Chōbei Aza Husbando

Aza Chōbei is a major supporting character and minor antagonist of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. He is a death row criminal and a well-known bandit leader in Iyo known as the Bandit King and is responsible for multiple crimes committed. After getting arrested, Chōbei became one of the few death row convicts recruited to compete in acquiring the Elixir of Life for the shogun from an island believed to be Shinsenkyō in exchange for a pardon, with his brother, Aza Tōma, acting as his assigned monitor. Chōbei is a tall, lean, muscular man with messy blonde hair and a single braid on his right side. He had very noticeable facial scars on the right side of his face, including a missing eye, which he self-inflicted to protect his brother in the past. During the mission to retreive the Elixir of Life, he initially worn a torn black coat over a torn red kimono with a beaded necklace, bracelets on his wrists and slippers. During his travel to Hōrai, Chōbei stole the clothing of the Dōshi he defeated. After his fight with Gabimaru, the robes became charred and ragged from the shinobi's fire ninjutsu. After allying with Lord Tensen, Chōbei switched to wearing a black robe bearing a flower in the middle encircled by leaves, a belt strap, white pants, and boots. He was also given a dao for combat. When accessing the Tao of the Waitanhua flower, Chōbei's skin became pitch black with his veins being visible, tentacle vines sprouted from his body, his hair stood up, both his eyes become blank, his scar turned into black markings and spreads across his face, and grew short claws on his fingers and toes. Upon being resurrected, Chōbei's body decreased in stature, being about the size of a toddler. The size of his scar has been reduced and his signature braid reaches down to his shoulder. For his attire, Chōbei is seen wearing a Chinese robe, pants, and sandals. When accessing his Waitanhua Flower Tao Mode, Chōbei's body would grow back to its original height, which he found annoying since it would only end up stretching out his clothes in the process. Chōbei is a ruthless individual who chooses to live by his own rules. He is extremely barbaric as he would rather resort to violence than talk things through with his enemies, such as when he attacked one of the Dōshi when it attempted to settle matters without having to use force to send him and Tōma back down to the pit. He is also very sadistic whenever he engaged in fights with his enemies, which was made apparent by his brother, stating that Chōbei always stuck to taking on the role of the villain, and holds grudges to those that have bested him. A great example being how he smiled while continuing to pour bottles of Water Tao on Ju Fa's head to have him slowly die while reminding him how he started the fight with him and his brother. Chōbei is very protective of Tōma ever since he was born and goes to great lengths to make sure that he is safe. Like his younger brother, Chōbei is guided by his own philosophy that adapting to one's environment is the key to surviving in life. Although he tended to act like a brute, Chōbei is a rationale thinker that knows what is the best course of action in a serious situation. After being captured by Rien, Chōbei knew that he was outmatched by the Tensen if he attempted to fight back and made the decision to cooperate with Lord Tensen in order to reunite with Tōma. Chōbei was also willing to cooperate with Gantetsusai and Fuchi to defeat the Kishikai form of Ju Fa and Tao Fa, as well as help guide them in how they should go about it, and worked together to find an escape route off the island. He is also very clever as he used flattery to have the highly prideful Gantetsusai cooperate with his plan and stored two bottles of Water Tao in his stomach for when the time came for him to have a rematch with Gabimaru.