Taki was orphaned at an early age and was brought up by a ninja
master named Toki. She was trained in the ways of the ninja by Toki, whose
clan lived in seclusion. Taki grew into an expert spy and a great schemer.
Many among this clan have extraordinary abilities that have been lost or
forgotten by the general population. Being blessed with supernatural
powers of her own, Taki decided to travel throughout Japan to conquer the
evil demons who threaten ordinary people. To aid her in this task, Taki
forged her own weapons with love and care, her favorite of which is the
short sword Rekkimaru, which also held supernatural powers. During this time
of civil war, many military commanders employed ninjas, but Taki works for
herself.
One day, Toki suddenly summoned all the ninjas of the clan for a
meeting. Toki told the assembled ninjas that Hachibei, who had once led the
ninja clan with Toki, had stolen the spiritual ninja-to Mekkimaru and had run
away with his daughter Chie. By the clan's law, the two were now nuke-nin,
or ninjas who had left the clan without permission. Ninjas were not
permitted to leave their clan until they died because of the clan secrets.
The clan were responsible for the nuke-nin, and were to execute them as soon
as possible to protect their secrets. In accordance with the code, Toki
ordered the ninjas to hunt down Hachibei and Chie, kill them and return the
Mekkimaru. Although this was the normal course of action, something in Toki's
eyes made Taki suspicious of her foster father for the first time.
Hachibei proved to be a hard man to find, as his skill for remaining
hidden had been the finest in the clan. Taki, with her sixth sense and
massive intelligence network, eventually found a few leads. Chie had been
Taki's childhood friend, and by following a slight trace of Chie, Taki was
able to locate Hachibei. The two were running a small stall on a vacant road.
An extraordinarily strong man named Li Long was
living with them at the time, so Taki waited to confront Hachibei when the
old man was out. Hachibei was surprised to see Taki at first, but his face
soon filled with relief and he handed the Mekkimaru to Taki. Hachibei then
revealed to Taki that Toki had been possessed by madness and that the
Mekkimaru controlled the ninja lord now. It was for this reason that the
ailing man had taken the sword and left.
Even though Taki had her suspicions about Toki, she still found it
hard to believe that the dull blade Hachibei held in his hands had
extraordinary spiritual powers. Hachibei explained, through heavy coughs,
that if Toki came in contact with the Mekkimaru again that he would kill
Toki. He gave the blade to Taki and begged her to keep it away from Toki.
The old man's trust caused her suspicion of Toki to grow, and so she let
Hachibei and Chie go free. She hid Mekkimaru where she was certain no one
would find it and returned to the clan. When she returned, she fabricated a
story about Chie's Chinese lover taking the sword and killing both Chie and
Hachibei. When Toki heard this, he grinned and ordered the clan to pursue
Li Long and kill him as well. When he gave these orders, Taki knew that
Toki was no longer the man she knew. The only explanation was that an
outside source was affecting the Mekkimaru, causing it to resonate with evil
and warp Toki. Hearing rumors of the evil blade Soul Edge, Taki felt certain
that this was the source of the evil and thus set out to find the sword and
destroy it.
For some time, Taki had noticed that Rekkimaru, her favorite sword,
had been acting strangely. It's once considerable power had weakened. When
she had been called in to slay the Fury demons which had been confined at a
temple, she was barely able to defeat them and seal the gates back. After
the revelations with the Mekkimaru, Taki was certain that Soul Edge was
affecting her own sword as well. Thus, she had two reasons for going after
the legendary blade. Rekkimaru's loss of power proved to be a compass that
led her straight to Soul Edge.
She tracked to sword to an abandoned port town in Spain. She arrived
at the docks to find a weakened pirate standing over the body of an injured
girl. In his hands was the demon sword Soul Edge! Before the pirate,
Cervantes, could deliver the final strike, Taki
called out to him and challenged him. Thus a battle like none Taki had ever
fought began. Although she had been improving her armor for years, it was
designed for fighting ghosts and lesser demons and began to crack under the
strain. Her sealing spells proved useless and Rekkimaru had lost nearly all
of it's power. However, Cervantes' battle with Sophitia
had left him severely depleted and Taki eventually struck a fatal blow. The
mad pirate shrieked in pain and slumped to the ground. Exhausted from the
ordeal, Taki still managed to carry the wounded Sophitia away from the
harbor. As they left, they heard an immense explosion of evil energy from
behind them, which turned out to be the release of the evil seed.
Once a safe distance away, Taki removed the shards of Soul Edge that
had riddled Sophitia's body and treated her wounds. She accompanied Sophitia
back to her family, and then left for Japan with the shards of the Soul Edge.
She hoped that with the destruction of Soul Edge, the hidden Mekkimaru would
have returned to normal and Toki would be himself again.
When she returned home, Taki found that Toki was still under the evil
influence. She was repeatedly attacked by Toki's assassins,
which she easily defeated. However, she learned that their purpose was to
steal the Mekkimaru, which meant that Toki knew that Taki knew of it's
whereabouts. She quickly went to the spot she had hidden the sword and took
it back to her home. When she had first returned home, she had attempted to
bond a shard from the Soul Edge into Rekkimaru in order to restore her
sword's power. However, they were resistant to eachother and would not join
properly. But, when she tried the same trick on Mekkimaru, the two were
immediately united and began to emit a dark aura. The aura was so dark that
common people could sense it, so Taki closed it in it's sheath and sealed it
with magic cards. Mekkimaru's power still shone through the magical seal,
which led Toki's assassins right to Taki. She defended herself with her new
blade, but she eventually ran out of power and was captured by Geki, Toki's
right-hand man and highest ranking ninja. Exhausted from the relentless
battle, Taki could do nothing as Geki took Mekkimaru and claimed it in the
name of Toki. Taki warned Geki not to release the seal, but it was too late
and his entire right arm was blown off by the dark shock wave that was
released. Taki seized the moment, took the sword and ran past Geki's stunned
assistants Gaki and Doki.
Thus Taki became a nuke-nin like Hachibei. Toki's assassins were
powerful, and Geki, who wanted revenge for the loss of his arm, was the
most dangerous of them. Taki was able to drive their attacks back, but she
knew she could not hold out forever. Taki was bewildered as to why there
was still an evil influence affecting Toki. Even Rekkimaru was still
powerless. It was then that she remembered that Sophitia had only destroyed
one of the evil swords called Soul Edge. Rumors reached her of a berserk
knight that was ravaging Europe with an evil sword, and Taki was sure that
the sword must be the remaining part of Soul Edge. Taki devised a plan to
track down this Nightmare and pit the Soul Edge
and Mekkimaru together in the hopes of destroying both evil powers.
However, her trip was delayed when the powerful ghost Gel-o-Fury
gained enough power from the Evil Seed to break Taki's seals in the bamboo
forest. He escaped and headed toward the Hoko-ji Temple in Kyoto, a great
temple of madness constructed by warped ideals that would be the ghost final
battleground. Taki used Mekkimaru to defeat the Fury demon, and decided to
share her fate with Mekkimaru as she searched for Soul Edge. Realizing that
Mekkimaru was a tremendous yet dangerous weapon, Taki wished that there was
some way to control it. |