Hakumen

**Hakumen** (ハクメン) is a leader of the Six Heroes, and Jin Kisaragi from the first timeline. He is a playable character in the *BlazBlue* series.

## Appearance

Hakumen follows a rather unique blend of cyborg and samurai. He wears semi-heavy white armor and a muscular body suit with a large collar and the traditional hakama present, ballooning pants common in samurai. His long silver hair is tied at the mane. All armored sections feature fully-functional crimson eyes with slit pupils. These eyes are not as much of an intimidation as much as the mask he wears; a completely white, two horned helmet with no features or visor, appearing to have no face at all, a feature that paralyzes even Ragna in fear.

When he is in Amane Nishiki’s Astral Heat, he appears as a cat-like figure with one strand of sliver hair, symbols on his stomach, and a smaller version of Ōkami.

## Personality

Hakumen is a very serious individual who is usually extremely focused on the task at hand and rarely shows any emotion beyond stoicism. His attitude can come off to others as prideful, stubborn, and even arrogant, occasionally getting him into issues with his comrades when he refuses to cooperate with them and tries to handle things on his own. His solitary goal is to eradicate evil wherever it hides and rarely compromises, warning his target to not take his mercy lightly when he spares them. During his Bad Ending in *BlazBlue: Continuum Shift*, Hakumen completely loses his temper when Hazama brutally tortures Tsubaki in front of him. Having already witnessed Tsubaki’s gruesome end in his own timeline and harboring immense guilt over the fact that he didn’t stop it, Hakumen can’t bear the thought of having to witness it again.

While Hakumen is generally cold toward others, he does have respect for Jūbei, Valkenhayn, and Trinity, occasionally indulging them in conversation. Although Rachel Alucard frustrates him with her commandeering attitude, he is willing to tolerate her to some extent not unlike that of Ragna. He also show respect towards Bang Shishigami as a fellow man of justice and shows kindness towards Celica Ayatsuki Mercury, occasionally doing favors for her.

Due to the fact that Hakumen is Jin Kisaragi’s alternate future self, they share many similar traits. Both are cold, stubborn, anti-social, and desire Ragna to die by their hands. However, while Jin’s desire is brought out as an obsessive impulse, Hakumen merely does so as it is his destiny, yet regrets every bit of it, showing that deep down he cares about his brother.

Due to his ego, Hakumen often clashed with other members of the cast. Over time, however, he has become much more focused on the more important matters, letting fate run its course with the rest of the cast and not interfering with their affairs. Even though he considers Ragna his greatest opponent, since *BlazBlue: Continuum Shift* he has put aside their rivalry for the sake of the greater good. By *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma*, their rivalry is noticeably less hostile and he is more cooperative with his comrades.

## Powers and Abilities

Being the former leader of the Six Heroes, Hakumen is an extremely powerful individual with a myriad of significant abilities. Having apparently mastered the Power of Order during the Great Dark War, utilizing the Sankishin Unit: Susanoo which grants him nigh limitless fighting capabilities and stamina, and willpower so strong that he was able to resist losing himself to the Boundary, Hakumen could very well be one of the most formidable characters in the *BlazBlue* universe.

It should be noted, however, that Hakumen is only at roughly 20% of his full power as only his existence is projected in the real world; his body is still somewhere in the Boundary. His state was, from Bloodedge’s perspective, nothing but a remnant of his full prowess in his early days.[4] In *BlazBlue: Continuum Shift*, Rachel Alucard became a “superior” Observer for Hakumen, restoring more of his fighting capabilities (although to what extent remains unknown).

His weapon of choice is an Event Weapon, Ōkami, a nodachi with an odd blunt tip in place of a sharp point. The sword is attached to a sheath on his back with a slot to allow him to draw the sword without straining his arm due to its long length. Hakumen repeatedly claims that despite its cursed nature, it is a weapon meant to destroy evil, hinting that it may have holy properties. It apparently possesses the ability to negate Magic Formula as well. Hakumen with this sword often focuses on defensive-wide-singular strikes and a touch of focused kicks.

Hakumen’s Drive, **Slaying God** (斬神 *Zanshin*), allows him to project energy barriers that repel enemy attacks and allow him to effectively counter advances towards him. He also has an unusual ability called **Demon Sealing Formation** (封魔陣 *Fūmajin*), which leaves a sort of vacuum sphere in place of a projectile that he stops with his sword. His Overdrive, **Fierce God** (鬼神 *Kishin*), greatly speeds up his magatama gain rate, allowing him to use his special moves more frequently.

By utilizing Susanoo Unit’s ability to cut time, Hakumen is able to tear the space between two parallel time-lines. Then, through the unit’s special eyes, he is able to observe what is happening in the same place, but in a different time-line.[6]

During *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma*, Hakumen reveals a last resort technique called **Time Killer (刻殺 *Toki Goroshi*)** which destroys all the “time” his target possesses, effectively allowing him to kill an immortal being such as Terumi. However, this technique failed against Hades: Izanami as “[her] time ended long ago”. In order to use this technique, however, it seems to take some time to prepare and uses up a substantial amount of Hakumen’s power. In Arakune’s arcade mode, Hakumen reveals another technique called **Demon-Threat Annihilation** (劫魔滅殺 *Gōma Messatsu*, localized as **Demonslayer**), which he specifically reserved against Terumi, but he is soon forced to use it against Arakune, his opponent runs away.[7]

## TMNT X Pokemon

Hakumen gives Leo advice of being a great leader to his team

## Trivia

Naming
* “Hakumen” (白面) in Japanese literally translates into English as “White Face”, “White Mask” and/or “Blank Face”; it’s also a “counter-attack” term in Shogi (Japanese equivalent of Chess) as well, which may or may not reference his Drive’s primary function.

Appearances
* Along with Hazama, Yūki Terumi, Rachel Alucard, Hades: Izanami and Arakune, Hakumen is one of the few who do not appear to have a skeleton. This is due to the fact he is just a suit of armor (apparently), but can still get shocked. His insides appears as his armor outline, wires, and orb-shaped items.
* In *BlazBlue: Continuum Shift*, dialogue reveals that the multiple orbs on his body are his eyes.

Other
* The Japanese god Susanoo and Hakumen, whose Susanoo Unit is named after this god, have a few things in common. Both have slayed an eight-headed monster (Yamata no Orochi/The Black Beast) and both were banished from their home (Susanoo to the earth/Hakumen to the narrow space beyond the Boundary).
* Hakumen’s crest depicts a kitsune, a fox in Japanese mythology that can grow as many as nine tails, in its center.
* In Hakumen’s *BlazBlue: Continuum Shift* audio gallery, right after “Kokūjin Ōgi: Akumetsu”, “Kokūjin: Rehhyō” can be heard.
* Hakumen, as well as Noel, Terumi, and Tsubaki, are the only characters with playable alternate forms. Hakumen’s alternate form is the Hero of Ikaruga, Jin Kisaragi.
* Part of the reason Hakumen was searching for Kilns was to understand the Boundary, so that he would know what to do in order to end the God’s dream.[8]Interestingly enough, Terumi himself has a similar aim. The difference between them is that Terumi doesn’t care if the world dies with the dream, while Hakumen wants to end the dream while protecting the world.
	+ Also just like Terumi, Hakumen dislikes being in the Susanoo Unit, though his reason was that Terumi’s lingering presence made it especially uncomfortable to put up with.[9] He called it an abominable power and said that if it were possible, he would even gladly give it back to Terumi.[10]Although Terumi is Susanoo himself he just hated being bound to Amateratsu.
* Hakumen’s 2C and j.5C are seemingly inspired from the **Nagare (流れ, Flow)** and **Nagareboshi (流れ星, Shooting Star)** sword techniques of the historical manga Shigurui.
* According to Clavis, Jin’s arrival right before the Great Dark War, was not a coincidence, but the will of the world. A will, that the world gained through human hands.[3]

Appearances in other media
* Along with Ragna, Rachel, Hazama, Jin and Platinum, Hakumen is a playable guest character in Lost Saga.