Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Demon Sword Maiden

Go To

Characters for Demon Sword Maiden. Currently under construction. Spoilers may be unmarked.


    open/close all folders 

Main Characters:

     Kagami Lily 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lily_00.jpg
If Might Makes Right, then you are too weak to "speak sense" to me while acting like a beetle hiding behind his father.
The Protagonist.
  • Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: The longer it takes for her to find a way to get "Big Sister Rinne" out of that cursed mirror, the more Lily's thoughts stray to Rei and Shimizu, and Lily hates it!
  • Accidental Discovery: Learns the secret to something Demon Sword Maidens like herself have been struggling with, for centuries, purely by accident.
  • The Ace: After less than a month of training, she becomes the best archer, rider, and especially swordsman that Nagahide ever turned out, or ever will...
  • Action Girl: She has no problems kicking ass, taking names, and kicking more ass.
  • Amnesiac Hero: Played with. She initially pretends to be almost completely amnesiac, seeing as her arrival didn't come with a family register, rank or title. She does have some Trauma-Induced Amnesia from the plane crash that brought her to this other world but is otherwise fully self-aware.
  • Anything but That!: Lily would have happily given Shimizu whatever she wanted, simply for the asking, except her magic bronze mirror where Rinne's soul slumbers. Shimizu tries to take it anyway, by force. To say that it goes badly would make the term "understatement" an understatement.
  • Assassin Outclassin': She repeatedly fights off attempted assassinations, especially a squad of elites from Shiu's clan, with Shiu herself as the Sole Survivor.
  • Backing Away Slowly: When she sees Yomika Saikanji disciplining her daughter Nanako by spanking her until she's crying, Lily simply backs away without being noticed.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: Deconstructed. When Tokugawa ignores the referee in his duel with Kondo telling him to stop when the duel is over and takes a swing with his thick bamboo sword trying to split Kondo's skull, Lily expertly blocks the sword with her bare hands but gets her thumb dislocated if not broken. Since this interfered with Tokugawa's murder attempt, he flew into a rage, ignoring both the presence of Genji Sakiko and Genji Shimuzu, both of whom penalize him gravely.
  • Bully Magnet: Both in Japan and in this new world, the boy whose soul is now in Rinne's body was constantly targeted by bullies and so is Lily, but Lily actually has the tools, techniques and the legal right to fight back!
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: A single sip of wine is enough to make her tipsy and make her act bolder.
  • Clothing Damage: Her kimono has been shredded in battle on several occasions.
  • Crime of Self-Defense: Whenever she so much as dodges an attack from a brute who comes at her with a blade, the brute goes running off to his clan and whines that "a cruel, cunning bitch beat [him] up" and then the clod's clan comes at her, even if it's in a public duel, or live-combat training the brute in question demanded or signed up for.
  • Culture Clash: At one point, situations beyond her control saddle her with some slaves because the alternative was worse. After a few days, she thinks she found a solution, making them vassals. Both of said slaves took it as an insult, for some reason. She is rightly confused by this.
  • Does Not Like Men: She's extremely jaded with the local men, and it's justified. The vast, vast majority of them are total scum who see women as nothing more than sex-toys, on a good day, and it's been that way in this alternate Japan since ancient times.
  • Eleventh Hour Super Power: She unlocks her "boundary" just as she is about to be killed by Dijon and Yuki tag-teaming her, Shimizu out of commision, and Nanako is about to be Eaten Alive by demons.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: She is so beautiful and elegant that the local women tend to end up going "lesbian" around her.
  • Exact Words: While she did initially identify herself as Kagami Lily, she never mentioned which Kagami family she came from. The fact that Ujizane deduced she's from the very famous and very high-ranked noble family Kagami was his own "misunderstanding." This allowed her to dodge the accusation that she is a swindler faking nobility, a charge punishable by death.
  • The Farmer and the Viper: As a favor in memory of Hojo Ujizane, who treated her kindly, she spares Daidouji Akira and Hojo Motoshige when they had kidnapped Nanako, threatening the little girl with rape and murder, despite trying to use her as a hostage to force her clan to sell them firearms, which are rare, only for the two louts to feel "looked down upon" and attack her, leaving her no choice but to slice them in half, vertically.
  • Gender Bender: Was a very, very effeminate boy in Modern Japan. Wound up with his soul in "Big Sister" Rinne.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Antagonize her, and she won't hesitate to slice you to gibs if she can.
  • Hungry Weapon: She's had a few. They all consume the souls of "demons" to make themselves stronger, sharper, and more deadly. The most recent is her self-crafted "Crescent Moon" which, as of the latest update, has ranked up to a Class 6 weapon, which are so rare, even the most powerful clans can't even hope to own one.
  • Instant Expert: She's a swords-man and martial arts sponge and picks up her Demon Maiden powers at speeds so ridiculous, even she realizes it's way too fast.
  • It's Personal: She does her best to go through life without developing grudges, but should you succeed in earning her grudge, she won't let it go. En route back to Kamakara after the unmitigated disaster that was supposed to be a survival training class, she comes across a couple of thugs beating up a samurai to steal his tea-set. She ignores it since it's too far away for her to intervene until she hears the name "Tokugawa" shouted out by the attackers as their claim to "legitimacy" in their actions. She is then immediately enraged and runs to the scene as fast as her Supernatural Martial Arts can take her. Although she arrives too late to save the victim, when one of the attackers uses the Tokugawa family name as a club and another proclaims his intent to rape her, every last member of the attackers was reduced to a fine mist.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Deconstructed. For the vast majority of the story, the only clothes she has access to, kimonos, wind up thoroughly trashed when she gets dragged into battle, using up a considerable amount of her income.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: She's very intent on taking her defeated opponents' cash and belongings, since she needs money and sellable items to survive in the harsh era she was transported to.
  • Lady of War: Beautiful, elegant, and absolutely deadly.
  • Like a Duck Takes to Water: She acclimates to this alternate Heian Japan with remarkable skill and speed. It's a good thing too, or she'd have died on day 1, within a matter of seconds!
  • Love Triangle: As of the most recent chapters, she is romantically entangled and torn between Shimizu Genji and Rei Uesugi. The biggest problem with this is that the Genji and the Uesugi houses are bitter rivals with Shimizu and Rei very much wanting to beat each other to death.
  • MacGuffin Guardian: Protects the magic mirror where Rinne's soul is trapped. Of course, it's inside Lily's cleavage.
  • Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Lily is so self-conscious about Rinne's body that she whips herself if she so much as accidentally catches her reflection on the surface of a lake while bathing, but while training in the mountains for a month, her curiosity finally overcomes her hesitation about exploring "the landscape." Amazingly, this self-exploration leads to an Accidental Discovery about Demon Sword Maiden powers that have eluded experts for centuries.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By winning Naoko's Undying Loyalty, she has unwittingly caused serious problems with the latter's true potential. Because Naoko will live and die for Lily, she can't properly fuse with Sakura, a latent part of her soul, so now she needs to undergo special training.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Every time she shows genuine kindness and grace, it quickly turns around to bite her.
  • "Open!" Says Me: The plan was for Shiu to sneak into the Hojo clan compound and open the gates from within. She pulled off the first part with aplomb, but Lily then hears Shiu scream. In a rage Lily Turns Red and single-handed destroys the Dijon gate with a single slash of Crescent Moon, causing the gate to explode inward blasting some of the enemy soldiers on the other side.
  • Petal Power: When she manages to unlock her "Boundary", it takes the form of a blizzard of sakura petals. This swarm of petals cuts through all but the strongest demons with ease.
  • Pragmatic Hero: While she is morally upright, she's not going to be hung up on "honor" or "legality" if she's set upon by honor-less brutes who want to rob, rape, and murder her. Said brutes tend to have the gall to howl and whine about it being "dishonorable" to dare to fight back.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: She manages to make Shimizu stop bullying her and allow her to attend the sword lesson she had her eyes on, but by this point is in too much pain to actually absorb any part of the lesson.
  • Relative Button: If you value your life, do not ever mess with someone Lily calls "sister" or she will, without fail, hunt you down.
  • Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Frequently subjected to Clothing Damage and "intimate" encounters against her will.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: She takes Naoko rather than Shiu to watch over a samurai survivalist training class so she gains some practical experience. After said class is ruined by an attack from Yuki, Dijon, and a legion of demons, Nanako and Lily wind up in a cave with the rest of the fragments of her previous consciousness.
  • Soul Eating: As with all Demon Sword Maidens, she grows stronger by consuming the souls of her enemies, either humans or demon. She either absorbs the soul herself, feeds them to her Hungry Weapon, or stores them in a special "anima jar" to sell for cash.
  • Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: Lord Kamakura has repeatedly sent her on missions he doesn't expect her to survive. When in private with his retainer, he reveals that he never expected her to survive the "survival training camp" with the young samurai, as he was using Lily to draw out Dijon, and was shocked that she actually killed the demonized traitor. Then he sends her to scope out the strange behavior of the city under Lord Tatenaka where she finds that Tatenaka has given a "kill on sight" order to all his samurai and then she learns that Tatenaka and Tokugawa, one of the Furinzakan, are in collusion to rebel.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement: A pivotal part of her first arc involved crafting her own samurai blade. Gathering the tamegahane, the anima of the demon hound, the calligraphy skill of a rune master, and finally being trained by an expert blacksmith to put the blade together, marked her change from just a samurai trainee to a genuine Demon Sword Maiden and is her biggest first step to crossing the demon mountains to learn the secrets of her copper mirror and getting Rinne's soul out of it.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: If she's handing one of these out, it means her patience is at an end, and whoever is antagonizing her had better back the hell off, or she's going to be dishing out a Literal Ass-Kicking. In chapter 285, a corrupt imperial official, the father of Nagasaki Kashima, brings Tokugawa, his son, and a bunch of men no one's ever seen before to Lily's house, which Kondo reports Kashima tried to break into and vandalize countless times while she was away, rebuffed by Genji school officials. The official in question tries using the name of the emperor as a club to compel Lily into his own personal quarters, alone, to compel her, by torture and other methods, into signing a false confession, both to avenge his hoodlum of a son and to shift the blame for the deaths of the hundreds of samurai trainees as a result of the Hundred Demon Clan's attack. When she refused to comply with such a transparent scheme, he began threatening her with force, even ordering his attendants to slap her cheeks 20 times with wooden swords. At this point, she completely lets him have it, before retaliating to his attack.
    “I fought with my life on the line against the monsters to protect those disciples, yet you’re oppressing me for that by using the dead disciples as an excuse to frame me! It was obviously the decision of you old fools from the upper echelon that resulted in the death of so many disciples! You were fully aware that I’m the mirror girl, yet you sent me to the frontier where the forces of the Hundred Demons run amuck! I would like to know what exactly you were planning by doing that!”
  • Took a Level in Badass: Grinds them like crazy. Starts the story with no martial talent, whatsoever. One month of training with Matsuhide, and she's the best candidate he's ever trained for entry to the Genji Dojo. She gets in the dojo and in less than a month, goes from complete rookie to third place, able to fight Shimizu to a standstil in sparring.
  • Trans Tribulations: She's usually far too busy fighting for her life, undergoing training, or journeying to save Rinne's soul to think about it, but when she actually has a chance to catch her breath and lower her guard, the fact that she's got a boy's soul inhabiting a woman's body is very, very deeply troubling and has resulted in several rather epic breakdowns, freak-outs, and panic attacks.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: She starts out with little sword experience, but she's a quick learner and eventually becomes Strong and Skilled. This is shown in her fight with Nanako, who is more technically skilled than her but falls behind in spirit power.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: She is very adept at using her cleavage like a pocket, to the point she once stored an 80 kg piece of Tamegahane in there.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Beautiful, elegant, refined, but when she goes shopping in a clothing store, she squees like a little kid in a candy shop.
  • You Remind Me of X: The demonic monk Noboru mistakes her for his daughter, Aomi, causing him to save her from Akira Daidouji.

     Rinne 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rinne.jpg
Jeesh! I know I said I'd like to become one with you, "Lily", but this is clearly not what I meant!
The girl whose soul is trapped in the mirror Lily holds and whom she's trying to free.
  • The Ace: Back in modern Japan, she was the best at academics, athletics, and "the four arts", zither, go, calligraphy, and painting.
  • All Women Are Lustful: After her Love Confession, she admits that were it not for the plane crash, she would have dragged him (him being Lily) to a Love Hotel when they reached Kyoto.
  • Convenient Coma: She's completely unconscious inside that magical copper mirror.
  • I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Implied. "Lily" is the guy she's fond of, and he's the only one that didn't actively pursue her, just stealing glances at her from the side.
  • Love Confession: She confesses her love to "Lily" and then a plane crash kills them both, sending them to this alternate Heian Era Japan.
  • Magic Is a Monster Magnet: Her presence within the mirror always attracts the attention of monsters.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: She's the relatively masculine girl to "Lily's" feminine boy.
  • School Idol: She was pursued by just about every guy in the school, and "Lily" admired her too, but did not dare approach her. If the super-rich and handsome sons of politicians, corporate conglomerates, athletes, etc. didn't move her, what chance did he have?
  • Sharing a Body: Her body is being controlled by the former boy now named "Lily."
  • Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Lily's memories indicate that, as a boy, Rinne towered over him.

Companions

     Sakura 
A parasol Lily finds on her person the moment she transmigrates into this new world.
  • Amnesiac Hero: Either that or The Gadfly. She claims to have problems remembering crucial information Lily needs to know on the path of being a Demon Sword Maiden, or Mirror Girl, despite being otherwise helpful, until either Lily's figured it out herself, or "suddenly remembers" when Lily is in a pinch and really, really needs it.
  • Butt-Monkey: If she's with Lily when Lily gets dragged into a fight, she'll get swat aside, dragged off, or otherwise "misplaced" and then Lily has to go seek her out.
  • Pieces of God: She and Nanako are different parts of a shikigami that were scattered when her master died and reincarnated in different places.
  • The Team Benefactor: If not for the parasol guiding Lily at the start of the story, she'd be dead, or worse, as a "Demon Parade" was in the same space as she appeared, and the parasol hiding her in its shadow is the only reason she went unnoticed.
  • You Are What You Hate: She hates lolis, yet her human form is one.

     Saikanji Nanako 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chibi_nanako_full_colored_768x1164.png
Why am I a chibi when that brutish big-breasted cow gets a proper illustration?!
Lily's "Little Sister".
  • A-Cup Angst: To insanely illogical levels. She's deeply offended that she has a petite bust and will be irritated, at best, by anything even resembling breasts. On the trek to the Genji dojo, she spots a pair of mountains and gets annoyed and when her retainers ask her what's wrong "this time", she points at said mountains and says "don't those mountains look like a pair of breasts? Go level those mountains for me!" to the retainer's confusion and dismay.
  • Attempted Rape: Hojo Motoshige lets his vassals loose, and they proceed to rip her clothes off and prepare to rape her while she's tied up to a tree. Fortunately, along comes a very, very pissed off Kagami Lily who quickly and nonchalantly reduces the thugs to little chunks of meat while walking The Slow Walk, to the horror of Akira and Motoshige.
  • The Bet: Twice. She twice demands that Lily become her slave. The first time, she one-sidedly demands that Lily should become her slave if she outranks the latter during their initial screening, and tries to enforce it even though Lily never agreed to the wager in the first place. The second time, she demands a duel with Lily, where the loser would be enslaved to the winner. Unsurprisingly, she loses and is immediately subjected to a bit of Kinky Spanking, due to her lack of self-control.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She's insulted when Lily offers her the chance to become a vassal, rather than remain as her slave. So insulted in fact that she runs off crying, calling Lily an idiot.
  • Doorstop Baby: Yomiko's side story reveals that the woman never married and was a complete lesbian, who couldn't understand why her matriarchal clan was so desparate for her to marry some man she never met through a Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage and sire the guy's daughter. So she when she found an infant girl abandoned in the snow, she made up a story about siring a love child of some nameless samurai she eloped with who then died in battle with the demons. The clan was not happy, but accepted Naoko as Yomiko's heir and quit pressuing her to marry some random schlub. Naoko is not aware of any of this.
  • Fiery Redhead: She's got red hair and is a truly wild and unruly child.
  • Hostage Situation: She's kidnapped and taken hostage by Akira and Hojo Motoshige to force her mother to sell the two firearms.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: She feels vastly inferior to Lily, so acts haughty, stuck-up, and tries to brow beat her into submission. She winds up getting quite a bit of Humble Pie for it.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She proves herself to be a good and kind woman, but she's also an unruly teen who tends to wield her family name like a club to get her way.
  • Kinky Spanking: Subjected to it, twice. First, she gets a few swats on the bum with a ruler, when Lily's had enough of being pushed around. Second, when her mother hears how she gave Lily trouble, even angrily fleeing in the middle of the night, rejecting the once-in-a-lifetime chance to be the trusted vassal of a quickly rising Demon Sword Maiden, and getting turned into a hostage of the Hojos, she's draped over her mother's knees and her bum gets the literal shit whipped out of it.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: She encourages this mindset to Lily, since they need all the supplies they can get off the corpses of their enemies after angering several major clans. The narration notes that it's common for samurais to take the supplies of their fallen enemies.
  • Loving Bully: She's quite fond of Lily, but thinks the best way to show it is to boss and push the latter around. Unfortunately for her, she quickly learns it's a case of Bullying a Dragon.
  • The Napoleon: In addition to her irrational hatred of big breasts, she's also deeply antagonistic to women taller than herself. Lily happens to be both...
  • Oblivious Adoption: She's completely unaware that Yomiko found her abandoned in a snow drift as an infant and took her in.
  • Original Position Fallacy: She demands a duel with Lily, where the loser would become the slave of the winner, fully expecting to win, and dreaming up all sorts of humiliating things to put Lily through, not the least of which is riding atop Lily's back like a horse. She winds up eating crow when Lily wins a Single-Stroke Battle and then winds up atop the latter's knees, getting spanked with a ruler.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lily immediately clues in to the fact that Nanako was horrified by the abuse she suffered at the hands of Tokugawa and gang when Nanako breaks down crying, whining about how scared she was, as Nanako is usually very haughty and self-important.
  • Pieces of God: She's the reincarnated body of a shikigami and Sakura's the soul.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: When she shows up on the scene and sees Shimizu knocking Lily off a cliff, accidentally, while trying to steal her mirror, Nanako tells Shimizu that the only reason she wasn't killed on the spot is that Nanako lacks the strength to pull it off, taking the mirror with her and trying to rescue Lily. This completes Shimizu's breakdown.
  • Tsundere: Type A. She's self-aggrandizing, loud, and obnoxious, but she does care for Lily and ultimately winds up swallowing her pride for the latter's sake.
  • Undying Loyalty: Despite the fact that Tokugawa's louts were brutalizing her, force-fed her poison, and her very life was in jeopardy, she utterly refused to heed their orders to poison Lily's tea.

     Shiu 
A female ninja from the clan hired by Akira to assassinate Lily at the Chrysanthemum Inn near the Genji Dojo. She is captured and enslaved by Lily, at her request, because she feared being raped and murdered if handed over to the local guards. Shiu testifies this is the norm of the world.
  • Butt-Monkey: Poor girl just can't catch a break, at least not for very long.
  • Can Not Keep A Secret: Try as she might, the poor girl should not be trusted with confidential information, as she will absent-mindedly blab about it and not even realize she's doing it.
  • Casual Kink: Because of being doped up on aphrodisiacs and other factors, she grew to like it when she got tied to the rafters, S&M style, and suffered a bit of off-screen punishment from Sakura that involves Corporal Punishment.
  • Combat Pragmatist: When Lily proves too skilled and strong to deal with by conventional assassination or combat techniques, Shiu throws smoke bombs filled with potent aphrodisiacs, hoping to rush in and kill Lily when she's ... too indisposed to resist. This goes badly for her.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: As punishment for trying to assassinate Lily, she gets tied to the rafters S&M style, and smacked around a bit by Sakura.
  • The Ditz: She's very airheaded, even accidentally revealed that her clan was hired by the Daidouji clan to attack Lily, by trying, and failing, to deliver witty one-liners about Lily's impending death. This carries on even under Lily's service as Lily has her help to test escape techniques, but then forgets all about her and leaves her tied to the ceiling, helpless, for hours, until Sakiko comes along and gets the wrong idea.
  • Happiness in Slavery: Clearly in the lesser evil category with a splash of beloved servant.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Her aphrodisiac smoke bombs take her down before they incapacitate Lily.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Even though she was forced to join the Fuma clan against her will, she was still loyal to them, despite their cruel treatment of her and her fellow ninja. The reason she was quick to sell herself out to Lily was her "trainer" Onigumo. Had Lily not taken pity on her and made her a slave, she would have been bought out of prison by him, and raped into an Empty Shell before he got nasty. Shiu testifies that he's done that to many Shinobi of the Fuma clan, and is ecstatic examining his corpse as she does so.
  • Property of Love: When Lily offered her the chance to be a vassal, she pointedly refused, stating that she will happily serve Lily, for life. Lily is confused and confounded by this.

Hojo Clan

     Hojo Ujizane 
The first human Kagami Lily meets upon transmigrating to this new world.
  • By-the-Book Cop: Takes his duties as the city guard seriously, and escorted Kagami Lily to safety, away from the "Night Parade" of 100 or so demons that were wandering the streets.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: He's convinced that Kagami Lily is suffering from Trauma-Induced Amnesia from a demon attack on the highway. Lily was indeed traumatized by a near-death experience that had nothing to do with demons.
  • The Farmer and the Viper: How does Dijon thank him for pleading on his behalf? Trying to kill him during The Coup. He's forced to flee for his life, and presumably heading to Kamikura to report on Dijon's crimes.
  • Sacred Hospitality: Using his own family name, he gives Lily a place to sleep until she can get her legs beneath her and find her own way in the world.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: He's Dijon's cousin, son of Tokitaka's younger brother. When Dijon was being dressed down for his many, many crimes, including ordering Akira and Motoshige to go after Lily, Ujizane takes Dijon's side and is the most vocal about begging for leniency.
  • White Sheep: One of the few Hojo clan members to act with genuine chivalry, decency, and honor, not one who uses "honor" as a club to brow-beat others and get his way.

     Hojo Motoshige 
Dijon's younger brother, and the first of the Hojos Lily encounters who is antagonistic to her.
  • Abomination Accusation Attack: At the behest of Daidouji Hiroko, he shows up, accuses Lily of being a vagabond who is trying to scam the Hojos, the Daidouji, and the Matsuda clans by impersonating a noble. The only one in attendance not shocked by this is Hiroko who is in a corner snickering in smug self-satisfaction.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Kagami Lily shows up to rescue Nanako, tearing through his men like they weren't even there, he shamelessly begs for his life, until Lily starts to free Nanako, and then conspires with Akira to attack her from behind.
  • The Bully: He loves to show up and harass people who can't fight back for his own amusement. He even lampshades this himself when he "tests" Lily's competence with a sword, determining if she's samurai material or not, failing meaning he has an excuse to arrest her, and is shocked that she passes the test with flying colors.
  • For the Evulz: He grabs Nanako in the middle of the night to use as a hostage against her clan to secure firearms for the Hojos, but just for laughs, he orders his men to rape her. When Kagami Lily shows up to rescue Nanako and sees it, she goes into a terrifying Tranquil Fury and reduces these would-be rapists to random pieces of meat.
  • I Surrender, Suckers: He fakes his surrender so Lily ignores him while rescuing Nanako and then helps Akira attack her from behind. When Lily takes out the onmyoji binding her, slices Akira in half, vertically and then comes for him, he tries to surrender again, but Lily is not fooled a second time and slices him in half too.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He's no samurai, he's just a man of the Hojo house, yet he uses the Hojo name as a club to keep people from messing with him, even if he offends them first.
  • Smug Snake: Loves to prance around as if he's superior to everyone.
  • Stupid Evil: Telling your men to rape a hostage for your sick thrills. Really?
  • Suicidal Overconfidence: Rather than leave the area when Lily is busy untying Nanako, after Lily makes a point of sparing him, he and Akira smirk and attack her from behind, trying to kill her, thinking they'd already won. When Lily overcomes both himself and Akira, after taking out the Onmyoji that bound her in place with magic, he tries to surrender again. It doesn't work.
  • Villains Want Mercy: He begs and pleas to have his life spared from an outraged Lily, twice. As a favor to his clan, she spares him once, for which he "thanks" her by attacking her from behind. When she overturns the attack and comes for him, directly, he tries to beg for his life again, but this time, Lily calls him out on faking his surrender before and kills him.

     Hojo Dijon 
The most antagonistic of the Hojos introduced.
  • Ambition Is Evil: He is so desperate to be in charge and rack up martial accomplishments that he happily lets himself be deluded into thinking he's going to be supported by a powerful new clan after launching a coup against his own father. This despite the fact that the agent of this "clan" herself spells out that she showed up in his chambers specifically to cause discord and doesn't care about him or his clan in any way!
  • Antagonistic Offspring: When his father calls him out on his villainy, how he is directly responsible for costing the clan numerous valuable samurai, their reputation, and has trampled their honor, as well as provoking multiple clans much stronger than his own, with legitimate grudges, he refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and instead develops an unquenchable hatred for his "cowardly" father.
  • Blinded by Rage: His Fatal Flaw. When he gets angry, which is pretty damn easy, he just keeps attacking until he can't attack any more and is forced to withdraw, not to mention he's pretty easy to set up and manipulate because he can never stop to ponder the consequences of his blood-lust, not be bothered to take responsibility for the clean-up afterwards.
  • The Coup: He murders his father in the middle of the night and attempts to seize the clan for himself.
  • Deader than Dead: Since he's already turned himself into a demon for power, Lily has no problems feeding his soul to her Hungry Weapon.
  • Did Not Think This Through: He angrily boasts that if Lily kills him, he will head to the underworld and bring back a shikigami to drag her along. She responds that she knows he's despicable enough to do that, so she feeds his soul to her Hungry Weapon.
  • Evil Is Bigger: According to Lily, he's almost three meters tall, making regular men look like children.
  • Evil Virtues: Courage. He will bravely and shamelessly undertake any and every vile thing he does with little hesitation. Later subverted when it turns out that he's really just a boastful coward who hides behind his bravado and reputation, runs from an actual threat if he can do so unnoticed, and always rewrites his memory so that he can call the one he fled from the coward while he's blameless.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: He flies into a rage with disgusting ease.
  • Hypocrite: He loves to flaunt Might Makes Right as he's engaged in acts of villainy, stating that nobody should hold a grudge if their friends and family die at his hands, because he's the stronger man. When Uesugi Rei throws it back in his face, and tells him he shouldn't begrudge Lily for killing Motoshige and Akira because she's the "stronger man", he flies into a rage.
    • For all his talk about "honor and courage," when Lord Kamakura sends a punishment force against his territory at the proof of his crimes, he flees in the middle of the night, leaving his vassals, servants, and retainers behind unknowing and then yells out "Ashikaga, you dare to take my castle, you sanctimonious hypocrite!"
  • Metaphorically True: He tries to have Kagami Lily arrested for killing Motoshige and Akira, and a few other Samurai, as well as "stealing" some Tamagahane. He neglects to tell the Damiyo involved that Lily killed Motoshige and Akira while rescuing Nanako from Attempted Rape and murder, the samurai killed died as a result of attacking Lily first, and the Tamagahane was given to Lily, freely, by the "demon hound" the Hojos were unjustly attacking in the first place. Nanako calls him out on it, in the presence of said Damiyo as he's attempting the arrest. The Damiyo is not pleased.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Make no mistake, he's powerful and dangerous, but he's not as brave and honorable as he boasts. He's cowardly, never fighting fairly if he can help it, flees from actual threats the moment he thinks he can get away with it without soiling his reputation, and hides behind his bravado and stronger allies or armies at every opportunity, only attacking himself when his enemies are cornered and worn down. He also only spouts "honor" when it suits him and disadvantages his foes.
  • Never My Fault: He is pathologically incapable of admitting guilt for his actions. When he's standing before his father, getting dressed down, with hard evidence of his villainy on display, he tries to blame anyone and everyone else for his failure, including Uesugi Rei. His father doesn't buy a word of it and throws a cup full of boiling hot tea at his head in frustration.
  • Playing the Victim Card: Whenever he talks about Lily, he makes her look like a monster who destroyed the Hojo clan for sport and he's the blameless victim, to whoever will listen. This reaches its zenith when he gloats that the moment he dies, he'll descend to the underworld to grab a shikigami and drag Lily with him to eternal torment only for Lily to take his soul herself.
    Dijon: "NO! Kagami Lily, you demoness! You can’t do this! How dare you devour my soul?! You… Argh…"
    Lily: "But you have already fallen into the path of a demon and no better than a monster, so you aren’t human anymore."
  • Psychological Projection: Since he's an honor-less bastard who only believes in Might Makes Right, he presumes his enemies think the same way. As such, once he realizes Lily is a Demon Sword Maiden, whom he has repeatedly attacked, he becomes even more determined to strike her down, as quickly as possible, before she gains enough power to come looking for his head, and everything of value to him and his clan, with him powerless to resist. He sees any and all attempts to make amends as "cowardice" and acts accordingly.
  • Revenge Myopia: Which his father calls him out on. Despite being a cuckold who kills other samurai and rapes their wives, and the fact that hard evidence that he was aware of Akira's and Motoshige's villainy, with Lily killing the two after they attempted to rape and murder both her and Nanako first, he screams "I promise vengeance!" to which his father retorts "Vengeance for what?! You're the one who's wrong in the first place!"
  • Self-Serving Memory: He always rewrites his memory so that the target of his rage is the one at fault, and will go apoplectic if he's corrected about his version of events.
  • Tautological Templar: He sees bringing his clan to unrivaled martial glory and prosperity as the penultimate virtue, so everything he does, or orders done, in pursuit of that is also virtuous, no matter how vile it actually is. When his father calls him out on it, he goes and murders some maids in the middle of the night en route to his father's bed and then kills the man while he's sleeping.
  • Vetinari Job Security: The fact that he's a very, very powerful samurai, with many war-victories on behalf of the clan, is the only reason he hasn't been held to task for his many, many crimes. In fact, after his acts that greatly offended the Genji and Saikinji houses, offended Uesugi Rei and her backers, and made the entire clan a laughingstock, his father is still badgered by the rest of the clan to reconsider stripping him of his samurai rank and exiling him, as he so deserves. Since he wasn't exiled on the spot, he "thanks" his father for reconsidering by murdering him in the middle of the night.
  • Villain Forgot to Level Grind: While Lily was in a shrine training and gaining more levels in badass, he and his army were waiting outside for her to run out of food and water, expecting her weak and famished. She comes at him so fast, the impact creates a sonic boom, and sends him flying.
  • Villain Respect: When Kagami Lily proves able to keep up with him, despite the fact that he's far, far stronger then her, after demonizing, he genuinely praises her as a martial genius, and regrets that he has to kill her, but still continues to blame her exclusively for his one-sided grudge.
  • Was Once a Man: He becomes a demon in the hundred demon clan after fleeing his home castle, as it came under attack from Lord Kamakura's men when his crimes came to light.
  • Wrong Assumption: When he sees the door of the shrine where Lily was training open, he figured she was trying to sneak away. Unfortunately for him, she had taken enough levels in badass to own him, Genja, and the demon army they brought with them all by her lonesome.

     Hojo Tokitaka 
The patriarch of the Hojo clan.
  • Bullying a Dragon: How Dijon saw himself being dressed down. Dijon keeps pointing back at his many off-screen military accomplishments as proof of his strength and fervent belief that these accomplishments grant him some kind of immunity from rebuke. This makes him see the fact that he got dressed down for provoking the Genji clan, among others, as stomping on his self-proclaimed "honor" and being pushed around by a man far weaker than himself.
  • Like Father, Unlike Son: He is truly honorable, decent, respectable, and honest. His son is almost the exact opposite.
  • Rage Breaking Point: His son, Dijon, constantly shifting the blame for his misdeeds unto the parties he's wronged and refusing to admit his sins eventually reaches the point where Tokitaka realizes words are meaningless and throws a cup of boiling hot tea at Dijon's thick skull, hoping a bit of pain will finally make him see sense. Even this fails to have any impact on Dijon's fervent self-righteousness.
  • Real Politik: Even though he is the patriarch, he has to keep those who support his rule happy. So when they tell him "go easy on Dijon," he has to at least pretend to give their words weight and consider his options. Dijon exploits this to murder him in the middle of the night.
  • The So-Called Coward: Because he doesn't want to provoke a war his clan can't win, especially since his son is in the wrong in the first place, said son sees him only as a coward and kills him in his bed in the middle of the night.

Matsuda Clan

     Matsuda Nagahide 
Lily's first swordsmanship instructor.
  • Came Back Wrong: The next and last time Lily encounters him, she finds him as an undead monstrosity guarding the upper most floors of Dijon's estate.
  • Honor Before Reason: When confronted with Hojo Dijon's despicable acts, and the acts Dijon commanded Daidouji Akira, and Dijon's brother, Hojo Motoshige, he still tries to bar Lily's escape, insisting that Lily should have been completely honest to Dijon, "trusting to Heaven" to be treated fairly. Lily retorts that Dijon had abandoned chivalry by ordering subordinates to engage in rape, robbery, and murder, and would have struck her down where she stood for the Crime of Self-Defense. Nagahide lets her pass, destroys the bridge, to ensure her escape, and then commits Seppuku at Dijon.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Completely loyal to the Hojo clan, to which his house is subordinate, regardless of the Hojo's actions.
  • Not Too Dead to Save the Day: His undead and very amnesiac form appears a second time to watch over the cave Lily and Nanoko are hiding in from the demon ninja army. When Dijon inevitably finds them, backed by an even stronger demon commander than Yuki, Matsuhida's undead form holds Dijon back and won't let go, even when being beheaded and hacked to pieces.
  • Self-Harm: He commits Seppuku.
  • Seppuku: As "penance" for allowing the clearly innocent Lily to escape Dijon's unjust Unstoppable Rage, he disembowels himself. Even Dijon is momentarily ash-faced in shame as a result.
  • So Proud of You: When Lily aced his swordsmanship and samurai class, he sings her praises and holds her up as an example. The rest of his relatives deeply resent this.

     Matsuda Ayashi 
The one who shows Lily around the Matsuda training grounds and provided her lodging.
  • Bit Character: Appears briefly in the story and is not particularly prominent.
  • Ms. Exposition: She's the one who gives Lily the backstory of Daidouji Toro and "Madam", Toro's aunt.

Daidouji clain

     Daidouji Toro 
The first of the Daidouji clan that Lily meets.
  • An Arm and a Leg: He returns to the story missing a leg after a failed robbery.
  • The Bus Came Back: He and his aunt return to the story in chapter 290 "Lily's Forgiveness."
  • Despair Event Horizon: When he sees that his fate is in the hands of Lily, whom he tried to rape and murder, and she's way, way out of his league, he throws hiself to the ground, telling her to kill him and get it over with.
  • Fat Bastard: He's obese and is a despicable sot who sees nothing wrong with rape and robbery, even hanging out with bandits out of sight of his swordsman instructor Matsuda Nagahide.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Even after his aunt Hiroko takes him to the best medical experts and has an onmyouji use magical healing to fix up his rib-cage, he's still laid low, possibly for years, and in unimaginable pain, as the bones in his chest knit and mend. Good luck on becoming a samurai now, kid.
  • If I Can't Have You…: When he realizes his scheming aunt said too much about Lily and his even bigger bastard of a father would want to claim her for himself, he tries to lure her to a bandit gang to be raped and murdered, just to deny giving his father the prize he's got his eyes on.
  • Ignorant of His Own Ignorance: Since he was always the best swordsman and possible samurai candidate of the Daidouji clan, he grew up to believe he's the best everywhere. Lily's arrival proves that wrong, and his fragile ego just can't take it.
  • I Was Beaten by a Girl: His fragile little Spoiled Brat ego can't take it that a "rich, pampered, fragile girl" like Lily is a far more talented and studious samurai candidate than he is, showing a perfectly fluid sword-strike the very first time she wielded a sword and having a penetration force of 72 kwan before she started training. After she spent half a month training 10 hours a day, and he starts getting lectured by Nagahine because he's not the top dog of the school anymore, he really, really loses it and schemes to have her raped and murdered every chance he gets.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: When the Hojo clan was destroyed as a result of Dijon's villainy, his own family couldn't hide in the Hojo's shadow any more, and everyone that the Daidouji clan bullied, at best, refused to offer them succor. He tried to rob a merchant caravan and got his leg sliced off by the Ronin guarding them.
  • Never My Fault: When Lily outshines him in the samurai training class, it must be because she's cheating, somehow. The fact that he frequently plays hooky and hangs out with bandits can't possibly be the reason.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Luring Lily into a bandit gang's territory gives her a much-needed power-up when she unwittingly winds up devouring their souls.
  • Original Position Fallacy: He was looking forward to the live-combat part of the samurai training regiment so he could legally cripple Lily and claim it was an unavoidable "accident", preventing anyone from voicing regrets or resentment. Lily, who took her training seriously and did not spend her time mingling with bandits, was the superior fighter and shattered his rib-cage with a bamboo sword. While he's receiving medical treatment, he whines to his aunt that she tried to cripple him.
  • Practical Taunt: Which backfires. Having a long, long history of street-fighting, he knows how to lure in his targets with well-honed taunts and insults. When he tries this on Lily, inviting her to deliver the first blow, she takes him up on it. Calculating the perfect time to raise his sword and deliver an over-head blow, he's stunned when she suddenly accelerates even faster and stabs him in the chest with enough force to shatter his rib-cage before he can do anything.
  • Schmuck Bait: He sends one of the small children among his relatives with a sob-story to Lily, looking to lure her into the hands of his bandit friends, to endure a bit of rape and murder, and get her out of his hair, so he can go full-tilt Miles Gloriosus without opposition. She sees through it, but still goes along, wiping out the entire bandit gang, and getting a nice power-up in the process.
  • Serial Rapist: He has a history of laying hands on and harming several local girls, even killing some of them, and he even has a criminal record with the town lord, but his aunt always shields him from the consequences. When he tries this with Lily, it goes badly for him, and he has the gall to blame Lily for it.
  • Spoiled Brat: While the treatment he got from his mother is not mentioned, his father and aunt always raised him with undeserved praise and shielded him from the consequences of his more vile actions, including rape and murder. Unfortunately for him, they could not shield him from the consequences of coming at Lily in a practical combat situation and getting his ribs shattered in the spar.
  • Starter Villain: The first major enemy on the path of Lily, albeit not very impressive when compared to actual threats.

     Daidouji Hiroko 
The madam of Matsuda Nagahire's training area.
  • Driven by Envy: The initial cause of resentment she has to bear against Lily is that she's jealous of Lily's vastly superior youth and beauty.
  • Fat Bitch: Like her brother, son and nephew, she's obese and despicable. One wonders if it's not a hereditary trait.
  • Hypocrite: She rifles through Lily's belongings, without consent, barges into her room in the middle of the night, as she's preparing for bed, and then has the gall to call Lily "rude" for not spending the day gossiping with her.
  • Malicious Slander: When Lily beats out both her son and nephew at the samurai pre-screening Nagahine ran, she turns to her brother, Akira, and whines how Kagami Lily viciously and deliberately crushed Taro's rib-cage and flashed her breasts to distract her son during the archery test to make him fail. Akira becomes so murderously enraged by these false accusations that he takes his nephew with him to go rape and murder Lily the moment she sets foot outside of the Genji training grounds, and when that fails, goes to a ninja clan and has assassins sent at Lily.
  • Psychological Projection: Since she's a shameless harlot who uses feminine wiles to get her way, then she assumes the vastly superior, in terms of beauty, Kagami Lily is just a brazen vixen out to steal the Daidouji clan treasures and territory. The moment she voices such vulgar accusations, Lily's had enough and shuts her down with an icy Death Glare followed by a samurai's Battle Aura.
  • Redemption Equals Affliction: When the Daidouji clan collapses, she grows deathly ill, with her crippled nephew the only one to tend to her, no prospects. When they find themselves at Lily's mercy, she begs Toru to accept Lily's benevolence and admit his responsiblity.
  • Revenge Myopia: Despite knowing full well how despicable her nephew Taro is, and the fact that he challenged Lily to a duel in the final live combat round of the samurai screening, when he comes home with a shattered rib-cage, she swears bloody vengeance on Lily for putting him in that state.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: She knows her family is a small sub-clan that's not very famous, yet she acts like she's a damiyo.

     Daidouji Akira 
The family patriarch.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: The leader of the Daidoujis and their most powerful fighter.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Uses a club made of solid gold as his primary weapon.
  • Disk-One Final Boss: The biggest and meanest antagonist Lily has to face before she graduates from Samurai training at the Genji dojo.
  • Fat Bastard: Like the rest of his clan showcased to the audience, he's obese and despicable.
  • Groin Attack: When he's sliced in half, the attack begins at his groin.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Gets sliced in half, vertically.
  • I Surrender, Suckers: He fakes his surrender when he realizes Lily can give him a hard time, if not outright beat him as she's rescuing Nanako. The moment her back is turned while freeing Nanako, he "feels looked down on" and commands his onmyouji to bind her with magic and then attacks her from behind with the aid of Hojo Motoshige. He winds up sliced in half for his arrogance.
  • Karmic Death: Being a Serial Rapist, the fact that he gets sliced in half, groin first, is a very fitting punishment.
  • Revenge Myopia: When he manages to surround Lily in the forest where she's hunting demons as part of her training exercise, he hears Lily's side of the story, where she states that 1.) his clan is the one that antagonized her, not the other way around, and 2.) she defeated the ones who came at her both honorably and legally in duels and battles they themselves demanded. Even though the louts agree this is the case, he still feels "humiliated" and uses his Samurai privilege to try and maim her so he can rape her to his satisfaction. Even when he sees with his own eyes his nephew attack Lily without cause and Lily takes his arm off in clear-cut self-defense, this only serves to make him forego wanting to rape Lily and jump straight to delivering her a slow and painful Cruel and Unusual Death.
  • Serial Rapist: As is the trend for the male side of his clan, he has a history of using women as sex toys against their will, and killing them off when he gets bored.
  • Stout Strength: Just because he's obese does not mean he's weak or lazy. He's strong enough to casually carry and wield a 200 kg club fashioned of solid gold.
  • Villains Want Mercy: When he sees Kagami Lily approach to rescue Nanako, and she's far stronger than she was the last time they clashed, where her only option was to run and hide, he shamelessly begs for his life, even offering to "overlook" his one-sided grudge against her. When he is indeed spared, he feels "looked down on" and attacks her from behind in a rage. As he's bringing his golden club down on her head, she retaliates by slicing him and his weapon in half, vertically from the groin up.

     Daidouji Takano 
Akira's nephew and Taro's elder cousin.
  • An Arm and a Leg: When he slashes at Lily with a sword in an uncontrolled rage, she retaliates by slicing the offending arm off.
  • The Brute: No technique, no finesse, just raw smashing power. Considering how strong he is, this is still quite effective.
  • Fat Bastard: Obese and despicable, like the rest of his living relatives to date.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Lily chopped his arm off. Now, he will never become a samurai. Too bad...
  • Ignorant of His Own Ignorance: When his penetration force was being tested, he ranked at 159 kwan, an impressive score for someone not using spirit-power. This went straight to his head and he began jeering Nanako and Lily, calling them all sorts of vulgar terms, indicating the only use they'd have anywhere near the battle-field would be as "comfort women." Nanako trounces him at 217 Kwan, and Lily trounces her at 389! Even the sensor proclaims "OVERKILL!"
  • Never My Fault: When he does poorly in archery, he blames Lily "distracting" him, even though she wasn't anywhere nearby, as the women and men were tested separately.
  • Smug Snake: Just because he got the recommendation letter, he thought the samurai screening at Genji dojo was a formality, and he just had to show up to be officially regarded as a samurai. When this proved to not be the case, he dumps all the blame on Lily and runs to Akira to help "punish" her for it.
  • Sore Loser: He boasted, bragged, jeered, and taunted because he held first place at the penetration force screening with a whopping 159. When he got shamed by Nanako raking in a 217, he let it go because she's of a noble house. When Lily quietly made his jaw hit the floor with a 389, he holds her entirely responsible for the retaliatory jeers he gets from everyone else, and never accepts that if he had kept his mouth shut until the screening was over, he would have been highly lauded for getting third place in a field of hundreds of applicants.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Which even gets lampshaded. Lily compares him to an adult Taro, and, regrettably, she's proven right.

Genji Clan

     Genji Sakiko 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sakiko.jpg
Fufu! So our Kagami Lily has some unusual tastes, I see!
The master of the Genji dojo and proprietor of the Chrysanthemum Inn.
  • The Dreaded: Her clan is so powerful, even the Hojos dare not clash with them head on.
  • King Incognito: She meets Lily at the shrine of the Clan's founder and then presents herself as a simple inn proprietor. Then, when Lily aces the samurai entrance exams, one of the instructors comes with a message that the master wants to meet Lily, personally, and lo, there she is!
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: When Lily declares to make the female ninja she captured her slave, rather than hand her over to corrupt authorities who will treat her as a sex-toy, at best, Sakiko lets her keep the female ninja, as the law does claim that a captured intruder is the legal property of the intended victim. Shiu, the ninja in question, is immensely grateful to both her and to Lily.
  • She Is the King: The world at large thinks the master of the Genji dojo is a man, especially since the term "Master" not "Mistress" is used, so Lily is naturally quite shocked to see a woman in the position.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: When she learns a ninja clan invaded her territory and attacked Lily in Chrysanthemum Inn, she rounds up an army to utterly annihilate the ninja clan.

     Genji Shimizu 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/genji_shimizu.jpg
This copper mirror has shown me so many secrets!
The second Mirror Maiden introduced.
  • Accidental Murder: In chapter 262, she has a psychotic break and tries to take Lily's mirror, by force. Lily gets accidentally shoved off a cliff in the struggle. Although Shimizu does manage to grab Lily, her illness acts up again, causing her to lose her grip, and Lily to fall into the depths.
  • The Ace: She is officially the #1 ranked fighter in the Main Branch of the Genji dojo.
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: After Lily fell off a cliff, Nanako condemned her and took Lily's mirror, and then went after Lily, with Sakura's help, Shimizu's "illness" fully manifests as Demonic Possession, giving her an Evil Costume Switch and corrupting her weapon with Tron Lines and a powerful spiritual grudge.
  • Boomerang Bigot: Among her many psychological problems, she hates lesbianism, yet has strong romantic attraction to Lily, another girl.
  • The Chosen Wannabe: She honestly believed that she was "chosen by Heaven to be a mirror maiden" because of her mystic mirror, and then Yuki Mayumi literally stomps on that notion by beating her up, forcing her to drop her mirror and stomping it into shards, then pawning her over to one of her demon henchmen in a hanya mask "to be taken away."
  • Confirmation Bias: In universe. When she finally sees Lily in action, it's facing off against a known bully who lured her into a duel by dangling a bit of Applied Phlebotinum. After seeing Lily, a newcomer, defeat the thug in a Single-Stroke Battle, she presumes Lily is just a lucky bimbo. The next morning, she still thinks Lily's a bimbo, and that's all she wants to see, so gets mad at Lily for the "crime" of sweating and starts swatting Lily on the butt with a paper fan, loaded with her spirit force, and takes Lily's confusion and outrage as nothing but further proof of Lily's "bimboness," until Lily's had enough, mastered Shimizu's timing and retaliates, hitting Shimizu in the shoulder with her wooden training sword with enough force for the sword in question to explode into bits of sawdust and splinters, causing her sword-arm to go numb, and Shimizu to realize that if Lily was using a regular sword, best case, she'd have lost her sword-arm at the shoulder, but far more likely, she'd be cleaved in half diagonally from shoulder to waist. At this point, she realizes Lily is not some "lucky bimbo" but is indeed a genuine martial talent to rival her own, and offers the hand of friendship, but by this point, Lily is too confused, humiliated, hurt, and justifyingly Blinded by Rage to accept.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Her response to seeing Lily on the back of Rei's horse is barely suppressed jealousy and rage. The moment the clan war with Hojo is over, she "invites" Lily to her tent and then slaps the stuffing out of her before "meting out the punishment."
  • Damned by Faint Praise: Her meeting with Lord Kamakura had her receiving all sorts of rewards and praise for her commands and war contributions, but the intent was pure malice. Then when it's Lily's turn to receive rewards, not only does Lily's attempt to deflect undeserved praise towards Shimizu backfire, but Lord Kamakura drops the bombshell that Lily's also a Mirror Maiden, causing poor Shimizu to audibly snap, and tear the floor with her bare hands, making her fingers bleed.
  • Debt Detester: She feels she wronged Lily so shows up to buy off Tokugawa's grudge. Tokugawa... doesn't like it.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Jumps right over it after all the humiliation conga she's endured culminates in accidentally pushing Lily over the edge of a cliff just in time for Nanako to show up on the scene and rightly condemn her. For Sword Maidens this is a very bad thing as they can then turn into powerful demons themselves.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Until she was 10, her poor health, inability to keep up with her peers, and slow growth, both in martial skill and in body had her horribly bullied by her peers and mentors in the Genji family, all of whom saw her as an embarrassment, since the Genji are very, very proud of being the best swords-man family on the planet. Then she literally stumbles on her magic mirror inside an old, dry, abandoned well, as her older brothers and sisters stole her shoes to keep her from attending the new-years' festival, and her uncle shoved her into an old, dilapidated shack, rather than let her live in the house her parents bequeathed her in their will. After secluding herself for a year, learning from the mirror how to fight, she walks into the training dojo, wearing nothing but rags and holding a tiny wooden sword. She's laughed at... until she single-handed beat down every last samurai in the room. By the time she's 13, she's the number 1 samurai in the region, and the Genji sealed her childhood away, not wanting to admit to the world how they turned a blind eye to her struggles, neglect, and abuse.
  • Domestic Abuse: She sees nothing wrong in slapping Lily, who can't flee and can't defend herself, around when she's angry, barely heeding her side of the story or her apologies. This burns through the fanbase's sympathy quickly.
  • Dramatic Irony: The despair that she accidentally killed Lily by pushing her off a cliff is what turned her into a true Demon Sword Maiden and she wishes she could trade it back if it means Lily is alive and well. She's unaware that Lily survived the fall and would welcome her back with open arms if they met again. Trapped in a cave, Naoko asks to borrow Lily's mirror too. Having learned her lesson, Lily agrees and Naoko gets sucked body and soul into the mirror along with Lily's soul. There's no telling what would have happened if Lily agreed to let Shimizu borrow the mirror too.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Now a full Demon Sword Maiden, scorned by the world, her lover dead, or so she believes, and the last samurai who saw her condemned her, when she encounters Yuki again, goes along quietly without resistance, but they are not friends. Thus ends volume 2.
  • Glass Cannon: She is indeed a skilled and powerful sword-man, but her frail body means she can't take a hit.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: She's deeply envious of Lily and Rei for having healthy bodies and not having to worry that they could collapse with cold-flashes at any moment.
  • Humiliation Conga: Ever since her loss to Uesugi Rei in an officially sanctioned Dojo spar, where Rei "graduated" from the dojo so Shimizu could keep her 1st place rank, it's just been one humiliating situation after another, with everyone, save Lily, rubbing said loss in her face. It reaches its zenith in the battle with a now demonized Hojo Dijon who taunts and provokes her the entire fight, and then she has to be rescued by Lily when her inherent illness cripples her at a particularly inconvenient time...
  • Ignorant of His Own Ignorance: She thinks she's the best sword-maiden affiliated with the Genji clan, due to her copper mirror, and thinks she's the only mirror maiden. She's yet to be made aware of Lily...
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: Beneath the strong, elegant, and haughty exterior lies a very, very scared and lonely girl who is every bit as confused about her feelings as Lily is.
  • Internal Reveal: When Onigumo sics his spider demons on the nearby "mirror maiden", Shimizu reveals that she is a mirror maiden, unaware that the spiders in question reacted to Lily. Lily does not get a chance to reciprocate since this happens in mixed company.
  • I Warned You: She warns Lily that if she whips out a training sword and uses it instead of the paper fan, Lily's going to get badly hurt. Lily doesn't care at this point because she's sick and tired of being smacked around for no discernible reason. Sure enough, Lily suffers immense pain, but manages to win the fight and give Shimizu a much needed serving of Humble Pie.
  • Love Confession: After a brief clash with Uesugi Rei, Lily caught in the middle, she quietly admits that she's romantically attracted to Lily before running away, embarrassed, leaving Lily confused and overwhelemed.
  • Loving Bully: Like Nanako, she thinks the best way to show Lily affection is to browbeat and smack her around. Unlike Nanako, she's actually strong enough to do it, with Lily helpless to oppose her.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Immediately after losing her grip on Lily, watching the latter fall down a cliff, she cries out in regret and shame over accidentally pushing her off that cliff while struggling over the magic mirror, which then rolls over to Nanako's feet. Then Nanako condemns her and goes after Lily, mirror in hand. Shimizu proceeds to completely lose it at this point, her illness takes her over and there is now a brand new, powerful grudge demon stalking the land.
  • Narcissist: She may have "romantic" feelings towards Lily, but the person she loves most is herself, constantly praising her reflection.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: After the matter with Tokugawa is dealt with, she offers to make Lily her training partner. Lily happily accepts, not just because learning swordsmanship from The Ace of the dojo is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but being under Shimizu's wing means there are very, very few, if any, bullies who would dare mess with her.
  • Orphan's Ordeal: She's a war orphan, with both her parents having died to the Hundred Demons clan, and her childhood was just a long string of abuse, insults, and neglect.
  • Perverted Sniffing: Combined with Lecherous Licking. Shimizu tricks Lily into raising her hands behind her head, exposing her armpits and then sniffs her out and licks them. Lily, rightly, gets chills up and down her spine as a result.
  • Relationship Upgrade: During the aftermath of the Kamikura missing girl/ serial killer investigation, she makes overtures to Lily which would be considered romantic under any other circumstance, and Lily reciprocates!
  • Ship Tease: The strongest in the series for Lily and that's saying something. While the two are on an investigation, with her posing as a man and Lily acting as "his" lover, Lily, unprompted, gets real intimate with Kitabatake Shin, and "he" reciprocated, to the point of an Almost Kiss, and it was genuine. They only stopped because a brute going by the name of Onigumo attacked them with literal Demonic Spiders, putting them in a situation where they have to fight for their lives!
  • Took a Level in Badass: And lost a level in suck. After the accident that caused Lily to fall off a ledge, she becomes a true Demon Sword Maiden, and starts being able to consume souls. This drives out the curse that was making her ill and gave her her own [Boundary], even upgrading her weapon. Though she does not think trading the life of the woman she loves for this second lease of life was a fair trade.
  • Troubled Abuser: Her childhood was a long string of abuse and sabotage. Only her grandfather supported her dream of becoming a samurai, and helped her learn the way of the sword. The rest of her immediate family did their damnedest to sabotage her efforts and beat her down. In return, she has little hesitation to slap Lily around whenever she's upset about anything.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Her body is very frail, but she's near the top of the Genji clan due to the techniques she's been taught by her copper mirror.

     Tsukawa no Mimoyoto 
The second last of Lily's opponents in the Yoshibune Memorial Tournament
  • The Fighting Narcissist: During the entire tournament, he brutally showed off his "genius" and cut down all his opponents to praise his own ego.
  • Hated by All: He is so odious, even Flipping the Bird at Ayaka, the Head Minister, the emperor, and the princes, and the entire government, openly breaks several tournament rules, and attacks the judges, that even Kagami Lily's most hated enemies were screaming for his death.
  • Ignorant of His Own Ignorance: He's been so pampered in the Genji dojo that he honestly believes he's the best martial artist anywhere. He would have died to Lily's blade, despite cheating, if Kamakura didn't jump in and save him at the last moment.
  • I Reject Your Reality: He is the heir of Yoshibune and the top genius of the Genji clan. Everything else is pure insanity, and he'll backstab, cheat, use hidden weapons, and talismans, and most importantly, kill anyone who disagrees.

Saikanji Clan

     Saikanji Yomika 
Nanako's mother.
  • Anger Born of Worry: After the relief of getting Nanako back safe and sound, thanks to Lily, she explodes with rage at Nanako's foolishness and then whips her so badly on the bum, she literally loses her shit. Small wonder Nanako's scared of spankings.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The family art of escaping bindings looks like something ripped out of an S&M manual. Yomika "convinces" Lily to undergo the experience...
  • The Engineer: She may run the clan, but she's among the top makers of the clan's firearms.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Raising Naoko as a samurai, using human techniques, made it impossible to use her true shikigami powers.

Main Genji Dojo:

Disciples:

     Tokugawa Shigetsugu 
One of the most senior and abusive disciples at the dojo.
  • Amazon Chaser: He's attracted to Lily, not because of her physical beauty, but because he's impressed with the fact that she defeated Hitachi in a Single-Stroke Battle.
  • The Bully: He has a years-long track record of beating up new disciples for money, or just to soothe his overinflated ego.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He's so arrogant that when he and Lily first met, with Genji Sakiko, with Lily driving a cart pulled by a very stubborn mule, he forces Lily off the road so he can march through, despite there being far more than enough room for them to pass side by side. When they meet again in the Dojo, he doesn't even remember meeting her before, so Lily pretends the same.
  • Dirty Coward: While he and his six louts were were perfectly willing to take on Kondo 7-1, the moment Shimizu arrived on the scene, he turned pale and started to kowtow right away.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Encouraged by the political clout of Nagasaki Takaki and a small army, he goes and tries to inflict violence on Kagami Lily who he knows is way, way stronger than he is, since she cleaned his clock with ease the last time he antagonized her, gets stronger very quickly, and is quick to retaliate to slights against her in equal measure. She responds by taking him and his allies out, all by herself, with a few well placed kicks. He even winds up unconscious in a Shigetsugu shaped hole in the ground, through stone pavement.
  • Evil Is Bigger: When both are standing upright, the top of Lily's head reaches his chest, and he's a despicable bully who doesn't hesitate to engage in murder if he thinks he can get away with it.
  • Implausible Deniability: He tries, and fails, to claim that he's not an extortionist, and knew nothing about the poisoning of Naoko and the attempt to poison Lily herself by forcing Naoko to do the drugging in return for the antidote. With his guilt glaringly obvious, he foolishly refuses to risk his standing by taking a training challenge with wooden swords, giving Lily just cause to challenge him to a Duel to the Death with real swords, and should he refuse that duel, the social stigma is a Fate Worse than Death.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: After Lily catches his thugs, red handed, in her hut, poisoning and bullying Naoko, who was sent to be her attendant by Sakiko, to try and make Naoko poison Lily for fear of her own life, Lily goes and confronts Tokugawa, in person, and in public. When she presents the poisoned tea that the louts were trying to make Naoko use, he rebuffs Lily that the tea is not his, and he had no knowledge of it, when Lily just mentioned that it was in a packet, never mentioning that it was tea.
  • Not Good with Rejection: When Lily turns down his "romantic gesture", he resorts to violence.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: He corners Lily in a wooded path as she's heading home from the sword lesson, with Hitachi's thugs, and demands a cut of her winnings, which she had already spent. Or she can agree to be his lover. When she declines both, he orders his gang to attack her, when she's unarmed thanks to Shimizu's little stunt earlier.
  • Revenge by Proxy: Since he can't retaliate against Shimizu for disgracing him when he broke duel rules and tried to kill Kondo, and he can't retaliate against Lily for refusing to be bullied, since Lily is protected by Shimizu, he goes after Naoko when she arrives at the Genji dojo. He learns to regret it when Lily catches his men red-handed and then comes for his own head.
  • Revenge Myopia: After trying to extort Lily, having beating up on Naoko, and poisoning her, so he could have a medically enslaved pawn poison Lily on his behalf, he dares to desire vengeance on Lily when she confronts him and airs out his sins. At this point, Lily challenges him to a Duel to the Death.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He bullies his way through the dojo, ignoring most of the teachers, because of the influence of his family, but even he dare not irritate Shimizu because she can squash him like a bug.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: He's an upperclassman true, but he is still a disciple, not a teacher. When he's confronted by a teacher, Kondo, he thinks he's the vastly superior man.
  • Smarter Than You Look: He is a brute and a boor, but he's a very calm and calculating thug who does his research and steers clear of harassing people he knows can fight back, either in martial power or political connections.
  • Sore Loser: He never takes his losses with grace. The moment he's alone, he starts scheming to avenge himself the moment he's certain he can do so with impunity.
  • Wound That Will Not Heal: Downplayed. He receives an injury in his spar with Lily that slightly reduces his martial skill, and while it can be cured, would require some extremely expensive medicines that he's reluctant to buy, as even he would have a hard time justifying such an expense in his budget.

     Hitachi 
One of the first students Lily meets.
  • Assumed Win: He lured Lily into a duel with himself, using 25 g of magatama as bait, the Applied Phlebotinum Lily desperately needs to advance as a samurai. He even read her three or four moves in advance. To his delight, she did indeed move as he anticipated, but the strength behind her blows far exceeded what he was capable of defending against, breaking through his defense on the first strike and rendering him unconscious in a Single-Stroke Battle. Now at rank 61, he's facing automatic expulsion.
  • The Bully: He harasses and beats up on new disciples all the time, and tried it on Lily. It would be the last time he gets to do it, as his loss to her made him the 61st rank, resulting in automatic expulsion.
  • Hate at First Sight: The moment Lily arrived in the dojo, he directed murderous waves of hatred at her as soon as he saw her. Lily was confused as to what she could have done to earn his ire until she had it explained to her how his position as a disciple was hanging by a thread, and he saw her as a threat.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: He acts all haughty and brutish precisely because he knows he's on the bottom of the totem pole in the disciple rankings, and every time a new disciple arrives, he risks being kicked out should this disciple outrank him.

     Nagasaki Kishima 
One of Tokugawa's top louts.
  • An Arm and a Leg: In a rage, the first thing Lily does when she gets home and sees Naoko being smacked around is cut off this lout's offending hand.
  • Curbstomp Battle: On the wrong end when he commanded his four fellow thugs to attack and kill Lily.
  • Curb-Stomp Cushion: One of his fellow thugs did manage to hit Lily's head with a wooden sword, making her bleed a little, and the thug even laughed at the accomplishment, but when he saw that this only made Lily angrier, he turned and fled like the coward he is.
  • Implausible Deniability: He tries to claim it was all a "misunderstanding" when he was caught red-handed smacking Naoko around in Lily's residence after he and his four fellow louts had broken in. Lily didn't buy it for a second.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: On the wrong end when Lily catches him and his fellow louts brutalizing Nanako and he tries to lie his way out of trouble.
  • Moral Myopia: He and four other louts serving under Tokugawa break into Lily's abode with muddy feet, go through her belonging like robbers, boast of shamelessly killing other disciples as they're smacking a poisoned and gravely ill Nanako around, and he even takes the term "despicable" as a compliment, but when Lily walks in, catches him literally red-handed, and beats the ever-loving shit out of him and the four thugs he brought with him, ultimately putting him through his own standards, including a bit of Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique, since Nanako's life is on the line and Lily doesn't have the time or patience to take the "legal" route, he starts seeing Lily as a "blood sucking demon."
  • Poison and Cure Gambit: At Tokugawa's orders, he shoves a red pill into Naoko's mouth and forces it down her throat with muddy water, as the four louts with him hold down her arms and legs, and then compels her to drug Lily's tea, for an antidote that Naoko would have to go to Tokegawa once a day and beg for to avoid death. When Lily forces him to confess at sword point, his life is spared only on the condition that he give up the real, undiluted antidote.
  • Revenge Myopia: In the aftermath of the Naoko incident, before Lily's guilt or innocence or even his own is finalized, he takes to stalking Lily, face contorting in rage, for the fact that he was permanently crippled as a result of breaking into her residence and getting caught red-handed smacking around Lily's attendant Naoko in the first place. Since there's nothing he can do, even if he were at his best, he slinks off to his father, hoping to invoke Who's Laughing Now? as he's got Lily on the ground raping her and then murdering her for his own self-gratification.
  • Suicidal Overconfidence: Because of Lily's lower official ranking, he and his four louts were completely fearless in antagonizing her and those she cares for. In a straight up fight, Lily owned them all, when outnumbered 5 to 1, even though they only had wooden swords when she was armed with a real blade, the only reason they're all alive is that Lily didn't want to kill them.
  • Tempting Fate: He and his fellow louts brag to Nanako that they have no fear of Lily and can do what they want with her if she ever shows up. At that particular moment, Lily had finished returning from the battlefield, spotted the muddy foot-prints at the entrance to her residence and heard Nanako scream. The very next scene involved Lily angrily confronting all five louts and soundly thrashing them all.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: He would make it a point to call Nanako a bitch each and every time he struck her for refusing to go along with Tokugawa's scheme to poison Lily.

     Tsunemoto Torayasu 
The current holder of the 12th rank at Genji dojo and Tokugawa's top underling.
  • Defeat Means Respect: After getting easily trounced by Lily, he begins and abandons Tokugawa, finding the latter's idea of going around beating up little girls loathsome.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He was perfectly fine with Tokugawa trying to deceive Nanako into taking a poisoned pill, but when Tokugawa started to smack her around after she saw through the deception, he was horrified and tried to talk Tokugawa down.
  • Fat Bastard: He's in Tokugawa's gang of thugs and could easily be confused with a sumo wrestler as opposed to the samurai he actually is.
  • Heel–Face Turn: He's always been loathe to follow Tokugawa around, but felt it was his best option, due to the latter's personal collections and martial might. After getting beat up by Lily himself and learning of how Lily defeated Tokugawa in an officially sanctioned Dojo duel, he broke all ties with Tokugawa and started pursuing his own dojo training path.
  • Number Two: To Tokugawa.
  • One-Hit KO: On the wrong end when he tries to block Lily's way as she's confronting Tokugawa. Since he's rank 12 while Lily's rank 50, this shocks everyone in the room. This is especially shocking when the narration states that he bulldozed his way to rank 12 with sheer strength and Lily beat him up by overpowering him with an overarm throw.

Mentors:

     Kondo 
One of the first mentors Lily meets.
  • Big Damn Heroes: When Lily is being harassed and attacked by Tokegawa, he arrives and comes to Lily's aid.
  • Compete for the Maiden's Hand: How he ultimately treats the duel with Tokugawa. He gave it a good effort, but ultimately Tokugawa was simply too strong.
  • No Man Wants an Amazon: After seeing Lily defeat Tokugawa, he gives up on pursuing her, stating that he doesn't want to be romantically linked to a woman stronger than himself, no matter how sexy she is. His reason for this mindset is left unclear.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He knows Tokugawa is a bully and extortionist thug, but dare not accuse the latter of it directly, due to the Tokugawa being a well-connected and powerful thug. So he pretends he doesn't know about it, allowing Tokegawa to save face. When he catches Tokugawa red-handed in the act of cornering Lily, and she testifies that he's trying to extort her, he drops the act, to Tokegawa's rage.
  • Wound That Will Not Heal: Despite getting treatment from the best possible doctors, the wounds he received from his spar with Tokugawa, especially his shattered jaw and missing teeth, never recovered. He "graduates" the dojo limping out with a cane.

Ashikaga Clan

Mido Clan

     Mido Yukiko 
Yumi's elder sister. While Yumi thought she abandoned the clan in order to elope with her lover, and was then taken captive by Tokugawa, chapter 318 reveals that she never gave up her title as the ruler of the clan.
  • Awful Wedded Life: Tokugawa dragged her to his marital bed, by force, after killing the man she loves over a tea set, and has horribly abused her ever since.
  • Broken Pedestal: Yumi idolized her and always competed to try and prove herself by overcoming her, constantly failing. Yumi took her elopement as a horrible betrayal.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Lily had to drag her out of the Takeda castle by force to free her from Tokugawa's abuse.
  • Despair Event Horizon: With the death of her lover, and being dragged to Tokugawa's bed, she gave up all hope of escape.
  • Kinky Spanking: After Shimizu has left the scene, she flips Yumi's skirt and starts spanking the latter's bottom, encouraging Lily to do the same, for Yumi's brazen betrayal.
  • The Reveal: In chapter 318, she reveals to Lily that the Mido clan has been waiting for the Mirror Girl for a long, long time.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: She may be the definition of an elegant wife, but she has a strong and deadly determination to hide her clan's true treasure, something intended for the Mirror Girl, and no other.

Fūma Clan

     Fūma Onigumo 
A loud, barbaric lout that forces his way into the geisha parlor Shimizu and Lily are investigating as part of a missing girl/serial murder case.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Shimizu takes her sweet time removing or crippling his limbs to interrogate him. When this proves ineffective, Lily kills him before he can let slip anything that might compromise either Shimizu or herself.
  • The Brute: No tact, finesse, or social graces. He just swaggers around overwhelming people with sheer strength. When he finds himself face to face with both Lily and Shimizu and then attacks them, this fails him, epically.
  • Demonic Spiders: In universe. In order to sniff out mirror maidens, he uses literal demon spiders, and while individual spiders are easy to deal with, he carries around swarms of them that eat girls' hearts!
  • Mugging the Monster: When his demon spiders cry out "there she is, the mirror maiden!", he orders his men to attack Shimizu and Lily, thinking he's dealing with a low-rank ronin, at best, and his geisha lover. In truth, he's up against two high-class samurai, who then proceed to cut through him and his men like industrial strength laxatives.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The moment he realizes he's outmatched, he tries to throw what looks like a smoke bomb to cover his escape. Shimizu retaliates by chopping his hand off before he gets the chance.

     Fūma Sanrokurō 
The clan leader
  • Bewildering Punishment: When Lily bursts into his clan's central hut through the dungeon secret passage and comes for his head, he initially has no idea why she's coming after him, despite having a wounded and tortured Ashikaga Naoto in the room with him. Then he sees Uesugi Rei too and he, along with all his ninjas present, have a Mass "Oh, Crap!".
  • Combat Pragmatist: He and his clan defeated the Mido clan and the forces led by Naoto, not in a straight up fight, but by using guerrilla warfare and lost of traps.
  • Hostage Situation: He knew that his clan didn't stand a chance in a straight up fight with the Ashikagas so he planned to endear his clan to the Hundred Demon Clan by using Naoto as a hostage against his mother. When Rei and Lily heard this plan, that's when they busted into the chamber and reduced all the ninjas present to chunks of meat.
  • Wolverine Claws: Deconstructed. He uses iron claws attached to his hands to attack, but Lily, with a katana, had a longer reach and gutted him while his claws were still a foot or so away from her face.

Hundred Demon Clan:

     Yuki Mayumi 
The female agent sent to scout out Dijon and try to find the mirror maiden(s).
  • Agent Provocateur: By her own admission, she showed up at the Hojo estate purely to cause trouble. Dijon was all too happy to help her by heeding her advice to turn on his own father for the "crime" of calling him out on his villainy.
  • Broken Pedestal: To Shiu and to her own sister Yokiko. When both of those women see Yumi tie up Lily in her sleep and make plans to sell her to the Hundred Demons, where she will certainly be killed, on the off-chance that Haihime might, just might, offer them shelter after Haihime throw Yumi out in the first place, to be brutalized by Tokegawa, has seriously damaged both women's trust in her.
  • The Bully: She loves to beat up on weaker samurai for fun, the longer they struggle, the more she enjoys it.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: She's despicable, she admits it, she revels in it.
  • The Corrupter: Dijon was already a despicable sot, but her whispered promises of power, glory, and "honor" quickly served to make him worse.
  • Enemy Mine: Shiu realizes that Lily and Yumi have goals that align when both women wind up being antagonized by the Tokugawa patriarch, so suggests Yumi meet with Lily and have the two of them work together. Considering that Yumi was working with Hojo Dijon to try and kill Lily the last time they met, this meeting doesn't go easily.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Her sister Yukiko who was taken captive and forced to marry Tokugawa Shigemori when the lout went and wiped out the clan belonging to Yukiko's husband over a tea set, and Lily's subordinate samurai Shiu.
  • The Farmer and the Viper: Even if Lily only agreed to help in exchange for access to the family's treasure, Lily took an enourmous gamble to rescue Yokiko from the hands of Tokugawa and Takeda clans. How does Yumi reward this heroic act? Tie up Lily with Genja's spider threads in her sleep, beat her around, and then boast of her plans to sell off Lily to the hundred demons where she will surely be killed.
  • Freudian Excuse: She and her clan were victims of the Fūma clan, and she fell into a river, being rescued by Haihime of the Hundred Demon Clan. She's been faithful to the Hundred Demons ever since.
  • Heel–Face Turn: When Lily comes to her defense at the long forgotten temple of the Mirror Maidens, where they were set upon by Tokugawa, Takeda, and Takeda's top vassal Honda, she returns the favor and comes to Lily's aid against the combined armies of said Furinkazan. Tokugawa beats her to near death in a single blow in response. Lily still has understandable reservations about trusting her, considering their checkered history.
  • Insane Troll Logic: When Lily asks her why she's attacking her, Shimizu, and the large group of disciples with them, Yuki equates her attack with Lily's own well-known attack on the samurai who attacked her first, forcing her to defend herself. When Lily rebukes that and once again asks why Yuki has betrayed humanity to help the demons, she retorts "how can you be sure I betrayed humanity and not that humanity has betrayed me?"
  • Kick the Dog: She shatters Shimizu's mirror and then tries to feed her alive to her hanya masked demon henchmen.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: As she's boasting of selling Lily to the hundred demons, Shimizu shows up, calls her out, takes back the Mystic Mirror, slaps Yumi into unconsciousness and leaves her tied up in the territory of Tokugawa.
  • Misplaced Retribution: She blames the rest of humanity for the actions of the Fūma clan.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Twice. She joins the hundred demons when the Fūma clan has her fall off a cliff and she nearly dies in a river, and then joins with Lily when the hundred demons abandons her to the deprivations of Tokugawa, though she has no interest in serving Lord Kamakura.
  • One Degree of Separation: She's from Shiu's clan.
  • Playing the Victim Card: When Lily's about to deliver punishment, she pleads to Yokiko that she's a helpless lamb in front of an angry wolf. Yokiko doesn't buy it and slaps her across her naked bottom with a wooden sandal.
  • Sex for Services: When Lily demands proof of Yumi's sincerity before agreeing to help rescue Yokiko, Yumi lifts her skirt and offers up her chastity... That's clearly not what Lily had in mind and was not interested.
  • Summon Magic: She's shown that she can summon giant spiders made of ice.
  • Too Dumb to Live: When Lily is required to head to Mount Fuji to collect the volcanic flames to forge an even better Sword of Plot Advancement than her Crescent Moon, Yumi provides a map to avoid the most dangerous areas, and then runs back to Haihime, after the latter had already gone You Have Failed Me, and reveals Lily's plan to climb the mountain, then pleads with Haihime to meet Lily with the hope that Lily can somehow miraculously free her from her Awful Wedded Life to the leader of the Hundred Demons. Naturally, Haihime goes full-tilt Ungrateful Bitch, throws her in a dungeon, and brags about planning to attack Lily, having her gang-raped, while Yumi is Forced to Watch, and then feeding the both of them to the Demon Army.
  • Trapped in Villainy: Subverted. During her meeting with Haihime, it's shown that Haihime also commanded her loyalty with a highly addictive "medicine" that would give serious withdrawal symptoms if she didn't take it at least once a month, giving her a very high fever, sweats, and chills, with no other known cure, forcing her to return after Lily redeemed her, but Haihime reveals that before sending her to Tokugawa, Yumi was given an alternate medicine that alleviated the symptoms, this Yumi returned for nothing.
  • The Worf Effect: To highlight how much and how fast Lily has grown since they last met, Yumi used to be able to easily bitch-slap Lily and Shimizu combined, but when they had to work together against the Tokugawa patriarch, all Yumi could do was get in the way.
  • You Will Be Spared: She repeatedly offers to spare Shimizu's life if the latter hands over her magic mirror and surrenders. Shimizu retorts that that is a physical impossibility, as to a Mirror Maiden, handing over her mirror to save herself is equivalent to gouging out her own heart to save her life.

     Genja 
Yuki's direct superior.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The moment he finds himself on the losing end of the fight with Lily, he shamelessly begs for his life and for Lily to join the Hundred Demon Clan. Lily responds by sucking up his soul.
  • Anticlimax Boss: By the time Lily faces him in a battle, she's already strong enough to effortlessly kill him and Dijon at the same time.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Lily's first and last strike cuts him in half at the waist, effortlessly.
  • We Can Rule Together: As he's pleading for his life, he offers Lily membership in the Hundred Demon clan. Since he and Dijon tried to kill her seconds before this, she's completely uninterested and just feeds his soul to her Hungry Weapon.

     Haihime 
The wife of the leader of the Hundred Demon Clan, and she does not like it. She constantly schemes to have the clan implode, but leads attacks on the humans to fake her loyalty.
  • Awful Wedded Life: She does not like being married into the Hundred Demons Clan, and every time her "husband" shows up, she comes back clearly battered.
  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Lily encounters her human husband en route to Mt. Fuji, and he testifies that she was a good, kind woman before the Hundred Demons took her captive, right out of his arms, making him a Demon Slayer, and seeking their total annihilation. In the present, after at least a decade of "marriage" to their leader, she's a horrible, horrible woman who revels in cruelty to others.
  • Forced into Evil: She used to be a sword maiden, until Amenokaji arrived in her home village, slaughtered her mother, and took the rest of the villagers captive, promising to free them when he reaches "adulthood" and claims his Marital Rape License. As of the most recent chapters, it's obvious he has no intention to free the villagers, unless he means "release them from life."
  • Manipulative Bitch: She's got the top members of the clan itching to fight each other.
  • Marital Rape License: As is the norm in this setting, she's not a wife, she's a captive, and when her "husband" returns, he rapes her until he's satisfied.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: When Lily chances upon her, broken and weeping, after trying and failing to fight Amenokaji after she learned the truth, Lily was enraged and said "leave it to me" then proceeded to utterly annihilate the top brass of the local branch, including Amenokaji himself.
  • Ungrateful Bitch: How does she reward Yumi's Undying Loyalty, even providing an out of the clan that Haime hates? Violence, and throwing her into a dungeon.
  • You Have Failed Me: She does not tolerate failure lightly. She sold off Yumi to Tokugawa for repeated loses to Lily, and when Yumi returns, telling Haihime were to expect Lily on Mt. Fuji, throws the latter in a dungeon and boasts of planning Lily's gang rape and then feeding both of them to the demons.

     Amenokaji 
The leader of the Hundred Demons.
  • False Reassurance: He repeatedly tells Haihime that he remembers the promise he made when he captured her, but three days before the date of their "wedding consummation", he secretly sends an army at all the villagers Haihime sold herself to spare, and his demons and monsters have been slowly but surely treating them as food over the years.
  • Horned Humanoid: He has a horn in the center of his forehead.
  • I Lied: He has no intention whatsoever of keeping his end of the bargain and freeing Haihime's clan, despite all his assurances.
  • Might Makes Right: He does what he does the way he does because he's very, very confident that nobody's strong enough to oppose him. In fact, the only human samurai who has a chance is Kamakura, emperor of the region.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's as tall as a typical middle-schooler and he's the most powerful of the demons in the clan.
  • Powerful, but Incompetent: At the time he fought Lily, he was several times stronger and many, many times faster, but his speed requires a huge runway and his moves are all big and flashy. He preferred to sadistically torment everyone who is far weaker than himself and let his underlings deal with anyone near his power level. So when Lily, who is used to fighting above her weight class, comes for him, all he can do is flail about helplessly as she slowly, but surely, rips him apart, even countering his trump card with her own.
  • Sadist: He relishes humiliating and tormenting Haihime.
  • Straw Hypocrite: He yells at Lily "stop dodging and fight me fairly" after bragging about how he loves to sadistically torment people who can't fight back.

Tokugawa clan

     Tokugawa Shigemori 
One of the furinkanzan, he is actively hedging his bets by having secret communications with the Hundred Demons Clan. He is first introced when Yuki pays him a visit at the request of Haihime, to try and secure his alliance completely.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: He openly boasts of his villainy, proclaiming that his despicable acts, including the planned rebellion against Takagawa, are things to be proud of.
  • The Corrupter: He turned the Takeda patriarch from a man of honor and valor to a despicable villain by pumping the latter full of demonic energy, slowly but surely, unnoticed. When Takeda is accidentally broken free by a blow full of holy energy coming from his vassal Honda, Takeda is righteously pissed off.
  • Dirty Coward: It doesn't come up very often considering how big a powerhouse he is, but when the odds are against him, he throws all pretense of honor, chivalry, and comradery aside, hides behind his army and allies, and only when his opponent is finally worn down, goes for the kill himself. If none of this works, he flees first chance he gets, swearing vengeance.
  • Evil Is Petty: He destroyed an entire innocent clan, even kidnapping and raping the top family's virgin daughter to steal a tea-set!
  • Lack of Empathy: He cares not a whit about anyone else.
  • Like Father, Like Son: He is every bit as cunning, brutish, and brutal as his son, Shigetsugu.
  • Marital Rape License: He uses the fact that he forced Yukiko to marry him at sword-point as justification for brutally raping her whenever the mood hits him.
  • Moral Myopia: Despite bragging of his villainy, he has the gall to call Lily more evil than he is for daring to resist him, by any means, fair or foul.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By demanding that he, Takeda, and Honda go after Lily three on one, it allowed Lily to trick Honda and Takeda to strike each other, at which point, Takeda's demonic corruption was driven out of his body, returning him to the man of honor Rei sings the praises of.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: He is short, but well-muscled and strong.
  • Smug Super: He's powerful and loves to flaunt it.

Takeda Clan

     Takeda 
The Furinkazan that Rei sings the praises of.
  • Demonic Possession: Thanks to Tokugawa's treachery and collusion with the Hundred Demon Clan, he was controlled by demonic miasma. When Lily tricked Honda into striking him, Honda's holy energy drove out the miasma, returning him to normal. He was most displeased with Tokugawa when he came to his senses.
  • I Will Fight No More Forever: After he wakes up from Tokugawa's attempt to turn him into a demon soldier, he chooses to atone for his evil deeds by laying down his sword, abandoning his badly neglected and abused samurai fief, and going into solitude as a hermit monk.
  • Loophole Abuse: He offers Lily the land upon which the shrine of the Mirror Maidens is built, as a token apology for his unjust actions. Lily accepts, so he can save face. While Lily is exploring the valley said shrine leads to, she finds not only a natural hot-springs, but a completely untapped vein of matagama ore.
  • Rebuilt Pedestal: During their fight, Lily repeatedly wondered why Rei would sing the praises of this guy, considering his many, many despicable acts against her, but once Honda drives out the demonic energies corrupting him, and sees his true chracter, she can see why Rei holds him in high regard.

     Honda 
Takeda's top vassal.
  • The Farmer and the Viper: When Lily, in disguise, is handed over to him as a "bride" by Tokugawa, she puts forward the story that she needs to visit her mother's grave, one of Tokugawa's victims. He lets her, which Lily uses to escape by beating up the samurai who were sent to watch over her. He holds no grudge against her for this.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: As a buddha, he wields powerful holy magic.
  • Moral Myopia: Which he even lampshades. He acknowledges Lily was forced to kill Tokugawa's army, specifically the archers, because they interfered in the duel between her and himself, but still holds her responsible for their deaths, and stews in his grudge over it.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Even when he realizes his master is being corrupted by demonic energy, he obeys the latter's commands, to the letter. If that means killing the innocent and noble Lily, too bad, woman.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: During the clash between Tokugawa's army and Lily, he constantly struggled between his orders and his own chivalric code.

Others:

     Uesugi Rei 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uesugi_rei.jpg
I do what I want, when I want and take what I want when I want. No one can stop me!
The first Demon Sword Maiden introduced, and the one who inspires Lily to become a Samurai.
  • Ambiguously Gay: The only on-screen interactions she's had with men have been in open combat, or the threat of open combat. She's only shown romantic interest in women, like Lily.
  • Astral Projection: She can summon a "spirit clone" similar to a "stand" from Jojo's adventures.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Just as Lily is about to be cut in half, vertically by Dijon, Uesugi arrives, on horseback, and gets between them, effortlessly blocking the blow.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her moral compass makes sense to her and her alone.
  • Casual Kink: She's a "switch." Meaning she can be the sub or the dom depending on the situation.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The way she extracts excess "grudge" from Lily's weapon, The Crescent Moon, is extremely provocative.
  • Forceful Kiss: At least twice, she's literally swept Lily off her feet and planted a big, wet one on her lips. Lily was not amused.
  • An Ice Person: When she and Lily are involved on the raid on the Fuma clan, she has honed her mystical powers even further and starts hurling ice-based attacks around.
  • Mystical White Hair: She's got silver hair and her Samurai techniques are so advanced, they're indistinguishable from magic.
  • No Sense of Direction: When she gets a letter from Shui that Lily's in trouble, and where Lily is likely to be, she gets on her fastest horse, and winds up on the wrong side of the country! Fortunately, she does show up when Lily needs her most.
  • One-Woman Army: She can fight with three samurai at the same rank as Dijon, and win!
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: She knows she's hot and loves to flaunt it.
  • Stripperific: She doesn't wear much when it comes to clothing, barely covering her modesty.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: When she and Lily stumble on the Fuma clan's torture chamber, she gets turned on!
  • Übermensch: She cares not a whit about etiquette, right or wrong, she does what she wants, where she wants, and to who she wants, when she wants, and cares not a whit what others have to say about it. She's so strong, few can call her out on it.

Imperial officials

     Lord Kamakura 
The ruler of the region.
  • Benevolent Boss: He treats his loyal subjects and subordinates well, and rewards the most promising of his land's samurai fairly.
  • Did Not Think This Through: He reveals the fact that Lily is a Mirror Maiden at a public hearing then sends her and Shimizu, another Mirror Maiden, to watch over a large group of young, inexperienced, and very, very cocky samurai trainees, led by a wet-behind-the-ears instructor, to a survival training exercise. This leads to the entire class, save a ponytailed girl, being completely annihilated and Lily and Shimizu having to fight off a massive wave of lower and mid upper level demons led by Yuki and the demonized Dijon combined, when Lily and Shimizu together would have a hard fight with either one of them. The possibility that this was deliberate can not be ruled out.
  • The Emperor: The undisputed ruler of the land.
  • Large and in Charge: Ten meters tall, and ruler of the nation.
  • Save the Villain: During the official tournament honoring the anniversary of Yoshibune's death, Kagami is facing Tsukawa, the self-proclaimed "genius" of the Genji clan, who has been such an oaf that he's Hated by All, with even Kagami's enemies howling for his death, and he cheats at several points in the fight with her. When Lily gains the upper hand and retaliates with lethal, yet appropriate, force, Kamakura steps in and blocks the final blow, sparing the lout's life. Considering that he could block her ultimate move with ease, Lily agrees to his request to spare the lout.

     Nagasaki Takaki 
An imperial Inspector who arrived in the Genji dojo and attempted to apprehend Lily for the "crime" of returning alive from the ill-fated training exercise. He immediately abuses his position to try and frame her for the deaths of the samurai trainees, both to deflect the blame for his own incompetence resulting in said deaths, and to avenge the injury and humiliation of his son and Tokugawa Shigetsu who antagonized Lily grievously in the first place. When Lily refused to go along with his obvious scheme, he and all the louts with him, including Tokugawa himself, got violent, threatening to slap her across the face with wooden swords at least 20 times. It is only because they did not have real blades that Lily spared their lives.
  • Appeal to Force: When Lily pointedly refused to go into an obvious trap, of going to his residence alone, and unarmed, he and his group threaten her with violence, and he then gets "insulted" that she probes him and proclaims that his strength is far too insufficient to actually succeed if he tries it.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He's even weaker than Shigetsugu, but when his "grand plan" to command Lily to follow him home where he can engineer her signing a false confession, to avenge his hoodlum son and absolve himself of his responsibility for the deaths of all the samurai trainees as a result of the Imperial edict sending them, Shimizu, and Lily right into the hands of the Hundred Demon clan fails, because she's not stupid, he threatens her with violence. Then he has the gall to be offended when she retaliates by his very own standards and kicks him so hard he swallows some teeth and is sent flying.
  • Just Following Orders: He repeatedly tries to excuse his wanton abuse of power by claiming he's acting under the orders of Lord Kamakura, but when Lily asks for proof, he balks and refuses to provide it.
  • Made Out to Be a Jerkass: He leads a small army of top-ranked Genji disciples, including Shigetsu, to Lily's estate and proceeds to try and impune her character by suggesting she's working with the Hundred Demons and is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of samuria trainees. When Lily refuses to play along, he resorts to violence and gets a Literal Ass-Kicking.
  • Revenge Myopia: He tries to avenge his son, the man who led a pack of thugs into breaking into Lily's house, rifled through her belongings, and were caught literally red-heanded brutalizing Lily's attendant, Naoko, who is the daughter of a powerful merchant clan.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As an Imperial Inspector, he walks around acting as if he's above the law, even trying to apprehend Lily without charge, so he can drag her back to his own house with the intent of torturing her into signing a false confession, both to shift the blame for his own incompetence and to avenge his son's injury.
  • Teeth Flying: As a result of the impact of Lily's roundhouse kick, several of his teeth are broken and he winds up swallowing them.

Top