The Garden is the oldest established organization of assassins in DisCity, founded by the Underground as a way to turn wayward Sinners into weapons. Sumire describes it as a large organization with many branches, which handles many of agents without informing them of their connection to the Garden itself, as a means of maintaining its secrecy. In addition to training combat skills for assassination, members of the Garden are also expected to develop proficiency in traditional artistic pursuits such as flower arranging, calligraphy, and embroidery.
The leader of the Garden is known to the outside world only as The Mentor, a position currently held by Coquelic. Under Coquelic's leadership, the Garden cut official ties with the Underground and became a neutral party, allowing its members to act on their own prerogative.
Members
Known members of the Garden include:
- Coquelic (leader/"Mentor")
- Sumire
- Garofano
- Gekkabijin
- Thistle
History
The Garden was established by the Underground as a proxy organization to turn Sinners disillusioned with the DisCity against its authorities. For the majority of its history, the Garden's targets were exclusively representatives of Paradeisos, the FAC, or other anti-Mania personnel. The Garden also recruited heavily from among young people whose family were FAC soldiers who had died in battle, taking advantage of the FAC's reputation for idolizing meaningless sacrifices. The Mentor at this time also possessed the ability to catalyze ordinary humans into Sinners, a capability otherwise only possessed by the Underground. At an unknown point, Coquelic slew the Mentor, seeing the way that Garden operatives were used as pawns in the Underground's war as no better than the dehumanizing tool use of Paradeisos.
Under Coquelic
With Coquelic as the new Mentor, the Garden cut formal ties with the Underground and became an independent organization. Coquelic endorsed a new philosophy, that the members of the Garden should avoid being tied to anybody but themselves, and should pursue the freedom to act on their own desires.
In N.F. 113, Garofano escaped from the MBCC following the Chief's presumed death at the start of the Ten Days of Rustfire. Having been manipulated by the Underground, Garofano began an assassination campaign against representatives of Paradeisos whom she feared were targeting the Garden. This culminated in a failed assassination attempt on Shalom, in which Garofano was captured and required Coquelic's rescue. Seeing the way that Garofano was abused while in Paradeisos' custody, Coquelic accepted the Underground's request to kill Shalom and stop the Blockade Operation before it began by discrediting the FAC.
During the ensuing conflict, Paradeisos discovered the location of the Garden's secret headquarters and raided it with the Hush elite unit. Every member of the Garden present were taken as hostages to ensure Coquelic's cooperation with Shalom's plan to have her locate the Chief's body. This plot was foiled by Christina and Thistle, who helped Coquelic escape and reunited her with the remnants of the Garden. The Garden continued to survive in hiding in Syndicate for a while, until they were located again by the FAC and MBCC. In order to protect the others, Coquelic allowed herself to be taken into MBCC custody.
After Coquelic was arrested by the MBCC, the Chief filed a false report to the 9th Agency stating that the Garden was forced to participate in the August War under pressure from the Underground, and that aside from Coquelic, every Garden Sinner was killed in battle with the FAC. At Coquelic's request, the Chief agreed to track down the remaining members of the Garden and secretly detain them with the Shackles. Thus, the Garden's lives were preserved, but it ceased to exist as a functioning organization.