Yuki Saito

Appearance

Yuki is a athletic and petite young woman of Japanese ancestry that appears to be about 21 years old. She is about 5'1" and 98 lbs with brown hair and dark colored eyes. While she might not appear all that large she has a way about her, perhaps in the manner in which she carries herself, that seems to draw notice. Her movement is graceful yet purposeful and her posture is close to perfect.

Her manner of dress is current with today's styles and cut, even if they are much more modest than many women in California seem to be in this day an age. She is frequently in long sleeves and while her clothing is not form fitting it is not lose enough to be bulky. Whether in pants or skirt it is easy to move around in and her shoes are practical and sturdy for ease of movement while still attractive. Frequently she is seen in muted colors that do not stand out, but give an pleasing impression. Her expression is calm but gives off an approachable aura.

Background

Yuki, whose mother died in childbirth, was born in the mid 19th century an only child to a younger son of a branch family in service of the local Daimyo. As a member of the samurai class her father ensured that she was given all the proper upbringing of a woman of her station. Because he was without any sons to focus on, he trained her since childhood in the martial arts and took great pride in her accomplishments with the naginata and other weapons.

While her father was not a wealthy or prominent man his skill and faithful service provided him enough respect and money for them to live more than comfortably. Because of this and thanks to her caretaker’s tutelage, Yuki was educated traditionally as well as in English, the latter of which her father insisted. Furthermore, her education extended to flower arrangement and music playing the Koto, and she became quite accomplished at both.

Life was well for the most part despite some political developments that her family did their best to steer clear of. All of that effort from her father proved useless for when she was 18, before her father could arrange a match for her, he was killed by a hired killer purchased by a political rival of the Daimyo to send a message. Her father just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and was challenged on the street and cut down. Furious Yuki tirelessly tracked down her father’s killer and when she caught up to him openly challenged him to avenge her father’s killing. After a heated duel she cut down her defeated opponent.

Immediately following this she was arrested and thrown into a cell before being drug before the local Daimyo. She pled her case and while they were sympathetic given the situation she was officially sentenced to death and allowed to take her own life in private given her standing and father’s loyal service. However, the situation piqued the interest of a visiting foreign official who bargained with the Daimyo secretly for her release into their custody. So she was in a sense purchased for several minor trade concessions and officially declared dead.

This is when she met her sire face to face for the first time, however, he had seen her on several occasions and she had caught his interest. Yuki would never find out but, he had even gone so far as to arrange the whole event as a test. The end result of the test left her sire satisfied that there was enough there to build on and train.

Yuki was trained tirelessly by her sire for several long decades and brought back to his home country of Italy as a curiosity to show off to the local kindred. One of the first things he did was have her taught a proper language like Italian for he disliked conversing in either Japanese or English. Then he focused solely on training her in the forms, etiquette, and mannerisms of what was to be expected of an Invictus Knight.

Despite her dislike of these smelly and arrogant foreigners, Yuki found herself working hard to please her sire much to her own self loathing. There was something about the man that she was unable to oppose and it would not have been till she was more experienced that she learned why this was the case. She hated Europe, its people, and its ways, however, she was able to find some purpose in the life she was forced to lead in service to the Invictus.

Her new life was not easy and there were many who opposed her sire and the fact that he would step so far as to bring a woman and a barbarian into the bloodline and eventually the Order of the Thorned Wreath. Furthermore, she had strange customs and ways of fighting that offended many of her peers and her betters for while she was trained in all the proper weapons and fighting forms of the Invictus, even becoming quite skilled in them, she still chose to go back to her old weapons and training when it came to fighting.

Eventually her sire grew bored and when something and someone else caught his eye he no longer had any time for Yuki, yet he still kept her around for various reasons or for appearances. After spending a reasonable time in service to the local Invictus as a knight she left Venice and in the early 20th century found her way to America only to feel more isolated and alone than in Europe. To escape her culture shock and change she went into eclipse for some time until about the mid 20th century. In time for this thing referred to as the Second World War and she found herself wondering what happened to the First World War and just what she had missed.

It wasn’t long after her period of torpor that she realized how much of a mistake it had been using it as a means of escape. She should have realized the world would not stop just because she did and times were even stranger in America than before. She wasn’t certain that she would ever understand these strange Americans and their clumsy tongue, but she resolved to not run away anymore. She spent time traveling from domain to domain looking for a place to fit in and slowly making her way decades later to Sacramento, a wondering woman without a home to call her own looking for place to serve and fit in.