Hagane Daido

Stocky in build and advanced in age, Hagane has cropped grey hair and a heavy, unruly mustache. His face features black brows, a sizable nose, and eyes set with small, pale pupils. Right after coming back as an incarnation, he turned up wearing a plain white t-shirt, dark shorts, and a pair of sandals. After the fighting in the Sakurajima Colony began, he traded that for older-fashioned samurai garb, taking on a mid-toned kimono.

Born to an era that treated the katana as a Japanese man's very soul, Hagane awoke in a present where bearing a blade is outlawed. Baffled and stricken at finding not a single katana, he could do nothing but tear around in tears, screaming the word over and over as he hunted for one. The moment Maki Zenin handed him a sword, he chose without hesitation to aid her against Naoya Zenin, a display of his deep honor. He counted Maki a worthy rival, going so far as to ask that she hunt him down for a duel once the time arrived to strip away his incarnated object.

Reborn as a master swordsman, Hagane handles a blade with unrivaled skill. Being a non-sorcerer marks him as an oddity among Culling Game players, since he can swing a sword yet cannot draw on cursed energy. That absence does nothing to slow him, as his swordsmanship lifts him to such heights that he can meet jujutsu practitioners as an equal.

He outclassed even Maki Zenin with a blade before she had fully awakened her potential. The vengeful spirit Naoya Zenin, who had pushed Maki hard in their initial encounter, he split clean in two. As soon as Maki's sword passed into his grip, a lethal aura washed over everyone nearby. Cursed spirits stay invisible to his eyes, yet he can take in "everything else" that frames them, which lets him strike curses dead on. He likewise senses when a katana he holds is a cursed tool, branding Maki's sword a demonic blade. The weapon he borrowed was Maki's replica of the Split Soul Katana, capable of slicing through the hardest matter to reach the soul, though unleashing its full strength calls for eyes that perceive the souls dwelling within inorganic things.