Sagiri Yamada Asaemon

Yamada Asaemon Sagiri is the 12th rank Asaemon of the Yamada clan, as well as the daughter to the former clan's leader, Yamada Asaemon Kichiji. She is the deuteragonist of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. After the shogun called for death row convicts to acquire the Elixir of Life from an island believed to be Shinsenkyō in exchange for a pardon for their past crimes, Sagiri recruited Gabimaru to be a part of the expedition team and was put in charge of acting as his monitor until the mission was complete. Sagiri is a young woman of a slender build who is quite tall, as her height is 172 cm. (5 feet 8 inches), making her one of the tallest female characters in the series. She has long brown hair that she keeps in a ponytail using a very long ribbon and frontal hairs that fall across her face as bangs, as well as two very long front strands that reach down to her chest. As an Asaemon she wears the standard attire, which is a white robe with a red lining running down the collars, a hakama with a single red band at the left gusset that is held together with a red corset (instead of a red waist cord), which holds her katana at her left hip, a funerary bell tied to a red piece of cloth at the center of her collar, a gauntlet on her left arm, and sandals. When prepared to execute her intended targets, or go into battle, Sagiri takes the time to use her tasuki to hold her sleeves as to not have them become an interference. After taking on the task of destroying one of the Banko's tandens, Sagiri procures shinobi equipment from the fallen Iwagakure shinobi taken down by Jikka and started to wear a headband, along with adding another gauntlet and a second sword. She also switches to wearing shinobi footwear and has her hakama tucked into a pair of gaiters around her lower legs. After a year passed, Sagiri wears a striped robe, being held together with a dark obi, a haori, and sandals. She also carries along a kasa and a walking stick. When performing her job as an executioner, Sagiri generally displays a stoic and serious demeanor, as she possesses a very high sense of duty when given a task. When she acted on her role as an inspector, Sagiri made sure Gabimaru answered all her questions even if he was not clothed or if it was during one of his death sentences, which made her have to constantly tell the magistrate and his men to hold off on their next attempts at executing him. After becoming Gabimaru's monitor, she boldly made it clear that she refused to allow him to do as he pleased on the island and made sure to keep watch over him at all times. Another great example of Sagiri's serious attitude was when she aimed to give Gabimaru and Mei a proper bath, viewing it as an "operation" even though it was not required of her as the criminal's monitor. As noted by Kishō, Sagiri is a stickler for upholding the rules, as she kept the bindings on her assigned criminal when they made landfall even though the other Yamada Asaemons on the mission allowed the opposite since Kishō pointed out that the rules would only hinder progress on the mission. She can, however, allow herself to bend the rules a little, as she overlooked Gabimaru's attempt to kill her.[8] She is also able to accept certain unfortunate events that have fallen; though it will take a while for her to allow the situation to sink in. While dedicated in her duties as both a samurai and an executioner, Sagiri lacks the mental state to take a life without putting any fear or hesitation into her blade, a flaw that she is greatly criticized for by her clansmen, on top of her gender, given their principles to execute the condemned painlessly by ridding themselves of this emotion. Upon analyzing Gabimaru's behavior after watching him commit murder, Sagiri learned from him that she must bear the weight of the lives she has taken like the shinobi does and accept her fear and doubt instead of trying to overcome it. Come the shogun's mission, Sagiri soon realized that this way of thinking ultimately became the key to her survival on Kotaku. Most prominently, Sagiri is noted to be a person who stays true to herself. Having realized at a young age that her true path in life lies within the Yamada clan's duties of executing criminals, Sagiri chose to take up the blade and not adhere to the clan's traditional customs as a woman no matter what her clansmen may think of her; though she stated to herself that she would not accept this fate quietly. As such, she carries a belief that a person should choose what they want to be in life regardless of the identity they are born with. Though she speaks to her clansmen with respect, Sagiri is not afraid to stand up for herself by stating her convictions. She has also come to accept her own shortcomings, such flaws being her fears and doubts as a samurai. Due to this, as well as her disregard for gender-based roles, Sagiri's way of life is seen as leaning towards the Middle Way, which has proven to greatly help her overcome difficult obstacles. Sagiri also stated to Gabimaru that embracing one's true feelings is not a weakness but instead it is where true strength comes from. Sagiri is also a very good-natured person who is polite, kind, and caring towards others. Despite the fact that she is well-aware that a few of her fellow clansmen view her as being unworthy of becoming a samurai, Sagiri speaks to them with respect and became sadden after the ones who were tasked on the mission had died. After Mei was preparing to take a bath, Sagiri kindly took the liberty to wash her clean, an act that the girl dearly appreciated. When Hōko's head was severed from his body, Sagiri expressed her relief that he was still alive and willingly carried him after defeating Mu Dan. From her experience as an executioner, Sagiri is capable of understanding the feelings of others from within their hearts, which could allow her to show empathy even towards criminals. Through this trait, Sagiri realized that Gabimaru was not truly an evil person and was able to show genuine concern for his well-being. Though she takes matters seriously, Sagiri does possess a sense of humor, as she is one of the rare few who finds Shion's puns about his eyesight to be funny. She is also one to make puns herself, which she credits Shion as being her influence, having told Gabimaru that in the end she "executed" her initial role of being partnered up with him after beheading the convict to free him from Arborification. Another side to Sagiri that differs from her usual composed personality is that she is susceptible to becoming emotional and nervous around others, as shown when she met Yui a second time, having viewed this meeting as being special compared to the first time they met at Iwagakure; most likely given all that Gabimaru had to go through to see her. Her nervous behavior seems to have been with her since she was much younger, as she had a hard time properly welcoming Fuchi into the clan at the age of six and even more so with Senta who has a nervous personality himself.