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Ikōsai Aisu (異彩あいす) comes from a long line of assassins with the same name who are masters at deception and sleight of hand. As the contractor of Susanoo she is the Izumo King candidate and destined to fight Amaterasu’s candidate for control of Japanese Mythology. However her counterpart became the subordinate of Hayashizaki Kazuki. In Volume 9 she fought Kazuki for the title of Japan’s King and lost.
Appearance[]
Aisu is a beautiful woman, she wears a yukata that is multi colored. Aisu has long burgundy hair tied in a low ponytail that goes past the waist.
Personality[]
Aisu has a cold and uncaring personality and she will use anyone and anything to gain power. She seeks to steal the King's Authority from anyone with greater or equal power to hers. She always tried to find an opponent that is equal with her in terms of skill, such as Kazuki. She will do anything to get the title of strongest swordsman. When she entered the Grand Haunted Ground Fuji Sea of Trees, she disliked being ordered around by anyone, including her allies, and wanted to do things at her own pace. When she ordered Susanoo in the Grand Haunted Ground to give her more power to fight Kazuki she started becoming more desperate and foolish in her quest for power. Aisu is also not used to men touching her due to being isolated with her sword training and is easily embarrassed.
History[]
Background[]
Aisu comes from a long line of sword masters bearing the same name. Her family style focused on trickery and is specialized for assassination. They believe that swords should be treated as weapons of war in an age where swordplay was treated more like a sport. She became the contractor of the Japanese Diva Susanoo, which would have made her an Illegal Magician in the eyes of Japanese law. She was selected by Susanoo as the Izumo King candidate. Normally she would fight the Wakoku King candidate, sponsored by Amaterasu for the position of King. But Amaterasu was a pacifist with no desire for power and knew her contractor Kamimura Itsuki wasn’t suited for combat and refused to name her a candidate.
Desperate for power and frustrated that his Mythology had gotten so weak, Susanoo joined forces with Loki and the guys who formed Yamato. He helped them transform his fellow Divas into Wild Gods. He also arranged for them to brutally murder Itsuki out of revenge, hoping to force his rival to pick another candidate. But instead she took the girl’s soul into her realm and was desperately trying to save her. The Yamato guys gathered young people with magic talent who were jealous of Magika Stigma and tempted them by offering to contract them with Japanese Dias. But the Wild Gods were irrational and could only posses those people, many of whom went insane as a result. These failures were left to guard the Ise Grand Shrine, driven by hared of all Stigma users. By using these cursed people, with traits similar to Demonic Beasts, they turned the shrine into a Haunted Ground. The goal was to sap the remaining strength of Amaterasu and destroy her altogether.
Plot[]
Volume 6[]
Aisu was left in charge of the Haunted Ground around the Ise Grand Shrine. She had those cursed people, who had the appearance of armored warriors, patrolling the area. She was notified when a pair of intruders were found, Hayashizaki Kazuki the future King of Solomon and his friend Tsukahara Kazuha. Seeing a chance to bring the Civil War to an end, she sealed them inside the Haunted Ground and ordered her minions to kill them. She also cast a spell that marked their location and it proved impossible for them to remove. Once the two of them wore down the cursed people’s magic Amaterasu’s servant Yatagarasu was able to remove the curse and leave them in a state of Magic Intoxication. They cleared the Haunted Ground in this manner.
It was then that Aisu finally revealed herself to her guests in person. She was accompanied by the last two cursed people Takasugi Shūsui and Takasugi Harunari. They were the twin sons of an important Yamato official and were former Knight Academy students. Those boys at least kept enough of their sanity to manage low-level Summoning Magic. But even with Kazuha taking them both on, she handled them with ease. In terms of pure swordsmanship she and Kazuki seemed pretty even at first. Kazuki struggled against her strange tricks and only managed to understand a little of it as they fought. Aisu soon noted she had already struck him four times in a manner that would have been fatal if not for Defensive Magic. Kazuha was easily able to see though what she was doing and was critical of Kazuki for struggling with it. Kazuha soon began to replicate her technique and once he saw it from a distance it made sense to Kazuki too. They were both stunned when Kazuha managed to hit Aisu easily on her first try, something Kazuki hadn’t managed to do yet.
At that point they were both ready to forget about a pure sword battle and unleash their Summoning Magic. However she was stopped by Yatagarasu who explained what they were up to. Amaterasu planned to restore her power and revive her contractor Kamimura Itsuki by making them subordinates of Kazuki. This would make him the proxy candidate. Susanoo’s ability allowed her to steal the power of any King she defeated in battle. As Kazuki hadn’t received his formal title as King of Solomon yet either it was to her advantage to postpone this battle. She departed along with the brothers.
After meeting Itsuki, Kazuki’s group had to escape the realm of the dead. They were ambushed by Aisu and the Takasugi brothers before they could escape. Aisu wanted to prove herself the strongest swordsman as well as become King. Itsuki volunteers to hold back the spirits chasing them while the other two fight. The brothers had degenerated into something less than human in their desire for power. They became a monster which blocked their path. As Kazuha prepared to take it on, even Aisu agreed with them that it was idiotic to go that far to get stronger. Aisu was totally focused on Kazuki and let Kazuha pass her unmolested and the battlefield was divided into three.
Aisu lectured Kazuki on the history of the two ruling Divas of Japan and their conflict. Like Kazuki she was trained in a style meant to fight magic users but was ironically chosen as one. She was thrilled to face a strong opponent with a similar destiny. She was confident in her superiority in skill. But once he was able to observe how her skills worked a few more times he was able to counter her attacks. Kazuki became dependent on his foresight as they battled with their Summoning Magic. Aisu became more and more disordered. He realized it was because she spent too much time training by herself. By contrast Kazuha had plenty of experience fighting opponents equal or even superior in strength and speed. In the era of Defensive Magic the tricky assassination style of her family wasn’t able to instantly kill. Like her, Kazuki had begun to see her as his rival. He encouraged her to find strong people to test her skills against. Aisu ended up conceding her defeat on this occasion but managed to escape. Though Kazuki had allowed Aisu to flee the fact she had admitted her loss meant the influence of her Diva should be reduced. Most of the Divas who were originally loyal to Amaterasu should have returned to their senses.
When Kazuki’s group got closer to the entrance they found Aisu being confronted by Kaya and a group of masked people. They apparently had made a deal to help her become King. They had agreed not to attack Kazuki until their contest was settled. But Kaya had predicted all along that Kazuki would win in the end. Even if he lost, she knew that the nature of Aisu’s Power of Usurpation meant she would turn on the other Kings next. Aisu was ready to surrender herself totally to her Diva to power up and get her revenge but Kazuki stopped her and suggested they work together to escape. Kazuki predicts that Kaya had only brought her own close associates here. She couldn’t afford to have the deception they used to win over the Japanese Divas be exposed. She asked her followers to hold the contractors of the strongest Japanese Divas back. She and the others were shocked when Kazuki unlocked the second part of his Magic Dress, Solomon’s Emblem.
Kazuki unlocked a new skill and was able to contact Amasaki Miō with Telepathy. He let them know the mission was a success. He said many enemy magic users will have fled and urged them to attack new. The group displayed their Summoning Magic as they ran down the stairs to intercept the force from Yamato. Aisu acted offended after getting help from Itsuki but still lined up with them. Among the masked figures facing them Kazuki recognized Maya. He also recognized other Divas from Norse Mythology such as Hel and Fenrir. But he knew from past experience that while Illegal Magicians had fast chanting speed, they tended to be limited to low-level magic. He was confident in his companions facing 3-to-1 odds and took on Kaya.
Kazuki easily used his improved power to overpower Kaya, who surrendered control to Loki. After an intense battle Kazuki was surprised when Loki decided they should retreat rather than finish him off. It seems they were satisfied having gotten an accurate picture of his growth. Kazuki was viewed as a necessary piece of their future plans. After they left, Aisu also retreated, promising to get her revenge on those guys as well as to defeat Kazuki. Since Loki had betrayed her it seemed like Yamato’s support from the Japanese Divas was over but it seemed neither of them were interested in Yamato anymore.
Since it became an international conflict when China chose to intervene directly, things would soon get more complicated. The other Magically Advanced Countries would soon step in and force a cease fire. They would then investigate the matter and make a judgment of which government was the legitimate ruling body of Japan. There was no way to be sure what criteria they would use. If there was a divided opinion it could become a stalemate until either Kazuki or Aisu won the battle and became Japan’s official King, which is just the kind of chaos Loki was after.
Powers and Abilities[]
Swordsmanship: Aisu's specialty is swordsmanship, a style that focuses on deception and sleight of hand. In Volume 6, it was shown that Aisu is a master swordswoman who is arguably more powerful than Kazuki in swordsmanship. She lacks the combat experience of fighting another swordsman in a life and death battle.
- Secret Sword ・ Tenrou Kaidan: She jumps into the air and using psychokinesis she augments her jumping power making it seem like disappeared, then she forms footholds in air using psychokinesis and jumps off of them circling around to the opponent's back where she then slashes them in their blind spot.
- Secret Sword ・ Amatsu Midareboshi: Aisu uses psychokinesis to increase the number of slashes her sword makes in one swing.
- Secret Sword ・ Shiraha Kagerou: Using psychokinesis on her sword, by sensing the prima materia of the blade its shape warps and changes to hit the enemy in their blind spot at a nearly unreadable trajectory.
- Secret Rite ・ Aoiro Yasha: She manipulates her blood flow using psychokinesis to close her oxygen supply which results in her body creating energy without oxygen by decomposing sugar thereby producing explosive energy that enhances her physical strength. But using this technique decreases her stamina and turns her skin blue while the technique is active.
- Secret Rite ・ Usubeni Hannya: A technique used to restore the stamina consumed from using Aoiro Yasha. She manipulates her blood flow using psychokinesis to stop herself from making energy by consuming sugar and start making energy using oxygen.
- Secret Rite ・ Raiganmon: Psychokinesis is used to strengthen Aisu's dynamic vision making her eyes shine blue and emit blue sparks.
Summoning Magic[]
She is the contractor of Susanoo and selected by him to be one of the candidates for King of Japanese Mythology.
10 Inherent Powers:[]
Level ?: Izumo Yaegaki ・ Dankai Bakufu: Creates a giant cloud dome that's big enough to cover a whole town, preventing anyone inside from getting out and anyone outside from getting in.
Level ?: Izumo Yaegaki ・ Kumo Ito Shibari: Strings made of cloud come down from the sky and wrap around the enemies' waist making their location easily known.
Level ?: Izumo Yaegaki ・ Suijougai: Steam is released with tremendous force that then becomes a wall of cloud that can protect the caster from fire and electricity.
Level ?: Ame no Habakiri: Summons a deep black Sacred Treasure sword, it is a mysterious sword with the edge of the blade forking into eight. This sword has the ability to produce eight slashes with each swing and seven of them are made of magic power making it very difficult to defend against.
Level ?: Fuujin Kenbu: Reinforcement magic that manipulates wind to increase movement speed.
Level ?: Chouriki Shourai: Reinforcement magic that summons the strength of Susanoo to increase physical strength.
Level ?: Heitei Banrai: A large scale destruction magic that summons dark clouds which rain lightning down on the enemy.
Level ?: Bougyaku Bushin: High-level reinforcement magic that increases the user's speed and strength close to the level of Susanoo himself.
Different Powers[]
Power of Usurpation: The Semi-Chief of Japanese Mythology is granted this authority. Given the nature of Susanoo as the rival this authority is gaining strength and stealing the King’s Authority of others. The contractor has to deal the final blow to use this power, and a minor use is stealing a Diva’s divinity to regain strength.
Etymology[]
- Ikōsai means "different color, conspicuous color" (異彩).