Kengan Association (Yamashita Trading Co.) | Kengan Association Fighters {Left Block | Right Block} | Purgatory | Worm | Other Groups
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Kure Clan
A clan of influential assassins with strong ties to the Kengan Association due to their close relationship with Katahara Metsudo. They have been known to send fighters to represent companies in Kengan Matches. The clan originally split from a 5000-year old clan of selectively breeding Chinese Assassins during the Nara Period, roughly 1300 years before the present day. In General
- Affably Evil: They are almost all polite, friendly and generally likable. They also kill people for a living.
- A House Divided: They are one of three parts of a clan founded in 3000BC's ancient China that split in the 700's AD. The Kure are friendly with the "mainline" clan, but have serious beef with their Westward Wu sister clan which has been escalating in recent decades.
- All Amazons Want Hercules: All the women of the clan marry themselves to people with ideal genes for the clan's profession such as hitmen, athletes, martial artists and so on. Their men gender-invert this by often marrying daughters of similar figures to try and incorporate them into the family that way.
- Amazon Chaser: The male Kure members are very similar to the females as they want to preserve strong genes. Usually this is done by marrying the daughters of martial artists and athletes.
- Artistic License – Biology: With how incredibly large the clan is and how many factors of the human body they have systematically improved upon, extending even to their vast ability to produce adrenaline and other natural drugs in the brain, the Kure Clan's genes would have to be obscenely dominant to keep so many of these unique traits despite being spread so thinly.
- Badass Family: They're an entire clan of hundreds of trained assassins who have only suffered four losses in the Kengan Matches in all of its 300 years of history. They were already around a millennia before that, badass might be an Understatement.
- Black Eyes of Crazy: Subverted. While not every single family member related to the Kure Clan has this trait, with Erioh's youngest son being an example from Chapter 0, even the ones that do are relatively sane people that happen to be assassins... With exception to Raian, as well as Erioh when he was younger. According to compiled oral tradition, this stems from their Chinese progenitor from about 5000 years ago, Hei Wu, who killed so much of everything around that the blood stained his eyes black.
- Berserk Button: They have two as a whole, with one being much less serious than the other. Kenzo hiring them only to be found out he was manipulating them put him in deep shit, with dozens of the clan members showing up with high-explosives, police uniforms and snipers, but once the matter was settled in the Kengan match between Raian and Ohma, there were no hard feelings and the clan didn't kill him despite having Kenzo on the floor with several guns trained on his head. The other one is betrayal within the clan and its two sister clans. Edward Wu using the cover of a proposed alliance of the three clans against Worm to murder Rikuto Kure, the heir as patriarch to Erioh, gets the clan so incensed that they are absolutely fine with breaking their ongoing contracts with the Kengan Association to win in the Purgatory faceoff just for the chance to slaughter Edward Wu like an animal.
- Boring, but Practical: The "Kure Style" is a mishmash of simple but very deadly strikes and grapples, especially factoring in their use of Removal.
- The Clan: It's in their name. They are a large family of friendly neighborhood assassins who sometimes used as fighters for the Kengan Association. In Omega it is revealed that the Kure Clan of Japan is a branch of the original Wu Clan in China, alongside the Far Westward branch of the West.
- Combat Pragmatist: Skilled as they are in martial arts, they are not averse to using modern weaponry such as sniper rifles or explosives to carry out jobs.
- Darwinist Desire: The clan selectively choose mates who will bear them the strongest progeny and seem to be naturally attracted to those who would best suit said purpose (such as Karura).
- Decapitated Army: Downplayed since Erioh is still upright, but his successor Rikuto was killed by the Worm and the Westward Wu faction due to the latter's treachery, forcing him to remain as patriarch indefinitely in spite of his advanced years. Played more straight with Erioh's passing at the hands of Edward Wu.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: They're a clan of contract assassins bred for the job that make up a full ten percent of a small town in the Kyoto region. They also are an incredibly tight-knit and loving family that often eat together in large dinner halls and help each other out as much as they can in their regular dayjobs too, and are extremely forgiving of even their blackest of sheeps, with their current patriarch being a man who abandoned the clan for over a decade once upon a time.
- Honor Before Reason: Zigzagged. The Kure Clan is equal parts a “clan” as it is a “business” and often has to balance the two and will go one way or the other depending on the situation. They value their success rates and hate breaking a contract (as its bad for business) and go to great lengths to keep a good reputation. But they will totally betray employers if it benefits the clan (Raian and Erioh breaching their contract with Nogi during the Purgatory showdown in pursuit of killing Edward Wu and his conspirators) or if their clients make them look bad (Erioh sending an army of Kure clan members to kill Kenzo for fooling them but still fighting for his company).
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: They have a family tradition style made for combat sport instead of assassination, it is still really brutal but is not aiming to kill someone as fast as possible.
- Living Distant Ancestor: ...Kind of, it's incredibly weird. The Kure, the Wu and the Westward Wu families all denote from a common ancestor, a man named Hei Wu who by all accounts is akin to Raian but wayyyyyy worse, to the point where the reason the clans' eyes are black is due to Hei's being caked black with the dried blood of all those he slew. The clans also happen to have a brainwashing technique called Huisheng to pass on someone's living memory in the same way those involved in the occult would speak of passing the "Breath", stories and beliefs passed between a pupil and master under four eyes only. While the Kure and mainline Wu Clan have long since stopped doing this due to how even they are above brainwashing people, the Westward Wu's still practice this and have passed on the living memory of Hei Wu to at least five people, including Alan and Edward Wu. This means that Hei Wu is, kind of, sort of, still alive after five millennia through hundreds of generations passing on his living memory.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Gracie family is the basis for many of the Kure Clan's members, if not all of them.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Most of the clan have normal productive jobs in society, and thus reserve the killing to contracts, with only their elites being full-time hitmen. In one instance where a few of them are out doing their part as the neighborhood watch and amicably chatting with people they know along the way, they are later thanked by a police officer, only for one of them to pull a gun and immediately kill him because he was a contract target. Said police officer was pushing drugs through teenagers and delinquents in the area and threatening his proxies with charges if they tried to rat him out because no one would believe them over a cop. Omega reveals that the family isn't an outright organised crime syndicate either, with most members working as independent contractors, occasionally calling in favors for one another if a different set of expertise, such as demolition, police impersonation or sniping is required for the job.
- The Rival: The Kure Clan is this to the Mikazuchi Clan. The two being rival assassination clans that have had history for centuries as rivals that practice assassination styles that boast superhuman qualities and techniques that are still practiced to this day.
- Super Breeding Program: The Kure have done this for thirteen hundred years, and their mother clan for another three millennia seeking out strong warriors or the children of strong warriors to mate. This has led them to be bred for combat, and they end up being more durable and able to use Removal.
- Super Mode: The Kure Clan's secret technique, Removal, is this. What it does exactly is allows a Kure to basically “remove” the bodies limits on the physical output of their muscles that ordinarily a normal person could only do during a flight or fight response at will. Essentially using the peak of their strength, speed, and constitution at will with no drawbacks (unlike the Advance). The Removal is interesting in that the super mode varies from Kure to Kure, as each have their own “percentile” of how efficiently they can use it and seems to not be something one can train to increase and instead something they are born with; Wu Xing eventually reveals a way to increase the percentage, but considers having to teach the Technique to the Kure and his own men a Godzilla Threshold, as the process can result in grievous injury or death. Raian is the clearest example of the Removal's effectiveness, being the first revealed to be able to use it at 100% efficiency, allowing him to punch several weightclasses above what he naturally is.
- Theme Naming: As the Kure clan itself is a nod to the Gracie family, famous pioneers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the names of the men of the Kure reference the Gracies (Raian = Ryan Gracie, the roughneck of the family, Erioh = Helio, the patriarch of the Gracie family, etc) while the women's names take after Buddhist deities (Karura = Garuda, Yakusha = Yaksha, etc). The epithets of all members of the Kure clan are based on demons.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: How Removal works. All members of the clan are able to use Removal for a limited period of time, but each member can only release a certain amount of their muscular power. Known examples range from 19% allowing a sniper to enhance their eyesight and brace a gun with too much recoil to otherwise fire, all the way up to adrenaline-fueled fight or flight strength at 100%.
- The Worf Effect: If an individual manages to be feared by or even killed members of the Kure Clan, then said individual is no joke. Muteba and Gunji are two such individuals.
Erioh Kure
The Mighty Demon
The First Fang of Metsudo
Voiced by: Jamieson Price (English)
Age: 91
The patriarch of Kure Clan and the first holder of the title "Fang of Metsudo". He and Metsudo have a long history dating back to just after the Second World War, and he was instrumental in Metsudo's rise to the position of Kengan Chairman.
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: While the Annihilation Tournament is fairly High Stakes on its own, Erioh makes Ohma's second match even worse for Kazuo. Erioh bets Kazuo's eldest son Kenzo's life on the outcome of the match between Ohma and Raian. Fortunately for Kenzo, Raian loses and calls off the hit.
- A Lesson in Defeat: Like Raian, he refused to learn any Kure techniques and preferred to simply fight and kill with brute strength and natural talent alone for a good portion of his youth. Then he lost a Kengan Match possibly to Gaoh Mukaku when fighting for Metsudo, which convinced him to throw away his pride and go back and learn all of the Kure Clan techniques.
- Befriending the Enemy: In his case, he was the enemy to Metsudo, being hired to kill him only to later fight for him and becoming a lifelong friend.
- Berserk Button: He has two, His great-granddaughter Karura entering a relationship, and deceiving his Clan. The former is Played for Laughs, the later is played straight, with him organizing a hit on Kenzo Yamashita, sending dozens of his clan to destroy the house and kill him. Granted, the former is also part of the reason for sending the hit.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Towards his great-granddaughter Karura. Any hint that someone may be hitting on her, whether real or not, is enough to send him into a childish tantrum followed by murderous fury. In general, he is this to his granddaughters and great-nieces, and is not at all fond of the men who marry into the family even long after they already have been part of the clan, and certainly takes umbrage when called familial terms like "grandfather" in the case of Karura's father.
- Bullet Catch: Somehow catches a blank ricocheting off of one of the vases Ohma is holding to practice Pre-initiative with his pipe without the pipe breaking in half, blatantly showing that he's still razor sharp despite his age.
- Combat Pragmatism: Uses sneak attacks and hidden blades in his old age.
- Cool Old Guy: He might be a scary leader of an assassin clan, but he's also still a massively badass Old Master with a surprisingly ingrained set of morals.
- Doting Parent: Or in his case, great-grandfather, particularly towards his great-granddaughter Karura. He gushes about how brilliant she is, tries to pay her surprise visits, and will absolutely destroy any male who he might think is hitting on her. This also extended to his children when they were born, buying all sorts of baby equipment to help him with parenting.
- Everyone Has Standards: He might be a strong advocate for eugenics and a hardened assassin, but he draws the line at monstrous experiments designed to "train" the participants, such as the human Gu "ritual" that made Agito into such a ferocious fighter.
- Feeling Their Age: A discussed trope between him and Edward Wu. Despite his overwhelming strength and skill advantage over Erioh, Edward acknowledges that Erioh could have stood a chance against him when they first met as he believes that Erioh was in his prime at that point. Erioh, however, takes it as an insult as he was past his prime at the time and claims he would have effortlessly killed Edward during his prime. Considering that he easily killed Fabio and Solomon Wu, two powerful members of Edward’s clan who were stronger than Alan Wu and capable of fighting both Raian and Wu Xing, as soon as he gets a knife or sword in his hands, Erioh isn't just breathing hot air at Edward's overwhelming prowess. Then again
the author’s note in Edward’s profile
states that this is just Erioh’s subjective opinion and until they actually fight, the result from such a hypothetical fight is inconclusive. - Glass Cannon: In his old age his wits and assassination skills are as sharp as ever and though he's not nearly as physically strong as he used to be, he can make up the difference with a sword or a knife. That said, he's still a fragile old man in comparison to his opponents and one elbow strike from Edward Wu is enough to leave him reeling. He ends up dying shortly after Edward breaks his spine, rendering him immobile but able to cling to life until after the death of Edward.
- Good Parents: Although his affection towards his family is used for comedy, it's clear that every last child, grandchild, and great grandchild of his is the centre of his universe and that he loves every last one of them with every fibre of his being, and he's always by their side, especially during his free time, as he's always accompanied by his kids.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Offers himself as sacrificial pawn to give Xing an opening to kill Edward. Since he is the oldest he finds it only fair that he dies for his kids.
- Horrifying the Horror: He's a bloodthirsty old man with one hell of a temper and a retired assassin, but even he calls the Gu Rituals conducted by Worm the "work of the devil".
- Hypocritical Humor: While he's largely proud of how his family has used eugenics to become near-superhuman, he hates it when men marry into the family as he's rather protective of his various granddaughters and nieces.
- I Was Quite the Looker: A formerly tall and highly muscular Kengan fighter.
- Irrational Hatred: His outright murderous hatred of Ohma is based on the assumption that he's hitting on his teenage granddaughter. The problem is that not only is Karura the one coming on to him, but Ohma's primary reaction to her is also to run like hell when he can. Fortunately for Ohma, he got over this (mostly) by the end of Ashura after he made it to the semifinals. Come Omega it is revealed he allowed Ohma to stay in the Kure village for a whole two years to recover after his heart surgery and mentions to Kazuo he expects Ohma to become the future patriarch of the Kure clan (despite being an outsider) due to his acceptance of the (in his mind) very real possibility of Karura marrying Ohma (though he does cry over this fact and clearly isn’t the happiest about it).
- Legacy Character: Was the first person to hold the title of The Fang of Metsudo.
- Made of Iron: Even in his old age he can take hits harder than most of his family since his Removal is at 100% and he has trained himself as a combatant more than an assassin.
- Noble Demon: While he's the sinister leader of a clan of assassins, he's not completely amoral, and stands by his word.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Based off of Helio Gracie.
- Old Master: 91 years oldnote and is still powerful enough to destroy a large portion of the floor by activating Removal in anger. He was able to protect Metsudo from being killed by the Guardians during an attempted coup without apparent difficulty. This is not surprising given that he was Metsudo's former representative fighter, the original titleholder of The Fang of Metsudo and the one who won him the chairmanship.
- Sadist: In his younger days he loved dominating others, not unlike his relative Raian. As seen during his mission to assassinate Metsudo Katahara who in turn listed him as an extreme sadist who likes crushing his opponents. A flashback shows he's the one who made Katsumasa Hayami's face FUBAR by pouring acid on it when Metsudo decided to spare the guy.
- Slasher Smile: Much like Raian he had a terrifying, shark-toothed grin on his face.
- Strong Family Resemblance: To Raian in his youth. He looked like a thinner Raian with slick black hair and was just as bloodthirsty. He was as much of a Black Sheep as Raian, more so in that he left the clan to pursue his own way. He eventually mellowed out, returned to the clan, learned their techniques and became the patriarch. He goes back to that when he becomes enraged though.
- Troll: Sometimes, he just likes screwing with people. Most notably when he threatens and browbeats Yamashita regarding his son's wellbeing, despite already having lifted the assassination order.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: He could break a samurai sword with his teeth in his youth. While his power isn't what it used to be, with 100% Removal he can destroy a massive portion of the S.S Kengan's ballroom floor by stomping on it, even in his old age.
- Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed, As Erioh's still much stronger than normal people due to him being a Kure and isn't very fragile despite his age. His brute strength has decreased significantly but he makes up for this by having mastered all the Kure techniques and being a greatly skilled assassin.
Karura Kure
The Succubus
Voiced By: Tomoyo Kurosawa (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)
Age: 16
Erioh Kure's great-granddaughter and a high school student. After a brief clash with Ohma, she decided that she must mate with him at all costs.- All Amazons Want Hercules: Due to the Kure Clan being born from generations of selective breeding with powerful fighters and killers, it seems all members of the clan are naturally (or raised to be) attracted to those who they deem strong and Karura is no exception. What attracted her to Ohma is this exact fact as she immediately pegs him as strong and capable of producing stronger children with her.
- Badass Adorable: She's 16, positively cuddly and stated to be capable of slaughtering a good number of her family on her own.
- Born Winner: Similarly to Raian, she's already a monster even among Kures at age 16, and will only get stronger with time.
- Child Prodigy: While she lacks experience due to her young age, she's able to use the Removal to release 85% of her latent power, and Erioh implies she'll get even better at it in the future. She appears to be the only Kure with talent on par with Raian's in their generation.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite her overall dark color scheme (eyes, hair, clothing), Karura couldn’t be any more friendly.
- Darwinist Desire: Her primary reason for her obsession with Ohma is due to her belief that she will bear a strong heir with him.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has the appearance of this (dark hair with purplish tint and light skin). She seemed eerie in her first few appearances before we learn what she’s really like.
- Genki Girl: What else can you say about a girl who has it that badly for Ohma?
- The Gift: The average Kure is already stronger than the average human, and a group of them at a bar were told that Karura could kill easily them all on her own. Moreover, she has the second-highest known Removal rate of 85%, after Raian's 100%, and she's still 16 years old.
- Little Miss Badass: A nice, cute schoolgirl who is also an incredibly strong fighter. According to other members of the Kure Clan, she is a deviant who would be able to wipe the floor with most of the clan and keep up with Ohma in a brief clash. Word of God says that if the Kengan Association had a female division, she would reign supreme.
- Love at First Punch: She "sensed" how strong Ohma was just by walking past him. Later on, she attacked him to confirm it and after he held his own, immediately decided she wanted his children.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Though only Ohma is her target. Karura has done everything possible to bed him. She once flung herself onto him and started stripping after his first match, and then straight-up removed practically everything after his match with Raian.
- Meaningful Name: "Karura" is the Japanese transliteration of Garuda, one of the Eight Legions that protect the Dharma, along with the Asura. The Kanji used for Karura's name is the exact same. Though its katakana spelling is used more often since it's easier to read, the Kanji is still used on occasion. This also goes hand in hand with her Japanese nom de guerre of "Tenma" (Heavenly Demon).
- Ms. Fanservice: She has repeatedly stripped down to nothing but her underwear in her attempts to get down and dirty with Ohma.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: Twofold example, her well-developed physique allows her to execute powerful strikes and swift manoeuvers, but as her brief duel with Ohma shows, having a relatively modest weight in spite of that makes it difficult to throw larger opponents if they can ground themselves faster than she can toss them.
- Nice Girl: Especially friendly, making friends with Elena Robinson, wishing Mokichi well against her relative Raian, and comforting her after her brother was badly injured against Raian. She is the most stand-out friendly member of the Kure Clan.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Based off of Kyra Gracie, Carlos Gracie's great-granddaughter.
- Single-Target Sexuality: She has eyes for only Ohma.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no problem stripping down in front of other people, in fact, stripping down and flinging herself at Ohma is her go-to seduction tactic.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: Like the rest of the Kure, she can unleash a whopping 85% of her body's limit via Removal. This is the second-highest behind Raian and maybe Erioh.
Raian Kure
Fusui Kure
The Wicked Shooter
Voiced by: Christine Marie Cabanos (English)
Age: 19
Raian's younger sister, who was sent with her relative Henzo to keep an eye out on their client, Yamashita Kenzo. As of Omega she has become the liaison between the Kure Clan and the Kengan Association.
- All Amazons Want Hercules:
- In Omega she makes a passing mention that Ohma’s genes will make the next generation of the Kure Clan stronger and expresses at least a passing interesting of “getting in on those genes herself” like Karura.
- She also expresses disappointment that the otherwise handsome, well-built and strong Retsudo is ruined by being such a sis-con.
- While Koga was in recovery, she joined Sayaka in feeding him and has thrown a flirty look his way more than once.
- Brainy Brunette: She has dark hair and is an honor student at Koyo Academy.
- Friendly Sniper: She is a sniper who spends her time checking on the latest trends and chatting with her relative Henzo.
- Nice Girl: Unlike her brother, she is nice and personable.
- Token Wholesome: Of all the female characters thus far, Fusui definitely dresses the most conservatively, wearing fairly plain and ordinary clothing that doesn't really expose any cleavage or accentuate her body besides tight-fitting shorts.
- Two Lines, No Waiting:
- Her entire involvement in the story is to keep an eye on Kenzo and take a shot if ordered to do so. Unfortunately, because Kenzo is a Crazy-Prepared Hikikomori, there is not much to survey. She later appears on the island during the coup, staying out of the way of her brother.
- Her appearance in Omega seems to mark a more involved role in the story, being the liaison for her clan and the Kengan Association, and searching for her brother Raian, who has disappeared since the Tournament in Ashura. In truth, Fusui's actually a Secret-Keeper, as Raian was living in the Kure Village along with Ohma, the latter of whom whose survival had been kept secret.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: She can only release 28% of her strength with the Removal. Instead of using it for hand-to-hand combat, like other members of her clan, she targets specific muscles around her eye to help with her sniping.
Minor Members
The minor named members. They consist of Henzo, Hollis, Horio (Hollis' uncle) and Reiichi.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Hollis and Reiichi are always seen escorting Erioh, even when he is giving his great-granddaughter a surprise visit. The same Erioh who can destroy concrete floors under him with his Removal and fend off Guardians with ease in his old age.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Hollis and Reiichi are this to both Erio, whose Doting Parent tendencies are so great for his great-grandaughter Karura he becomes murderous at the mere thought of her being married, and Karura herself, who's obsessed with trying to bed Ohma Tokita.
- Flat Character: Most of the minor Kure members are flat characters, with perhaps one minor trait about them. Hollis is this especially, with his trait being worrying about not having hobbies.
- Friendly Enemy: Ohma sparred with at least Horris
- Implied Love Interest: Henzo and Fusui are very close, to the point that other clan members wonder if they are dating.
- Red Baron: All of the minor members have epithets based on demons (in the original Japanese, mixing both "oni" and "ma", depending on the nickname).
- Henzo Kure - The Hunter Demon
- Reiichi Kure - The Adamantine Demon
- Horio Kure - The Ox Demon
- Hollis Kure - The Wailing Demon
- Only Sane Man: Henzo is stated to be the most normal member of the Clan. By his own admission in the 4-Komas, he hates what the Clan really does for a living.
- Stout Strength: Horio has an incredibly large, rotund powerbelly. He also has the 5th highest known Removal rate of the clan and survived a run-in with Muteba, cementing himself as a high-tier fighter in his own right.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: They can all do this to varying levels.
- Henzo Kure - 19%
- Reiichi Kure - 50%
- Horio Kure - 65%
- Hollis Kure - 80%
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Hollis' reaction to finding out why Rei entered the tournament.
Other Characters
Niko Tokita
"You've endured this training well, but the thing you seek lies beyond death. So grab a hold of life!"
Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese, season 1), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese, season 2), Jake Green (English)
A hermit living on the inside as muscle for a Yakuza group and master of the Niko Style, who taught Ohma it after saving him from those same gangsters. He was killed by Genzan Taira ten years before Ashura begins.- Chef of Iron: An Omake shows that he brought a pan and cooking utensils along to Gakigahara forest and was cooking himself a veritable fest of herbs, mushrooms and small critters he'd gathered with his survival skills, compared to Ohma who was surviving off of snakes and centipedes grilled on a stick over a fire.
- Counter-Attack: Demonsbane, the primary secret technique of the Niko Style.
- Determinator: He fought to the very end against both the "Real" Niko and Genzan.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Invoked. Mukaku Gaoh intended for there to be several Nikos acting simultaneously across the Inside to give the impression of an omnipresent almighty martial artist.
- Four Is Death: Played With. Out of the seven Nikos, this Niko was referred to as "Four". Ironically, he was one of the two Nikos who survived massacre at Gekigahara, though he would eventually perish due to the machinations of the other survivor.
- The Gadfly: He seems to have really enjoyed teasing Ohma.
- Good Counterpart:
- To the Other Niko Tokita. This one treated Ohma very much like a kid he was personally mentoring, and they were the closest to a father or son either of them ever got to have. He always tried to teach Ohma more than just how to fight even though that was all that seemed to stick; gives him ample warning about the dangers of his training, and would protect him from any dangers in The Inside. In contrast, The Other Niko Tokita facsimiles this by finding talented young kids, endowing them with power, luxuries and a sense of importance to indebt and make them loyal to him, only to then get them to willingly experiment with incredibly dangerous techniques and styles with no regard for their mental or physical health, to further his own martial arts in the long run. Ohma's Niko died fighting to help and protect Ohma, while four thousand of The Other Niko's students have died for his sake so far.
- In Omega, the reveal of the Wu's Huisheng technique, which is appropriated by the Worm to turn multiple people into the 'same person' technically makes the system he was part of, to turn the name 'Niko Tokita' into a Living Legend through a Collective Identity, the good counterpart to that, which is implied to be a factor in the 'Real' Niko helping to orchestrate the deaths of every student of the Gaoh style.
- Heroes Fight Barehanded: The original Niko Style included weapons training and a few underhanded techniques, as Mukaku had few scruples and wanted to make killers out of his students. Niko however focused solely on barehanded combat and did away with most dangerous techniques and assassination tactics. This is because the Niko that trained Ohma is the only one that treats the Niko Style as a martial art, one to use when the enemy is too strong to fight head on, not a tool for revenge or experimentation like Mukaku and the Other Niko.
- Like a Son to Me: While they both had their differences, Niko clearly saw Ohma as one of his own and even gave him the same surname, considering Ohma his family. His fatherly habits applied to even Ohma's hallucinations of him, encouraging his young student and saying he is proud of him at the end.
- Master of All: As a teacher of the Niko Style, a grab bag of many martial arts masteries, he can do pretty much any form of unarmed combat. Unlike the other Niko, he doesn't make his students trade self-control for higher offense and teaches them to stay all-rounded.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The "spirit" Niko points out that he is probably just Ohma's imagination. Notably, he never states anything Ohma doesn't already know, and when his hallucinations against Raian reach their peak and Ohma's Spirit Advisor starts expositing on things both Niko or Ohma have no idea about, it's a clear indicator that something is very wrong. Even when "teaching" Ohma in this state, he's actually just releasing locked-away memories he'd forgotten from the Possessing Spirit causing him brain damage and all the beatings he's taken.
- Meaningful Name: Niko means "Two Tiger" and he takes his name after the Niko and Tokita Wards of "The Inside." It's later revealed that the name belongs to seven people who have trained under Mukaku Gaoh, in hopes of turning the name into a legend, with all but the last two Nikos perishing in Gakigahara Forest.
- The Mentor: Prior to the main story he was Ohma's master and is the one who taught him the Niko Style.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Ends up dying to a conspiracy that involved both Kiryu and the "Real" Niko, who were trying to use Ohma for their own gains.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Dies shortly after having defeated (if not killed) his treacherous fellow disciple while protecting Ohma from the same, and passes on satisfied that he that the Niko Style is being passed on to someone who is fundamentally good.
- Papa Wolf: Niko did not hesitate to fight both the "Real" Niko and Genzan Taira once he realized Ohma was in danger.
- Parental Substitute: Since he met Ohma as an orphan, he was the only father figure in his life.
- Posthumous Character: He passed away long before the events of the series, but still plays a major role in Ohma's character arc.
- Super-Toughness: As a Niko Style practitioner, he is able to use Indestructible to amp up his defenses. He saves Ohma's life when he first meets him (and sells him on learning martial arts) by diverting the course of a bullet with the back of his hand, injuring his hand somewhat but ultimately deflecting the shots.
- Spirit Advisor: He appears as a figment of Ohma's imagination during the story, helping him unlock past memories and guiding him where necessary.note
- Training from Hell: Learning Demonsbane is a horrifically intense crash-course in the deep wilderness that the viewer gets an in-depth experience of through Ohma's eyes as he has to resort to eating centipedes for nutrition already on the second day. He doesn't complete it until the tenth, at which point he had thoroughly adapted to fighting injured, on an empty stomach to the point where he can break down his household proteins for a spare source of stamina, and learned Demonsbane. To Niko's credit he warned Ohma plenty of times before they went through with it, and after they succeeded he apologized to Ohma, saying he can only teach it the way he has been taught it.
- Trickster Mentor: When teaching Ohma the Demonsbane technique, he drives him to his physical and mental brink by attacking him at random, including at night, when he's about to eat, etc all while pouring the Trash Talk on Ohma, who's wearing forty kilos worth of weights on his wrists and ankles. Niko also reveals he was wearing a weighted vest twice as heavy as Ohma's weights on the final day.Ohma: You've been wearing those weights this whole time? They look at least twice as heavy as mine! Niko, you really are in a whole other league.
- Victory by Endurance: His Niko style mainly focuses on fighting under any circumstances and for a long time, contrasting with the Other Niko who focuses on overwhelming or killing his opposition quickly.
- Worf Had the Flu: Niko was among the strongest fighters in the series, to the point where Word of God says he could be dropped in pretty much anywhere on the Kengan Annihilation Tournament bracket and reliably reach the finals. However, he was injured trying to subdue a raging Ohma, had a life-threatening match against the "Real" Niko, and then died fighting Genzan Taira before he could recover from his injuries.
- You Are Number 6: Back when he was training with the other Nikos, he was known as Four.
Yasuo Yamashita
Kazuo's younger son, introduced as a delinquent who takes his father’s money, an encounter with Ohma had straightened him out and made him take an internship in construction.
- Japanese Delinquents: Embraced this life after his mom left Kazuo and the latter couldn't properly discipline him. He gets better with Ohma's intervention.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Goes from stealing money from his dad and being a rabble-rousing deadbeat in early Ashura to being a friendly, easygoing guy that both Koga and Ryuki get along with in Omega.
Elena Robinson
Voiced by: Reba Buhr (English)
Mokichi Robinson’s younger half-sister.- Harmful to Minors: Gets a front-row seat to Raian brutally choking her brother, then snapping his neck for good measure.
- Satellite Character: Most of her time is spent with either Mokichi or Karura, and she's rarely seen without one or the other.
- She's All Grown Up: Goes from being firmly in the no-go zone in Ashura to stunningly beautiful in Omega, with both Koga and Lihito wanting to hit on her. To Mokichi's displeasure.
Joji Narushima
"Fighting gets so much easier when you have a focus. You see now, Koga?"
The Venomous Viper (毒蛇, Dokuja)
Age: 42
A sixth Dan Rokushin Karate master and formerly one of the Rokushin Three, who stand at the top of the biggest Full-Contact Karate school in the world, as well as Koga's uncle.- Berserk Button: He doesn't like being underestimated nor insulted for his age, something that he and Kureishi have in common. Both were perfectly willing to beat a Kengan Association fighter for doing so, despite it potentially ruining Koga's chance to become a fighter.
- Boring, but Practical: When he is helping Koga develop his Finishing Move, he emphasizes that the move does not have to be original, simply well polished and reliable. He also nixes the straight punch because that's too simple and ordinary and thus predictable, and spear hand based on how easy it is to break fingers with it, especially with Koga not having done hand conditioning since he was kicked out of Rokushin Karate. Sure enough, Koga ends up using a crescent moon kicknote a simple, reliable, and debilitating attack that can be set up in a lot of different ways.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's extremely eccentric and has the attention span of a child. He's also able to utterly pulverize Koga, even after he's improving himself non-stop for the last couple of months, in two moves. Kureishi says it'd be stupid to think of him as anything but strong despite how stupidly he acts when he is when he's among the five or so best students of a Full-Contact Karate school one to two million members dense.
- At the Purgatory Stadium, he and Kureishi excuse themselves to go hunt down Worms backstage by going off to get more beer despite not even going through half of the six-pack they brought along.
"Alcohol is life." - Cool Uncle: For sure. He's unbothered by Koga's streak of thuggish actions and helps him improve his Karate even though Koga was already expelled from Rokushin Kaikan in the past for picking fights. He and Kureishi decides to make a move on the Worm because they hurt Koga.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Koga underestimates him significantly during their spar as Joji retired from being in competitions (after the Rokushin Tournament in Fist of the Seeker) and generally behaves like he's barely paying attention, on top of Koga having just spent a lot of time around elite underground fighters that he presumes are far above his uncle's level. Then Joji darts across the room and destroys Koga with a single kick to the solar plexus.
- Everyone Has Standards: He'll jump Xia in Purgatory's backstage hallways with Mitsuyo and beat the stuffing out of him to teach him never to hurt Koga again, but he won't kill him and even admits they went a bit over the line with how much they beat him.
- Eye Scream: He lost the eyesight in his left eye fighting a bear in the woods, and has has three distinct scratch marks over his greyed-out left eye. Despite the intimidating appearance, he got the scratches from his ex-wife's domestic abuse of all things.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Not in physical appearance, mind you, but in Fist of the Seeker, Joji is noted to have perfect 180-degree vision despite only having one functional eye. His nephew Koga has similarly amazing eyesight, being able to catch even minute details in the middle of a fight.
- Legacy Character: He's a returning character from Sandrovich's previous work, Fist of the Seeker, where he lost to the main character in the semifinals of the tournament said series featured. This is also why he's chummy with Cosmo's master, who was also present there.
- Man Bites Man: He attempts to invoke this by repeatedly suggesting to Koga that he make "biting the opponent" his special move.
- Papa Wolf: He's not Koga's father but said father's second cousin, but he is his only biological relative that Koga's close to due to helping him get into Rokushin Karate in the past (even if Koga ended up getting kicked out for street-fighting). He even attempts to find the Worm members at the Purgatory stadium alongside Kureishi because they nearly killed Koga in their mission to shut up Kazuo's investigation into Ohma's DNA.Mitsuyo, glowing with Killing Intent: "Let's go greet the Worms that took care of Koga."Joji, similarly: "...Yeah. Greetings are important. I'm well known for my greetings."
- Pressure Point: He used similar pressure point strikes to Nicolas' Sahate except with far more forceful attacks, causing debilitating effects like completely numbing his opponent's body parts near-instantly. His epithet comes from it being compared to a vicious snakebite. Hitting these reliably with big attacks on a moving target is still difficult, however.
- The Stoic: In contrast to Kureshi's...interesting reactions to interrogating/torturing Xia Ji, Joji approaches it unemotionally.
- Those Two Guys: With Kureishi, who he got friendly with during and in the aftermath of the Rokushin Kaikan tournament over a decade ago, with them both mentoring Koga and watching his back as he dives into the deep end by going straight into the Kengan Association.
Mitsuyo Kureishi
"Don't you worry, I only dislocated it🎵 When I do break it, you'll know ❤"
The White Hope of Japan
Age: 34
Imai and later Adam's MMA and Brazilian Jiujitsu master, who runs the Kureishi Dojo.- Berserk Button: Like Joji, Mitsuyo doesn't take kindly to being underestimated or looked down upon. Both were perfectly willing to beat a Kengan Association fighter for doing so, despite it potentially ruining Koga's chance to become a fighter.
- Continuity Cameo: Mitsuyo makes a surprising appearance in Chapter 21 of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, doing his job as a chiropractor for Satomi Tachibana, one of the main characters. This also makes Mitsuyo the first character to make an appearance in all four of Sandrovich's works.
- Deadly Doctor: Mitsuyo is a chiropractor on the side, which he demonstrates by setting Ohma's broken finger back in place after the third round and teaching Kazuo how to do Shiatsu massage. The worst part is that he is legitimately and nationally certified and has plenty of real diplomas, but only got them after he'd already learned how to break people's bodies apart.
- Fetish: Mitsuyo has a downright creepy fascination with breaking his opponents' bones or joints to the point where it turns him on. After turning his first opponent in the Rokushin Tournament into a pretzel of dislocations and breakages, Mitsuyo actually runs off to the bathroom to rub one out to calm down. He takes visible pleasure in dislocating or breaking Xia Ji's joints, with heart symbols in his speech and sticking his tongue out.
- Legacy Character: Originally featured in Sandrovich's previous work, Fist of the Seeker, where he helps the main character expand his Karate skillset with mixed discipline=/MMA fights in mind and joins the Rokushin Tournament, where he was ultimately defeated by Samato Hayakuya.
- Mixed Martial Arts: He's considered one of the ten best in Japan within the discipline, calling himself a "super prodigy" when he's praising Imai's own prodigious skills for his age.
- Punny Name: He's a fun-loving guy with a demented love for breaking bones who's family name is pronounced just like crazy.
- Rugged Scar: A very distinct and thin one across his nose and face, courtesy of Samato's Muay Thai elbow strike.
- Spirited Competitor: He doesn't like the idea of fighting for someone else and seems to take to fighting as a very personal thing that he takes a lot of joy in. This is also why he's not fighting in the Kengan matches despite easily qualifying strength-wise he doesn't like taking sides or to fight for a corporate interest.
- Wrestler in All of Us: One of the best MMA fighters in Japan who is so good at grappling that Cosmo Imai has never, ever scored on him. Unlike Imai who specializes in chokeholds, Mitsuyo specializes in joint locks and bone breaking.
Genzan Taira
The Spiral
The last remaining master of the Koei Style of classical Jiu-jitsu, and a friend of Gensai Kuroki. He's also Kiryu's master and was incited by him to kill Niko Tokita when Kiryu and Ohma were still teenagers before Kiryu killed Genzan in turn.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Ohma had already been through some rough shit, but Genzan killing Niko and then telling him he'd be waiting on Ohma to become strong if he desired revenge was the last straw for him.
- Flash Step: His "Blink" is supposed to be him just moving really fast while the opponent is blinking, but it sure looks like this.
- Posthumous Character: Offed by Setsuna Kiryu after Kiryu mastered his Koei Style.
- Tragic Villain: His martial art has a long and proud history, but is basically extinct due to its practitioners all dying in the Second World War. With grand plans to revive the style, he ended up picking the worst possible successor in Kiryu, who was sent Genzan's way by the "real" Niko to learn his techniques; Kiryu ended up killing him, leaving the fate of Genzan's vaunted Koei Style in the hands of an unhinged madman.
- Unwitting Pawn: Genzan was just an Old Master hoping to leave a legacy that got caught up in a scheme concocted by Worm where he was little more than a sacrificial piece for their goals. While initially presented as Niko's ruthless killer, flashbacks of his time with Kuroki and Kiryu reveal that he was just around the wrong people at the wrong time.
Xing Wu
The Master of Phantasms (夢幻導士, Mugen Tōshi)
Age: 27
The current head of the Wu Clan, a 5000 year old clan of Chinese assassins and the progenitors of the Kure Clan and the Occident Branch of the Wu. He appears in Omega, teaming up with Erioh Kure to hunt down Edward Wu.- Agent Peacock: A deadly and highly experienced assassin who's late mentor and lover, whom Edward Wu killed, was a long-haired man. Xing subjects the amulet with said lover's photograph in it to Lecherous Licking as a gesture of affection after Edward dies.
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: His fighting style is very reminiscent of those used in Wuxia films. His unarmed combat appears to be based on classical kungfu, with him hitting a crane stance at one point, seemingly after landing a kick on Solomon.
- Back Stab: Xing Wu specialises in surprise attacks instead of direct confrontation. When he and Erioh confront Edward Wu, Erioh serves as the distraction, even as the elderly man. That doesn't mean that Xing Wu is a slouch in direct or unarmed combat, able to beat down Solomon Wu, one of Edward's Huisheng clones with ease, while Raian Kure struggled. Using Edward's killing of Erioh as a distraction, he eventually manages to burrow a poisoned knife in Edward's neck.
- Breath Weapon: One can only imagine how uncomfortable it must be to hide both a poisoned needle and gunpowder in your mouth. Despite his effort, Edward renders both useless barehanded with a cigar still in his mouth.
- Combat Pragmatist: His fighting style against Edward is this in spades. Most of his techniques are feints and distractions, so he can stab Edward with his sword.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: While not immediately obvious, the mere fact that Xing Wu is someone Sen and Rei go to train with and learn from and that he can beat down Solomon Wu barehandedly, something Raian genuinely struggled with, shows that he's definitely not someone to be messed with. That said, even with Raian and Erioh as his backups and a sleuth of weapons, Edward throws him around and counters every trick in his arsenal as an unmatched assassin.
- Culture Equals Costume: Wears a white chanshang.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Huisheng technique used by the Westward Wu clan was sealed by the mainline Wu and Kure Clans. Xing Wu would like to keep it that way.
- Look Behind You: Attempts it against Edward by shouting for Erioh to go "Now!" while the old man was still getting up, causing Edward to glance away and for Xing to slash at him. only for Edward to backhand the sword into pieces and get a little mad at falling for the oldest trick in the book.
- Lost Lenore: Xing Wu's unnamed lover and master was killed by Edward Wu, leading him to team up with the Kure Clan to hunt him down.
- Multi-Melee Master: He has a whole arsenal of weapons straight out of a Wuxia film, from a dao with a rope cord that he can use from range to spitting needles and a flame breath, all to allow him to land a surprise attack. Edward Wu considers Xing Wu old-fashioned for relying on these techniques in the 21st century.
- The Stoic: He seems more stoic than Erioh when encountering the man who killed his uncle and his lover. He also appears to have no problem with letting outsiders train with his clan in particular Rei Mikazuchi and Sen Hatsumi and even passing them some of the Wu Clan techniques.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: As expected from the Wu Clan and its branches, Xing Wu can use Guihun. As the head of his clan he has a release rate of 100%.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: In spite being the youngest head he shows great knowledge in his clan's history and their forbidden techniques.
- Wire Fu: Edward backhands his sword so hard that there's nothing left of it save a stump and the handle, but Xing still gets good use of it by binding up Edward's left wrist with it in a tight knot and then proceeding to try to stab him with what's left of his sword. Edward stops his sword arm with his palm and proceeds to Human Hammer-Throw him into Erioh before flinging what's left of the sword at them.
- Young and in Charge: Out of the three clan branches, he is by far the youngest clan head compared to the middle-aged Edward Wu and the elderly Erioh Kure, slightly ironic considering his branch is the progenitor of the others. This is due to having to suddenly take over after Edward and his Westward goons killed all Xing's higher-ups.
Fabio Wu
The King of Brutality (残虐王, Zangyaku-ō)
Age: 43
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He wears a full suit with a necktie and can manhandle Raian with Solomon.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted. He and Solomon are considerably more dangerous working together against a single opponent.
- Death or Glory Attack: Charges at Erioh in Revenge for killing Fabio's brother in the past after Erioh stabs him In the Back. Erioh finishes him with a dagger to the throat and then turns him into Half the Man He Used to Be.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: After the sword through the lung and a knife in the throat didn't finish him off.
- In-Series Nickname: His childhood nickname was "Lupin" due to a resemblance to the titular lead of that series.
- In the Back: Erioh drives a katana through one of his lungs. Somehow, this doesn't kill or even incapacitate him instantly.
- Revenge: Wants this on Kure Erioh for killing his brother in the past.
- Soul Jar: He's one of four Wu Hei backups in case Edward bites the bullet.
- Super Mode: Like all the Wu Hei's, he has 100% Uninhibited Muscle Power that he can use on-demand without any drawbacks.
- We Hardly Knew You: Unceremoniously disembowled from ribcage through his skull one-and-a-half chapters after his introduction.
Solomon Wu
The Fist-Breaking King (破拳王 Haken-ō)
Age: 43
- Ambiguously Brown: He could pass for a Middle Eastern man with his ochre skin and being an early Silver Fox, despite being Russian by nationality.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Has very bushy brows and incredibly defined browbones.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He can go punch-for-punch with Raian, but doesn't hold a candle to Xing, even with both of them using 100% Guihun and then Erioh cuts his head off with the knife Solomon had just been given to by Edward, offscreen and only moments after Edward had just finished curb stomping the Kures and Xing.
- The Giant: Solomon is an enormous man who primarily fights with sheer brawn, and is noted to struggle with tricky opponents like Xing.
- Lightning Bruiser: Can match Raian blow for blow but can't gain a real advantage against him.
- Not Drawn to Scale: Solomon is supposed to 222cm and 199 kilos, about as wide as Julius, but he's only slightly bigger than Edward walking side-by-side.
- Off with His Head!: Erioh tears Solomon's head off with the knife Solomon had just been loaned to finish off the Kures and Xing after Edward's rampage. Erioh even throws the head at Edward, who just exhales in disappointment.
- Soul Jar: He's one of four Wu Hei backups in case Edward bites the bullet.
- Super Mode: Like all the Wu Hei's, he has 100% Uninhibited Muscle Power that he can use on-demand without any drawbacks.
Howard Wu
The Conquering King (征服王, Seifuku-ō)
Age: 59
- Badass in a Nice Suit: A huge Old Master with a full head of long hair, a thick beard and dressed to kill in style, as opposed to Edward and Gilbert Wu's more modern and brazen Fashionista looks. Him and his Quirky Miniboss Squad seem to be modeled after British Wild Boys and slum gangs◊ of the Victorian and early Edwardian eras.
- Blade on a Rope: The very best with these shown to date with Xing Wu and Long Min not even being in his league. He chopped a trained assassin in half before a dozen other ones present even saw Howard move.
- Combat Pragmatism: Unlike Edward Wu who fully embraced being a Bare-Fisted Monk, he fights with a sword on a rope like Xing Wu. He is so good with it that he can suppress the sound of the whistling wind, allowing to him to strike his opponents by surprise while winding up his attack."There's no reason for alarm. You thought I wouldn't bring a weapon?"
- Curb Stomp Cushion: He is ultimately killed by Gilbert Wu between pages but not before dispatching two of his men with one swing of his blade each, including an Offhand Backhand while staring Gilbert down. It is then revealed that Gilbert is a clone of Edward Wu, who used Huisheng to transfer his personality and give Gilbert all the techniques of Wu Hei. Even then, Edward (through Gilbert) thinks he was lucky to fight Howard Wu in a younger body, primarily because Howard dismissed Gilbert as an overgrown brat and had no way of knowing that his opponent would be so fierce.
- Evil Brit: He's still far better than Edward or Worm, but unlike his brother, Howard Wu looks like a quintessential sinister British man in a vest and suit pants except on a monstrously bulky physique.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Howard Wu is the last vessel of Wu Hei and leader of the Moderate part of the Westward Wu clan, who prefers the assassin tradition over Edward Wu's radical ideas of change. He is still a highly dangerous assassin leading a group of Professional Killers, but would not antagonize the Kure Clan or hook up with Worm for a chance to gain more power like Edward and Gilbert Wu did.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being a mountain of a man at 214cm and 175 kilos, Howard Wu's expertise lies in his masterful use of a sword at very high speeds.
- Master Swordsman: Rather than rely on unarmed combat, Howard Wu has mastered the roped dao to such an extent he can spin his weapon at the speed of a proverbial whirlwind without it making noise from air resistance. His profile describes his skill with the sword as "the peak of humanity" and that the situation at Mt. Godslayer the other Wu Hei's were caught up in would have gone radically differently if Howard had tagged along. Erioh even asks Raian to go and train to defeat Howard.
- Old Master: He puts what Long Min and Xing Wu can do with a dao to complete shame, chopping a trained killer like Klaas Wu in half and some other spare pieces from half a dozen meters away before anyone even knew what was happening, much less saw Howard Wu draw and twirl his sword.
- Sinister Scimitar: He's one of the top members of the amoral Westward Wu clan, but his fighting style with a weapon is Chinese, as he wields a massive BFS in the shape of a curved dao on a rope.
- Stealth Insult: Edward's diss to Xing Wu about swords being outdated and useless in the modern day? Turns out it's Trash Talk toward this guy.
- Super Mode: Being a vessel of Wu Hei, he has the elusive 100% like his other four selves, but interestingly he only uses it on the right half of his body; the one he wields his Dao with.
Willlem Wu
Gilbert's remaining lieutnant after the Westward Wu civil war.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Raian beats him without using Removal while taunting him the whole time.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: He's usually the one keeping watch over his more gluttonous superior Gilbert, to the point where he sicced Willem on Akoya while leaning out of the way of an incoming combat knife instead of getting up from the stolen gourmet food, and Willem easily handled Akoya until he got counter-attacked during the finishing blow.
- Informed Ability: In-Universe Willem claims that he has the strongest muscles in the world but Raian laughs at it, thinking of at least two fighters with more raw strength after he easily push him back using the same kind of trick as Shen Wulong of pushing down the incoming force.
- Super-Strength: On top of being able to use Guihun to a 100% release, he has Superman Syndrome. He is able to crack and bruise Akoya's new upgraded Power Armor with his bare hands and his elbows without using Guihun.
- Underestimating Badassery: Despite being overwhemingly stronger than Akoya he ends up losing to the detective's tenacity as he keeps getting back up until he can parry Willem's attack and hit him with a taser.
Mukaku Gaoh (SPOILERS!)
"Ryuki, promise your grandpa that you'll kill all the worms. Those pests must be exterminated. I'll teach you how to kill them."
A legendary fighter of the Gaoh Style of classical Jiu-jitsu who tried to unify the Inside for over thirty years, and the founder of the Niko Style, which he taught to many of the orphans of the Inside such as Ohma's Niko. He disappeared in Gakigahara Forest many years before the series began......In reality, he was originally known as Long Xiu, the sole surviving member of the Dragon Clan, the third group originally under the Connector's command; A vast familial unit like the Kure or Wu that descended from Long Min, a hero of the Chu State during the Spring and Autumn period
. The previous Shen Wulong wiped out the group after they rebelled against him 85 years ago, but he spared a young Xiu due to recognizing the youth was wise enough not to take him on, furious as he was.He would eventually make his way to become a member of another Worm syndicate, the Wowang, a five-man death squad that wiped out groups that opposed Worm. Through their leader Dage, a former aide of the at-the-time Head of Worm who was told to start the splinter-group, Long Xiu instigated a rebellion against Wulong by appealing to Dage's growing Power High. Thus, Wowang organized a hit on The Connector in the 1940's when he was alone in a bar, after spending years preparing for the event. The Connector dismantled their carefully planned jumping attack in seconds, while killing everyone involved except Mukaku. Barely surviving, he fled to Japan where he went into the Inside, changed his name, engineering the Gaoh Style based on an instruction manual for a martial art he had brought with him that he embellished to further his reputation, which he transformed into the Niko Style alongside seven disciples, seemingly all for the chance to one day kill The Connector.
- Ambiguous Situation: As noted by the narrator and Ryuki after his death, a lot of questions about him don't have clear answers. Did he try to kill the Connector to avenge the Dragon Clan (like Shen thought) or was it because he got ambitious and tried to take over the Worm (as Retsudo thought)? Did he care about the Nikos in some way (while still willing to risk their lives) or were they just pawns to him? Did he care about Ryuki or was it a lie? The only thing certain is that Mukaku sacrificed a lot of people in his quest to kill Shen.
- Abusive Parents: He turned his adoptive grandson Ryuki into an assassin through hellish training to carry out his Revenge against Worm and sometimes made cruel jokes on him.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Massive horn-like ones shaped like the lines under the eyes of some species of parrot that make him seem like he's scowling even with a neutral expression.
- Blatant Lies: He uses this as part of his persona to cover for the fact that he's genuinely a Consummate Liar to Xia Ji's degree. When Koga asks him how the old coot is so huge and strong at his age, Mukaku replies that he simply does his radio calisthenics, only for Shen to later pinpoint that Mukaku has an absurd intake of steroids to thank for his Super-Strength.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Mukaku has a rather kooky and superficially friendly persona, but will brutally kill any man stupid enough to fuck with him when he's asking questions. Ogi learned this the very hard way."I thought I told you I wasn't in the mood for games. Weren't you listening, numbnuts?"
- Cigar Chomper: Even in what must be his nineties, he still smokes cigars and lights one over what he assumes is Ryuki's dead body during Ryuki's Training from Hell. His heavy smoking habits seems to have become a Character Tic for the remaining Nikos, who smoke a ceramic pipe similar to the one Mukaku pulls out to tell Ohma, Koga and friends his story.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Gaoh Style that his grandson uses stresses the importance of sneak attacks. He also found lethal use for the Armorclad technique by hardening the ligaments in his hand via clenching all the muscles in his arm, making him able to use his thumb like a dagger capable of gouging out someone's throat. He himself uses the Gaoh Style when he is not in the mood to fight and is going for a quick kill. Furthermore he explicitly derides Ohma's Niko Style for not training with the use of a weapon in mind. His battle with Shen Wulong puts this on full display, with Mukaku using sneak attacks, hidden weapons and even a room full of carbon monoxide in his ultimately futile attempt to kill The Connector.
- The Corruptor: He was the one who tempted Dage, the leader of Wowang, into having their group betray Shen, despite them having swear allegiance to him.
- Covered in Scars: Outside of two scratch-like scars on his forehead, he was untouched when he went into the Inside. Thirty years down the line, he's almost got more scars than he has unblemished skin, though most of it seems to have healed since then.
- Create Your Own Villain: Two of the Seven Nikos turned on Mukaku, with the Other Niko even selling his techniques to Worm. Given some of his training methods and real personality it's no wonder a few pupils would hate his guts.
- Deadly Gas: He rigged his temple homebase with two separate air conditioning systems; One pumps lethal doses of carbon monoxide into the room, while the other provides three safe-spots around the room, though Mukaku still has a mask in the floorboards for good measure. Unfortunately, Shen was prepared for such a scenario through yogic breathing as his breathing is already adjusted for living in what's implied to be the Chinese part of the Himalayas for millenia.
- Dented Iron: Ryuki's flashbacks of him show that he's lost a fair amount of muscle from his prime and his countenance is softer and more fatigued, although he is still ridiculously muscular for his age.
- Determinator: He fought for thirty years straight against opponent after opponent to try and create order in the Inside, before eventually leaving the job to seven successors of his. He didn't succeed, but it was one hell of an attempt. And as the Inside arc of Omega revealed, he has not actually stopped either, he singled out the Connector as the root cause of the problem and he is still working hard to kill him even if it will be the last thing Mukaku ever does. The Connector mentions he is the first person to make an attempt on his life three times: for context, most who make an attempt on The Connector’s life die the first time around.
- Evil Counterpart: To Kuroki Gensai. Both are older men with a wealth of experience (and facial hair) and are among the strongest fighters in the story's universe. Both are mentors to younger figures, passing on their own styles to their pupils. However, Kuroki cares for the growth of his students, even if he isn't quick to show it. Mukaku treats his apprentices as little more than tools, and is quick to abandon the Niko Style he cultivated along with his surviving students when Six betrays him for the Worm.
- Evil Old Folks: It's at the very least implied, and later shown in it's full glory, that Mukaku despite fighting The Worm is just as bad as them... which makes sense given that his biggest problem with Worm is that he's not in charge of it. Ryuki tells Koga that Mukaku used to be hard enough on him that the mauling he received from Seishu Akoya was nothing in comparison and his killer instincts and genocidal doctrine towards Worms were deeply ingrained by Mukaku while he was still a child. He regularly starved Ryuki on purpose to make him actively tap into a fight-or-flight killer instinct that makes Ryuki act out on his opponents more like a starved animal than an assassin with a motive.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Understanding the importance of reputation, he's cultivated a mythic image of his fighting style and presents himself as an avenging scion of the Inside determined to bring order to the violent Japanese demilitarized zone he was born into and even entering the Kengan Matches in the past to build this reputation further, when in actuality he's an immigrant from mainland China that came to Japan after he failed his attempt at Shen Wulong's life and embellished another martial art's techniques to create the Gaoh Style.
- Fatal Flaw: Mukaku is both a terrifying fighter and skilled strategist but has zero trust towards others and even towards his own capabilities. He manipulates people then abandons them when his gambits fail, he doped himself to compensate for his age and bet everything on underhanded tactics instead of his martial arts. This leads to Mukaku fighting Shen alone since he pushed away everyone he didn't send to die, and goes from one ambush tactic to another instead of persevering through one path.
- Fingore: Just to make extra sure Mukaku won't get a fourth attempt on his life, Shen Wulong removes all of Mukaku's fingers while bisecting him.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Shen Wulong straight-up bisects him with his own katana at the end of their fight.
- Hidden Weapons: During his brief scrap with Ohma he pulls a dagger out of nowhere mid-swing that slices Ohma's left hand.
- Horrifying the Horror: Both ways.
- This hundred-year old coot had Ohma, who to remind you, took a straight-up attempted (and temporarily successful) murderous beating from Kuroki Gensai and still went back to fighting, telling the others that they should just accept his surrender and get out of there.
Ohma: ''"I've seen plenty of strong guys in my time, but I've never seen anyone like that. Everything that came out of his mouth was hot air. He was one hell of a con-man. He called himself a fraud, but his power was unfathomable. It's not just that he's strong, I don't want anything to do with him any more. I dunno about this "Connector", but that old man's a monster in human form.- He himself is reduced to blank-faced horror and sweating like mad from Shen Wulong systematically dismantling his 80-years-in-the-making hit on him, with the same kind of nonchalance a Karate master affords to a white belt.
Shen: "Hey, I haven't finished complimenting you yet." - Human Shield: Apparently how he survived the failed attempt on Shen's previous incarnation in the 1940's; using his four comrades as shields and feigning death in a similar manner to how he instructs Ryuki to endure ungodly suffering to learn how to be fully conscious at death's door.
- Infodump: Used against him by Retsudo, who essentially bluffs him into revealing the truth about the Gaoh Style and his real backstory after barraging him with factoids and accusations relating to his past.
- Irony: Despite being one of the most enormously muscled characters in the series that towers over normal-sized people, his martial art of choice is one passed down among Dirty Coward assassins in more feudal times that heavily emphasizes sneak attacks and other dirty moves. Ryuki's Earth-Crouching Dragon is theorized by Kazuo to have been originally developed as a way to stab with a dagger from a prostrate position on the ground instead of an incredibly low uppercut.
- It's Personal:
- He hates Shen Wulong for slaughtering his entire clan. Much of his motivations and actions stem from getting a chance to kill him.
- This is apparently so severe that Retsudo thinks it's why he approached with an Attack Hello via axe-swing against Ohma and why his training of Ryuki is a thinly-disguised Cold-Blooded Torture; He's extending this grudge to Shen's clones and training Ryuki wrong and torturing him out of spite.
- Lack of Empathy: At first it appears that his complete apathy towards life and death is just an Inside thing, similar to Himuro and The General's "Inside Humor", but during his backstory it becomes supremely clear that he cares about nothing but his own goals and everyone around him are either potential pawns or potential enemies. It's early Foreshadowing that he used to be a Worm himself, as their approach to Collective Identity and Brainwashing are nearly identical.Mukaku, impassively finding a student's murdered corpse: "Seven, what are you doing dead?"
- Made of Iron: His mastery of Indestructible shattered Ogi's hand from just punching, even as the punch still made Mukaku reel a little afterwards. Koga's "Flashing Steel: Smash" doesn't even manage that.
- Master of All: As the man who invented the Niko Style, which is a grab bag of many techniques of other martial arts with some occasional improvements, he has an extensive skillset to use for any situation. His Gaoh Style also covers sneak attacks and assassination methods, which complements the Niko Style if direct combat is not an option.
- Meaningful Name: In typical fashion for Kengan characters not based on real people, his name has this in spades.
- "Gaoh/臥王" is a common Japanese idiom, typically translated in English as "Crouching King", referring to an exceptional man hidden among the commonfolk. Very fitting for a musclebound giant killer of a man who settled in as a Powers That Be in his own right in The Inside.
- "Mukaku/鵡角" is the Japanese rendering of another Chinese idiom, this one in particular being a combination of a kanji for "Martial arts" more or less unique in it's use to Jin Yong Wuxia pieces, and an archaic term for Parrot, a particularly wise and long-lived animal.
- Essentially, this old coot's name reads as "Crouching King, Martial Parrot".
- Mighty Glacier: He's not noticeably slow by any means, but him pushing a hundred years old costed him a portion of his agility. He has to compensating doping and mastery of the Adamantine Kata to make up for his declining maneuverability in fighting.
- Motive Misidentification: Retsudo assumed that his rebellion and grudge against Worm came from Mukaku getting ambitious and attempting to take over the group. He lets them believes it since he doesn't really care what they think of him, but in reality, his grudge comes from earlier. He hated Shen ever since the latter killed the entire Dragon Clan, except for a then-teenaged Mukaku.
- Muscles Are Meaningful:
- He is absolutely huge even by the standards of the series, with fists bigger than Ohma's head. Even getting on in age, he proves to be a hunk of muscle that stood twice as tall as the teenagers he's seen instructing in the Niko Style (though many of them would grow up to be his size) and still looks like a musclebound hulk at around a hundred years old.
- This becomes even more evident in the present during the Inside arc of Omega, where his arms are still rippling with muscle and make him capable of delivering chops that can internally decapitate even a giant of a man like Ogi, while simultaneously able to mostly shrug off Ogi's punch to the chest that could have killed a normal man instantly.
- Neck Snap: His "Root Cutter" technique is a chop to the back of the neck that hits so hard that both the muscles and spinal cord appear to be torn.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is willing to do a lot of horrible stuff to get rid of Worm, most notably his training of Ryuki. However, it isn't because of any moral standard, but purely a case of It's Personal against Shen Wulong who culled his rebellious branch of Worm down to just him and even if it takes him eighty years, Mukaku will have his revenge or die trying.
- Oh, Crap!: He was already expecting one hell of a fight from Shen Wulong, but even Mukaku is reduced to cold-sweating terror in a matter of moments by Shen after his initial attacks are systematically dismantled without Shen having to give as much as an inch. Then he has several more as he slowly realizes, from attack after attack against Shen being rendered worthless, that he's way in over his head.
- Old Master: He was a massive, musclebound man in his prime when he started his conquest of the Inside, but he's visibly graying by the time he decided to found the Niko Style, and downright ancient in the present, but his wits are still razor-sharp and while not what he used to be, Mukaku is insanely built for a man in his 100's. The Connector is genuinely impressed that Mukaku is not only alive at his age, but stronger than ever.
- One-Man Army: Explicitly described as such by Kuroki Gensai, no less. Given Gaoh fought entire crime syndicates singlehandedly for at least seven decades, it isn't far from the truth. Even being over a hundred years old, he has no problem issuing a challenge to Ohma, Retsudo and Himuro at the same time.
- Power Fist: Uses enormous Wuxia-movie style gauntlets with iron pellets to throw as part of the initial charge and a huge knife in one of his gauntlets' wristbands for a surprise Quick Draw. They also allow him to easily tear apart the flimsy walls of his temple home to throw the splinters at his enemy. None of these things even faze Shen Wulong.
- Shrouded in Myth:
- Tried to create this by teaching many orphans the Niko Style and getting all of them to adopt the name "Niko Tokita". He planned to control the Inside by spreading the myth of "Niko", an invincible warrior who is capable of being everywhere at the same time. After an incident in Gakigahara Forest which lead to the death of most of the orphans, he disappeared, becoming a myth himself.
- He himself is also this, with all the information we know about him being from tertiary sources who have never actually met him, so his motives and the intent behind his actions are unknown, until he re-enters the story during the Inside arc in Omega.
- Sole Survivor: Twice he was the recipient of this trope:
- First, he was the only survivor of the Dragon Clan who rebelled against Shen and that’s only because he was wise enough not to take him on, as furious as he was.
- Second, he was the only survivor of Wowang, who were killed trying to kill Shen due to Mukaku's manipulations.
- Super-Strength: He shatters Retsudo's karambit with one stomp while wearing sandals and sends both Ohma and Retsudo, who is standing behind Ohma, flying a few feet backwards with one "Ironbreaker" punch. Not that incredible compared to the other strongmen in the setting but then again, none of them are over a hundred years old. He uses steroids to gain even more brute strength than from when he was young to compensate for his age.
- Training from Hell: Many of his students have brutally died, and those who don't should have, as the Nikos' many victims can attest to. Ryuki's training goes beyond such and straight into torture to bring out tenacity and a killer instinct in him. Subverted with his training in Gakigahara forest which, while intense and going sideways because of the traitor Niko, the students instead took as more of a holiday, to the point that he had to confiscate the ready-made meals Niko One had brought with him. Even then, he afterwards ended up joining them in the first night fun with the alcohol and snacks that Niko Three had brought with him.
- Unreliable Narrator: In his lengthy backstory, he noticably skips over his entire youth and leaves out the teeny tiny detail that the only reason It's Personal for him with Worm is that Mukaku was on the losing end of an internal struggle in the organisation. Retsudo, who has been investigating Mukaku and the Gaoh Style at length, calls his bluff.
- Walking Spoiler: His existence is tied to a major reveal near the end of Ashura concerning the backstories of Ohma, both the Nikos and Kuroki Gensai and it's even harder to talk about the fact that he's alive and kicking after having been thought dead for years because it happens literally four hundred chapters deep into the series, in the Inside arc of Omega. And that's before even going into the many reveals about his past that happened after his introduction.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: To accentuate the accumulating scars he’s gained during his battles in the Inside, he's never seen with his shirt on during Kuroki's retelling of his story, only a set of sarashi and his pants.
- Worf Effect: He is a Living Legend who created the Niko Style and has every dirty trick in the book from the Gaoh Style for a quick kill. He is still hopelessly outmatched by Shen Wulong, even when The Connector reduced his physical prowess to Mukaku's level to show that Shen Wulong's reputation as the true World's Best Warrior in the series is earned.
- World's Strongest Man: Definitely one of the contestants for the title, given that he went undefeated for thirty years of fighting the problem-makers of the Inside nonstop, which was filled to the brim with violent gangs, psychopaths, and other martial artists. This makes his record greater than that of any Kengan or Purgatory fighter known to exist. Even as an old withered man he's able to near-instantly kill a high-ranking Worm in such a brutal and swift fashion that it slingshots back from ultraviolent into an almost Toon Physics application of martial arts.
Ichinoshin Yamashita (SPOILERS!)
The Kengan
- Blood Knight: Ichinoshin loved fighting so much that he viewed dying within a fight as where he wanted his resting place to be.
- Determinator: Ichinoshin fought until the very end even when injuries that occurred in the Kengan matches began to take their toll, and would gladly fulfill his wish to fight for his friend Eikichi Nogiya until he died shortly after winning the semifinals of a tournament at the time.
- Hereditary Hairstyle: He shares the same hairstyle as his descendant Kazuo.
- Implacable Man: Even when he was beaten badly and suffered a severe amount of injuries he still continued battling until he died.
- Meaningful Name: His epithet being The Kengan meaning "Fist Eye", referring to Ichinoshin's kinetic vision that allows him to predict many opponent's oncoming attacks.
- Posthumous Character: Died from the cumulative damage of the fights he participated in days before the first Kengan Annihilation Tournament's finals.
- Red Baron: "The Kengan" as he basically has the name of the biggest underground association in the world.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Though Ichinoshin himself doesn't play a major role in the story, his existence and bloodline are the cause for the current Kengan Annihilation Tournament to be occuring in the first place due to the Nogi family telling their heirs ever since of the man who brought them fame and fortune in the first place.
- Strong and Skilled: From what we are given he was shown to be a very skilled martial artist and also very powerful, with him being able to fight and throw men up to twice his size to the ground.
- Super-Reflexes: Along with his kinetic vision he was able to react quickly to any oncoming attacks by either countering, redirecting, or evading the opponent.
- Super-Senses: Ichinoshin possessed incredible kinetic vision that allowed him to predict and evade many attacks against him. This incredible vision would be inherited, albeit without The Gift for physical prowess that Ichinoshin had with it, by his descendant Kazuo.
