Name: Assassin (Sasaki Kojiro)
Appearance:
Personality: A solemn and honorable samurai, somewhat aloof and mocking to those he greatly dislikes, who enjoys nothing more than life or death battle with worthy opponents. Having a fair fight is so important to him that he would rather aide in the escape of his opponent if they are affected by some outside interference during the battle than allow them to succumb. While under normal circumstances he would consider his own life to be a worthy price to pay for facing a worthy opponent, his desire to return to the side of his master causes him to place more value on his own life. He can come off as cold hearted, as he retains a certain serenity even when surrounded by the death and suffering of others, but this is the result of living in a time when such things were common. Left to his own devices he enjoys viewing the splendors of nature with a bowl of sake.
Bio: Assassin is not the true Sasaki Kojiro. He is a Servant, a type of high level familiar summoned for a special magic ritual known as the Holy Grail War, a mere copy of the hero Sasaki Kojiro. Yet it is not even correct to call him a copy of Kojiro, as Kojiro never existed at all. The hero Sasaki Kojiro is a fiction, a combination of the tales of several different swordsmen, created to be the ultimate rival to the legendary Miyomoto Musashi.
Assassin was a simple peasant farmer, a man without even a name, who happened to meet a retired sword master living deep in the mountains and was enthralled by his swordsmanship. The retired master taught him the refined behavior of a swordsman but did not, and likely never intended, to teach the youth actual technique and died a month after Assassin began studying under him. Undeterred, Assassin threw himself into the study of the martial arts. He spent much of his time attempting to discover a method of cutting a flying swallow out of the air. He observed that no matter how he attacked the swallow would simply feel the distortion in the air and avoid the sword. Eventually he determined that to cut down a flying swallow you would have to completely entrap it in blade, which would require three separate swings at the exact same instant. The impossibility of this did not deter him in the slightest and having nothing better to do he continued practicing at this every day until the universe essential gave in and allowed it to occur. The ability to use this technique, along with his demeanor, sophistication, and the joy he found in dueling, make him the closest thing to Sasaki Kojiro and so he was summoned into the role.
He was summoned by an organization called Chaldea, fighting to prevent the extinction of the human race due to horrific time travel shenanigans, and proved himself in medieval France where he cut down enough wyverns to qualify as a legendary dragon slayer. When, however, the problems of France were solved and history began to correct itself instead of simply disappearing the entirety of that distorted France ended up dumped into the Shattered Universe right next to the burned and ruined remains of the modern Japanese city of Fuyuki. Taking emergency charge of all matters of state, Gille de Rais was shocked and delighted to find that something had gone wrong with Assassins rey shift back to the future and that the savior of France had been dumped here as well considering this new crisis. France is now under the authority of the UCC, with Assassin given over to their charge as a show of good faith. Assassin, for his part, saw it as a way to be allowed to fight battles to devour the souls he needs to exist while having the resources to find a way to shift back to Chaldea or discover whether any of his Chaldea allies have ended up in this strange world as well.
Age:???
Skills:Basic Servant Physiology: As a Servant, Assassin's body is made entirely of magic. This has its advantages and disadvantages. In addition to being far stronger and faster than any ordinary human, only magic or magic like abilities can harm him. Anything that is created by normal human hand or has the conceit of being totally technological in nature just does not affect him unless it is specifically designed to deal with wraiths like him. He can shift himself into spiritual form, a non solid spectral mass of magic that can not be sensed except by powerful magic and specifically designed technology and is not impeded by any physical obstacle. This form, however, can sense nothing beyond vague spiritual sensations and can be impeded with magical barriers. Any weapon or armor he was summoned with can be kept in spiritual form when not in use. This all comes at the cost of needing an anchor and upkeep.
Normally a Servant needs a Master to anchor them to the modern world and something to supply mana to keep their existence going. While anchoring does not seem to be a problem, as the Shattered Universe does not seem to be a place that rejects anything or anyone, Upkeep is a far more significant problem. Every action that Assassin takes uses up the magic his body is made of, with strenuous tasks such a combat taking up much more than normal. This also makes any techniques that absorb or banish magic extremely dangerous to him. As he has been cut off from what was supplying him mana, Assassin is forced to search elsewhere. The common option for a Servant in this predicament is to find and adsorb large sources of mana, such as human souls. Even this is too meager for him to fight at anywhere close to his full strength.
It would also be possible for one or more mages to supply part of his upkeep, or a superlatively powerful mage to supply all of it. On the other hand, as he is essentially nothing more than the highest level of familiar, it is not inconceivable that he could be bound to the will of a powerful mage. Especially if that mage had knowledge of the world he was from and was capable of replicating the effects of Command Seals.
Swordsmanship: Assassin is a peerless swordsman. He has no stances and yet is able to freely swing his longsword from even an idle position, ensuring that no seeming opening on his part can be trusted. While it can easily cut through steel his sword is not meant for clashes of power and can easily break when locked with an equal or superior weapon. The pinnacle of his swordsmanship, the Swallow Reversal, can only be used if both he and his opponent are on level ground. When used Assassin slashes, and then space and time distort and two more simultaneous slashes are unleashed from different directions forming a seemingly inescapable cage around the target. It is possible for those skilled enough to avoid the attack if his sword is damaged before he uses it, the imperfection creating a slight hole in the cage through which escape is possible.
Class Skill - Presence Concealment: A low ranking skill reflecting ones ability to hide ones presence. Capable of fooling ordinary people, a skilled warrior will be able to sense his presence immediately. Do not expect him to use this much.
Personal Skill - Eye's of the Mind (False): "A natural talent to foresee/sense and avoid danger on the basis of an innate 6th sense, intuition, or prescience. The accuracy of this instinct can be augmented by experience. The ability also grants an effect of offering resistance against penalties caused by visual obstructions." Assassin's high level of this skill allows him to quickly and accurately judge the style of his opponents.
Personal Skill - Knowledge of Respect and Harmony: A skill that makes it impossible to become used to Assassin's attacks. Even if all Assassin did over the course of a battle was use a single slash, over and over again, aimed at his opponents neck his opponent would never get used to it. Every time fighting him is like the first time fighting him.
Personal Skill - Vitrification: Assassin is always in a calm and composed state of mind. Not even facing certain death will shake him of his composure. No mind altering spells or substances have any effect on him.
Faction (UUC/UoD/Custom): UUC/Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, Finis Chaldea
Working with the UUC is ultimately a means to an end. He is truly searching for a way back to Chaldea or, failing that, anyone that worked for the organization that has also fallen into this universal gutter.
Mangrale