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Description
Another piece by

Mari the Conduit

I hesitated on Mari for a while since as much as I wanted to have a brown haired kunoichi to round out the group (you can’t make Ninja Gaiden OC’s and not have a ninja!), I was concerned she’d be too close to Kasumi from Dead or Alive. Once I realized she didn’t have to be a normal ninja, I did some tweaking and you have what you see. Hope you enjoy. And yes, I also realize the parallels to Naruto, and I apologize for nothing.

Stats

Mari
Age: 21

Sex: female
Height: 5'7"
weight: athletic
Measurements: 38D-24-36
Magic: shamanic spirit channeling and conduit powers

Fighting style: hybrid Fuma/Hayabusa style ninjutsu

Eye color: brown
Hair: brown
Weapon: standard ninjato, eventually reforged by Muramasa

Background: Found orphaned and the only survivor of a car accident with no other relatives, Mari was taken in and raised by a high standing council member of the Fuma ninja clan while he was overseas on a mission. Naturally the more elitist and purist members of the council frowned on the idea of a ‘gaijin bitch’ being raised among them but could do nothing about it until he passed away. Even then, his will demanded she be trained and allowed to stay. Unfortunately, the wording gave the remaining council members wiggle room: she was raised (barely), she was allowed to stay (in a cabin that should have been torn down), and she was trained (in nothing but the barest of the basics).

Naturally, by the time she was 18, village children half her age were far better ninja than Mari. With no allies and no friends, she felt totally alone, which was why she still had what she thought was imaginary friends at her age. Imagine her surprise when those friends turned out to be local spirits that she was unknowingly communicating with. Those spirits would help her drive off a rampaging fiend a few days later, turning her into an overnight hero, something the council would not abide by. Using these new abilities as an excuse the council offered her a mission that would guarantee her full membership into the clan if she completed it. Mari was too excited to question things and agreed. It wasn’t until the seals on her orders and equipment parcel had unlocked beyond clan territory that things started to get dubious. Her orders were simple: find the fiend called Kaldenacht, slay him, and bring back proof of death. There was no given deadline, but she could not return to Fuma territory unless she had her proof. Her given equipment was so ratty it wouldn’t have protected her in the training hall, much less the battlefield, but her orders said it was part of the test. Anyone can win with good gear, but it takes skill to win with this. The unworldly girl didn’t argue and set off, having no idea how completely she’d been betrayed.

The council had knowingly sent the girl after a Greater Fiend that was believed to be three hundred years dead, with nothing but castoff clothes and a battered old sword that could barely cut air. They laughed at their clever solution to the gaijin stain on their honor, knowing that fiends dissolved after death and that the needed proof could never be hers, amused by the stupidity with which she’d believed their promises and fully expecting to either soon hear of her death or to never hear from her again at all. Either worked for the council. The only saving grace to all this was that Mari was so poorly trained that she couldn’t be passed off as a renegade ninja like Kasumi had once been.

It was on this unknowingly fruitless endeavor that she first encountered Ako and Keiko. The pair quickly became the first true (human) friends the brunette had ever had. Ako also helped the younger girl to understand her connection to the sprits around her, a connection that in Ako’s own words is almost impossibly potent, allowing Mari to effortlessly do things that most channelers would need hours of meditation and preparation to accomplish. While Mari still hunts the fiend she’d been tasked to, the mission has taken a backseat to enjoying friends and acceptance for the first time in her life. The people Mari will meet through her new friends will only make things better.

Powers & Abilities: Mari’s powers are as unique as the woman herself is, considering she’s technically an adopted ninja. In terms of standard ninja powers, Mari has none. None at all. She is unable to manifest or utilize any of the normal ninja abilities. She cannot use ki to augment her physical abilities and has no capacity for ninpo. Even her hand to hand martial arts aren’t far beyond that of a trainee. She can fight normal humans if needed, but she struggles far more than Ryu or Ayane would. Ryu was livid upon learning for the first time just how substandard her training had been. He’s likened Mari’s situation to sending a student on an A-rank mission, something Hayabusa himself would normally undertake. He began to train Mari personally immediately, streamlining things as much as possible once he was able to figure out what she had and hadn’t been taught, and as a result her combat style is evolving into a hybrid style between Hayabusa skills and what little Fuma training she has received.

What has kept Mari alive until now has been her unusually potent spiritual powers. Able to commune with nearby spirits with no more difficulty than talking to another person (something that should be impossible) Mari has a virtually limitless source of information at her fingertips. Spirits can also aid her directly in battle. Her two oldest companions, a fox spirit and a bear spirit, are actually her main source of offensive power. Inari and Kuma (Mari was 8 years old at the time, and the spirits appreciated the irony of their names) can be channeled into Mari’s body, and manifest a variety of physical and mental augmentations when they do so. Inari imparts speed, agility, dexterity, sharp claws and a fox’s cunning. Mari once defeated Momiji in a training match by way of an intricate, subtle, multi-layered trap that Mari later admitted she would never have been able to conceptualize much less successfully execute without Inari’s influence. Kuma grants monumental strength, toughness, a more aggressive mindset, and powerfully enhanced senses, enough that Mari can and has tracked her quarry by smell alone. There has only been one time that Mari had to channel both her spirit companions at once, and it nearly killed her. And while she has no memory of the incident, the spirits noted that Mari gained additional abilities in this state: sonic shockwaves reminiscent of a bear’s thunderous roar, and the generation of up to two clones that can be illusionary or solid as required. The spirits theorize that this is actually Mari’s true potential and that she will eventually become strong enough to hold this form at will.

Description
Another piece by

Mari the Conduit

I hesitated on Mari for a while since as much as I wanted to have a brown haired kunoichi to round out the group (you can’t make Ninja Gaiden OC’s and not have a ninja!), I was concerned she’d be too close to Kasumi from Dead or Alive. Once I realized she didn’t have to be a normal ninja, I did some tweaking and you have what you see. Hope you enjoy. And yes, I also realize the parallels to Naruto, and I apologize for nothing.

Stats

Mari
Age: 21

Sex: female
Height: 5'7"
weight: athletic
Measurements: 38D-24-36
Magic: shamanic spirit channeling and conduit powers

Fighting style: hybrid Fuma/Hayabusa style ninjutsu

Eye color: brown
Hair: brown
Weapon: standard ninjato, eventually reforged by Muramasa

Background: Found orphaned and the only survivor of a car accident with no other relatives, Mari was taken in and raised by a high standing council member of the Fuma ninja clan while he was overseas on a mission. Naturally the more elitist and purist members of the council frowned on the idea of a ‘gaijin bitch’ being raised among them but could do nothing about it until he passed away. Even then, his will demanded she be trained and allowed to stay. Unfortunately, the wording gave the remaining council members wiggle room: she was raised (barely), she was allowed to stay (in a cabin that should have been torn down), and she was trained (in nothing but the barest of the basics).

Naturally, by the time she was 18, village children half her age were far better ninja than Mari. With no allies and no friends, she felt totally alone, which was why she still had what she thought was imaginary friends at her age. Imagine her surprise when those friends turned out to be local spirits that she was unknowingly communicating with. Those spirits would help her drive off a rampaging fiend a few days later, turning her into an overnight hero, something the council would not abide by. Using these new abilities as an excuse the council offered her a mission that would guarantee her full membership into the clan if she completed it. Mari was too excited to question things and agreed. It wasn’t until the seals on her orders and equipment parcel had unlocked beyond clan territory that things started to get dubious. Her orders were simple: find the fiend called Kaldenacht, slay him, and bring back proof of death. There was no given deadline, but she could not return to Fuma territory unless she had her proof. Her given equipment was so ratty it wouldn’t have protected her in the training hall, much less the battlefield, but her orders said it was part of the test. Anyone can win with good gear, but it takes skill to win with this. The unworldly girl didn’t argue and set off, having no idea how completely she’d been betrayed.

The council had knowingly sent the girl after a Greater Fiend that was believed to be three hundred years dead, with nothing but castoff clothes and a battered old sword that could barely cut air. They laughed at their clever solution to the gaijin stain on their honor, knowing that fiends dissolved after death and that the needed proof could never be hers, amused by the stupidity with which she’d believed their promises and fully expecting to either soon hear of her death or to never hear from her again at all. Either worked for the council. The only saving grace to all this was that Mari was so poorly trained that she couldn’t be passed off as a renegade ninja like Kasumi had once been.

It was on this unknowingly fruitless endeavor that she first encountered Ako and Keiko. The pair quickly became the first true (human) friends the brunette had ever had. Ako also helped the younger girl to understand her connection to the sprits around her, a connection that in Ako’s own words is almost impossibly potent, allowing Mari to effortlessly do things that most channelers would need hours of meditation and preparation to accomplish. While Mari still hunts the fiend she’d been tasked to, the mission has taken a backseat to enjoying friends and acceptance for the first time in her life. The people Mari will meet through her new friends will only make things better.

Powers & Abilities: Mari’s powers are as unique as the woman herself is, considering she’s technically an adopted ninja. In terms of standard ninja powers, Mari has none. None at all. She is unable to manifest or utilize any of the normal ninja abilities. She cannot use ki to augment her physical abilities and has no capacity for ninpo. Even her hand to hand martial arts aren’t far beyond that of a trainee. She can fight normal humans if needed, but she struggles far more than Ryu or Ayane would. Ryu was livid upon learning for the first time just how substandard her training had been. He’s likened Mari’s situation to sending a student on an A-rank mission, something Hayabusa himself would normally undertake. He began to train Mari personally immediately, streamlining things as much as possible once he was able to figure out what she had and hadn’t been taught, and as a result her combat style is evolving into a hybrid style between Hayabusa skills and what little Fuma training she has received.

What has kept Mari alive until now has been her unusually potent spiritual powers. Able to commune with nearby spirits with no more difficulty than talking to another person (something that should be impossible) Mari has a virtually limitless source of information at her fingertips. Spirits can also aid her directly in battle. Her two oldest companions, a fox spirit and a bear spirit, are actually her main source of offensive power. Inari and Kuma (Mari was 8 years old at the time, and the spirits appreciated the irony of their names) can be channeled into Mari’s body, and manifest a variety of physical and mental augmentations when they do so. Inari imparts speed, agility, dexterity, sharp claws and a fox’s cunning. Mari once defeated Momiji in a training match by way of an intricate, subtle, multi-layered trap that Mari later admitted she would never have been able to conceptualize much less successfully execute without Inari’s influence. Kuma grants monumental strength, toughness, a more aggressive mindset, and powerfully enhanced senses, enough that Mari can and has tracked her quarry by smell alone. There has only been one time that Mari had to channel both her spirit companions at once, and it nearly killed her. And while she has no memory of the incident, the spirits noted that Mari gained additional abilities in this state: sonic shockwaves reminiscent of a bear’s thunderous roar, and the generation of up to two clones that can be illusionary or solid as required. The spirits theorize that this is actually Mari’s true potential and that she will eventually become strong enough to hold this form at will.