Katsuragi

Katsuragi (Japanese: 桂木 Katsuragi) was a historical figure in Inazuma who lived around 400 years ago. He was a yoriki of the Inazuma Shogunate who befriended the nameless eccentric that would later become Scaramouche. He would be eventually slain by his superior Mikoshi Nagamasa following the events now known as the "Tatarasuna Mystery."

Katsuragi's death has been memorialized through the name Katsuragikiri Nagamasa (Katsuragi-Slashing Nagamasa), an epithet applied to both Nagamasa himself as well as the blade he used to slay Katsuragi.

Profile[]

I daresay that while Sir Katsuragi may have committed malfeasance, it was out of the goodness of his heart...

—Someone's Rather Aged Notes

Katsuragi was Mikoshi Nagamasa's yoriki and was deeply loyal to Nagamasa after the latter saved his life. His loyalty and kindness, however, led to his death after a catastrophic failure at the Mikage Furnace resulted in many casualties and Armory Officer Niwa Hisahide's disappearance. With the popular explanation being that Hisahide had betrayed them and fled for his own safety, the responsibility and punishment for the incident would have fallen on Nagamasa's shoulders. To spare his savior from capital punishment, Katsuragi willingly took the blame and punishment on himself and was executed by Nagamasa's hand using the Daitatara Nagamasa.

Quests and Events[]

Archon Quests

• Interlude Chapter
  • Act III: Inversion of Genesis
    • The Kabukimono's Finale

Story[]

Little is known about Katsuragi's past and few records on his background exist. All that is known is that Nagamasa saved him at one point in his life.^[2] He evidently had some blacksmithing knowledge, as he discussed smithing with Miyazaki Kaneo, the Vice Armory Officer, at some point during his later stay at Tatarasuna.^[3]

During the cataclysm 500 years ago, Mikoshi Nagamasa's adoptive mother, Mikoshi Chiyo, went mad from the Abyssal taint she was exposed to and turned her blade on Ei, only to be defeated and flee to parts unknown. This betrayal left a great stain on the Mikoshi Clan name, and Nagamasa joined the Inazuma Shogunate to restore their honor, eventually rising to the rank of Inspector and taking Katsuragi as his yoriki.

Nagamasa and Katsuragi were assigned to Tatarasuna, where they were joined by Niwa Hisahide, Miyazaki Kaneo, Kinjirou, and Nozomu. Nagamasa developed an interest in weaponsmithing, something that the others in his group believed led to an improvement in his temperament. With the help of Katsuragi and Miyazaki, Nagamasa forged his crowning achievement: a nagamaki they named the Daitatara Nagamasa.

Around the same time, while investigating a landslide caused by Crystal Marrow miners, Katsuragi discovered Shakkei Pavilion and met a nameless young man — Ei's prototype puppet, who would later be known as Scaramouche. Katsuragi took him back to Tatarasuna, and introduced him to Nagamasa.^[4] Katsuragi realized the Plume of Luxury, and agreed that the puppet had his reason to not reveal his past or place of origin. Thus, he chose to introduce the kabukimono as the lost man found in Nazuchi Beach. The kabukimono was welcomed and accepted as their friend.^[5] On the completion of the Daitatara Nagamasa, Nozomu was so moved that he made a painting of the blade, while Katsuragi and Kabukimono performed a sword dance.^[3]

Tatarasuna Mystery[]

After Hisahide's "disappearance", the responsibility for what had happened fell to the second-in-command Nagamasa. Still vowing to clean his clan name, Nagamasa could not allow himself to die. Katsuragi was willing to face capital punishment in place of his master, and thus Nagamasa cleaved Katsuragi with the Daitatara Nagamasa before throwing the blade into the furnace.^[3][6]

Legacy[]

Due to the information blackout placed by Hisahide during the events of the "Tatarasuna Mystery," few records exist about what truly happened at Tatarasuna. As a result, while people knew that Nagamasa had slain Katsuragi, ostensibly due to some misconduct on Katsuragi's part, most people were left to guess at what had actually occurred.

Revised History[]

During the events of the Archon Quest The Night-Bird Falls at the Curtain's Call in Interlude Chapter: Act III - Inversion of Genesis, Scaramouche learns the truth behind Niwa's death, taken from Dottore's own memories which Lesser Lord Kusanali previously connected to while she was verifying that he had eliminated his segments. After assuming from the Traveler's gesture that it was possible to change the past, Scaramouche decided to erase his own existence using the remaining divine power he had. In reality, it is not possible to change the past, instead only written history and people's memory — that are, people's perception — were tampered to erase his names. It appeared that to not make a hole in people's perception, the Irminsul replaced Scaramouche with various equivalent figures throughout history.

In Tatarasuna Mystery, the kabukimono was "replaced" by a mysterious "foreign mechanic,"^[4] which seemed to be the combination of the kabukimono and the foreign mechanic Escher from the old history. Thus, Katsuragi did not meet the puppet, but otherwise his story remained the same.

Chararacter Mentions[]

Character Stories

Character	Stories
Wanderer	Character Story 1 Character Story 5

Other Languages[]

Change History[]

References[]