Katou “Black Kite” Danzou

TIP

This material is translated by u/Kinalvin

Info

Bio-Data

• Class: Assassin
• True Name: Katou Danzou
• Sex: Female
• Sources: “Kouyou Gunkan Massho Ketsuyou Bon (The Shining Record of the Military Exploits of the Takeda Clan)”, “Hokuetsu Gundan (Hokuetsu War Stories)”, “Otogi Bouko (Hand Puppets)”, “Ehon Kouetsu Gunki (Illustrated War Stories of the Kouetsu Region)”, etc.
• Region: Japan
• Alignment: True Neutral
• Height: 165cm
• Weight: 49kg

Meta

• Character Creator: Sakurai Hikaru
• Character Designer: Soga Makoto
• Character Voice: Akesaka Satomi
• Major Appearances in Main Works: Fate/Grand Order

Stats

Parameters	Values
Strength	D
Constitution	D
Agility	A
Magical Power	C
Luck	B
Noble Phantasm	C

Class Skills

Presence Concealment: [A]

A Skill that suppresses one’s presence as a Servant, suitable for espionage activities.

Personal Skills

Artificial Limbs (Karakuri): [A++]

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”.

Mechanical Illusion Arts: [B+]

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.

Subversive Activities: [C]

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.

Ninjutsu: [A]

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.

Noble Phantasm(s)

Karakuri Genpou – Dongyuu (Mechanical Illusion Art – Bull Swallowing)

• Rank: C
• Classification: 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.

Youjutsu Zanhou – Yuugao (Black Art Decapitation Method – Moonflower)

• Rank: C
• Classification: Anti-Personnel 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 is 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.

Character

Pronouns

• First Person Pronouns: watashi / Danzou
• Second Person Pronouns: anata / kiden / ○○-dono / ○○ (without honorifics)
• Third Person Pronouns: kare / kanojo / yatsu / ○○-dono / ○○ (without honorifics)

Personality

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 that.

Whether this rare mechanism that was manufactured by the Sorcerer 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.

Attitude Towards Master

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————

Dialogue Examples

• “————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.”
• “O’ Wind, gather… Evil Wind Death Storm!”

Historical Character and Figure

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 Koshu 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 Soshu 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 as well as a disciple of Miyamoto Musashi – 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 cuns[1] from the center of an illusionist’s hand and makes it sing without any trouble.

Character in FGO

In regard 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 Warring States Period. And the true form of hers is that of a karakuri doll that was constructed by the Sorcerer 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 Sorcerer 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 whom are serious in their loyalty to their lords, and both are similarly mothers whom treat the Fifth Generation Fuuma Kotarou with tender loving care.

Standard Weapons

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.

Related Characters

Kashin Koji

Her manufacturer. A cold-blooded man. An extraordinary Sorcerer.

(The First) Fuuma Kotarou

A person who should also be called another “parent” of hers similarly like Kashin Koji.

Ashiya Douman

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…”

Miyamoto Musashi / Senji Muramasa

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.”

Mochizuki Chiyome

“Lady Chiyome, 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 Lady Chiyome, 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?

(The Fifth) Fuuma Kotarou

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 because 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 the 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 Ms. Danzou’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)

TL Notes:

[1] – A cun is a Chinese measurement where one cun is the width of a person’s thumb at the knuckle.

Material Images

Dialogue

Occassion	English	Japanese
Summoned