This is a list of the characters that make up the series Hayate × Blade, by Hayashiya Shizuru.
Please note that names have been listed with family names first.
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Sword Bearers
Hayate and Ayana
Kurogane Hayate
, a bunch of cat-themed sword decorations that attach to the pommels of sword bearers' swords. She's given one to anybody she has significant screen-time with.Voiced by Kurumi Mamiya.
- All-Loving Hero: There's nobody Hayate wouldn't mind befriending. In the epilogue, she even gave a tiger-themed pair of her shigeru sword-decorations to Ensuu and Mei.
- Anonymous Benefactor: Hayate tries to be this to Dandelion Garden.
- Ass Kicks You: Seems to be her favorite attack method outside the hoshitori.
- Attack Hello: Hayate's enthusiasm is probably going to kill Akira one of these days.
- Balloon Belly: Slow down on that food, Hayate!
- Barehanded Blade Block: Hayate keeps trying this. It keeps ending badly.
- Book Dumb: For all her fighting prowess, many comedic moments in one drama CD come from her study sessions with Ayana.
- Brown Bag Mask: Fond of wearing plastic ones (and inflicting them upon others) as Family Mart Mask.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Like most of the characters, Hayate is incredibly quirky. She is also very good at pulling out a win.
- Character Title
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: But not because Hard Work Hardly Works, Hayate has been shown undergoing training either on her own or with other characters.
- Dogged Nice Girl: When trying to get Ayana to form a partnership with her.
- Fearless Fool: While she mostly tends to be extremely confident in herself and Ayana, she averts this trope more often than not because the two of them are just that good. However, she fits squarely into this trope in the fight with Ensuu. She knew it would be a tough fight and she trained extensively, but in her determination to help Ayana bury her demons, she ignored the countless warnings everyone gave her that Ensuu wasn't just extremely skilled, she was extremely dangerous.
- Friend to All Children: She is on incredibly good terms with all of the kids from her old orphanage.
- Genki Girl: Whenever she's not bouncing around cheerfully, people wonder if something's wrong with her.
- The Glomp: Usually towards Ayana, but there have been others subject to it.
- Happily Adopted: She and Nagi were both adopted a few years before the series starts.
- Idiot Hair: Lampshaded by the mangaka here◊ and here.
- Idiot Hero: Each chapter has the word "idiot" in the title. Quite a few apply directly to Hayate.
- In-Series Nickname: Kuro.
- Magnetic Hero: There is no character in the series better at making friends.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Hayate is this to Ayana, though the latter seems to be only vaguely aware.
- New Transfer Student: This is useful in that the reader learns more about hoshitori together with her during exposition.
- The Nicknamer: In most cases, anyone Hayate spends more than a panel with receives a nickname. Ayana is the only one she routinely calls by her actual name.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Hayate enjoys launching hugs at all of her friends. Including those she's only known for a handful of days.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Maybe. Her schemes work much too often for it to be chance, so it's either that or author fiat.
- Oblivious to Love: Does not seem to realize the extent of Chiharu's fondness for her.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Nagi comes to Tenchi, Hayate gets really subdued. Akira even directly lampshades it, telling Nagare that something is seriously wrong.
- Or My Name Isn't...: Backfires spectacularly because shouting out your name when you're pretending to be someone else is generally a bad idea.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: She seems to excel at these, although, somewhat subverted when Yuho didnt recognize her in her duck outfit.
- Plucky Girl: Most conflicts Hayate comes across are resolved by her absolute refusal to give up. Nagi's arrival is the only time her spirits are significantly dampened, and within the next two chapters she's regained her enthusiasm in spades.
- Rubber Face: Backfires painfully when Yukari's presence makes Ayana pull a little too hard on Hayate's cheeks.
- Shonen Hair: Not as obvious as Nagi's, but over time becomes more noticeable, especially when she's moving quickly.
- Shy Finger-Twiddling: After Ayana catches her during her secret training.
- Snot Bubble: Being a cute idiot, she gets this whenever she sleeps.
- Too Dumb to Fool: The A-Team tries to threaten her into leaving the school. This fails because of the assumption that Hayate understands how blackmail works well enough to respond "properly" to it.
- Too Fast to Stop: Especially in early chapters, many attempts at spectacular feats of agility are thwarted by Hayate crashing into things. Such as the ground.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: A few of the characters, most notably Akira and Sae, have problems that can't be solved perfectly just by swinging swords around. Hayate wholeheartedly believes that they'll be fixed anyway.
Mudou Ayana
Voiced by Satsuki Yukino.
- Angrish: Usually because of Hayate, Jun, or both.
- Battle Aura: When someone infuriates her enough.
- Berserk Button: She does not approve of some of Hayate and Jun's... antics.
- Blind Without 'Em: Inverted. Ayana can see perfectly fine without her glasses, and can barely see with them. She purposefully wears them to make sure she can't see people very well. See Power Limiter for the reason why.
- Then played straight when she admits that her eyesight deteriorated too severely from playing video games in poor lighting excessively.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: With Hayate.
- Break the Cutie: As a child.
- Childhood Friends: With Yukari.
- Clothing Damage: Thanks to Jun.
- Death Glare: Ayana might prefer physical displays of disapproval, but her facial expressions get the point across pretty well too.
- Friend to All Children: Ayana treats children significantly nicer than she treats her schoolmates.
- Gamer Chick: Before Hayate came along, she mostly sat in her dorm room playing video games all day.
- The Glasses Come Off: You don't want to be there if they do.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: The Dainingen Giri.
- Hidden Depths: She's surprisingly Hot-Blooded, despite how her (mostly) stoic personality leads one to believe she's calmer and analytical:Akira: "I thought you were a calmer person, but... you aren't that different from the shitty runt, huh?"
Ayana: "I've always been like this. My store's just been closed 'til now." - Hikikomori: She is even called this by Hayashiya in a bonus special for the first drama CD.
- Implacable Woman: During the hiking trip, she was so pissed that she just ran up the mountain, directly at Hayate and Makoto. Anybody who got in her way got taken out, and her pace apparently never slowed once. Then she got hit by Makoto's Indy Ball and rolled all the way to the bottom of the mountain.
- Implied Death Threat: Anyone feel like playing with Mr. Nail Bat?
- In-Series Nickname: The kids at Dandelion Garden call her Meganee, a mix of "Megane" (glasses) and "Nee" (sister/big sister).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although she still comes off as abrasive, Ayana has really warmed up to Hayate, Jun, and Hayate's friends.
- Megaton Punch: Ayana is not thrilled at the idea of partnering up with Hayate and often reminds her in rather violent ways. As their partnership progresses, she becomes more accepting, but still hits as hard whenever Hayate (or Jun, for that matter) feels like being an idiot.
- Pet the Dog: When Nagi reminds Hayate that she's just a placeholder and tells her that all her stars as well as her partner now belong to her, Hayate understandably feels rather down so Ayana delivers a nice Get A Hold Of Yourself Man suplex.
- Power Limiter: Her glasses serve as a form of this. Thanks to the extremely traumatic Training from Hell her grandfather put her through as a child, she can't look anybody in the eye unless she really trusts them. If she does look someone in the eye, she starts flashbacking, at which point she goes berserk.
- Red Baron: Only the ridiculously gutsy or are ridiculously foolish dare mess with the "Raging Tiger of Tenchi".
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Sometimes.
- Snark Knight: Though with a bit more violence and the threat of Mr. Nailbat thrown into the mix.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Whenever she flashbacks to the incident with her grandfather, she gets this look in her eyes.
- Tsundere: When she's surrounded by hyperactive and lecherous idiots, she gets a violent Hair-Trigger Temper. When there's nobody there to push her buttons, however, she's actually quite nice. The Momotaro-Gumi even lampshade it after she thanks them for helping her train and even offers to buy them lunch when they get back from their vacation.
- And when Jun and Hayate finally feel the need to smarten up, Ayana is remarkably courteous to them.
- Unknown Rival: Only those that have some kind of special looks, or hang around her long enough, stay in Ayana's memory. She might even remember their name properly someday.
- Unstoppable Rage: This happens often, but most notably on two separate occasions: One, played for drama, was during the fight with Ensuu, where she went berserk, and the second, played for laughs, when she saw Hayate teaming up with Makoto:Yukari: "I hope Kurogane-san makes it out of this alive..."
- Watch Out for That Tree!: Ayana gets so caught up in sparring with Jun that she slams her head into a branch.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Causing her to relive her traumatic childhood makes her a much more formidable fighter, but it also reduces her to an enraged Berserker.
- Wrestler in All of Us: She's no stranger to using wrestling moves against Hayate.
Jun and Yuho
Kuga Jun
She becomes the hoshitori's only one-woman team after she and Yuho fight Ayana and Hayate, bearing Yuho's Heaven sword as well as her own Earth sword.
Voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi.
- Amusing Injuries: She gets these whenever Yuho or, much more often, Ayana get fed up with her antics.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: One of the more clearly nuts characters of the series. Also the only one participating in the hoshitori without a present partner. And winning.
- Character Exaggeration: She was always a bit of a perv, but as time went on, it got worse and worse. It's hard to tell if she became more of a pervert, or if we're just seeing more of it.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Her default facial expression.
- Childhood Friends: With Yuho.
- Clothing Damage: She does this to Ayana at the beginning of their fight.
- Cool Big Sis: To Hayate and her friends in the Momotaro-Gumi, although they often take anything she says with a grain of salt on account of her shameless lechery. And as much as Ayana hates to admit it, Jun's advice has seriously helped her through a number of personal problems.
- Corner of Woe: She goes into one of these whenever anybody calls her what she is: a disgusting lech.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She's a major league dumbass who spends most of her time getting beaten by Ayana for all the stupid antics she pulls. She's also an extremely capable fighter who can give a White-Uniform a run for her money.
- Defeat by Modesty: It's shown that, when fighting alone in the Hoshitori, she would often take down weaker opponents by flipping their skirts or something, flustering them enough until she could easily take their stars.
- Dishing Out Dirt: She has this ability where she stabs the ground with her sword, causing a cluster of fist-sized rocks to burst up from the ground in the direction she wants them to (apparently by infusing her Ki into the ground to make it shoot these rocks). As flying rocks can be quite dangerous, Jun only uses this technique on people she knows are good enough to deal with it, and it mostly serves as a distraction or as a form of smokescreen.
- Dual Wielding: She starts using Yuho's sword as of volume 4. It seems to be her prefered style, as she continues with it even after Yuho comes back.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Ryoutoutsukai. It's Japanese for Dual Wielding and a euphemism for bisexuality.
- Enter Stage Window: She does this once or twice when visiting Yuho in the hospital and when talking to Yukari, who is in the third story art club room.
- Freudian Slip: She has dozens of these in which she accidentally says something blatantly sexual before correcting herself.
- Happily Adopted: In a sense. Jun's the child of an extramarital affair her mother had, and after her parents divorced and her mother, overcome with guilt, left her family, there really wasn't anything tying her to Kuga Gen, her mother's husband. However, the man still raised her, and even though she knows who her biological father is, as far as she's concerned, Gen is her real father, and that's all there is too it.
- Holding Hands: Yuho holds hers before their fight with Hayate and Ayana, prompting her to do the same for Ayana before the match with Ensuu.
- In-Series Nickname: Jun-Jun.
- Legacy of Service: The Kuga Clan had its start as the clan that supplied bodyguards for the Shizuma in feudal Japan. While it's not quite so master-servant these days, the Kugas, Jun included, still feel they have a responsibility to protect the Shizumas. However, Jun and Yuho still genuinely care about each other as Childhood Friends, and Yuho really wishes their families didn't have the history they did.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Whenever something opposes her friends, especially Yuho, she suddenly becomes hyper-competent. She keeps the ditzy smile, but she shows everyone just how badass she really is.
- Lipstick Lesbian: She's supposedly bisexual. Jun never actually puts a specific label on her preferences, though, and we only ever see her lusting after other girls.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Despite being a walking sexual harassment case, Jun is one of the nicest characters in the series, and pretty much whipped when it comes to Yuho.
- Memetic Molester: Oh god... she's such a lecherous sex-maniac that everybody knows it. One extra chapter has Benibachi looking through the student complaint box and finding that one out of three complaints was about Jun and her wandering eyes/hands. Hell, whenever there are reports of a Peeping Tom, all eyes turn to Jun, and it's generally agreed that the best way to punish her for anything is to keep her out of the girls' public bath.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She does this several times:
- In her rush to get to an exhausted Yuho and keep her from collapsing, she grabbed Yuho a moment before the latter took Hayate's star, which invalidated the strike. Yuho was not amused.
- In an attempt to let Ayana sneak into the A-Rank area (which is, unlike the other areas, off-limits to anyone below A-Rank), she has Kiji create a fog to make sure nobody can see inside. This has the unfortunate side effect hiding the very dangerous battle between Maki/Yukari and Ensuu/Mei from the Judges, which allowed Ensuu and Mei to run rampant for so long.
- Ninja: Being the daughter of a long line of ninja, Jun recieved the training. While she may not be the most skilled fighter in the hoshitori, she has a number of ninja-ish techniques and she is capable of doing some frankly ridiculous things, such as jumping from a third story window and landing safely. Her abilities range from being a Mundane Utility, like her ability to do high-speed sewing, to making her an Unusually Uninteresting Sight, such as when she scales walls.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Make no mistake, she really is a perverted sex-maniac. However, there are times when this is nothing more than an act to hide the moments where Jun's sharp mind actually kicks into gear.
- The Peeping Tom: We've never actually seen it, but given her personality and the countless times other characters complain about her doing this, it's not like we really need to see her do it.
- Porn Stash: It's so large that she even forgot about the portion left in Yuho's room. In one extra, said roommate even wonders what to do with all of it.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: A few of her casual outfits feature these.
- Smarter Than You Look: Jun comes across as an immature lech who takes nothing seriously. However, she's a lot stronger, smarter, observant, and even mature than she lets on. She was also the only person to realize that Nagi wasn't Hayate; everyone else just thought that Hayate was acting weirdly when they saw Nagi.(from a Yuri blog) "Jun comes face to face with Nagi, and looks her over in detail. You look the same, she says, but you’re not Hayate. (Thus proving that Jun is in fact the smartest person at Tenchi, which was a given, since she’s a lesbian.)"
- Yuri Fan: Jun spends an awful lot of time teasing Ayana when Hayate insists on pairing up with her in volume 1. And that's just the tip of the iceberg...
Shizuma Yuho
Voiced by Yuki Matsuoka.
- Affectionate Nickname: She likes to call Hayate "Shorty," but there's nothing malicious about the nickname.
- Berserk Button: Calling her "princess" is asking to be responded with violence. Only one person does it, anyway.
- Character Tic: She has a tendency to give people a thumbs-down instead of a thumbs-up when saying something positive.
- Childhood Friends: With Jun.
- Dance Battler: In a flashback she mentions that her invented technique is a mixture of Aikido and Nichibu dancing.
- Definitely Just a Cold: Yuho tries to downplay her illness as much as possible around Jun. It's a bit of a hard sell when Jun's visiting her in the hospital.
- Handicapped Badass: Yuho might be very sick, but she's the first person to beat Hayate in a fight.
- In-Series Nickname: Sigma.
- Ojou: Her mother and Jun consider her one.
- Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder: After exerting herself for far longer than she should have in her fight with Hayate, she collapsed immediately after taking Hayate's star. She then collapsed again after whacking Jun over the head for invalidating Yuho's aforementioned victory.
- Rebellious Princess: She doesn't have the patience to put up with acting as the Ojou her family treats her as.
- Tsundere: Subverted. At first, she seems to have all the trappings of one, what with the rather vitriolic way she treats Jun. However, she is in fact extremely polite and kind to everybody, even Jun, and she only really gets abusive when Jun does something stupid.
- Weak, but Skilled: She makes up for her frail body by using martial arts-based techniques to flip her opponents around with a minimum of exertion on her part.
Momo and Wanko
Kibi Momoka
Voiced by Makiko Ohmoto
- Badass Normal: She has to be this to balance out her occult-powered partner.
- The Berserker: Her fighting "style" is to keep on swinging until she hits something.
- Can't Catch Up: More a form of Heroic Self-Deprecation then actually falling behind. She feels that compared to Hayate she has stagnated and is leagues behind her, this despite the fact that the two never fought until toward the end of the first series.
- Demoted to Extra: She has concerns about becoming this. However, despite the new characters that are constantly being introduced, she's still a major supporting character.
- Hot-Blooded: She's one of the more enthusiastic sword bearers.
- Important Haircut: After being rejected by Riona.
- Returning The Towel: How she catches Isuzu's attention. It was the first time anybody had really been nice to her.
- Skyward Scream: At the end of her duel with Kiriya.
- Southpaw Advantage: Momoka is left handed, which actually gave her an advantage in her duel with Kiriya, in which she used the fact that her sword was sheathed on her right hip to stop Kiriya from drawing her sword before getting a quick hit in.
- Take a Third Option: With regards to Kijimiya's offer in volume 4.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: She entered a duel to save her Childhood Friend from an abusive partnership. Her friend decided she didn't want to be saved.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: While she and Kiji fight constantly, they are a lot closer then they would like to admit.
Inugami Isuzu
Voiced by Mamiko Noto.
- Animal Theme Naming: Her nicknames stem from the "inu (dog)" in her name.
- Beautiful All Along: She went from doing a damn-good Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl impression to looking the way she does in her character pic.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason behind her attachment to Momoka is that the latter actually made good on a promise to return a borrowed towel. It says a lot about how lonely Isuzu's life must have been before she partnered up with Momoka.
- Black Magician Girl: She starts out with a strong reliance on her horrifying powers, and later combines spellcasting with her swordplay.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Isuzu is terrifying, and she practices necromancy, but she's a very sweet girl, and she's a clear-cut example of a "good necromancer."
- Friendless Background: Thanks to her terrifying appearance, she had no friends until she met Momoka.
- I See Dead People: And can summon evil spirits too, apparently.
- In-Series Nickname: Wanko/Wan-Wan.
- Insult Backfire: What it invariably looks like to others whenever Momoka talks about her, since Momoka is very blunt about how creepy and horrifying her partner's powers are. Wanko, however, takes this as high praise.
- Necromancer: Her magic is strong enough for her to invoke the spirits of historical sword masters and have them take possession of her body to use their techniques. The downside to it is how doing so taxes her physically - her body can't keep up with demands meant for a far tougher build.
- Nice Girl: Underneath her terrifying powers, she's an extremely kind and caring girl.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: And that's just something we love about her, oddly.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt
- Shrinking Violet: Before she and Momoka became partners, she had no friends and rarely spoke to anyone.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Not a straight, example, but she had the aesthetic down pat, and she was definitely creepy.
- Willfully Weak: She is capable of summoning master swordsman and have them use her body to fight, but she doesn't like using the technique because she feels like it's cheating.
Kiji and Michi
Kijimiya Otoha
Voiced by Sanae Kobayashi.
- Animal Theme Naming: The "pheasant" of the Momotaro-gumi. Sometimes used for insulting nicknames by Momoka.
- Butt-Monkey: Momoka and Michi, and indeed, the world in general, don't give her much respect.
- Berserk Button: Seeing Michi get hurt during the hike sent her into an intense rage, unfortunately it also sent her powers wildly out of control and it wasn't until Michi woke up that she was able to calm down enough to bring them back under her control. To bad the damage was already done by that point.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For the most part, she's a bit of a dunce who likes to rely on her unreliable powers. However, during the hike, she held her own before she met up with Michi.
- Badass Unintentional: The entire mess at the end of the mountain hike was caused by her losing control over her powers and creating localized tremors.
- Defeat Means Friendship: The story behind why she, Michi, Momoka, and Wanko hang out with each other most of the time.
- Dowsing Device: She attempted to use one to locate Hayate's lost orphan. It was dismissed as not being especially useful before she even had the chance to use them.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Eventually decides that she's had enough of dragging others down, and joins the Black Team.
- I See Dead People: Unlike Wanko, Kiji is terrified by them.
- Shock and Awe: But not all that practical.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Kiji talks big and likes to play up her powers, but she's actually one of the least useful members of the cast.
- Smug Snake: Her attempts at manipulating Momoka weren't nearly as effective as she thought they would be.
- Twinkle Smile: When she tries to show off. Tries.
- Unskilled, but Strong: According to Isuzu, Kiji is extremely powerful, but she goes about using this power the wrong way and doesn't seem to really understand what she's doing sometimes. Given the disparity between what she accidentally did on the hike and what she's normally capable of, Isuzu's probably right.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Momoka. Momo likes to give her a hard time about everything, and never lets her forget that she messed with Isuzu, even though the whole thing was settled long ago. Don't be fooled, though, they're still quite close.
Sagara Michi
Voiced by Ryō Hirohashi.
- Animal Theme Naming: The "monkey" of the Momotaro-gumi.
- Badass Normal: Fans have pointed out that she is in fact much more useful in fights than Kiji, as the mass battle against the A-team showed.
- I Know Karate: Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, no less!
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Granted, this only happened once, but it was enough to make Ayana remember Michi as "the girl who threw her sword".
- Taught by Television: She's learning Jeet Kune Do through self training videos. While it gives her a big boost in overall fighting ability, she doesn't know any knife fighting moves, the most useful in this setting, because those videos cost extra.
Mizuchi and Sou
Takami Sou
Voiced by Noriko Shitaya.
- Baguette Beatdown: Funnily enough, she and her partner both provide public services in this fashion—on different occasions.
- Birds of a Feather: With Hayate.
- In-Series Nickname: Ao-chan.
- Similar Squad: She and Mizuchi mimic Hayate and Ayana, respectively.
- The Drag-Along: To some extent.
Asakura Mizuchi
Voiced by Houko Kuwashima.
- Baguette Beatdown: In a side chapter.
- Corner of Woe: She'll go into one of these if a) Ayana gets her name wrong, or b) anyone implies she looks mature for her age. Apparently, she's already worried about being to old to find a husband.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Sorta.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Ayana doesn't want to be her partner. Ayana also doesn't know her name. Both are considered serious transgressions worthy of revenge.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Asakura absolutely loves them. Her family owns three and she apparently regularly takes care of neighbours' and relatives' dogs when they go traveling. She tries to dismiss it as responsibility or something like that, but she only really lets her guard down and drops her dignified demeanor around her dogs. Sou even comments that she'd never seen Mizuchi smile the way she did around them.
- Hime Cut: Her look is perfect for this trope but her temperament is not. Thus this is an Averted Trope.
- Similar Squad: She and Sou match Ayana and Hayate. She seems to have purposely invoked this.
- Unknown Rival: The only time Ayana gets her name right is followed another name, then "Lady Boss", because she thought she'd got it wrong.
- Yandere: Mizuchi is not happy after Ayana rejected her twice. She gets over it.
- Younger Than They Look: People tend to forget that she's only in her third year of junior high.
Yukari and Maki
Someya Yukari
Seen promoted to the student council at the start of Hayate × Blade 2.
Voiced by Ai Maeda.
- The Atoner: Having failed to protect Ayana before, she got the chance to be placed in the same situation again when challenging Meiko and Ensuu after being promoted to A-Rank.
- Childhood Friends: With Ayana.
- The Comically Serious: She likes to retain a calm, stoic bearing in everything she does, even when she gets angry. Her attempts at maintaining this calm around Hayate are rarely met with complete success and provide a great deal of humour.
- Expository Hair Style Change: After her partnership with Ayana ended, she started styling her hair to hide the scarred left side of her face. After she and Ayana finally fight and completely settle things between them, she pulls her peek-a-bang back behind her ear to reveal the scar, showing how she's no longer dwelling on it.
- Handicapped Badass: She has some serious problems with depth perception, yet she's still one of the strongest characters in the series.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: She only really treated Ayana like crap to try to get the latter out of her funk and back on her feet. When Ayana finally returns to the way she was before their fight with Ensuu, she warms up toward her considerably.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: It hides a prominent scar on the left side of her face and is markedly different from her longer hair in flashbacks.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She comes off as generally cold and aloof, and extremely rude in a passive-aggressive manner towards Ayana and Hayate in particular. However, she shows a consistent softer side in her interactions with Maki, she really does care about Ayana, and despite herself, she's grown fond of Hayate.
Kamijou Maki
Seen promoted to the student council at the start of Hayate × Blade 2.
Voiced by Naomi Shindo.
- Badass Bookworm: Or more accurately, badass artist. One art club member notes that her talent is the reason why she could be club president despite only being a first year in high school.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: After Ju Ensuu breaks her right wrist, apparently crippling her, Maki switches to her dominant sword hand: her left one. She also, given how she only had one hand to work with, switched to a western fencing style, which she had picked up from her mother and, though she had never used it thanks to the rules of the Hoshitori, she was extremely skilled in.
- Lamarck Was Right: Her fencing abilities are mentioned in the same breath as her mother being a three-time world champion.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After Ensuu snaps her right wrist, Maki switches to a fencing grip and significantly ups her game.
- Love Epiphany: She has a major, if not necessarily romantic, one subsequent to much buildup to a realization that even as she tries to convince herself of how it would be good for Yukari and Ayana to make up with each other, she still wants to be Yukari's partner.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Hints of this are dropped during the school festival, with her fatalistic view of what would happen during the duel against Ensuu and Meiko. Later chapters give us even more instances...
- From the exhibition match between Mikado/Inori and Shidou/Tonami:Maki: (complete with sparkles and dramatic fist-clenching): [referring to Akira being struck in the ribs] "It was a situation whereby it wouldn't be strange even if her star was stolen and yet... Next time, I want to do it that way as well...!"
Yukari: "Please don't assume you are going to be injured." - During the holidays:Maki: "Whether my arm breaks,"
Yukari: "Wha..."
Maki: "Or my leg breaks,"
Yukari: "Uh, Sempai,"
Maki: "Or whether I break all my bones and can't lift a finger..."
Yukari: "Nonononono! Why are you so masochistic?" - On the mountain hike:◊Nancy: (taunting) "You'd look good covered in wounds!"
Maki: (smile) "I'd like to see that. Even if I [lists off a range of violent injuries]"
Nancy: (flustered) "Shut up, already!"
- From the exhibition match between Mikado/Inori and Shidou/Tonami:
- Odd Friendship: With Nancy. Both of them become pretty invested in their fight during the hike, because both of them enjoyed it too much.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Mostly due to being pretty laid back most of the time and her only motivation for fighting is to back up Yukari. It also doesn't help the she sees herself as a bit of a temporary stand in. This means she doesn't stand out very much compared to everyone else, despite the fact she is legitimately one of the top fighters of the series.
- Satellite Character: At first, her claim to fame was being the partner of Ayana's ex-partner. However, around the time she fought Ensuu, she started to come into her own as a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant Spirited Competitor.
- Spirited Competitor: The sheer joy and excitement she shows at being able to fight members of the student council without having to fulfill any preset requirement says it all.
Ensuu and Mei
Ju Ensuu
Voiced by Akeno Watanabe.
- Anime Chinese Girl: Averted to hell and back. Ensuu may be Chinese, and she may use a Chinese sword, but that's it: she's not cute, she doesn't wear stereotypical Chinese clothing, even out of her Tenchi Academy uniform, and she doesn't wear her hair in Odango. Rather, she's a vicious Blood Knight, she tends to wear sweats, jeans, and hoodies, and her hair is a wild mess.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Lions. Admit it.
- Ax-Crazy: Ensuu is not right in the head. Outside of battle, this manifests as quirky and sometimes even endearing Cloudcuckoolander tendencies. In battle, on the other hand... oh boy. She's so psycho that at times, it's hard to even call her a sadist, as that would imply she has the sanity to enjoy hurting people. Rather, she comes off more like a wild beast who exists to hunt down and painfully annihilate anything that shows its face to her.
- Berserk Button: In general, she doesn't like it when people try to make a fool out of her. She was also extremely pissed when Hayate snaps Ayana out of her berserk rage, robbing Ensuu of her Worthy Opponent.
- Big Eater: She can put away a ridiculous amount of food, especially if that food is meat.
- Blood Knight: Ensuu only really enjoys herself when she fights strong opponents. It's deconstructed somewhat, as it's hard to find friends when the only thing you enjoy— and indeed, the only way you really know how to interact with people— involves putting people through a lot of pain. Not having anybody like her in the entire school leaves her feeling extremely alone.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: At first, Ensuu appears to be just another sadist, but she slowly reveals that she doesn't really understand the concept of morality. She hurts people because she likes it, but even that seems to be because she likes fighting and the pain of an enemy is a sign that she's doing it right. Even the vicious way she brutalizes both Maki and Hayate is motivated by a desire to get them out of the way so that she can fight her Worthy Opponents—Yukari and especially Ayana—as opposed to any real malice. She also doesn't understand Mei's excessive sadism; when Mei went off on a short tangent about why she likes taking away the things people care about and urges Ensuu to take similar enjoyment in inflicting that sort of psychological pain, Ensuu just tells Mei that she's weird.
- Boyish Short Hair: Fitting, given her masculine and aggressive personallity.
- Brains and Brawn: Subverted with her relationship with Mei. While Mei is more intelligent and scheming, and Ensuu isn't quite right in the head, they don't really support each other as is usual for this trope.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Ensuu is weird. Most of her thought processes outside of fighting seem to involve food in some way. Take her thoughts from after the Randori, for example. Even Mei was confused:Ensuu: Fish can wait. I've made my choice. The rivers will flow once more... Now is the time for meat, not fish...!!! That's right...!
Mei: What exactly are you asking me to do right now, Ensuu? - Combat Pragmatist: Despite her desire to face strong opponents, she sees nothing wrong with using tactics that are questionable or even downright underhanded. Unlike most Combat Pragmatists, she doesn't use these tactics to make winning easier, nor does she even rely on these tactics. She merely thinks of them as just another part of a warrior's arsenal and she would have no problem with her opponents turning these tactics back on her.
- Crippling the Competition: During her fight with Maki, Ensuu damaged her opponent's right wrist. This backfired, however, as it forced Maki to switch to a different style which, though she hadn't used it in a while, she was still better with than her previous style.
- Dark Action Girl: Ensuu is one of the very few Dark Action Girls in the series on account of her excessive brutallity and sadism. She's a very effective one, two, being one of the very few characters in the series who has never lost a one-on-one fight without the opposition's Earth Sword's intervention.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Maybe. After her fight with Ayana, we're shown an image of a tiger that looks like it's been eviscerated, and a preteen Ensuu standing beside it, covered in its blood. However, it's left unclear if a traumatic childhood spent struggling for her life made her the psychotic animal she is now, or if she was always a psychotic animal who couldn't get enough of violence, even at that young age.
- Death Glare: Whenever she has an opponent in front of her.
- Defeat Means Friendship: In a roundabout way. After being defeated by Hayate and a normal Ayana, she gives up on trying to tear them apart, and by the Epilogue, Hayate saw fit to give Ensuu a Shigeru cat as well as another for Mei, and Ensuu accepted them. Hayate's still terrified of her, though.
- The Dreaded: It's not an exaggeration to say that nobody wants to tangle with Ensuu. In fact, she isn't really known for being strong (though she definitely is), but for being dangerous. The only people who aren't afraid of her on some level are the best of the Student Council. Even Hayate, who is normally a Plucky Girl bordering on Fearless Fool territory. Even though she's one of the few people to have beaten Ensuu (albeit by attacking her together with Ayana and using extremely unorthodox tactics), Hayate is utterly terrified of her.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue: She's introspective and eloquent enough in her native Mandarin, but the only one who can understand a word she says is Mei.
- Meiko once attempted to teach her to speak in Japanese. It... ended weirdly.
- Evil Duo: With Mei.
- Fiery Red Head: She has orange hair, and while she isn't all that genki or boisterous, she's an extremely vicious Blood Knight.
- Finish Dialogue in Unison: In different languages, but she still manages this with Nagi during the hike.
- Fluffy Tamer: She had a pet tiger named Feicui◊ back home.
- Hellish Pupils: There's just something off about her eyes whenever she's fighting.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The only reason she lost to Maki (who was injured and using a sword that was at odds with her fighting style) was because Yukari grabbed the tassel on her sword and kept her from striking with it.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Yes, really! It's not the only thing she cares about, but she has told Meiko that she is quite lonely. The problem is that the only types of people she can really feel a connection to are Blood Knights like her, and she's such a wild animal that everyone is terrified of her. This is actually the reason she's so fixated on Ayana: when Ayana went berserk, Ensuu thought she had finally found a kindred spirit, and she was both enraged and disappointed when she realized she was wrong.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: Her tasseled sword can be seen as this.
- Improvised Weapon: When Makoto caught Ensuu raiding her fish pond, and not for the first time, the former attacked the latter with a wooden practice sword. Ensuu, who was unarmed, dodged most of Makoto's swings before whacking her in the face with a rainbow trout and beating a hasty retreat.
- In Love with Your Carnage: This pretty much explains her fixation on Ayana.
- In-Series Nickname: Hayate likes to call her "Beast-Woman."
- Kaleidoscope Eyes: While Ensuu's eyes are typically given a dark colour, whenever she gets into a fight, they appear to turn pale. It's unclear whether they actually change colour or if it's just artistic shorthand, but given how we have a necromancer, a shaman, and a ninja in the cast, it could be either or.
- Kubrick Stare: She almost always looks at the people she's fighting like this.
- Lightning Bruiser: She's very, very fast, and more than capable of putting on the hurt.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After she breaks Maki's right wrist, apparently crippling her, Maki switches to her dominant sword hand: her left one. She also, given how she only had one hand to work with, switched to a western fencing style, which she had picked up from her mother and, though she had never used it thanks to the rules of the Hoshitori, she was extremely skilled in. If Ensuu hadn't done this, she might have won long before Yukari defeated Mei and was able to intervene.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Her preferred method of fighting; if she gets serious, don't expect to walk out of the battle with only minor injuries.
- Obliviously Evil: She's not evil so much as she is cruel, but she still doesn't seem to get why people are afraid of her. She understands that most people don't like beating someone up and being beaten in kind, but she doesn't understand why, because to her, the pain and violence is the best part of life. She also doesn't realize that the almost animalistic way she does everything, even something as simple as eating, unnerves people.
- Obsessed with Food: Like you wouldn't believe. She loves food, specifically meat and fish, so much that she's willing to make decisions based on the likelihood of her receiving one or both of those.
- Perpetual Frowner: With the exception of the very rare Slasher Smile, Ensuu's face seems locked in a frown. If she isn't fighting, it's mostly a bored frown. If she is fighting, we add a Death Glare.
- Red Baron: It's even less official than most Red Baron titles, but she tends to be called "The Beast."
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: It can't be coincidence that the only Tenchi Academy sword bearer with red eyes is also the most vicious and sadistic.
- Slasher Smile: The only times her expression changes from a frown is right before two certain battles. Let's just say that she's very happy about fighting Yukari and Ayana again. Oddly enough, she just frowns as always during the actual fights.
- Sleepy Head: Ensuu's life seems to consist of no more than four activities: training, fighting, eating, and sleeping.
- Spell My Name With An S: Even the official translation seems a bit unsure of how to display her name.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: It does when your target is just out of reach and there's a rope attached to your weapon that you can use to pull it back after throwing.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Meat and fish, though she seems to like meat more.
- Unstoppable Rage: When Hayate snaps Ayana out of her berserk rage, thereby robbing Ensuu of the Worthy Opponent she wanted to fight so much, Ensuu was pissed.
- Villainous Friendship: With Mei. Though Ensuu doesn't really recognize their relationship as "friendship", per se, she does explicitly say that Mei is the only person she trusts to never punish or betray her, and that's why she sticks with her.
- Warrior Poet: "Poet" may be going a bit far, but Ensuu can be quite philosophical for a sadistic Blood Knight.
- Water Guns and Balloons: Before her fight with Maki, she was playing with a water balloon connected to her finger by a string. When the fight started, she swung it at Maki, who blocked out of reflex and burst the balloon. Ensuu used the ensuing distraction to get the drop on her, and would have succeeded too if not for Yukari.
- Worthy Opponent: She sees Ayana as this after the latter went berserk in their first fight. Specifically, she sees a berserk Ayana as this, and she wants nothing to do with the normal Ayana.
Himuro Meiko
Voiced by Mitsuki Saiga.
- Badass Bookworm: She's quite intelligent and can usually be found reading in her time off.
- Bilingual Backfire: Her musing (in Japanese) after the fight against the Kamijou/Someya pair is picked up by Ensuu, who responds to it in Mandarin. Meiko even asks aloud, "You understood that?"
- Blatant Lies: In an attempt to get Ayana to fight Ensuu as soon as possible, Mei told her that Ensuu was directly responsible for what happened to Yukari when she used Yukari as a shield, and that she enjoys nothing more than destroying what people care about most and watching their pain afterwards. Ayana could immediately tell that there was a lie in there somewhere, and any readers who read the fight between the Kamijou/Someya and the Ju/Himuro pairs could tell that Mei was really describing herself there, not Ensuu (though neither Ensuu nor Mei was directly responsible for what happened to Yukari, that was just a result of Ayana going berserk). Sure enough, when Mei tells Ensuu about the particular brand of sadism just described, Ensuu just tells her she's weird.
- Brains and Brawn: Subverted with her relationship with Ensuu. While Mei is more intelligent and scheming, and Ensuu isn't quite right in the head, they don't really support each other as is usual for this trope.
- Break Them by Talking: Mei is very good at attacking her opponents' emotional weaknesses, and will often dish out brutal lectures that hit right where they hurt most.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Ensuu. However, she's less restricting than most, and will only stop a rampaging Ensuu when things really get out of hand. She does have to put up with Ensuu's odd quirks outside of battle, though.
- Consummate Liar: Mei lies more easily than most people breathe.
- The Corrupter: To Ensuu. It's downplayed, as Ensuu has always been a vicious Blood Knight, but Mei subtly encourages Ensuu's cruel side and manipulates her in order to direct her wrath where she wants it.
- Evil Duo: With Ensuu.
- False Friend: To Kikkawa, the leader of the A-Team. Kikkawa thinks they're the best of friends, but Mei just enjoys manipulating her.
- Faux Affably Evil: She's impeccably polite to everyone, even the people she manipulates and the people she sics Ensuu on.
- For the Evulz: Mei likes tearing away the things that people care about because she loves seeing the look on people's faces when they lose those things.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: She begins to fit this after Chapter 50 when she starts to wear glasses more and more.
- Fun with Foreign Languages: She's the only one who understands anything that comes out of Ensuu's mouth, and she can and does use it to her own advantage.
- She tries this with Tsubaki as well, but it fails when Tsubaki admits that she doesn't understand English.
- Jerkass: She really is. While Ensuu doesn't seem to realize that she's a violent bitch, Mei absolutely revels in being cruel and manipulative.
- Manipulative Bitch: Her partner Ensuu is clearly the better fighter, but Mei manipulates her opponents' emotions so well that that rarely matters.
- Mei is also quite good at manipulating people outside of combat. For instance, she really likes manipulating Kikkawa, and even tricked her into sabotaging Sae's sword in the match-up against Sid and Nancy in order to get even with her.
- A good example of this is when she lies to Ayana, telling her that Ensuu was solely and directly responsible for Yukari getting injured. Ayana and even Sae believed she was only doing this to direct Ayana's wrath at Ensuu and not her, but in reality, she was actually stoking the fires of Ayana's anger in preparation for the fight because that's exactly what Ensuu would want.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: She and Sae have some problems with each other, but because they're both so unfailingly polite, they always clash like this, and neither seems to be better at it than the other.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: While she tells Sae that she only wore glasses as part of a social experiment involving the A-Team, around Chapter 50, she takes to wearing glasses whenever she's reading, and by Chapter 75, they seem to have become a permanent fixture that she removes only for the Hoshitori. She is also one of the more intelligent characters in the series, if not the most intelligent.
- Smug Smiler: Smug satisfaction pretty much comes off her in waves.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Despite the brooding Ensuu being much more open with her cruelty, Mei is the real sadist. Ensuu is just a mindless animal, really, but Mei enjoys everything from toying with peoples' emotion to purposefully missing an opponent's target area so that she can continue hurting them without removing them from the match. All without raising her voice or dropping that smug half-smile.
- Troll: She loves to wind people up just For the Evulz. Hell, the main reason she partnered up with Ensuu is because the latter's physical prowess and brutal sadism are tools she can easily use to mess with people.
- Villainous Friendship: With Ensuu. Ensuu only sticks around Mei because she trusts her, and though Mei hangs around Ensuu because she'll always be entertaining, and often subtly manipulates her partner, she does look out for her; a fair number of her manipulations were for the purpose of giving Ensuu a fight she could enjoy, and she even spent the winter break at Tenchi so that Ensuu, who was confined to her room, wouldn't be lonely. She also looks distinctly put out when Ensuu implies they're not friends.
Nagi and Kanai
Kurogane Nagi
- Big Sister Instinct: While she shows it in odd ways, she cares about Hayate and her happiness.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She initially gave off the impression of being this. In her first real chapter with extensive dialogue, she was nice and more or less out-going to Hayate and her friends, right up until she told Hayate that because the latter was only meant to be a stand-in, that Nagi would be taking her rank, all of her stars, and her partner. Subverted though when she reveals she was just trying to gage how serious Hayate was.
- Blush Sticker: Surprising for some, cute to others.
- The Comically Serious: She's stoic and never changes her expression no matter what her surrounding situation may be. Be it surfing on a log in a land slide or being bowled over by an indy ball.
- Feel No Pain: Likely as a result of her medical condition, Nagi can't feel pain. This is often advantageous in a fight, as she can easily ignore flesh wounds and the like. However, it's also quite dangerous: pain is a warning that your body can't take much more of what is being done to it, and because Nagi never gets these warnings, she can get really badly hurt without even knowing it.
- Finish Dialogue in Unison: With Ensuu during the hike, despite the fact that neither one can understand one another and are talking about completely different things.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: She's older and supposedly stronger than Hayate. She later associated with the Black Team because of Kanai, although she had little interest in it, which put her at odds with Hayate.
- Happily Adopted: Along with Hayate. Nagare found them next to a row of lockers when she was 16, and is suggested to have raised them by herself until she met Kurogane Taiyou, who taught the twins kendo.
- In-Series Nickname: Kanai calls her "Naa-san."
- New Transfer Student: Hayate gets her new roommate to show her around, Nagi gets Shizuku. When one considers that Momoka was asked by Shizuku to accompany Hayate, Nagi probably got a better deal.
- No Sense of Direction: She gets lost in the underground sewers at least twice. Even after her official enrollment, she loses her way on campus often.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Their personalities are completely opposite.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Nagi might not be participating in the hoshitori just yet, but that hasn't stopped her from shredding through quite a few opponents, and her scarf always looks awesome.
- Shonen Hair: The easiest way to tell her apart from her twin is to look at how spiky their hair is.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: It is not that difficult to tell the twins apart, actually.
- Twin Telepathy: Senses Hayate pulling out all the stops in the final minutes during the latter's duel with Maki.
Chihana Kanai
A new girl at school who ends up becoming close to Nagi.- Affectionate Nickname: Calls Nagi, Naa-san.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Much like Hayate she may seem ditzy and an easy mark but she is extremely capable in a fight.
- Huge School Girl: She is a first year middle school student who stands at 5'10'' or 178 cm.
- No Sense of Direction: Probably worse then Nagi's.
Makoto
Yanagi "Yagyuu" Makoto
A third year high school student and the only sword bearer in the graduating class of Tenchi Academy. She's a Lone Wolf who has held onto her last remaining star for years. On top of that, she's a huge fan of samurai and yakuza books and movies, from which she learned her entire sword style. She's also completely insane.
After she graduates, she takes a job as Nagare's assistant in Tenchi Academy's kitchens.
- Alternate Character Reading: He surname, Yanagi, contains the same kanji and can be read as the name of a famed clan of samurai, the Yagyu. In fact, when introducing herself ot Hayate, she even tells the latter that she'd appreciate it if she was addressed as Yagyu.
- Anime Hair: Her hair is inexplicably swept to one side, as if it were constantly blown by a strong wind. Amusingly, which direction her hair is swept in alternates by panel. Given how she's the only one with hair like this, it seems she's a parody of this trope.
- Ascended Fangirl: She was always a fan of samurai stories and she always dreamed of one day being able to fight like the characters in them. When the Hoshitori system was set up, she jumped at the chance to take part. Observing Wanko channel the spirits of famed swordsmen sent her into an excited fangirling frenzy.
- Badass Bookworm: Played With. Once upon a time, she was extremely bookish, but she was pretty useless in battle. After losing it, she became decidedly less bookish and a lot more badass. However, she still learned all of her skills by reading books and watching movies about swordsmanship.
- Break the Cutie: A downplayed example. For all her love of swordfighting, she was no good at it, and when she was down to one star and faced with the prospect of never fighting in the hoshitori again, she kinda snapped, fled into the mountains, and trained for years. While she's satisfied enough with her life by the time she graduates, and she's more or less well adjusted, the experience was pretty traumatic for her.
- Caught in a Snare: She set up numerous snares and nets in the forest of the mountain in order to thin out the excessive numbers of sword bearers out to get her.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Makoto is crazy. She thinks that people will slowly disappear after being "blade off" (Yeah. We're just as confused as you are), and she thought it would be a good idea to learn her sword style entirely from reading samurai novels and watching samurai movies.
- Determinator: She was the only normal student taking part in the Hoshitori to never give up, even when she was down to one star.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Despite the fact that she was still mostly in her own little samurai world at the time, Makoto was able to accurately guess what Hayate was trying to do by teaming up with her when not even Ayana could figure it out, and she did it by spouting some "heart of the warrior" crap (which she honestly believes, I might add).
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Zig-Zagged. She may have gone about it the wrong way, but she never stopped training, and she went from being someone completely useless in a fight to being a skilled warrior. However, even after al that training, she's still nothing compared to Tenchi's strongest: she's never been able to beat Ensuu, and she got taken out by Akira in one hit.
- Hellish Pupils
- Hot-Blooded: She doesn't seem to have a "low key" setting, especially when it comes to swords.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: She had always loved samurai novels, and when Hitsugi set up the sword-bearer system, Makoto was overjoyed and signed up. The problem was that, in contrast to the students who came specifically to become sword bearers, she had so little skill that nobody wanted to partner up with her. All of the other older students who tried to take part dropped out, but Makoto never once gave up.
- Inelegant Blubbering: She just starts crying after Akira defeats her in a Single-Stroke Battle.
- Pit Trap: On top of the snares and nets, she also set up tons of these.
- Sphere Factor: She temporarily takes out Ayana with a massive ball of papier mache wrapped around a metal frame. Ayana, who had made it almost all the way up the mountain, was put back to square one.
- Taught by Television: Her entire style is based off what she saw in movies and what she read being described in novels. It's a testament to both her questionable sanity and her unquestionable resolve that she kept at it long enough to manage to become a strong warrior.
- Took a Level in Badass: Once upon a time she was a pathetic fighter who couldn't even land a shinyuu. Flash forward a few years and though she isn't at the level of people like Hitsugi or Akira, she's still quite badass.
- Trap Master: In preparation for the Randori, Makoto set up numerous traps to weed out as many sword-bearers as possible.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The vast number of samurai movies/books she's watched/read, coupled with her questionable sanity, have left her thinking she's in some kind of fantasy world where mystical things related to swords happen.
Kei and Mitsuyo
Masuda Kei
Yuho's roommate. Put bluntly, her luck sucks and she always seems to manage to find herself on the receiving end of Ayana's wrath.- Butt-Monkey: Ever since her first appearance, she's done nothing but get the shit end of the stick. Let's take a look, shall we:
- When Yuho gets sick, Kei and Jun switch beds for the night. This is just after Jun gave Ayana an Armor-Piercing Question, so by the time Kei got to Jun's room, Ayana was in a simmering rage and Kei was kept up all night in terror.
- During the next day's Hoshitori, she and Mitsuyo accidentally go up against (a still enraged) Ayana, which ends about as well for them as you'd expect.
- After Yuho is hospitalized, Jun often goes into Kei's room to sleep in Yuho's bed, which is fine in and of itself, but she tends to watch "weird videos" with Kei in the room.
- During the Hike, she and Mitsuyo come face to face with Ayana immediately after the latter had gotten hit by the Indy ball, and was so enraged she looked like a demon. Once again, this did not end well for them.
- Hidden Badass: Given how she's in B-Rank, it would seem that when Ayana and Jun aren't traumatizing her, she's pretty badass.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? She's absolutely terrified of Ayana and truly believes the latter is out to get her. She also runs into her far too often, and always at the wrong moment.
Nemoto Mitsuyo
Kei's Shinyuu.- Butt-Monkey: As Kei's shinyuu, she shares the results of her rotten luck.
- Hidden Badass: As with Kei, she's definitely more badass than she seems if she's in Rank B.
- Satellite Character: To Kei.
The A-Team
Kikkawa Tsukasa
The leader and founder of the A-Team, the unofficial 80-member-strong Mikado Akira Fanclub. She's not too bright and she spends a lot of her time being manipulated by her cousin Himuro Mei.- Butt-Monkey: She's pretty useless. She's only in D-Rank, she spends far too much of her time being manipulated by Mei, and you can be sure that if she turns up, it'll be for the sole purpose of being humiliated.
- The Ditz: She's really none too intelligent. Mei even lampshades it by saying she inherited none of the family's intelligence.
- I Have Your Wife: Kikkawa decides that the best way to get Hayate to stop spending time with Akira is to kidnap one of the orphans from Dandelion Garden and use her to force Hayate to leave Tenchi. Akira is less than amused. To be fair to the A-Team, though, they never planned on hurting the orphan or holding her hostage for long, gave her tons of candy, and what they threatened to do to her if Hayate didn't obey them (playing a recording of some horror stories) is a straight up Poke the Poodle.
- Smug Snake: Kikkawa fancies herself a schemer on the same level as Mei, but the fact is that she's so incompetent, she doesn't realize Mei even is a Manipulative Bitch, or that she's been dancing to Mei's tune for a long time.
- Straw Loser: Her main purpose in the story seems to be sucking at everything and showing how even the lamest members of the main cast are cool in comparison.
Hotei Tomo
Kikkawa's Shinyuu and co-leader of the A-Team. She's about as smart as Kikkawa is, and she mainly serves as her Yes-Man.- Butt-Monkey: The only reason she doesn't have it as bad as Kikkawa is because she doesn't have as much focus or screen time.
- Satellite Character: She's Kikkawa's Shinyuu and her Yes-Man. That's all we know about her.
- Straw Loser: Just like Kikkawa.
- Yes-Man: Her job in the A-Team is to pretty much agree with anything Kikkawa says.
Riona and Ouka
Takarada Riona
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: "Onigashima". Another pun here is that this name ties in to the Theme Naming of the Momotaro-gumi.
- Cringe Comedy: What the aforementioned comedy routine is to everyone else. Heavy on the "cringe" and very light on the "comedy" in-universe.
- Flanderization: Her role as a Cringe Comedy duo with her partner has overshadowed most other aspects of her character.
- Happiness in Slavery: Originally, she was put off by her partner being cruel. That changed when she realized that it was comedy gold.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: She can sense puns.
- No Accounting for Taste: She herself admits that nobody else would even consider Ouka a viable partner.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Towards Kiriya.
Kiriya Ouka
- Beleaguered Assistant: Her forced assistance with some of Riona's comedy routines can almost make you feel sorry for her.
- The occasional moments where she finds herself feeling any semblance of tenderness toward Riona are promptly wrecked by Riona spoiling the atmosphere with an attempt at some gag or another.
- Jerkass: Her first scene is the first moment in the series where an injury is not played for laughs.
- What is played for laughs is that her younger brother is considered the White Sheep of her family since their parents are lawyers.
- Kick the Dog: She slaps her partner, she goes for making Momoka bleed instead of taking her star...
- Ungrateful Bastard
- She got a bit more grateful when she realized Riona enjoyed the abuse, though.
The Student Council
Hitsugi and Miyamoto
Amachi Hitsugi
Given how she created the Hoshitori System and owns Tenchi Academy, she can and will mess around with the rules for her own amusement, and despite being the dean of the academy, she does virtually no work.
On top of that, she is completely insane.
Voiced by Akiko Yajima.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: She's the student council president and hands-down the best sword-bearer.
- Badass Fingersnap: She does this whenever she reaches a decision about anything.
- Badass Long Coat: She enforces the wearing of these as part of the Student Council's official uniform.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: During her duel with Akira and Sae.
- Big Damn Heroes: During the sword bearers' hike in the woods, she steps in several times to play knight in shining armor to a few of the victims of unfortunate match-ups.
- Black Knight: What she claims to be while riding a horse, with the entrance as typical of a Knight in Shining Armor. It has to be seen to be believed.◊
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Everyone at Tenchi has their quirks, but Hitsugi stands as representative of the school's absolute pinnacle of both eccentricity and talent.
- Childhood Friends: With Shizuku.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: If you challenge her and lose, she'll force you to do a penalty game.
- Kurea, who is lazy and in less than athletic shape, got to run thirty laps around the school's field, which took her several hours and left her wheezing.
- Akira was made to emcee for an assembly of the entire school population wearing an elaborately feminine getup.
- Sid and Nancy had to wear cat ears and bunny ears respectively.
- Daddy's Girl: She is extremely close to her father, but due to work they can't spend much time together.
- Fiction 500: Hitsugi is so ridiculously rich that the massive sums of money she throws into the little games she plays are considered pocket-change.
- The Gadfly: At times, it seems like Hitsugi's plans have no greater purpose than to annoy people for her own amusement.
- Handicapped Badass: Her left leg is a prosthetic.
- Insane Troll Logic: Hitsugi has very little to no logical basis for almost anything she does. Life's more fun that way."Basis? I've never once in my life bothered making decisions with any kind of basis!" (she gets bonus points because that particular instance pertained to a serious and plot relevant issue)
- It Amused Me: The driving force behind most of her actions.
- Large Ham: And a most fabulous one at that.
- Missing Mom: The same incident that took Hitsugi's leg also took her mother.
- Never Gets Drunk: In an omake, she had 27 cups of high-grade alcohol and her behaviour didn't change a bit.
- The Prankster: There are various instances of her messing with students for her own enjoyment, or sniggering to herself when watching others on camera.
- Pre-Asskicking One-LinerHitsugi: "Now then... Hoshikawa-san... Let us dance!"
- Something about a Rose: Invoked with her usual dramatic flair when she visits Akira in the infirmary.
- Student Council President: Coupled with her other positions, Hitsugi is placed at the pinnacle of the school hierarchy.
- Trickster Mentor: Pretty much for the entire sword-bearing student body, nobody is too beneath or above her notice. While half of her actions can chalked up to her entertaining herself, the other half can be chalked up to a true desire to see everyone perform at their very best.
- Worthy Opponent: How she views her challengers. Even the ones who don't even come close to matching up to her in skill had the guts to challenge her, and she respects that. However, she considers Akira and Sae to be the most worthy by far, as they came extremely close to actually defeating her and taking her spot at the top of Tenchi.
Miyamoto Shizuku
Although she is not technically a dean, she plays a large part in running the academy, mostly by doing the things no one else wants to do, or that the Kaicho is too busy creating insane new laws to remember (filling out paperwork, signing documents, etc.)
Voiced by Miki Nagasawa.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Unlike Hayate, Shizuku can catch someone's sword without doing herself harm. Of course, the fact that none of the blades are sharp helps, but it still attests to her amazing hand and finger strength the the wielder can't even move the sword after Shizuku's trapped it between two of her fingers.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Hitsugi doesn't do any work in her capacity as Student Council President/Chairwoman of the Board, and Shizuku (who is stuck doing it) is constantly begging her to do something. And as Hitsugi's assistant, Shizuku's generally the first one to feel the fallout of any of the President's ridiculous and often insane schemes. Hell, a good number of those schemes almost seem to exist to put her in embarrassing situations.
- Butt-Monkey: On top of all the stuff that happens to her as Hitsugi's assistant, nobody really gives her a break. Everyone makes fun of her just for being her Hot-Blooded and mostly dim-witted self, especially Akira and Tatewaki.
- Childhood Friends: With Hitsugi.
- The Comically Serious: She's perpetually serious and rarely makes jokes. In fact, Hitsugi makes a big deal of the first pun she made deliberately. But given how she's the Straight Man to Hitsugi, this just makes her funnier.
- Determinator: Her response to getting sick is to lambast herself for the lack of effort that led to an immune system failure— her solution is to physically push herself so hard that her temperature goes up several degrees.
- Dual Wielding: She is shown using Hitsugi's sheath as a weapon in their official duels.
- Later on, readers also get to see her using two swords on the hike.
- Hot-Blooded: Sadly, the more cynical Akira (and the just plain douchey Tatewaki) just think she's taking it too far.
- Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: Averted and possibly inverted. She's not the sharpest sword in the armoury, and her boneheaded attempts at working through the cold only make it worse.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted. She rings the hoshitori bell by punching it, but she wears a massive metal knuckle-duster while she does it, and even then, it still hurts.Hitsugi: "I want you to ring the bell. Ring it as often as you can in this week we have left until the sports festival."
Shizuku: "Yes, Miss." *to herself* "I can feel my knuckles hurting already... Sheesh." - Lightning Bruiser: She's just as fast as Hayate, and strong enough to easily ring the massive hoshitori bell by punching it. Tatewaki's attempt to do the same left her with a sprained wrist.
- Martial Arts Headband: She's only seen without one when school isn't in session.
- Meaningful Name: Shizuku, who uses two swords, shares the surname of Miyamoto Musashi, the man who established Dual Wielding as a valid fighting style in Japan.
- Nice Girl: She's nice to everyone. Hell, she's nice to Tatewaki, which makes her one-of-a-kind in this series.
- Servile Snarker: She'll go along with Hitsugi's schemes willingly enough, but not without pointing out the inherent ridiculousness in a suitably snide fashion.
- Sheath Twirling: At the start of the duel with Kurea and Minori.
- Spirited Competitor: She's just as (and even more openly) passionate as her partner when it comes to facing strong opponents.
- Undying Loyalty: To Hitsugi.
- Working Through the Cold: It... doesn't really work.
Akira and Sae
Mikado Akira
Voiced by Junko Minagawa.
- Affectionate Nickname: She calls Hayate "Squirt" or "Runt,' and she calls Histugi "Taisho." Both started off as examples of Malicious Misnaming, but both became affectionate over time.
- Aloof Ally: She only answers to Hayate's calls of "Shisho" 3 volumes after they start.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: With Sae during the hike.
- Badass Long Coat: As part of her student council getup.
- Bedmate Reveal: At one point, she wakes up to find Sae and Hayate in her bed. She is not amused, but at least she's a bit more calm and reserved than Ayana is about expressing her anger.
- Berserk Button: Call her Mikadon and watch her lose it spectacularly.
- Bifauxnen: With a 80-member strong fanclub of Meganekko that she didn't know about until Sae told her.
- Big Heroic Run: After the duel with Hitsugi, she bolts from the arena to go present her father with the deed to Tenchi Academy.
- Bishie Sparkle: On occasion.
- Boyish Short Hair: Her hair is much shorter in flashbacks.
- Catapult Nightmare: Some time before her fight with Hitsugi, she has a dream in which she is thoroughly dominated by Hitsugi and wakes up very suddenly.
- Chick Magnet: 80 girls have pretty thorough crushes on her.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: She's pretty much the last person to know about her fan club.
- Cool Big Sis: To Hayate. She fights it at first, but she eventually resigns herself to it and even starts to enjoy it a bit.
- The Coats Are Off: Revealing the maid costume she had on underneath it and knocking out her 80 fangirls in the process.
- Deadpan Snarker: Whenever Hitsugi or Hayate start doing something weird, or Sae starts playing the part of The Gadfly, Akira starts snarking and doesn't stop.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Akira is introduced as a grouchy bitch who's only really personable with Sae, Kurea, and Minori. Subsequent chapters have her slowly ease up around other people.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Has a dream of being defeated and humiliated by Hitsugi, but while she has this dream a lot its normally her father not Hitsugi. While Akira chalks it up to nerves, Sae believes the dream reveals that the person Akira is trying to prove herself too has changed from her father to Hitsugi.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Mikadon. In fact, after the first time Hayate calls Akira that, she prays Sae didn't hear it because she would never let Akira live it down.
- Even the Girls Want Her: She has an 80-person fan club at an all-girls school, after all.
- Everyone Has Standards: She disbanded the A-Team and gave them a thorough "The Reason You Suck" Speech when she found out they kidnapped an orphan and tried to use her as a hostage.
- Forgotten First Meeting: She thinks she met Sae at one of her family's annual foundation parties. She's wrong.
- Handicapped Badass: She beat Sid with a pair of broken ribs, and while she was still healing, she thoroughly dominated Ayana in a training match.
- Heir Club for Men: Her father dismisses her worth because she's a girl.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Right after she decides not to turn Tenchi over to her father, she is shown to have a dog.
- Hidden Eyes: Near the end of her confrontation with her father. It's a good hint that she's conflicted and about to do something unexpected.
- Hope Spot: During her fight with Hitsugi. Shizuku has been defeated and Sae has left the battlefield with
Ryouichi, and both sides are pretty well drained. Akira has Hitsugi on her knees and strikes the final blow—but then, at the start of the next chapter, just as Akira is starting to appreciate her victory, her uniform turns black. - Iaijutsu Practitioner: Her ridiculous sword-drawing speed is the most distinctive feature of her fighting style.
- In-Series Nickname: Hayate likes to call her "Shisho," which means "teacher" or "master." Specifically, it denotes the speaker's extreme respect for the one to whom they bestow the title, who the speaker recognizes as their first true master who they will always look up to, even if they someday surpass said master. It says a lot about how much Hayate looks up to her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Akira might be one of the grouchiest characters in the whole series, but she'll always go out of her way to help anybody, even within a minute of meeting them (and she'll complain the whole time). She's also more likely than not to be the first person to get worried about people in danger.
- Katanas Are Just Better: She's actually the only character who uses a sword shaped like a katana. All of the standard blades that other characters use have straight blades and look like the ninja-to that ninja supposedly used, but Akira's personal weapon has a curved blade. It's even kept in a cloth bag like traditional katanas were.
- Malicious Misnaming: Her nickname for Hitsugi is "Taishou," referring to Hitsugi's position of leadership and often with no small amount of sarcasm, given their rivalry. While she still uses it from time to time, it becomes more of an Affectionate Nickname after the premiere battle.
- The Mentor: To Hayate, of all people.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: She is determined to beat Hitsugi before anyone else gets a chance. It's not just her pride talking; she has practical reasons for this.
- Rebel Relaxation: Akira likes slouching against walls and pieces of furniture, which befits her lack of respect for authority at Tenchi.
- Self-Made Man: Akira's family might be well off, but she's never seen the benefits of it, and everything she's credited with in the series was earned through her own efforts.Akira: "I don't have a single damn thing, which is why I came all the way here to earn it."
- This is made remarkably clear when Akira and Sae return to the student council during Hayate × Blade 2, mere months after their demotion to D-rank.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: She snarks at just about everyone while holding the slot of one of the most widely admired people in the whole school.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Sae's girly girl.
- Tsundere: Toward Hayate, and pretty much everyone else for that matter. Special mention goes to Hitsugi; despite how she can annoy Akira just by breathing, it's hinted that Akira really does care about Hitsugi's opinion of her.
- The Un-Favorite: Her father refuses to acknowledge her because she's a girl.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: She wants to conquer Tenchi largely for her father's approval. After her duel with Hitsugi, she realizes that he's not worth it, and even before that, it's revealed that Akira is starting to want Hitsugi's approval more than her father's.
- When She Smiles: She's so grouchy all the time, she barely ever smiles. However, when she finds it in herself to lightne up and she finally cracks one, it lights up the whole room.
Inori Sae
Voiced by Shizuka Itō.
- Arranged Marriage: With Ryouichi. She's not too enthralled by the idea, and takes every available opportunity to blow him off.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: With Akira, during the hike.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's one of the nicest characters in the series and is always smiling. Nobody wants to piss her off, and all of Hayate's instincts tell her that even a sparring match with Sae would be extremely painful.
- Case in point: When Akira asked Sae if she was behind the A-Team putting thumb-tacks in Hayate's gym shoes, Sae replied that if she wanted someone bullied, she'd do it herself instead of using intermediaries, and she would use kenzan, not thumb-tacks.
- Case in point: When Akira asked Sae if she was behind the A-Team putting thumb-tacks in Hayate's gym shoes, Sae replied that if she wanted someone bullied, she'd do it herself instead of using intermediaries, and she would use kenzan
- Defeat Means Friendship: She and Nancy strike up an interesting companionship after their duel.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: She beat Shizuku in a straight-up fight, which nobody had ever done before. Nobody, except maybe Akira, saw it coming.
- Double Weapon: Her prefered weapon involves two blades on either end of a three-foot pole. She even uses a somewhat practical fighting-style in which she takes advantage of the fact that there are blades on both ends to keep the weapon perpetually moving, and for the most part, she keeps the hilt behind her back, which lets her quickly alternate between one blade and the other when attacking without letting the blade she isn't using get in the way. Holding her weapon behind her back also lets her spin it around her body any way she feels like, and the unpredictability of it can mess with opponents.
- Bifurcated Weapon: The grip of her sword can split in half. Separating the two blades at just the right moment let her beat Shizuku.
- Friendly Enemy: Fighting to undermine everything Hitsugi has created or not, she's on perfectly friendly terms with the top pair and Hayate.
- The Gadfly: She loves to good-naturedly mess with people, especially Akira.
- The Tease: Specifically, she loves to mess with Akira by acting like either a) her lover, or b) a highschool girl smitten with her.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: She attempts this whenever she thinks Akira's being a touch too sulky. She tends to use hammers and 2×4s.
- Hidden Eyes: Right before ditching Ryouichi.
- Hyper-Awareness: Akira's introduction highlights her draw speed. Sae's highlights her ability to follow it. Very few things escape her eyes.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: That sword of hers is hardly practical, but no one can deny its coolness.
- In-Series Nickname: Inorin.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Sae's preferred method of dealing with people she dislikes, namely Himuro Meiko and her fiance Ryouichi.
- Perpetual Smiler: Sae can almost always be seen with a cheerful smile on her face. The fact that she spends most of her fight with Shizuku wearing a frown shows how much she's struggling.
- Say It with Hearts: Hearts pop up in her speech bubbles more often than is typical, and they are nearly always poking fun at whoever she happens to be speaking to at the time.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Sae is a dignified, proper young lady. Her friendly offer to spar with Hayate kills Hayate's enthusiasm in the space of a panel.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: She seems to take a great deal of pleasure in popping up behind Akira and scaring her half to death.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly girl to Akira's tomboy.
Kurea and Minori
Hoshikawa Kurea
Appointed as landlady of the Heaven Dormitory by Hitsugi, to even her own shock.
Voiced by Yumi Kakazu.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After Kurea grumbled about how Shizuku wasn't taking her and Minori seriously during the Mountain Hike, Shizuku was impressed enough by the skills they had shown her to go all out. The following exchange occurs:Shizuku: Well, here I come again. I'll give it 100%!
Kurea: No, you can cut a few corners!! Really!! Please do!! - Brains and Brawn: She's the brains of the Hoshikawa/Tsukishima duo. She works out complex strategies that make up for her lack of skill while Minori implements the brawn aspects of these plans.
- Book Dumb: Subverted. While at first, it seems like the intelligent but lazy Kurea wouldn't put the work into school and end up as this, but she seems to actually be quite conscientious about her studies and Sae even invited Kurea over to help her and Akira study.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Kurea really doesn't like to put too much effort into anything aside from her appearance or her studies. She's quite intelligent, having relied solely on her intellect and Minori's skill to rise to the top of the Hoshitori, but she lost to Hitsugi so easily because she took what she thought was a shortcut and didn't bother coming up with a backup plan in case that went tits up because she was sure she didn't need one.
- Butt-Monkey: She has become the go-to girl for when Hitsugi wants someone to run errands for her.Hitsugi: "And also, as usual, we'd have to trouble Hoshikawa-san for her help again."
Kurea: "Why can't you contact me about that sort of stuff afterward!?!"- The rest of the student council doesn't act much better towards her, but unlike Tatawaki this is more of the friendly variety as they still act as if she is one of them.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: In an omake, 1/3 of a cup of alcohol was enough to get her completely soused.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Her fight with Hitsugi was... one-sided, to put it politely. She never stood a chance. However, Hitsugi stated that she felt Kurea didn't use her full potential and looks forward to fighting her again.
- Deadpan Snarker: In a similar vein to Akira, whenever weird or stupid things start happening around her, she snarks like hell. Conversations between her and Akira are always interesting.Akira: "...just what the hell are you doing in my room?"
Kurea: "You serious? You really can't tell? This is a textbook. I'm studying. This says 'Ma-the-ma-tics.' This one's 'En-glish.'" - Hard Work Hardly Works: She became part of the student council mostly because of her modified weapons and Minori, rather than because of any particular effort on her part. Subverted, however, in that while she managed to worm her way to the top on as little effort as possible, others, like Akira and Sae, who actually do train incessantly, are much, much, better than her.
- Hidden Depths: For all her talk about only taking the easiest route to anything, she still completed the penalty game Hitsugi saddled her with after her defeat: run thirty laps around a field. Despite being less than athletic, and despite Hitsugi leaving after a while, Kurea still ran all thirty laps.
- Honorary True Companion: Most of the student council, sans Sid and Nancy, still treat her as if she were one of them.
- I Broke a Nail: Earlier appearances looked like they were paving the way for this trope to be invoked, as she is shown paying much attention to her nails, and was the one behind her class operating a nail salon in the school festival. Surprise! In the mountain hike arc, she is hardly troubled by her nails becoming dirty and ragged from roughing it out. Hell, she even dug her fingers into the ground to grab some dirt to throw in Shizuku's face. In fact she seems insulted when Shizuku expects her to make a big deal of it.
- Informed Flaw: Her laziness. We see just a bit of it in her first major appearance, and after that, it's gone. She refused to duck out of running 30 laps as a penalty game, she starts training diligently, and she's apparently always worked hard at school. Hitsugi even mocks her for it during her penalty game, since Kurea just confirmed she would climb the rank ladder again, commenting she is awful hard working for some who claims to only take the easy route.
- Insult Backfire: Sae tries to goad her by bringing up the maid beauty salon her class would be doing for the culture festival and by telling her to enjoy dressing up as a maid. Kurea thanks Sae and tells her she will enjoy it, and Sae belatedly remembers that Kurea likes that sort of stuff, and was even the one who came up with the idea.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can come off as a bit of a bitch, and at first it appears she doesn't even really care for Minori, what with bribing her with candy to keep her as a partner. However, she really appreciates Minori's loyalty to her, and she even stayed in the Hoshitori so that Minori wouldn't quit.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: While she's not at the top of Tenchi's social ladder (though she was on the student council), she has the personality down pat. She's scheming and conniving (it's how she reached a place on the student council in the first place) and she can act pretty haughty, but she's a good friend to have, and she even helps out her less intellectually inclined classmates.
- Mathematician's Answer: When Kurea pops into a conversation between Akira and Sae in Akira's room, Akira asks her what she's doing there.Akira: "...I see. Incidentally, just what the hell are you doing in my room?"
Kurea: "You serious? You really can't tell? This is a textbook. I'm studying."
Akira: "I'm asking you why you're doing that in MY ROOM!!!" - Only Sane Man: She has to constantly deal with Minori, so this is a given. She's especially exasperated whenever Minori gets her hands on a large quantity of food and needs to be kept in check.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Though she mostly relies on her intelligence and cunning, Kurea is by no means weak. She's just nothing compared to the other Student Council members. Even Shizuku admits she's not someone to hold back against.
- The Smart Girl: She's easily the smartest one in the four-girl clique that is her, Minori, Akira, and Sae. In fact, at one point, Sae invited Kurea over to help them study.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Akira. Thanks to their almost dyametrically opposite personalities, the two tend to argue a lot, but they're very good friends.
Tsukishima Minori
Voiced by Fumiko Orikasa.
- Almighty Janitor: Her fighting ability is certainly on the same level as the other student council members, but she is not as obvious about it as the others are.
- Balloon Belly: She and Hayate both have a tendency to eat too much; putting them near each other during a barbeque was bound to end this way. Minori also spent most of the hike with one of these, which can't have helped in her fight with Shizuku.
- BFS: Her sword is taller than she is.
- Big Eater: One scene has her wondering aloud whether she has more than one stomach.
- Brains and Brawn: Kurea does all the brainy stuff, so Minori only has to worry about protecting her.
- Cute Bruiser: Minori is a very small girl, with a very large sword.
- Eyes Always Shut: So far, there has been no indication of her having pupils.
- Hidden Depths: She comes off as a bit of an idiot, much like an older (and only slightly larger) version of Hayate, but it was her and not Kurea who realized that even though Akira and Sae looked like they were on the defense in their fights with Sid and Nancy, they were in complete control of their matches (Akira moreso than Sae) and were simply waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
- Never Gets Drunk: Not to the extent of Hitsugi's immunity to alcohol, but she downed seven cups of high-grade sake and was no worse for wear for it.
- Sweet Tooth: All Minori seems to want out of the hoshitori is fun. And candy. Lots and lots of candy.
Sid and Nancy
Shidou "Sid" Misako
Voiced by Yōko Hikasa
- Affectionate Parody: Of the music-themed character who always turns up sooner or later in fighting manga, most of whose dialogue references music. Unlike most of those, which are played strait, Sid is constantly mocked, and what she says is annoying and offensive at best, and incomprehensible at worst.Sid: A punk's chaos is TEN THOUSAND BEATS!
Akira: What is she tryin' to say...? - BFS: Played somewhat realistically, as Akira points out that as fast as Sid is, she could be a lot faster if she had a normal sword that weighs much less than her current one. It's also justified in that Sid isn't comfortable with a sword that weighs less than her bass guitar."The days before I got promoted to A-Rank were hell!"
- Bifauxnen: Though not exactly charming due to her foul mouth.
- Blade Across The Shoulder: She does this with her BFS often.
- Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: She tries to invoke this after her match with Akira. It annoys Akira because Sid was quite clearly not dead, and it annoyed Nancy because Sid asked to be buried besider her, and she was also quite clearly not dead.
- The Ditz: It can't be overstated: Sid is an idiot. She somehow doesn't even seem to be aware of the fact that helicopters, or "iron goldfish" as she calls them, can fly. And let's not get to the incident described under Too Dumb to Live.
- Gratuitous English: She peppers her Japanese with English, mostly profanity.
- Hidden Depths: She comes across as a loud-mouthed metalhead, and for the most part, she is a loud-mouthed metalhead. However...
- She's a surprisingly good cook and because her family is so poor, she even knows what weeds and wild plants are edible.
- She was also able to succinctly explain why Hitsugi never doubts her ability to win.Natural born winner. Someone who came into this world just to win. The lion doesn't care about the rabbits it eats. Untouchable and vicious.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: She uses a BFS that weighs as much as a bass, and she can swing it around like it's nothing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's loud and obnoxious, but she's a good friend to have, her Massive Numbered Siblings all seem to love her, and she's very devoted to Nancy.
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: It's hard to find a speech bubble of hers that isn't littered with English profanity.Nancy: "That's so entirely inappropriate it makes no sense whatsoever."
- Large Ham: See No Indoor Voice. Sid loves to over-emote.Nancy: "What's a punk!?"
Sid: (gives an "up yours", polishing her bicep) "Violence! Disorder! Anarchy & Chaos!!!"
Nancy: "Who's a punk!!?"
Sid: (cheering) "ME!!!" - Made of Iron: She's tough enough to survive grabbing a hornet's nest and ripping it off the tree-branch it was hanging from with her bare hands. She didn't look too good afterwards, though.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: She can be seen caring for them in extras.
- The Nicknamer: She calls her partner "Nancy," she calls Sae "Anthem," and she calls Akira "Bourgeois."
- No Indoor Voice: She's only really quiet when she's depressed about something.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Right before the fight between Akira and Hitsugi, Sid is unusually calm, and she even correctly, even eloquently, sums up why Hitsugi never fears losing. Of course, she ruins it immediately after by hoping Akira wins because she (Sid) doesn't want to have to fight Hitsugi.
- Shout-Out: Her nickname comes from Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious
- Symbol Swearing: Some of her more creative uses of language are apparently impressive enough to warrant this. And by "impressive", we mean worse than things like "shit", "ass", and "fuck". God alone knows what she's saying.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sid figures she needs to get Nancy some honey to help her get over her cold, so she rips down a hornet's nest with her bare hands and no protective gear, ignoring the danger presented by the dozens of hornets in her rush to get the honey and getting stung dozens of times in the process. It doesn't kill her, but she doesn't look too good afterwards, another character mentions they should call an ambulance, and even the narrative points out that what she did was downright suicidally stupid and warns readers not to try it at home.
Tonami "Nancy" Shuu
, where she learned to knife-fight from American soldiers.Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro
- Boring, but Practical: Sae remarks that Nancy's knife techniques are quite simple and easy to see through, but she tends to use a lot of unpredictable tricks that, while boring, were able to keep Sae on her toes and keep Maki completely dominated once she stopped playing around. It makes sense: she was trained by soldiers, who would forgo flashy techniques in favor of what gets the job done.
- Combat Pragmatist: Downplayed. Nancy doesn't cheat, per se, but she uses a lot of kicks, trips & leg sweeps, and grapples to hinder her opponents and change her weapon's short range from a liability into an asset. In other words, she's a brawler fighting swordswomen, which means that nobody she faces is used to fighting people like her.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: While her fight with Maki started out more or less evenly matched, it was obvious that Nancy was always on top, and after Maki took advantage of Nancy underestimating her and got a hit in, Nancy utterly dominated the rest of their "fight", getting hits in on two of Maki's three target areas in seconds. She would have gotten the third and final one if Yukari hadn't chosen just that moment to intervene.
- Deadpan Snarker: Her reaction to most things involve scathing sarcasm. Roughly 90% of what she says to Sid is some form of snark because Sid is just that much of an idiot.
- Friendly Enemy: With Sae. The two get along just fine, despite being rivals. Sae even came to visit her when she was sick.
- I Shall Taunt You: See the exchange with Maki under the latter's Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant entry.
- Leaning on the Furniture: She is perfectly comfortable sitting on Hitsugi's desk.
- Military Brat: It's never explicitly stated, but she was trained in knife techniques by American soldiers, and there aren't many ways to get combat lessons from foreign soldiers. A parent in the U.S. Army wouldn't be too much of a stretch given how she was raised on or near an American Navy Base, and it would explain how she got access to training.
- Only Sane Man: She plays this whenever she interracts with Sid... or anybody, really. Nancy, Kurea, Akira, Yukari, and, to a lesser extent, Sae are the only truly normal people at the academy.
- Precision F-Strike: Nancy may not swear nearly as gratuitously as her partner, but she still drops one or two curses, and they're almost always well placed.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt
- Shout-Out: The nickname "Nancy" comes from Nancy Spungen, Sid Vicious' girlfriend.
Tenchi Academy
Kurogane Nagare
Kurogane Nagare
The Kurogane twins' adopted mother. She takes a job as Tenchi Academy's lunch-lady.- Almighty Lunch Lady: She's just Tenchi's lunch lady, but she's a skilled enough martial artist to be able to notice even the most well-hidden injury.
- Awesome by Analysis: She's seen so many martial artists and so many fights that she can notice even the most well hidden injuries and predict the outcomes of matches with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
- Bifauxnen: Facially, especially with her hair down, she looks a lot like an extremely pretty Bishōnen— right between feminine and masculine. She also tends to wear masculine clothes, though her impressive chest makes her gender obvious.
- Chef of Iron: She's Tenchi's lunch-lady, and an extremely skilled martial artist.
- Good Parents: Though she can be a little hands off at times, and she has her fair share of quirks, she's a good mother who looks out for her kids.
- Happily Married: To Kurogane Taiyou. Even though he left on some sort of journey before the series began, she doesn't seem to bear him any ill will.
- Insistent Terminology: She introduces herself as Hayate and Nagi's father, and tends to ignore people when they point out the fact that she's obviously female.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With several Tenchi students, namely Hitsugi and Makoto.
- Perpetual Smiler: Nagare is perpetuallly cheerful and very easygoing, and it's impossible to upset her.
- Smoking Is Cool: She smokes cigarettes, and she looks damn cool while she's at it.
Hoshitori Staff
Kotake Rina
- Badass Normal: She might not participate in duels, but she has no problem seeing exactly what's going on, and she's more than capable of twisting the arm of anyone who tries to interfere in a match.
- Combat Referee: Her job description.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She has a substantially cooler head than Nurse Captain Ai, and their scenes together readily highlight this.
Uryuu Ai
- Battle Aura: Out of enthusiasm for the coming fights. Thankfully, she hasn't actually fought anyone.
- Hot-Blooded: She's very enthusiastic about people getting hurt in their fights.
Benibachi Kiyoko
The staff member who oversees the paperwork side of the hoshitori.Others
Chiharu
Chiharu
The owner of Hayate and Nagi's old orphanage.- Hopeless Suitor: Chiharu has asked Hayate to marry her on numerous occasions.
- Or at least, this is the impression one gets until she asks Ayana to marry her.
Kuga Gen
Kuga Gen
Jun's father and the patriarch of the Kuga Clan. Not actually Jun's biological father.- Covert Pervert: Implied. During the school festival, Yuho told Jun that he went to lie down somewhere because all the maids were giving him a headache.
- Good Parents: He was such a good father to Jun that even though there are technically no familial ties between the two of them, she considers him her true father.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He's got an x-shaped scar between his eyes. This does two things: it tells us that at some point, he saw actual battle, likely in service to the Shizuma Clan, and it gives him a distinctive feature so that we can recognize him when he turns up at the school festival.
- Legacy of Service: He's the patriarch of the Kuga Clan, which had its start as the clan that supplied bodyguards for the Shizuma in feudal Japan. While it's not quite so master-servant these days, the two families remain close and the Kugas, both Gen and Jun, still feel they have a responsibility to protect the Shizuma.
- Nice Guy: Everything points to this. Jun loves him; he's close to Yuho, the daughter of the man who slept with his wife; he even forgave his wife for cheating on him, and when they eventually divorced, it was because she couldn't deal with her guilt, and not because he held anything against her.
Tatewaki
Tatewaki
Tatewaki Hikaru
Ok, ok, if you want a little more than that, officially, she's the student council's secretary, but really, she just does all the bullshit jobs Hitsugi can think up and doesn't want Miyamoto to do. She's lame, she's boring, she's a bit of a jerk, and she's in love with Hitsugi.
Voiced by Mayumi Asano.
- Butt-Monkey: Tatewaki gets no love. At all.
- Four Is Death: Brought up in an omake; Hitsugi thinks Tatewaki should appear in Volume 4 for this very reason. Tatewaki really gets no love at all.
- Jerkass: If your name isn't Amachi Hitsugi, she hates you.
- Stalker with a Crush: To Hitsugi. She proudly admits to watching everything Hitsugi does from the moment she wakes up to the moment she goes to bed.
- Unrequited Love: You can't help but feel sorry for Tatewaki sometimes...
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Tatewaki's eyes are good enough to follow Hitsugi's impossibly fast movements, which puts her right up there with the likes of Sae and Akira... or it would, if she could actually fight.
- Yes-Man: Not that Hitsugi cares that Tatewaki thinks everything she says or does is akin to holy testament.
