Ashton Khanh

**Warning**

This page contains triggering elements that may not be suited for those who are easily triggered. Topics being mentioned can range from abuse, torture, neglect, and many more crude topics this article touches on. If you cannot stomach any graphic topics mentioned, it is advised you click off and read another page.

**Thank you so much Kettkatt for the drawing!**

## Ashton Khanh

* Drawing
* Gacha Club

## Physical Information

### Nicknames / Aliases

Ash (Common nickname, by everyone)
Ashie (By Akuji)
Whore (derogatorily, by Akuji)
Ashie-boy (By Cassian)
Rabid Dog (by Caius)
Lowly Street Whore (By Cassian)
Slut (derogatorily, by Akuji)

### Specie

25% Shadow Demon
75% Wolf

## Personal Information

### Affiliation

National Army of Lyakon (formerly)
Black Sun (spy, formerly)
 Team Strelitzia (currently)

### Residence

Estelar, Lyakon (formerly)
Ilya, Lyakon (formerly)

### Relatives

Unnamed Mother (presumably deceased)
Unnamed Father (presumably deceased)

### Allies

(Neutral on all of them) Locaster Helios, Shay Hanamura, Yuna Hanamura, Damion Halloreen, Fēng Xu, Hideko Inazuma, Hikage Ishuko, Veena Lu, Nabi Haluška, Shizuka Ikami, Cherry Amana, Windflower Amana, Kahori, Lyria Emerith, Shiah Bereng, Colbalt Majmua, Soul Kawasaki, Crimson O'Connel

### Enemies

Crow Watanabe, Soul Kawasaki (formerly), Akuji Hasegawa, Locaster Helios (formerly) Cassian Packard, Caius Astrada, Shítǐ

## Portrayal

### Voice Claim

Arataki Itto (Max Mittelman)

**Ashton Khanh** is an antihero in *Challenge of The Shadows*. He is a mercenary and soldier for the National Army of Lyakon. He is a quarter of a shadow demon and mainly keeps a neutral composure and is neither enemy nor ally of Team Strelitzia, though he later on joins the team after his second escape from his home kingdom and after multiple murder attempts on Locaster failing and learns how to improve on his behavior. A native from the slums of Lyakon, he is known for having an extreme survival instinct anused to put himself first before anyone else.

Because of being discovered as a quarter of a demon, Ashton worked as a child soldier unwillingly for four years and was labeled as the "finest mercenary" in all of the kingdom due to his strength and extreme intelligence. Along with his wits come both his charisma and wits that many seem to falter over and used to escape the abuse he was facing. After his escape from Lyakon, he lived freely and occasionally helped Locaster and his group despite trying to kill him and many of the members on multiple occasions before joining the team and aiding them on their mission.

## History

### Early history

Ashton was born and raised in the slums of Lyakon. His mother was a sex worker and his father, one of his mothers clients, left him since infancy, leaving her mother alone to raise Ashton before being remarried to his now stepfather, one who would abuse him and his mother and described him as being a deadbeat, often leaving his mother for her to raise him on what limited resources she had.

Ashton notes that he never knew his parents and has trouble remembering their faces, but it is implied they abandoned him for being rather troubled in his own way or because of him being a quarter of a shadow demon, which at the time were seen as a dangerous species by all of Lyakon. He was threatened to be turned in by the guards and sold off if he did not leave the household because he was seen as a danger by his relatives. He was eventually kicked out of his home and was thrown onto the streets.

Without a family or relatives to turn to, Ashton had to fend for himself and even having to go days without food or water, sometimes eating bugs or drinking toxic substances in the streets to ensure survival for himself as no one was willing to spare him anything to eat because of his species. Even if he says they could use him as a weapon, no one was willing to associate with him because of how shadow demons were supposedly killing people in the kingdoms of both Leiden and Myria, and had been in and out of shelters until he was eventually kicked out of them for bad behavior or not getting enough supplies for the others due to his lack of survival skills.

Ashton lived in the slums, where it was mostly rainy and exceptionally cold causing him to get sick frequently. He was rejected from orphanages or small groups that provided shelter because of him being a quarter of a demon. He was abused, bullied and teased by other children or sometimes adults on the streets because of his vulnerability and weakened nature, not having the courage to defend himself from them because of how they had more power over him; even when he tried defending himself, he was mostly overpowered. Ashton was not aware of his powers and was rather lonely without any support from the children or his family.

When his demon horns and other demonic abilities began developing, the abuse gradually started escalating to an extreme extent to a point where it would either make him paralyzed for days to an extent where it would be difficult for him to walk and even resorted to crawling. Ashton was now seen as a punching bag, being thrown around and sometimes beaten and left for dead. He had gotten used to it and was routinely to a point where he would intentionally show up to the children who had abused him, showing how he had adapted to their mistreatment quickly.

While asleep, a group of children had used a saw to cut off his demon horns, leaving him with little stubs on his head and caused Ashton to be in a tremendous amount of pain, as whenever he showed emotions, the pain nerves in the horns would pulsate and give him a sharp pain in his head instead of his horns growing to indicate his emotions. The event scarred him and made Ashton insecure of himself and had to hide his horns with his hair, and even though he tried to cover them up, the hair would not cover the horns and had to endure more bullying and abuse from those around him, and even tried to escape the slums but was stopped by guards and thrown back in the streets; With nowhere to go, Ashton had gradually gotten used to his life-style and would have to try escaping when he was able to gain more strength.

### Life in Hideko's shelter

When Ashton turned ten, he adapted to being tormented and abused, though on the occasion he would still have his emotions intact. While in the streets trying to find a new place to sleep in due to the alleyways being packed, he met the bold, yet gentle Hideko Inazuma, and his unstable sister, Shizuka Ikami. After bumping into them in a small street when trying to look for an empty area to sleep in. After meeting them and introducing himself to the siblings, Hideko and his sister had sensed that he was a demon, and both of them were tolerant with his species due to the both of them also being demons. Much to Ashtons surprise. He becomes friends with them, giving him some protection, with Shizuka being a control demon and Hideko being a flesh demon.

After meeting eachother and warming up, the three became an inseparable trio. Whenever Ashton was being bullied or abused, Shizuka would come to his defense and utilize her telekinesis to hurt those who abused Ashton, with Hideko also joining in occasionally. Hideko, despite his cold exterior was rather kind to Ashton, while Shizuka felt hostile at first, she slowly eased up to him and his presence and began being friendly with him as the both of them had shared some traits in common. Ashton was then led to Hidekos shelter, where he had finally felt at home after seeing other children who had lived in the same conditions he had. Ashton had begun contributing more and was taught how to both read and write by Hideko.

The trio had quickly risen to power, and Ashton's personality gradually shifted from someone shy and defenseless to apathetic and somewhat violent because of Hideko and Shizuka training him in combat and fighting until he became rather proficient, and Shizuka's lengthy lectures of always being on guard. Finally having the strength to defend himself, Ashton had quickly fought back at the children who constantly abused and bullied him and began to act out more frequently, becoming less timid and more intimidating but still having a soft spot for his friends, who at that time was Hideko and Shizuka and was taught how to steal from the upper district without getting caught with the help of both of the siblings. Ashton had assisted in taking care of the children Hideko was raising and helped Shizuka get her behavior under control, as she was a fairly unstable child after being abandoned by her mother and having her horns sawed off: As his life began to improve, he started to feel happier with himself and was glad that he found friends that cared for him and a home that was full of supportive and young children that did not mind his specie.

One day when walking in the alleyways after stealing from the capital, the trio was suddenly spotted by the Black Sun, a military society who had captured individuals to work for their military service in the northern and southern kingdoms. After a risky battle, Shizuka was eventually the only one that was captured after she was sensed to be a control demon, as they were once sought for military purposes due to their enhanced mind manipulation powers. Hideko had attempted to fight them off to get his sister back and let Ashton run off with her, but he was pierced with an arrow and had dropped her, leading Hideko to chase after them but was eventually injured in the stomach, resulting in Shizuka being taken away by the group with Ashton trying to chase after them, but had failed after being struck in the shoulder by another arrow.

After getting healed by one of the assistants in Hideko's shelter, Hideko was angry at Ashton for letting them get away and their friendship had become strained, as he begun acting more hostile towards him with the two starting to have frequent arguments over little things. Ashton had begun holding a grudge against him and had started to drift away from him further, but could not help and feel sorrow that he himself was at fault for his sister being captured. After his mistake, he decided to leave Hideko's shelter out of shame and left to live on the streets once more for a few more years without any protection or support from others. With all of the skills he had learned from him, he begun fending for himself again and had gotten used to his life-style in the lower district. After his powers began developing, hunting and fighting had become gradually easier for Ashton to an extent of being somewhat reliant on his demonic abilities instead of the abilities he was taught.

### Life as a soldier

When Ashton was hunting and used his dark magic, a soldier from the army, Akuji, spotted him using one of the more advanced spells he learned, causing a blast that had caught the eyes of the soldier. Akuji was originally going to kill and return his remains to the king because of him being a demon, but had decided to use blackmail against the young Ashton while he was held at gunpoint, saying that if he did not enlist as a mercenary in the national army, he would tell the king of Lyakon that he was a demon and would be "diced up into pieces" and sold to the other kingdoms because of how rare and valuable his specie was in their dark market trade of rare hybrid species.

Out of fear for his life, Ashton unwillingly agreed to join and was taken to the higher district to train as a soldier after he was cleaned up and was put in one of the training divisions for soldiers: However, despite his enhanced skills and thinking his life would change for the better, he was constantly overworked and had little to no breaks, almost dying when on duty due to his lack of air in his lungs after each shift he took, even tasting blood in his mouth after each shift: He was mostly beaten by his trainers for not acting mature enough and was subdued to harsh military training that would sometimes leave him temporarily immobile for days and was barely paid, having to usually sleep in a tree due to most of the soldiers never having homes of their own.

Akuji started abusing Ashton physically and emotionally due to him not being able to train for long hours at a time because of his frail body: He was often forced into carrying large boulders on his shoulder if his trainers were not satisfied with his performance or if he did not call them by the right honorifics unintentionally. The boulders were heavy enough to a point where he would almost collapse, but he had to endure everything if he did not want to get killed and swore his life to Akuji due to how he spared him. Ashton would even get beaten by Akuji for simple things he had done, even going as far into breaking his wrist once without treating it, making him have a dislocated bone for a few months. He also murdered a girl Ashton liked for the sole purpose of making him miserable.

Ashton's schedule had become grueling and overwhelming for him, having to wake up very early in the morning and do military shifts up until the night without any break or time to rest, and anytime he had attempted in taking a small break he was usually beaten with a stick multiple times to an extent where he would almost lose his ability to walk, or would get his wrists hit with a flat stick until they bled: He would get his wrists hit so often to a point where he would be bleeding constantly, even if the wounds were healed he would still start to bleed from his wrists.

At a young age, Ashton was expected to present himself as apathetic and emotionless: He was prohibited from showing his vulnerabilities to other people, even when he is not on duty and was expected to stay that way, much to Ashtons discontent. He was mainly punished severely by his trainers if he did not exceed in his training and not to their beyond perfection standards. He would also be penalized by having to work for a longer amount of time with double the workload, resulting in him becoming an extreme insomniac, hardly getting any sleep until days later.

Ashton was barely paid, but was perceived as a fine mercenary for his age, being used and exploited for the benefit of the kingdom's economy yet not getting anything in return for all of his work after being forced in. He was never allowed to sleep unless his shift was over, even if it was very late in the night, and would sometimes have to stay awake for days on end. Sometimes, his shifts would never be over and would be working for two days without any rest or break, even the smallest blink would result in consequences and would often go without food for weeks. With Lyakon not supplying their soldiers with food, he was often left hungry and worked through this by concealing it.

Being a soldier at a young age, Ashton's pent up anger started to let itself out onto the kingdom and Akuji in private. Sometimes, he would be screaming and crying into the night loudly because of how his childhood was taken away by Akuji as it is implied heavily he was sent to the lower districts to hunt down hybrids for the emerging black market trade. The both of them started to have a strained relationship after Ashton begun disrespecting him much more by talking back and getting sharp with him, nearly risking his life by showing disdain towards the ruler of a large kingdom that lets his people die while the rich get to enjoy their lives without fear and having to be dragged into the military.

Though Ashton was an enhanced mercenary for his age, he had no one to to talk to about his struggles and often kept to himself due to the rest of his colleagues having some distaste with him. To cope with his loneliness, he resorted to smoking occasionally, oftentimes smoking two to three cigarettes anytime he was on duty to simply get a euphoric feeling. Even though he tried coping, he was unable to resolve the void that was created in his heart, and could not seem to relieve himself of his pain. As a result, the cigarettes Ashton had been smoking did not give him the same feeling and went back to being panicked.

Without anything to numb himself, he stopped smoking as it became a bore to him and withdrew himself from other soldiers. He started to mask his scorn and hatred with a rather kind and charming demeanor, in hopes that he could fool the guards and escape by sucking in all of his suffering and pain. He gradually became used to the grueling conditions and schedule he had and started to push himself to the limits in order to become more superior over his colleagues. With his fake demeanor, his relationship with the king of Lyakon, Caius, had improved significantly and rose above the ranks to an extent where he was one of his favorites. His relationship with Caius was described as "odd" most of the time due to being strangely close with one another after forming his fake persona. He would often stand at Caius throne most of the day and he would often obey to the orders he gave him without much of a fight. He would send him out on missions on his behalf frequently instead of other soldiers.

After his sudden rise to being a favorite, Ashton was frequently dismissed for his actions while the others were penalized, making his peers start to dislike him and causing Ashton to have some pity for them. According to Akuji, he says that Ashton was "more than a favorite," of Caius, alluding to Ashton being sexually abused by him and was later on forced into sexual slavery. Caius desired to keep Ashton to himself and controlled every aspect of his life because of his beauty and started to manipulate him, saying he would threaten the lives of people important to him.

Ashton was treated like a possession by politicians and Caius himself, rendering him both traumatized and resistant towards physical touch, implying that he was also prostituted and sold for peoples' pleasure. His fear of touch started to grow, where at some point, would nearly vomit if someone had touched him, even for the slightest second. He was often coerced and had to stay silent about the situations due to numerous threats of being killed or extreme penalties, including Akuji's threat of being thrown into a lower district that would intensify the abuse that he was already facing.

Many of the soldiers had a dislike towards Ashton not just for being a favorite, but an envy because of his talent and being the right-hand man at the time. He was frequently taunted because of being "more than a favorite" and was often called a "whore" for his relationship with Caius, even though it was against his will. Ashton was shunned by the soldiers and was eventually outcasted because of their envy and dislike for him. While still facing both Akuji and other trainees' abuse, he never found his voice and couldn't cry for help without the risk of being slaughtered. As he was not allowed to cry in public, he often wept bitterly in private and started to perceive himself as unclean because of the abuse he was facing and endured four years of abuse from those around him.

### Escaping from Lyakon

As Ashton grew older, he began to plot his escape due to being mistreated by both Caius, politicians, trainers and soldiers in his fleet. He worked intensely to perfect his escape plan to Azuren. As he planned out his first escape, he had managed to cross the border and settle in the southeast part, but was immediately found and deported back. Because of his disloyalty, he was subjected to a canning that had lasted two hours in order to force Ashton to succumb to his wounds and to ensure that he would not escape, and was monitored frequently to prevent him from escaping once more.

After two more years, he would then escape again, this time being successful as he got further from the Lyakonian-Azurian border. An elderly woman had found him due to him falling unconscious after running for a prolonged period of time and was raised by her for a little while and experienced what appeared to be a normal life for a year or so. Though, as he turned eighteen, he had left the household and thanked her for her gratitude and begun to work as a freelance mercenary for sometime before spying for the Black Sun to seek amusement. He, however, decided to go on their mission to hunt for the hybrid that had been wanted in both Leiden and Myria, tagging along when doing so after being paid by Soul Kawasaki to capture him.

## Appearance

Ashton is a tall man of Vietnamese descent, standing at around 5'10, two inches taller than Shay. He has peach skin with black eyes that have red diamonds in them with a round face that many consider him to have immense beauty and is described to be a "peacock." He has long, black messy hair that extends to his lower back tied in a messy ponytail with pointy wolf ears and a wolf tail. On his left eye, he has a healed scar with a medium sized beauty mark underneath. His body has multiple scars due to harsh military training, including multiple on his back due to getting hit repeatedly with a stick and markings on his wrist.

Ashton is usually seen in a typical mercenary outfit he describes as tight fitting: He wears a musketeer hat with a dark red rimming with a black buckle and two dark red feathers to hide the small stubs on his head where his shadow demon horns once were after they were cut off by a group of children when he was younger. He dons a gray bodysuit-type shirt that can compress body signs like hunger and thirst with long sleeves wand deep red decals covering his shirt. Around his chest is gray chest armor that covers the upper half of his body and black fingerless gloves that cover his wrists to the palms of his hands. Around his waist, he wears a gray belt that carries a sword inside the pocket, and behind his cloak he also carries a metal pipe. Ashton also wears gray military pants with white boots that have black soles and dark gray kneepads that are held by dark red straps.

## Personality

On the surface, Ashton is initially an awkward and charming, yet oddly well-mannered man, speaking in a polite and mature fashion when on duty as a mercenary and is always willing to lend a hand for others around him, sometimes being too nice in the eyes of others. With his kindness, he has a gentle aura that captivates the people around him while being able to ease up to anyone without a problem, as he is easy to get along with despite being a mercenary: To add on with his good qualities, Ashton is shown to be an excellent fighter, being able to knock down multiple other mercenaries at his level with ease, and is somewhat flamboyant when also fighting while still having a kind exterior afterwards. Ashton is easily flattered when complimented or shown affection: Due to receiving little to no affection growing up in the slums of Lyakon and being abused mercilessly by children for his species, he is incredibly insecure of himself, mostly shunning himself and acting rather unsure about who he is and his physical abilities as a whole.

Despite his troubling past, Ashton is incredibly brave at heart and is not necessarily seen as cowardly to most people who usually come by him, and is always up for a fight. According to his former partners, Ashton was also shown to be bold, spitting out harsh words even when it isn't necessary, sometimes as a joke or in all seriousness and was not hesitant to tell others the truth. Not only does he have a rather assertive and bold disposition, Ashton is shown to be rather physically attractive. His appearance made him appeal to many of the townspeople due to his reassuring smile and soft gaze that gave them a sense of security, and the townspeople fall for his charm and his suave composure, and even at times being a little flirtatious to those around his age in a playful demeanor, though he is shown to not do this often as he is rather afraid to show a little more of his behavior around other people, especially his colleagues.

Though, under this kind composure is just a facade he puts on to seem normal around his colleagues and the villagers: Ashton has demonstrated to be rather cold and arrogant, not caring about others but himself and some close peers around him, and is rather bitter around Locaster and his group of shard users despite being on neutral terms. He is rather boastful of himself, having an inflated sense of self-worth to an extent where it would be converted into pure narcissism, thinking rather highly of himself than anyone else, but can get dragged down if called out for.

Ashton is an incredibly stubborn person, usually talking back instead of staying silent and having to always pick an ''unnecessary fight'' whenever it was about him having to hunt down rare hybrid creatures for their blood to fuel more of Lyakon's economy. Despite his desire to share about the malpractices, He remained quiet because of the numerous threats he received from Akuji and his "contract" with him. It is noted by Hideko that Ashton was mostly overly determined and often went the extreme lengths to get or do something he or someone close to him wants by switching his personality entirely.

Ashton is shown to be rather disrespectful and often talks to others with a disrespectful, casual tone, unless he is around older individuals like Yuna and Hideko, both who are six years his superior. He has a distaste for Caius and had a rocky relationship with him because of his manipulation and abuse towards him, but was considered one of his favorites for his talents. He would sometimes act rather haughty and somewhat full of himself, often portraying himself as being superior among the other soldiers because of how he views himself as better than the rest. However this trait is a direct of his trauma and insecurities because of him feeling that he never was good enough to those around him, having to put on a facade to get by.

Ashton can be presented to have a sharp-mouth and also a rather blunt person, getting straight to the point while also remaining polite. Due to him never going to school and forcefully joining the military, He has demonstrated to be mature for his age despite only being eighteen, mainly because he was beaten into acting "responsibly" when he was on duty and had to endure harsh military training that his trainers had put him in. Being all physically, emotionally, sexually and psychologically abused, Ashton has shown to be mentally broken, feeling little to no emotions and acts rather desperate for someones affection or happiness, often saying to those he latches onto to use him as an outlet for their anger or for their own purposes.

Ashton has demonstrated to have a lack of what the world was and had little to no friends of his, making him alone with no one around to console to about his troubles. He was never familiar with concepts such as what styles of clothings were and never experienced sleeping on a bed due to always having to sleep outside on a tree-branch on the top of a high tree due to soldiers being prohibited to go home, as they are expected to work almost all day without break. Because of this behavior, he often appeared sluggish and tired around his colleagues, but he has shown that he could not fall asleep easily due to recurring nightmares.

Ashton has a sense of jealousy for those who lived a better life: When he was a child, his main goal was to go to school and get an education for himself to be prominent in society, but could never achieve that goal due to being trapped in a corrupt kingdom that he was brought to via blackmail. After all of the mistreatment he endured in the military, he was jealous that other people had the life he desired. Because of the abuse, It had resulted in him becoming clinically apathetic and used to getting berated by his own colleagues: Ashton, at times, was never able to express his own emotions to other people or let others see his vulnerabilities that he possesses, because he believed those traits made him sound like a coward. His envy is most prominent in his interactions with Locaster, who had parents that loved him and lived a normal life before his mother had died, giving to as why he did not like him much besides his species.

Ashton has a tendency of calling himself useless because of how he was treated and frequently blames himself for what he had went through for not having the courage to stand up for himself or the strength to stop the abuse, perceiving himself as somewhat weak because of how all of the abuse made him believe that he was not strong enough and had to become better. He has an unhealthy obsession of becoming stronger, despite already having extremely powerful amounts of strength that could even beat him in a fight one on one to a point where he would train beyond his limits to do so and tries to prove himself as worthy to others around him, even if it meant to overwork himself to do so.

Ashton has demonstrated to have an extreme hatred towards physical touch, often warning people not to touch him and would frequently throw up if being touched for too long. Being seen as an object from a young age, he has a scorn for being wanted merely for pleasure and only desires someone to want him to feel appreciate and validate him. Because of his fear of physical touch, he gets defensive and slaps or hits a hand away when someone attempts to touch him, even if it is on the shoulder. He was taught to use his body as a way of tricking others into getting the upper hand in situations, sometimes to an extent of survival and sees himself as a plum who everyone had a bite out of, resulting in a complicated relationship with intimacy as a whole.

Ashton shows a dislike towards Soul Kawasaki during their hunt for Locaster after taking a money offer to hunt him down before they became allies. Though, after they became somewhat neutral, he had admitted that he ate the money and ignored his requests to pay it back to Soul due to his hostility towards him after he betrayed him to be on Locaster's side. Even though he was neutral with most of the members of the group, Ashton is incredibly insensitive towards other people, asking Shizuka in a rather insensitive tone about her arm, despite being present to witness the fight between Crow, Damion and the others after he admitted to killing all the shard users.

Ashton has trouble learning the concept of love, and does not know how to portray himself loving another individual when he was forced to never show his own soft spots because of his harsh military training he was put in. He often has a hard time learning how to love someone and cannot reciprocate affection or compassion as efficiently, unlike the other members of the group. He had a difficult time trying to express his feelings to others because of his fear of being judged by others for his odd tendencies.

Ashton has gradually developed a sense of protectiveness over Locaster's group, usually coming onto their defense. He starts to perceive them more as allies rather than his enemies, but still remains to be rather disliked due to his past actions. He starts to improve by controlling his outbursts and stops attempting to sabotage or disrupt their plans. He suddenly realizes that the group does care for him after they all refused to turn Ashton in to Akuji. Speaking of Akuji, Ashton demonstrates to have a fear, yet an extreme hatred for him, often spewing insults at him when he gets the chance and exposes him for his abusive behavior towards him. He also shows a deep curiosity for other cultures of the other kingdoms, seeing how culturally diverse Elveria is and wanting to learn more about the other kingdoms, despite his extended knowledge on their history.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities:** Despite only being a quarter of a shadow demon because of his ancestry, Ashton has demonstrated to be a powerful individual, having the ability of regeneration and enhanced combat skills. He has shown to use his powers to an extreme extent by combining his combat skills and magic to overwhelm even the most skilled magic users. His ability to regenerate gives him an advantage to regrow what ever limb he had lost and continued fighting, further exemplifying his powers. Because of harsh training, Ashton has been noted to be one of the finest bounty hunters in Lyakon because of his wits and strength, along with having the ability to quickly deceive people without being seen as a threat because of his years in the army.

**Immense Speed & Reflexes**: Ashton has demonstrated to be incredibly fast. His abilities are shown to be on par with Hideko and Shay combined, though he is not as fast despite being on par with the two: As a demon, he has demonstrated to be naturally fast that was further enhanced by the harsh training from his trainers when being forced to join the National Army of Lyakon: His speed is equal to Hideko's sister, Shizuka. He was able to catch up to Locaster with ease and grabbed him without difficulty. He was also shown to have fast reflexes, being able to duck most of Shítǐ's attacks without getting injured in the slightest with immaculate precision.

**Unlimited Stamina & Endurance**: Ashton has demonstrated that he has enhanced stamina, as he would never get tired or flinch when fighting and would remain in optimal physical and mental conditions: It is noted that his endurance is somewhat unlimited to a point where he would still remain in a cheery and nonchalant personality without showing himself in pain or agony. His endurance level is so high to a point where Ashton had managed to withstand deathly injuries when first joining the army without collapsing or falling over, further exemplifying his stamina and endurance.

In his younger years, He has been shown to have above average stamina: He was able to fight one-on-one with Akuji for a short amount of time before he was eventually kicked down by him and held at gun point.

**Regeneration**: Ashton has been seen with the rare ability of regeneration after he had developed it when he was his current age: He is able to grow back any part of his body with ease and at a fast rate. When he had cut his arm off because a soldier had grabbed it, he had used the sword to cut it off and regrew his arm without much difficulty, and has demonstrated to survive decapitation, where if his head ever fell off, it could go back on with ease, even the smallest injuries inflicted on him could heal in the blink of an eye. Any part of his body is allowed to grow back, including his hair, which whenever trimmed or cut, it will grow back after a mere two seconds.

Though before he developed this ability, he was not able to regenerate and had almost died due to being decapitated, but fortunately August, an illusion demon, had saved him by placing his head back on his body: It is not clear how his regeneration abilities had formed, but it is implied that his one of his great-grand relatives we're a shadow demon with the power, creating a small tear in his blood stream that allows the ability of regeneration. Though if he uses his regeneration ability too frequently, he can start to cough up alarming amounts of blood, causing his ability to stop working or work much slower if he does not rest his body for a couple of minutes.

**Body Separation**: Ashton has demonstrated to have the ability of disassembling parts of his body without feeling pain, as he took off one of his fingers once to feed it to an animal once after he had bit his hand, leaving an indent on his finger: Though this ability was never seen often and has yet to use the ability in future role-plays. Due to him being able to separate his body, he can regenerate the pieces he lost with ease by using his ability of regeneration.

**Mist Transformation**: It is noted that Ashton has the ability to turn into a pile of black mist to blend in with dark environments or to usually teleport to other areas far from his reach: he had used this ability once when he teleported behind Locaster a couple of times when he had tried to kill him during his time of being targeted throughout the kingdoms: When he activates the ability, he can float at a certain distance and go through some objects like doors and bookshelves, and used this ability multiple times to escape Lyakon when he had the chance to.

**Keen Intellect:** According to Liu, even when he was young, Ashton has demonstrated to have a high amount of intelligence that surpasses some of the older mercenaries in his division. He has demonstrated to have the knowledge of all species of hybrids and demons that exist in the present day and has shown to have the intelligence to get away with several murders he had committed in the past, even being able to escape Lyakon multiple times without getting caught and was able to use his deception to fool others and kill anyone. Due to mastering the skill of psychological warfare, he was able to trick one of the guards that monitor the portal to the Northern Desolates of Azuren by pretending to be a worker for portal maintenance before hitting the guard with a pipe after a small conversation.

**Bilingual**: Ashton has demonstrated to be bilingual, fluent in all Greek, English and Vietnamese, being able to speak full sentences in all languages without much difficulty. In most scenes, he is frequently seen cursing in Vietnamese or sometimes speaking it to the group or using it to bombard a stranger so they could not understand what he is saying, and often does this so he can confuse whoever is trying to attack or speak to him. When Misaya was trying to ask what he wanted to order in a rather rude tone, Ashton started to speak in Vietnamese in order to deflect the rude gesture.

## Magic Abilites

**Umbrakinesis**: As he is part of a shadow demon, Ashton has demonstrated to have powerful umbrakinesis. He is able to control large amounts of dark magic without difficulty and remain in the same physical state after using it. Ashton is able to summon black vines from his back or from his hands and can inject his dark magic into another person without much difficulty like he did with Locaster prior to the main events of the story that can cause a rupture in a person's blood depending on how much was injected. When his abilities activate, his sclera entirely turns black, the diamond in his eye disappearing with his hair length increasing to below his ankles.

## Weaknesses

**Overuse:** Like all demons, Ashton has been shown becoming progressively weaker whenever he uses his regeneration ability or magic too much. If his abilities of regeneration get constantly overused, the ability will start to slow down the process of regrowing a body part, and could start making him throw up blood due to the constant regeneration of organs and body parts.

**Acid:** Though Ashton's body is able to withstand many life threatening wounds when using his demon powers and his natural abilities, he is not as immune to acid. If spilt on him when he is using his demon abilities, it would cause his regeneration to delay and his powers to greatly weaken. Ashton also has sensitive skin, and with acid being thrown onto him, it will cause him to be in tremendous amounts of pain.

## Relationships

### Liu Xie

As Liu is one of his only friends, Ashton has shown to reciprocate platonic feelings for him. He was one of the few people who had treated Ashton with respect and genuine kindness. When meeting him after his first year of military service, He had envied Liu for being able to get away from his problems easily by just swimming to the ocean and starting a new life anywhere without getting caught due to him being a siren-human hybrid.

Whenever he was off duty, he would always go by the lake where he had resided and talk to him for long hours, sometimes even doing some sort of partner work with him when he is on duty, and Liu goes as far into helping him escape from the kingdom on some occasions by assisting him to swim across the border that connects both Azuren and Lyarik.

According to Ashton, he sees Liu as very dear to him and cares about him to a great extent. Despite their minor bickering and arguments, Ashton shows a different version of himself when around him, being more open and brutally honest about issues he takes particular interest in and opens up to him with some of his personal problems. He sees Liu as a true companion and occasionally vents to him about his problems and agony, even at times going far enough into revealing his own mistreatment by the military at a young age. Liu seems to show extreme concern for him because of what he says about his past.

### Locaster Helios

At first, Locaster and Ashton's relationship was strained due to the fact he had tried killing Locaster on several occasions, even at times tried to capture him in order to take him to Lyakon to retrieve him for the king. He has shown some hostility towards him because of his failed attempts on bringing him back to Lyakon, and Locaster showing the same hostility back after Ashton had scammed Soul by taking his money after being offered it to get Locaster when they were once enemies and he was getting targeted due to the increasing murders that were increasing in both Leiden and Myria.

Due to the multiple attempts of murder, Ashton and Locaster do not see each other as allies or enemies, but are in between that line as they see each other on neutral terms. Both seem to care for each other, yet always have conflict. There are many instances where Ashton unintentionally helps Locaster throughout his journey, and many times where he had tried to sabotage his plans by purposefully backstabbing him and nearly outing him to the kingdoms that are targeting him.

Though, at times he seems to care for Locaster by attempting to give him his blood after Misaya nearly broke his neck and resulted in extreme injuries and assisted him after being given a drugged brownie by Akuji, where he helped Yuna insert the ancedote to reverse some of it's effects. Locaster, in turn, protects him from Lyakon officials and nearly sacrifices himself for him in order for Ashton to be spared.

Throughout the story, Ashton slowly starts to tolerate Locaster and begins to defend him despite their differences and ideologies, even coming to Locaster's defense on many occasions by requesting him to go defend Fēng and Nabi in the west while fighting the Lyakonian soldiers and nearly gets stampeded. Ashton starts to see Locaster as his younger self and embraced him, seeing him as a target before to now seeing him as a younger brother he should protect. He also begins to tolerate most of Team Strelitzia and

### Damion Halloreen

Being the father of Locaster, Ashton and Damion have a very strained relationship with one another. Even though Damion was the one responsible for murdering many individuals in Leiden and Myria, his son was seen as the main target due to his specie, resulting Ashton to go after Locaster and attempt to murder him on multiple occasions. Damion often attempts to protect his son from Ashton by punching him whenever he was in any distance near him or attempt to engage in a fight with him and strictly requested him that he does not go near his child.

Ashton perceives Damion as old, often insulting him due to his age and how he acts while Ashton himself flaunts about his youth, despite Damion being relatively young as an adult. He has a hard time empathizing with him killing off the Founding Demons over a "baseless accusation" and teases him in a playful manner while he is annoyed. Damion sees him as someone with potential, yet a personality that was unable to be tamed.

Ashton and him, at times, insult one another by throwing negative nicknames at each-other, with Ash calling Damion a "old hag" and Damion calling him a "sore loser," due to their relationship being tense after he attempted to kill his son on many occasions. Though, both are seen helping each other out during their fight with Akuji. Their arguments are shown to have weigh down the group from focusing.

### Hideko Inazuma

Hideko is one of Ashton's childhood friends, whom he met after trying to find a place to sleep in the alleyways. He had taken him in and showed immense care and concern for him. He is often seen as his wingman, usually staying by his side and defended him most of the time and talks to him often because of finding solace in confiding in Hideko with his personal matters. Though, a strain to their relationship was when Ashton could not save his sister from the Black Sun, and he was ultimately blamed for it, leaving him into leaving the shelter and fending for himself.

Hideko has proven to regret blaming him for the capture of his sister, mainly due to the fact she was his only family. He realizes later on that they were simply outmatched by the Black Sun at the time and how they were all young and trying to survive via stealing. Ashton sees Hideko as both his brother and father because of him expressing both affection and paternal love for him when others showed him nothing but hatred.

### Akuji Hasegawa

Akuji was Ashton's trainer for four years after he had recruited him to join the army unwillingly. Akuji had abused him for four years during his process of becoming a soldier and for the most part dehumanized him, leading to their relationship being strained. He often finds Akuji rather annoying and odd, usually attempting to stray away from him during their past when they had once worked together. Since Akuji also abused him physically and emotionally, he harbors an immense grudge against him because of his actions and was often beaten by him for showing basic emotions, manipulating him into thinking that the behavior he was demonstrating toward him was normal, when it in fact was not.

Ashton's dislike for Akuji has demonstrated to be a mix of immense hatred and fear, as he confirmed he is scared of him, but does not visibly show it to maintain his tough exterior. He avoids working with him and often tries to not speak with him anytime he is nearby. Because of his aura and his past with him, he froze in fear as he revealed himself after setting off his gun to wake everyone up. Additionally, Akuji would purposely touch his shoulder to get him upset or shaken up to instill fear in him.

### Shizuka Ikami

Shizuka is one of Ashton's childhood friends. When she met him after he was taken in by Hideko, she acted rather hostile at first, avoiding him and acting rather distant and cold. With his presence being unfamiliar to her, she did not see him as a friend or enemy, but simply a guest. Even though the both of them have been separated, Shizuka still perceives Ashton like her second brother, despite their bickering and distaste for one another. She has shown to exhibit a brother-like relationship with him and Ashton perceives Shizuka as his younger sister, protecting her while Hideko was stealing supplies in his shelter. Though, their relationship has a strain because of his insensitivity towards her, taunting her about her lost arm after large amounts of poison were injected in her arm via a crescent moon blade thrown by Crow, and the two often have discourse arguments with one another. It is noted by Yuna that both Ashton and Shizuka act like siblings, partially due to him growing up in the same shelter as her.

Regardless of their arguments, Ashton shows immense care for Shizuka, despite her being one year his superior and shows her respect during their times in battle. When hearing about Ashton's abuse from her side, Shizuka sympathized with him and gave him her support: Additionally, Shizuka went as far into going before Ashton during their trials in Lyakon to ensure he would not get beaten or abused, taking the hits for him instead of him being tortured. Shizuka's lengths to protect him became transparent after she jumped in front of him to save him from being split in half by Crow's vines.

### Soul Kawasaki

Soul and Ashton's relationship before the events of the story was described as strained. He had scammed Soul out of his silver and ate it after he paid him to hunt down Locaster, to which he agreed to do before Soul and Locaster became allies and hunted him down. Hurt by his betrayal, he often exhibited crude and rather hostile behavior towards him. He would go as far into nearly attack him at some point, but refrains from doing. However, throughout the story, the two start to have a more neutral relationship, though Soul still held a dislike to Ashton for scamming him out of his silver and not paying him back.

Ashton does perceive Soul as an ally of some sorts, but still holds a grudge against him because of his betrayal towards him. He still acted cold around him, but saw him as one of the members and gave him a decent amount of respect prior to his disappearance. Soul began to get along with him and started to show signs of platonic affection toward him.

### Veena Lu

Ashton and Veena's interactions are fairly limited. However, Veena portrays a slight dislike towards Ashton mainly for attempting to murder Locaster and other members of the group. She often distances himself from him and perceives Ashton as annoying and rather flamboyant of himself when first meeting him. However, after he officially joins the group and slowly improves on his behavior, she sees him as his equal, but does not view him as a friend of hers but more of an acquaintance. She grows to relate to Ashton with his parents abandoning him.

Veena further warms up to Ashton during their time at the Luckyside Tavern, drinking alcohol with one another and acting jovial around him. She further shows an improvement when she defends him from Akuji, saying that despite them being on more neutral terms, the group would refuse to hand him over, even protecting him from one of Crow's attacks that would have injured him severely.

### Hikage Ishuko

Hikage and Ashton have a complicated relationship. Like the other members, Hikage was suspicious and distrusting towards Ashton because of his behavior towards the group, but tolerated him because of his infrequent assistance. She, like many of the other members of Team Strelitzia. Ashton mainly compliments her on her beauty and her strength to woo her and attempt to get along with her, finding her more differentiated than other women within the kingdoms due to her obstinate, yet extremely polite and lovable nature. Despite this, he harbors no romantic feelings for her and only considers her a mutual acquaintance.

Hikage has a distaste for him, though she does not harbor any hatred. She perceives him as annoying at times and mostly keeps her distance from him, though comes to his defense when needed. When nearly being clawed by Crow, Hikage swiped the shadow gem from Damion's possession in order to make a barrier of shadow vines to ensure his safety. When running away from the dark entity, Ashton showed his protectiveness by carrying her on his back when her leg was injured and when her shard was nearly taken by Snow Owl guards.

## Trivia

* Ashton's hair is also able to regenerate, even after cutting or trimming it. According to him, if he were to cut his hair off, it would all grow back within seconds. Due to this, Ashton dislikes having long hair.
* Ashton's name is of old English origin, meaning "Ash tree town" and "from the ash tree."
* His last name, Khanh, is of Vietnamese origin, meaning "resembling a precious stone" or "prince."
* Ashton has a hard time sensing others feelings and often makes crude comments without knowing the others feelings.
* Ashton's hatred for British people stems from Lyakon's immense dislike for them. He at first thought they had good in them, but after meeting and being contracted to kill others by them, he grows an immense hatred for them.
* Ashton has a hard time brushing his hair, and he often has to leave it tangled. He never used a hairbrush before and often gets one stuck in his hair whenever trying to brush his hair.
* Ashton is one of the few demons with the ability of regeneration, the others being Damion Halloreen, Misaya Myat, Crimson O'Connel, and Locaster Helios. Though, Locaster's regeneration is much slower and less developed than his.
* Ashton has demonstrated to be one of the most heavily disliked by the group because of his multiple attempts of killing Locaster or someone else in the group.
* Ashton's favorite foods are grapes, churros, and flan.
* Ashton dislikes sour foods and certain meats like pork.
* Ashton enjoys hunting, improving his skills and experiencing new things, while he dislikes inconveniences, dirty people, his own kingdom and rats.