Hyouma Sagara (相良豹馬, Sagara Hyōma?) is the original Master of Assassin of Black in the Great Holy Grail War of Fate/Apocrypha before the contract is usurped by Reika Rikudou. His primary appearance is in the prototype short story, Fate/Apocrypha Act1: Unbirth, in which there are several differences from the final product.[1] He is only mentioned in the final version of the Apocrypha novels and only appears in flashbacks in the manga version.
Profile[]
Background[]
Little is known about Sagara's background, but it is known that before becoming a Master he was born from a lineage of magi that was commonly looked down upon as "rats". Before the Great Holy Grail War, he was covertly working as a host named "Hikaru" in Shinjuku, and living with a prostitute by the name of Reika Rikudou, who was unaware of the existence of Magecraft, and at some point in time he managed to gain possession of Jack the Ripper's knives.[2]
Appearance[]
Personality[]
Sagara Hyouma was an average Magus living in the modern era. He had ambition, but he lacked the skill. He scorned people who knew nothing of Magecraft, but he understood that he himself was a second-rate Magus worthy of scorn.[3]
He had intended to wager his life, honor and everything he had on the Great Holy Grail War to win it, making every possible preparation so that, even if he lost, he would have no regrets. He vied for the Holy Grail with such conviction that, no matter how many lives of others he had to trample over, as long as it was necessary and wouldn't be exposed, he didn't care. If it was for the Holy Grail, he would have even sold his soul to every devil there was, killed his own relatives, and trampled over happy families without hesitation and kick over people suffering in misfortune. However, Reika speculates that he actually wasn't suited for the act of killing another. Even if he had trampled over and taken away from others, he didn't have the "sincerity" to exchange life for life, and probably thought that he wouldn't win in any straight-up battle of killing. Even though he could wager his own life, he was unable to live while shouldering the lives of others, and because of that, he took an insincere attitude, and because of his insincere attitude, he showed openings.[3]
Role[]
Fate/Apocrypha Act1: Unbirth[]
He decided to summon an Assassin class Servant, but wishes to get around the problem of their identity of Hassan-i-Sabbah being known simply from finding out their class by summoning Jack the Ripper instead. He wouldn't have had any problem summoning Hassan as Assassin, but he judged that doing so would be disadvantageous under the current conditions where a certain amount of countermeasures against all nineteen different Hassans have been created over the many repetitions of Subspecies Holy Grail Wars. Based on the shallowness of his own history as well, he tried to secure victory with a modern Heroic Spirit.[1]
He tried to sacrifice Reika in order to summon Jack, but he was betrayed by his Servant immediately after she was summoned and experienced the misery of being slaughtered as a Master. However, that turned out to be a fatal mistake, though he naturally could never have imagined that the woman he had approached merely to use as a sacrifice was, in fact, a far greater monster than him.[1] While he obtains the Command Spells, Reika is the one to attain the actual Master and Servant connection, so Jack is forced to maim him so that she can keep him from commanding her and transfer the Command Spells to Reika. Sagara's overall role is negligible. After summoning his Servant, he is quickly dispatched by her. Despite being kept alive through Jack's medical skills, he had lost all ability to command her or supply her with Magical energy.[2]
Fate Apocrypha: Zugzwang[]
After Assassin betrays and incapacitates Sagara, Reika gets information out of him about the Holy Grail War, mages, and his own identity, before carving out his heart to feed Assassin. His corpse is later used to distract King, a member of the Zugzwang, and Reika kills him after Jack dispatches the rest of the Zugzwang.[3]
Fate/strange Fake[]
During the True and False Holy Grail Wars, he and many other Magi attempt to attack Flat Escardos to get his Command Seals, only to be easily defeated by him and False Berserker. Flat temporarily paralyzes and seals the Magic Circuits of himself, Carl Lexarm, Silvelt Kotcheff, Avi Dikhail, and members of Zugzwang before locking them in his room. When False Berserker unwittingly takes the form of Assassin of Black, he and the other prisoners instinctively shudder in fear much to their own surprise. When Flat refuses to kill them, he and the other prisoners are confused. Flat and False Berserker leave them in the room.[4]
Abilities[]
Servant summoning ritual |
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Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time. |
Sagara is a second-rate Magus, and due to the unique properties of the Great Holy Grail War, that of fourteen Servants being summoned, he must make up for the Holy Grail's lack of strength in supporting his Servant. He is the type of Magus unsuited to combat because his house's Magecraft that has been passed down through the generations is specialized in more unspectacular abilities likes suggestion and concealment, causing them to be ridiculed as "rats." He follows this notion by using tactics rather than power because a "rat can kill in ratlike ways." He fights like a fierce sewer rat with cunning and a tenacious attitude.[2]
Just like Atrum Galliasta, he used Magecraft that exchanges living sacrifices as compensation for his spells. In Sagara's case, he utilized a hybrid of Japanese and Western cursing techniques[3] and made fortune by establishing security for buildings and protection for people in exchange for sacrificing human lives. His Western cursing techniques consists of techniques he obtained from the Icecolle family that Celenike is a part of since their disciplines intersect. The way he combined the techniques of a completely different family into his Magecraft demonstrates how he is a typical example of an Yggdmillennia magus in a certain sense.[1]
Due to his rank as a Magus, he does not believe that he can bring out the true power of or properly utilize the primary classes like Saber or Lancer, and he wishes to avoid the uncontrollable Berserker class. He feels Assassin class is most suited to his abilities.[2]
Sagara, as an user of Magecraft, is at least capable of performing the basic summoning for a Servant and understands the ritual enough to surmise his initial faults and incompatibility with the spirit he is attempting to summon. His combat ability is unknown, but he does succeed in mortally wounding Reika to use as a sacrifice.[2]
Development[]
Yuuichirou Higashide said that there is a misprint regarding him in Volume 2 of Fate/Apocrypha, he wonder how he overlooked that. He will definitely correct it in the second edition.[1]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
[] Fate/Apocrypha material - Encyclopedia: Sagara Hyouma [Person's name], p.168 [T] Hyouma Sagara [Person's name]
A Master of the Black camp. He was in charge of Assassin. He had already died before the main story in the volumes had begun. Originally, he was a magus that appeared in the pre-story of “Fate/Apocrypha” recounting the story of Jack the Ripper and her Master. He tried to sacrifice Rikudou Reika in order to summon Jack, but he was betrayed by his Servant immediately after she was summoned and experienced the misery of being slaughtered as a Master.
Just like Atrum who appeared in the animated version of “Fate/stay night UBW”, he used magecraft that exchanges living sacrifices as compensation for his spells. In Sagara Hyouma’s case, he utilized a hybrid of Japanese and Western cursing techniques and made fortune by establishing security for buildings and protection for people in exchange for sacrificing human lives. His Western cursing techniques consists of techniques he obtained from the Icecolle family that the Black Master Celenike is a part of since their disciplines intersect. The way he combined the techniques of a completely different family into his magecraft demonstrates how he is a typical example of an Yggdmillennia magus in a certain sense.
He wouldn’t have had any problem summoning Hassan as Assassin, but he judged that doing so would be disadvantageous under the current conditions where a certain amount of countermeasures against all nineteen different Hassans have been created over the many repetitions of subspecies Holy Grail Wars. Based on the shallowness of his own history as well, he tried to secure victory with a modern Heroic Spirit. However, that turned out to be a fatal mistake, though he naturally could never have imagined that the woman he had approached merely to use as a sacrifice was in fact a far greater monster than him.
…This is a digression, but Sagara Hyouma is most famous for the misprint regarding him in Volume 2.
No, I really wonder how I overlooked that. I’ll definitely correct it in the second edition.相良豹馬【人名】
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Fate/Apocrypha: Act 1 Unbirth
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Fate Apocrypha: Zugzwang
- ↑ Fate/strange Fake Volume 4, Chapter 10: Day 2 "Separate Mornings, Separate Pasts I"