Takane Hibiki

Substory

Takane Genzo was a bladesmith who forged many masterpieces, though few knew him by name. In time, he withdrew from the world, retreating to a rural village where he continued his work in obscurity, with his daughter, Hibiki, never far from his side.

One day, a man with hair of silver arrived, asking Genzo to forge a blade for him. The smith was immediately fascinated by the man's overwhelming presence of both purity and evil, and agreed at once. Hibiki crossed paths with this strange man on her way home, and was seized by a nameless unease.

Genzo labored long and eventually produced a single greatsword: the Yasomagatsuhi no Tachi, or "Greatsword of Countless Misfortunes." But the effort drained him to the point of exhaustion, and he took to bed. As he lay dying, Hibiki stayed at his side.

"This is all his fault!" cried Hibiki, the image of silver hair flashing in her mind.

But her father simply shook his head. "If you can't accept this, then seek him out... as well as the sword," he rasped. "When you see what I saw, feel what I felt... you'll understand." And those would be his final words.

Wracked with grief though she was, Hibiki eventually left her home behind. Three days later, one Amano Hyo came to request upkeep on his blade, the Otokomae, only to find Genzo already gone.