Ayumu Aikawa

**Ayumu Aikawa** is the main protagonist of the *Is This a Zombie?* anime and light novels.

An ordinary high-school student killed by a serial killer before the start of the series and revived as a zombie by Eucliwood Hellscythe. Technically he is now under her servitude, but more often than not he's the one running the household.

In the AWA fics, Ayumu is a student at the AWA Academy.

## **Appearance**

Ayumu is a young man in his teens with greyish to white hair in a simple hairstyle. He usually wears his school's uniform, but is also seen wearing simple shirts and slacks when at home.

## **Personality**

As a zombie, Ayumu has a strong dislike of intense heat and sunlight, which quickly leads to him being dehydrated and severely desiccated, and is a constant problem for him during the spring and summer months. When subjected to intense pain, he will temporarily submit to it, but will then overcome such reactions, because he remembers that he is an immortal and cannot die. He is also usually in weak-hearted, lazy state of mind, which often works against him, leaving him vulnerable to punishment or ambush, as was the case with his killer, Kyoko.

He mostly daydreams of Eucliwood, in which she calls him *Onii-chan* (lit. *older brother*) and asks for a bath, or food in a manner of a cute girl. Eu clearly knows about the fact that he daydreamed of her. When Haruna had absorbed Eu's magic and Eu was free to speak, she deliberately asked him if he was going to daydream about her or not. This suggests that Eu may see him as a sister-complexed pervert who would be able to fantasize about a given person at any point in time.

However, in times of conflict, this aspect of his personality disappears, and he is shown to be a decisive, aggressive person who speaks, thinks, and acts according to his conscience. In particular situations, such as his battle with Kyoko, he is also shown to have a ferocious and vengeful side to his personality as well, and he acts in line with that as well. This was dramatically illustrated when he killed Kyoko down to her last life in an overwhelming assault with Haruna's chainsaw, and when he overpowered Yoruno in hand-to-hand combat (only in the anime). In the LN, Yoruno was much more powerful than he was and Ayumu could defeat him only because of Yoruno’s weakness to light due to him being a zombie.

Despite this, he still possesses a strong moral center, even in such life-and-death situations, and will quickly withdraw from an anger-fueled, vicious onslaught when he thinks it is the right thing to do. Again, this illustrated in his battles with Kyoko and Yoruno, for with the former, once she had been shocked into pained, terrified submission and began to beg for her life, he decided that the correct thing to do was to spare her life, in the hopes that she would learn from the experience and understand the consequences of what she had done. In the latter case, he stopped fighting and withdrew his anger, for he decided that it was best to allow Eucliwood to resolve the situation in a more responsible fashion.

As shown in episode 12 and the OVA (episode 13), his non-conflict oriented personality is shown to have a strong tendency towards perverted conduct, which is also often the cause of his frequent mishaps and punishments, often given by the girls who accompany him, namely Haruna, Seraphim, and Maelstrom. Despite these situations, he cares for and genuinely respects them, which they, in their own ways, reciprocate.

This even includes Saras, who had fallen for him after several instances of staring at his curve-line.

As of Volume 09, all girls have feelings for Ayumu, except for Ariel who looks at him as an interesting human, Nene who regards him as her assistant, and Mihara who has feelings for Orito.

When he had his memory erased, the demon governing laziness known as Belphegor took over his body. This is most likely a representation of the fact that Ayumu really likes peace and does not want to be disturbed, and those traits are somewhat associated with laziness.

## **Abilities**

* **Immortality/healing:** He seemingly has immortality, or at least a very efficient healing factor. Although it is unknown if he can die, he has shown to survive being cut in half, getting a *shuriken* thrown onto his head, getting hit by a truck, being blown up by a bomb, and having *shuriken* thrown into his eyes by Seraphim. His ability to heal does seem to have a limit, since after being blown apart by the bomb his body parts has to be collected and put close to each other in order for healing to occur. This also suggests that by dismembering him and putting the parts far away from each other, he can be incapacitated for good. Although he did state after his fight with Seraphim that he "might not survive the next time they fight", it is unknown what he meant by this. But fire might be effective to kill him.

* **Super Strength:** As a zombie, he is not limited to the amount of muscle power he uses as a human, as humans cannot use 100% of their muscle power. He is able to use 100% and beyond, and as such, is able to damage monsters quite easily. He increases his power by physically saying the numbers (100%, 200%, etc.). In the manga, he is strong enough to kill even Megalos. However, his human body can't always withstand the strain of his attacks (although this drawback is negated by his healing ability).

* **Magic Absorption:** As demonstrated to Haruna, Ayumu is able to absorb magic, although this is currently passive to him. This property of Ayumu is probably one of the reasons Kyoko has targeted him.
* **Masou-Shoujo Capabilities:** Due to his absorption of Haruna's Masou-Shoujo magic, Ayumu is able to utilize Haruna's Mystletainn to transform into a Masou-Shoujo, with embarrassing results. As a Masou-Shoujo, Ayumu gains the ability to manipulate barriers like any common Masou-Shoujo, but this aspect of a Masou-Shoujo is still unknown to Ayumu, as he did not undergo the curriculum of a Masou-Shoujo in Villiers.
* Break Dancing: demonstrates this several time in the series.
* **1000% Mystletainn Masou-Shoujo Form:** Ayumu demonstrates that he is able to unleash 1000% of Haruna's current Masou-Shoujo form. It allows him to use more powerful attacks without hurting his body and to use Mystletainn with higher effectiveness.
* **Black Mist:** During episode 10 of the second season, when under control of his alternative self he displayed black mist, exactly like King of the Night. This may be hinting that Ayumu is capable yet unaware of this ability.
* **Lilia's Curse**: In Volume 09 of the light novel, he was cursed by the Queen. Due to the Queen's curse, no one will have any memories of Ayumu. This will continue to remain so for as long as the curse is active. If he meet with anyone, that said person will retain memories of Ayumu provided that he/she must remain within 5 meters from Ayumu. Once out of range for more then 170 seconds, the memory resets and he/she will no longer have any memories of Ayumu. Only Haruna is unaffected and retains memories of Ayumu.

## **Trivia**

* He is more aggressive in the manga, as seen in his fight against Kyoko when it takes the appearance and intervention of Ariel to stop him from killing her, whereas in the anime he refrains from killing her for good after figuring out that she was down to her very last life.
* He is also seem to be good at break-dancing, as seen in episode 2 of the first season when he tried to impress Eucliwood as they first met and in episode 3 of the second season when he gives Haruna and Yuki advice on dancing. He is bad at rapping while doing it though.
* He is technically married to Sarasvati due to her drinking from the same drink and Yuki Yoshida (Tomonori) due to accidental kiss .

## **External Links**

* Ayumu Aikawa at Koreha Zombie Desuka Wiki