Alka

Alka
Gender	Female
Race	Jin
Class	Assassin
Allegiances	Clan of the Sword

“	...	”
–Alka

Alka (Japanese: アルカ) is the main character of the Blade & Soul anime. She is voiced by Takao Yuki in the original Japanese version.

Alka is the last surviving member of the Clan of the Sword who is on a quest to exact revenge for her master. She is an emotionless Assassin with great strength and agility to take down her foes.

Story

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Strong and quiet, Alka seeks to avenge her master, who was killed by members of the Palam Empire. She finds herself a pond to bathe herself after killing Palam soldiers sent to hunt her down. During her bath, she discovers that she is being watched and quickly leaps into action while still naked. The peeping tom shows himself to be just that and is saved by his brother Koga. Koga asks Alka to not kill his brother (named Masa) and Alka releases the young man who proceeds to wet himself.

Deciding to leave her bloodstained clothes behind, Alka is offered a shawl by Koga and he takes her to his village Moshiri deep in a valley. She is introduced to the village head name Morii, who offers her her trademark clothes to replace Koga's shawl. Alka learns from Morii that the Palam Empire seeks to buy the village in order to use it to cultivate Heaven's Spirit Flower, which has the ability to enhance the strength of a fighter. Morii goes on to explain that the reason she was hired is to protect her from the Palam Empire representatives who plan to negotiate the sale of the village.

The next day, Alka accompanies Morii, Koga, Masa, and another villager Nagi to meet with the Palam representatives. Morii declares her refusal to sell the land, which incites the representatives to reveal their weapons in order to force the sale. Alka speedily kills two of the representatives and allows the third to leave. It is then that she reveals to the villagers that she had once worked for the Palam Empire, but left.

Later that night, the Palam Empire strikes back by destroying the village and killing many of the villagers. Alka tries to kill as many of the Palam soldiers as she could and even succeeded in killing a powerful soldier enhanced by the extract of the Heaven's Spirit Flower. With the village devastated, Alka could do nothing more but leave the next day.

Alka eventually encounters a Lyn merchant name Lon, who offers a garment to protect her shoulders from the heat and cover her butterfly tattoo. However, he soon finds that the Assassin was without any money at all and directs her to a nearby city where she could earn some money (and also points out there are Palam soldiers there).

While in the city, Alka comes across a mercenary name Jin Hazuki who is also a part-time bounty hunter. They end up going to the Tomon Inn owned by an Elle Karen. After Hazuki drinks and eats her fill, she comes up short in paying for her meal and is shocked when Alka reveals she has absolutely no money. Karen then forces them into service to pay the debt of their meal, and tells them to change into the inn uniforms. While Alka was changing, Karen noticed her butterfly tattoo and asks her to leave out of concern for bounty hunters that would destroy her inn to get to Alka.

Alka wanders through the city alone in the dark and is accosted by 3 desperate people looking to claim the bounty on her head. She manages to kill them all and is unknowingly saved from Hazuki's gun by Karen's interference. Alka then runs off and Hazuki gives chase. Karen interferes yet again, this time to save Kazuki's life. Despite the danger, Hazuki goes after Alka anyways and eventually catches up to her in the desert of Rengen where she manages to successfully injure her. Before Kazuki could finish her off, she is interrupted by the Pleasure Gang, giving Alka enough time to escape.

Alka had a moment of relief until she came across the leader of the gang, Dan Loana. However, instead of fighting, Loana instead asks Alka to join her, for she was in opposition to the Palam Empire. Alka soon discovers, however, that the Pleasure Gang used her as bait to lure in Jin Varrel and her Flower Monks in order to exact their revenge. Despite wanting to face them as well, Loana prohibits Alka from doing so until they were done. Alka watches as the Pleasure Gang fell to the Flower Monks and finds an opportunity to attack Jin Varrel. She manages to hold her own against the Yun, but was struck down by Jin Varrel's Impurity and then Hazuki's bullet.

Alka is eventually discovered by two orphans, Seto and Pia, living near the windmill city who nurse her back to health. The boy ends up using her sword to procure food for himself and his sister and eventually draws the attention of two men to their run-down house. Alka manages to kill the men and then disappears.

Alka finds herself under the employment of a man name Shou who seeks to halt a Heaven's Spirit refinery in his village. Things get complicated after she finds out that the village was owned by none other than Karen. When the man orders her to kill Karen, Alka refuses and simply watches as the man accidentally kill a villager name Malna and then is killed by Karen herself.

Some time later, Alka ends up on a beach where she is reunited with Morii. It seems after the destruction of Moshiri Village, Morii went on a journey and eventually discovered the Boat of Cleansing, a monastic residence led by a woman name Mira who known as Mother to the inhabitants. Alka soon discovers the Boat of Cleansing is a manipulative cult and is nearly sacrificed for one of their rituals. She was luckily saved by Lon and then saved from a depraved Morii by Karen.

Alka and Karen travel to a desert town where they meet a Lyn name Yuu who was afflicted with the Impurity. Lon comes across them and leads them to Loana and the new Pleasure Gang's homebase. There, Yuu interrogates Alka as to the whereabouts of his master, to which Alka responds that he is dead. Yuu is shocked and then infuriated that Alka would not have bothered to avenge his master if it were not for her Code of the Clan of the Sword.

She visits Yuu again later that night to talk about Master Hon. Yuu imparts some words of wisdom as they talked and the two manage to form a bond due to having been taught by the same master. Suddenly, Alka sense Jin Varrel and goes out to confront her. Yuu joins her in battle and the two form a tag team against the dark lady. During the fight, Yuu is struck down, causing Alka to scream out in agony. Filled with a strength she never had before, Alka manages to kill Jin Varrel and fulfill her Code. After the battle, she comforts a dying Yuu who asks her to kill him as he did not want to die to the Impurity. Alka hesitates and Yuu asks if it was because it conflicted with her Code. Yuu dies from his injuries and for the first time, Alka feels emotions.

After refusing to remain with the Pleasure Gang, Alka finds her way back to the desert city where she realizes she does not want to kill anymore. Karen offers her work at the Tomon Inn where she is reunited with Pia. While working there, she befriends another staff member name Miharu who also used to be a killer. Things were fine until Karen reveals to her that one of her past targets was her husband. The truth is revealed that Karen had wished to enact her revenge upon Alka as soon as she found out, but lacked the motivation to do so because the Assassin was void of emotion and therefore would not be as satisfying to punish. However that changed when Alka began having feelings after forming a bond with Yuu and then Miharu.

After finding out about Karen, Alka heads to her room where she is comforted by Miharu. Soon after Miharu disappears to get her water and was never seen again until the next morning when she is found dead. Alka immediately suspects Karen and quits working at the inn that very day. She goes back to the client she previously refused and offers to take on the assassination job. To her surprise, the target of the assassination was none other than Karen who had planned the whole thing and was more than prepared for Alka. Karen mortally wounds Alka, but leaves her alive as she felt that was a more suitable punishment for killing her husband.

Alka makes her way into the mountains where heavy snow has fallen. There she discovers a barn where she takes shelter from a snowstorm. She is soon discovered by the barn's owners: a middle-age couple. Hana takes the initiative to take care of her, but her husband Hayate is hesitant. Alka eventually finds out that Hana and Hayate were the parents of a woman (Yuuri) that she had killed in the past. She runs away in a panic, unsure of how to deal with the situation. Hana chases after her, telling Alka that she forgives her for killing her daughter. Hayate is still hesitant even after Alka apologizes for what she had done, saying that if she is really regretful of her past actions, she should get rid of the weapons that caused her sin.

Alka goes to visit the Yuuri's grave and decides to get rid of her weapons there. Hana tries to convince her not to, saying that it would be enough to simply never use them again. Meanwhile in the trees, Hayate readies his rifle to kill Alka as he still does not forgive her at all. Hana inadvertently gets caught in the crossfire and dies from the shot. Hayate begins to grieve over his mistake and runs over to his now dead wife. With both his wife and daughter gone, he finds no will to live and thus ends his life with his rifle right in front of Alka who could do nothing but watch in horror.

Lost and without a purpose, Alka wandered the streets of a town and ends up encountering an old flower lady. She overhears a conversation with a man who purchases flower from the lady, saying that bringing flowers to his loved ones who have passed on is better than trying to seek revenge. The old lady then offers Alka some flowers, who trades her sword and dagger when asked for payment and runs off. She ends up at the former residence of a previous target, which now laid in ruins. The old lady catches up to her and explains that the master of the residence received his punishment, giving Alka the idea that not all her targets were innocent as she had thought.

Alka decides to visit the ruins of her fallen clan in order to figure out what to do with her life. There she encounters Karen, Hazuki, and Loana, who have all been looking for her. When Hazuki aims her gun at her, Alka asks her to kill her, prompting Karen to jump in to protect her. However, the gesture was pointless as Hazuki lost all interest to kill Alka when she heard the Assassin's words, saying that it's no fun to kill someone who wants to die.

As Karen sat with Alka, she realizes how broken the Assassin has become after she exacted her revenge. She then engages in battle with Alka in hopes of reviving her fighting prowess that she once had. After a few minutes of fighting, Alka finally strikes back, indicating that there is hope yet for recovery. The revelation is short-lived as a resurrected Jin Varrel manages to find her.

As Alka is still struggling with her newfound emotions, she could only watch as Hazuki, Karen, and Loana face off against Jin Varrel in an effort to protect her. Once she realized what they were doing, Alka finally comes to her senses and regains the will to fight. She takes on Jin Varrel on her own with the fight culminating far above the clouds. Alka comes to understand Master Hon's teachings and utilizes her butterfly mark to purify the Impurity attacks made against her. When she realizes that Jin Varrel wished for her own death, Alka hesitates to kill her, saying that they're both the same. She leaves the dark woman alive and goes off to live a new life for herself.

Eventually Alka begins a tradition of visiting all the graves of people affected by her to leave flowers. She then at last pays Lon back for the garment with a gold coin.

Gallery

Alka, ( with lengthen hair) holding her sword

Alka