Saber (Fate/Crossover - Yamada Asaemon Sagiri)

Yamada Asaemon Sagiri

**Saber** (セイバー, *Seibā*) is the servant of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail War.

*"Do those without doubt even exist? And if they do, does that lack translate to strength? I have come face-to-face with doubt time and time again. My own. As well as the doubt harbored within the strong. We struggle and doubt and struggle again. If abandoning such doubt is the way of the samurai then samurai I am not. For I refuse to leave such things behind. To the bitter end I remain nebulous and ill-defined. For that is who I am."* - Yamada Asaemon Sagiri

## Profile

### Identity

Saber's true identity is **Yamada Asaemon Sagiri**, the 12th rank Asaemon of the Yamada clan, as well as the daughter to the former clan's leader, Yamada Asaemon Kichiji. She is the deuteragonist of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku.

She was borned within the Yamada clan as the daughter of Yamada Asaemon Kichiji. At a young age she became inspired to follow the path of an executioner and have the same level of mastery as her father after watching him beheading a sentenced criminal with a single slash. She was looked down upon by other members of her clan including her father as she starts learning on how to wield a sword. Because of her clan's bad fame, she would also get avoided by other child of her ages. With Yamada Asaemon Shugen helping her she would manage to obtain her title as a Yamada Asaemon and get a ranking despite having gone through the harsh trainings.

After the shogun called for death row convicts to acquire the Elixir of Life from an island believed to be Shinsenkyō in exchange for a pardon for their past crimes, Sagiri recruited Gabimaru to be a part of the expedition team and was put in charge of acting as his monitor until the mission was complete.

### Appearance

Sagiri is a young woman of a slender build who is quite tall, as her height is 172 cm. (5 feet 8 inches), making her one of the tallest female characters in the series. She has long brown hair that she keeps in a ponytail using a very long ribbon and frontal hairs that fall across her face as bangs, as well as two very long front strands that reach down to her chest. As an Asaemon she wears the standard attire, which is a white robe with a red lining running down the collars, a hakama with a single red band at the left gusset that is held together with a red corset (instead of a red waist cord), which holds her katana at her left hip, a funerary bell tied to a red piece of cloth at the center of her collar, a gauntlet on her left arm, and sandals. When prepared to execute her intended targets, or go into battle, Sagiri takes the time to use her tasuki to hold her sleeves as to not have them become an interference.

After taking on the task of destroying one of the Banko's tandens, Sagiri procures shinobi equipment from the fallen Iwagakure shinobi taken down by Jikka and started to wear a headband, along with adding another gauntlet and a second sword. She also switches to wearing shinobi footwear and has her hakama tucked into a pair of gaiters around her lower legs.

After a year passed, Sagiri wears a striped robe, being held together with a dark obi, a haori, and sandals. She also carries along a kasa and a walking stick.

### Personality

When performing her job as an executioner, Sagiri generally displays a stoic and serious demeanor, as she possesses a very high sense of duty when given a task. When she acted on her role as an inspector, Sagiri made sure Gabimaru answered all her questions even if he was not clothed or if it was during one of his death sentences, which made her have to constantly tell the magistrate and his men to hold off on their next attempts at executing him. After becoming Gabimaru's monitor, she boldly made it clear that she refused to allow him to do as he pleased on the island and made sure to keep watch over him at all times. Another great example of Sagiri's serious attitude was when she aimed to give Gabimaru and Mei a proper bath, viewing it as an "operation" even though it was not required of her as the criminal's monitor. As noted by Kishō, Sagiri is a stickler for upholding the rules, as she kept the bindings on her assigned criminal when they made landfall even though the other Yamada Asaemons on the mission allowed the opposite since Kishō pointed out that the rules would only hinder progress on the mission. She can, however, allow herself to bend the rules a little, as she overlooked Gabimaru's attempt to kill her. She is also able to accept certain unfortunate events that have fallen; though it will take a while for her to allow the situation to sink in.

While dedicated in her duties as both a samurai and an executioner, Sagiri lacks the mental state to take a life without putting any fear or hesitation into her blade, a flaw that she is greatly criticized for by her clansmen, on top of her gender, given their principles to execute the condemned painlessly by ridding themselves of this emotion. Upon analyzing Gabimaru's behavior after watching him commit murder, Sagiri learned from him that she must bear the weight of the lives she has taken like the shinobi does and accept her fear and doubt instead of trying to overcome it. Come the shogun's mission, Sagiri soon realized that this way of thinking ultimately became the key to her survival on Kotaku.

Most prominently, Sagiri is noted to be a person who stays true to herself. Having realized at a young age that her true path in life lies within the Yamada clan's duties of executing criminals, Sagiri chose to take up the blade and not adhere to the clan's traditional customs as a woman no matter what her clansmen may think of her; though she stated to herself that she would not accept this fate quietly. As such, she carries a belief that a person should choose what they want to be in life regardless of the identity they are born with. Though she speaks to her clansmen with respect, Sagiri is not afraid to stand up for herself by stating her convictions. She has also come to accept her own shortcomings, such flaws being her fears and doubts as a samurai. Due to this, as well as her disregard for gender-based roles, Sagiri's way of life is seen as leaning towards the Middle Way, which has proven to greatly help her overcome difficult obstacles. Sagiri also stated to Gabimaru that embracing one's true feelings is not a weakness but instead it is where true strength comes from.

Sagiri is also a very good-natured person who is polite, kind, and caring towards others. Despite the fact that she is well-aware that a few of her fellow clansmen view her as being unworthy of becoming a samurai, Sagiri speaks to them with respect and became sadden after the ones who were tasked on the mission had died. After Mei was preparing to take a bath, Sagiri kindly took the liberty to wash her clean, an act that the girl dearly appreciated. When Hōko's head was severed from his body, Sagiri expressed her relief that he was still alive and willingly carried him after defeating Mu Dan. From her experience as an executioner, Sagiri is capable of understanding the feelings of others from within their hearts, which could allow her to show empathy even towards criminals. Through this trait, Sagiri realized that Gabimaru was not truly an evil person and was able to show genuine concern for his well-being.

Though she takes matters seriously, Sagiri does possess a sense of humor, as she is one of the rare few who finds Shion's puns about his eyesight to be funny. She is also one to make puns herself, which she credits Shion as being her influence, having told Gabimaru that in the end she "executed" her initial role of being partnered up with him after beheading the convict to free him from Arborification.

Another side to Sagiri that differs from her usual composed personality is that she is susceptible to becoming emotional and nervous around others, as shown when she met Yui a second time, having viewed this meeting as being special compared to the first time they met at Iwagakure; most likely given all that Gabimaru had to go through to see her. Her nervous behavior seems to have been with her since she was much younger, as she had a hard time properly welcoming Fuchi into the clan at the age of six and even more so with Senta who has a nervous personality himself.

## Abilities

Sagiri is a highly skilled swordswoman who managed to gain the title of an Asaemon in the Yamada Clan and earn the rank of twelfth for becoming the next suitable head of the clan. Despite being one of the Yamada clan's top sword testers, Sagiri was limited as a fighter due to her lack of battle experience. However, as pointed out by her peers, Sagiri is credited to be more than capable of holding her own against dangerous opponents when she has a strong resolve, such as Gabimaru, Rokurōta, and the powerful Sennin beings known as the Tensen. Gabimaru also viewed Sagiri as being much stronger than him, stating that her willingness to accept the doubt within herself gave her the power to overcome the obstacles in her path, which is what became key in her fight against Rien, the strongest Tensen to exist who found herself overwhelmed fighting Sagiri unlike her other strong allies who confronted her. Ultimately, Sagiri became one of the first few in 1,000 years to have survived the ordeals the island had to offer, which included reaching Hōrai where Lord Tensen previously resided, and escape.

Sagiri has been shown to possess impressive speed and reflexes. She was able to instantly appear behind Gabimaru without him noticing a thing and almost came close to beheading him if not for the sound of her bell giving her away. She was also able to quickly disarm Genji of his sword at the same time he brought it down to attack her. Her reflexes allowed her to react quickly to a surprise attack from Gabimaru, and was even able to block every one of Rokurōta's hard fast punches.

Sagiri had her own katana prior to it being cut in half by Gabimaru after their confrontation on the island. She then procured a sword previously owned by Warped Keiun that was later used by Gabimaru. She then replaced it with one of Genji's swords that was given to her as his dying wish.

Other than a katana for fighting, Sagiri also carried with her a small case of powder and camellia oil for bathing, which she used to wash Mei's hair.

Through her duties as an executioner, Sagiri developed the sixth sense to know the true feelings of people during their final moments, which helped her to know that Gabimaru was lying to himself about wanting to die. She can also see a person's true nature through the reflection of her sword. Another skill she acquired as an Asaemon is the ability to analyze an individual's anatomy. Sagiri was able to determine that the Sōshin on the island had muscles and bones but showed no signs of internal organs or genitalia by simply cutting them down with her sword.

### Skills

#### Class Skills

* Magic Resistance (E Rank): Sagiri can use her Tao and techniques to help her resist different types of supernatural effects such as magic. However, since she is not a practitioner of such thing this rank of her skill is underwhelmingly low.

#### Personal Skills

* Kenjutsu (B Rank): With this skill, Sagiri can utilize her sword techniques taught to her by the Yamada clan. Her skill is capable of decapitating a person with a single slice, a difficult feat that normally requires one to many slashes to the neck for an average samurai. Despite her posistion in her clan, she is unnmatched in her swordsmanship known by her peers.

* Middle Way (A Rank): A skill that associates with the principles Yin-Yang and can help unlock the pontential of others. Sagiri can use Middle Way to help her mind focus and concetrate her breathing, allowing her to surpase what her current state was, and can enhance her Tao to boost her power and overwhelm her enemies.

* Tao (C-B Rank): A life force energy that can be found in every living and non-living thing. It can be manifested and used to increase the beings various abilities, as mastering it can give them powers similar to that of gods once fully mastered.

Sagiri's Tao is the Wood-attribute. Sagiri can use her Tao to sensce the presence and intent of others based on the flow of their Tao. It also allows Sagiri to read the movements of her opponents and hide her presence from others.

### Noble Phantasm

#### **Tameshi Ittō-ryū: Gusokuwari; "The Armor Splitting Sword Technique"**

A Noble Phantasm that is a kenjutsu Technique of the Tameshi Ittō-ryū sword-style that has been taught to by the members of the Yamada Asaemons. Sagiri swings her sword towards her opponent to counter an oncoming attack. An attack strong enougth to pierce through and cut down armor.

## References

https://jigokuraku.fandom.com/wiki/Yamada\_Asaemon\_Sagiri

https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Yamada\_Sagiri

https://myanimelist.net/character/173139/Sagiri\_Yamada\_Asaemon

https://universal-warriors.fandom.com/wiki/Yamada\_Asaemon\_Sagiri