Vancouver, Canada…
Wolverine and his friend, George, sit at the docks. George asks what they are doing there. A suspicious Wolverine tells George to just keep his eyes wide open and his mouth shut. Wolverine knows that the people watching them are professionals and they have got to be ready for everything. George doesn’t believe all the Weapon X “nonsense” Logan told him about earlier. Wolverine again asks George to keep his mouth shut. Or, is George trying to give away their position on purpose?
George calls all of this paranoia. He believes that no one could be interested in a couple of old guys like themselves. George wouldn’t even know who would even be interested in Wolverine these days, seeing how he is living in the woods and has grown half nuts, seeing things that aren’t there. George and Wolverine walk away on separate routes, with George saying that he couldn’t believe it when Wolverine accused him of being a secret again, not when they’ve known each other since George was a little kid.
Wolverine stops by a boat with Japanese markings on it. George notices Logan stopping and walks over to him. George asks Logan what he is doing now, but Logan just answers that he has got to go. But Logan comforts George that he was right and does trust him. Logan calls George a good kid and he knows that he hasn’t been nice to him for the past few years. Wolverine asks George to do something important and to go back to his cabin.
When George refuses to leave him behind, Logan says he knows that his attackers are serious people and doesn’t want to put George in any more danger than he already is. But George really needs to do that for Logan. George doesn’t believe that Logan is actually serious about this.
Wolverine asks his friend to think about his magazines. Logan says that one of them isn’t the kind he would actually read. Wolverine promises George that, when he opens that magazine, there will be a message inside it. He explains that it’s an old safeguard of him. Logan tells George that the less he knows, the better of he’ll be. George believes that they best head back to town and rest a little, believing that things will look more clearer in the day.
Wolverine shouts that they won’t, and tells George that his attackers want him to believe that he has grown insane. Logan knows that he has got to jump aboard this ship when his enemies least expect it. Wolverine goes, and tells George to look into the magazines and promises to be in touch.
(Three weeks later)
Logan has already spent some time on the ship and has taken on a job as food chef. While he prepares some fish, two sailors talk behind his back, calling him names. Meanwhile, Wolverine himself talks into his other voice again. He mumbles to himself that he shouldn’t have come here. The voice tells Logan that he is too old now for these kind of errands. And the voice also asks Wolverine how he can believe that Weapon X was real in the first place. Wolverine, back in his normal voice, says that he isn’t crazy and knows that the evil group existed. The voice tells Wolverine that of course he is crazy. The voice tells Logan that he is two hundred years old now and has stowed away on a boat. And for what?
The ship harbors and Wolverine takes a look at the magnificence that is Japan. The voice tells Logan to face it: this isn’t his world.
Wolverine enters Tokyo and looks around a bit. He hitchhikes on a truck and makes it to the town Torikana. He walks over to a library and the friendly clerk greets him, asking if she can be of service. Logan asks the woman if she has the book “Ghost of Japan – the Lost Rituals of Kanaguri.” Ms. Tanaka says that’s an unusual volume and is only borrowed out to locals only. She explains that they’ve got a lot of outsiders who consider it nothing to keep a book for their own purposes. Wolverine understands.
And yet, he follows, it seems that a copy of this particular book is missing. Logan admits that he checked Tanaka’s loan tags but he is unable to locate the name of the borrower. Logan asks Tanaka if she would be kind enough to inform this person, if he or she would return soon, that they mistakenly left the book in his position. Logan tells the woman his name, and says that they can contact him if they have any further question. Logan stops talking and places the book back in the shelves.
Mrs. Tanaka isn’t impressed and says that they’ve had countless of American reporters sniffing around the same story. She explains that the Kanaguri Cult became defunct over twelve hundred years ago, if they ever existed at all. Nobody knows for sure. Mrs. Tanaka notices that Logan doesn’t seem to understand it. She mocks that everything Japanese is alien to him. And yet, Logan seems to fit his “homogenous” culture all for the sake of a story. Tanaka tells Logan that he can better go home, because he won’t find anything here that can feed his fantasies. Wolverine walks out, but tells Mrs. Tanaka that he remembers her great-grandfather: Yoshiro Tanaka. And he recalls saying Yoshiro saying the same thing to him when Logan first met the man.
George has made it back to Wolverine’s cabin. He searches through the magazines like Logan told him to. There’s a lot of biker magazines, so George starts to wonder what he’s looking for. He stumbles upon a wine magazine, and George knows that this is the one.
Later that night, Wolverine sees cult monks kidnapping a young teenage girl, wanting to sacrifice her. Wolverine drops in just in time to stop it. The cult leader wants Logan dead so his followers start attacking. Wolverine defeats them all and sends the young girl walking, while he starts talking to the cult leader.
Wolverine asks about their boss. The leader says his name is Kitsunebi, something Logan didn’t even know. Wolverine wants to know where he is, and also why Weapon X brought him there. Logan wants to know the name of every man who is after him! The cult leader gets shot from above. Wolverine runs out and finds the young girl shot as well. Wolverine tries to find the shooter, but nobody is there.
George has searched through the magazine and has found the message which reads “George – sorry about the port. Good stuff in the cellar. 277ZH4-JK4. Logan”. George enters the password in a computer and reads another message, one from Wolverine as well. The message reads that if George reads this message, he already knows where Logan is, and that Logan needs George to send him some stuff out of the old steamer trunk at the foot of the wall. The further instructions are there as well and, when George has filled up the list, the rest will be his. George opens a box and finds it filled with lots of money!
Wolverine finds himself at the snowy Hirgana-San mountain, just beyond Torikana. Wolverine finds a statue and knows a lot about its history. But that’s not important for now. Logan kneels, and waits patiently.
Suddenly, he gets attacked by a faster-than-the-eye enemy! The enemy slashes Wolverine a few times. Logan gets up and snikts out his claws, ready for action. The unseen enemy strikes again, this time it looks like it’s fatal for Wolverine! The enemy reveals himself in spirit-form, and tells Logan that he wants him to know what he could have killed Logan anytime he wanted in the past two hundred years. The enemy teleports away, leaving a bleeding Wolverine behind.
Wolverine doesn’t get it, and wonders why his enemy didn’t kill him then…
