Sakae Kisaragi

Sakae Kisaragi (栄如月, Kisaragi Sakae) is an infamous information broker operating out of the Diamond Quarter in Kōhai Tochi, as well as an Excavado Espíritu.

Appearance
A mysterious woman even in general appearance, Sakae is renowned within her home realm as a woman whose entire outward persona, including the deliberately misleading expressions and motions she employs, being nothing more than an elaborate facade to keep her personal life secret. Tall with a slim and curvaceous figure, despite her teenage appearance, Sakae is a naturally beautiful young woman. She is also a natural intellectual, something her delicately framed glasses hint towards, even though she doesn't require them in the slightest. Her eyes are of a grey coloration, often noting to pick up subtle details no other would even notice. Her hair is long, which would spill down her back if not for her keeping it styled into two hair pieces at the back of her head, the holdings in question being of a bright red coloration. Her fringe lies un-styled between her eyes with a slight and delicate bend to the ends.

In terms of attire, Sakae wears clothing very different from what is considered the norm for a spiritual being. Instead of the usual Shihakushō (死覇装, Garment of Dead Souls), Sakae instead sports clothing not unlike a high schoolers uniform. This uniform consists of a black-colored shirt, with several patterns of a deep red coloration complete with a red tie of the same shade. The uniform also sports a slit on the left sleeve, a chain which connects the two collars and a red skirt with knee-high socks. The uniform is completed by a pair of black and red shoes, with a slightly raised heel. This is the clothing she wears in most of her appearances, describing it as the garb she favors when expressing her Saya persona.

Saya Persona
Saya's personality is one of cold ruthlessness, though this is not her defining trait. She acts this way simply because she must in order to survive, describing the inner workings of Kōhai Tochi as a land of sin trapped in an endless cycle of death, robbery and many other vices. Though she has come to love the pain she causes others, as well as the "fun" she has. This has led her to have rather unique views on life, believing that to survive, one simply needs to out-do their competition in every manner possible, whether that be in battle, information gathering or extremities such as murder. Prior to the development of these believes, she was not particularly anti-social, as she has had people she regularly called her friends, though their deaths because of the chaotic nature of her home only caused the aforementioned ruthlessness and powerful will to survive coming further to the forefront of her mind.

Out of necessity, Saya has become a calm, forceful and calculating young woman who sows seeds of chaos wherever she treads; delighting is causing her targets pain and suffering regardless of extremity. She can easily destroy someone through the secrets she discovers such is the scope of her information network, being one of the people who have been fit to exert her will on one as powerful as Shigeru Yūdai, later describing information as the ultimate tool in manipulation. Rescuing Shigeru in his hour of need could be interpreted as an act of kindness, but anyone who knows of Saya then know she never acts out of kindness. Helping Shigeru just gave her an ally as strong as herself, yet easily controlled; which she actually told him. If there's a rumor at all going through Kōhai Tochi, or even the lands beyond, Sakae knows of it mere seconds after its first uttered. She delights in the agony her position grants her, and lives for the thrill of dominating others; black-mail being one of her most used tools. These traits are usually the prevalent attitudes saw whenever she dons her Saya persona.

A woman who uses any and all means to her hand, Saya is a cunning and cruel lady beyond all imagination. She is a being who focuses her time solely on bringing her competition to their knees, whether it be through legal means, the shady underworld she has mastered extensively or the various acts of pleasure she employs. Due to this latter development and how often she employs it, Saya is openly bisexual, actually preferring woman. Her charm and allure are so pronounced that those who survive such encounters describe her as a succubus of legend. It is often said that for every scheme one of her competitors plot and implement, Saya has ten to counter it at the ready. Black-mail, seduction and murder are only some of the tools she employs to aid her works success. Shigeru described her as the greatest foe he'd ever encountered, while at the same time the strongest ally he had ever been graced with. Kentaro Hiroshi described her intelligence as formidable, and admitted he only avoided her schemes because Saya herself hadn't taken into account the actions of Riki Nagakura; an oversight she isn't likely to make again.

She has little to no moral conscience, doing as she pleases without regards to the value of human life as everything she does furthers her own schemes. She was willing to use Akiye's rescue as a ruse in order to capture both Kentaro and Shigeru, so she could reap the rewards from Shinzō. Even when she aided Terumi Fujita in her search for Ryouiki, Saya was thinking of how the rescue could bolster her own plans and position; as it gave her an inside look at the prison citadel through Shigeru. She also sees little point in holding any real value for concepts she describes as restrictive, such as good or evil, and rarely gives a damn about others; seeing them solely as tools to be used and discarded when no longer useful. She described even Shigeru as a tool, albeit it a powerful one. Her outlook is completely centered around the classic concept of "survival of the fittest". If one isn't of use to her, she moves on and adapts to the situation at hand, all the while dragging others along with her to do her bidding and carry out her plans, even though she's strong enough to implement a good number of them herself. Shigeru has compared her to a vine tree, and those who follow her as idiots clinging to the vines in order to survive; for he further stated that betrayal often resulted in death.

Sakae Persona
The persona many people call Sakae's true personality, which is simply supplemented by her Saya persona in order to ensure her own survival. In stark contrast to Saya, Sakae is a kind-hearted, loyal, honest and polite young woman who often puts the needs of others above her own; thinking her own needs and desires are secondary to those of others. This is seen most notably when she decided to help Shigeru Yūdai, despite the latter mostly showing nothing but hostility towards her based on a previous meeting with her Saya persona.

Sakae dislikes violence, but sees it as necessary to accomplish ones goals. This attitude to life give her pacifistic ideals, as she rarely partakes in battle without surrendering to the Saya persona and regularly has others, such as Shigeru, partake in battle for her. This is one trait she shares with the Saya personality as Shigeru often calls himself the hired muscle as a joke between them.

She would often hide her feelings of fear, sadness, and desperation - not to mention disgust at what her other persona is capable of - while encouraging others to express themselves in her place, whether it be positively or negatively. This has lead many to refer to her as a serious individual, often to a fault. However due to the amount of time she spends within the Saya persona, all the traits of Sakae's own true personality are unknown as Saya mostly suppresses this personality as well.

Synopsis

 * Main Article - Bleach (Kenji Hiroshi).

Powers and Abilities
As such, she has immense levels of spiritual energy at her disposal, which allows her to stand on equal footing with an Excavado as powerful and brutal as Shigeru Yuudai. Her powers are noted to be almost impossible to sense via sensory techniques, even for the most gifted sensor, as her powers are constantly wrapped around her body and compressed. This often leads one to assume that Sakae is without spiritual energy, though they couldn't be farther from the actual truth. Due to its compressed nature, she is still capable of utilizing spirit-based techniques such as Kidō, as well as benefiting from enhanced physical abilities, though her prowess in the aforementioned field is not as pronounced as one Naibu Shizuka; mainly due to the fact that hers is compressed and not discarded completely for physical might.

Keen Intellect: Sakae's intelligence is phenomenal. She is easily fit to work out the most complex of plots and has tremendous insight into why individual people chose the paths they do, mainly in thanks to her occupation.

Master Strategist: Sakae's ability to plan things for the moment and in advance is quite masterful. Many within her home realm believe she has at least ten plots at the ready to challenge one of her competitors, such is her insight. And while only rumor, Shigeru maintains it isn't far from the actual truth.

Generation II
Kain Akai: Saya met Kain through a contact in Heisekai. At the time Kain was hard up for cash, and owed a local crime lord excessive amounts of money. She cleared his debts, spirited him away to Kōhai Tochi and put him to work as a servant. But Kain proved more resourceful than Saya had ever thought originally. His arrival heralded a host of disappearances, each of which served to make Kain more important to the running of Saya's household. She eventually took him as her student, where she drilled into him the intricacies of her work. The two drew close, and shared a bed on more than one occasion. Yet Saya knew he was a rival and began plotting his downfall. But Kain knew his teacher and escaped, using those techniques taught to him by Saya.

Kentaro Hiroshi: Saya acted as a tutor for Kentaro for a week, teaching him the arts of mental manipulation. On the surface she did this to one-up Shinzō, though secretly she wished for Kentaro's capture, Shigeru included. Her teaching did sharpen Kentaro's mind however, and gave Kentaro an insight into her character that ultimately allowed him to outmaneuver her with help from Riki.

Behind the Scenes
A great deal of Sakae's character, such as appearance and name, are based off of the main character from the Blood-C's main character, Saya Kisaragi. The split personality is a concept which the author has explored before, though the character article, Takeshi Shinjo, didn't fit with the authors desire to create a truly interesting clash of persona's within the one character. As such, the Sakae/Saya feud is expanded and detailed much more than earlier works.