Eisuke Nikaidou

* LN
* Anime

**Eisuke Nikaidou** (二階堂 永亮, *Nikaidō Eisuke*?) is a second-year student at Tsujimine High School and a member of its kyudo club. He is the former upperclassman of Minato Narumiya, Seiya Takehaya, and Shuu Fujiwara at Kirisaki Middle School. He is the central antagonist of Vol.2 and Season 2.

## Appearance

Eisuke has straight, gray hair, pale skin and large, steel blue eyes. He is always seen wearing a white hoodie.

## Personality

Nikaido has a confident but complicated personality that is very layered and differs slightly between the light novel and the anime.

In the light novel, Nikaido is eccentric, secretive, jealous, sensitive to light, and secretly claustrophobic. Despite his weaknesses, he has an unbreakable happy-go-lucky attitude that doesn’t drop even when being resentful.

In the anime, this smiley front is only a façade used selectively to hide a brooding stoic interior that is commanding, driven and moody; shown only to those he trusts. However, this angsty disposition is also not Nikaido’s true self, but a defensive mechanism developed in reaction to the injustices done to his uncle. In middle school, Nikaido was shown to be more friendly, and as a child was easily excited. This loving, gentle side is his true self and comes out only in rare moments, like when his uncle is hospitalized.

## History

He used to attend Kirisaki Middle School and was in the kyudo club with Minato, Seiya, and Shuu.

## Shooting Technique and Ability

Nikaido is skilled in the shamen uchikoshi shooting style, a more casual and practical way of shooting, and usually hits all of his targets. Minato describes his technique as "beautiful in its simplicity". He has been shooting with his uncle since a young age and has the most experience on his team, serving as their unofficial coach. He is a very talented teacher, taking a team with almost no experience and winning third place at nationals in about a years time. He cares more about hitting the targets than the customs surrounding shooting, which is why he lets his teammates shoot as they like.

## Relationships

### Shigeyuki Nikaidou

Eisuke has a deep love for his uncle. He was his Kyudo teacher and something of a surrogate father to him, and considers him the only reason he didn't end up like his "mess of a dad". He is very distraught about Shigeyuki's unnamed illness and visits him regularly. Frequently asking him for Kyudo advice.

### Minato Narumiya and Shuu Fujiwara

Nikaido dislikes, almost hates, Minato and Shuu because their old kyudo teacher Saioje-sensei declined his uncles offer to train with him. What Nikaido doesn't know is that Saioji-sensei mostly did this because they didn't want Shigeyuki to abandon his rare shamen uchikoshi shooting style.

### Koushirou Fuwa

Fuwa is the closest thing Nikaido has to a friend. Though they each consider the other a "shady bastard" with untrustworthy motives. In the book, the two are strictly teammates, but in the anime, Fuwa is very much interested in Nikaido's backstory and wants to be his friend. He acts as Nikaido's keeper in social situations, calming his mood swings, and offers him financial help running the team. Nikaido tolerates Fuwa's invasive prodding and considers him his most competent comrade. In the audio drama, its revealed the two first met when Nikaido asked Fuwa to join the team after he demonstrated his knowledge of Kyudo in class. Nikaido was impressed by his immediate answer. Fuwa says he joined simply because he found Nikaido so interesting.

### Reiji Aragaki, Kenyuu Ootaguro and Touma Higuchi

Nikaido left Kirisaki for Tsujimine with the intention of quitting Kyudo, but later decided to join and build up their nonexistent Kyudo team with the aim of beating Minato and Shuu in competition to get his revenge. His team doesn't know this, and just look up to him as a generous benefactor. While Nikaido thinks he's just using them, it's clear he feels pride in his ragtag team, and eventually realizes they mean more to him than revenge.