| ID | 188 |
| Rarity | ★★★★ |
| Class | Assassin |
| True Name | Katou “Black Kite” Danzou |
| Gender | Female |
| Source | “Kouyou Gunkan Massho Ketsuyou Bon” · “Hokuetsu Gundan” · “Otogi Bouko” · “Ehon Kouetsu Gunki” · etc. |
| Region | Japan |
| Alignment | True Neutral |
| Height | 165cm |
| Weight | 49kg |
| Strength | D |
| Endurance | D |
| Agility | A |
| Magic | C |
| Luck | B |
| Noble Phantasm | C |
| Character Setting | Sakurai Hikaru |
| Illustrator | Soga Makoto |
| Character Voice | Akesaka Satomi |
| Major Appearances | Fate/Grand Order |
A Skill that suppresses one’s presence as a Servant, suitable for espionage activities.
One’s flesh has become an artificial mechanism – particularly, a wooden mechanism [karakuri]. A bonus is added to one’s action checks related to combat and the success checks of their Skills.
If it is at least Rank A, not only their limbs but also their entire body has become an artificial “karakuri doll”.
Techniques that utilize karakuri with genjutsu working as the core of these techniques.
They are something Danzou especially regards as her specialty. It is possible to apply these to many activities, such as infiltration, spying, combat, and so on. When it comes to combat situations, the “Mechanical Decapitation Method” excels in such situations, but Danzou does not like it very much.
The ability to prune the opponent’s military strength in the preparation phase before conducting combat. The higher the ranking of this Skill, the lower one’s spiritual status as a hero.
The general term for the espionage techniques, combat techniques, larceny techniques, torture techniques, etc., used by ninja. The version of ninjutsu used differs according to each school.
Since Katou Danzou is loaded with (the First) Fuuma Kotarou’s techniques, her school is that of the Fuuma Shinobi Band.
| Rank | C |
| Type | Anti-Animal Noble Phantasm |
| Range | 0~20 |
| Maximum Number of Targets | 50 animals |
A Mechanical Illusion Art where she produces a blade of vacuum, and after drawing the target(s) in, pulverizes them via air compression. Katou Danzou’s trump card. It is something that puts the genjutsu that swallowed up a bull, which was told in the “Hokuetsu Gundan”, to practical use. Because of the “Kashin Mystic Code” within her that Kashin Koji personally incorporated, it is endowed with a special attack property against demonic enemies. It is further feasible to utilize it as a genjutsu of “erasing bodies and objects before the people’s eyes” and “revealing erased bodies and objects before their eyes again” just like in the anecdotes.
| Rank | C |
| Type | Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm |
| Range | 0~20 |
| Maximum Number of Targets | 1 person |
When Danzou slices the flower and/or fruit held in her hand, somehow, the head of an enemy who was at a faraway distance falls off. A mysterious special move that is carried out by making use of a moonflower as described in the “Otogi Bouko” Kanazoushi and/or a bottle gourd as described in the “Hokuetsu Gundan” military science book. Danzou speaks of it as nothing more than a kind of genjutsu. It seems her true opinion is that she does not want to use it if possible as it is more than too much of a murder technique.
| First-person pronoun | watashi / Danzou |
| Second-person pronoun | anata / kiden / 〇〇-dono / 〇〇 (without honorifics) |
| Third-person pronoun | kare / kanojo / yatsu / 〇〇-dono / 〇〇 (without honorifics) |
A mechanical karakuri ninja with few emotions. A karakuri girl. During her lifetime, Danzou did not have free will and was nothing but a mechanical doll that obeyed the orders inputted into her————or so she had defined herself as, but on the occasion of being carved into human history as a Heroic Spirit and materializing as a Servant, it seems it might be the case that she too believes it is okay for her to think and have emotions – just like humans, and from the way it seems, she bears in mind that if she is permitted to do so, then she wants to do it.
Whether this rare mechanism that was manufactured by the Black Magician Kashin Koji – who gave and poured his heart and blood into her – had ultimately attained the free will she now has, or whether a soul dwells in this mass of inorganic substance, there is no person who can correctly answer that. Whatever the answer is, Assassin Katou Danzou, though vague it is, possesses an ego.
If her Master appears to treat her like a karakuri, then Danzou will live as a karakuri. Because she can say with confidence that in her view, it is the most reliable and easiest way for her to live. But supposing the case that she is treated as a human, she will try to imitate humans to the best of her ability————
“————Katou Danzou. Starting up now.”
“Well then, I will deal with them as you see fit.”
“The Five Elements are rather insufficient here. Promptly requesting replenishment… Speaking of it specifically, well, I want to inhale some air from outside.”
“… If it is about destroying enemies, then I will be of great use to you. That is what Danzou exists for.”
“Gather O’ Wind… Evil Wind Death Storm!”
Katou Danzou is a ninja thief [shinobi-no-mono], or perhaps a spy [suppa; 水破], whose name can be seen in the likes of the Kanazoushi and the military science books from the early Edo period. The reading of the word suppa [水破] is the same as the word suppa [透波], which is the name for the ninja located in Kai and westward of it, but when speaking of the word suppa [透波] in the same time period back then with those characters in mind, it is a word associated with what is called the Koshu1 Suppa, who were employed by the Takeda House as spies, so rather, judging from the character [破] in its word, it seems a suppa [水破] was a spy whose existence is closely related to the Soshu2 Rappa led by Fuuma Kotarou, who was employed by the Later Houjou House. The Soshu Rappa were considered to be a group of 200 ruffians that were led by Fuuma Kotarou. After the downfall of their employer’s house, it is said that the remnants of the Soshu Rappa became bandits and raised havoc in and around Edo, but they were captured due to the secret information provided to the shogunate’s law enforcement force by Kousaka Jinnai – who was said to be a dependent of the Takeda House’s Chief Vassal, Kousaka Masanobu, and a disciple of Miyamoto Musashi as well – and executed.
Regarding Katou Danzou, she is known by nicknames such as “Flying Katou” and “Kite Katou”, and given that there are even books that reference only her name and no one else’s, it seems certain that she actually existed. Regarding those deeds of hers however, they are only mentioned in things like writings with a high degree of fiction and tales, so likewise, she is often an unclear figure because of those as a matter of fact. In those tales, Katou Danzou frequently displays the skills of a Puppeteer. The origin of this seems to be from an illusion technique that was mentioned in section 8.2-3 of the Bussetsu Juuou Kyou Jikidan (Personal Account of the Sutra of the Ten Rulers of the Afterlife) – titled “Fulou-koku Genjutsu-jin (The Illusionists of the Country of Fulou)” – where it reveals a puppet hanging several suns3 from the center of an illusionist’s hand and makes it sing without any trouble.
In regards to Katou Danzou, there are legends where she operated puppets and karakuri dolls, but those were legends derived from the fact that “Danzou herself was a karakuri doll”————or so how she is set in this work.
A ninja who follows the school of the Fuuma, a clan that played an active role during the closing years of the Sengoku period. And the true form of hers is that of a karakuri doll that was constructed by the Black Magician Kashin Koji. Danzou is an artificial female ninja (kunoichi) who was formed under the collaboration of Kashin Koji and the First Fuuma Kotarou, and she is not a human being that has life. Nevertheless, as a result of accomplishing plenty of her duties and being often talked about even in the books of posterity, that existence of hers was carved into human history as a Heroic Spirit.
In “The Seven Duels of the Heroic Spirit Blademasters”, Danzou found herself on the side of a black magician as “the Katou Danzou from her lifetime.” It was not the case that she has been embedded with a Karma like the Heroic Spirit Blademasters, but that her incomplete mentality was being manipulated by the Caster Ashiya Douman.
There is really no difference in regard to the personality and the behavioural principles of both the Danzou who appeared during the Seven Duels – which is a kind of Pruning Phenomenon – and the Servant Danzou of Pan-Human History who was summoned at Chaldea. Both are similarly ninja who are serious in their loyalty to their lords, and both are similarly mothers who treat the Fifth Generation Fuuma Kotarou with tender loving care.
Danzou can carry out attacks with mainly a large number of edged tools and shooting-type wires that are built into her limbs. She is able to use both short-distance attacks and long-distance attacks. Sometimes, things like wooden missiles that appear to be of a Kashin Koji make can be pumped up and shot out too.
Her manufacturer. A cold-blooded man. An extraordinary black magician.
A person who should also be called another “parent” of hers similarly like Kashin Koji.
A person whose connection to Danzou was born during the Seven Duels.
“He is not a person I met as a Servant of Pan-Human History but… it is noisy…”
Two people whose connections to Danzou were born during the Seven Duels.
“They are likewise not people I met as a Servant of Pan-Human History but… I feel like they are people I have a great debt of gratitude for.”
“Chiyome-dono, a shinobi of the Takeda House. The fact is that for Danzou, I want to get close to her, but from the way it seems for Chiyome-dono, she has a somewhat ill feeling for me.”
The secret concerning the two that was hidden in Danzou’s recorded data was lost to her. What the heck is this “certain incident” that the Katou Danzou from her lifetime actually perpetrated on the Takeda House?
When she had been living under the Fuuma clan’s roof for a period of time, Danzou became the foster parent of a certain red-haired infant. The reason is that Danzou, who has the skills of the First Fuuma Kotarou built into her as a database of some sort, was the best “transmitter of the Fuuma skills.”
Sometimes guiding him as his ninjutsu mentor, and sometimes treating him with tender loving care like a mother, this little child was surely none other than————the future Fifth Generation Fuuma Kotarou.
At first, Danzou herself did not recognize Kotarou during their unexpected reunion in Chaldea, but…?
Comment from Illustrator #
I received the responsibility for Katou Danzou’s design. About the theme called ‘karakuri dolls’, I was tormented in all sorts of ways at the time of receiving it. Regarding the things that are called dolls, their limbs are usually being constructed longer than the normal length, so I tried to make Danzou-san’s limbs longer to some extent too, enough for her to give off just a little uncomfortable feeling to others. I came to carry out many trials and errors for this and that and so forth, but thanks to God’s scenario, this very attractive character was finished in the end. I am grateful to all the staff from the bottom of my heart. (Soga Makoto)