Osada

Now in middle age, Osada carries narrow eyes, cropped black hair, and a layer of growth that runs along his jaw into a mustache; even his forearms are thickly haired. His combat getup is unusual, a shark suit cut with openings that leave his face uncovered and let his arms and legs reach out freely. Underneath he keeps things plain, a white tank top paired with black trousers. Decades earlier his hair was a touch longer, his face clean of stubble, and he favored a white martial arts uniform.

A former jujutsu sorcerer with a coarse, prickly manner, Osada often hides a softer heart behind the bluster. He is loud, direct, and short-tempered, with nothing setting him off faster than a crack about his age. His habits, living mostly on liquor and snacks, lead others to write him off as a careless drifter.

Strip away the rough surface, though, and a deeply principled man remains. Rather than rush to exterminate the tiger Toranosuke, he demands that the beast be understood in context, pointing out that human development drove it from its home. He refuses to kill the animal even after it claims villagers' lives, holding that people should answer for the troubles their own actions create, a stance that puts him squarely against Tsurugi's blunter pragmatism. Loneliness shapes him too. Living far from any village, he sees his own isolation mirrored in the tiger and once gave the cub shelter and company when both were young. When he finally grasps that Toranosuke can no longer be reached, he breaks down and begs Tsurugi to grant it a painless end. Even after that loss, his pledge to raise the tiger's orphaned cub shows a man still bound to coexistence and to safeguarding life.

Osada trained at Kyoto Jujutsu High in his youth and took up the sorcerer's path. He later stepped away from the work and settled by himself in the mountains of Gifu, where he crossed paths with Toranosuke and the tiger's mother, learned their story, and formed a bond with the young cub. Years on, a refurbished solar plant atop that mountain, restored with Kyoto Paranormal Resolution funding, baked the slopes dry and emptied the river, pushing the thirsty tiger downhill toward water and prey. Toranosuke struck two villagers, and on hearing of it Osada used his cursed technique to hunt the animal down before more harm followed. Swimming through the forest in his shark suit, he was spotted by three villagers who took him for the killer.

Once Jujutsu High received the report, Tsurugi, Yuka, and Maru drew the assignment to wipe out the strange shark seen gliding among the trees. Osada surfaced while Tsurugi and Maru bickered, prompting both to strike at him, and when Maru seized him he revealed who he was, startling the pair. After scolding them for the old-man remarks, he laid out his wish to spare Toranosuke, which clashed with Tsurugi's plan to put the creature down. Mid-argument, the suit's heightened senses caught the smell of blood and he rushed off, only to find a bloodied tree, a lure set by the tiger waiting on a branch above. Toranosuke ambushed him, wounding him and tearing the costume before Tsurugi tackled it clear. As Tsurugi readied the killing stroke, Osada relived his past with the animal and tearfully asked for a painless death; when the tiger lunged, Tsurugi drew his katana and ended it in one cut. Recovering against a tree afterward, Osada apologized for forcing such cruelty on the young sorcerer, who answered that it was simply his duty, drawing the remark that he was a true jujutsu sorcerer. Tsurugi then discovered the tiger's cub and entrusted it to Osada, urging him to do better by it this time, and the old man wept as he embraced his new companion.