Series from 2006
Masane Amaha exists on society’s fringe, with no memory and no direction. Upon her arrival back in Tokyo, her fate is altered forever when she unites …
Masane Amaha is a woman on the fringe of society, but her strange destiny was written long ago. She exists as a soul with no memory, bouncing rootless from town to town with her young daughter, Rihoko. Back in Tokyo for the first time since waking at ground zero in the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake, their arrival does not go unnoticed. While the fragmented family seeks security, unseen eyes search for mother and child. As Rihoko is spirited away by the Child Welfare Ministry, all rational thought is thrown from the window of a stolen police car. When the smoke clears… The Witchblade is unleashed.
Masane, reborn a furious force of nature, is conscripted into service by the Doji Group. While the reality of her new life sets in, her daughter wanders Tokyo alone.
Reiji Takayama of the monolithic Doji Group Industries has Masane trapped like a rat, and the battery of harsh tests continues in clandestine corporate labs. There is no guarantee of her survival, no allusion that those at Doji even care. But a virgin lust for battle courses through Masane's blood – The latest perfect vessel alive to the Witchblade's raw power. A beast stirs within her heart, unleashed with gleeful relish as engineered titans stalk city streets in search of prey. She must face them down in brutal barter for a promised life with her daughter. The perfect weapon as perfect mother… Neither role seems to fit.
Masane's new life as the indentured lethal arm of the Doji Group is wrought with peril, but there are perks as well. A life of unaccustomed luxury begins to unfold, a life much more readily embraced by daughter than mother. As a new home is found among friends both new and old (both fresh and odd, more like), Masane begins to come to terms with her "contract work" as "Odd-Job Amaha" is born. But comforting coziness is quick to vanish when her alter-ego scents new game. Another powerful entity – the NSWF – seeks possession of the Witchblade, and its emissaries are eerily familiar to Masane…
Enter the Cloneblades: Bioengineering and shattered corporate alliances at their best. Having created a breed of powerful woman warriors, confrontation is inevitable when so many desire the same thing… Ultimate power. Masane now has the means to provide for Rihoko, her salary negotiated as paid huntress of the X-Cons. While mother and daughter clean up and celebrate with a bit of shopping, one has to wonder which is truly the adult in this relationship. Elsewhere, higher powers gather to discuss important matters, and the ever-diligent reporter Yusuke Tozawa’s on a new lead he just can't shake – The Witchblade.
Masane has been ravaged in her first real bout with her clone contemporaries. Rescued from certain death by the Doji Group, she is whisked away as her savage assailant makes chase, blood lust unquenched. Left to her own devices on the home front, Rihoko's busy making breakfast and fast friends. But the young child remains unimpressed with Tozawa's incessant questioning. For Masane, the twisted tale of the ancient Witchblade takes a turn as past relationships between unsteady foes are revealed… old scars explained but never forgotten. For the NSWF, a warrior's sanity begins to unravel as her body heals.
