Assassin (Fate/Crossover - Iroha)

**Assassin** (アサシン, *Asashin*) is the servant of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail War.

*"One moment, Master. Right, time to serve you a little pain."* - Iroha

## Profile

### Identity

Assassin's true identity is **Iroha**, a crane that transforms herself into a Japanese maid. Although she serves her master and seems to think that he is the most important aspect of her life. Because of her ability, she needs to be respected by her master. Iroha was said to be very smart that was actually useful for others. She is the female protagonist and one of the new characters in Samurai Shodown VI.

Her master is unknown, but in the fourth-wall perspective, they are likely to be referred to the "reader" as him/herself as she often bows and speaks to them before and after her fights. Her namesake is taken from the Heian poem of the same name which is a pangram used for learning the hiragana syllabary. Iroha's design is based on the folk tale "The crane that returned a favor".

Iroha was just doing a good job for her master. It was impossible to spend some time on the ordinary experience. She is a gentle for being intelligent and not as terrible as everyone else. Iroha always likes cooking so much, but her handwork is very advanced and made a lot of sense for those who do their best.

### Appearance

Iroha wears a representational version of a maid's outfit, with a short white open kimono top with a short tassel in the front. She also wears a bow-ribbon like attachment that starts at her shoulders and ends on each side of her. She wears a black unitard underneath her kimono, and black cloth on her arms with white gloves and black thigh-high tights, with clog sandals and a small bandage on her left leg.

### Personality

Iroha is an obedient and cheerful maiden. She deeply cares for her master, trying her hardest to stay in her human form whilst in front of him. Iroha's very gentle-hearted, not wishing to cause any violence to her opponent unless they have malicious intent like trying to hurt her master. She strongly dislikes bows, rifles, hunting traps, bear traps, because of bad experiences with them. While brave, her one true fear is exorcists, fearing that they're abilities could affect her transformation power in the long run, although comedically Iroha overreacts sometimes, since exorcist mainly target evil spirits and demons.

She has an overprotective motherly side when it comes to kids; in her win quotes from Rimururu and Shizumaru, Iroha lectures them for wielding weapons at a young age feeling that they could hurt themselves.

## Abilities

Iroha fights using two Butterfly Swords named Hourin Ousai, and is quite fast. She is an adept melee fighter, and has brief control over fire. She can also turn into her original form, a crane, in her finishing attack.

She can also double jump. Several of her moves hint to her original form as a crane such as her projectile (a white feather) and her normal fighting stance.

### Skills

#### Class Skills

* Presence Concealment (B Rank): Even in her crane form, Iroha can hide and observe without being detected in sight. This is helpful for doing her missions for master as she has high speed, agility and precise foot work.

#### Personal Skills

* Self-Transformation (B Rank): Her skill allows Iroha to change into her original form of a crane whenever she wants. She is able to maintain control of her human form and crane form while in front of her master. This can also increase her Presence Concealment skill as she can disguise herself as the animal without suspicion. Though that quirk could become unaffected if her identity is known.

* Ninjutsu (C Rank): Iroha actually displays some skills of Ninjutsu in her fighting-style. Though the reason how she is has learned about this is not entirely known, despite her maid outfit having some resemblence of that of a kunoichi outfit.

* Nidan Tobi (D Rank): A skill that gives Iroha more area control of the space of her surroundings. With this high mobility, she is able to increase her air time, gain more jumps while in the air and increase her agility paramaters.

* Mana Burst (Flame) (D): A skill that allows Iroha the ability to create, control and maintain fire at will. The reason how she is able to perform such technique is not ever explained.

* Devoted Maiden (A Rank): A skill that represents Iroha's dedication to her master, even in her lifetime where she served her original "master". Her housework is very advanced than the above average human, and she appears to be very smart enough and to know and recognize the situation and resolve the matter. This loyalty gives motivation and charisma to Iroha to perform to the fullest for her master.

### Noble Phantasm

#### **Tatsuru no Mai - Crane's Dance; "Graceful Dance of the Japanese Crane"**

This Noble Phantasm serves as Iroha's Secret Art. A symbolism of her service to her master their sake and origin of her folklore in written stories. Even when she transforms into her crane form (albeit screened by a shoji), she starts begging not to look...no matter what happens. As if she is modest, or wants to hide the nature of her other self.

When she comes in contact with her target, Iroha grabs her opponent as shoji doors appear close in front. It is assume that Iroha takes her target into a background of her own personal area in space, similar to that of a Reality Marble. She then she throws her weapons in the air and removes her wardrobe which she also throws before she engages in a full-frontal assault of by seductively approaching her victim and punches and kicks on her opponent multiple times, she then turns into her crane form for momentarily to cause some more damage. Iroha will then transform back to her human form, she kneels down to bow, catching her blades and will perform a final strike with an upwards slash on her opponent. Afterwards, her robe falls back on her and the shoji doors open back up, returning Iroha and her wounded opponent back from the cognition area.

### Quotes

* *"Lord, shall we go for walk? I will cook the lunch for you!"* - Iroha
* *"I vowed to keep my master safe. No matter who my opponent is. I can't afford to lose." - Iroha*
* *"I'll keep you safe, Master!"* - Iroha's Combat Start 1
* *"Lord, I will win and make you happy."* - Iroha's Combat Start 2
* *"I'm okay, Master! I don't have a single scratch on me!"* - Iroha's Battle Finish 1
* *"Thank you for your patience, Master. Let's move on."* - Iroha's Battle Finish 2
* *"Servant class, Assassin. My name is Iroha. It is out of a large debt of gratitude that I serve and take care of my Master. Though we are by no means living a life of luxury, I can honestly say it brings me great joy to serve my Master each and every day."* - Iroha after being summoned
* *"You smell strangely familiar... Almost like an animal... Actually, no, exactly like an animal."* - Iroha to Haohmaru
* *"S-Sure, I'm disguised as a person! But it's not what you think! I just want to repay my master's kindness!" - Iroha to Nakoruru*
* *"Maybe if I trained like that, I could better help my master."* - Iroha to Darli Dagger

#### Crossover Quotes

* *"No bows! Especially not exorcisty ones! They're worse than guns!"* - Iroha to Archer servants
* *"AHHH! An Exorcist!? I-I'm sorry Master... But Exorcists make me feel a bot unease!"* - Iroha to Exorcist servants
* *"Me... a Ninja? Well, I just fight in a way that suits best. Though I can see the resemblence."* - Iroha to Ninja servants

### Gallery

#### Fate/???

* Ascensions

Iroha RenderFinal Ascension
* Craft Essence

Bond CE: Evening with My MasterShredded Incident in SparringBounciful ChaosKimodameshi
## Trivia

* Her name is taken from the Heian poem of the same name.
* Her character was loosely based on Tsuru no Ongaeshi (鶴の恩返し, lit. "Crane's Return of a Favor") or The Grateful Crane Wife.
	+ The entire story tells that a a crane who returns a favor to a man. A variant of the story where a man marries the crane that returns the favor is known as Tsuru Nyōbō (鶴女房, "Crane Wife"). Iroha's backstory is somwhat similar to the folklore. Other parallels includes her maid outfit, which has crane elements implented into it.
* The bandage around Iroha's leg is like that of the crane in the original Crane Wife folktale, where she was injured by a hunter, and Iroha seems to have suffered a similar injury. She hops around on one foot in her stance, and one of her victory animations has her wince and clutch at her bad ankle. Despite this, she can leap and spin around the battlefield without any problems. This coud also gives an explanation to why Iroha has a distaste for firearms or any type of ranged weapon.

## References

https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Iroha

https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Iroha

https://queensblade.fandom.com/wiki/Iroha

https://all-worlds-alliance.fandom.com/wiki/Iroha\_(Samurai\_Shodown)

https://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters3/iroha.html

https://wiki.gbl.gg/w/Samurai\_Shodown/Iroha