This the character page for Kemono Jihen. Beware of unmarked spoilers.
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Inugami Detective Agency
Kabane Kusaka
Kabane Kusaka
Voiced by: Natsumi Fujiwara (Japanese), Madeleine Morris (English)
"My name is Kabane. I can do anything but die. It's nice to meet you."
—Kabane introducing himself
Nicknamed Dorotabō by his abusive family members and neighbors, Kabane grew up oblivious to his nature as a half-Khoular, being forced to work as a farmhand by his aunt after his parents left him in her care for unknown reasons. After being blamed for an incident where a monstrous deer was eating the local wildlife, causing the corpses to rot he's taken in by detective Inugami to work at his Kemono office.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, his eyes are initially a pale shade of red. They're a much darker shade of red in the anime to match the manga's Art Evolution.
- Alliterative Name: Kabane Kusaka.
- All-Loving Hero: A twisted version in that the abuse heaped upon him from the time he is just a year old has made him incapable of hating anyone, thus showing no malice towards the people who go out of his way to make his life a living hell when he has every right to be.
- All There in the Manual: Kabane only ever uses his first name, but the end of chapter page shows that his full name is Kabane Kusaka.
- An Arm and a Leg: Kabane has been on both sides of this trope, frequently having his limbs severed while tearing off the limbs of his opponents in turn. Due to his regeneration, he comes away perfectly fine in the end, and has even done this to himself to escape traps. It also makes him very intimidating when he's unflinchingly walking towards someone while covered in blood with a missing arm, only for said arm to regenerate a few seconds later.
- Art Evolution:
- His eyes are initially depicted as a being a pale shade of red in color illustrations. Later illustrations make his eyes a much darker red. which the anime matches. In addition, early illustrations make him a Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, while later colorings give him a much healthier complexion. The anime strikes a balance between these two skin tones, making him tanner than Akira but more pale than Shiki or Inugami.
- The manga also initially depicted Kabane's hair as being extremely spiky in typical Shōnen fashion. Later chapters make Kabane's hair much softer and the anime reflects this.
- Anti-Regeneration: He regenerates from his head down, so decapitating him and putting his head on an enclosed space or blocking his (remaining) neck will prevent him from regenerating. He can only regenerate at a limited rate as well, so setting him on fire will drain his ability to do so. The magical fire that regenerates his body also abides by some of the same principles as real fire. So smothering his head to prevent it from receiving oxygen to ignite will prevent him from regenerating.
- Back from the Dead: Kabane is, in Inugami's words, someone who won't die when they're killed. Whenever Kabane would receive a fatal wound, he simply heals himself within a few hours. In one case, he can regenerate his entire body after his head was cut off within a few minutes of being released from a suitcase.
- Badass Adorable: He's a short, adorable thirteen-year-old who can snap the necks of man-eating deer when high-caliber handguns powerful enough to obliterate the torsos of zombie dogs couldn't put a dent in them.
- Bad Liar:
- He's not very good at lying. Inugami notes that he smiles when he's lying, first seen in the first chapter when he tells Inugami he doesn't care about meeting his parents, and then again when he denies being lonely after Shiki finds his mother again and meets a sister he didn't know he had.
- Later on, he's sweating bullets at Kaede's trial for his rampage in Shikoku and badly deflects questions while hiding his face in his arms. He only starts sweating even more profusely and wears The Un-Smile when he's put on the spot, requiring Zenkichi to cover for him.
- The Big Guy: He's the agency's big gun when it comes to taking on other kemono, usually taking the lead to tackle a problem headfirst.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Downplayed. While he has a sense of right and wrong, it's muddled by his perspective as both a kemono hybrid and his lack of social experience until being taken in by Inugami. As a result, he feels nothing when killing others if they attacked him first and even offers to help Shiki murder his uncle if he wants him to. Kabane is equally unperturbed when he learns that the oni are raising humans as livestock for slaughter. Later on, he reflects in hindsight that he'd probably have done terrible things without hesitation had he been taken in by someone like Inari rather than Inugami.
- Body Horror: When his Life Calculus is removed, his skin begins flaking away to reveal pitch black flesh underneath, while his lips also dissolve to show his teeth. Meanwhile his arms become disproportionately large and have enormous veins snaking down them. He also begins growing horns and the sclera of his eyes darken while his normally pale irises become a deep red.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman:
- His strength and regeneration can let him deal with most mindless Kemono, but his time in Yashima Village shows that he'll be easily beaten by those with far better technique than him. Because of this, he spends his time there learning to not rely on his Healing Factor and to be more observant of his opponent's actions and his surroundings to better make use of his abilities.
- Fukuhime teaches Kabane "Totsuka", a special palm strike technique to multiply the strength of his blows tenfold. With this he's able to deal serious damage to Kaede and Akagi's enormous Kagetsuchi form, destroying one of their legs in the process.
- Break the Cutie: Happened long before the series started, with his aunt mistreating him since day one due to being a half-Khoular hybrid, making him work in the fields instead of going to school, effectively using him for slave labor, and pelting him with insults so frequently that his first response to hearing someone say that he smelled so bad that others would have to rip their noses off to stand him is, "Okay, be careful." His lack of self-worth is so profound that he's utterly baffled at Inugami's friendly demeanor towards him. Kabane even allows Inugami to "kill" him without any hesitation, only learning that he wouldn't die from a bullet to the head after waking up a day later.
- Brutal Honesty: He has no filters due to his lack of positive social interaction. As a result, when asked for his opinion on something, he'll speak frankly and earnestly without a hint of malice, even if what he says is insulting. It comes to a head when he accidentally pushes Akira out of the agency by telling him it's okay that he's useless.Kabane: [after Akira continuously fails at basic tasks] Don't feel down, Akira.
Akira: [sobbing] But Kabane, I've been super clumsy lately...
Kabane: Don't worry. It's not like you started being useless just now, Akira. No matter how many times you fail, I feel that way. I don't mind at all. [confused as Akira wobbles away] Akira? - Chaste Hero: Kabane can't tell the difference between friendship, familial love, and romantic love due to lacking all of these things growing up. As a result, when Akira and Shiki ask who Kabane likes (as in, has a crush on), he simply says Inugami's name due to the gratitude he feels towards him. This is continually Played for Laughs throughout the series.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Kon and Aya, Shiki's younger half-sister have demonstrated blatant romantic interest in Kabane, but his complete lack of social skills and understanding of love leaves him immune to their advances. When the similarly socially stunted Kon asks how she can become Kabane's most important person, he tells her that he doesn't know. Kon then tells him to explain it to her when he figures it out.
- Comically Missing the Point: Due to his lack of social skills, Kabane often interprets things literally unless they're pointed out to him.
- Dissonant Serenity: It's extremely unnerving how he never reacts to any of the insults thrown at him, and the first time he's seen actually smiling in the series is when he tells Inugami to kill him and pin the blame for the decaying animals on him as per Inugami's original assignment. Due to his advanced healing ability and Inugami's own sympathy, this luckily doesn't stick.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Inverted. He has trouble acknowledging any of the good things he does for others, such as the time when he walked into a room of bugs that strip flesh from bone in seconds to rescue a mother and her son when no one else could, but insists that he didn't do anything useful.Boy: [bowing and crying in gratitude for saving his brother and mother] Tha-thank you so much! Thank you so... so... much!
Kabane: [confused] It's fine. I didn't do much. - Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Is depicted as this on the cover art, but his complexion is healthier looking in the first few colored pages, likely due to working for so many hours in the sun.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Kabane was nicknamed Dorotabō, an earthbound spirit usually covered in feces, by his family and neighbors due to his unusual smell and being made to work in the fields all day. He never has to hear it again after Inugami takes him to Tokyo.
- Extreme Doormat: Kabane usually won't do anything unless it would help someone else or if someone tells him to do it. When Shiki goes off to play video games and Akira begins reading a magazine during a slow day at the office, he stares at the corner and waits for instructions. During the events at Ogreham, Inugami has to explain the "true nature" of things and how to get around instructions with Exact Words.
- He does have his limits though. He feels no need to be particularly polite to those who are potential enemies. He's quick to tell Nobimaru that they aren't friends when Nobimaru is teasing him.
- Extreme Omnivore: To keep up The Masquerade, Kabane eats a boy's phone after the boy took pictures of Kabane doing business.
- Evil Aunt: Kabane's aunt crushed all semblance of self-worth and value that he has. By the present day, he's completely and utterly confused when other people treat him well. It's even implied that he's never celebrated his birthday before, since he isn't even sure of his own age. She also calls him a "monster" and wanted him dead for years, commissioning Inugami to kill Kabane as she believed that her nephew was responsible for the string of animal deaths.
- Feel No Pain: Khoular are incapable of feeling any pain. As a result, whenever Kabane actually takes a hit, he never complains since he never actually feels its effects. He is also perfectly okay with having a chunk of his leg ripped off by sticky thread and once tore his own arm off to escape a trap. But that doesn't mean he can't be injured and he'll feel it if something's off (i.e. he takes a back injury that makes it harder for him to move).Kabane: [flesh-eating bugs attack his eyes, calmly] I can't see...
- Fearless Undead: A zig-zagged example. As a bloodless creature that's nearly impossible to kill, Kabane can wade into more dangerous situations without fear of permanent injury. However, his lack of fear stems from his aunt's emotional abuse of him, which left him incapable of fearing or hating anything. This is not always treated as a good thing. The one thing that can truly scare him is himself and his natural craving for flesh. He's so terrified of his oni side that he subconsciously suppresses it out of fear that he'll one day snap and devour the people he's grown to love and cherish. It takes Shiki and Akira kicking his butt for him to realize that they're more than capable of taking care of themselves and that he doesn't need to restrain himself for their sake.
- Friendless Background: Kabane was the object of ridicule and scorn from others due to his strange smell and his aunt's unwillingness to use him for anything other than menial labor or even provide him an education. As a result, he is baffled when others treat him well and raises an eyebrow when Shiki tells him that he could have just asked for help.
- Full-Frontal Assault: He doesn't seem to have a concept of decency or shame and doesn't feel embarrassed to charge at his foes even when rendered completely naked.
- Good Is Not Soft: Kabane is generally kind and a good listener to his friends. At the same time, he can be ruthless when his life or the lives of others are in danger, dismembering his foes without hesitation and attempting to bite all the way through Kon's neck after being reduced to a head, calmly remarking that he messed up when he only took a chunk out of it. He is also fully willing to use the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique to get information. He doesn't like doing this, but he won't pull punches if someone else comes at him with the intent to kill.Kabane: I don't kill unless I have to. When the time comes to kill, I kill. If they attack with the intent to kill me... I think that makes us even.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Kabane's healing ability makes him a prime target for deadlier attacks, including having his head torn off, back broken, losing limbs, and getting trampled on. However, he can only regenerate if he has enough space to, and can thus be incapacitated if his severed head is kept in a suitcase.Kabane: [introducing himself to Shiki and Akira] I'm Kabane. I can do anything but die. It's nice to meet you.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half-Khoular, half-human.
- Healing Factor: He can regenerate virtually any part of his body, recovering from being reduced to just a head. During his fight against Yui, he regenerates his whole body after being set ablaze by Nobimaru and reduced to just his skull and eyes. That said, Nobimaru points out that Kabane would in fact have died for real had he continued burning much longer. There's also a limit to how much he can heal, as repeated injury will eventually exhaust him and prevent him from regenerating (albeit he can still be perfectly fine as a disembodied head until he gets his strength back).
- Heal the Cutie: Being taken in by Inugami gradually turns Kabane from The Stoic with no self-worth into someone with great compassion and a willingness to throw himself in harm's way for the sake of others. Over the course of the story, Kabane goes from saying few words and staring at a wall when he isn't being tasked with anything to giving others a Rousing Speech and making decisions as serious as choosing to defend and try to reform Kaede of his own volition.
- Hopeless with Tech: He has trouble operating anything more complicated that a stove or a telephone due to living away from modern amenities until he came to Tokyo. He hasn't even heard of YouTube, prompting him to think of it as a hose with a mouth at the end when told about it.
- Horror Hunger: As a Khoular, he'd normally have the urge to attack and eat humans. However, the Life Calculus that hangs around his neck acts as a Restraining Bolt that keeps his hunger in check so long as he keeps it near him.
- Innocently Insensitive: His lack of social graces and common sense can drive his friends up the wall. He flatly tells Akira that he's useless without a hint of derision and doesn't pick up on why Shiki is so concerned about Aya, a girl younger than they are, is working for living.
- Kid Hero: He's 13... probably, in his words. His resilience, determination, and strength help him become one of the most vital members of the Inugami Detective Agency, but his naivety and lack of social skills mean that he has a lot of growing up to do.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: A negative example in that no one in his hometown would ever use his real name, only calling him Dorotabō's, the name for an earth-bound spirit covered in manure and rice sprouts, due to the way he naturally smells.
- Law Of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Kabane's extraordinarily powerful Healing Factor and an inability to feel pain lead him to simply throw himself at his opponents recklessly because it's nearly impossible to for him to die. But even if he can't feel pain, he can still be injured and temporarily incapacitated, as shown when Kabane gets his neck broken while training with the tanuki of Yajima Village. Kabane's experiences slowly beat this mindset out of him, making him fight more carefully than before. But his inability to remain wounded still allows him to make reckless plays that no one else can, such as letting Nobimaru light him on fire to counter Yui's ice powers and later using himself as kindling for Kaede's fire powers.
- Lightning Bruiser: Kabane is superhumanly strong, tough, and fast. When tapping into his kemono strength he can rip other kemono apart limb from limb with his bare hands and shatter rock with his punches. His Healing Factor lets him take hits that would kill anyone else.
- Limited Wardrobe: After getting his signature skeleton-themed hoodie and balloon pants, he's rarely seen wearing anything else, even after said clothes have been burnt to a crisp in a previous issue.
- Magnetic Hero: His innocence and naivety are charming to others despite his lack of social skills. Inugami takes a shine to him almost immediately compared to Yataro's plastic facade of politeness, and even those antagonistic to him end up liking him in time because of his kindness.
- Meaningful Name: His name is homophonous for the Japanese word for "corpse".Explanation Given that he's a kind of zombie, it fits. On the other hand, his derogatory childhood nickname, Dorotabō, refers to an earthbound spirit covered in manure that tends to rice fields, reflecting his position in his aunt's household and the strange smell he gives off.
- Men Can't Keep House: Inverted. Due to spending his entire life working at his aunt's inn, Kabane is exceedingly skilled and farmwork and housework, cleaning up the entire Kemono office and making it a spotless and neat workplace in just one hour. The only thing he can't do well is cook due to his aunt keeping him away from food at all times and he has already promised to work on getting better.
- Mundane Luxury: Kabane is utterly perplexed by basic things like people treating him with common decency and respect. It's implied the his hammock is the first time he's actually had a bed, but he ends up sleeping on the floor anyway because it's too soft and fluffy for his tastes.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Given his short height, scrawny frame, and the fact that his aunt kept him away from eating areas at all times, it's implied that Kabane wasn't fed all that well. Despite this, he can easily tear apart things that bullets can't penetrate with his bare hands.
- Mystical White Hair: Once he learns to accept his kemono half and let go of his fear of eating his loved ones, he gains the ability to tap into more of his heritage and the power of his Life Calculus, bleaching his hair white, turning his skin red, and cloaking his body in fire.
- Naked People Are Funny: Kabane often gets beheaded, burned or otherwise harmed, which leads to him regenerating from his head or remaining body... and no clothes.
- Nom de Mom: Or aunt, rather. As his only parental figure, Kabane uses his aunt's last name, though it's almost never brought up in conversation.
- No Social Skills: Being raised in an environment where the only things he got were commands and derision left Kabane with little understanding of social cues and mannerisms. When Kon breaks down crying in front of him, he panics and looks around for an answer. The only thing he can think of doing is taking her hand and sitting with her, doing so all night until he gets a call from Inugami.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After speaking with Kaede for a while and struggling to get him to cooperate, Kabane realizes that they are alike in that they did what others told them to get praise and feel a sense of belonging. He goes on to say that he probably would have done many of the same bad things that Kon and Kaede did if Inugami weren't a good person and helped Kabane use his abilities in service of others.
- Not So Stoic: He breaks down when he realizes that he isn't human, and after seeing what he did to an apple he immediately believes that he is the monster responsible for the deaths of the local animals until Inugami told him otherwise. After which, Kabane returns to his normal stoic demeanor, but he is still openly startled at some of the most brutal scenarios of the series.
- Not Used to Freedom: Kabane was used by his Evil Aunt as free labor and constantly made to do tasks, rather than do things like go to school or hang out with others his age. By the time he's thirteen (he thinks), he's so unused to the idea of having his own free time that he stares at a wall and waits for instructions when there's nothing to do at Inugami's office.
- Our Ghouls Are Different: He is half-Khoular, a type of Japanese corpse spirit. This means that he's technically alive, but he doesn't die when he's killed and quickly heals away most wounds, even fatal ones. In addition, anything he bites while his Khoular powers are active begins to rot. On top of this, he possesses disproportionate strength and speed versus his size, cannot feel pain, and completely lacks blood, instead having a strange white fluid and fire in his circulatory system. It's later revealed that Khoular don't procreate directly, instead creating more of their kind by sharing the fire that gives them their life energy and regeneration abilities. It would be more accurate to call Kabane a human with a Khoular's flame. Even more unusually, his regeneration is as powerful as a full-blooded Khoular. Inugami also refers to him as an oni, and when he takes his Life Calculus off, his skin flakes away to reveal pitch-black muscle underneath and a horn grows from his head.
- Parental Abandonment: His parents left him on his aunt's front door when he was just a year old and fled for reasons unknown, only leaving instructions to "raise him as a human". But given the incredibly valuable and rare Life Calculus that hangs around his neck, Inugami suspects that that this decision was not by choice but necessity.
- Pinocchio Nose: He smiles when he lies, as noticed by Inugami.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Can wrestle with nearly anything that comes his way, from wild animals to other Kemono, thanks to his Super-Strength, but he's still a measly 4'9'' and weighs just 105 pounds.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: While tapping into more of his Khoular strength, his hair turns a blazing red.
- Power Limiter: His Life Calculus keeps his Khoular side in check and prevents him instinctively attacking and feeding on humans.
- The Quiet One: He rarely speaks more than a few words at a time, with his usual response being, "Oh.", "Okay.", "I understand.", and "Got it." He does open up more about more important topics like his parents, but he will rarely actively engage in conversation unless spoken to first. He gradually becomes more chatty the more time he spends with others, later giving Shiki a Rousing Speech over a walkie-talkie when the latter was cornered.
- Rage Breaking Point: Kabane is usually able to keep a cool head in most situations, and at most he gets into a Tranquil Fury state where he calmly tears apart anything that needs to die. Though this comes into play when the first time he genuinely loses his cool in the first part of the series when his cousin Yataro insults him about being an orphan and rips his Life Calculus necklace away from him, Kabane loses his cool by belting the latter in the face while walking towards him in his Khoular form. The second time however he becomes truly pissed is when Nobimaru seemingly kills Kon and taunts him over it. He tackles Nobimaru to the floor in an uncharacteristic fit of rage.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Discussed. Yui wonders if Kabane could actually be the heir to the most powerful of Khoular and potentially the leader of all kemono, as he possesses top-class regeneration for his species despite being a hybrid. Kabane's possession of the Life Calculus, rare and powerful stones entrusted to the strongest kemono of each clan, seems to corroborate this, though Yui admits that this is purely baseless speculation on his part. Shiki also brings up the possibility of Kabane's parents simply acquiring it sometime before leaving it with Kabane rather than inheriting it.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted in that Kabane's eyes are only depicted as only a pale red in the story proper on top of being the most unequivocally nice character in the series. Of course, they do provide a hint of his heritage...
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The stoic and passive Blue to Shiki's hot-headed and domineering Red. The lines do blur when it comes to action though, as Kabane's healing abilities mean that he makes far more risky and damaging moves than Shiki ever would, even when there's a potentially less problematic solution. By contrast, Shiki's more technical abilities means he has to think about how to use them most effectively.
- Restraining Bolt: Kabane's Life Calculus suppresses his Khoular desire to attack and consume humans so long as he has it near him, letting him live like a normal human without worrying about succumbing to his Horror Hunger. By the time of the Tanuki village arc, talks to his restraint and training he can stand being without it for considerable amounts of time. However, even if he can suppress the Horror Hunger, he would still eventually need to eat human flesh to survive, while being with his Calculus removes the desire entirely and lets him live off common food.
- Running Gag: He ends up naked for one reason or another in most of the fights he is in.
- Spiky Hair: At the beginning of the manga, Kabane's hair is extremely similar to a certain Keyblade Wielder. Downplayed later on, as his hair is drawn much softer.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training:
- Since he never went to school, his cousin Yataro doubts that Kabane would be able to even write his own name (though this is later disproven when Kabane reads several difficult sounding words out of an old newspaper). Nevertheless, Kabane is a hard worker who easily dispatches numerous wild animals with ease.
- Growing up without many modern conveniences has also left him oblivious to modern tech and things that should be common sense. When he needs a money deposit to buy a train ticket, Shiki has to stop him from saying the Inugami agency's bank account number out loud in the middle of a busy train station.
- Shout-Out: When Kabane's Khoular traits emerge, the sclera of his eyes darken as his irises grow even more red in a manner reminiscent of another series with ghouls.
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite Kabane's social awkwardness and his cousin's claims that Kabane can't even write his own name, the half-Khoular knows several morbid and unusually complex terms for a thirteen year old during a game of Shiritori, or "say a word that starts with the last letter of the word someone else just said".
- The Stoic: Kabane rarely gets more expressive than his default stare due to the way he was raised and his resulting lack of social skills, not even flinching when his head is cut off. Similarly, his reaction to seeing a swarm of bugs that can strip flesh from bone in moments?Kabane: [complete deadpan] Bugs.
- Stomach of Holding: He swallows his Life Calculus to hide it while meeting with Inari at Inugami's suggestion while replacing it with a dummy necklace disguised with Inugami's powers. It turns out to be the right call, as Inari later tries to kidnap Kabane and steal his Life Calculus by chopping his head off. This does lead to the Fridge Logic at the end of the chapter (if Kabane hid it in his stomach, it would still be in his original stomach after he regrew his body), but this is also lampshaded and Played for Laughs.
- Super Mode: When under pressure or needing additional assistance when fighting, he can call upon his hidden strength by partially letting go of his human side and unleashing more of his Kemono heritage thus making him much stronger than before, but allows him to stay in control of himself. The result of which causes both his eyes and hair to glowing red, as well as a red energy sparkling around him when he fights. After better mastering his fear of his Kemono side, Kabane learns to shroud himself in fire to take on a pseudo-oni form while still remaining in control of himself, which lets him deal serious damage to Kaede and Akagi's Kagetsuchi form in tandem with his new Totsuka technique.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: His normally red eyes glow a molten gold when he's using more of his kemono power.
- Super-Strength: Can casually beat most wild animals to death with a hoe and tore off a monster deer's head with one blow after high caliber rounds that reduced a zombie dog's upper body to paste were utterly ineffective. As the story goes on, it becomes clear that even with this strength, he's not the strongest thing around, as he soon faces opponents strong enough that he can't just bulldoze them with a direct attack.
- Tomato in the Mirror: He doesn't take finding out that he isn't human all that well, but Inugami helps him get over it.
- Tranquil Fury: When Shiki is doubled over in grief over the fate of his mother, Kabane calmly asks Shiki what he wants to do. When Shiki finally asks Kabane to help him, Kabane proceeds to rip apart a hundred monsters with his bare hands. After kicking the culprit to Shiki's feet, Kabane then asks, in his usual, neutral tone of voice, whether Shiki wants the guy dead or not.
- Undying Loyalty: He's so grateful to Inugami for taking him in that he's essentially willing to listen to and do whatever Inugami says when combined with his Extreme Doormat tendencies.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Kabane is a fairly skilled brawler after spending much of his childhood fending off wild animals while working in his aunt's fields. But his primary strategy for the early parts of the story is to simply take every attack coming for him in order to get close enough to beat his opponent into submission. This ceases to work as he fights enemies who are stronger and faster than him, requiring him to train to get better at predicting his opponents and use his head to outwit them.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Due to being deprived of it for most of his life, Kabane has trouble understanding familial, platonic, and romantic love and is fascinated by it whenever it comes up. He even takes a job once in hopes of wrapping his head around it, only to draw all the wrong conclusions.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: His usual response to problems is to charge at it and punch it to death, using his regenerative abilities to simply tank any punishment he takes. This works against weaker kemono, but as the story goes on, this approach is increasingly challenged as his opponents become strong enough to overpower him and wily enough to outmaneuver him.
Kohachi Inugami
Kohachi Inugami
Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)
The head and owner of the Inugami Detective Agency.
- The Ace: Charming, perceptive, and powerful, Inugami is the talk of the town at the Yashima Temple. His arrival is enough to inspire a huge parade and all of his employees look up to him.
- A Father to His Men: Inugami is surely the more prominent Parental Substitute for Kabane, Shiki, and Akira but leads them with a big heart filled with friendliness and concern for their safety. The same however cannot be said for Mihai, who is supposedly an old accomplice of his, and mainly disregards Inugami's orders.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's a friendly and easy-going fellow, but he has zero qualms with murdering other kemono if they pose a threat to him and his employees. His plan to defeat the kitsune at Ogreham ends with Megijima impaling Hinata with his arm.
- Big Good: As the head of the agency, he leads the efforts to maintain The Masquerade and prevent all-out war between humans and kemono.
- Boring, but Practical: One of his most frequent uses of his powers is to simply conjure a gun out of thin air. Not the flashiest option, but shooting something dead is practical. That said, the gun he uses is a Hand Cannon powerful enough to shoot Kabane's arms off to free him from Megijima's grasp.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Inugami is quirky, overly friendly at times, and once mooned Kabane to prove a point, but he's also a competent investigator who has a keen eye for detail, immediately reaching out to Kabane for information despite the latter's status as a social pariah.
- Dishing Out Dirt: He's able to use his illusion and transformation abilities on his environment, fencing off entire areas with massive stone pillars and creating footholds for Kabane to outmaneuver their enemies.
- Exact Words: Kabane's aunt told Inugami to kill Kabane and that he could "do whatever he wanted" afterward. No one said Kabane had to stay dead or that whatever he wanted meant taking the boy with him to Tokyo.
- Having a Blast: During his fight with the kitsune Hinata, Inugami duplicates dozens of copies of Kabane's head and has them fly around mocking her before detonating them all in a huge explosion.
- Hopeless with Tech: He's inept with any kind of technology more complex than a cell phone, leaving all of the technical stuff to Mihai.
- Implausible Deniability: He insists that he's no-good at fighting and would much rather take a supportive role in a fight, but anyone who actually has the misfortune of fighting him will quickly realize that he's much more powerful than he lets on.
- Master of Illusion: As a tanuki, he's skilled at transforming himself and other objects.
- The Mentor: Inugami does his best to help the boys work through all of their personal problems, but he has an especially close relationship to Kabane, who admires him as a beacon of guidance and is always looks to him for support.
- Nice Guy: Goes out of his way to help out Kabane in the fields and effectively adopts him after seeing what Kabane's aunt did to the boy. He does the same thing with Shiki and Akira, and on top of it he helps each of them with their personal quests and issues even if there is nothing in for him (Shiki's search for his parents in particular, there wasn't even a calculi involved in it at all).
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite what his name would tell you, he's a bake-tanuki, not an inugami.
- Papa Wolf: Inugami may believe that the boys can take care of themselves due to his belief in their latent abilities, but that doesn't mean he's going to sit back and let them enter into harms way without any proper protection. This is shown when he is visibly upset with Mihai for sending the boys on a case where they were sure to be in imminent danger.
- Parental Substitute: For all the boys in his office who have been abandoned by their parents for various reasons. Kabane in particular latches onto him as he has never had a positive authority figure in his life.
- Private Detective: Works as one, specializing in the supernatural.
- Shapeshifter: He's able to use his abilities to shapeshift into nearly anything, and his normal human look is a transformation of his normal tanuki form. He can also apply this to other objects, allowing him to conceal something as something else, create weapons for himself to use, or manipulate the landscape to his advantage. He can also use this more directly by making himself the biggest thing in the room to overpower his opponent.
- Support Party Member: His preferred role in combat. Rather than attack directly, he likes to take a backseat and manipulate the environment to make things easier for his allies to fight while using his illusions to trip up his foes.
- Trademark Favorite Food: It's noted in volume 1 that his favorite food is tanuki udon and he greatly dislikes kitsune udon as part of playing up the Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast frequently seen in the series between him and Inari.
- Trickster Mentor: Loves to abuse Exact Words to get what he wants and is keenly aware of how to use Kabane's strengths and weaknesses for maximum benefit.
- Tanuki: Inugami is a bake-tanuki to be precise, and as such is able to do things like make a loaded pistol appear out of his finger and turn his skin into metal, but it takes him time to do the latter.
Shiki Tademaru
Shiki Tademaru
Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese), A.J. Beckles (English)
Another member of the Inugami Paranormal Counseling Office, Shiki is a hybrid half-Kemono like Kabane. Loud-mouthed and rambunctious, Shiki always wants things to go his way. But despite his abrasiveness, he isn't as mean-spirited as he seems.
- All Webbed Up: His ability allows him to turn his sweat into sticky spider-thread that's strong enough to almost completely restrain Kabane in large enough quantities and rip off skin and flesh if one tries to remove themselves with brute force. While it's lacking in raw offensive power, he makes up for it with versatility, using it to grab far away objects and set traps. He later discovers that if he's sufficiently hydrated and sweaty, he can also have it coat his entire body to render himself nearly completely invisible.
- Anime Hair: Not too ridiculous (especially when placed next to Kabane), but his hair is unusually spiky.
- Armed Legs: Shiki learns to weave "shoes" around his feet that allow him to bounce around much faster than he can climb. He then weaves spikes onto the soles, letting him gouge out flesh by kicking people.
- Big Brother Instinct: After learning that he has a little sister in Aya, he finds himself fretting over her well-being constantly, is flabbergasted at her choice in clothes, and froths at the mouth when she declares Kabane her boyfriend.
- Break the Haughty: While being swarmed from all sides by monsters and faced with the truth of what happened to his mother, Shiki ultimately breaks down, dropping his snide exterior and crying while finally asking Kabane to help him. Kabane complies.
- Building Swing: A natural extension of his web-producing powers is the ability to use them to swing from place to place.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: His outfit and hair are different shades of magenta.
- Foil: To Kabane. While Kabane is The Stoic, a Naïve Newcomer Fearless Undead with a Healing Factor who was so neglected that he had never tried pizza before, Shiki is loud, domineering, and is well-acquainted with city life. While Kabane's abilities tailor him to the use of brute force, Shiki has to think harder due to the indirect applications of his spider silk. They're also both Hybrids.
- Fire-Forged Friends: He warms up to Kabane over time, with his initially domineering demeanor giving way to a Vitriolic Best Buds kind of situation, going so far as to fist bump Kabane after a job well done.
- Fragile Speedster: Shiki is shown to be quite quick when manipulating his webs, but doesn't have the durability of say someone like Kabane.
- Gaslighting: It's later revealed that he's a victim of this when his uncle hid Shiki's mom away so she could be continually raped until she produced a kemono capable of producing the fabled Golden Thread. Every time he asked about where she was, his uncle would deflect the issue. This happened for years until Shiki eventually stopped asking.
- Gratuitous English: He tells Kabane "Nice form! And happy birthday!" while getting him to try pizza for the first time.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Chucks Kabane's severed head at Kon so Kabane could bite her.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Shiki's mother was an Arachne, a type of Kemono that is able to turn her sweat into spider-like thread for a variety of purposes, a trait he inherited.
- Heroic BSoD: He suffers this after a hundred of his monstrous half-siblings began reciting all of the things his mother said to him when he was younger. This makes him realize just how badly his mom was abused by his uncle, resulting in Shiki having an emotional breakdown as he feebly asks Kabane to help him crush all of Akio's work.
- Hot-Blooded: Shiki is very hot tempered and more often than not likes to let his loud voice carry his thoughts towards others, and also wearing his emotion on his sleeve. Though when fighting he's said to be a lot more calmer and tactical.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Insists on bossing Kabane around and is generally quite abrasive as a whole, but is deeply insecure about Kabane's sudden arrival at the office and is constantly wondering what made Inugami so interested in taking him in. This cools off considerably as they get to know each other, with Shiki becoming Kabane's closest friend his age.
- Jerkass Façade:. He tries his hardest to be distant and aloof to Kabane while insisting that they will never be friends. But Shiki's facade quickly breaks apart when he learns that Kabane has never had pizza, sharing some with him and immediately congratulating him on having his first slice... right before remembering that he was trying to be a jerk and going back to grumbling.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: After initially being depicted as rude and insensitive he quickly shows that he isn't a bad guy overall as shown to excitedly introduce Kabane to pizza and willing to risk life to save both Akira and Kabane from a burning building. He also is shown to grow really attached to his younger sister and mother even after being away from them for many years.
- Miles Gloriosus: For as much as he talks down to Akira for not being able to fight, Shiki freezes up when he's actually in mortal danger and his bravado is designed to cover up this fear. He gets over it after a pep talk from Kabane and breaking his pinky on Mihai's car so the pain would clear his head.
- Momma's Boy: He was very close to his mother while growing up and was devastated when she suddenly vanished, leading him to try to distance himself from her and insists that she's dead even when there's the possibility that she might be alive to cope.
- Only Sane Man: Between Kabane's complete lack of social skills, Akira's air-headedness, Inugami's hopelessness with tech, and Mihai's need for entertainment, Shiki comes across as by far the most "normal" member of the Inugami Detective Agency. This is largely due to his mother's insistence that he be raised as a human by his uncle, giving him the most human mindset out of anyone in the agency.
- Parental Abandonment: He lost his father at an early age and his mother vanished when he was a toddler. This has left Shiki with intense abandonment issues and he tries to hide them by insisting that his parents are dead. In truth, his father died after slipping from a ledge and his mom was kidnapped by Shiki's uncle to make the Golden Thread.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the loud and hot-headed Red Oni to Kabane's stoic and reserved blue.
- The Smart Guy: Shiki is by far the brightest of Inugami's young employees, always figuring out new applications for his spider web and generally reining Kabane and Akira in. Given his power's minimal applications for direct combat, he has to be this in order to keep up.
- Spider People: He's half-arachne, so he has the web-producing powers but not the extra eyes.
- Stupid Sacrifice: In chapter 38, Shiki attempts to pull a Taking You with Me move against an enemy drone, which even Akira thinks is stupid. Thankfully, he didn't die, but if he did, it would have been for naught, since the enemy has a lot of drones (which should have been obvious from the start, since a large company would probably have more than one security drone).
- Swiss-Army Superpower: His kemono ability lets him convert his sweat into spider webs. Aside from the obvious applications like a Building Swing or webbing his opponents up, he spends most of the story trying to come up with new applications for it. This includes making use of its reflective appearance to coat his body in a layer of it to become nearly invisible, using it as a makeshift noose for hanging someone, and even creating bouncy web "shoes" for mobility and attack purposes .
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza, to the point that he begs Inugami to buy it for him and considers a half-off coupon to be a "sign from Heaven" that they should get some. Shiki is also completely taken aback when Kabane admits that he'd never had pizza before, causing Shiki to share it with him out of shock and pity before remembering that he was trying to hate Kabane.
- Tricked-Out Shoes: After Inugami makes the boys undergo a Training Montage, Shiki realizes that he can do more than secrete silk from his hands, applying it to his feet to create sticky and bouncy shoes to rapidly scale tall structures. He also learns to create hardened silk spikes on the soles for attack. He combines this with Akira's ice powers to create enormous ice-spiked shoes to gouge out Kaede's eyes.
- Tsundere: Shiki is initially extremely irritable around Kabane and insists that they won't be friends, but Shiki is horrified at the fact that Kabane had never tried pizza before and quickly finds himself sharing and encouraging Kabane to eat it. After realizing what he had done, he goes back to being abrasive. Eventually, he warms up to Kabane enough that the "tsun" is virtually nonexistent outside of the occasional Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's not a bruiser like Kabane and has to think creatively with his silk-producing powers to handle himself in a fight. He frequently makes traps and snares with his silk and comes up with a way to turn himself invisible by coating himself with silk. After Akira learns how to use his ice powers for combat, it becomes blatantly clear that Shiki is the weakest of the agency in terms of his ability to go head-to-head with other kemono.
Akira
Akira
Voiced by: Ayumu Murase (Japanese), Cassie Ewulu (English)
A young yuki-onoko working at the Inugami Paranormal Counseling Office, Akira is extremely effeminate in his mannerisms, but has to remind others that he is a boy. He came to work at the office to search for his older twin brother.
- Baths Are Fun: Akira loves taking showers and baths, doing so three to four times a day. He's basically an exaggeration of the Japanese love of cleanliness.
- The Ditz: Akira is clumsy and air-headed, struggling to do anything that isn't enjoying himself, posting pictures on social media, or being what amounts to a tourist. This is later revealed to be a result of being coddled by the yuki-onna of his village, as he was being groomed specifically to be every woman's consort, and as such was not given any responsibilities because Yui volunteered in his place.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Kabane admits that he initially thought Akira was a "very pretty girl" when they first met, much to the latter's frustration. It doesn't help that Akira has long hair and eyelashes.
- Effeminate Voice: Has a high-pitched, girly-sounding voice to the extent that it sounds practically like a girl's to the untrained ear.
- How Do I Shot Web?: He struggles to produce his ice powers at first, and even then he rarely manages to do much afterward.
- Hysterical Woman: Gender-Inverted. Akira is extremely effeminate and emotional in contrast to Kabane's stoic and Shiki's hot-headedness. He's also the worst of the trio at fighting and panics at the first sign of danger.
- An Ice Person: It turns out he had unrealized ice powers the whole time, coming from his status as a yuki-onna's son.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Akira gets angry at being mistaken for a girl, but that doesn't stop him from indulging in stereotypically "girly" interests, such as shopping, eating sweets, keeping stuffed animals, and generally wearing feminine clothes.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After spending most of the series up to that point as The Load, Yui tells him that the idea that he's "weak" is something he lied about to protect him. Akira's powers are actually incredibly potent once he taps into them in a moment of distress. When he does, Akira rescues a badly injured Shiki and easily blasts away the person who beat him.
- Living Emotional Crutch: It's later revealed that he's this for his older brother, Yui. Yui allowed himself to be raped by hundreds of women to protect Akira from the same fate, and even after Yui's personality and mind are ripped away by the Nil Calculus, he manages to hold onto enough of his self to look for Akira and fiercely defend him because of his love for his brother.
- The Load: He's more of a liability than an asset. He has none of the composure that Kabane or Shiki have and none of the fighting ability, and his powers didn't even manifest until after everyone was in danger. At least until Yui reveals that he'd been lying about Akira's weakness to protect him from the yuki-onna. Once he taps into them fully, he proves to be powerful in his own right and an even better fighter overall than Shiki.
- Sweet Tooth: To add to his stereotypically girly charm, Akira loves sweets and pours sugar on everything, much to Shiki's chagrin. Akira puts so much sugar on his food that the others find eating Kabane's burnt eggs to taste better than Akira's cooking.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: His powers first resurface when he and his friends are about to be drained of blood by a trio of mosquito women. In an outburst of sadness and fear of seeing his friends get hurt, Akira freezes the area around him.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Upon unlocking his full power, Akira gains the ability to flash freeze nearly anything with a touch or a wave of his hand. But this is still Akira, so Shiki has to advise him on how best to use his abilities to get them both out of their predicament.
Mihai Florescu
Mihai Florescu
Voiced by: Daisuke Ono (Japanese), Matt Shipman (English)
An immortal vampire who serves as the tech expert under the Inugami Detective Agency. Having lived for hundreds of years, he's mastered pretty much every skill that a person could learn, so he wastes his time away playing online games.
- The Ace: Mihai can do pretty much anything, as he's got all the time he needs to learn whatever skill he likes, and has indeed done so.
- Basement-Dweller: Mihai almost never leaves his room and spends all of his time playing online games. In fact, despite being Inugami's oldest employee, the other three weren't even aware of his existence until Kabane accidentally stumbles into his room.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: With his skills and vampire powers he can do anything he wants if he felt like it, with Inugami referring to vampires like Mihai as top-class even among kemono. Despite this, he spends his days snacking on canned pomegranates and playing MMOs when he isn't doing telecommunications work for Inugami.
- Catchphrase: Whenever he applies his talents to whatever, he tends to say that people have called him Transylvania's (insert skillset here).
- Gadgeteer Genius: Every piece of amazing tech that the Agency has can owe its existence to Mihai, as Inugami is Hopeless with Tech.
- Healing Factor: Not nearly as pronounced as Kabane's, but Mihai can heal a broken wrist in a week.
- Immortal Genius: His vampiric lifespan means that he's done basically everything there is to do and learned virtually every skill he wants to learn. As a result, he's the agency's go-to tech expert since he otherwise spends all of his time cooped up playing MMORPGs. But he's also a Supreme Chef and claims to be a race car driver.
- It Amused Me: His motivation for doing anything, whether it's wasting the hours away playing video games or putting the other members of the agency in danger to watch things unfold.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While the jerk part is far more evident and no one appears to have noticed the heart of gold, when Shiki is playing his virtual reality training game, Mihai actually cooks the foods he orders for him. Shiki even wonders what trash Mihai might be feeding him under the guise of VR food, not realizing that it is actually what he thinks he's eating.
- Last-Second Word Swap: After Kabane agrees to be his valet/busboy, Mihai says he enjoys having such an obedient slave, only to quickly change that last bit to "child" as Inugami is standing in the room.
- Lazy Bum: He can even be arsed to open and close his own water bottles, making Kabane do it for him.
- Super-Strength: Mihai is the only person in the agency capable of defeating Kabane in an arm wrestling match. Note that Kabane himself has Super-Strength and is capable of tearing people apart with his bare hands. That said, the effort ends up breaking his wrist, much to his chagrin.
- Token Evil Teammate: Unlike Inugami and the other employees, Mihai has absolutely zero morals, and is actually willing to put his colleagues in mortal danger if it would amuse him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He states that canned pomegranates are one of his four favorite things, alongside new experiences, unending praise, and being grovelled to.
Metropolitan Police
Inari
Inari Yoko
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Kristen McGuire (English)
The leader of the kitsune faction. She has Tokyo's police department wrapped around her pinky finger and wants to use her connections to gather the calculi and make herself even more powerful.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: After Hinata and Robara fail at Ogreham, she shows her anger by growing to an enormous height and threatening to devour all of her subordinates whole.
- Bad Boss: Even ignoring all the humans under her thrall that she eats when mad, she even eats a brand new oni recruit who had literally nothing to do with why she was pissed.
- Big Bad: Her efforts to gather the kemono calculi jeopardizes The Masquerade and puts her in direct conflict with Inugami despite their supposed partnership.
- Enemy Mine: Up until the events of the story, Inugami and Inari were nominally allied to keep up The Masquerade and prevent war even though they despise each other. Inari even provided the sign the Kemono Office uses to attract business. But Inugami severs ties with her after she attempts to kidnap Kabane and steal the Life Calculus.
- I Control My Minions Through...: Fear and Material Benefits. She offers her subordinates anything they desire if they help her gather the kemono calculi. But she maintains their loyalty with the threat of being devoured whole should they ever betray her.
- I'm a Humanitarian.
- When she's annoyed, she'll often eat a poor, hypnotized police officer just to satiate herself and keep up her strength. When she's especially pissed, she threatens to eat the entire population of Chiba as a means of venting her anger for Hinata's and Robara's failure to seize the calculus at Ogreham.
- She also devoured other kitsune early on to gain power, consuming Kon's entire tribe and stealing their calculus.
- Jerkass: Inari is not a nice person at all. She is constantly attempting to steal multiple Kemono stones for her own greed and is willing to kill Kabane (who is a child), manipulate people in order to do her bidding (playing with Kon's emotion), and constantly belittling others for no real reason behind it. She also kills and devours a police officer after she was tricked by Inugami just to release her stress.
- Mind Control:
- She uses her abilities as a Master of Illusion to control Tokyo's police department and install her subordinates in positions of power. When she's going all out, she can hypnotize an entire city without a problem.
- She also used this on Kon after killing her entire clan to make Kon forget and associate her with Oina, the strongest fox whom Kon saw as a mother.
- Mood-Swinger: She can go from cheery and frivolous to murderous and vicious in seconds and back again.
- Pretty in Mink: Goes around with a luxurious fur coat across her shoulders both as a show of her vanity but also her power and influence. They're actually her transformed tails.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Inari is a well-respected police superintendent on the outside, but she really is a sadistic bitch who has mind-controlled the entire police force into mindless puppets and/or convenient food supply.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. She "forgives" failure by forgetting a subordinate ever existed and replacing them almost immediately. This is considered lenient by her standards, but betrayal will earn a swift and horrible death.
Nobimaru
Nobimaru
Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese), Kevin K. Gomez (English)
A subordinate of Inari. He is a kitsune and can transform at will. Not much else is known about him.
- Ambiguously Evil: While he works for Inari, he tells Kabane that he actually despises her and after this seems to want to be friends with Kabane. However, he has a rather unsettling aura about him at times, and at one point tells Kabane that he's happy for Kabane after they learn that Shiki's parents are dead (though this turns out to only be half true, noting that he thinks Kabane would be pretty upset if his parents were dead but Shiki's were alive. Notably, Kabane even picks up on this nature and is rather distant towards Nobimaru, even outright saying that they aren't friends when Nobimaru asks. Nobimaru also rather cruelly taunts Kon about how he has basically replaced her in Inari's graces. This also becomes ambiguous as he later fakes Kon's death so she can escape Inari's clutches, as the latter was planning to eat her. Perhaps he was only trying to break Kon's Undying Loyalty towards Inari.
- Artificial Limbs: His right hand gets frozen off by Yui, and he has it replaced with a prosthetic strong enough to break the bones in Kabane's arm.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: One of Nobimaru's jobs is to be the Cleanup Crew in order to uphold The Masquerade. This means that he's often the one to finish what the heroes' started, usually with lethal results, such as burning the Kanonba sisters to ashes and disposing of Shiki's uncle.
- Creepy Child: He's Inari's top enforcer and is willing to do everything from assassination to blackmail with a cheery smile on his face.
- Dissonant Serenity: He's impeccably polite and cheerful at all times even while murdering Inari's enemies.
- Double Agent: Inari is unaware of Nobimaru’s aversion toward her, and it is unknown by the reader what his true feelings are about Kabane and Kon. Things get slightly clearer after he fakes Kon's death when Inari orders her execution.
- Dual Age Modes: Nobimaru presents himself as a young adolescent around Kabane’s age, but is actually an adult man who pretends to be a child as a means of manipulation, as revealed at the end of the Robara arc.
- The Dragon: Lady Inari's top enforcer and leader of her special unit.
- The Heavy: Nobimaru tends to be Inari's most active and highest ranked subordinate. He commands the other kitsunes when she isn't present to do so. This starts to wear off as the story presents more and more evidence that he was Good All Along, and is more of an ally than an enemy to the protagonists.
- Perpetual Smiler: He always has a cheerful smile on his face, which just makes him even creepier when he casually lights his enemies on fire without any change in expression. It also underscores the rare occasions when he isn't smiling, as this loss of composure indicates that he's furious about something.
Kon
Kon
Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese), Brittany Lauda (English)
Inari's closest subordinate and attendant until she fails to acquire Kabane's Life Calculus. She's then forgotten by Inari and forced to live on the streets alone. She initially adores Inari and views her as a mother, though she gradually grows to love Kabane enough to betray her.
- Broken Pedestal: More like annihilated pedestal. Kon used to worship Inari and view her as a mother figure, until her memories started coming back and she realized what Inari had done and how she'd manipulated her memory. Once she realizes this, she becomes determined to defeat "that woman".
- Death Faked for You: She nearly dies when Nobimaru detonates his fire inside her. But the fact that Nobimaru gave Kabane ample warning and tipped off Inugami and Aya in advance about his attack allowed them to save her. It does put her out of commission for multiple arcs however.
- Dumb Blonde: She's not especially clever for a kitsune and can be easily led around by the nose if one knows the habits Inari ingrained in her.
- Dumb Muscle: After she's left on the streets to fend for herself, it becomes clear that Kon isn't especially crafty for a kitsune. Inugami is able to easily manipulate her by reminding her of Inari's code of etiquette and whether or not acting in certain ways would make her a "good girl" or a "bad girl". She never comes up with her own plans and is constantly being led by the nose by those smarter than her. Shiki outright calls her a moron, but she's still a kitsune and still dangerous.
- Heel–Face Turn: While she was hardly considered an "enemy" after her first defeat, she firmly defects from her loyalty to Inari after remembering what the latter did to her long ago.
- In the Hood: She wears a hoodie wherever she goes.
- Only Mostly Dead: Nobimaru blows her up nearly in half by detonating his fire ability within her body. It very nearly kills her, but luckily Aya was around to heal her back to health (and Inugami later stats that this was likely Nobimaru's intention). However, the process of healing her was slow enough that she was put out of commission for multiple arcs.
- Sixth Ranger: She defects to the main characters' side after she regained her memory of what Inari did to her long ago.
- The Stoic: Subverted. She initially appeared to be this when she was first introduced until Shiki stole back Kabane's head. After that, she's been depicted as a childish character instead.
- Third-Person Person: She always refers to herself as "Kon", reflecting her childishness and lack of ambition.
- Undying Loyalty: To Inari. Rather than being kept in line through fear, Kon seems to revere Inari as a sort of motherly or guiding figure. This is also why she's devastated after being abandoned by her and desperately wants to return to her service. However, this loyalty does waiver after first Kon realizes that she wants Kabane to be the most important person to her, and it later shatters when she remembers that Inari killed and devoured her entire clan, leaving only her alive and brainwashed to wait until she was older and stronger and thus a better meal.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: She doesn't understand romantic love and why her chest gets all tight when Aya is hanging around Kabane. Encountering the formless kemono that was stealing people's features is enough for her to understand that she wants to be the most important person to Kabane, but neither of them understand how to go about that.
Special Investigations Unit
Kazuaki Akagi
Kazuaki Akagi
A germophobic Kitsune that is partnered with Kaede. Unlike other Kitsune, he has no flame powers but is outstanding with illusions.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue Oni to Kaede's red. He's stoic, intelligent and calculating, while his partner is Hot-Blooded.
- Security Blanket: He carries around antiseptic tissue wipes with him due to his extreme germophobe and would suffer anxiety attacks if it's taken away from him.
- Terrified of Germs: He is extremely afraid of germs and always carry around tissue wipes for disinfection. He feels safe around Kaede because the latter's flames could "cleanse" the germs.
Kaede Hanagata
Kaede Hanagata
A happy and outgoing Kitsune who wants to have sex with Inari. Akagi's partner in the investigation. Unlike many Kitsune, he has no illusionary powers, but his fire is extremely powerful.
- Blood Knight: Kaede takes great pleasure in violence and murder.
- Dissonant Serenity: He approaches everything like it's a game for him to play, even when he's torching villages and actively trying to murder and devour children.
- Dumb Muscle: His firepower is incredible, but he completely lacks the ability to form illusions on his own. In addition, his carefree, child-like mindset makes it easy for him to hyperfixate on something that interests him.
- Eye Scream: First gets his left eye burnt off when fighting against Shiki, then Kabane punches through his eye so hard that it reaches his brain.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: After Akagi dies and Kaede is abandoned by Inari, Kabane convinces the tanuki to spare Kaede in hopes that Kabane will be able to reform him. While Kaede is kept in a Power Nullifier box most of the time to keep him from wreaking havoc, he's willing to listen to Kabane most of the time when his and Kaede's interests align. However, Kabane struggles to instill any sense of morality in him and it's clear that Kaede doesn't regret anything he's done in the past.
- I'm a Humanitarian: During his fights with Shiki and Kabane, he goes on at great length about how he's going to cook and eat them.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's much stronger and faster than Kabane and can take a serious hit too. The heroes only beat him because he's too dumb to properly coordinate with Akagi and him getting his eye gouged out.
- Mix-and-Match Man: After his left eye gets burned off in a fight against Shiki, Robara heals him by gluing a new eye to him, but the eye is of a different color.
- Playing with Fire: His fire is exceptionally strong among kitsune and can torch vast swathes of land very quickly. When he performs a Fusion Dance with Akagi as "Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, the God of Fire", Kaede's flames are able to evaporate most of a tidal wave conjured by Tasaburou with ease.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He has the temperament of a kid, approaching his work as if it's a source of fun, and getting easily frustrated whenever anyone manages to dodge his attacks too much, losing control of himself. This makes him very predictable and his strategy too straightforward, meaning characters who are capable of planning like Shiki and Kabane can get an advantage over him despite his raw firepower.
Umetaro "Ume" Matsutake
A gambling addict detective and the closest person to Nobimaru in the unit. He has the power to change people's perception of time elapsing through his farts.
- Gasshole: Ume's power, "Slowed Perception Gas", requires him to fart.
- Non-Action Guy: Ume isn't as physically strong or aggressive as his coworkers, so his fight against Akira and Yui is in the form of playing Rock-Paper-Scissors.
- Time Master: Sort of—while he doesn't technically stop time, his power causes others' perception of time to stop working temporarily, making it seem like no time has passed for others while a few seconds have passed for him.
Hinata and Robara
A couple of childhood friends in the Special Investigations Unit. Hinata is a hot-blooded girl who fights with a sword, while Robara is a maniac serial killer kept in check by her.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Double Subverted. Robara undergoes a brutal Rasputnian Death, getting thoroughly scorched by having the equivalent of dozens of grenades go off in her face at once, getting punched in the face so hard that her eye popped out of its socket, and then Taking the Bullet for Robara in such a way that her heart is gouged out. Robara then rips the arms off her corpse in his grief before repairing her body to pristine condition with his glue, replacing her missing eye with a flower as he floods the area around him with glue while sobbing over Hinata's death.
- Bully Hunter: As a child, Hinata was the strongest kitsune in her territory and would take other, weaker kitsune under her wing to protect them. Robara was one of these kitsune.
- Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: Although Robara typically uses his glue for its Body Horror applications, it also has powerful medical applications, as it is able to become whatever it's shaped into and glued to. He can replace lost eyes with fully functional ones with ease and put people who've been sliced in half back together.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Gender-inverted. Robara is a Support Party Member who arms Hinata with his glue while she goes to town on their enemies.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Hinata dies by taking a blow from Megijima that would have killed Robara. With her dead, Robara fuses them together using his glue and tries to sink the whole place with glue made from his tears.
- Mad Artist: Robara uses his ability to remove and detach the body parts of others to create grotesques "sculptures" where living beings are glued together into horrible lumps of flesh.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Hinata is rather tomboyish and physical while Robara is rather effeminate and focused on art. This applied even when they first met as children, with Hinata having a very short hairstyle while Robara had long flowing hair that covered much of his face. However, Hinata is the more morally minded of the two as Robara is something of a psychopath.
- The Power of Creation: Robara is able to mold his glue into nearly anything he can imagine and shape, turning it into everything from fully functional organs to flaming swords to functional missile launcher with a single flourish.
- Support Party Member: Robara has little in the way of direct fighting power, but his glue is devastating when applied to people or kemono. In addition, he can use it to instantly create weapons and extra limbs for his allies or glue injured people back together.
Other
Aya
Aya
- Voiced by: Kaede Hondo (Japanese), Corina Boettger (English)
A mysterious girl staying with Shiki's uncle. She constantly stays out of sight when she isn't taking brief glimpses at Shiki.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Upon moving to the city, she starts wearing a No Shirt, Long Jacket combo with only a strip of cloth to cover her breasts along with extremely short shorts. All while being eight years old.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Once she gains the courage to speak to the Inugami Detective Agency in-person, she proves to be surprisingly spunky, driving Shiki crazy by flirting with Kabane.
- Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: She's capable of producing the legendary Golden Thread, a mutated version of arachne silk. She can weave it into any shape to instantly heal wounds and replace lost organs. It can even be wrapped around someone to allow them to survive indefinitely at the bottom of a lake without ever aging.
- Human Aliens: She looks like a human, but she's fully a kemono unlike her half-human brother. She's fully aware of this and initially thinks that the others are only treating her well because she looks human.
- Guest-Star Party Member: She is not part of Inugamis's agency and in fact taken care of by her mother unlike her brother and the other boys, but due to her healing abilities she's an occasional addition.
- I Am a Monster: She calls herself an "abhorrent thing" and is afraid that revealing her true identity would make the Inugami Agency hate her. She later gets over this after Shiki and Kumi accept Aya into their lives. Too quickly.
- Last of His Kind: She's the fabled Golden Thread that Akio Tademaru spent years trying to create. After Kabane killed the rest of Shiki's monstrous half-siblings, she's the only one left.
- Long-Lost Relative: She's the only human-like kemono to be born after Shiki's uncle had Shiki's mom raped constantly in hopes of producing the Golden Thread.
- Precocious Crush: Aya quickly latches onto Kabane and declares herself his girlfriend above Shiki's protests as her older brother.
- Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: When she arrives in Tokyo, she quickly ditches her frilly dress for something much less girly (though pretty revealing). This is partially a rebellion against Shiki's uncle after he forced her to wear said dress and others like it her whole life while treating her like a slave for his ambitions.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Aya is surprisingly mature for her age, leveraging her abilities as an expensive healing service to make a living for herself. She also starts flirting with Kabane after moving to the city despite being 8 years old.
Kumi
Kumi
- Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese), Heather Gonzalez (English)
Shiki's missing mother, an arachne kemono like him. She encountered Shiki's father and uncle in the woods, and she came to stay with them before falling in love and bearing a son. She vanished some time during Shiki's childhood, but Shiki can't remember when or why.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Despite having been forced to allow herself to be raped and give birth to countless amounts of monstrous kemono in Akio's attempt to create the Golden Thread, she still gives a memorial to the kemono that Kabane killed because in the end, while they were evil, they were still her children.
- The Ditz: Due to living in the woods prior to encountering Shiki's father, Kumi was often air-headed and clueless about social norms, to the point that she had to be reminded to hide her extra eyes on her forehead to avoid drawing unwanted attention. This also made her easy to manipulate, as Akio convinced her to let herself be raped by countless kemono in order to produce a child that could create the Golden Thread.
- Good Parents: Shiki remembers her as a woman overflowing with love and affection. She did everything she could to provide for the both of them and Shiki hated to be apart from her. Her love for her son meant that she was willing to be raped by other kemono in hopes of producing the Golden Thread, and even after he mind and body was pushed to the breaking point, she has no problems loving Aya and welcoming her into her family.
- Medical Rape and Impregnate: She was a victim of this, being raped by different kemonos at the hands of Shiki’s uncle, Akio Tademaru, who wanted to produce a creature capable of creating the legendary Golden Thread. This resulted in many mutant Arachne kemono as well as Aya.
- Posthumous Character: According to Shiki's uncle Akio, Kumi died in the woods, and the shock of seeing her body traumatized Shiki enough to make him forget it. This is a lie. She's actually been continually raped by other kemono in hopes of producing the Golden Thread. She's later found comatose, but alive in a cocoon of Aya's silk in a lake.
Yui
Yui Iwakiyamayukisatoshironanogojuurokushi
- Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa (Japanese), Ben Balmaceda (English)
A yuki-onoko and Akira’s twin brother. He sent Akira into the human world, promising to catch up to him, only to show up years later as a very different person.
- Arc Villain: When he arrives he basically kidnaps Akira and attacks everyone nearby. His sense of love for Akira is genuine but his emotions and the rest of his personality are being eaten away by the Nil Calculus. Once this is neutralized he turns into an ally immediately.
- Big Brother Instinct: Oh yeah, big time. It becomes very clear throughout the manga that Akira is basically his only reason for existing, to the point where he threatened suicide if his village didn’t let Akira leave. It's heartbreaking to see the lengths he’s gone to to keep his brother as safe as possible.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Even for most characters, his brows are thick. The reason why Akira names his stuffed alpaca after him is because the toy shares Yui's humongous eyebrows.
- Brought Down to Badass: Once the Nil Calculus is neutralized he depowers dramatically, but he's still a yuki-onoko with a power set similar to Akira.
- Chick Magnet: Once he and Akira get a job at a food stall in Okinawa, he gets a ton of fangirls, which helps keep the stall running.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Kabane's calculus merges with the Nil Calculus and nullifies it, Yui is restored to his senses and aims to repent for his actions, becoming an ally of the Inugami detective Agency.
- An Ice Person: He's a yuki-onoko like Akira, but has much greater control and power, creating an entire castle out of ice in an instant. His attacks also avert Harmless Freezing. Anyone who gets frozen by him aside from Kabane is bound to die. As mentioned above his actual power level is similar to Akira, only having a bit more experience and finnese. He was just vastly powered up by the Nil Calculus, which is neutralized at the end of his introductory arc.
- Guest-Star Party Member: He is not formally part of Inugamis's agency but occasionally joins the group.
- Offing the Offspring: After he was tricked into believing Akira was killed, Yui massacred the Snow Village, including all the women pregnant with his children. While he does not regret killing the women, he considers himself unforgivable because he killed innocent children in his rampage.
- Rape as Backstory: He was forced to continually have sex with every other yuki-onna in the village due to the rarity of yuki-onoko. Yui did it willingly for months to shield Akira from the responsibility, but the experience took a clear toll on his sanity and he snaps when they eventually threaten to force Akira to have sex with them.
- Rape as Drama: Comes with a healthy aversion of Double Standard Rape: Female on Male. He was raped and molested by every yuki-onna in his village just after he hit puberty since yuki-onokos are only born once every 100 years. It's implied that the same happened to Akira and Yui's father.
- These Hands Have Killed: After the Nil Calculus is neutralized, Yui says he deserves to be alone for the rest of his life after he killed his unborn children in his massacre of the Snow Village. It takes Akira slapping him and giving him a You Are Not Alone speech to snap Yui out of this.
- Would Hit a Girl: After what they've done to the men of his family, Yui has zero qualms trying to kill the yuki-onna, even the pregnant ones who are heavily implied to be impregnated with his children.
- Younger Than They Look: Despite being only 15 (and Akira's twin brother), Yui looks much older than the rest of the teenaged cast (especially moreso than Akira). This is darkly Played for Drama as he also hit puberty a while before Akira did, which caused the women of his village to focus on him instead of Akira to breed children.
