Yuzuriha

Yuzuriha is a death row criminal and a kunoichi who is infamously known as Yuzuriha of Keishu. She serves as a major supporting character of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. Before being sentenced to death, Yuzuriha became recruited to join in an expedition team where she would compete against other death row convicts in acquiring the Elixir of Life for the shogun from an island believed to be Shinsenkyō in exchange for a pardon that would exempt her of her past crimes. Yuzuriha is a slim young woman of average height with black (purple in the anime) locks of hair tied together in a bun with a hair pin. After her battle with Ran, it was revealed that Yuzuriha has multiple scars all over her body that she received from her past work as a Kai kunoichi and hid them using a layer of mucus to act as her skin. Initially, she wore the standard black (purple in the anime) attire for a kunoichi, which was a sleeveless garment, a white obi wrapped around her waist, and pants that had openings around her thighs. Her blouse was noticeably kept slightly opened, showing off most of her cleavage. She had arm straps holding kunai on both her arms and wore a bandage on her right wrist and a bracer on her left. She also carried around bamboo bottles of potions on her waist to perform her ninjutsu, along with a wakizashi with two ropes wrapped around its scabbard. After entering Hōrai and trying on different outfits, Yuzuriha changed into a green cheongsam with yellow peony flower patterns and an opening in the chest area and started wearing black kung-fu style flat shoes. She later changes into a new cheongsam after her previous one was ruined by Ran. After a year passed since she escaped the island, Yuzuriha has her hair fall back into a ponytail, instead of having it pinned, and wears a floral pattern yukata along with a dark haori. While coming off as somewhat friendly and carefree around others on the surface, with a personality similar to that of a typical teenage girl, Yuzuriha's true nature underneath is that of an overly solipsistic individual, as she only cares for her own well-being in life. Instead of helping Gabimaru fight off Rokurōta, Yuzuriha chose to watch from the sidelines and refused to aid him when requested, having used their partnership agreement, where only he was responsible for handling the enemies, to pull one over on him. She was also unwilling to go search for him after he left for Hōrai. Another example was during her fight with Mu Dan where she dodged one of his Tao projectiles knowing that it would hit Senta behind her despite the fact that the latter protected her from the Kyōshi earlier. Yuzuriha is shown to hold her life in very high regards to the point where she lost her composure when Mu Dan tried to kill her with a devastating attack. The only times she is willing to help others if there is any benefit, as she had only agreed to help Sagiri find Gabimaru after Hōko revealed that he has the capabilities of guiding her through Hōjo's thick mist, which would lead her to Hōrai where the Elixir of Life is being kept. As noted by Senta, Yuzuriha's cruel and ruthless behavior towards others is her simply remaining true to herself, which enables her to tell when people are lying to themselves in the process. While traveling to Kotaku with Senta, Yuzuriha knew that her Aasaemon monitor was reluctant to follow his family's tradition of being of service to the Yamada clan. It was soon revealed after her battle with Ran that Yuzuriha's self-center behavior stems from her past vow to live her life for both her and her little sister's sake after her death. As a kunoichi, Yuzuriha uses her charms for her own benefits. She managed to set Makiya up to be bait for the insects on the island so she could do research and successfully seduced Genji into accompanying her on the island instead of having him take the second option of leaving for home since his assigned criminal was dead. She also attempted to seduce Gabimaru into teaming up with her. When her seduction methods failed against him, due to him being a fellow shinobi, she tried to act vulnerable and innocent, only for that method to fail as well. Yuzuriha's pride in her looks and sex appeal shows in her choice of outfits, which commonly exposes her cleavage. When Tamiya Gantetsusai commented that he found her bottom attractive, she replied that hers was "the sweetest around." Other than this, Yuzuriha also follows shinobi principles, such as knowing the difference of a person's suffering to tell whether or not they are dead weight. As a criminal, Yuzuriha has no problems when it comes to killing or who she has to sacrifice to achieve a goal. Despite this, Yuzuriha is capable of showing compassion to others. As Senta was dying, she consoled him and had him die in peace by making him forget about his duties as an Asaemon and gave him the last bit of freedom he had to think about what he wanted to imagine as his last memory. Upon her life-threatening battle with Ran, Yuzuriha's selfish attitude changed. Instead of abandoning him, Yuzuriha chose to grab and retreat with a badly injured Gabimaru despite her past warning to him that she was only looking after herself. She was also willing to fight alongside him despite her grievous injuries. With her remaining Tao left, Yuzuriha ultimately was willing to risk her life to fulfill her task in killing Ran. She is shown to be a terrible liar after trying to make up her backstory.