Character Analysis: Hijikata Mamoru

 

Background

After a drunk driver killed his parents. Mamoru was sent to live with his grandfather, a practitioner of the Jikishinkage style of Japanese swordsmanship. Mamoru became obsessed with the ancient styles, learning everything he could from his grandfather and other masters of the blade. This obsession eventually drove him to dedicate himself to prove that the sword still had a place in modern warfare. To achieve this Mamoru joined the Elements Network, a clandestine network of vigilantes bankrolled by anonymous victims of crime and was sent to Chechnya at the peak of the fighting. He would return to Japan to continue his vigilante mission and mission to prove the viability of the sword.

At some point, Mamoru comes into contact with a young girl named Haruka Toyama who was being sought out by many crime syndicates for her precognitive abilities to predict the future, desiring to use it for their own personal ambitions. Thus Mamoru sympathizes with Haruka’s helplessness and wishes for her to be able to live a normal life as a teenage girl without living in constant fear for her own life. The two made a pact together and Mamoru swore an oath "Until Death Do Us Part" to always protect her at all cost from any harm’s way. At first they started out as nothing more than partners who looked to work together with the same goal in mind to take down all the criminal organizations in Tokyo who had ruined many lives; however, over time they had formed a close bond to which Mamoru finally knew what it means to be “happy” and to care for someone.   

Equipment

Sunglasses

Momaru's sunglasses are special. Through ultrasound, he's capable of creating images in the glasses that link directly to his brain, which give him "sight". As such his sunglasses do him great wonders like allowing him to perform the following actions: 

• See around corners or through walls

• Save specific people to it’s memory to be able to easily recognize them in the future

• See through disguises 

• Able ittle discs that emit ultra-sonic waves, which allow him to see better

• Allows him to spot threats in hiding areas

• Has an upgrade that allows him to see the trajectory of bullets

• Can see where a sniper shot at him from

Monocular Blade

Mamoru’s signature weapon. Modeled after the Shikomizue - a Japanese cane sword that can cut objects and opponents on a molecular level and weaken their molecular bonds thus allowing the wielder of the sword to cut through almost anything on the planet that is often thought to be virtually indestructible. 

Nodachi

A Japanese Greatsword once by the Samurai of feudal Japan, being used as an anti-cavalry weapon against war horses. While Mamoru loses his Monocular Blade’s lethal molecular-cutting power due to the Nodachi’s reach and length provides him greater reach and range over his opponents in close combat scenarios.  

Bayonet Spear

A spear-like weapon with a dagger attached to the pole. Allowing for Mamoru to use it like a polearm weapon. An extremely versatile weapon in all situations as the weapon not only grants Mamoru flexible reach and range due to the length of the weapon, but to also be able to be used as an efficient slashing and thrusting weapon.   

Throwing Knives

As the name implies. A pair of throwing knives which Mamoru carries on him to use as ranged weapons, able to be used as a distraction tool in combat or kill his target from afar. 

Bulletproof Clothing

If you hadn’t guessed it already. Mamoru’s fabric clothing is bulletproof material allowing him to withstand attacks such as sharp-bladed weapons and gunfire. How? I don’t fucking know, don’t ask.

Abilities

Echolocation Senses

 

Perhaps one of Mamoru’s greatest gifts ever bestowed upon him after losing his sight was his Echolocation Senses which allows him to identify and sense every incoming threat whether it is by mere sound or touch. Because of that this grants him a degree of precognition allowing him to predict the opponent’s next move or detect incoming dangers when sensing their “killing intent”.  

Military Tactics

Having been trained in the modern military arts. Mamoru is quite proficient in the use of stealth, espionage, sabotage, reconnaissance, demolition, guerilla tactics and psychological warfare.

  

Swordsmanship

Having been rigorously trained by his grandfather and many swordmasters at such a young age. By the time he had reached his 20’s, he had become one of the most gifted and talented swordsmen of modern age. His mastery of Japanese swordsmanship is perfectly demonstrated when he can attack his enemies with surgical precision to either cut their tendons to incapacitate them or their throat to omit them from their ability to speak without killing them.    

Hand to Hand Combat

Even without a sword. Mamoru proves to still be quite a dangerous adversary as he is quite adept in hand to hand combat and even regularly employs physical strikes in his swordsmanship, making his fighting style all the more deadly and unpredictable. 

Marksmanship

Surprisingly enough, Mamoru is actually quite skilled at the use of ranged weapons such as firearms and throwing weapons with perfect pinpoint accuracy. However he much prefers close-quarters combat and bladed weapons, but should the situation require it, he is more than willing to adopt ranged weapons for combat situations.  

Feats

Overall 

• Trained to be the perfect swordsman since childhood 

• Known as “The Modern Day Samurai”

• His terrifying mastery of the sword earned him the moniker “The Blade Demon”

• One of the most skilled fighters in the world despite his blindness

• Took down many crime syndicates

• Fought dangerous assassins, hitmen, gangsters and mob bosses 

• Became a bodyguard of Haruka Toyama and successfully protected her from every threat coming their way

• A one man army badass

• Has cool shades

Power

• KO’ed a Yakuza with one physical blow

• Smashed down doors 

• Strong enough to lift up a full grown man

• Throws down a muscular henchmen

• Ragdolls a Yakuza thug twice his size

• Physically one-shotted a much larger man

• Cracks the skull of his opponent

• Pierces his sword through a tank and stabs a soldier’s leg

• Sends a man flying 

• Hits a man out of a window, into the street 

• Body slams a foe back a few feet shattering a car window 

• Completely shatters a man's arm 

• Tears out a man's lower jaw 

• Pushes over a large stack of pallets 

• Levels down an entire steel girder with a normal Nodachi

• Kills Zasid with one swift strike of his sword

Speed

• His best combat trait

• Consistently moves and attack faster than the eye could follow speeds 

• Moved and instinctively fights so fast, he leaves behind afterimages of himself

• Faster than Tate Karito

• Karito is fast enough to deflect and even catch bullets with his bionic arm (Mach 8)

• Regularly cutting and deflecting bullets

• Deflects a pair of needle shrapnels

• Avoids a speed-blitz attack

• Vanishes out of sight and reappears to attack once more

• Slices faster than a hardening foam pellet can deploy 

• Weaves through a crowd of people who are hypnotized to kill him and are also on PCP

• Throws more than a dozen knives into the thug in a second 

• Slices a pistol in half before the enemy could open fire

• Gets ambushed by ninjas, but takes them down in a matter of seconds

• Ghosting around the thugs and blitzing them

• Speed-blitzed three Yakuza gang members before they could draw out their weapons

• Blitzes two people before anyone can react

• Weaves through automatic gunfire and blitzes all the shooters

• Blitzes a group of mercenaries

• Cuts the tendons/muscles of a goon at FTE speeds to incapacitate him 

• Takes several criminals in a matter of seconds

• Dodges through Gatling Gunfire before blitzing the shooter and his partner

• Speed-blitzes through two Yakuza gang member in a blink of an eye

• Cuts the tendons in the arms, legs, and achilles heel before the guy can shoot

• Puts Zasid on the defense with speed-based attack flurries 

• Swiftly hacks off Edge Turus’s arm so fast, he didn’t even notice 

• Stealthily blitzed through an entire room of soldiers before any of them could realize what was going on

• Slice and diced through several soldiers at blurred speeds 

Durability

• High pain tolerance against bullets, bladed weapons, explosions and blunt-force trauma

• Grazed by a sniper shot to the abdomen

• Shrugs off being cut by the bladed drone

• Takes a hit from a guy who punched a lion to death 

• Takes a barrage of punches from a low level superhuman

• Is completely unaffected by having his back cut up

• Has withstood hits from Tate Karito’s bionic arm

• Karito’s bionic arm is more than strong enough to shatter concrete and even Mamoru’s own sword 

• Survives from a fatal slash wound and brutal beating from Zasid

• Tanked a grenade to the face

• Withstands an explosion and shrapnels gashing out his eyes

Weakness

 Even though he has been heavily trained in using his other senses, the fact of the matter is that Mamoru is still blind, and that can be used to an enemy's advantage if skilled enough. In addition his Echolocation Senses can be nullified by sound suppressors and disoriented by EMPs, leaving him vulnerable. However even then he has been shown to be completely competent in handling himself without his Echolocation Senses.