Hotaru's Witches

Hotaru's Witches, known occasionally as "Hotaru's Coven", are a group of female mages closely affiliated with Hotaru Hiroshi. Initially encountered by Kenji Hiroshi and Van Satonaka, the pair discounted them as an independent group, and wrongly assumed them to be a cultist organisation similar to the Evening Primrose. Hotaru was later revealed to be aligned with the larger Coven organisation when said group went public, his own group a faction of the whole.

Overview
Hotaru's group was initially quite low-key regarding its operations and was strictly a shadow organisation. This changed in later years, with the group becoming far more public and bold. The public face of the group was Sakae Kisaragi, which led to the false assumption that she was actually the leader; especially after it was discovered that she was in someway involved in the murder of Kazuya Kuchiki. Sakae inflamed the Evening Primrose to act as a diversion to waylay the investigation of Van Satonaka, who held the belief that Hotaru, under the alias Yoshiro Shiba, was the mysterious Van had fought years previously.

Known members

 * Sakae Kisaragi.

Technology
Aside from organisation and threat level the one thing that elevated Hotaru's group from other cults encountered by the Gotei 13 was their access to advanced technology.

Through a complex blending of and  technologies Hotaru's group came into possession of a modified Kensei Muguruma. This was made possible by Samuru Asai though his involvement, and the wider implications, was unknown for an extended period. Kensei was used effectively as an enforcer and for psychological warfare.

Hotaru's group likewise possessed potent teleportation equipment. Sakae was known to be capable of travelling unspecified distances without alerting sentries or leaving behind a trail to follow. It wasn't clear whether this form of travel involved Kidō or not.

Behind the scenes

 * "Hotaru's Witches" arose from the reshuffle of the current FC. Several role-plays between the author and Sig made reference to a "Coven", without going into too many specifics. The main Coven group exists in the FC but has yet to be revealed and Hotaru's so-called Witches serve as a precursor of sorts.


 * In this case the term "Coven" refers to a gathering of witches. All members of Hotaru's faction where female.