Death Hand

Death Hand (Shi Te) is a member of the Oniryu who has sacrificed his humanity to give himself the strength of an unknown demon entity.

Appearance
Physically speaking, before his pact was made there was no real distinguishing features that could describe Takeda, which helped him to become very good at stealth and infiltration as well as escaping after finishing a job. Like most Asians, he has black hair—in his case cut relatively short—and brown eyes. Since his pact however his left hand has become possessed by otherworldly powers and as such appears demonic. It is a charcoal black in color and heavily scaled, with several short, horn-like protrusions extending back towards his elbow and a full set of long, seemingly indestructible claws, denser than iron.

Takeda wears the typical garb of a high-ranking member of the Oniyru assassin clan. This consists of a tight black jumpsuit and two-toed tabi shoes, which are typical of the clan, and a colored loincloth, which is only found on the higher-ranking members. Each expert is given a different, color-coded belt to help them identify each other from afar; the idea behind these colorful loincloths is that these high rankers are so great at stealth that they show off by being able to hide just as well even with a colorful item of clothing. Takeda's color is blue. A tier above regular experts who get the loincloths, known as master assassins are also afforded one item to wear of the same color as their own "signature" of sorts—Takeda has taken a blue headband.

Because of his death hand, he has eschewed other conventional ninja weapons, and does not carry a blade of any sort, seeing no need for it with his advantage.

Personality
Death Hand is actually very honorable, and will not act aggressively towards random passersby if the need does not call for it. He has been known to wax poetic around the curious. Normally if he does not see would-be heroes that are trying to stop him as being any sort of a threat, he will also completely ignore them and continue with his mission. However, should these heroes actually succeed in getting in the way of his task or otherwise prove themselves a match for him he may choose to fight them. If they mess up his goals, he may seek honor-bound vengeance.

While chances are he will slay his intended target, should he fail on multiple occasions he has been known to call off his revenge to move on with his life.

Death Hand is very focused on gaining power, especially amongst his fellow clansmen. This is so important to him he has risked his very humanity for this power grab.

Abilities
As a member of the Oniryu Clan, Death Hand has gained a mastery of the shogun arts, and is both an adept martial artists and skilled assassin—able to kill equally with his vast arsenal of weaponry as well as empty-handed. His ninja training also affords him great stealth techniques and he can deftly move to escape a situation should the need arise for him to do so.

However, by allowing the unnamed demon into his hand, its strength has been transferred to him as well; however, it only transfers to his left hand, where the demon how resides. This hand is horribly mutated, and sports intensely sharp claws for fingertips and spikes erupting from the back of the hand. It also has gained small eyes and a mouth of its own, full of razor-sharp teeth.

The Oniryu
Death Hand has climbed his way up the clan hierarchy and is now considered a high-ranking assassin. His hand's powers have not gone unnoticed and this has certainly aided him in his power grab. Despite his ever-growing strength and influence, he has yet to reach a level which the grandmaster, known as the Shogunryu, considers to be a personal threat. Instead, he acts as a sort of general towards the ninja masses, and is one of those allowed to order other Oniryu ninjas around.

Oniryu, be they ninja or kunoichi, directly serving under Death Hand at any given time are known as the Shioni, or the "Death Ogres". The Death Ogres are known to be considered expendable by Death Hand, and he has on at least one occasion purposefully had them possessed by demons themselves in order to strengthen them and increase his chances of defeating a foe, even if it meant destroying any humanity any of his followers may have had.

The Ninpo no Jagaa
The Oniryu, and by extension, Death Hand himself, are in a heated rivalry with the mysterious Ninpo no Jagaa, more commonly known as the Jaguar Ninjas.

The two ninja clans have been at war for centuries. Death Hand will kill Jaguar Ninjas and their ilk on sight, although not at the cost of his assigned missions. The Ninpo no Jagaa have sent their trained allies, the Assassquatches, to take out Death Hand specifically. So far they have all failed.

Death Hand despises their entire clan, which consists of the Jaguar Ninjas themselves as well as their allies, the Assassquatches and the Army Ants.

The Ninja Brawlers
Takeda has a problem with the Byrd family, even beyond their personal war against demonkind. He sees their antics as reckless and considers the lot of them incredibly immature and unskilled. All in all, he sees the entire family as a disgrace to the term "shogun" and takes it upon himself to wipe them out, although he has mostly failed at this, so far only killing their father and eldest brother. Despite his minimal success (when considering the sheer number of family members) he has not gloated over his kills, and in fact the Byrd family cannot be certain that it was even Death Hand who killed their beloved.

If Takeda has his way, he will see the entire Byrd family lineage wiped off the map. As this aids the Hand as well due to their being surprisingly successful at slaying demons, he often has plenty of time available to fight them.

Citrus, the Demonhunter
Surprisingly, Death Hand actually has quite a bit of respect for Citrus' skills as a fellow ninja. He has directly informed Citrus of his appreciation of his capabilities.

Although he would like to extend an invitation into the Oniryu he understands Citrus' detesting of demonkind and therefore he won't disrespect Citrus with such an offer due to Demon Hand's own demonic alignment. Of course, their opposing sides means that the two have come to blows on more than one occasion. Equal in overall skill level, Citrus has failed to cleave the hand from Demon Hand and Demon Hand, despite his alignment, respects his fellow ninja enough to never kill him during his own wins.

Although their meets are entirely at random, it is certain that they will one day run into one another again and blade will clash against claw.

Background History
Death Hand is a member of the Oniryu, a clan of ninja assassins who have secretly infiltrated much of the world which rival the mysterious Ninpo no Jagaa, more commonly known as the Jaguar Ninjas. Although a dedicated and talented individual, he desired to rise through the ranks and obsessed over the power to crush his enemies. To this effect he made a pact with an unknown demon, which has possessed his left hand and given his left arm intense strength. It is unknown what the demon wants in return, but Death Hand has become one of the greatest assassins amongst the Oniryu.

A Long Story
He first appears standing at the vista in the Vista Foothills, peering over the edge towards Analogue City. He does not pay the party much attention, quipping but blowing them off at the same time.

He is next only hinted at when the party runs across an assassinated official, though they are unable to link the two together. Later he appears in Whisper, again paying the party little attention and instead focusing on the Ninja Brawlers, even going so far as to sacrifice some of his own minions into lesser demon possession. When the party aids the Brawlers however, he is forced to acknowledge their abilities, but flees instead of attacking them, saving his vengeance for another day.

The party finally are forced to fight him in the Badlands, where he appears suddenly to inform them that their time is up, and that he has been hired by none other than Vordathco Mordecai. He is a difficult battle, being very agile and dodging many attacks but also dealing heavy physical damage with his demonic hand. Luckily the party are aided in combat by Citrus, a demonhunting ninja that they had just allied themselves with.

After his defeat, Death Hand disappears in a puff of smoke, fleeing to lands unknown.

Appearances

 * 1995 homemade calendar
 * Monster Space
 * Dangerous Wilds
 * Long Story