Batman: Knight of the Hunt

Issue 6

Legend of the Soultaker

Katana pauses a moment outside the city ruins. She looks up at the crumbling wall, then down at the newly disturbed earth beside her. The others have already paid their silent respects to the Master Assassin, and now move in file toward the far end of the valley. The city is not safe. Shouldering her pack, the samurai woman follows her remaining companions. The death of David Cain was sudden, unexpected, and has cast a shadow over the entire group. One question lingers unspoken, hanging heavier than the morning fog: who will be next?

As they approach the edge of the river, Katana turns and looks back at the city – and the grave – a final time. She knows all too well that wherever the disciples of Ra's al Ghul go, death is sure to follow them. The group starts forward again, Katana resting her hand on the hilt of her sword. She remembers how she came to possess it.

It was early spring. Yamashiro Tatsu held the hand of her son Akio as the wedding ceremony for her husband's sister drew to a close. With the sun just starting to dip below the tiered roof of the shrine, the newlyweds lifted their sake cups for a final toast to their families. But just as Tatsu lifted her own cup to her lips, she saw a shadow pass over the roof. She pulled her son closer instinctively, not entirely sure what she had just seen.

Her husband, Maseo, noticed her alarm. "What is it, Tatsu?"

"Nothing." She shook her head. "Just a trick of the moonlight."

She genuinely believed this, yet for some reason her eyes continued to scan the shadows of the compound. As the ceremony came to an end, the families of the bride and groom milled about in the courtyard, preparing to leave, but staying long enough to chat amongst themselves, get caught up on family news, and wish each other well.

Suddenly, the inner door of the shrine burst open, and a shrine attendant fell back into the courtyard, an arrow through his chest.

Chaos reigned immediately.

The low tables were overturned as some of the guests fled toward the main gate, while others darted this way and that to find their immediate family members.

Tatsu clutched tightly to Akio, as Maseo dragged them toward the door. That's when they saw the Assassins.

Dressed all in black, their masked faces overshadowed by dark hoods. One blocked the main gate, a black sash around his waist, and a curved katana in his hand. Maseo stopped up short, putting himself between his family and the Assassin.

Another Assassin, this one an archer with a green sash, stepped out of the temple and retrieved his arrow from the chest of the man he'd left dying on the steps. Behind him came another fighter, a broad-shouldered man with a more modern taste in weapons: two suppressed 1911s on his belt, and an MP5 submachine gun in his hands, also suppressed.

It was the Assassin with the MP5 who finally spoke. "We're looking for a special sword," he said. "Where is the Soultaker?"

Tatsu's heart stopped in horror. The legendary Soultaker had been in the Yamashiro family for generations, passed down from father to son. In times of war, it was the first weapon into battle, but in times of peace, it rested in a vault within the shrine. The Assassins had obviously known this, and they had known that the sword would be on more open display for the wedding festivities.

What they evidently hadn't known was that Maseo's sister had wanted her ceremony to be as traditional as possible, and had therefore asked her brother to wear the sword during the ceremony.