Oboro

Yakai's state claimed Oboro for its bloody purposes when she was only a child. While growing up in one of the overcrowded, underfunded orphanages, she was singled out at a young age for her quick-wittedness, along with the fact that whenever she was caught up in one of the many brawls, she always emerged on top. A number of secret societies in league with Yakai’s rulers regularly trawled such institutions for potential new recruits. Oboro came to the attention of one such initiative, known as the Inner Eye. Founded by the kingdom’s three Sovereigns, the Inner Eye was dedicated to hunting down traitors and removing internal enemies from Yakai. Central to their work was the destruction of the Demonspawn that continued to plague the kingdom from within. Oboro was trained in the organization’s deadly arts, and quickly learned how to assume different, false identities. She excelled in striking like a viper before fading into the shadows, all pursuit in vain. Following her first successful kill, her seniors in the Inner Eye gifted her a trio of magical swords – the ever-keen Blades of the Falling Leaves. After this final induction, Oboro traveled further afield across Yakai, doing the Inner Eye’s covert business. She soon became locked in the endless shadow war being waged throughout the kingdom, as the loyalist agents defending it clashed with powerful criminal syndicates, secret Demonspawn cults, and occasionally each other. It quickly became apparent that Oboro was pitted against one Siroth-worshiping movement in particular, one which had inveigled its way into Yakai’s nobility and now posed a dire threat to the stability of the young realm. Their leaders were four Demonspawn known only as the Red Masks, particularly dangerous creatures who had worked since the fall of the Mikage Autocracy to corrupt Yakai’s upper echelons. Oboro tracked the Red Masks relentlessly, using the Inner Eye’s connections and her own sharp mind. She eventually hunted down and slew one the four Demonspawn, adding its grotesque face covering to her hat as a trophy. The victory was short-lived. In a display of power and influence, the remaining Red Masks instigated the burning of the orphanage where Oboro had grown up, an indication not only of their capacity to strike back, but that they knew her identity, and likely that of the organization she worked for. In the years since, Oboro has fought a constant cat-and-mouse battle against the Masks across Yakai and beyond in a mission that has become a personal vendetta. And while she has succeeded in uncovering and slaying another two of the Demonspawn conspirators – adding their coverings to her hat also – the final one remains elusive. In her long hunt, Oboro found herself working up through the social hierarchy of Yakai’s nobility, investigating figures who ordinarily would never have been suspected of treason and corruption. Now she fears that one of the Sovereigns is in league with the final Red Mask – or worse, that the Sovereign is in fact the Mask. Similarly, Oboro’s contacts within the Inner Eye have been drying up and increasing numbers of her fellow-agents seem to be turning against her. It may be that the Red Mask is in a position to influence the activities of the Inner Eye – indeed, they may even be a senior member. Either way, Oboro knows she will have to do what she has always done best, and rely on no one but herself, her quick wits, and deadly skills.