Imai Nobume

Vice-Captain of the Mimawarigumi. Obsessed with Donuts. Also known as Mukuro. Although not much is known about Nobume's origin, it is revealed that she was taken in as a orphan by the Tendoshu at a very young age and was trained by the Naraku Faction in order to be a professional assassin. At the time, her name was Mukuro. She was eventually named one of the Naraku top three assasins. When Yoshida Shouyou was in jail, Mukuro was his guard, and during this time Shouyou taught her about knowledge and emotions, traits that she was lacking at the time. In time, Mukuro met Sasaki Isaburou in a temple, together with other Naraku trained children. They were actually going to be used to assassinate the Hitotsubashi family. Sasaki attempts to thwart the assassination and succeeded, an act witnessed by Oboro. As an result, his punishment for the betrayal was the death of both his wife and his just born-child, and after that, Sasaki himself. Sasaki arrived at the death scene to find Mukuro standing on top of his wife's palanquin among a pile of corpses, all evidence pointing to her as the murderer. In a fit of rage, he disarmed and cornered her easily. Pointing a sword at her, he ask why she doesn't strike back, and the reason for her tears. Mukuro says she is not fit to kill him, because she wanted to fight her own weakness and her fragile self, a lesson she learnt from Shouyou back when she was his jailer. Although Mukuro was ready to accept her punishment, Sasaki lowered his sword, denying her wish to be killed. Sasaki then took Mukuro in for duties and changed her given name from "Mukuro" to "Nobume" a name he wanted to give his daughter. He instructs her that until the time his goal will be in reach, he would have her to kill him, claiming that would be his revenge against himself for his lack of power for not being able to save his own family. In the prison island Kokujou, Sasaki confess that he was aware that Nobume had been trying to protect his family, as he had taken note of blood tracks leading away from the crime scene which are not from the victims, so he conclude it must be Mukuro who injured other assassins who are the true murderers. He apologize to her, saying he is not worthy man who had took advantage of the situation, even though he knew of her good intentions. Nobume brushed that aside, saying that as long as they're by each other's side, that's all that matters. After his death, Nobume silently thank Sasaki for the wonderful name with a renewed look in her eyes. As a result of having been trained by the Naraku faction to be a professional assassin, Nobume is shown to be an emotionless person in both her expression and speech. She appears to be sadistic (similarly to Okita Sougo), and she likes to cut down people (in the literal sense). According to Sasaki Isaburo, once she switches into her assassin mode, she kills everyone in her way, even if there are innocent people. Although she seems to be quiet, she is surprisingly talkative. As shown during the Ikkoku Keisei arc, she thinks that it is better to cut down people that are knocked unconscious instead of leaving them alive, believing it is faster to cut them up in order to not get into trouble, with Gintoki and Tsukuyo stopping her. Despite her lack of showing emotions and serious attitude she has been shown to be quite childish as she enjoyed it when she, Kagura and Soyo played a prank on the guards,and playing kick the can. Nobume loves eating donuts and will behave animalistically to get them. When Sasaki rewards her with a donuts for her good work, she dislocates his hand to get it. Sasaki is also able to "fish" her out of a collapsed building by attaching a donut to a fishing rod and dangling it over the ruins. In addition, she is antagonised whenever someone eats donuts in front of her and turns violent as Sougo consumes a donut before her. Despite her loyalty towards Sasaki Isaburo, she shows some good conscience to go against his orders. For example, she allowed Rotten Maizou to go to Yoshiwara, despite Sasaki's orders, and when he was promoted, Nobume stated that with both allies and enemies gone and they standing on the top of a pile of corpses that didn't mean that they could call their jobs done. Also, when she was offered to seat in the commander's chair she stated that she would rather crawl on the ground instead of sitting there. She has also shown to bear animosity towards the Tendoshu as she insulted them when they arrived to retrieve Nobu Nobu, and later she told Oboro that she will never serve them again. In short she detests people who selfishly abuse authority power. It is revealed later on in the series that Nobume is not emotionless but rather just hiding it, as shown when she cried after remembering that she has the mission to kill Sasaki, showing that she is not actually willing to do that, and she also cried for Sasaki after seeing him in a near-death state, and is shown mourning his death. She later becomes independent declaring to Utsuro that she will only kill people for herself and not for neither the Tendoushu nor the Mimawarigumi.