Sasaki the Witch Hunter
A cold and bitter wind blew in Sasaki’s heart as she approached Darnell. After the subjugation of the Urthan and the reclamation of Aston it was easy enough for her to fade, disappear into the throngs of people that moved and lived in the production city.
Now she faced a different sort of foe, one that even the Blessed Katarina had failed to subjugate: the overwhelming bureaucratic engine that was the city of Darnell.
*****
While Sasaki arrived in Aston, Araya the Diviner had disappeared, along with a significant number of Yamato, enough that ships had been dispatched from Yamato lands to reclaim key positions.
Araya was feared dead, a crippling blow to the Yamato and the Anglish Empire. There were angry mutters from the arriving Yamato in Aston that the Yamato needed to revive the Hundredfold Vow, an ancient tradition of repaying a grudge one hundred times over, and the desire to wage their own personal campaign against the Urthan, regardless whether or not the Anglish had brokered peace with their northern neighbors.
Sasaki had been given an assignment, however: Track down a Sanctioned mage that had somehow disappeared during the retaking of Aston. There was a great deal of speculation and ambiguity as to the young man’s motives. Perhaps he’d run away in the fighting, perhaps he’d deserted, it could have been that he simply had gotten lost, separated from the main unit in the howling snows north of Aston.
How would a mage disappear? She’d asked herself.
She no longer had Katarina or Kuroyuki to rely on; she’d need to figure things out for herself. The answer was surprisingly quick to come to her: the same way a Yamato woman might disappear.
Sasaki had changed her clothes from the traditional Yamato dress, purchased a thick cloak, and avoided talking with people overmuch because her accent stood out like a sore thumb.
The Sanctioned mage had a facial tattoo; the mark of Sanctioning was prominent. It’d make sense that he’d hide his face, dispose of his robes and try to disappear. She’d scoured secondhand clothes shops and gotten a lead; the lead had turned into a trail, and the trail had led to a kill.
Strictly speaking it wasn’t necessary for her to kill the mage, but Sasaki wasn’t confident in the amount of training she’d been given in Darnell before getting whisked away by Kuroyuki.
Strictly speaking, she’d been terrified of the possibility that the mage would kill her, though she wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, save perhaps Katarina herself.
She’d wanted to return to Darnell as quickly as possible, but assignments kept rolling in, one after another. She hated riding horses, but she’d gradually become accustomed to them.
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Somehow, her prayers to the Golden Lady had gradually evolved to prayers to Katarina.
“Please, please Katarina, please give me your wisdom so that I don’t fuck this up.”
Her travels before she’d met Katarina had been casual, lackadaisical, without fear. There hadn’t been anything she was afraid of. Beastmen, mutants, bandits, it was all the same to her.
Mages, however, terrified her. While she’d wandered the lands of Hesperia looking for things to test her skill against, she hadn’t truly realized how alone she really was until she’d chosen to walk the path of the Witch Hunter.
Mages terrified her. They commanded powers both mystifying and terrible. She wasn’t particularly versed on how mages were dealt with in her homeland, but no doubt those who were afflicted with the curse of magic likely offered their lives in ritual suicide so as to not bring dishonor upon their families.
Here, there was just her, her sword, and her guns against those who dared wield powers far beyond mortal grasp.
“Saint Katarina, protect and bless me against the terror of the mage. Give me the courage to do what must be done.”
She once spent a week tucked in the crook of a tree branch, waiting for a mage to happen by. The woman, half-mad and mutating, never even knew what hit her, Sasaki’s bullet sending the mages’ tortured soul careening into the Void of Oblivion.
In Tannit, she’d found herself somehow welcomed into a reclusive society that’d turned out to be a cult of demon-worshipping mages.
It was difficult to measure whose surprise was greater; Sasaki’s realization or the cultist’s shock when Sasaki began her frantic, brutal massacre.
It was there, in the city of Tannit, where she decided to turn in her bounties. While she was waiting, she was summoned by the local bishop and presented with a message bound with a crimson ribbon and sealed with the seal of the Arm of the Sword.
“Effective immediately, your Witch Hunter activities are to cease. Return to Darnell immediately.”
*****
Sasaki wasn’t terribly fond of boats. She didn’t get seasick, but there was a certain amount of frustration that came from being stuck in one spot and unable to move around very much. She much preferred to be on land, where she could move her body and exercise. However, boats were faster... and she didn’t have to ride a horse.
As the ship or boat or whatever it was called pulled into the harbor, the captain decided that it was time to gossip with Sasaki.
He pointed out massive boats that rode low in the water that sailed into the harbor ahead of them.
“You know, those’re carrying golden marble all the way from Philippa.”
“Is that so?” Sasaki asked indifferently. She had no idea where Philippa was or why it was so important.
“Aye. It takes golden marble to make a proper statue, and they intend it to be the grandest statue yet.”
“That makes sense. Wouldn’t want to make a statue from anything else.” She mused.
“Aye. Wouldna surprise me if they’ve called sculptors from all over the Empire for the undertaking.”
“You definitely would want the best.” Sasaki agreed.
“I’d never met Her Radiance before, but it’s been said that Saint Katarina was surely the most beautiful woman in the Empire.” The captain replied reverently. Then, as if to contradict the awe he professed, he directed a stream of lurid curses at his sailors as they made their approach into the harbor.