Denjiro

Towering at well over three meters, Denjiro is built like a giant, broad and heavily muscled. In his youth his face was soft and round, framed by dark blue hair tied back in a long ponytail and a pair of sunglasses he rarely removed. As a boy he favored a kimono patterned with four-leaf clovers, while in adulthood he switched to darker robes marked with a small crescent on the chest.

Two decades of bottled rage over Oden's death physically reshaped him. The roundness left his features, his eyes narrowed into sharp slants, thick sideburns grew in, and his hair faded to a lighter tone. He concealed the old ponytail beneath an enormous false pompadour and dressed as Kyoshiro in a deep blue kimono printed with circles and target rings, topped by a high-collared cape. For his nighttime thievery he swapped this for a yellow ninja garb and a bandana wrapped to hide his hair, and during the raid he wore a Beasts Pirates foot soldier disguise before casting it off.

Even as a youth, Denjiro prized his gift for reading and manipulating people, a talent he turned on shopkeepers and marks alike. He idolized Kouzuki Oden long before joining him, and once enlisted he became the lord's steadiest advisor, the most studious of the retainers and the one who kept watch over Kuri's finances. His grief at Oden's execution was so consuming that it literally warped his face, yet that same iron will let him bow to Orochi and even shield the man for twenty years while loathing him completely.

Beneath the Kyoshiro mask he stayed quietly compassionate, funneling stolen wealth to the poor and raising the orphaned Hiyori as his own. In his cheerful drunken persona he mocked the shogun's fears openly and swung between laughter, menace, and sudden naps, often dozing off in public because his nights belonged to thievery. He treated even his lowliest yakuza followers as family worth avenging, and when the revolution finally turned in his favor he allowed himself a satisfied smile, his long patience rewarded.

An orphan of the Flower Capital, Denjiro made his living swindling merchants until a chance encounter with Kin'emon and a stray boar drew him into Oden's orbit. Awed by Oden striking down the Mountain God, he followed the exiled lord, became one of his retainers, and alongside the other Scabbards reformed into a dignified samurai after a lesson from Shimotsuki Yasuie. He marched with Oden against Kaidou and witnessed his master's death in the boiling pot, fleeing with the others while splitting off with Ashura Doji to hold off pursuers.

Consumed by hatred in an abandoned shrine, his face transformed, and he reemerged as Kyoshiro, founding a yakuza family and worming his way into Orochi's service as bodyguard and money changer. By night he robbed the rich as Ushimitsu Kozo, and he secretly took in Hiyori, grooming her into the oiran Komurasaki and faking her death to spare her Orochi's wrath. When the Fire Festival came, he freed a thousand imprisoned loyalists, revealed his true name, and rejoined the Scabbards, helping wound Kaidou and ultimately beheading Orochi for good. With Momonosuke installed as shogun, Denjiro was appointed daimyo of Kibi.