Soulcalibur Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Soulcalibur Wiki

Hachibei (八兵衛, also written as ハチベエ) is a fictional character within the Soul series of games. He is one of the former leaders of the Fu-Ma Ninja clan and Chie's father.

Hachibei and Toki were once the two ninja most likely to become the leader of the Fu-Ma Clan. However, Hachibei never intended to become the leader and purposely held back, allowing Toki to become the Fu-Ma clan leader. Toki took notice of this and held a grudge for what he saw as Hachibei insulting him.

One day, Toki suddenly summoned all of the members of the clan for a meeting - telling the assembled ninjas that Hachibei, a man who had once led the ninja clan with Toki, had stolen the spiritual ninjatō, Mekki-Maru, and had run away with his daughter, Chie. By the clan's law, the two were now nuke-nin, or rogue ninjas.

Ninja were not permitted to leave their clan until they died because of the clan secrets, making the clan responsible for the nuke-nin, and often given the task to terminate them. In accordance with the code, Toki ordered the ninjas to hunt down Hachibei and Chie, kill them, and return the Mekki-Maru.

Hachibei proved to be a hard man to find, as his skill for remaining hidden had been the finest in the clan. Taki, with her sixth sense and massive intelligence network, eventually found a few leads. Chie had been Taki's childhood friend, and by following a slight trace of Chie, Taki was able to locate Hachibei. The two were running a small stall on a vacant road. An extraordinarily strong man named Li Long was living with them at the time, so Taki waited to confront Hachibei when the old man was out. Hachibei was surprised to see Taki at first, but, his face soon filled with relief when she only requested for him to give her the Mekki-Maru. Before doing so, Hachibei revealed to Taki that Toki had been possessed by madness and that the Mekki-Maru now had a dangerous control over the ninja lord. He stated that it was for this reason that he had taken the sword, and left.

Even though Taki had her suspicions about Toki, she still found it hard to believe that the dull blade Hachibei held in his hands had extraordinary spiritual powers. The old man explained that if Toki were to come in contact with the Mekki-Maru again, that he would surely kill him. He then gave the magical blade to Taki, warning her of what would happen if it got into her master's hands. Hachibei's trust caused her suspicion of Toki to grow, and so she let he and Chie go free and hid the Mekki-Maru where she was certain no one would find it. When Taki returned to the clan, she fabricated a story about Chie's Chinese lover taking the sword and killing both Chie and Hachibei. When Toki heard this, he grinned and ordered the clan to pursue Li Long and kill him as well. When he gave these orders, Taki realized that Toki was no longer the man she knew.

One day, while Li Long was out, a fight had broken out at the Inn. Chie was thought to have been killed, and a wounded Hachibei told Long that a wandering swordsman had started the fight and left. Witnesses thought that it may have been Heishiro Mitsurugi, but obviously, Mitsurugi was not the only swordsman wandering the land. In actuality, the swordsman had been a ninja of the Fu-Ma clan, sent by its leader, Toki, to take back a sword that Hachibei had stolen from them.

After Toki's supposed death, Hachibei returned to the Fu-Ma clan. With his daughter the new leader of the Fu-Ma clan, he now acts as an instructor to the younger members. 

Etymology[]

  • Hachibei means "eight" (八) (hachi) and "soldier" (兵衛) (bei).
Advertisement