Kyora Sazanami

Overview

Synopsis

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Kyora Sazanami
Japanese	漣 (さざなみ) 京 (きょう) 羅 (ら)
Rōmaji	Sazanami Kyōra
Relatives	Sora Sazanami (father) † Unnamed wife † Enji Sazanami (son) Soya Sazanami (son) ? Tamaki Sazanami (daughter) Hakuri Sazanami (son) Tenri Sazanami (son) † At least 3 other children
Biographical Information
Status	Deceased
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Eye Color	Blue
Hair Color	White
Sorcery	Storehouse (Inherited)
Professional Information
Previous Affiliation	Sazanami Clan
Previous Occupation	Head of the Sazanami Clan Lead Auctioneer of the Rakuzaichi Sazanami Clan Sorcerer
Debut
Manga	Chapter 19 (silhouette) Chapter 21 (debut)

“Everyone come back! We're just getting warmed up... The auction will proceed... as planned!” ― Kyora Sazanami's relentless dedication to the Rakuzaichi

Kyora Sazanami (漣 (さざなみ) 京 (きょう) 羅 (ら) , Sazanami Kyōra) was the eleventh and most recent head of the Sazanami Clan, who have overseen the Rakuzaichi auction for over 200 years.

He is the primary antagonist in the Rakuzaichi Arc.

Appearance

Kyora's full appearance

Kyora was a tall and slighty muscular middle-aged man with blue eyes and slicked back white hair. He also dons a moustache separated in two parts which extends horizontally past his face. Kyora typically dons a dark purple suit over a collared white polo shirt with a yellow spiral-patterned tie, as well black pants and shoes.

When activating his sorcery in order to access the Storehouse, a black discolouration forms over an area around his left eye, with a white eyepiece covering the eye proper.

When using Magatsumi, Kyora's right eye slightly darkened as an external force (which Kyora surmised to be the blade or its bearer) attempted to possess him, darkening further the closer he approached becoming fully possessed.

Personality

Kyora was a cold, stoic, cunning and calm individual, almost always seen maintaining a sophisticated disposition. As the patriarch of the Sazanami clan, he took his role as the lead auctioneer seriously and makes sure to have perfectly everything in order. He was also apathetic, which was seen mostly in his relationship with Hakuri, Kyora cared very little for his son and saw him as a failure and a shame to the family because of his inability to use sorcery. Another example of his lack of empathy was the fact he kept humans imprisoned in the Storehouse as a part of his "collection".

He saw himself as a collector, showing a great interest in the Enchanted Blades and when Chihiro made a deal of letting him and Hakuri escape in exchange for Enten, he agreed with no hesitation. Kyora believed greatly in the material value things hold, and regardex items that have taken life to be the most valuable of all, therefore he considered the humans he had imprisoned replaceable while the enchanted blades far more valuable than them.

When it came to combat, Kyora chose to stay behind and instead make detailed and calculated plans. He had shown to be intelligent and a great schemer, having the upper hand against Chihiro in their first encounter, forcing him to hold back and not kill him because doing it could potentially mean losing Shinuchi forever. He even realized Chihiro had a plan for the day of the Rakuzaichi and made ample preparations beforehand, arranging for the Tou to guard the Naginojoen and destroying the Storehouse's emergency door. He admited to enjoy having business that offered him a challenge and formidable opponents, which was seen by his eagerness of facing Chihiro again.

Kyora was incredibly confident, even when his own life is on the line; the only time he had shown anything resembling panic was when Hakuri sent Chihiro to the Storehouse and began evacuating the items and people within, threatening to ruin the auction for good.

His value for the Rakuzaichi came above all else; Kyora was willing to sacrifice his children and even himself for the auction, and even having suffered fatal wounds he was determined to proceed the auction no matter what. Kyora's willpower and devotion to the Rakuzaichi was so strong that he managed to ward off the attempts of Magatsumi's bearer to possess his mind entirely despite having already taken a fatal wound, and still continue to attempt to proceed the auction, to the point where he managed to stall the crumbling of his Storehouse long enough for Chihiro and Hakuri to rescue all of the prisoners inside.

Only in his final moments did Kyora regret his actions and how he had treated his children merely as tools for the Rakuzaichi, catalysed by his remembering of his wife's last words. After acknowledging how he had lost his family all due to his devotion to the Rakuzaichi and position as Sazanami clan head and lead auctioneer, Kyora admitted defeat to Chihiro, surrendering Magatsumi to him before dying.

Relationships

Family

Sora Sazanami

Following his death, Sora entrusted the Sazanami Clan to his son Kyora. As with all clan heads before him, Kyora swore to uphold the clan's values and defend the Rakuzaichi no matter what. Kyora's oath to the clan was so great that it allowed him to resist the mental invasion of Magatsumi and ensure he remained himself until his death.

Soya Sazanami

Ordinarily, Kyora holds great respect for and trust in his son, informing him of his choice to slate him as future head of the Sazanami Clan, due to Soya's high level of intelligence; while Kyora notes Tenri's combat capabilities are on par with Soya's, in the event of losing his sorcery Soya would have the better mind to make up for his loss of power. Kyora also trusted Soya enough to inform him of the first clan head's dual sorcery techniques as well as his hopes that another similar individual may reemerge within the clan. Like the rest of his siblings, Soya respects his father and is dedicated to the Rakuzaichi.

However, Kyora negatively views Soya's possessiveness over and abuse of Hakuri; not due to any worry over Hakuri's health, but rather because it distracted Soya from his duties, and has repeatedly told him to stop focusing on Hakuri. When Soya is in proximity of Hakuri, he immediately begins rushing towards him, even ignoring commands his father has previously ordered.

Hakuri Sazanami

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Tenri Sazanami

Tenri truly loved his father, and his praise was enough for him to give his all. His words were the sole absolute authority to Tenri, so much so that he was willing to “defend the Rakuzaichi to the death”. One of his main desires was to make Kyora proud, and defending his honor was one of Tenri's main goals. Even during his failure, Tenri's last words to Kyora were simple words of apology.

Enji Sazanami

As head of the clan, Enji respects Kyora's decisions, obeying his commands such as when summoned to confront Chihiro and Shiba at the Sazanami estate. During the Tou's conversing outside the Naginojoen, Enji justified Kyora's lack of informing them about the situation and tried to assure his siblings to simply focus on the task at hand. Nevertheless, Enji was flabbergasted upon learning that Kyora had ordered Tenri's death to protect the already-broken emergency door, but continued to attempt to defend the Rakuzaichi.

Tamaki Sazanami

As head of the clan, Tamaki respects Kyora's decisions, obeying his commands such as when summoned to confront Chihiro and Shiba at the Sazanami estate. She is not above questioning his decisions, such as during their guard post at the Naginojoen, though said questions were more fuelled out of genuine curiosity rather than scepticism.

Hishaku

In order to ensure the Kamunabi retrieved Shinuchi, Yura gave it to Kyora to be sold at the Rakuzaichi, which would undoubtedly catch the Kamunabi's attention, and the Hishaku continued to provide support to the Sazanami Clan in the form of a piece of semi-stabilised Datenseki, which Yura personally gave to Kyora and Kyora was appreciative of. Kyora was cordial in his dialogue with Yura, the two men having a primarily business relationship. Yura also viewed Kyora as a test subject in regards to investigating how Shinuchi's bearer would react to its unsealing.

Enemies

Chihiro Rokuhira

While initially cold and professional with his demands against Kyora, Chihiro quickly grows a personal dislike of him due to Kyora's purely financial interest in the Enchanted Blades, with no respect to the nuances of the blades' creation, and Kyora even telling Chihiro not to try retrieving his father's blades and instead bid on them.

Chihiro is disgusted when he sees Kyora use his own son, Hakuri, as a hostage, but ultimately decides to hand over his blade to ensure Hakuri's safety, as well as gain a viewpoint into the Storehouse. Kyora is sure Chihiro has ulterior motives with the handover but agrees anyway, regarding business transactions without deals as boring. Kyora views the sparring of wits against Chihiro as a challenge.

Togo Shiba

Kyora was wary of Shiba's abilities and deliberately placed the Tou next to the Naginojoen doors in cognisance of the fact that the location was likely Shiba and Chihiro's target.

Abilities

Overall Abilities: Kyora was the head of the Sazanami Clan, one of the most influential families of the underworld. He holds command over 50 sorcerers of the Sazanami Clan, who are capable enough to defend the entirety of the Rakuzaichi building's internal areas without external assistance. Kyora also holds the position of Lead Auctioneer of the Rakuzaichi, giving him effective control over all aspects of the auction. Due to his position as head of the Sazanami Clan, he holds control over the Storehouse. Despite not considering himself a physical fighter, he is easily able to deal with any obstructions to the Rakuzaichi, and can clash with the likes of Chihiro Rokuhira, an incredibly capable fighter wielding an Enchanted Blade, believing himself capable of defeating Chihiro so long as they battled within the Storehouse.

Tactical Intelligence: Kyora was an incredibly tactical individual, and much prefers mental battles as opposed to physical ones. He is quick to uncover the plans of his opponents and even quicker at coming up with plans of his own.

When suddenly confronted by Chihiro and Shiba, whom he knew he would lose to in a proper fight, Kyora kept his composure and instead chose to reveal secrets of the Storehouse's operation, preying on their unwillingness to risk the lives of the people kept in the Storehouse to diminish their willlingness to fight before summoning the Tou. Upon Shiba and Soya's teleportation to the Sazanami estate, a single mention of Hakuri from Soya immediately led Kyora to realise Hakuri was the one who had led them to the estate, and Kyora promptly summoned Hakuri and used him as a hostage.

Before the 208th Rakuzaichi, Kyora knew Chihiro had not given up Enten for nothing and correctly predicted Chihiro had uncovered the emergency access door, sending the Tou to the Naginojoen's sealed entrance door to protect it and additionally destroying it entirely so Chihiro's group would waste energy trying to access it.

Enhanced Reflexes: Kyora was able to track Chihiro's movements even while his speed was enhanced by Nishiki, and was able to ward off a near-fatal slash from Chihiro through counterattacking. Similarly, when Chihiro sped through the Storehouse, Kyora was able to expertly track him, continually attacking him using the earth of the Storehouse.

Sorcery

A projection of the Storehouse's interior

Storehouse (蔵 (くら) , Kura): As head of the Sazanami Clan, Kyora holds near-exclusive access to the family's Storehouse, where all goods slated for auction are stored. The Storehouse is described to be a subspace-like dimension that extends infinitely and does not exist in the real world. An emergency door to the Storehouse was located within the Naginojoen, the Sazanami Clan's cemetery, located under the Rakuzaichi building in a heavily sealed room, but it was destroyed by Kyora prior to the 208th Rakuzaichi.

While accessing the Storehouse, the area around Kyora's left eye is obscured by a black flare-like discolouration, as with his children when entering their shockwave-generating state, but unlike them a white eyepiece also emerges over the eye proper. Kyora has displayed the following abilities involving the Storehouse:

Kyora summons two swords from the Storehouse

• Registration: One of the fundamental abilities of the Storehouse. The owner must touch the item or person they wish to register in order to register them. The registration can be counteracted by sorcerers, as the registration will be overriden by any spirit energy used to oppose it. Items imbued with foreign spirit energy cannot be registered; but on the other hand, items imbued with the spirit energy of registered sorcerers are registered as well. Kyora registers any item or person that is submitted to the Rakuzaichi, and has also registered several of his children, including the Tou.
• Free Entrance/Exit: Kyora can enter or exit the Storehouse without being registered (as he is the owner) or using the emergency door, through appearing out of the earth.
• Retrieval and Dismissal: Kyora can retrieve registered items and people from the Storehouse and send them back at will, the chosen item or person emerging from and disappearing into black clouds or bubbles. He uses this to summon the Tou along with any weapons they ask for and protect his children if need be. Kyora can also move items around the Storehouse in this way.
  • Objects taken from the Storehouse can be summoned far away from the Storehouse owner themselves, as seen when Kyora summoned a stabilised piece of Datenseki from the Storehouse near Tenri, while Kyora was on the Rakuzaichi stage and Tenri was next to the Naginojoen door.
• Image Projection: Kyora can project images of anything within the Storehouse in the real world, which he used to display the interior of the Storehouse to Chihiro and Shiba. This ability extends to projecting images of Kyora himself.
• Communication with Registered People: Kyora appears to be able to speak to any people he has registered over any given distance, and can hear their voices as well; even if the registered individual is within the Storehouse, as was the case when one of Kyora's children audibly declared he had finished feeding the people to be auctioned and was then teleported out. Kyora also appears aware of a registered individual's surroundings to a degree, as he was able to support Tenri with ease despite the latter being far away at the time, battling Shiba.
• Subspace Manipulation: Kyora can freely manipulate the earth within the Storehouse, and did so in order to attack Chihiro when he invaded.

Equipment

Kyora holding Hakuri hostage

Saber

Kyora used a saber when holding Hakuri hostage, presumably drawing it from the Storehouse. His proficiency with the weapon is very high, able to match Chihiro's swordsmanship handily. He has also used weapons summoned from the Storehouse to deal with disturbances to the Rakuzaichi.

Magatsumi

Magatsumi (勾罪 (まがつみ) , Magatsumi): One of the seven enchanted blades forged by Kunishige Rokuhira, and more commonly known and referred to by its title "Shinuchi" (真打 (しんうち) , Shin'uchi, a term used to refer to something of the highest quality). Upon activation through calling Magatsumi's name, droplets of spirit energy fall from the blade to form a field of flowers beneath the bearer and a large butterfly emerges to fly around the bearer. After taking a fatal blow from Chihiro, Kyora resorted to opening Shinuchi's box and using it as a last-ditch attempt to kill Chihiro and ensure the auctioning of Enten and Shinuchi would proceed.

With Magatsumi in hand, its ability to massively amplify Kyora's spirit energy was sufficient to augment his physical reinforcement to the point where he could continue fighting despite his fatal injury.

Magatsumi is unique among Enchanted Blades in that it has the ability to bypass its Lifelong Contract. When Kyora unboxed Shinuchi, Akemura Soga immediately called the blade's true name Magatsumi, summoning a flower field and spawning a butterfly, imbuing it within Kyora and granting him access to the blade's techniques. However, Kyora noted he was unable to draw the blade fully from its sheath, and was merely able to channel a small fraction of its power.

While using Magatsumi, shadows formed over Kyora's right eye and he noticed something attempting to take control of his mind, and deduced it to be either the blade or its bearer, attempting to resist it. While initially successful, his mental state rapidly deteriorated in the process, causing the Storehouse to quickly fragment into pieces and force himself, Chihiro and Hiyuki out when they were fighting. Ultimately, Kyora was able to ward off Magatsumi's influence to his end.

Magatsumi in its box

Kyora wielding Magatsumi in its sheathe

Magatsumi's bearer imbues Kyora with his spirit energy

Magatsumi manifesting spirit energy in the form of a giant butterfly

Techniques

Spider (蛛 (クモ) , Kumo) - Kyora uses Magatsumi to paint a cobweb-like pattern on the ground surrounded by four groups of four spider-like eyes. Any entities caught in the web cannot move, though Chihiro was able to summon the red goldfish to defend himself.

Dragonfly (蜻 (トンボ) , Tonbo) - Kyora forms several dragonfly-wing shapes around Magatsumi before firing a powerful blast forward with tremendous force. Simultaneously, Magatsumi rapidly expands a flower field in the indicated direction. The technique can be blocked with sufficient force, as Hiyuki did using Flame Bone.

Centipede (蜈 (ムカデ) , Mukade) - Kyora summons a centipede-like construct made up of several circular structures around Magatsumi, before releasing an omni-directional shockwave at high speed with enough force to cleanly cut through earth. When first using this technique, Kyora unsheathed a sliver of Magatsumi before slamming it shut and also summoned a small flower field; though it appears this is not always necessary to use the technique.

Etymology

The name Kyora Sazanami (漣京羅, Sazanami Kyōra) can be broken down as follows:

• The surname Sazanami (漣) means 'ripples'.
• His given name Kyora (京羅) consists of the characters for 'capital city' (京) and 'gauze' (羅). The use of the kanji '京' may represent his position as the head of the Sazanami clan.