A Ketsurui Samurai is one of the warriors who live to serve as protectors of the Ketsurui Clan. Samurai are highly capable individuals trained in both melee and ranged combat, and follow strict personal standards of conduct. Before YE 40, they all held ranks in the Star Army of Yamatai and were integrated into its command structure, but were separated from any military authority following a loss of trust in the organization.

The highest ranked samurai, Tsuya, is the organization's leader. She is honored with the title Daimyo of the Ketsurui Samurai.

Ketsurui Samurai have existed in service to the Ketsurui Clan¹⁾ for decades, for at least as long as the family has ruled the Yamatai Star Empire. First appearing in the historical record as bodyguards to Kitsurugi Uesu and his kin,²⁾ this sisterhood of Nekovalkyrja warriors grew from a small group of personal protectors to a sprawling praetorian organization as the Empire expanded.

By the First Mishhuvurthyar War of YE 26, the Ketsurui Samurai had become a branch of the Star Army of Yamatai itself. Notably, Ketsurui Yui kept a full squadron of ships crewed by her elite samurai at her personal disposal, and units of specialized samurai warriors called Gunsotsu were sometimes seconded to Star Army commanders as bloodthirsty shock troops to be deployed as a special force against Yamatai's enemies. The samurai organization had taken on mandates far beyond protection of Ketsurui Clan assets — including law enforcement, assassination, and the aforementioned soldiering — and persisted in this state until the eve of the Kuvexian War.

The status quo was shattered in YE 38 when a rogue samurai element called the Shadow Vipers undertook an attempt to assassinate Empress Himiko I,³⁾ thus triggering a complete loss of confidence in the Ketsurui Samurai organization's place as protectors of the Ketsurui Clan.

A year of inquiries, reprimands, stopgap security measures, and widespread uncertainty led to Taisho Yui separating the Ketsurui Samurai from the Star Army and commanding a restructure of the organization into a civilian security force at the exclusive disposal of the Ketsurui Clan. Her YE 39 order⁴⁾ stripped the samurai of all military authority and made them choose between joining the Star Army or continuing service to the Ketsurui Clan to whom they'd all sworn their lives. Those choosing to join the Star Army had until YE 40 to make the decision and retain their previously held rank or be forced to enlist as santô hei thereafter. Some samurai committed seppuku out of a deep sense of shame and others retired completely. Many remained with the Ketsurui Samurai, unbothered their duty was no longer directly associated with the government and unwavering in their loyalty to the Ketsurui Clan.

Yui's military directive came alongside a separate order in her capacity as leader of the Ketsurui Clan that demanded the samurai revamp their institutions from a basic level. This was achieved by YE 41 with the dismantling of previously held ideologies and organizational structures. Around this time, an attempt was made to hunt down and eliminate any Shadow Viper terrorists wherever they fled to. Although Ketsurui Samurai heritage and their schools of martial arts budō would persist, no longer would any samurai be trained for specific tasks beyond the protection of Ketsurui Clan members or its physical property. Of course, measures were made to allow the undertaking of specialized missions from the Empress or Taisho Yui, but every samurai's primary profession would henceforth be as a guardian of the Ketsurui Clan and not a law enforcer, soldier, or assassin.

As the Kuvexian War drew to a close in YE 43 and brought a period of peace to the Kikyo Sector, so too did a sense of normalcy among the Ketsurui Samurai who had remained in direct service to their namesake clan. Two years of new routines and duties forged deep bonds of sisterhood through service among the samurai, and began to erode some of the shame brought on by their extremely public failings to protect the Empress from traitors among them. Very public patronage by and private visits⁵⁾ from Ketsurui Aiko, who had only ever known loyalty from her own yojimbo and a Rikugun Legion of former samurai that dedicated themselves to her bravery, helped to further restore the organization's honor.

Today, with the Third Mishhuvurthyar War having just begun and frequent new threats against the Star Empire emerging, the Ketsurui Samurai stand steadfastly ready to protect Yamatai's ruling clan into the future.

Most Ketsurui Samurai are born into their profession, being Eihei-Type Nekovalkyrja created specifically for the role. However, some outsiders have sought to pledge their lives to the Ketsurui Clan and successfully went on to become samurai. Those individuals who become Ketsurui Samurai must transfer into and use the NH-33 Eihei body for the duration of their service. Each samurai takes an oath to defend and die for the Ketsurui Clan after one year of initial training.

Ketsurui Samurai have four traditional ranks:

• Trainee: Newly-inducted samurai who lack full training. They only wear white and are not permitted to leave their assigned training facility. When at Samurai House, they often times wear gi. On formal occasions, they don white hakama, yukata, and obi. Trainees are provided with a short sword as a symbol of their station, but initially lack the knowledge to use it and are otherwise unarmed. The training lasts for one year.

• Journeywomen: Junior samurai who have yet to complete at least a full year of assigned duty as a Sentinel in service to the Ketsurui Clan. They are considered full Samurai to outsiders, but within the samurai organization they have entered a kind of probationary period. Journeywomen samurai have been thoroughly trained to use a katana sword and Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol, and wield them when on guard duty at a Ketsurui Clan property.

• Samurai: Full samurai who have served long enough to be entrusted with more sensitive assignments such as being a Stealth Sentinel or Yojimbo to a member of the Ketsurui Clan. They have earned the confidence to represent the Ketsurui Clan when assigned to do so. They are always armed with their katana and Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol — armaments with which they have attained full combat mastery. At this point in their lives, samurai are free to train in additional combat arts that utilize other weapons and fighting styles.

• Daimyo: Leader of the Ketsurui Samurai who answers directly to the clan Mistress Ketsurui Yui. There only is one at any given time. She ultimately speaks for the Ketsurui Samurai as a whole.

Prior to their organization's YE 41 reformation, each samurai was classified into a profession that dictated their career path and duties. This class system was abolished during the samurai reformation, and every samurai became subsequently expected to perform a primary protection assignment, whether bodyguarding a specific member of the Ketsurui Clan or standing watch at one of the clan's facilities throughout the Empire. However, some of those previously established classes became temporary duties to which any samurai could be assigned.

All samurai hold a permanent duty assignment in one of the following roles:

• Eihei: The Ketsurui Clan's Sentinels stand watch over the Empire's physical treasures, including Imperial buildings, memorials, and other property. Samurai who serve as Sentinels are the most publicly visible Ketsurui warriors, and their stalwart presence at the Empress' Palace and at other locations throughout the Imperial capital in Kyoto has made the traditional red-and-white uniform of the Ketsurui Samurai easily recognized across the Empire.

• Eihei-no-insen: Although these Stealth Sentinels had their reputation deeply sullied when a sect of samurai called the Shadow Vipers — whose number once constituted most samurai in the class — made an attempt on the life of Empress Himiko I in YE 38, invisible guardians persist among the Ketsurui Clan. They specialize in utilizing the visual camouflage capabilities afforded to them by their Eihei bodies to stand silent vigil over the persons or possessions they have been assigned to protect. Stealth Sentinels, now integrated as part of standard Eihei cadres, still stand guard at every Ketsurui Clan holding, waiting to strike unseen from the shadows with their transparent Zesuaium katana swords.

• Yojimbo: These samurai are charged with the protection of a single member of the Ketsurui Clan. Unlike the various Sentinel samurai, Yojimbo often spend years or decades traveling alongside the same Ketsurui and attending to them though periods of peace and war. While every member of the Clan does not maintain a personal bodyguard, each is entitled to their protection. Several Yojimbo can be assigned to the same Ketsurui. Most Ketsurui, for example, have one or two Yojimbo while the Empress and Taisho Yui maintain sizeable protection details whose members are assigned specific duties and shifts in service of their charge.

Samurai with specific skills or areas of expertise are sometimes — on rare occasion — given temporary assignments in one of the following roles, after the completion of which they return to their regular duties as a Sentinel or Yojimbo:

• Sensei: These samurai are the Ketsurui Clan's martial teachers who pass down their warrior techniques to younger samurai and select members of the clan itself. Despite this technically existing as a temporary assignment, some Sensei find themselves teaching in the dojo more often than they do guarding anyone or anywhere.

• Teitantei:⁶⁾ From time to time, assignment as an Imperial Detective is granted to samurai tasked with dispensing the Ketsurui Clan's justice upon some target or matter. Sometimes, Imperial Detectives are sent to investigate crimes impacting the Ketsurui Clan alongside Imperial Law Enforcement or mediate disputes in the Star Empire's territories. But these samurai are also occasionally used to simply hunt down and discreetly eliminate enemies of the clan. These duties were previously undertaken by warriors from the Fukei, Karibito-no-akuma, and Arahoshi classes, but now exist as narrowly defined mission objectives given to samurai who otherwise serve as Sentinels or Yojimbo.

• Ronin: Wavewomen are the true samurai wanderers. They are not failures as the title suggested in eons past, and many are highly skilled samurai. Ronin are warriors who have chosen to be adrift of formal duties for some time, as a kind of semi-retirement or for some other reason. These are essentially samurai who have been granted a sabbatical from official duties with the Ketsurui Clan, and who are expected to one day return to regular service.

The Ketsurui Samurai hold themselves to stringent standards of dress, appearance, and behavioral protocol. A vast majority of Ketsurui Samurai are created with a single given name and lack any surname despite living in service to the Ketsurui Clan. Names of deceased samurai are memorialized upon a collection of spirit tablets at the Empress' Palace in Kyoto.

Regardless of their station within the Ketsurui Clan, all samurai wear a white kimono or yukata robe and pleated red hakama trousers fastened with a matching red obi belt when in public. While within the cloistered walls of Ketsurui Samurai facilities, lower ranked trainees wear white hakama in place of red.

Every samurai is trained to fight in combat with a katana sword and energy-based pistols, typically the Type 27 Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol. These two armaments form the practical and ceremonial basis for a Ketsurui Samurai's martial duties. Additionally, all samurai are provided with a wakizashi short sword when they are inducted as a trainee — which is rarely utilized in combat — and only earns the right to wear a katana upon completion of their training.

Beyond those core weapons, every samurai is trained in the use of Mindy-series Power Armor and the Sarah M7 Samurai Power Armor. Some samurai additionally seek out training in other traditional weapons such as spears, bows, and clubs, or with varied modern firearms. Since the separation of the Ketsurui Samurai from integration with the Star Army, fewer young samurai seek training in firearms beyond the Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol.

Known for their stern demeanors and exacting decorum, a samurai's manner comes as the result of strict training and codes of conduct that govern every Ketsurui warrior's public-facing lives.

Some examples include the fact that no samurai is allowed to appear in public without wearing their uniform consisting of a white kimono and red hakama. They are not permitted to eat while standing or walking, and generally prefer to dine alone or in the company of other samurai. There exists an expectation among samurai that each warrior maintain a stoic demeanor throughout their daily lives, including a formal standard of speech and emotional restraint in public.

A common rumor proposes that a Ketsurui Samurai cannot sheathe their sword without drawing blood, but this is a misconception. Samurai are not prevented by any convention from drawing their blade and returning it to rest without bloodshed. However, they are trained to never draw their blade unless absolutely necessary, leading to the myth that they must spill blood once their sword is dawn.

The Ketsurui Samurai are part of the Ketsurui Clan itself, so share many resources with their masters.

Beyond the offices, training facilities, hangars, and living quarters at most major Ketsurui Clan locations and governmental buildings where the Empress frequents, the Ketsurui Samurai maintain the following holdings:

• Samurai House
• The Hall of Fallen Samurai at the Empress' Palace in Kyoto
• Training facility on the moon of Iðunn in the Yamatai Star System

Most military capability afforded to the Ketsurui Samurai was taken from them in YE 39, but they have access to some spacefaring vessels:

• Several Type 30 Space Yachts
• A number of Ke-T10 Fukuro Shuttles
• The YSS Oniyuri, a Plumeria-class (2D) Medium Gunship permitted to be kept in service with the Ketsurui Samurai

Many warriors have served as Ketsurui Samurai over the years. The following list is a selection of some notables:

• Asami
• Chi (血)
• Hasegawa Sumaru
• Kôsuka
• Mao
• Masami
• Rei
• Tokuko
• Tsuya

raz created this article on 2020/12/31 ‏‎14:04:21 Pacific Time. Some of this article's content is carried over from the previous iteration.