The Karasu Shimai
The Karasu Shimai are three demonic assassins, escaped from the depths of Hell and intent on building a vile monument to murder.
Name:
The Karasu Shimai
Publisher:
Aliases:
First issue:
Vampirella (2010) #8 A Murder of Crows
Origin
Introduced in issue #8 of Vampirella, they are the target of Vampirella's next mission based on information from her mysterious benefactor. During her battle with Yag-Ath Vermellus, the barrier between Hell and Earth was weakened and the sisters used the opportunity to escape from Hell into our world.
Female in appearance except for the bird-like talons in place of hands, they wear masks that portray an emotion. These three "ladies" use their talons to kill. The sisters are composed of:
- Ikari - Sister of Rage
- Zetsobou - Sister of Despair
- Kanki - Sister of Delight
Each of the sisters are a formidable opponent alone with super strength, speed, and fighting skills on par with Vampirella. Their strength however lies in their ability to work together in perfect unison; Creating an unrelenting killing machine.
The masks are used to anchor themselves to this world while they look for a more permanent solution. They have begun murdering individuals that exhibit at least one of the following traits: deceit, cowardice, immorality, disloyalty, dishonesty, or insolence. Once they have killed a person that represents each of those traits, they will have earned the ability to stay on Earth.
Story Arc
By the time Vampirella is on their trail, the Karasu Shimai had murdered Reverend Donald Soaplake in Seattle and trooper Ben Ito a day later 50 miles east of Seattle. Both were crucified with the kanji (Chinese characters) for the trait they were killed for written in blood beside them.
After an fruitless battle, Vampirella and Sofia flee to a nearby abandoned house to devise a strategy to take take out the sisters. In the ensuing battle, Vampirella manages to disable the sisters one by one, all while Sofia enacts the other half of their plan. By surrounding the house in a ring of salt, they trap the Karasu Shimai long enough for Vampirella to finish the job.
Note
In issue #10, they are erroneously referred to as the "Kerasu Shimei" and "Kerasu Shimai." In Japanese, "karasu" translates to crow and "shimai" translates to sisters.
