Hairo

Hairo was a fairly tall young man with an athletic frame. His black hair was very spiky, with two chin-length strands at the front, and his eyes were pale against black sclera, marked with the Twelve Kizuki insignia for his rank on the left one. Jagged black spike-like patterns framed his face.

He dressed in a light Western-style suit with a buckled belt and loose trousers tucked into black boots. Over it he wore a black cloak resembling a cape with raised collars, and he topped the outfit with a white sailor's hat bearing a wolf emblem at its front. He was most often seen with a revolver in hand.

Hairo was sadistic, ruthless, and fixated on revenge. He cared nothing for the innocent people of Tokyo or for the slayers sent after him, concentrating solely on his hatred of the Flame Hashira who once tormented him. A practiced torturer in his human days, he boasted of knowing exactly how far a body could be pushed before breaking, and he intended to inflict that suffering on his captives.

His rage toward Shinjuro Rengoku effectively defined him, blinding him to the fact that the slayer before him was not Shinjuro but his son Kyojuro. So consuming was this fear that Hairo claimed his whole life had been ruled by anger and dread, and whenever tension built up he would fire a round into his own head to relieve it. Once he realized his mistake about his opponent's identity, much of his fury and drive drained away, and despite his skill with firearms he secretly despised them, taking pride instead in his swordsmanship.

As a human, Hairo studied Bushido and grew into a capable swordsman, but his confidence shattered during an encounter with rifle-armed soldiers, where he saw how firearms outmatched the blade. The soldiers shot him, yet he survived and was soon afterward transformed into a demon.

As a demon he later crossed paths with the Flame Hashira of that era, Shinjuro Rengoku, who, drunk and neglecting his duties, repeatedly slashed the far weaker Hairo's hands without killing him and mocked him for fleeing. Though he was left alive, this single traumatic episode became the engine of his desire to grow stronger, and he eventually developed a Blood Demon Art that combined his fighting styles. The memory left him perpetually gripped by fear and fury, and in time he rose to become Lower Rank Two of the Twelve Kizuki.