Blade Twin

The Blade Twins are the main characters of the 2024 video game Rise of the Rōnin. While both characters are playable during the prologue, the player must choose which of them they will play as permanently for the remainder of the story, with the chosen Blade Twin becoming the game's main protagonist.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
The Blade Twins were born in a small village in the Kurosu domain of 19th century Japan, which was secretly forging weapons to be used in rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate. Upon learning of their activities, the shogunate raided and destroyed the village, killing all of it's inhabitants for their treason. Only two children were able to escape, with one of them becoming deeply traumatized by the experience and vowing revenge against the shogunate.
The children were taken in and adopted by the Bladesmith, who trained them to become Veiled Edges, members of a two-person unit of assassins that would be used by the Kurosu in their planned war against the shogunate. The two children, now Blade Twins, grew very close to one another.
=== Rise of the Rōnin ===
Upon reaching adulthood and completing their training, the Blade Twins are sent out on a mission in 1853 to assassinate United States Commodore Matthew Perry and steal a secret document in his possession, which is to be the first step in the Kurosu clan's war against the shogunate. Infiltrating the Perry's Black Ship, they obtain the document and attack the commodore, but before they can land the final blow against him, the Blue Demon, Akikatsu Manabe, intervenes and overwhelms them. One of the Blade Twins subsequently sacrifices themselves by distracting Manabe so that their partner can escape with the document, with the escaping Blade Twin being grazed by a gunshot from Manabe as they flee. Sometime later, the protagonist awakens to discover shogunate agents have located and attacked the Veiled Edge village. Believing that their Blade Twin is still alive, the protagonist decides to abandon the Kurosu clan and find them, but the Bladesmith refuses to allow them and challenges them to a dual to the death. The protagonist emerges victorious and escape the village after the Bladesmith reveals a secret escpae route to them in her dying breath.
For the next five years, the protagonist lives as a wandering ronin, searching for their partner before travelling to the city of Yokohama in 1858. There, they encounter and befriend fellow ronin Ryoma Sakamoto, who asks for their assistance in locating his master, Shoin Yoshida. While taking photographs for local geisha Taka Muruyama, who is secretly a shogunate spy, they are accosted and attacked by a drunken samurai. After the defeating the samurai, who turns out to be an associate of Ryoma's, Kogoro Katsura, the protagonist is introduced to other members of the anti-shogunate movement, Genzui Kusaka and Shinzaku Takasugi. The protagonist learns that a samurai with a 'demon's claw' is serving as the bodyguard of United States Consul Townsend Harris, just Genzui and Katsura enlist the protagonist to assist them in an attack on the US consulate in Yokohama and assassinate Harris before a treaty can be signed between the United States and the shogunate; at the same time, Taka, having heard of the assassination plot against Harris, requests that protagonist thwart the plot and protect the American consul. Infiltrating the consulate, the protagonist finds Harris and is attacked by his bodyguard, who turns out to be their Blade Twin with a mechanical prosthetic replacing their left arm. The protagonist is surprised when their former partner attacks them; upon being defeated, the Blade Twin retreats and cryptically tells the protagonist that they will understand eventually.
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Mercenaries
Category:Samurais