Hatanaka Izuna

**Hatanaka Izuna** (秦中 飯綱) is a kamaitachi youkai, and a Spookology teacher and alumn at Hyakki Academy.

## Appearance

Hatanaka has dark brown hair with brown eyes. He wears glasses, giving him the appearance of a nerd. He wears a scarf his wife made for him and typically wears button ups open with a shirt underneath and a red tie along with black jeans. He can turn his arms into scythes when he wants to.

His youkai form looks like a small weasel-like creature with scythes for arms.

## Personality

Hatanaka has a short-temper, getting frustrated easily at the students whenever they break rules or don't follow dress codes. He comes across as serious when meeting him, however, he can flip his switch and turn back into his old delinquent self whenever he gets angry. Like the other teachers, he finds himself in bits of trouble due to not being careful. He has frustrated the Principal and Miki on numerous occasions, usually due to his carelessness and getting into trouble.

Though he can be rather short-tempered towards the students, he cares deeply about the kids in his care, willing to put himself on the line in order to keep them safe. He tries to protect his students and keep them out of harm's way, as well as Haruaki.

He's noted to be rather fearless, being able to face Haruaki while most teachers were afraid of him, because he was still just a human and he trusted the Principal enough. However, as fearless as he comes across, he has a severe fear of doctors, being terrified of Takahashi.

## Powers

As a Kamaitachi, he can make his arms into scythes and can turn into a weasel that has scythes for arms. He can cut through almost anything using them, however, if they crack, it causes damage to his arms.

## Relationship

### Abe Haruaki

In the beginning, he would get quite frustrated with Haruaki's cowardly nature, getting angry at the fact that he would let the students walk over him. However, he grew closer with Haruaki and began trying to help him with standing up for himself more. When Haruaki insinuated that he didn't have friends, Hatanaka shot back with that he saw Haruaki as a friend, and thus solidified their friendship.

Though Hatanaka still gets frustrated with his antics, he seems proud of how far Haruaki's come with handling his emotions and being able to teach the kids. As they grew closer, Haruaki also became more willing to insult him similar to how Miki does, calling him four-eyes when he learned that Hatanaka has suggested to dump all the poorly achieving students on him or learning that Hatanaka told Takahashi about his ability to summon the four gods.

Though they didn't know it when they first met, they had met previously when they were in high school, Hatanaka aiding Haruaki in helping a child Sano who had gotten lost and lost his tanuki plushie. Though he didn't want to at first, he helped Haruaki in retrieving it, along with Miki.

### Miki Rintarou

They were classmates and roommates during their time at Hyakki Academy. They did not like each other at first, and Hatanaka first mistook Miki for a girl who just wandered or got lost in the boys' dormitory, and got flustered upon seeing him. When Hatanaka had learned about Miki's mom, he asked him about it, which caused Miki to get kidnapped by some bullies who wanted to get back at the both of them. Though Miki didn't consider him a friend, Hatanaka agreed to go save him, bringing his siblings along to help him. They were more friendly with each other after this.

As adults, they insult each other regularly, Miki insulting Hatanaka's intelligence and Hatanaka insulting Miki's laziness and drinking habits. They don't seem like friends, but they see each other as friends and do get worried when the other is in immediate danger, Miki getting worried when Hatanaka was captured by the Karasu-Tengu Troupe.

### Mamekichi Maizuna

Mamekichi looks up to Hatanaka in a way as a teacher and an animal youkai who got bad marks like himself. When Mamekichi was a child, he got separated from his class while he was at Hyakki Academy's culture festival one year and along with Tama, ran into Hatanaka and Miki. They mistook him for a teacher and when he lied and said that he was, they went along with his lie. Hatanaka helped them get back to their teacher and got the inspiration to become a teacher as a career and dragged Miki into it as well.

He and Mamekichi get along rather well, and he, Tamao, and Hatanaka make up the intellectual trio, despite all of them getting poor marks on their assessments and in their classes.

### Tamao Akisame

Tamao also looks up to Hatanaka as both a teacher and teacher. In his first year, Hatanaka was Tamao's homeroom teacher, and Tamao was worried about having him as a teacher after hearing from other students how he was as a teacher. When Tamao was a child, he wandered off from his class and met Mamekichi while at Hyakki's Academy's cultural festival and when looking for their teacher had ran into Hatanaka, and mistook him for a teacher. After he lied and said he was, they went along with his lie and he helped them find their teacher. After this encounter, Hatanaka wanted to become a teacher.

He and Tamao get along rather well, forming the intellectual trio with him and Mamekichi, despite all of them getting poor marks on their exams and in their classes. He is also very proud of how much Tamao has improved in his time there.

### Miki Ibara

Miki was a teacher at Hyakki Academy when Hatanaka and Rintarou attended the school. She was very excited for the both of them upon hearing that Hatanaka wanted to be a teacher and was dragging Rintarou along with them. It has not been stated how long the two have been together, however, they are married and have three kids with a fourth kid on the way. He is very close to his wife, being the only one able to calm her down whenever she is angry at something and keeping her from continuing her destructive path. He is also very protective of her, keeping her away from people who were harassing and hitting on her when she was uncomfortable.

### Takahashi Akira

Due to Takahashi being the main doctor of all youkai clinics, he has dealt with all youkai, especially animal youkai. He gives regular checkups to animal youkai, making Hatanaka terrified of him, due to his fear of doctors. However, along with this, Takahashi's unsettling nature makes Hatanaka hate him even more, muttering death curses after a particular checkup from him.

## Etymology

* **Hatanaka** means "Manchu dynasty, name given to naturalized foreigners" (秦) (**hata**) and "middle" (中) (**naka**).
* **Izuna** means "food, meals" (飯) (**i**) and "hawser, class (genus), rope, cord, cable" (綱) (**tsuna**/**zuna**).

## Trivia

* Izuna use to be a delinquent back in his highschool days.
* Izuna changed girlfriends at the pace of once a month back in highschool.
* One of the Hyakki Mysteries is how Hatanaka got his teaching license
* His first love was a girl he picked on elementary school