Marishiten

About
Marishiten is the enigmatic leader of the Marishiten Assassination Brigade and a world renowned assassin. A man of few words, his cold and quiet disposition creates a great contrast between himself and his more boisterous subordinates. Despite this, the group seems to work well together, and the other three highly respect him as a leader. His background is largely unknown, though his distinct armor implies that he may be of JAPANese origin. At some point in the past, he was hired to assassinate Miracle Tou, a task that he nearly succeeded at.

He and his subordinates were hired by the Angel Army in Rance 4.2 to defeat the warrior Rance, who was opposing the organization. Marishiten only took action after the rest of his comrades had been defeated, where he battled Rance and his group. While he was a powerful enemy, he ultimately lost and was mocked by Rance for being nothing more than a "midboss". While gameplay allowed for him to die in this battle, Marishiten canonically survived his encounter with Rance and is still active at present.

He makes a brief appearance in Rance IX as a part of Miracle Tou's fantasized elite guard the Twelve Knights which is composed of what Miracle believes to be the twelve strongest men on the Continent. Rance does not remember him, but notes that "There are no good men without any eyebrows" and rejects his place in the group.

Abilities
As the leader of a high profile assassination organization, Marishiten is incredibly skilled. Throughout his career, he has developed a reputation of being the greatest assassin on the Continent, and while the validity of this statement is debatable, there is no doubt that he possesses an amazing level of ability.

Due to being an assassin, his main method of attack is hiding in the shadows and hitting his opponent by surprise. His ability to move through darkness silently and go unnoticed is comparable to an elite Ninja of JAPAN. Even without his stealth, he is a very powerful warrior that is skilled with a sword, capable of putting up a very difficult fight against Rance's party when on his own, up to the point of being a stronger enemy than the Angel Army's leader and the game's final boss Archibald.

While his level cap isn't as high as other elite fighters, Marishiten has made excellent use of it, being one of the only people on the Continent at a level higher than 40, making him one of the strongest people alive presently.

Trivia

 * His name is very likely a reference to the Buddhist Deva Maricia, who is known as Marishi-ten in Japan. In Japan, Maricia is closely associated with the samurai, particularly the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū school of swordsmanship, and is said to grant a warrior invisibility upon completing a chant to them. As Marishiten is both skilled at swordsmanship and moving silently without getting detected, this is a very appropriate name for him.