Characters / Tenchu Playable Characters

Playable characters from the Tenchu video game series:

Due to wiki policy, trope names will not be spoiler tagged. Please read at your own risk.

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Rikimaru

Rikimaru of the Azuma

"I wish only to serve Lord Gohda."

Voiced in Japanese by: Tōru Ōkawa (1, 3), Tomohiro Tsuboi (2), Rikiya Koyama (Shadow Assassins)

Voiced in English by: Paul Lucas (1), Rino Romano (2), Daniel Dae Kim (3), Liam O'Brien (Shadow Assassins)

"I'll happily suffer the title of 'fool' if it means I can save even one life from your blood-drenched dream!"

The leader of the Azuma Clan and one of the two remaining ninjas after the clan’s massacre, alongside Ayame, Rikimaru is one of the protagonists for all Tenchu games barring Fatal Shadows, where he doesn’t make an appearance, and Tenchu Z, where he is the protagonist’s teacher.

Raised in the way of the ninja by Master Shiunsai, the previous leader of the Azuma, Rikimaru became the leader at the young age of 18, making him the youngest leader ever in the history of his clan, after harrowing events that occurred during the early years of Lord Gohda’s reign.

An opposite to Ayame, Rikimaru is loyal to his lord and his clan, stoic, and completely devoid of any sense of humour, working in a strictly professional sense. When he was younger, however, he was a brash young man, overconfident and could give in to his emotions on those rare occasions, only for these traits to be pushed away when he fails to kill Tatsumaru, his clan brother, resulting in Tatsumaru scarring Rikimaru in his eye and escaping.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Rikimaru's lines are notably nicer and more heroic in English Dub than in original Japanese Dub. For example, in English dub of Punish The Evil Merchant, Rikimaru said that Echigoya is a greedy person and hoped that his death would be a valuable lesson to other wealthy merchants, while in Japanese dub Rikimaru simply said that Echigoya deserved to rot in hell for all his evil deeds.
• Anti-Hero: While he’s honourable and protects innocent people in the series, Rikimaru starts falling into this category after stabbing Kiku through the chest in order to kill Onikage while he was holding her hostage, shortly after being ridiculed by a dying Onikage for being a killer.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Rikimaru was considered the weakest child out of the three students taught by Master Shiunsai, after Tatsumaru wiped out the entire Azuma ninja clan aside from Rikimaru and Ayame, Rikimaru earned his position of leader of the Azuma by killing Tatsu's master, Lady Kagami.
• Badass in Distress: In Stealth Assassins, he is kidnapped and held prisoner if the player picks Ayame in the character select, pushing Ayame to go and rescue him.
• Badass Boast: He gives numerous ones throughout the series, usually before he beats his opponent.
  Rikimaru: I'm back to take you down, Onikage.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the first game, if Rikimaru is chosen by the player, then he is the one who goes to rescue both Ayame after she is kidnapped, and then Kiku in the last mission, effectively battling the King of Hell to rescue the princess. Even if Ayame is chosen, Rikimaru will appear after Mei-Oh’s defeat and guides Ayame and Kiku out of the crumbling fortress, ultimately staying behind so they could escape.
• Big "NO!": He gives one after winning a fight with Tatsumaru in Wrath of Heaven, only for Tatsumaru to give him information on how to beat Tenrai and be killed by the sorcerer after he revealed he was watching the fight.
• Character Death: He’s thought to have died at the end of Stealth Assassins after he held up a boulder blocking the way out of the fortress, allowing Ayame to flee with Kiku and his sword before the fortress collapsed around him. This is subverted by the events in Wrath of Heaven, as it turns out that Rikimaru went through the portal that Mei-Oh went through and survived until he came out the same portal during the third mission in the game.
• Continuity Snarl: The Doujutsu that Shiunsai sealed in Rikimaru’s damaged eye. It was revealed in Wrath of Heaven by Tatsumaru, as Rikimaru was not ready beforehand to use the power, and ends up using it to defeat Tenrai after he blinded Rikimaru in his other eye. However, this ability is not developed on or even mentioned after that game.
• Despair Event Horizon: He hits this after stabbing through Kiku to kill Onikage, and agrees that the demon is right and that Rikimaru was a monster and a murderer.
• Everybody Has Standards: While he’s capable of killing people without hesitation or much emotion, Rikimaru shows disgust at Nasu and Tokubei’s operation of taking village girls from their families and selling them as slaves. He also shows general scorn for those who harm the innocent.
• Every Scar Has a Story: While debuting with a heavy scar over his right eye, Birth of the Stealth Assassins ended up revealing how he got it: by being slashed there in a very personal fight.
• Eye Scream: He was slashed over his right eye by Tatsumaru in Birth of the Stealth Assassins, and was left blinded for the rest of his life. In Wrath of Heaven, he is injured once again in the same eye when facing enemy ninja after defeating Onikage in the third mission of his story.
• Foil: With Kagami in Birth of the Stealth Assassins. Both are leaders of a ninja clan and are unrelenting in their ideas, but while Rikimaru is loyal to Lord Gohda and his family and shows no problem over being considered just a tool to bring justice, Kagami ultimately betrays her lord and leads her clan out of the darkness so that they would be acknowledged for the sacrifices they make, wanting more than a death in the shadows.
• Good Is Not Nice: While he is the hero of the story, Rikimaru is also a ninja who has killed numerous people, including those who were just paid to guard a place, and ultimately puts his mission before anyone else, eventually choosing to follow through on Kiku’s orders to go through her in order to kill Onikage and avoid him escaping again.
• Handicapped Badass: He is blinded in one eye and yet that doesn’t stop him from being able to fight numerous enemies, up to and including the King of Hell, a powerful sorcerer, enemy ninja, demons and even the undead.
• The Hero: He's the protagonist of Stealth Assassins, Birth of the Stealth Assassins, Wrath of Heaven and Shadow Assassins.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He does this to allow Ayame and Kiku to escape from Mei-Oh’s fortress after it starts to collapse. Later Subverted, as he reappears in Wrath of Heaven as his shadow, and then the real Rikimaru is released from the portal that he jumped into to save his life.
• Hypocrite: Due to being raised in Feudal Japan, he holds some old-fashioned beliefs and doesn’t think that women should be fighting with weapons like men do, despite the fact that his only remaining clan member, and a worthy adversary herself, is a woman.
• Katanas Are Just Better: He wields the clan sword, Izayoi.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Subverted. Rikimaru is unable to bring himself to kill Tatsumaru right after he killed their master, allowing Tatsumaru to escape and injure Rikimaru in his eye. Later in the same game, Tatsumaru kills himself during his fight with Ayame, Rikimaru coming across the scene too late and given Izayoi by Ayame. In Wrath of Heaven, after Tatsumaru kills Ganda in the Buddah Temple, Rikimaru will fight him, yet he will become too exhausted from fighting to finish the job and Tenrai will kill Tatsumaru for betraying him. Given Tatsumaru's Heel–Face Turn and Rikimaru's reaction to his death, it's doubtful that he could kill Tatsumaru even if he wasn't drained from fighting.
• The Leader: After the death of Master Shiunsai and Tatsumaru’s betrayal, Rikimaru takes over the desolated clan as the master and remains like that until presumed death at the end of Stealth Assassins. This left Ayame as the only one in charge, until his return in Wrath of Heaven where he takes the title once more.
• Mighty Glacier: He is much stronger and able to take more damage than Ayame, but he is slower than she is and isn’t able to get as many hits in as she can.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to him murdering Kiku to kill Onikage, unable to see where the justice was in the death of the teenage princess.
• Mystical White Hair: His hair is snow white, even when Rikimaru was a young adult. It sets him apart from the other characters, most of which have normal looking dark brown/black hair.
• Never Found the Body: He was left behind in Mei-Oh’s castle, and his body was never recovered from the ruins. So, Ayame stabbed Izayoi in the ground to mark his grave, and he came to reclaim the sword in the third game.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: He follows the rules of his clan to stay his blade from the flesh of the innocent, and the game gives out penalties to the player if they go around killing civilians while playing as him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the second game, when Rikimaru hesitates in delivering the finishing blow to Tatsumaru during the massacre of their clan, it allows Tatsumaru to strike back and scar Rikimaru in the eye, before making his escape. While he’s dying, Shiunsai gives Rikimaru advice for the next time he faces Kagami and her group.
  • He does this again in Shadow Assassins. By impaling Kiku with his sword in order to kill Onikage, he caused Ayame to go into a Heroic BSoD} and allows her to be possessed by Onikage. It’s unknown how this ends, as Rikimaru reappears years later in Tenchu Z while Ayame is nowhere to be seen.
• Parental Abandonment: His biological father was killed by Shiunsai on a mission, and his mother and a servant came across the scene of the crime, which ended up with their deaths as well. As Rikimaru was only an infant, Shiunsai showed him mercy and instead took the infant into the Azuma to be raised as a ninja.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: If he dies in Wrath of Heaven, Rikimaru's Death screen shows his sword buried in a monochromatic winter hill, while the poem depicts him returning to the shadows upon death.
• The Rival: His main rivalry with Onikage, as the two appear to face off with each other in every game that they appear in, barring Tenchu Z, that only has Rikimaru appear, and Fatal Shadows, where neither Rikimaru nor Onikage make an appearance.
• Scars Are Forever: He received a scar across his eye from Tatsumaru when he was 18, and still has the scar decades later in Tenchu Z.
• Stealth Expert: This comes with being a ninja, and a grandmaster at that.
• The Stoic: He very rarely shows any emotion, even able to keep his cool in tense situations. When he was younger, he was more prone to bursts of anger, but he trained to suppress that after the death of Shiunsai and the destruction of the Azuma Clan. That being said, he still has moments where his emotions come through, such as Tatsumaru’s death during his story in Wrath of Heaven.
• Trauma Conga Line: He first loses his clansman and brother figure, Tatsumaru, after he falls off a cliff during a fight with Kagami and presumes him to be dead, and then finds out that not only is Tatsumaru not dead, but he has joined the Burning Dawn after suffering from amnesia and massacred the Azuma Clan, as well as personally killing Master Shiunsai just as Rikimaru reaches the house they were fighting in. Despite winning his fight with Tatsumaru, Rikimaru hesitates in striking him down, and ends up being scarred in his right eye for life and losing his sight, before holding Shiunsai in his arms as he dies, only receiving advice on controlling his emotions the next time he faces Kagami and the Burning Dawn. Even though he and Gohda’s men are able to defeat the Burning Dawn, he loses Tatsumaru once more and is the last remaining Azuma ninja alongside Ayame.
  • His trauma continues after Birth of the Assassins. After managing to avoid death in Mei-Oh’s fortress and returns to his lord, Rikimaru is faced with a revived Tatsumaru and has to fight him again in the Buddha Temple, only for Tatsumaru to betray Tenrai and reveal the way to defeat the sorcerer. Tenrai, angered by the betrayal, extinguishes the candle and kills Tatsumaru, despite Rikimaru’s attempts to save his clansman. Years later, he has to deal with being framed as a traitor in Shadow Assassins, and eventually becomes so disillusioned that he truly believes himself to be a monster after having to kill Kiku.
• When He Smiles: Rikimaru's usually stoic and taciturn as a rock, so when Ayame sees him flash a rare, genuinely appreciative smile during her ending in Time of the Assassins, she gladly comments on it.
• Would Hurt a Child: Unfortunately, he goes through with the plan to stab through Kiku to get to Onikage on her orders, even though he shows some hesitation and moral dilemma in doing so.
• Young and in Charge: He takes over the Azuma Clan at just 18, after Tatsumaru’s betrayal and Shiunsai’s death.

Ayame

Ayame of the Azuma

"You call that stealth?"

Voiced in Japanese by: Yoko Soumi (1, 3, Fatal Shadows), Masako Inui (2), Yuko Kaida (Shadow Assassins)

Voiced in English by: Terry Osada (1), Debi Mae West (2), Michelle Krusiec (3), Unknown (Fatal Shadows), Megan Hollingshead (Shadow Assassins)

"Your arrows are like you, weak and twisted. I fear them not."

A kunoichi of the Azuma Clan and one of the two remaining ninjas after the clan’s massacre, alongside Rikimaru, Ayame is one of the protagonists for all the Tenchu games barring Tenchu Z, where she doesn’t even make an appearance. Her past before being brought into the Azuma is a mystery, as Shiunsai came across her destroyed village and found a traumatized Ayame watching her loved ones float down the river, unable to bring himself to leave her behind. Unable to train her as a kunoichi due to lack of resources, Ayame was raised alongside Tatsumaru and Rikimaru as a regular ninja, and proved to have the most raw talent out of the three despite her terrible attitude.

Unlike her clan brother, Rikimaru, Ayame is sarcastic and fond of taunting her enemies before she kills them, showing no hesitation in taking another life. However, she is able to feel emotions and has moments of sympathy, shown in her interactions with Lord Gohda’s daughter, Kiku, as well as Ayame protecting a poisoned Rin from Futaba’s arrows at the cost of herself being poisoned. After Tatsumaru’s death and her whole clan being wiped out, she moved on from a laid back young teenager and promised to be tough for Kiku, becoming a more accepting and mature woman in the later games.

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• Action Girl: She’s the only female ninja in the Azuma Clan, up until the customisable protagonist of Tenchu Z, and she is able to hold her own against a vast majority of villains that battle with her.
• Alliterative Name: Ayame of the Azuma.
• Badass Boast: Similar to Rikimaru, Ayame throws a few of these during her appearances in the series, including telling the King of Hell himself to shut up and tell her where Kiku was being held.
  Ayame: If you worried more about your skills and less about my manners, you'd probably still be alive.
• Big Damn Heroes: If the player chooses Ayame in the first game, she will be the one to rescue a captured Rikimaru and face off against Goo the jailer ^note  According to Fatal Shadows this is canonically what happened., as well as being the one who goes to Mei-Oh’s fortress for the sole purpose of rescuing Kiku from him. She once again rescues Kiku in Shadow Assassins, after the princess was kidnapped by Rinshi.
• Big "NO!": She gives this when Kiku dies in her arms, completely devastated over the loss.
• Big Sister Instinct: She develops this with Kiku after rescuing her in Birth of the Stealth Assassins, and becomes a big sister figure for the princess for years afterwards. Ayame had become fiercely protective of Kiku, even going as far as chasing after Rinshi after she kidnaps Kiku in Shadow Assassins, and is enraged when she loses sight of the kunoichi.
• Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: As Birth of the Stealth Assassins shows, as a youth she would throw out childish insults at her enemies.
  Genbu: [I'm] Genbu the wise! One of the four lords of the Burning Dawn.
  Ayame: You mean Genbu the drooling idiot, one of the four idiots of idiotland.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her hair is cut short and lacking her signature ponytail in Shadow Assassins.
• Children Forced to Kill: As this comes with being raised in a ninja clan, Ayame was just 14 during the events of Birth of the Stealth Assassins and had to kill mooks and enemy ninja alike, eventually culminating in her watching as Tatsumaru impales himself on Izayoi as she held it at him.
• Combat Pragmatist: Due to her lithe frame, Ayame does not possess the raw strength that Tatsumaru, Rikimaru or Tesshu have, and so has to use her entire body to break someone’s neck, while Rikimaru can do it with just his hands. She will use any method to kill the enemy, whether it’s her thighs, her entire body or blades in the enemy’s kidneys.
• Damsel in Distress: In the first game, where if Rikimaru is chosen, she is kidnapped by Onikage and held captive until Rikimaru is able to save her. In Wrath of Heaven, she is caught off-guard by a blowgun and taken to Amagai Castle by Kimaira, before she kills him and leaves the castle to make her way to the Buddha Temple. In Rikimaru’s story, she is held captive after being framed for attacking Lord Gohda and refuses Rikimaru’s help to escape, instead pointing him to the direction of the Bamboo Forest, where she saw her imposter flee to. In Fatal Shadows, she is poisoned after defending Rin from Futaba’s arrows and saves the young kunoichi’s life, but is captured by the Kuroya and kept at their manor.
  • Damsel out of Distress: All save one time, Ayame was the main person in the plan to break her out, and even in Fatal Shadows, she still escaped the manor on her own after Rin gives her the antidote to the poison, even killing Shinogi before leaving.
• Deadpan Snarker: Her default response to anything in the game.
  Ayame: Now let's see. Stealing. Kidnapping. Bribery. You two have been bad boys.
• Demonic Possession: In the extended ending of Shadow Assassins, Ayame appears to have been possessed by Onikage after Kiku’s death broke her. It is currently unknown what happened afterwards, though.
• Doomed Hometown: Her village before she was taken into the Azuma. When Shiunsai finds it, the village was already in ruins and everyone living there had been slaughtered, all but Ayame. The Azuma village is this as well when Kagami and the Burning Dawn attack, massacring all the Azuma ninja within and destroying their homes, leaving Ayame and Rikimaru as the sole survivors with no home.
• Dual Wielding: She uses a pair of kodachi/twin daggers as her main weapons, as they are lighter and easier to use than the katana that Rikimaru uses.
• Flower Motif: Befitting of her name, Ayame is associated with flower petals, with petals decorating her Fatal Shadows outfit, her Death poem in Wrath of Heaven having sakura petals falling into water, and her most cherished gift from Kiku having petals on the bell.
• Hypocrite: She taunts a female warrior who stops her from passing through a checkpoint and says that “they should be out finding a boyfriend rather than playing with their father’s weapons”. This is ignoring the fact that Ayame fights with weapons most of her life, and is a woman as well.
• In the Back: A few of her stealth kills are this, usually if the player attacks an unsuspecting enemy from behind.
• Kick Chick: She uses her legs in her fighting style and numerous of her stealth kills.
• Kid Hero: Unlike Rikimaru and Tatsumaru in Birth of the Stealth Assassins, who were adults during the events of the second game, Ayame was only a young teenage girl and can go toe to toe with the same enemies that Rikimaru and Tatsumaru faces.
• Kill the Ones You Love: She had a crush on Tatsumaru, and is crushed when it’s revealed that he betrayed the Azuma and even started developing feelings for Kagami. In the end, while she does vow to kill Tatsumaru herself, he does it for her by impaling himself on Izayoi to make up for his crimes.
• The Lancer: She becomes this to Rikimaru being the leader of the Azuma, as she is the only other ninja in the clan, and is basically the second in command.
• The Leader: After the events of Stealth Assassins, she takes control of the Azuma Clan when Rikimaru is left behind in Mei-Oh’s fortress and presumed dead. Fatal Shadows show that she still kept going on missions for Lord Gohda for the year that Rikimaru was missing, keeping an eye on his lands.
• Little Miss Badass: She’s a dangerous kunoichi even at the age of fourteen years old, and goes into fights with people that are twice her size and strength, most notably Genbu the Wise and Tatsumaru.
• Little Miss Snarker: Her snarky attitude was still there in her youth.
• Meaningful Name: Played with. Her name is written as "彩女". Many people who interact with Ayame, including Genbu, think that her name means "Iris" (あやめ) while Ayame herself believes that her name stands for Ayameru (殺める) which means "To Kill".
• Mysterious Past: Her past before she joined the Azuma is never known. Her village was destroyed and her family was slaughtered, without any information about who they were or what they did before the destruction of their village, and Ayame doesn’t remember what her life was like before the Azuma. This is likely going to remain like that due to her memory loss.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Similar to Rikimaru, Ayame follows the code of her clan to never hurt a civilian, and the game will give the player penalties to their score if they kill any innocents while playing as her.
• Parental Abandonment: Not out of choice, as her entire family was slaughtered and Shiunsai had no luck in finding her parents. Ayame doesn’t remember who they were, anyway, and likely wouldn’t have recognised them even if he did find them.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: If she dies in Wrath of Heaven, Ayame's Death screen shows flower petals drifting onto the reflection of the moon in water, while her poem depicts her staring into the reflection of her swords as she dies.
• Purple Is Powerful: Her outfit in Fatal Shadows and Shadow Assassins are mostly purple in colour.
• Stealth Expert: She was raised to be a ninja, so this is a given.
• Supporting Protagonist: She's ultimately this in Fatal Shadows. While she's looking into the Kuroya due to the destruction of the Hagakure Village near Gohda's lands, the story is mostly about Rin's revenge against the people who wronged her. Eventually, this culminates in her facing off against Jyuzou, the leader, while Ayame's missions are mostly filler; an example being after Rin kills the bandit leader in the fourth mission and Ayame's mission after that is just to fight a bear and leave the caves.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: She sports one while floating on a raft after the destruction of the Fire Demon, ready to die after losing nearly everyone she loved. In Shadow Assassins, she gives a more tragic one after Kiku’s death and the revelation that she was possessed by Onikage.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her sisters bell can be seen as this after Kiku’s death.
• Trauma Conga Line: She goes through this during the second game as well, having to see her clans brother and crush fall into the ocean and be presumed dead, until it’s revealed that he wasn’t dead and in fact betrayed the Azuma for Kagami and tried to attack Ayame, shortly after killing Shiunsai and killing the entire clan save her and Rikimaru. When she goes to kill Tatsumaru, she is horrified when he impales himself on Izayoi and dies, and ultimately ends up floating on a raft from the destroyed ship, ready to die and join her loved ones until her promise to Kiku spurred her to keep her promise and to keep going. That is until Shadow Assassins, where Ayame chases after Rinshi when she kidnaps Kiku and, even though she saves the princess, it turns out to be Rinshi in disguise and injuries Ayame before attempting to kill her. She believes Rikimaru, her only clansman left, betrayed Gohda like Tatsumaru did, until he proves his innocence, and then ends up killing Kiku in order to stop Onikage from escaping. It’s heart wrenching to see how broken Ayame is as she cradles Kiku’s dead body, and this final straw is what allows Onikage to come back as the hatred in Ayame deepens and allows the demon to possess her.
• Weak, but Skilled: She’s not as strong as Rikimaru, but she’s more agile and has a longer hit combo than he does.
• Would Hurt a Child: When attacked by a devastated Rin in the ruins of her village, Ayame forgoes any attempt to explain to the teenage girl and goes straight to fighting, winning after a short battle. Then, she fights Rin again in a later mission while the assassin was trying to reach the town where her target was. That being said, Rin attacks first, and Ayame doesn’t attempt to kill Rin after the latter admits that she doesn’t know who the Kuroya are, and even uses a flash bomb when Rin tries to attack again out of grief.

Tatsumaru

Tatsumaru of the Azuma

"Unforgivable crimes must be punished. The traitor must die."

Voiced in Japanese by: Kenji Hamada (2 and 3)

Voiced in English by: David Moore (2), Quinton Flynn (3)

"We don't belong in this world. I'm taking you back to Hell with me. Farewell, Ayame."

The third and eldest student of Master Shiunsai and clan brother of Rikimaru and Ayame, Tatsumaru was raised the longest in the Azuma Clan and given the duty to one day take over leadership from his master, along with the clan sword; Izayoi. He’s the third playable character in Tenchu: Birth of the Stealth Assassins, before he falls off a cliff during a fight with Kagami, the leader of an enemy ninja clan, and suffered from amnesia, forgetting his identity and his connection to the Azuma. Molded by Kagami, he takes the title of Seiryu the Blue Dragon and joins her group, slaughtering the Azuma Clan and personally killing his master and scarring Rikimaru in his eye before escaping.

On the ship that Kagami had built, the Fire Demon, Tatsumaru faces off against Ayame and ends up losing the fight, impaling himself on Izayoi to make up for the things that he had done. After Rikimaru slays Kagami and Gohda’s men start to destroy the ship, Kagami drags herself to Tatsumaru’s body and remains there as the ship blows up. Years later, Tatsumaru is resurrected by Tenrai, before he betrays him to help Rikimaru/Ayame and ends up dying again.

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• Amnesiac Dissonance: He falls off a cliff whilst fighting Kagami and suffers from Amnesia, being taken into the Burning Dawn and later slaughtered the entire Azuma Clan with them, sparing just Rikimaru and Ayame. Afterwards, he remembers his past and connection to the Azuma and is guilt-ridden with the revealation, though he still remains with the Burning Dawn because of this guilt.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He was a capable ninja before he became leader of the Azuma.
• Back from the Dead: In Wrath of Heaven, he was resurrected by Tenrai to join his group and fight against the Azuma once again. However, he ends up betraying Tenrai to help Rikimaru and Ayame later on in their stories.
• Big Brother Mentor: He's this to Rikimaru, especially in the early part of Birth of the Stealth Assassins.
• Captain Obvious: He first met Kagami while she was dressed in her Noh attire. She calls him "very perceptive" for seeing that she is female.
• Character Death: After coming to a draw in a fight with Ayame aboard the Fire Demon, Tatsumaru impales himself on Izayoi to amend for the wrongs that he did during the game, and perishes from his wounds. The boat his body was on blew up after Lord Gohda's men attacked it, taking his corpse with it. In Wrath of Heaven, he dies in multiple ways depending on the character the player chooses and the choices they make during the campaign.
  • If the player had chosen Rikimaru, then Tatsumaru betrays Tenrai after fighting Rikimaru in the Buddha Temple and tells him how to defeat the sorcerer, only for Tenrai to extinguish the candle that represents Tatsumaru's life, killing the ninja while Rikimaru watches.
  • If the player chooses Ayame and decides not to fight Onikage, then after she defeats Tatsumaru, he will urge her to go on and defeat Tenrai, appearing to have died from his wounds. However, after Tenrai throws himself in the portal to bring back Mei-Oh, Tatsumaru and Rikimaru will appear, with Rikimaru taking Ayame out of the fortress while Tatsumaru throws himself into the portal with explosions to detroy it. If Ayame picks to fight Onikage, then after she defeats Tatsumaru, Onikage will appear and attempt to fight Ayame only for Tatsumaru to stab Onikage through the back and drag him into a chasm, killing both of them.
• Chick Magnet: He attracts the attention of both Ayame and Kagami.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: He tells Ayame that he doesn't want to kill her in Wrath of Heaven, but will have to if they meet again. Sure enough, he fights her when she runs into him again in Tenrai's fortress, but loses the fight to her.
• The Dragon: He becomes a member of the Burning Dawn, being one of the strongest and Number Two to the leader; Kagami. In Wrath of Heaven, he's the last person that Ayame will face before confronting Tenrai, and is this along with Onikage in Rikimaru's campaign.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: That being said, Onikage reveals that Tatsumaru knew what he was doing all along and was planning on betraying Tenrai to help the Azuma. In Ayame's campaign, he impales and throws himself and Onikage into a chasm to save her life, as well as throwing himself with explosives in a portal that Tenrai escaped in to destroy it, preventing Mei-Oh's return.
• Driven to Suicide: After Ayame defeats him in battle, he pulls the Izayoi she's holding at him into his chest out of remorse for wiping out his clan.
• Face–Heel Turn: After suffering from amnesia, he turns against the Azuma and joins Kagami and the Burning Dawn, massacring his old clan on her orders and personally killing Master Shiunsai. Even after he figures out his past, he stays with the Burning Dawn out of guilt and later kills himself to repent.
• Fallen Hero: Becomes this after betraying the Azuma for the Burning Dawn due to losing his memory.
• Final Boss: For Ayame's story in Tenchu 2.
• Genocide from the Inside: He does this to the Azuma late into the second game, leaving only Ayame and Rikimaru alive.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When Ayame holds Izayoi at him, he impales himself with it and tells a shocked Ayame that it's for what he did to the Azuma.
• Lady and Knight: The Knight to Kagami's Lady.
• The Leader: He became the leader of the Azuma Clan before being sent to help Lord Gohda in the civil war against his uncle, being given Izayoi by Master Shiunsai. This leadership doesn't last long.
• Lightning Bruiser: He uses both speed and strength in his fighting, one of his moves being the Lightning-Speed Combo.
• Master Swordsman: That being said, he only draws his sword when facing against he felt were highly skilled or worth and most of his attack combo is him using his fists and legs.
• Meaningful Name: "Tatsu" = Dragon. He is The Dragon to Kagami until his death, and then later resurrected to be this again to Tenrai in Wrath of Heaven. His name given when he joins the Burning Dawn is Seiryu - The Blue Dragon.
• Neck Lift: Performing a stealth kill on an enemy from the front will cause Tatsumaru to lift his opponent by the neck single-handed, before crushing the enemy's neck with a sickening crunch.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By sparing Rikimaru and Ayame, he allows the two to join with Lord Gohda and stop the Burning Dawn's plans and kill off his comrades in the group, ultimately ending in his and Kagami's death as well as the destruction of the Fire Demon.
• Not Quite Dead: After being implied to have died from his wounds when defeated by Ayame in Wrath of Heaven, he appears to have survived in the final mission, appearing to save Ayame when Tenrai enters the portal to bring back Mei-Oh. Ordering Rikimaru to take Ayame out of there, he follows after Tenrai with explosions, destroying both the portal and his fortress. He doesn't do this if Ayame chose to fight Onikage earlier on in the game, and instead drags Onikage and himself into a chasm where both of them die.
• Official Couple: He and Kagami become this late into the second game.
• Parental Abandonment: Similar to Rikimaru, Tatsumaru's father was assassinated by Master Shiunsai when he was very young and the young boy was taken into the Azuma. It's unknown what happened to his mother, though it's safe to say that she died as well.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: This to Shiunsai, though it was more the amnesia that turned Tatsumaru rather than his own choice. Staying with the Burning Dawn after killing Shiunsai and the Azuma was his own choice, however.
• Redemption Equals Death: In the second game, he stabs himself with Izayoi after coming to a draw with Ayame so that he could make up for betraying the Azuma. In the third game, while he's not loyal to Tenrai, he still brought the Jewel of Heaven to him and fought against both Rikimaru and Ayame (Which can lead to their deaths if the player isn't able to defeat him), before killing himself to save Ayame from Onikage/prevent Mei-Oh from returning or being killed by Tenrai after telling Rikimaru about the power in his eye that could defeat the sorcerer.
• The Reveal: Mid-way through Birth of the Stealth Assassins, he appears to not have died from falling off the cliff and has joined the Burning Dawn.
• Sleeping with the Boss: Though it is unknown if their relationship was in fact sexual, Tatsumaru still gets into a relationship with Kagami; the leader of the Burning Dawn.
• Spinning Piledriver: His Izuna Drop move in Wrath of Heaven.
• Surpassed the Teacher: He came back and defeated Shiunsai in battle, killing his old master by impaling him with Izayoi.
• Sword and Fist: His fighting style mainly makes use of his brute strength to take down enemies, often delivering a finishing blow with his sword, Izayoi. This gives him a stealthy advantage over Rikimaru and Ayame since he does not need to sheath his weapon to drag corpses around.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He says this in Wrath of Heaven about Ayame, after stopping the twin samurai brothers, Ukyo and Sakyo, from killing her at the abandoned temple.
  Jinnai: That is not a reason. That is an excuse. Is it your past?
  Tatsumaru: It is my fate to kill her, not yours. That is all.
• Together in Death: In the third game, while running towards the portal that Tenrai escaped in, he asks Kagami to wait for him in the afterlife.
• Villain Protagonist: After he loses his memory he is taken in by the Burning Dawn and spends the rest of his campaign killing Gohda's soldiers. Even after regaining his memories he still chooses to stay with the Burning Dawn, firmly solidifying his position as a villain.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about anything regarding Tatsumaru without saying that he betrayed the Azuma, massacring them, for the Burning Dawn and was brought back to life by Tenrai, only to betray him to help his old clansmen. That and he and Kagami end up getting together.
• Would Hit a Girl: He shows no hesitation in fighting Kagami, female kunoichi, or Ayame later on, despite them being women.
• Would Hurt a Child: He strikes out against Ayame after killing his Azuma brethren and later fights her again. She was just fourteen during this time.
• You Killed My Father: Subverted. While Shiunsai did kill Tatsumaru's father and saw it fitting that Tatsumaru was the one in turn to kill him, Tatsumaru never knew of this fact and killed Shiunsai on the orders of Kagami, not because of a need for revenge.

Tesshu

Tesshu Fujioka

"The old man warned me never to cross swords with Azuma ninja."

Voiced in English by: Cam Clarke

"There is still time. If you hurry, you can catch your brother on his way to Hell."

A doctor by day and an assassin by night, Tesshu Fujioka is a member of the Muzen, an underground organisation that hires assassins to murder if it serves justice, and answers to his motojime; Zennosuke Ikomaya/Otou. The third protagonist in Wrath of Heaven, Tesshu’s story follows him on his assassination missions until he runs into an old member of his group; Jinnai, who is trying to kill Zennosuke to get rid of competition for contracts. While he is unable to save his motojime, Tesshu manages to get revenge by killing Jinnai, knowing the secret about Jinnai being the identical twin brothers; Ukyo and Sakyo.

He has a cameo in Fatal Shadows, appearing after Rin defeats Futaba and Hitoha.

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• Aesop Amnesia: In Time of Assassins, he is shown to be conflicted throughout his story about just being a murderer for hire and being betrayed by his boss, only to move on to a new town and start again. By the end of the game, he forgets all about this and joins Zennosuke to continue to work as an assassin in the lands of Gohda. Luckily for Tesshu, Zennosuke doesn't try to betray him like his previous bosses.
• Assassins Are Always Betrayed: His first boss betrays him in Time of Assassins, and ends up being killed by Tesshu before he leaves for Mutsumi.
• Badass in Distress: After defeating Ganda, Tesshu reaches a small garden outside the Buddha Temple to meet up with Senkichi for his payment and is caught by numerous guards. Jinnai, an old member of the Muzen, appears and takes Tesshu captive. Locked in a cell within a limestone cavern, Tesshu is given a choice by Jinnai to join them and kill Zennosuke, though he refuses and is left to die in his cell. Fortunately, he picks the lock of his cell and escapes shortly after, killing all the guards left to watch him.
• Badass Normal: He isn't a trained ninja like the other protagonists, rather just a doctor who works as an assassin at night. That said, he is still able to fight to a draw with Rikimaru, and can hold himself against Ayame despite her eventual win pushing him to surrender.
• The Big Guy: Out of the protagonists, Tesshu possesses the most raw strength out of them and in turn can take the most damage.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Subverted. After killing Sakyo and moving to the leave the village, Tesshu is stabbed through the abdomen by one of the Jinnai brother's men. However, he doesn't die from this injury and ends up killing a few of the men before the explosions Sakyo planted beforehand wipes out the rest of the group while an injured Tesshu leaves.
• The Cameo: Both he and Zennosuke make an appearance in Fatal Shadows after Rin defeats Hitoha and Futaba. Tesshu stabs an injured Hitoha in the neck before he could attack again, and after Rin leaves to warn Ogin, he compliments Ogin's choice in assassins. As he and Zennosuke leave, Hitoha is revealed to not have died from the injury and tries to burn Futaba's body, only to finally perish. After expressing confusion over how he could have survived that, Tesshu leaves with Zennosuke.
• Code of Honour: Being part of an organisation that only takes assassination contracts that serve justice, Tesshu follows his own code. He won't kill innocents, he won't kill people until he has been paid, and he even spares Mifuyu's life when she made it clear that she wanted to kill him, instead telling her to go on with her life after protecting her paralysed body from guards that were paid to kill her and Tesshu. The second point is somewhat Gameplay and Story Segregation as the player is able to kill people in his last mission even if he hadn't received payment from Zennosuke yet, despite the opening screen saying that he won't commit murder until he receives his contract, at least in the Japanese dub.
• Deadly Doctor: He works as a doctor proficient in Japanese medicine during the day, but works as an assassin for the Muzen at night. He uses his knowledge in his stealth kills, and the player is shown just how much damage he does through X-Rays, whether it's him pulling out hearts, breaking their spines, or breaking both their elbows and turning their heads around before letting them walk around for a few seconds until they collapse to the ground.
• Expy: He's a doctor who works as an assassin for an organisation that serves justice when the law is unable to, and uses acupuncture needles in his stealth kills. Along with his looks, he's basically based on Ken Watanabe from Baien the Assassin.
• Failure Hero: Despite his efforts, Tesshu wasn't able to save Senkichi from Jinnai or reach Zennosuke in time, leading to the old man being impaled through the back by Jinnai again, and in the end retires from being an assassin. The only good thing he got out of the story was killing both Ukyo and Sakyo for the murder of Zennosuke.
• The Hero: He's the third protagonist of Wrath of Heaven, alongside Rikimaru and Ayame. You have to beat both of their stories before unlocking him, however.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: His fighting style resembles koppojutsu; which uses brute strength and crippling blows on the opponent. He only uses his senbon in his stealth kills and during cutscenes.
• In the Back: This is how he's stabbed by one of Jinnai's men after killing Sakyo. He survives this attack, and the henchmen don't.
• Made of Iron: Both story and gamewise. Gamewise, he is the strongest of the three protagonists in Wrath of Heaven and can receive the most damage. Storywise, He survives both battles with Ukyo and Sakyo, before being stabbed through the abdomen by one of their remaining men, and after killing a few, Tesshu walks out of the village as it explodes and survives his wounds.
• Martial Medic: He uses koppojutsu style fighting and is a doctor during the day.
• Mighty Glacier: Tesshu may be the strongest of the three playable characters, but he is also the slowest.
• Mysterious Past: Nothing is known about Tesshu's younger years before he became an assassin, and only a small part of his time before meeting Zennosuke was shown in Time of Assassins, mostly diving into his work with other motojimes and his friendship with Jinnai, who eventually betrays him.
• Off with His Head!: What you get for his Game Over screen as his blooded head is left out in the setting sunlight, to set an example as a failed assassin.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: If he dies in Wrath of Heaven, Tesshu's Death screen shows his decapitated head on a plank of wood, while his poem depicts how he will not see another day.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: He gives one to Jinnai Sakyo, shown at the top of his page. He also gives one to Yuge in Return From Darkness.
  Tesshu: I'm here to pick you up.
  Yuge: Who sent you?
  Tesshu: A master of a land called Hell.
• Pressure Point: While killing an enemy in his stealth kills, he often uses his hands or his sendon to hit these. When Mifuyu tracks him down to kill him, Tesshu paralyses her by doing this and hides her body when ronin samurai come to kill her and him.
• Retired Badass: After Zennosuke's death and bringing justice to the Jinnai brothers, Tesshu retires from being an assassin. This doesn't mean that he won't steal Rikimaru's kill some time later to settle the score.
• Revenge: One of his motivations when assassinating Ukyo and Sakyo. While Zennosuke never reveals his injury, it's implied that Tesshu suspected something was wrong and said his goodbyes as he left to find the brothers. When Ayame comes to find Zennosuke already dead, Tesshu attacks her to avenge his death.
• Rival: Temporarily to Rikimaru, after the ninja steals Tesshu's kill and so he sneaks into Gohda's castle to find Rikimaru and teach him a lesson. After their fight, Tesshu is satisfied with the draw and leaves to carry on, only coming back after killing Ukyo and Sakyo at the end of his story to steal Rikimaru's kill as payback.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After finishing his mission at Todakoro's manor, he hears that Todakoro had been murdered and prodominantly leaves before being discovered and blamed for the murder.
• Storming the Castle: More of a stealthy example. After Rikimaru kills Nasu before Tesshu and ends up voiding his contract, resulting in Tesshu losing his payment, Tesshu infiltrates Gohda's castle and kills the guards in his way to reach Rikimaru, before the two start battling each other into a draw.
• Undying Loyalty: To Zennosuke. When captured by Jinnai, Tesshu refuses his deal to join them and kill Zennosuke, and rejects the same proposal after being given the contract by a dying Zennosuke to kill the Jinnai brothers. When Zennosuke reveals that Jinnai tried to kill him, Tesshu's first response is to see that his friend was alright, before being scolded by Zennosuke.
• Unflinching Walk: He calmly walks out of the exploding Ronin village after Sakyo set bombs in it, stopping only to look at a moth, which he trapped previously with one of his needles, that had caught on fire.
  Tesshu: Another moth that wanted to be a firefly.
• Use Your Head: He incorporates headbutts in his throw, which is strong enough to send his opponent flying and never shows any signs of concussion no matter how many times the player uses that move.
• Vigilante Man: He's paid by the Muzen to assassinate people who have wronged innocents and aren't being punished by the law, including people like Nasu, Echigoya, Ganda and even the Jinnai brothers.

Rin

Rin of the Beniya

"I will avenge you all."

"I am Rin of the Beniya, and I've come to claim your life."

Once a member of the Hagakure village, Rin is a fourteen year old kunoichi and the second protagonist of Fatal Shadows, alongside Ayame. After her village was destroyed and her family slaughtered, Rin went on a quest for revenge and joined the underground assassin organisation called the Beniya, working under “Lady Razor” Ogin. At first, she blames Ayame for the destruction of her village and fights the Azuma again during a mission, only to find out that Futaba, who she thought had perished, was working for the group that destroyed her village, and works together with Ayame to defeat the Kuroya.

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• Action Girl: Like Ayame, Rin is a trained kunoichi turned assassin skilled in kenjutsu and the art of the shinobi, being able to handle herself against a wide range of enemies and can even hold her own against Ayame during their second meeting.
• Affectionate Nickname: While the nickname is more patronising when Ayame first calls her "kid", the term is used more affectionately when the two settle their differences and Ayame clears her name to the young assassin.
• Arranged Marriage: She was actually engaged to Jyuzou. When she confronts him in the final mission, he asks her to join him and bare his child, wanting to build up the Kuroya and let Rin forget about the Hagakure. She doesn't react well to it. This is actually Truth in Television, as arranged marriages were mostly the norm in Feudal Japan for young girls, especially around Rin's age. This doesn't stop it from falling into Squick territory, however, due to Rin being a fourteen year old girl and the man in question is responsible for destroying her village and killing her family.
• Badass Boast: She gives some to her enemies before she fights them. When facing against Jyuzou in the last mission, she repeats the mantra of her organisation while wearing her fox mask.
  Rin: Jyuzou of the Kuroya, that's you right? ... I am Rin of the Beniya. I have come to claim your life.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She is one of the more nicer protagonists, shown by being polite to people who are not her enemies like Zennosuke and Ogin, and will not harm innocents. That said, she has a temper and is deadly when provoked, and when called out by Futaba for being a murderer that gets paid, she replies that she doesn't care because she had no other way to survive after losing everything.
• Blue Is Heroic: After beating the game, another outfit for Rin is unlocked that is basically a blue Palette Swap of her original outfit.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her haircut is styled like this.
• Break the Cutie: She goes through this when her village is destroyed and she finds one of the elders and Futaba dead on the ground. After Ayame beats her in a fight and refuses to finish Rin off, she tries to attack her again but if left behind with the use of a flash bomb. After managing to say goodbye to a dying Futaba and escaping her village, she breaks down in the boat and promises revenge. At the end of the game, she breaks down again after killing Jyuzou, the man responsible for the destruction of the Hagakure.
• Broken Pedestal: She loved Futaba deeply and was devastated for her death, praying that she had a safe journey to the afterlife. However, after Futaba reveals herself to be alive and actually allied with the group that burnt down their village, Rin is unable to believe it at first. It's only after Futaba doesn't hesitate in shooting Rin does she finally accept that her old friend was a traitor and loses her temper.
• Broken Tears: After she escapes from her village and finds a boat to flee down the river, she takes her fox mask and cries into it, promising revenge for her fallen allies. After defeating Jyuzou, she grabs hold of a flower that was floating towards her and cries again, relieved that she got her revenge yet this didn't bring her family back.
• Catchphrase: "I am Rin of the Beniya, and I've come to claim your life.". Doubles as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner, since she usually says it right before a battle.
• Children Forced to Kill: Similar to Ayame, Rin is forced to kill the people that have invaded her village in order to escape. One route of her first mission says that she cannot leave until she has killed all enemies in the village.
• Combat Pragmatist: While she's stronger than Ayame, Rin is still a short teenager that has to face against opponents that are more likely than not bigger and stronger than her. In her stealth kills, she is seen using her entire body as a pendulum to force the enemy into the ground, effectively breaking their necks.
• Death Seeker: She shows shades of this at the beginning after telling Ayame to finish her off when she loses against the older kunoichi. When Ayame refuses, Rin is enraged by the dishonour and tries to attack again to force Ayame's hand or get revenge, only to be caught in a flashbomb and left alone amongst the wreckage of her village and slain loved ones.
• Determinator: She escapes her burning village by herself, eliminating any and all enemies that were in her way, before managing to get into the assassin organisation, the Beniya, shortly after. After being reunited with Futaba, poisoned, and then thrown into the river, she climbs out of it and carries on with her mission while the poison was still coursing through her system. Her determinator attitude only falters towards the end, when she doesn't know what she wants to do with the information that she found the person responsible for destroying her village. After Ogin explains to her that she's an assassin of the Beniya, she found the courage to get through the guards to the beach where Jyuzou was.
• Establishing Character Moment: After Ayame comes across the bodies of a village elder and Futaba, Rin arrives on the scene too late and mistakes Ayame for the one who did all this, moving to attack the kunoichi. Even after being defeated, she shows that she's not afraid to die and even demands Ayame to do so, angered that she would dishonour the younger girl like this and move to attack again. This shows off Rin's Determinator attitude but also that she has shades of Death Seeker after losing everything. The cutscene immediately after shows Rin's softer side with a supposedly dying Futaba, putting her as a sympathetic character that is just broken over all she lost.
• Fire-Forged Friends: She and Ayame start off fighting each other, and tensions remain high enough for them to fight a second time. However, by the end of the game two develop much respect for one another. In Time of the Assassins, Rin is eager to find Ayame again, and the mission in which she searches for her is titled "Old Friend".
• Heartbroken Badass: She is still affected over the death of her family and destruction of her village even after becoming a Beniya assassin. That said, she is quick to jump into action when the people who were responsible make their appearance again, and doesn't really fixate on the tragedy until she faces her enemies who wronged her. Even after the revelation that Futaba was part of the Kuroya, Rin still focuses on the mission she was paid to do before leaving to rescue Ayame from the group.
• The Hero: She's one of the two protagonists of Fatal Shadows, alongside Ayame. And she has the bigger and more personal connection with the plot's events- which follow her journey of revenge for the destruction of her village. Also, Rin is the one who undergoes the final mission and beat the Big Bad of the game.
• Hidden Depths: In one of her missions, it's revealed that she hates bats. Also, Time of the Assassins has her as the narrator of her own story mode, describing her situation and feelings in a haiku-like manner.
• Homeless Hero: After she loses her home to the Kuroya.
• In the Back: Successfully performing a Back Stab on an unaware enemy will show an x-ray animation of her sword going straight through her victims spine.
• Just a Kid: Due to her age, she's on the receiving end of this when confronting older targets. When dismissed by the bandit leader in the fourth mission, she removes her mask and snaps at him that she's no kid. She proves that her age is no detriment to her skills shortly afterwards, as she is able to kill the bandit leader after a brief sword fight.
• Katanas Are Just Better: She wields a katana called Matsume similar to Rikimaru and Tatsumaru, though she uses her bare fists more like the latter than the former.
• The Lancer: She's this to Lady Ogin, especially after the more experienced assassin, Kichigoro, leaves after revealing he was actually a spy for Gohda. She's the one entrusted with the letter to be taken to Zennosuke, and is personally paid by Ogin to kill Jyuzou of the Kuroya in the final mission.
• Little Miss Badass: She's fourteen, but no less badass than the older Ayame.
• Master Swordsman: She is able to defeat more experienced swordsmen that she faces off with, including the bandit leader, Nasu, even Jyuzou. However, she isn't able to beat Ayame and only manages to come to a draw the second time they meet.
• Nice Girl: Despite some sarcastic quips she throws from time to time, Rin is a polite and kindhearted teenager who is willing to risk her life to save Ayame from the Kuroya manor and even goes to deliver a letter for the kunoichi without much of a reward for doing so. Kichigoro picks up on this and tells Rin to give up the life of an assassin because she's too nice.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She doesn't make any attempt to dodge the arrow that Futaba shot at her because she was still in shock over the revelation. However, this poisons Rin and pushes Ayame to take the arrow fired at Rin to protect her, before Ayame pushes Rin into the river to allow her to escape and then succumbs to the poison, causing her to be captured by the Kuroya. Rin helps fix this however, as she's the one who opens the prison door and gives Ayame the antidote to allow her to escape.
• No-Sell: She doesn't give a moment's thought to Futaba's offer to kill Zennosuke and join the Kuroya to avoid any risk to her life, nor to Jyuzou's offer to join the Kuroya and start a family with him.
• Orphan's Ordeal: It's unknown if her biological parents were in the same village as she was due to it being a ninja village similar to the Azuma, but Rin still thinks of her village as her family and is devastated over the loss. Her story follows as she gets revenge for their deaths and eventually move on after killing those responsible.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's short, and yet she is able to break necks by constricting her arms and pushing her head into the enemy's head, turn someone's head the other way around with enough force that the victim will spin in a horizontal angle afterwards, able to pin enemies down that are bigger and heavier than she is, and is able to drag dead bodies away from the scene even if the enemy were grown men.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She gives this to Futaba after delivering the letter to Zennosuke.
  Rin: I don't care. I did whatever I had to to survive, because you took everything from me! Everyone I've ever loved! I will NEVER FORGIVE YOU!
• Sole Survivor: Of the Hagakure to her belief, until it's revealed that Futaba and Hitoha had survived the massacre due to being part of the group that were responsible, and Jyuzou being a member before he left to follow his own rules. After she kills all of them, she is truly the last one of the Hagakure left.
• Sword and Fist: Her fighting style mixes both melee attacks and sword slashes, though edged towards the former. Her main attack sequence has her drawing her blade only for a combo finisher, and her Stealth Kills favor bone breaking and shattering moves over stabbing enemies with her weapon.
• Sympathetic Murderer: She's an assassin that is paid to kill people. However, she was likely raised to be a ninja in her village and, after it's destruction, was forced into the world at fourteen years old without many other skills besides knowing how to kill. That, and many of her victims aren't the most innocent of people.
• Tired of Running: After defeating Jyuzou and running into Ayame again, Rin is confronted by the remnants of Jyuzou's men and is asked by Ayame on what she is going to do. She replied that she is done with running, and turns to face the attackers while Ayame leaves the scene to return to Gohda's castle.
• Took a Level in Badass: While she was pretty badass to begin with, she wasn't able to win against Ayame and knew very little moves outside her stealth kills. As she goes on through the story, she is able to come to a draw with Ayame after their second fight, and even kept going along with her mission and killing Nasu, who's a skilled swordsmaster himself, while still poisoned. At the end of the game, she is able to use a move that can One-Hit Kill most of the other enemies in the game and faces against numerous skilled enemies by herself even after exhausting herself fighting previous enemies and Jyuzou.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her fox mask from her village. She keeps it up until after her fight with Jyuzou, where the mask is cut in half by enemy ninja when they attack her. She doesn't seem all that torn up about losing it, rather just throwing the bottom half away as she says she doesn't need it anymore, though this could be seen as her moving on from the Hagakure.
• Trauma Conga Line: The whole of Fatal Shadows is this for Rin. After coming home from training to find it in ruins and her entire family dead, Rin is beaten by Ayame after mistaking her for the culprit and is refused death simply because Ayame had other things to do. After saying goodbye to Futaba as she passes away, Rin escapes her village and mourns her loss, but finds a new purpose in the Beniya as an assassin. However, on a mission to kill Nasu, she comes across Ayame again and fights her, coming to a draw before Futaba reveals herself to not have died but rather having betrayed the Hagakure for Jyuzou. Rin is poisoned by her old friend but saved by Ayame, later rescuing the Azuma kunoichi from the manor she was taken to. Afterwards, she has to say goodbye to Kichigoro after he reveals his true alliance to Lord Gohda and, upon taking a letter to Zennosuke to request for help, she is confronted by Futaba and Hitoha. After fatally injuring Futaba, Rin returns to Ogin to find her injured after being tortured by Ranzou. With her motojime's words giving her courage, Rin finally confronts Jyuzou only to learn about why he betrayed the Hagakure, and manages to kill him after he tries to stab her through the head. After all that happened, she looks back at Jyuzou's body while leaving and breaks down into tears.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Futaba shoots Rin and reveals that she was involved in the plot to destroy their village, Rin loses control of her emotions and strikes Futaba to the ground, making a move to stab her former ally before the poison takes effect and stops any attempts from the younger assassin.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: After finding the people who destroyed her village, Rin confides in an injured Ogin that she doesn't actually know what to do anymore, especially after waiting for so long to get her revenge and is doubting her ability to actually go through with it.
  Rin: I found them. I found the people who murdered my family. But... I don't know what to do. I've been waiting for this for so long and now I... I...
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ayame. While at first Rin wants Ayame dead for destroying her village despite Ayame's innocence, the two team together to fight against the Kuroya when Futaba reveals Ayame's lack of connection to the destruction of the Hagakure. When they meet for the last time, Ayame smiles at Rin and tells her that she'll "see her around", before leaving as the assassin faces off with the last of the Kuroya.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • After Fatal Shadows, Rin is neither seen or mentioned again, setting her apart from the other protagonists as they had cameos/appearances in other games. It is unknown if she survived her encounter with the enemies as Ayame left, as the ending left it ambiguous, though if the player uses an invisibility spell before the end of Jyuzou's fight, then it shows the hand on Ayame's shoulder in the ending to have disappeared too, implicating that it's Rin's.
  • In Time of Assassins, she is shown to have survived and continues to work as an assassin in the Beniya, having been walking through a forest before coming across a severely injured man running from his destroyed village. After he perishes from his wounds, she promises to get revenge for him. This leads her to Onikage, and after he escapes, she leaves to continue on with her life.