Zabaniya (ザバーニーヤ, Zabaaniiya?) is the name of the Noble Phantasms of all the nineteen possible Assassins available to be summoned in the Holy Grail Wars. Each one of the nineteen Hassan-i SabbahWP, with the exception of the The Hundred-Faced Hassan, had modified their bodies during life in order to earn their titles. They are currently keeping their abilities as concealed "ultimate techniques", all with the name Zabaniya, for the purpose of taking down the other eighteen so that they can vie for the position of Leader of the Assassins.[1]
The techniques have not been passed down in history like regular Noble Phantasms, but the Assassins themselves are a famous anecdote. Due to being the abilities that have established them as Assassins by virtue of being placed as the Old Man of the Mountain, the superhuman abilities they had in life are sublimated as their Noble Phantasms.[2] The The Beautiful Assassin is noted to have copied eighteen of the techniques by extensively modifying her body, and the only one she lacks is Delusional Illusion.
Zabaniya： Delusional Heartbeat (妄想心音, Mousou Shin'on?) is the ability used by the Assassin summoned in the Fifth Holy Grail War. It is the arm of the evil spirit Shayṭān, the cursing hand of the Middle East magecraft specialized in curses. It takes the place of his right arm, which he normally keeps wrapped in cloth, making it seem like a useless appendage without an hand. After removing the cloth, he reveals that the "clubbed stump" of the arm is actually the elbow, and the arm itself is folded back and sewn to his shoulder. Once unleashed, it rips away from his flesh and flaps like a "one-winged spear." The arm's ability is one of the purest magics and simplest curses. It creates a mirror image of the heart of the assassination target with an ether clump, a dual existence that resonates with the original one. By crushing the fake heart, he can crush the real one with this curse without laying a finger on it. It is also possible to switch the two existences by touching the target's chest, allowing Assassin to devour the heart and gain the opponent's intelligence. It may not mean instant death to some opponents, allowing for the chance of a final counterattack before death.[3]
The ability completely neutralizes all physical barriers and armors by only interacting with the fake heart, meaning that all physical defense and distance is rendered meaningless. It would simply bypass an armor with a defensive rating of one thousand, and directly deal damage. The way to resist the curse does not fall under endurance, but rather, the target must simply stay out of True Assassin’s range and have a high enough magic statistic to prevent the overlaying existence from even being created or have high enough Luck to avoid it without any problem. It can be considered a convoluted and indirect way of killing a target that is more akin to trick used by a magician.[4][5] The ability, bearing the name of a fallen angel, is only able to target and punish humans. It is unable to curse its own kind, rendering it ineffective against evil spirits or those affected by their curses. When used against Kirei Kotomine, whose heart is under the curse of Angra Mainyu, Assassin simply feels no solid response from the ether clump, as if the heart is empty.
Zabaniya： Delusional Illusion (妄想幻像, Mousou Genzou?) is the ability used by the "The Hundred-Faced Hassan", who was the Assassin summoned during the fourth Holy Grail War. It is an anti-unit Noble Phantasm that targets Assassin himself rather than an opponent. Assassin is a single entity, but he possesses a compartmentalized soul and multiple personalities that allow him to divide his spiritual potential to materialize up to eighty different Servants. Though limited by his physical body during life, his thousand souls are now free of such limitations as a spiritual entity, and as each segment can materialize as an individual, they can all be materialized simultaneously in different shapes.
Each one is its own separate entity, and the only shared characteristics are their skull masks and black cloaks. Their body sizes can be giant, slim, short as children, and some can even be women. They each have their own will, personality, strengths, and weaknesses, and although they are against unnecessary sacrifice, losing one without a specific strength doesn't directly affect the whole of the others more than losing a finger. There are those who are impatient glory-hounds who ignore orders like fools, and individuals who are terrible at ambushes despite being assassins. It is possible to produce egos that are not aware of themselves, such as the Child Assassin. Despite any drawbacks, if one can comprehend their characteristics and apply their skills in the right situations, Assassin can be a very dangerous Servant.[7]
This ability allows for Kirei Kotomine and Tokiomi Tohsaka to make the other Masters in the war believe that Assassin was decisively killed by sacrificing one of the bodies. They can be split up for reconnaissance, but they have to directly speak to each other to communicate information and decide on orders. If the Master has the ability to see through his Servant's eyes, he is limited to a single Assassin at any one time. If they are separated on numerous different assignments, it can take up to ten minutes to summon them all together in one spot. Due to the potential of the spirit being that of only one person, the abilities of the Assassins produced by the division is extremely low, reaching the lowest point of the capabilities of Servants. As his statistics are divided among the bodies, it means that they are unable to match any Heroic Spirits in direct combat, nor does it allow him to equal a small army. Though not suitable for combat, their abilities are unparalleled in terms of spying and gathering recon. Their high numbers do allow for a final resort strategy to kill an opponent's Master by sacrificing the greater whole in order to overwhelm the opponent with pure numbers.
During life, he was the only Hassan without the need to modify his body in any way. Though his strength was typical, he had a special ability, taking advantage of his affliction of Multiple Personality Disorder, allowing him to change his body freely with his mind to disguise himself as a man, woman, child, or an elder to act as an assassin without a true identity. He was able to change his personality solely based on the situation, allowing him to confuse opponents, weave webs of defense, and kill them with unexpected and unpredictable methods all while hiding his true identity completely. He had a repertoire of abilities allowing him to act as a master assassin capable of doing anything by switching abilities depending on the requirements of his assignments. He had impressive skills in planning and tactics, knowledge of all languages of other countries, the ability to identify poisons and set traps, and on occasions displayed the capability to utilize strange strength and agility to use illusionary, long forgotten fighting styles. Other skills employed by the Assassins include impersonating Toyotomi HideyoshiWP and chick sexingWP.[8]
Zabaniya: Cyber Phantasy (空想電脳, Kuusou Dennou?) is the ability of the Assassin summoned during the Third Holy Grail War. Upon contact between an enemy's head and one of Assassin's hands, it turns the target's brain into gunpowder, causing it to explode and destroy the upper half of their body. He utilizes poisonous needles and his small stature to catch opponents offguard and touch his left hand to their foreheads.
Zabaniya: Ichor of Reverie (夢想髄液?) is an ability possessed by The Beautiful Assassin. The ability does not originate with her, instead belonging to one of the Eighteen Hassan-I-Sabbah who preceded her. The exact nature of this ability is unknown, but it somehow instantly kills nine magi actively preparing spells by forcing them to incinerate themselves in an unknown manner.
Oh. By the way, the Noble Phantasm of every Servant Assassin is named 'Zabaniya'. The reason is that each of the 19 candidates for the position of 'Leader of the Assassins' is concealing an 'ultimate technique' crowned with the name Zabaniya -- a hidden trump card for the purpose of taking down the other 18.
Delusional Heartbeat [Noble Phantasm, Magecraft]
The cursed arm, Zabaniya.
The arm of the evil spirit Shaytan, proficient in cursing humans to death.
By using an Ether Lump, Delusional Heartbeat creates a dual existence which can influence the original by generating a mirrored existence of the target.
By destroying the false copy, it curses the target to death without laying a finger on the original.
It is a type of convoluted killing technique, only fitting for assassination.
Even with a suit of armour with a defense of 1000, Delusional Heartbeat grasps the false heart right on top of the armour, and inflicts direct damage to the insides of the target.
This Noble Phantasm almost seems like a trick performed by an illusionist.
Q: Is there any way to defend against "Delusional Heartbeat: Zabaniya"?
A: One can simply stay out of True Assassin’s range, have high enough MGI to dispel the cursed mirror image heart that Zabaniya creates, or have high enough Luck to avoid it without any problem.
Hundred-Faced Hassan [Servant]
The Assassin Heroic Spirit who participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War. One of the "Old Man of the Mountain" amongst the generations of Hassan-i Sabbah.
He was an exception in Hassans, as he did not undergo the body modification called "Zabaniya". Instead, he took advantage of his affliction of Multiple Personality Disorder and acted as an assassin without a true identity.
When summoned as a spiritual entity and emerged as a Servant, segments of his compartmentalized soul each materialized as an individual. However, due to the potential of the spirit being only that of one person, the abilities of the Assassins produced by the division were extremely low, reaching the nadir of the capabilities of Servants.
In addition, each personality has his strengths and weaknesses. Among them, there are impatient glory-hounds who ignore orders like fools, and individuals who are terrible at ambushes despite being assassins. However, if one can comprehend their characteristics and apply their skills in the right situations, the Hundred-Faced Hassan can be a very dangerous Servant. Unfortunately, because his Master had no intention of winning the war, he was damned to the fate of a voyeur.
The Hundred-Faced Hassan was summoned by Kotomine Kirei when he was still a lackey of Tokiomi Tohsaka, thus he was truly a servant of a servant. Even so, he still harboured a wish that he hoped the Grail could grant (by the way, it was "to have a perfect and unified personality"). He even plotted to hijack the Holy Grail before Kirei and Tokiomi, had the war have gone in their favour. However, in the end he did not even have a chance to show his rebellious side before becoming the first Servant eliminated from the war.
