Soshiro Azami

Overview

Synopsis

Gallery

Soshiro Azami
Japanese	薊 (あざみ) 奏 (そう) 土 (し) 郎 (ろう)
Rōmaji	Azami Sōshirō
Also Known As	Executioner (処刑人 (しょけいにん) , Shokeinin)
Relatives	Unnamed father
Biographical Information
Age	37
Status	Alive
Birthdate	April 24th
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Eye Color	Black
Hair Color	Black
Sorcery	Coin
Professional Information
Affiliation	Kamunabi
Previous Affiliation	Counter-Sorcery Army Azami Clan
Occupation	Kamunabi Leader Kamunabi Sorcerer
Previous Occupation	Colonel Azami Clan Sorcerer
Debut
Manga	Chapter 7

“Don't you worry, Rokuhira... you can rest in peace.” ― Azami, immediately before engaging Yura

Soshiro Azami (薊 (あざみ) 奏 (そう) 土 (し) 郎 (ろう) , Azami Sōshirō) is one of the Kamunabi's leaders and an old friend of Kunishige Rokuhira and Togo Shiba, having helped Kunishige find a hidden refuge after the Seitei War.

Following Kunishige's death, Azami aids Chihiro in his quest to recover the Enchanted Blades primarily by sharing information with him regarding the Kamunabi.

Per this role, Azami is a supporting protagonist for much of the series, and is a major ally during the Vs. Sojo Arc and the Sword Bearer Assassination Arc.

Appearance

Azami is a tall, well-built man, standing at a height similar to Shiba. He has dark-colored eyes and black hair, the latter styled to hang over his face just above his nose, parted on the left and draping over his right eye. Both of his ears are pierced and he has two large round studded earrings in.

On duty, Azami is seen in the standard Kamunabi uniform, which consists of a unique haori-yukata blend worn over a white, no-collar dress shirt. This is accented with beads at the waist and completed with dark pants and dress shoes. In his civilian clothes, Azami wears a short-sleeved, collared shirt with a zipper on the left side, rather than the center, and multiple cargo pockets. A badge signifying his Kamunabi allegiance is pinned to one of the chest pockets. He layers this collared shirt over a long-sleeved, striped shirt, allowing the sleeves to be visible. This casual look is finished with dark pants and shoes.

Gallery

Azami's civilian attire.

Azami's Kamunabi uniform.

Personality

Azami holds loyalty both to his closest friends and to the security of the nation through the Kamunabi, having opposed criminal organizations such as the Hishaku both through his official position as one of the Kamunabi leaders as well as through more clandestine assistance to Shiba and Chihiro.

Despite being Kamunabi, Azami remains loyal to his old friends.

Azami is a well-mannered, confident, and mature individual who carries himself with composure in nearly all situations. Highly disciplined and focused, he places great importance on his responsibilities to the Kamunabi and does whatever is necessary to safeguard the nation. During meetings with his fellow Kamunabi leaders, where he is often the one reporting on recent events, Azami consistently maintains a professional, level-headed demeanor, even under direct pressure from more hot-headed peers like Izaru. On the battlefield, however, Azami is a cold and merciless combatant that dispatches his enemies without hesitation or displaying emotion, known by the title of Executioner.

Despite his devotion to the Kamunabi, Azami does not blindly follow its will above all else. His loyalty is tempered by empathy, especially for his longtime friends Kunishige and Shiba, and by extension Chihiro. Azami was among the few who sheltered Kunishige after the war and safeguarded the secret of his son and the seventh Enchanted Blade. He opposed the Kamunabi’s decree to confiscate all Enchanted Blades by supporting Chihiro’s quest, despite his admission that he should confiscate Enten given his role.

Azami shares in Chihiro’s anger over Kunishige’s death, though keeps it veiled with composure. He personally questioned Chihiro at length regarding the details of the attack and became livid upon identifying one of the three responsible. Upon Kasen revealing his involvement in leaking Kunishige's location to the Hishaku, Azami immediately punched Kasen into a wall with great force.

Outside of duty, Azami reveals a lighter side. Though still stern, he is more approachable and displays humor and friendliness in casual moments. With Chihiro and his allies, he shows kindness, even breaking his calm exterior with a comical scream when wounded in their defense. Azami also takes an almost playful enjoyment in combat outside of formal battle, jokingly praising opponents’ sorcery or remarking on their skill with amusement, even expressing mock disappointment at one point when a promising fighter fled.

Relationships

Allies

Chihiro Rokuhira

Azami is protective of Chihiro, defending him in an attack and warmly greeting him despite not having seen him for some time. Likewise, Chihiro was immediately comfortable with letting Azami handle the threats, indicating a strong level of trust on Chihiro's end.

He acknowledged Chihiro's growth but was worried about Chihiro's readiness against threats like Sojo and the Rakuzaichi, emphasising the danger and suggesting the Kamunabi handle them. After Chihiro indicated he would be showing up at the auction, Azami then decided to leak information regarding the Kamunabi's auction plans to Chihiro and Shiba, in order to help them plan around the Kamunabi, showing he ultimately wishes to support Chihiro and Shiba as best he can.

During the meeting between the leaders of the Kamunabi after Sojo's death, Azami deliberately hid as much information as he could about Chihiro, in order to keep the Kamunabi away from him. In a later meeting, he was also prepared to defend Chihiro's life when another member vocally threatened to kill him in order to render Enten usable by the Kamunabi. He prepared to use his sorcery if necessary until the situation was defused by an interruption.

Kunishige Rokuhira

Azami, Shiba and Kunishige were close friends in the past. Following the end of the Seitei War, Azami assisted Kunishige in finding a place to hide and refrained from informing the Kamunabi. Following his death, Azami began assisting Kunishige's son, Chihiro, in any way he can.

Togo Shiba

Azami is an old friend and comrade of Shiba's, the two having worked together in the Counter-Sorcery Army and the Kamunabi for some time and having known each other for at least two decades. During their meeting in Cafe Haru Haru, Azami respected his departure from the Kamunabi and voiced his gratitude for his defence of Chihiro's progress, though worried about how public the two were starting to be in their actions, noting the Kamunabi were at-the-time not aware of Chihiro or his possession of a seventh Enchanted Blade. Nevertheless, Azami generally places his trust in Shiba's decisions.

Azami frequently collaborates with Shiba, sharing with him critical details about the Kamunabi's plans regarding various topics such as Sojo, the Hishaku and the Rakuzaichi.

Ichiki

Ichiki and Azami appear to be on good terms. Ichiki trained both Azami and Shiba in hand-to-hand combat in the past and casually rides on Azami's shoulders without protest.

Izaru

As colleagues, Azami and Izaru share a common interest in ensuring the security of the nation, though approach it in different ways. Where Azami is cool-headed, logical and close with the Rokuhira family, Izaru is brash, argumentative, suspicious of Azami and highly opposed to both Kunishige and Chihiro. Izaru is quick to blame the loss of Cloud Gouger and the other Enchanted Blades on Azami and those who hid Kunishige away, though Azami does little more than calmly listen to Izaru's proclamations.

Kamunabi

Azami holds great loyalty to the Kamunabi, having remained with the organization even when his friend Shiba had left. He is fully devoted towards supporting the Kamunabi's mission to handle national-level threats, even when it comes to overlooking the plight of individuals in peril such as Char. However, he is not entirely transparent with the leadership, feeding information to Chihiro and Shiba and hiding his knowledge of Chihiro's existence.

Enemies

Hishaku

As the murderers of one of his former closest friends and a grave threat to the nation, Azami is fundamentally opposed to the Hishaku and is focused on destroying their operations. Upon recognising one of the three Hishaku sorcerers who had killed Kunishige, Azami was furious though maintained a veneer of calm.

Abilities

"Azami's fighting style is assault and battery. Enemy tricks don't work against sheer power!!"

Overall Abilities: Renowned as the Executioner, Azami is a veteran of the Seitei War who rose to the rank of colonel in the Counter-Sorcery Army at only eighteen years old. He is an elite sorcerer, and has been regarded as one of the strongest fighters without an Enchanted Blade, having been placed by Chihiro in the same class of power as Hiyuki, Shiba, and the Hishaku sorcerers.

Kudo, a fellow Kamunabi leader, affirms this reputation, having stated that Azami exists on another level even among the organization's upper echelon, though Azami has regarded Kudo's words as only applying in the field of combat, especially due to his younger age; considering himself merely a better fighter, not necessarily a better sorcerer. He considers himself less versed in the study of sorcery and fields such as barriers and spells than the three white-robed leaders. Despite his claim, Ichiki, one of the aforementioned leaders and Azami's former combat instructor, privately expressed his belief that Azami was simply being humble and noted Kudo's "on another level" statement applied to Azami both as a fighter and a sorcerer.

Azami's reputation extends beyond the Kamunabi as well: Genichi Sojo, a major figure in the underworld, was well aware of Azami and Shiba’s reputations, recognizing them as dangerous adversaries. After clashing with Chihiro for the first time, Sojo expressed his interest in testing the limits of Cloud Gouger against their strength. The elder sibling of the Shigyu Brothers viewed Azami as a worthy opponent after deriding other Kamunabi elites, and Hokuto, an extremely skilled swordsman of the Hishaku, admitted that Azami was too tough for his armored puppet to fight against.

Azami supplementing his physical attacks with spirit energy.

As a sorcerer, Azami has accomplished the first stage of spirit energy usage, being able to use his spirit energy to strengthen his body to superhuman levels.

Enhanced Strength: Azami's physical strength and striking power are far beyond that of an average sorcerer. He moved around while being restrained by magic chains cast by one of the Shigyu Brothers and easily broke free from them at will. Azami killed the brothers with a single blow each to the head that crushed their skulls.

Enhanced Speed and Reflexes: In addition to his physical strength, Azami is extremely fast. He can move at high speeds comparable to almost appearing and disappearing, and against the Shigyu brothers, he evaded their attacks while chained up before dispatching them both in an instant.

Immense Endurance: Azami is extremely resilient, being able to endure severe injuries like a hand wound despite not knowing he was hurt and bleeding profusely. He remained completely unfazed and was able to continue fighting after being attacked at point blank range by Yura's Dragonfly technique, and he was also able to strike Yura with a powerful punch despite both of his arms being severely damaged. After losing an arm and being affected by the Magatsumi's flowers, Azami still had enough strength to confront Yura and continue fighting despite losing his second arm.

Combat Prowess

Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Azami exemplifies the type of sorcerer that focuses on enhancing close combat with spirit energy manipulation tailored to fortifying one's body. His fighting style is simple but extremely effective hand-to-hand combat, mostly foregoing sorcery in favor of reinforcing his physical abilities with spirit energy.

Sorcery

Coin (己印 (こいん) , Koin): Azami's sorcery, inherited from his family, allows him to create 10-yen and 1-yen coins and utilize their different ionization characteristics to produce powerful electrical currents for a variety of uses. While his family had historically used it in the field of physiology, regulating electrical currents within the human body to assist in relieving muscle tension and even curing serious illnesses, Azami adapted it for combat and was banished from his family as a result.

When used in combat, Azami can accelerate his blood flow, greatly amplifying his already-impressive physical abilities; while doing so, Azami typically summons coins and keeps them held in his hands. He is also able to use the coins by releasing them around his enemies to intensely stimulate their muscle fibers in such a way that wounds immediately appear on their person, with their muscles rupturing their body from the inside out. When summoning the coins, a bolt of electricity appears between Azami's fingers before he forms the bolt into coins; bolts of electricity between his fingers are a sign of Azami preparing to use his sorcery.

• Enhanced Speed: Through amplifying his physical abilities further than normal using Coin, Azami was able to move so fast that he appeared behind Yura in an instant, with Yura himself noting that Azami's speed was superior than before.

Azami activates Coin.

Azami uses Coin offensively.

Etymology

The name Soshiro Azami (薊 (あざみ) 奏 (そう) 土 (し) 郎 (ろう) , Azami Sōshirō) can be broken down as follows:

• Azami (薊 (あざみ) ): "thistle".
• Sō (奏 (そう) ): "play music".
• Shi (土 (し) ): "soil" or "earth".
• Rō (郎 (ろう) ): "son".

Trivia

• While first implicitly revealed within Chapter 7, Azami's sorcery was not fully revealed and explained until Chapter 96.
• Azami's sorcery may be a reference to coining or Gua sha, which is a traditional East and Southeast Asian practice where a blunt tool, such as a coin, is rubbed along the skin to create a red mark or bruise. It's believed to remove negative energy and heat from the body to relieve symptoms like colds, headaches, and muscle pain. The resulting marks are called "sha" and are thought to indicate the release of illnesses.