Higuma and his Bunreisha
Higuma Kagarite
A somewhat chill young man who is actually the titular Hell Warden. Beneath his happy-go-lucky demeanor, however, there appears to be a lot of baggage...
- Affectionate Nickname: Little Bear.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: While at times downright aloof, he is nonetheless very competent at his job.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Heavily implied to have experienced something very traumatic that still haunts him to this day.
- Healing Factor: He is noted to heal his wounds very quickly.
- Hidden Depths: Despite of his cheerful facade, he is very conflicted about his duty as a Hell Warden.
- Mundane Utility: His numerous floating hands are regularly used for a... less-than diligent lifestyle. Case in point, he uses them to get dressed after (barely) waking up in the morning.
- Oh, Crap!: His reaction when he sees Shakufutsu Akagane.
- Sad Clown: While he is usually giddy, beneath it all there is a lot of angst.
- The Slacker: Out of duty, he is very, very lax about life.
Roku
A living hot pot.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As demonstrated in chapter 2, he is this to Higuma.
- Mr. Exposition: Sort of in the first few introductory chapters.
- Villain Teleportation: Inverted. He grants teleportation to he heroes, for as long as the exact location is chosen.
Bunreisha
General tropes
The various individuals that work under Higuma.
- Mark of the Supernatural: Their abilities are bestowed to them by King Enma's mark.
- Red Shirt Army: They're this to Higuma and indirectly to King Enma.
Ayaha Kuromine
The female protagonist of the story. A young woman whose strong sense of justice is repeatedly remarked upon.
- Armor-Piercing Question: At the end of chapter 10 she questions Higuma's real motivation behind being a Hell Warden.
- Hypocrite: Subverted. Her 'kleptomania' was in fact caused by a fugitive spirit without her knowing any of it until Higuma uncovers it to her.
- Nice Girl: Always willing to help those in need.
- Sanity Slippage: The fugitive spirit's influence on her and her older brother's extreme personality change left her deeply troubled. Fortunately, she got better after Higuma intervened.
Ikuya Kobata
Higuma's childhood friend and classmate.
- The Gadfly: No wonder he is friends with Higuma.
- Mauve Shirt: Being Childhood Friends with the main character, as well as providing Ayaha with some extra exposition makes him this.
- Mr. Exposition: He explains some more intricate details of the job of being one of the Bunreisha to Ayaha. Justified as he is technically her senior and she only recently got involved in the conflict.
Supporting characters
King Enma
The ruler of hell who is also the superior of the Hell Wardens. He is actually a tremendously vast system straddling the realm of the living and the realm of the dead. The child is just an avatar given a human persona to enable humans to comprehend him.
- Big Good: While he's often aloof, he is still qualifying as this.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: As Kuyuri Engetsu refers to Enma as a system with the child being just a means of communication, it is difficult to comprehend the real motives of the judge of the dead.
- Stepford Smiler: Asuma claims that Enma is this.
Abo
A very strict mentor figure to Higuma.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: His standards are strident.
- Training from Hell: An appropriately literal version of this.
Family members
Ayaha's older brother
Ayaha's extremely controlling older brother. Or so it seems, until it turns out that he is actually possessed fugitive spirit.
- The Atoner: While he was controlled for the duration of half a year, he still feels ashamed of everything his family went through.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar on his right cheek. Notable this was from before the fugitive spirit possessed him.
Usa Kagarite
Granny Usa is Higuma's great-grandma and the current head priest of the Kagarite family's temple.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Or great-grandparents. To this day she still calls her great-grandson by his embarrassing childhood nickname.
- Family Theme Naming: Ayaha is amused to lampshade how both Usa and Higuma are bot named after animals (rabbits and bears respectively).
Itomi
A distant relative of Higuma who nonetheless deeply cares about the young Hell Warden.
- Meaningful Name: His name means to see, which is fitting as he is shown to have the ability to observe from a great distance.
- Parental Substitute: To an extent. He was notably very pleased to hear that Higuma actually made more friends his age that he can completely trust.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Has a very professional outfit.
Haruma Kagarite
Higuma's deceased aunt.
- Brother–Sister Team: With her younger brother, Higuma's father.
- Mundane Utility: According to Higuma she could use her zaiju and play the piano using four hands.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Zig-Zagged. This was partially caused by Engetsu's meddling.
- Unwitting Pawn: Engetsu was almost successful in manipulating her into aiding him in killing King Enma.
Asuma Kagarite
Higuma's deceased father.
- Perpetual Frowner: Granted, given his circumstances, one can't exactly blame him...
- The Promise: He and his older sister promised that they'd take down Akagane together.
Civilians
Kaori Ameya
A little girl whose grandmother was targeted by a fugitive spirit (among many other seniors).
Akane Muromachi
Higuma's classmate who is soon to become a big sister...
- Abel And Cain: Defied at the climax of the confrontation against the kitsune fugitive spirit.
Fugitive Spirits
The numerous demons that make up the primary antagonist force in the setting. General tropes
- Alas, Poor Villain: Not even Enma bothers to deny the fact that all of them have had a miserable past.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Inverted. Their abilities are all based on whatever torture method they've been subjected to in hell.
- Life Drain: Their main survival technique is drain life force from humans to expand their time out of hell.
- Rage Against the Heavens: They all absolutely repudiate King Enma.
- Yōkai: All of them are based on some sort of Japanese demon.
Sudama
Time in hell: less than 20 years
The most generic form of fugitive spirits. Kokuju-Bokusho
Time in hell: 117
A demon who possessed Ayaha's older brother for the last six months prior to the start of the story.- Control Freak: True to his puppet-master theme, he is extremely controlling of the Kuromine family, up until Higuma intervenes.
- Starter Villain: The first major villain to be faced in the story. Appropriately, his battle against Higuma also establishes the main factors of the conflict in the setting.
Hinkirigumo Veil of Fire
Time in hell: 107 years
This spider-like fugitive spirit possesses the power of fire.- Giant Spider: His form is that of a gigantic spider.
- Playing with Fire: Ironically enough, Hinkirigumo's primary means of offense is the fire element.
- The Worf Effect: Exists simply to demonstrate the strength of the Hell Warden and the Bunreisha in action.
Kuyuri Engetsu
Time in hell: 795 years
A mysterious fugitive spirit who is interested in Higuma's powers.- Exact Words: Destroying King Enma is NOT his only goal.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smokes a pipe and is a major antagonist.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: All other villains want to kill humans to drain their lifespans and/or kill a specific demographic of humans. Engetsu is strangely interested in the one kind of humans fugitive spirits rarely wish to cross paths with.
- Man Behind the Man: Manipulates/uses other fugitive spirits and coordinated their attacks on Higuma area of jurisdiction.
- More than Mind Control: How his powers work. His white smoke of yearning amplifies one of the desires of those who inhale it and suppresses their rational thinking.
- Red Herring: At first it seem like he is planning to manipulate Haruma and back-stab her shortly after, however Akagane completely derails his plans by killing her before Engetsu's objectives could be realized.
- Smoking Is Glamorous: The smoke from his pipe spreads in a very pompous fashion.
- Becomes anything but glamorous when he gets sufficiently enraged.
Nairi-no-Kotetsu Iron Fox
Time in hell: 328 years
A spirit notorious for possessing mother and making them kill their children.- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Played for Drama; The whole reason why she destroys other people's families is because she herself was never capable of parental love and she is visibly agitated by her inability to do so.
- Offing the Offspring: What his victims end up doing completely involuntarily.
- Samus Is a Girl: During the battle against Higuma, she is reveled to be female all along.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Clearly a cut above the previous few fugitive spirits faced in the story.
- Would Hurt a Child: And the child's mother...
Yamagiri
Time in hell: a little over 328 years
Engetsu's minion... who seemingly bites the dust before ever getting to confront the protagonists.- We Hardly Knew Ye: Is seemingly killed off or at least heavily injured by the mysterious male spirit.
- Worf Effect: Implied to be just a bit stronger than Kotetsu, but he still had no chance against the mysterious man.
Shakufutsu Akagane The Molten
Time in hell: 879 years
An incredibly powerful fugitive spirit who has killed every single Hell Warden in the Kagarite line from generation to generation.- Archnemesis: To the entirety of the Kagarite family.
- Berserker Tears: Constantly. They actually melt whatever they fall on.
- Dark Is Evil: Pitch dark and unambiguously dangerous.
- Dissonant Serenity: When he appears without his face being hidden beneath a shadow, he is eerily calm.
- The Dreaded: Easily one of the most dangerous characters in the setting.
- I Need You Stronger: The only reason he didn't kill Higuma six years prior to the start of the story. And he is still willing to go 'ahead of schedule'.
- Spanner in the Works: He is the main reason why Engetsu's pans fail six years before the start of the story.
- Wild Card: Not even Engetsu can keep him on a leash.
- Would Hurt a Child: He actually refrains from killing the ten-year-old children of the Hell Wardens he kills. With Higuma, he makes an exception.
"The Old Man"
Four centuries prior to the start of the series, this fugitive spirit escaped hell with the help of the ancestor of the Kagarite. Upon bring released, he invoked the spell of the goddess and released numerous other fugitive spirits. Currently, he can only fully materialize in a human form once every few centuries, and otherwise spends his time as white dust that covers his domain where the other fugitive spirits hide in.
- Big Bad: The main responsible for the fugitive spirit crisis.
- Evil Old Folks: If his nickname is anything to go by...
- Sinister Surveillance: To the point that Engetsu - a fellow fugitive spirit -makes it a point to take measures not to be detected by him.
