History Characters / AyakashiTriangleMainCharacters

* ExperiencedProtagonist: He picked up his family trade at the start of the middle school, and so has about three years of training and experience fighting ayakashi.

When the Gogyosen sent a spell in a flying insect after Suzu, Matsuri shielded her with his hand and was affected instead. Somehow this produced a separate male and female Matsuri, the latter keeping the Gender Swap Mark. Each had the same memories and personality from before, but the actual nature of each isn't at all clear.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Every test Reo runs shows them both as humans, but Matoi's sure only one has Matsuri's physical body and the other is an ayakashi.
* BornOfMagic: At least one of them was created by the Gogyosen's jutsu. If the girl is the clone, she's likely the Gender Swap Awaken turned into an ayakashi. According to Shadow Mei, the boy is the clone. Even though they are identical in most ways, and the clone is considerably more human than a normal ayakashi, Shadow Mei can sense that he is born from grudges.

* CloningSplitsAttributes: The clone's creation did not duplicate the Gender Swap Awakened jutsu, resulting in one Matsuri who has a female body, silver hair, and the mark, while the other Matsuri has his original male form. Girl Matsuri believes this was achieved by taking the male form ("my manhood", in her words) out of her human body.

* GodInHumanForm: Exaggerated; assuming one is an ayakashi or similar, they're indistinguishable from a human in nearly every way known to science or magic.

* NakedOnArrival: When they split apart, each Matsuri was thrown naked some distance away. The clothes Matsuri was wearing before stayed in place.

* OneCurseLimit: The Gogyosen's curse and Shirogane's Gender Swap Awakened had some strange reaction when placed on the same person, causing the split. While the Gender Swap Awakened stayed with girl Matsuri, it turns out the curse went with boy Matsuri.
* OppositeSexClone: They are the opposite sex versions of the same person, but we don't know which is the clone. If it's Girl Matsuri she would be a straight example, but Boy Matsuri would be an inversion (i.e. a clone that is Matsuri's original sex created after his was changed). Story developments later point to the female Matsuri as the real one whereas the male Matsuri is an ayakashi.
* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Their relationship is highly antagonistic, as each wants to assert themselves as "real", usually at the other's expense.
* OutsideContextMagic: While we've seen plenty of human-like ayakashi, Matsuri's supposed clone has spiritual energy indistinguishable from a human's even on direct examination, when ayakashi are supposed to be fundamentally differentiated by their lack of kon. This either means the clone's haku can appear completely identical to kon, that they ''actually have'' kon (which may technically mean they're not an ayakashi ''or'' a human, but some other type of spiritual being), or one Matsuri is an outright ArtificialHuman with a copy of the original's physical body (which Matoi claims is impossible). It's eventually shown to be thanks to the Gogyosen's manipulation of yin and yang, which seems to be beyond the kon/haku divide.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Whichever of them is the ayakashi duplicate, even they themselves do not know.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: When Suzu decides against sex with only male Matsuri in favor of a three-way with both, the Gogyosen impatiently have him push her down to force himself on her. Since the Matsuri Suzu knows is nowhere near that sexually aggressive, she finally sees through their charade and breaks their curse.
* OutWithABang: How the curse inside him is triggered. If he were to ever mate with Suzu, the Gogyosen's god killing curse will be able to put the Ayakashi Medium down for good.

* FirstLawOfGenderBending: So long as Matsuri is a separate being, girl Matsuri believes it will be impossible for her to become male again, even if she's human and Shirogane could otherwise undo the jutsu. She also has no idea ''how'' they could merge together, knows the Gogyosen's curse makes boy Matsuri a danger to Suzu, and can't do anymore than stall when she knows he may need to be exorcised.

* PronounTrouble: In the Japanese version, girl Matsuri is largely referred to as before (masculine first-person pronouns, gender-neutral grammar by other characters), albeit called a girl more consistently. By contrast, the English version has all the characters aware of the split refer to girl Matsuri as "she/her". At first, it had Shadow Mei (who knew girl Matsuri was human) avoid gendered pronouns, but even she uses feminine once girl Matsuri is willing to stay a girl for life.

* SecondLawOfGenderBending: Since Matsuri had long treated romance with Suzu as the highest reason to become a boy, girl Matsuri seriously rethinks things when it seems Suzu likes her ''more'' than her boy self. She's quite troubled that saving Suzu could require being stuck female permanently, but doesn't just resolve to do so anyway, it's implied to be part of why the combined Matsuri ''voluntarily'' stays that way for longer.

** Girl Matsuri reluctantly accepts exorcizing boy Matsuri and being stuck as a girl to save Suzu, but then Suzu manages to save boy Matsuri and merge them back together. Though afterward, Matsuri is much less certain if they ''want'' to be a boy anytime soon.

* WomenAreWiser: Tends to act as a levelheaded foil to Matsuri's intensity, though she is a bit naive.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Suzu is Matsuri-sexual, whether or not he stays female.

* BetterAsFriends: [[spoiler:When girl Matsuri becomes excessively flirtatious to distract Suzu from boy Matsuri (who is obliviously carrying a curse that will [[OutWithABang kill her if they have sex]]), Suzu concludes that the girl was simply desperate for attention after her aquarium date with the boy, and vows to maintain a clean and platonic relationship with both (much to Shirogane's delight). Girl Matsuri reluctantly accepts her decision because it will still keep her safe from the curse, but then the Gogyosen resort to [[LossOfInhibition Lippy]]...]]

* NotDistractedByTheSexy: As they each have memories of having the other's body, either Matsuri can see the other completely naked--and even ''wrestle each other''--without getting flustered at all.

* OutsideContextMagic: While we've seen plenty of human-like ayakashi, Matsuri's supposed clone has spiritual energy indistinguishable from a human's even on direct examination, when ayakashi are supposed to be fundamentally differentiated by their lack of kon. This either means the clone's haku can appear completely identical to kon, that they ''actually have'' kon (which may technically mean they're not an ayakashi ''or'' a human, but some other type of spiritual being), or one Matsuri is an outright ArtificialHuman with a copy of the original's physical body (which Matoi claims is impossible).

* OreOnna: Like many male action protagonists, he refers to himself with ''[[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns ore]]''. He continues to do so while attending school as a girl, which is one reason he's immediately seen as a {{tomboy}}[[labelnote:*]]Matsuri is specifically called an ''orekko'' by several classmates, which the English translation parses as "tomboy".[[/labelnote]]. When he's temporarily brainwashed into believing he was always a girl, he switches to ''watashi'' until Soga knocks sense back into him.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: When she was young, Suzu was thought of as a CreepyLonerGirl because no one else could see the ayakashi she befriended. After finding someone else who shares her experience, she became much more socially-adjusted. Nowadays, she gets along with average humans well enough, but most of the exorcists view her as an extremely dangerous threat. While they are currently waiting and watching, and Matsuri is determined to prove them wrong, it is implied that they are already thinking about exterminating her. [[spoiler:After confirming that Suzu is the reincarnation of their ArchEnemy, Amaterasu, they order her exterminated]].

* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: Before the split, Matsuri spent most of his time as a girl assuming he'd easily hook up with Suzu if he became a boy again. After this one does so, he discovers Suzu may have liked Matsuri better as a girl--or at least how he acted when he was a girl. He also finds himself left out of the social life he'd developed after becoming a girl. After the two Matsuris merge back together, the loneliness that his seperate male self had experienced heavily influences Matsuri's decision to stay female.

* MegaNeko: His true form is large enough to treat his shrine roof like a bed.

* NeverMyFault: Shirogane becomes smitten with Matsuri when he's transformed into a female cat, but despite Matsuri constantly running from him and even scratching his face to reject his advances, he accuses Matsuri of "leading him on" when the transformation wears off.

* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: When Matsuri decides to hold off on changing back into a boy for a couple of years, Suzu reveals an interest in learning how to use the Gender Swap Awakening spell herself so she could freely change his physical gender so she wouldn’t have to choose between the male and female Matsuri, though it’s also partly to fulfill her bisexual desires.]]

* SecondLawOfGenderBending: [[spoiler:Even after Shirogane regains his powers in the finale, Matsuri ultimately decides against having the Gender Swap Awakened jutsu released until at least graduation, as he's grown accustomed to the social life he didn't have before the sex change (he also doesn't feel ready to handle Suzu in bed). However, he's now open to dating Suzu as a girl.]]

** A much more unusual case occurs when girl Matsuri decides to go after Suzu despite her boy self. While Suzu is attracted to both, she seems to prefer girl Matsuri--not as a result of sexual orientation, but because of their GenderBenderFriendship. [[spoiler:This ultimately becomes one reason Matsuri elects to stay a girl for the next several years.]]

* PronounTrouble: In the Japanese version, girl Matsuri is largely referred to as before (masculine first-person pronouns, gender-neutral grammar by other characters), albeit called a girl more consistently. By contrast, the English version has all the characters aware of the split refer to girl Matsuri as "she/her". Dialogue avoids any gendered pronouns from Shadow Mei, the only one specifically convinced girl Matsuri is the human.

** A much more unusual case occurs when girl Matsuri decides to go after Suzu despite her boy self. While Suzu is attracted to both, she seems to prefer girl Matsuri--though this is framed less as a result of sexual orientation as much as how each was behaving.

* PowerPerversionPotential: She gets the idea to manifest her hands from a distance to invisibly grope Matsuri's breasts and thighs in the middle of class. [[OtherMeAnnoysMe Neither]] of her [[LiteralSplitPersonality other personalities]] are amused.

* NeverMyFault: Boy Matsuri notices he's doing worse with Suzu than his girl self, but doesn't reassess his recent behavior or attempt to get close to her. He simply reasserts that he's the original, as if Suzu would be wrong to like the clone more.

* SecondLawOfGenderBending: Since Matsuri had long treated romance with Suzu as the highest reason to become a boy, girl Matsuri seriously rethinks things when it seems Suzu likes her ''more'' than her boy self. And then she goes back to being anxious when she learns boy Matsuri is her only way to be a boy again, but may need to be destroyed for Suzu's safety.

* FusionDance: [[spoiler:After he gets severely injured TakingTheBullet for Suzu from a BrainwashedAndCrazy Une, Suzu absorbs him to facilitate his recovery with her haku. While merged, Suzu gains his white hair, feline ears, gold eyes, tail, and even cat-like behavior. They split apart once he regains consciousness, but Kanade remains merged to him as life support. Their combined body alternates between Kanade's (with the same features as Suzu's fusion) and Shirogane's depending on who's in control.]]

* InUniverseNickname: Matsuri often calls him ''nekodaruma'' ("cat [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daruma_doll daruma]]"), which the English version translates to [[FatCat "the Flabby Feline"]].