Kairi Tanaga is a minor character in Batman:The Animated Series & Batman Beyond. She's one of Yoru's pupil, a former mentor of Bruce Wayne, and later, an an accomplished mentor of Terry and Zander.
Biography[]
As a young girl, Kairi trained under Yoru, who considered her like a daughter. Later, she was kidnapped by Kyodai Ken, who held her for ransom, demanding that Yoru reveal the location of a scroll containing a lost, deadly martial arts technique that he believed could defeat Batman.
During the exchange, Kyodai kicked Kairi off a building to create a diversion, but Batman saved her, allowing Kyodai to escape with the map. Kairi had never seen this mysterious man before, and as he shook her off, she whispered quizzically, "The spirit of Batman..."
At some point in the 2030s, Kairi emigrated to America, settling in Gotham City. She opened a fish shop at 2805 Harbor Market Square in the Asian Market, but in the back, she operated a secret dojo for serious martial arts students. Bruce was aware of her dojo, but did not seem to have any regular contact with her otherwise.
One of her students was Xander, a genetically engineered potential leader of Cobra. Kairi realized that Xander had not received a normal moral education and tried to instill in him a respect for the warrior code of Bushido, which emphasized honor and non-aggression.
Another student was Terry McGinnis, whom Bruce sent to her to hone his martial arts training. Kairi trained him rigorously for several weeks, during which Terry began to develop a friendship with Xander.
However, Xander later revealed himself to be the leader of Cobra and joined the cult's plan to replace humans with genetically engineered reptilian hybrids and cause a supervolcanic eruption that would cause catastrophic changes to the world's climate.
Saddened by her failure to teach her students values, Kairi boarded Cobra's hovercraft and rescued Terry and Max, engaging in combat with Xander. The ship was heavily damaged and began to descend. Terry urged Kairi to follow him and Max, but was blocked by falling debris. She ordered them to abandon ship and warned Terry to stay vigilant. She died in the crash along with Xander and the other cultists.
Bruce, Max, and Terry held a moment of silence in the dojo to mourn Kairi's sacrifice.
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