Deishuu Kaiki

**Deishuu Kaiki** (貝木 泥舟, *Kaiki Deishū*) is a conman specializing in imposter oddities and charms. He is known as the first of five con men who swindled the Senjougahara family, as well as selling charms to middle school students.

In the World Protection Security Agency, he is a recurring character in the series, alongside the rest of the main Monogatari cast, who is later affiliated with Sylens, alongside the rest of the erstwhile members of the Occult Research Club.

## Appearance

Kaiki is a middle aged and pale man with a very gloomy and dark appearance. He is often seen wearing a funeral suit with a club over the knot of his rather loose necktie. He has an unsmiling face with eyes that either appear indifferent or piercing. His hair is worn back with two bangs hanging down and trying to reach the bridge of his nose. In Koimonogatari he is shown having a cold shower to make his skin deathly blue-pale.

In most of Koimonogatari, he wears a typical trench coat with his hair down short and shaggy.

In Hanamonogatari, he goes back to his typical hair, but this time with a neatly trimmed goatee-beard combo and glasses.

## Personality

Kaiki has a very gloomy personality and subscribes to the view that there is nothing in the world that is inherently true. The only absolute in life for him is money, as it is replaceable and can replace any thing. A schemer at heart, Kaiki has an opaque mind to outsiders. He is fluent in the arts of lying and subterfuge, so his reasoning behind what he says is constantly blurred. He explains his name as "Kai" like a mound of clam shells, and "Ki" like a dead tree.

Kaiki is an individual who prides himself in having no pride. He openly admits to being a conman and an impostor amongst other things. But this is to his advantage as someone who deceives with wordplay extremely well. His interactions with others are very fluid, and he is willing to give and take in order to maximize the outcome, or cut his losses, in his favor.

In Koimonogatari, much more of his character is revealed, especially his own thought process. He keeps his promises despite his lying nature, and has an unexpected system of morals that he adheres to - but only if motivated to do so because he must personally benefit from the situation. Kaiki seems to take warnings or "pieces of advice" as challenges, such as when Gaen and an unknown messenger (later revealed to be Senjougahara) had told him to "pull out" of his current job. Senjougahara explained to him afterwards that she had purposefully did it to motivate him.

Despite the fact that he is very scheming, he seems to miss obvious conclusions. When he found the letter in his hotel room, he assumed that some third party (that wasn't Gaen or Senjougahara) had found a way to get in, but it was pointed out by Senjougahara that it could be as simple as throwing the envelope under the door. When trying to deceive Nadeko, he came up with the simple scheme of earning her trust so he can tell her that Araragi and co. were in a traffic accident so that she wouldn't kill them. It is worth mentioning that Kaiki already knew Araragi is almost immortal; and Nadeko had beaten him within an inch of his life many times within a short period, so she would have some idea of how much punishment his body can actually take, making something like a traffic accident seem less than lethal. During a discussion with Hanekawa, she described Nadeko as "snubbing everyone out", never letting others get close to her. Kaiki didn't change his plan despite knowing that she had never trusted others, and subsequently failed at deceiving her.