Shimazu Sei
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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
Shimazu Sei is a Japanese Templar working as a doctor for Abstergo Industries at their facility in Macau, China. She is a descendant of Shimazu Saito, an 18th-century Templar and samurai of the Shimazu clan.[1]
In 2023, Sei was charged with locating a Piece of Eden believed to have been found by the British Assassin Edward Kenway. Following Abstergo's abduction of one of Edward's descendants, Noa Kim, Sei forced him to relive Edward's memories in the Animus, though she later ended up striking a deal with him, promising Noa his freedom in exchange for his assistance.
Biography
Early life
Sei was born into the Shimazu clan, a Japanese noble clan which had been allied with the Templars since the time of the Tokugawa shogunate.[2] After graduating from Harvard Medical School, Sei followed into her family footsteps and became a doctor for Abstergo Industries, working in their Archaeological Research Department.[3]
Search for the Piece of Eden
Noa Kim's abduction
By 2023, Sei was placed in charge of searching for a descendant of the Assassin Edward Kenway in order to uncover Edward's memories in Southeast Asia, believing he was pursuing a Piece of Eden in the region. Through the genealogy site WhyYou developed by the Abstergo Genetic Research Lab, the Templars identified a Korean-American student by the name of Noa Kim and lured him to Macau on the pretense of a vacation prize trip.[4]
Once Noa had arrived, Sei and her team of agents kidnapped Noa and brought him to their Abstergo facility, forcing him to use the Animus to relieve Edward's memories.[4] However, due to Noa being unaware that he was experiencing someone else's memories and taking the events he witnessed for granted, he ended up causing several desynchronization errors during his first Animus session.[5]
During one such error, the Animus reacted violently and electrocuted Noa, causing his heart rate and adrenaline levels to spike. Sei attempted to warn Noa, but due to his stubbornness, she and her team were eventually forced to end the session.[5]
A risky deal
After Noa's condition had been stabilized, Sei visited him in his room and told him the truth about the Animus, Edward's role as an Assassin, and Abstergo's search for the Piece of Eden. She also revealed that Abstergo had made sure no one would search for Noa and warned him that it was in his best interest to be cooperative. Enraged at being told what to do, Noa pulled Sei by her labcoat collar but was quickly subdued by Abstergo security. As he was being dragged away, Noa decided to offer Sei a deal.[5]
In exchange for helping Sei acquire the information she sought, Noa asked that he be given free rein to do what he wanted while in the Animus, as well as his freedom afterwards. Though reluctant, Sei agreed to the terms, but reminded Noa of interfering with his ancestor's history, and warned him that constant interference could make the subject experience the Bleeding Effect, potentially leading to Noa forgetting his own memories.[6]
Noa noticed Sei's sudden caring attitude towards him and teased her about being kinder than she seemed. A shocked Sei rebuffed him and insisted that she only wanted to make sure Noa would not die before Abstergo obtained what they were after. She then watched as Noa returned to the Animus to continue reliving Edward's memories.[6]
Conversations with Noa
- Noa: "I guess you can be helpful from time to time after all, Sei."
- Sei: "I'm only lending you a hand, given our need to extract the information from you sooner rather than later. And I don't recall allowing you to address me as anything other than Doctor Shimazu."
- Noa: "Why? I thought we were on a first-name basis now that we're in the same boat."
- —Noa's banter with Sei, c. 2023.[src]-[m]
Sei continued to converse with Noa during the latter's time in the Animus, telling him about her views of the Assassins, whom she regarded as self-righteous criminals that brought chaos wherever they went.[7] She also noticed similarities between Noa and the Assassins in their stubborn belief that they could always help everyone, which worried her.[8]
When a later memory required Noa to remain synchronized by staying undetected and avoiding casualties, Sei told Noa to not mess around, as he would have to restart the memory if he failed. However, Noa teased her by saying that Edward did not seem to match Sei's description of the Assassins being "ruthless criminals," much to her annoyance.[9]
Later, Sei decided to deliver on her promise to teach Noa more about his Assassin ancestors, and used the Animus to send him information about the most notorious of them, Ezio Auditore. She then asked one of her scientists for Noa's status, to which he revealed that the test subject was displaying the most stable synchronization rates since Subject 17. Satisfied, Sei ordered her team to maintain the current synchronization level as they moved forward.[10]
When Noa ran into an issue after completing one of Edward's memory sequences, he asked for Sei's help. The doctor took the opportunity to tease him about his earlier stubborness and refusal to be told what to do, before bringing up a journal that had belonged to a ceramic merchant in Macau who had encountered Edward. Using this information, Noa was able to synchronize with his ancestor's memories and progress to the next sequence. As he did so, he said that Sei could occasionally be helpful and addresed her by her first name, irritating the doctor.[11]
After completing the next set of Edward's memories, Noa began showing signs of the Bleeding Effect, leading Sei to demand that the test subject be removed from the Animus and taken to rest. However, as he was being grabbed by two guards, Noa mistook them for ninja and attacked them, though he quickly fell asleep afterwards.[2]
Sei waited for Noa to wake up in his room, whereupon she explained the Bleeding Effect to him. Noa was excited by the prospect of assimilating Edward's skills, but an angry Sei responded that she had seen people lose their minds due the Bleeding Effect and that she would not let that happen to Noa until she obtained the information she sought. Noa again teased Sei for caring about him more than she let on, and deduced that her family was in trouble if she needed to rely so much on him. He then asked that he be taken to Macau, claiming to know where Edward had gone next, and Sei reluctantly accepted.[2]
Trip to the A-Ma Cultural Village
After getting dressed up for the trip, Sei went to Noa's room and handed him a blindfold and a pair of headphones to put on, as he was not allowed to see the rest of the Abstergo facility. After leaving the facility, Sei allowed Noa to take the items off when he began to complain that he would not get to enjoy his first vacation abroad.[3]
Having assumed that Noa had traveled overseas before as was custom among college students, Sei asked him why that was not the case. Noa explained that he had never been able to afford it, claiming that Sei could never understand his struggles given her wealthy upbringing. To Noa's surprise, Sei agreed, but revealed that, due to her work, she had never been able to take a vacation either.[3]
Once they arrived at the A-Ma Cultural Village in Macau, Noa told Sei that the information they sought was located inside the old Zhang residence. However, when Sei went to speak with the security guards, they denied her entrance, claiming that Abstergo's request to perform fieldwork in the area had been rejected. An enraged Sei then called on her guards and demanded to be let in or else they would be forced to take action. In the ensuing commotion, Sei failed to notice Noa running away to find an alternative way into the building.[3]
While Noa was away, Sei and her Abstergo guards were attacked and quickly overwhelmed by a number of thugs—a distraction by members of the Zhang Wei Union, who had come to retrieve Noa. However, Noa refused to leave with the Union members and instead rushed to Sei's aid, using Edward's skills he had developed as a result of the Bleeding Effect to dispatch all the thugs. When Sei asked why Noa had not run away, he simply told her that their deal was still intact, before showing her a book he had found.[12]
After returning to Abstergo's facility, Sei had the book translated and found that it contained information about Edward's later activities. She then went to retrieve Noa from his room so that he could continue to track Edward's memories. Before Noa went into the Animus, Sei thanked him for saving her and warned him not to succumb to the Bleeding Effect until their transaction was complete.[12]
Later Animus sessions
When Noa came across another one of his ancestors, the Korean scholar Yun Pyeong-Gyu, in Edward's memories, Sei added an Animus database entry for Yun to allow Noa to learn more about him.[13]
Personality and traits
- "Knucklehead."
- ―Sei's nickname for Noa.[src]
Sei maintained a typically calm and cold, almost emotionless exterior, opting to focus entirely on her task at hand. Due to her upbringing as both a Templar and a member of the Shimazu clan, she was taught to not let anything distract her from her work and believed that any failure would bring dishonor not just to herself, but to her entire family.[3]
However, over the course of her interactions with Noa, Sei came to show a less professional side of herself, mainly whenever Noa teased or otherwise annoyed her. Though she refused to admit it, she cared about her test subject to an extent, showing concern for Noa's well-being,[6][2] and eventually grew accustomed to his comments, even teasing him in return at one point.[11]
Despite this, she could lose her composure if Noa did not take situations as seriously as he should or if something did not go according to her plans. This was shown in both her reaction to Noa's dismissive attitude towards the dangers of the Bleeding Effect, which caused her to smash a plate in anger and cut her hand;[2] and in her impatience when she was denied entry into the old Zhang residence, when she promptly decided to resort to the use of deadly force to achieve her goal.[3]
A firm believer in the Templar cause, Sei despised the Assassins, seeing them as nothing more than self-righteous and ruthless criminals that needed to be stopped.[7] She also possessed a strong sense of honor and honesty, telling Noa everything he needed to know about Abstergo and their goals and upholding her end of their deal, even if only because she believed this would facilitate her mission.[6]
Gallery
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Close-up of Sei -
Sei with Mitsuko Nakamura -
Sei brushing off Noa's comment about being kind -
Sei ordering that Noa be removed from the Animus -
Sei visiting Noa in his room -
Sei refusing to leave without Noa -
Sei thanking Noa for saving her
Appearances
References
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 20
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 21
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 22
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 6
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 7
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 8
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 9
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 10
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 13
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 18
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 23
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 26