Hekiji Tengai

His eyes stay shut most of the time. When they do open, the irises and pupils show pale, set narrow beneath dark, level brows. Short spiked hair in the same washed-out shade tops a tall, slim frame.

He dresses traditionally, in a dark yukata belted with a long white cloth and geta on his feet. The plague mask common to the Shie Hassaikai is his too, a plain brown one held on by three straps, one down the forehead and one over each ear like a pair of mufflers.

Composure is his defining trait, monk-like and rarely broken, though a bad enough position can crack it. Violence beyond what a job requires does not appeal to him: he pities opponents, treats the enjoyment of fighting as a base and selfish appetite, and would rather see an assignment finished quickly. He tends to talk with his eyes closed, projecting a kind of enlightenment, and narrates his read of a situation as it unfolds. Loyalty to Kai Chisaki is absolute, orders are followed closely and fast, and he objects when anyone addresses his boss improperly. He and Kendo Rappa get along badly, being opposites in every respect; Kendo's hunger for a fight and his invented nicknames for Kai both offend him, and once Kendo swings at him he stops arguing and lets the man do as he likes.

Barrier lets him materialize an extremely tough dome-shaped forcefield with himself at its center, rated in strength against a wall of steel. He chooses the radius, and whether size costs durability is unknown. Enough force will break it, and a Hekiji who is badly hurt or worn down cannot raise another.

He fights nobody directly. His value is shielding, including from a good distance, which makes him a support specialist, and it is exactly why Kai paired him with Kendo, a man built for close quarters. Kendo throws bullet-fast punches while Hekiji covers him whenever he is outmatched. Set against Eijiro Kirishima and Fat Gum, a pair who both specialize in defense and melee, the arrangement worked well enough to pressure Fat Gum, who understood that beating the two of them was near-impossible while Hekiji still stood. He is durable in his own right, rising to his feet after the hero's stockpiled punch tore through his own barrier, and only went down when Kendo stomped him into the floor.

His calm carries a strategist's mind. He recognized what Fat Gum could do, clocked Hardening on Eijiro, and concluded that both heroes were built to absorb rather than attack. Watching Eijiro despair, he wrote him off as beaten; watching Fat Gum wind up, he told Kendo to end it fast. Eijiro's recovery was the thing he failed to predict, and the punch that followed forced another shield out of him.

During the raid on the compound, Joi Irinaka used Mimicry to drop Fat Gum and Eijiro into a room where the pair were already waiting. Blocking the hero's attacks, Hekiji introduced them as Spear and Shield and dismissed the opposition as Shield and Shield, adding that neither could stop Kendo's fists anyway. Kendo told him to quit covering him and swung, which the barrier caught; reminded that Overhaul had teamed them for the synergy, Kendo answered that the plans meant nothing to him and killing was all he wanted, so Hekiji let him have his way and corrected his manners. Fat Gum's final blow eventually landed, and only a maximum-defense barrier absorbed enough of it to keep them both conscious. Kendo rose anyway, insisted the contest ended only in death and that he was still breathing, and asked Fat Gum to carry Eijiro to the first-aid supplies; when Hekiji objected to the selfishness and demanded he follow orders, Kendo knocked him out, tied him up, and had him carried off. He was arrested with the rest of the Hassaikai once Overhaul fell. He had been the gang's newest member, recruited for the specific purpose of managing Kendo.