Iroha
Page 1
Far, far away, in a world other than our own—Vana'diel. Born in the Far East and serving as the chief priestess of Reisen Shrine, a young girl named Iroha traveled from a ruined future back into Vana'diel's past and sought out the adventurer who would one day become her master.
Together with her master, Iroha entered a vortex of darkness, and beyond it, they beheld a world stripped of color, as though life itself had been extinguished.
Iroha told her master that the coming of such a colorless world marked the beginning of the end—the rise of a darkness that would destroy all things. In time, it would engulf the whole of Vana'diel.\n\nYet in the history Iroha knew, the colorless world should not have appeared until many years hence. She came to realize that her returning through time had placed a stick in the wheel of fate.
To ensure that the future in which her master would stand against the coming darkness, Iroha explained that her master must be filled with radiance. And so her master, an adventurer, set out to meet the allies with whom they had forged bonds—for the power of those bonds would become that very radiance.
Page 2
But then the ambassador of the void, who was said to have come from the future, appeared before Iroha and her companions. Wielding tremendous power, he sought to spread the colorless world ever farther.
Iroha was attacked by the ambassador, who stripped her of the blessing of the Phoenix harbored within her body, causing her to vanish.
Tenzen, a samurai of the Far East, and a kunoichi set forth to reclaim the stolen power of Phoenix, allowing Iroha to be successfully resurrected. Yet when Tenzen came into contact with Phoenix's power, he learned the terrible secret she bore.
He learned that Iroha's presence in that time was forbidden, and that by defying the laws of the world, she had met death time and time again, and was resurrected each time through immense pain and suffering.
Were this to continue, either Iroha's spirit would break beneath the torment, or the day would come when even Phoenix's power of rebirth could no longer call her back.
Page 3
With her secret now revealed, Iroha believed that in her then-current state, she could be of no use to her master. She trained alone until the two were reunited, and once more honed her skills beneath her master's guidance. After sharing a brief, fleeting moment of happiness, she performed a ritual of purification. It was a ritual that a woman from the Far East underwent when she came to a life-altering fork in the road.
She believed that by using the power of Siren's communion to banish all who came from the future, she could destroy the ambassador of the void, even at the cost of herself.
However, her master, along with Tenzen and the kunoichi, intervened to forestall her plan. The kunoichi admonished her: "I, too, have pledged myself to give up my life when the time comes—but I do so only to protect my master."
The one Iroha had sworn to serve was none other than her master, the adventurer. And so she turned back from the path of self-sacrifice.
Page 4
Once more the ambassador of the void appeared, and at the battle's end, the force of their clash hurled Iroha away to Reisenjima.
There, Iroha looked back upon the future from which she had come. She remembered how her master and their allies had protected the crystal that lay in the Far East.
She remembered how her master, believing that every victory came with a price, might have played a part in the birth of the ambassador of the void by deciding to sacrifice themselves.
How, when the world was shrouded in darkness, absolutely no one remained except for Iroha herself, who had been saved by her father and her master...
Iroha continued her efforts, determined to change the future in which the world was destroyed and her master was sacrificed. Yet, after facing death time and again, her torn heart finally reached its breaking point, and she faded away, her strength utterly spent.
Page 5
In death, Iroha found herself within the crystal. Sensing a disruption in the crystal's power, Iroha offered prayers to realign the flow of its energy.
With order restored to the lifestream and the crystal functioning properly once more, her master reached the Goddess Altana and learned how to avert the future of ruin. And so, they set forth into battle against the ambassador of the void. With the threat driven away by her master, Iroha regained her physical form once more, and together with her master, beheld a world restored to peace.
Having sent her master off into the future that would now endure, Iroha was supposed to fade away. But that was not to be. For darkness still lingered within the crystal, and the future was not yet completely saved.
Urged forward by the power of their allies, her master reached Iroha where she was trapped within the crystal. Together with her master of the future, Iroha rose to face the final battle for the sake of a peaceful tomorrow.