange. Abe bites his tongue and continues reading the newspaper, looking for any news that the body they had thrown into the bay has been found. A news story of impersonation inspires Yamamoto, and he brainstorms the idea of posing as the Niwaka Samurai online in order to meet with clients and flee with the advance payment. Though Abe is initially against the idea of advance pay fraud, he allows Yamamoto to post an advertisement on Undergroundjobs.com, and they receive a reply within minutes.

With Yamamoto dressed as a traditional samurai and Abe playing the part of his agent, the pair meets with Kumiko Izuku, who offers them a 100,000 yen advance payment for the murder of Kaori, the woman with whom her husband has been having an affair. Due to their suspicious appearances, she follows them and takes photographs of the pair and their van without their knowledge. They disappear with the money and spend the next week making small profits through this scheme.

When Naoya Nitta discovers their posting, Shunsuke Saruwatari meets with the pair. Though having realized beforehand that the samurai is a fake, he holds Yamamoto hostage until Abe has made contact with the Niwaka Samurai's mediator. Abe runs to Genzo's ramen stand, and though Genzo turns him away immediately, Abe establishes a deal as a client and offers Genzo an outrageous sum of money for the Niwaka Samurai's time. As they leave Canal City, Yamamoto finds George Gondo's post for the Niwaka Samurai, dead or alive. With his pride and a cash fortune on the line, Abe decides to go along with Yamamoto's plan and returns to the meeting place.

As Saruwatari is about to finish off the Niwaka Samurai, Abe and Yamamoto drive in and abduct him. They bring him to a warehouse and tie him to a chair, where Abe notices that the man before them does not match the description they were given. Unable to extract information from him, they turn to Undergroundjobs.com again and hire a professional torturer.

José Martínez arrives with a suitcase of torture supplies, and Abe and Yamamoto leave the room as he begins to work. When they reenter, the corpse has been mutilated beyond recognition, and Martínez has discovered that the man was friends with the real Niwaka Samurai and had come in his place.

Saruwatari and Nitta find them shortly after, and Saruwatari punches them both in the face. Nitta holds a gun on them, while Saruwatari searches the car for his money. He is furious when he finds the corpse, but after Abe and Yamamoto explain that the corpse was a fake, Saruwatari settles for the contact information of the samurai's mediator and keeps the body, letting the pair go. Abe finds and discards the transmitter in the backseat as soon as they are out of the killer's sight.

Immediately after, he receives a call from Genzo, offering them work. Abe is elated to be given a second chance, and he rushes to Gen-chan to obtain the details of the job. As he leaves, he bumps into a host.

Abe and Yamamoto meet their clients, a man and a young girl, in a park. Before the man, Tanaka, can give him the details of the job, his daughter asks Abe to play. Agreeing to amuse her, Misaki decides to play doctor and pricks him with a paralyzing serum in a syringe. Abe is unable to move and can only view all the events that happen after.

Yamamoto immediately jumps in the van and tries to flee, and Abe is disgusted with himself for how quickly and frequently he has always forgiven his partner, while his partner is so quick to leave him behind. A large SUV crashes into the van, however, and the torturer emerges from the driver's side, greeting Tanaka and the girl. He claims that the avenger work for the Watanabe Street hit-and-run is complete, and as they congratulate each other on a job well done, the host from the evening before arrives. The others present greet Yamato, who asks to borrow Yamamoto, lying unconscious on the ground, and he finds the rest of Kumiko Izuku's money in his wallet. Abe then realizes that he had been pickpocketed earlier that evening, and Yamato had placed a tracking device on him. With only Tadafumi Izuku left to avenge, Yamamoto is given to Enokida to die in Saitoh's place, thus creating another mistaken identity murder. Because Jiro had informed Abe that the pair was to pay the price for Tadafumi Izuku's wrongful death, it is unknown if Abe was allowed to live, or if he too was killed.

## Etymology

* The surname **Abe** means "peace, quiet" (安) (**a**) and "double, twice, time/times, be doubled" (倍) (**be**).

## Trivia

* Abe's favored weapon is a lightweight German handgun with a plastic casing that holds 14 rounds. He is also familiar with machine guns.