Maruo Kaido

**Maruo Kaido** (海堂マルオ, *Kaidō Maruo*?) is the main protagonist of *Ayashimon*. He is a Marebito-type Human and a member of the Urara Family, serving as Urara's bodyguard.

## Appearance

Maruo is a young man of average height and has a thin, yet muscular, build. He has short black hair and dark eyes. He has three small scars on his face (located on his lower right cheek, underneath his left eye, and on the bridge of his nose), which he received from his time undoing rigorous training as a child, and prefers to keep them covered by bandages. He also wears bandages around his hands. After being defeated by Doppo, Maruo chooses to have Urara sketch an irezumi onto his back that has a similar design to hers; chrysanthemums, clouds, and three-leaf shamrocks surrounding the Urara Family's crest at the center.

At the start of the series, Maruo wore a simple white shirt, baggy pants, another shirt that was tied to his waist, and socks with sandals. After affiliating with Urara, Maruo retained his white shirt but now wears an opened red collar shirt over it that has an axe and knot pattern. He also changes to wearing dark jeans.

### Gallery

Maruo's color scheme.Maruo's attire at the start of the series.Maruo's main outfit.Maruo's irezumi.Maruo as a child.
## Personality

Maruo is an otaku who looks up to the protagonists of shonen manga and wishes to be one himself by living out intense battles. Initially, Maruo had given up on his dream after he came to realize that he was too strong to fight ordinary human beings, however, upon his firsthand experience fighting Ayashimon, Maruo managed to regain hope in fulfilling this path. He becomes extremely enthusiastic when he experiences anything manga related happening in reality and tries to live up to the part of a manga protagonist, such as naming his attacks. Maruo's hyperactivity and in need of guidance from his boss can make him be perceived as having a child-like personality.

Maruo possesses a love for fighting opponents who are a challenge for him and is very fearless. He also doesn't care if he gets seriously injured in the run, only finding pain thrilling and all the more reason for him to seek out strong people to do battle with. By his own admission, Maruo does not consider himself to be a masochist. A moral principle Maruo follows is that he does not fight anyone who has no intention of fighting back. However, he does not take it lightly when his opponents intentionally try to waste his time in the middle of battle.

Maruo is rather slow-witted, as he tends to experience brain overload when introduced to something new and complex. Since his only purpose in the Urara Family is to fight on Urara's behalf, Maruo does not bother to get in on the details to her plans, seeing himself as the muscle that simply follows the brain of the operation. However, due to his feeble-mind, Maruo does not use his head to compliment his brute strength in battle and performs actions that are illogical. During his fight with Nyudo, Maruo decided to use a steel door to block the Ayashimon's intense flames until he realized too late that the metal door conducts heat. To subdue his flames, Maruo jumped up towards the ceiling to destroy the hidden water pipes and cause a downpour instead of going off of Urara's suggestion in directing the flames upwards to set off the sprinklers.

Maruo has a sense of compassion to use his strength to defend others if he sees them in trouble, which is how he came to live his life as a yakuza after instinctively coming to Urara's rescue. Though he had no business in getting in between a dispute between two Ayashimon, Maruo could not sit idly by as one of them was being harassed and made the decision to defend him inspite of Urara's orders not to. However, Maruo is not without compensation for his good deeds, as he offered to help the harassed Ayashimon in exchange for his gang's office that Urara wanted.

## History

As a child, Maruo was physically abused by his father and was laughed at by the kids for his injuries. After being introduced to manga, Maruo came to idolize the main protagonists of manga and was influenced into wanting to be like them, believing that he will no longer be laughed at if he gets injured and that he will be able to stand up to his father as the main antagonist in his imaginary story. To make this dream a reality, Maruo copied the gruesome training regimens his heroes underwent and ended up acquiring inhuman strength by the time he reached the age of seven. He then confronted his father and managed to leave the man badly injured. However, Maruo was unsatisfied with the way the event played out since his father was too weak to make him experience the same sensation as the manga protagonists.

At one point, Maruo defended himself against a delinquent that goes to his school and soon came to face the entire school backing up the delinquent as payback. However, Maruo managed to defeat every single one of them, with disappointment in the fact that they didn't pose a challenge for him, and ended up getting expelled from his school. This event also caused Maruo to unintentionally gain a fearsome reputation amongst the delinquents in his town. Realizing that having superhuman strength is useless in a normal life, Maruo decided to give up on his dream to become a manga protagonist and tries to look for a part-time job after being expelled from school.

## Synopsis

### Introduction Arc

*Main article: Introduction Arc*
After failing to get hired at three part-time jobs, due to his overwhelming strength interfering, Maruo sits outside sulking and finds himself confronted by a delinquent who picks a fight with him after getting in his way to work. However, Maruo chooses not to defend himself since the delinquent's punches were having no effect on him. After accidentally breaking the man's collarbone, from simply putting his hand on his shoulder, the delinquent and his friend come to realize that the young man they encountered is Maruo Kaido who was rumored to have fought off a school of thugs and having the strength to lift cars.

While asking if the two knew of any jobs that might put his strength to good use, Maruo notices a girl being chased by a few yakuza and instinctively jumps in to protect her. Maruo then takes down the group of men, which he found the fight to be dull, and is requested by the girl he was protecting to flee with her. After getting some distance, Maruo is complimented on his strength by the girl named Urara and is offered to perform a sakazuki with her to become a yakuza under her leadership. Maruo rejects Urara's offer and explains to her that all he wanted in life was to be a manga protagonist after acquiring superhuman strength until he had learned his lesson that this was an impossible dream to accomplish. He then sees Urara shocked after learning that Maruo is human and not "one of us", which in turn causes him to be confused as to why she was stunned by this fact.

After noticing the yakuza somehow standing on the wall above Urara, Maruo jumps in to move her out of the way of their assault. Maruo becomes informed that the yakuza gang is known as the Uwan Family, a direct subsidiary of the Enma Syndicate, and starts to question the situation happening in front of him. Urara informs him that she and the Uwan Family are known as Ayashimon, which is evident by the Uwan Family revealing their true forms after deciding that they will kill Maruo. With the supernatural events happening in front of him, Maruo starts to have feelings of reassurance that he can finally live out his dream but yells out refusing to believe this possibility. He is then sent crashing back into a car after receiving an unexpected attack from one of the Ayashimon, resulting in him being badly injured. However, after experiencing pain for the first time since he gained superhuman strength, Marou becomes excited and throws the car behind him towards Ayashimon. Seeing as how he is no ordinary human, Uwan, in his yokai form, steps up to Maruo and challenges him to a ritual duel. Impressed with the situation he is in, Maruo makes the first move by imitating Goku's signature Kamehameha technique and decapitates Uwan's head. Wanting more fun out of the Uwan Family, Maruo challenges them all to a battle and defeats them.

Figuring that the only way to live an ideal life as a manga protagonist is by fighting Ayashimon, Maruo apologizes to Urara for turning down her offer and agrees to perform a sakazuki with her. Urara becomes satisfied with Maruo's change of heart but decides that the best way for them to form their pact is through an exchange of their own blood. With the ceremony complete, Maruo and Urara travel to Kabukicho where the Ayashimon has her eyes set on becoming its new ruler and where the young human hopes to engage in intense battles.

While riding the train to Shinjuku, Maruo listens to Urara's explanation on who Kio is and how his death led to a crisis within the underworld, which makes him feel enthusiastic. After learning that he is the only member of her yakuza family, Maruo jumps up in shock and is told by her that she will be relying on his capabilities to see her plans through. Maruo then starts to question who Urara is and what he has gotten himself into, which leads to his brain being overwhelmed, but quickly changes his mood after Urara reminds him that his only purpose is to fight for her. To enter Shinjuku without having to worry about public safety, Urara explains to Maruo that they have to arrive at Shinjuku Gyoen and defeat the border guard named Hashihime.

After arriving at their destination, Maruo and Urara confront Hashihime in her yokai form. Maruo readies himself to go up against Hashihime but is instantly defeated after the Ayashimon knocks him back into a pond with one blow, which gives the impression that he is weak to Hashihime. Later, Maruo resurfaces from the pond feeling thrilled by the thought of being able to engage in intense battles with opponents similar to Hashihime in Shinjuku. Hashihime reenters her yokai form and faces Maruo in a ritual duel in hopes of making Urara give up on her ambitions by defeating him. Maruo finds himself overwhelmed by Hashihime's attacks and believes that he will have to use his head for once in order to come out on top. Using a special attack, Maruo manages to damage Hashihime's steel wax body but wonders if she is still willing to fight back after the Ayashimon briefly becomes shocked by what just happened. After feeling that she is being mocked by what he said, Hashihime rushes in to attack and continues her battle with Maruo, which results in the Shinjuku Gyoen garden being demolished. Maruo ends up being the victor and is informed by Hashihime that when he enters Shinjuku he has to be on the lookout for the four most dangerous groups, which are the newly reformed Enma Syndicate, Todoroki Alliance, the Ayakashi ☆ B-Stars, and the Kori Hotel Group, and that he must learn the rules of the ritual duel to ensure that he protect his boss’s honor. This warning then leads to Maruo becoming overwhelmed by the amount of information he has to register.

Before entering Kabukicho, Maruo is warned by Urara of the things he should watch out for. Maruo tells her that he is confident that he will not be overwhelmed by what he sees but winds up going back on his word after they arrive. Urara then gives him a tour around the district to give him a sense of what Kabukicho is like underneath the surface. The two later enter a bar and notice a dispute between Ayashimon. While Urara explains to Maruo that the first thing they should do in Kabukicho is to find a base of operations, Maruo chooses to read a new issue of a manga magazine instead of listening to her due to seeing himself as only the muscle and her as the brain. He then expresses his joy of reading new manga to Urara after she wonders why he was more engrossed in reading it rather than finding their plans interesting. After the disputing Ayashimon make a scene, Maruo wonders to Urara if they should help. Urara tells Maruo that she rejects this idea since Kabukicho follows the concept of "survival of the fittest" and hears her plan of following the harassed Ayashimon to his gang after he leaves in order to steal their office. Unable to watch anymore, Maruo intervenes in spite of Urara's objection and tells the harassed Ayashimon that he will offer to defend him if he were to give up on his office, much to his confusion. Enraged by Maruo butting in, the bullying Ayashimon named Nyudo Inokuma enters his Ayashimon form and throws a punch at Maruo. Maruo easily blocks the punch and takes note of how strong it was, which helps him to indicate how strong the fighters are in Kabukicho. Remembering what Urara told him earlier about the strong feeding on the weak, Maruo tells Urara that he refuses to accept this concept and instead favors the strong feeding on the stronger.

Using a steel door, Maruo blocks a fire breathing attack from Nyudo while feeling excited that he is facing an opponent who uses named attacks like the characters in manga. He then starts to cry out in pain after feeling the heat being conducted by the steel door, which results in Urara being unimpressed by his illogical strategy. Maruo then hears Urara's suggestion in setting off the sprinklers on the ceiling to subdue the flames by tilting the door upwards so that the fire reaches. Maruo found this to be a good idea but instead uses his own method of setting off the sprinklers by jumping towards the fire detector and hitting around it, causing the water pipes to burst. Having set the conditions to where both opponents only have to rely on their fists in battle, Maruo charges in to attack while unaware of Urara calling out to him to not defeat Nyudo without fighting him in an official ritual duel. Using an inventive attack he came up with since he was a child, Maruo destroys Nyudo's body, which causes coins to fly out from his body, but becomes disappointed that he did not get done finishing saying the name of his attack.

After being informed that Ayashimon use money as vessels, Maruo is berated by Urara for causing attention, which he responds by complaining that his opponent was easy to beat and how he continues to have the same outcome in every fight so far. Amazed by his strength, Maruo is requested by the harassed Ayashimon named Ten to become his underling and willingly takes him and Urara to his gang's office in hopes of being freed from his forced servitude. Upon arriving, Maruo and Urara watch as Ten declares to his gang that the office now belongs to the Urara Family but quickly turns on them after his boss Amamehagi enters the room, much to their confusion on the situation happening. Moving on to their objective at hand, Urara challenges Amamehagi to a ritual duel against Maruo for the office and offers herself if he loses, to which Amamehagi accepts. While the ring is being set up, Maruo asks and learns from Urara about the ritual duel and looks back at Ten to thank him for giving him a chance to enjoy another exciting fight. Maruo finds himself unable to land a blow on Amamehagi as the Ayashimon manages to dodge his punches and hit him continuously with his mallet but nevertheless thinks that the battle is enjoyable compared to his other previous fights.

After Amamehagi becomes distracted by Ten cheering on Maruo, Maruo sees an opening to land a punch towards Amamehagi's head and causes him to squirm on the ground in panic. Though he wanted to continue on fighting, Maruo hears Amamehagi's refusal and his plan to recover by wasting time on the ground. Not pleased with this, Maruo throws a punch near the Ayashimon's head and demands that he either give up or continue fighting him. As a result of the punch, Maruo causes the floor to collapse and is crushed under the rubble. Though he manages to survive the incident, Maruo becomes shocked that his fight with Amamehagi ends with the Ayashimon being crushed to death. Maruo is then berated by Urara for destroying the office that they planned on stealing and unexpectedly receives praise from Amamehagi's subordinates for the entertaining ritual duel, including from Ten who comments on how he acted like a manga protagonist, much to Maruo's delight. Happy with his new life, Maruo expresses his gratitude to Urara.

### Vs. Doppo Arc

*Main article: Vs. Doppo Arc*
With the office destroyed, Maruo and Urara decide to move into an abandoned bar as a hiding space with Amamehagi's former gang members helping out. While the place is being set up, Maruo decides to spend his time reading manga for over 12 hours and requests to Urara for some so money he could go out and buy the next volume to the manga he finished reading. One of the gang members recommends to Maruo to not go outside since there where suspicious Ayashimon outside wandering the streets. After getting up to the roof top to check out the scene, Maruo learns from Urara that the suited men are members of the Enma Syndicate. Before they could go inside to lay low until the situation blows over, Maruo, Urara, and the others are met by Doppo Akari, the second chairman of the Enma Syndicate who sent out a manhunt for both Maruo and Urara. Maruo then sees Doppo forcefully try to take Urara away and attacks him with a punch to his face. However, despite feeling as though the punch landed, Maruo sees that Doppo managed to avoid getting hit and has his arm set on fire. While trying to put out the flames, Maruo notices that the fire is rather cold than hot for some reason. He then becomes excited to hear Doppo getting ready to fight him since he has no interest in taking him in.

Urara yells out to Maruo to run instead of facing Doppo, however, Maruo tells her that it wasn't an option since the Enma Syndicate prevented their escape routes in the building and rushes towards Doppo to attack, believing that their only way out is to fight back. After his attack is avoided, Maruo sees Doppo fighting back by emitting a trail of flames on the floor and finds his legs numb with cold after running past them. Doppo explains to him that the flames have the effect of taking away a person's body heat and brutally attacks Maruo while he is rendered immobile. With his blood warming him up, Maruo manages to regain mobility, blinds Doppo with his blood, and lands a punch to his face. He then sees the Ayashimon regenerating from the attack and is engulfed in a fire breath attack, resulting in his body being paralyzed. While being unable to move, Maruo hears Doppo's confirmation that Urara is Kio's daughter and quickly moves in to cover her after Doppo orders his men to shoot Urara. Having finally come face-to-face with a worthy opponent unlike the other past Ayashimon he had fought before, Maruo explains to Doppo that he is grateful to Urara for this encounter and demands that they continue where they left off.

Despite his punches not having any effect on Doppo, Maruo continues to recklessly attack him while enduring the chairman's yojutsu. After being crushed by a giant piece of hail, Maruo breaks free to charge at Doppo for another punch but ultimately falls unconscious after taking on too much damage, resulting in Urara being left in danger. However, after Ten grabs ahold of her tanto to release her yokai form, Maruo's body is carried by Urara as she prepares to escape with him and Ten. Urara goes over to Doppo's vehicle to rescue Hashihime as well but ends up having to flee without her after her former attendant chooses to stay behind to hold off Doppo. After slightly gaining conscious, Maruo sees Hashihime gazing at him as she entrusts the human to take her place in looking after Urara.

### Todoroki Alliance Arc

*Main article: Todoroki Alliance Arc*

Following Ten's suggestion to escape through Shinjuku Subnade, Urara manages to lose her pursers after Ten uses his yojutsu to have him, Maruo, and Urara land at an unused tunnel where he helps them to recuperate. After two weeks had passed since their confrontation with the Enma Syndicate, Maruo is apologized by Urara after she confesses to only using him and Ten as pawns in her plans for to avenge her father, to which she has come to realize that she has misinterpreted her ambitions. Seeing her depressed, Maruo gives her a manga to read to help cheer her up, apologizes for not being a strong bodyguard, and gives his sympathy about having conflicting relationship with fathers. He then tells her that he is willing to continue serving under her and that he seeks payback after losing to Doppo. Instead of having Ten sketch a tattoo on Maruo's back, as her subordinate requested to show his determination to his boss, Urara engraves a real irezumi onto his back and asks that both males to come with her as she prepares to confront the Enma Syndicate with a new resolve.

Realizing that they need support, Maruo hears Urara's plan on seeking help from the Todoroki Alliance, knowing that their leader Kotton is most likely to cooperate with them due to his respect towards her father as a former executive of the Enma Syndicate. While looking at the past photo of the Enma Syndicate, Maruo notices a member that looks familiar to him and questions as to why the past members in the photo are behaving differently than they are today, which Ten answers that the reason is unknown. Before they meet with the biker gang, Maruo complies to Urara's orders on not starting a fight with them to earn their trust.

After approaching the Todoroki Alliance at Shinjuku 04, Maruo, Urara, and Ten causes them to react negative to their appearance due to them being in their way of a meeting. Although he was told by Urara not to cause trouble by starting a fight, Maruo steps up to confront them as he believes that the biker gang aren't in the mood to negotiate with them. However, Maruo sees the gang instantly ceasing their hostility after a member orders them to settle down, which gives Maruo confirmation that the member is Kotton. He then steps in front of Urara to shield her from Kotton threatening to run over her with his bike, which stops near his face, and moves on to telling him his and Urara's intentions on defeating the Enma Syndicate, which angers Kotton as he interprets his statement as being disrespectful to the yakuza gang. After Urara reveals herself to be Kio's daughter to Kotton, Maruo sees him pledging his loyalty to her due to his respect for Kio. However, Maruo finds himself thrown aside by Kotton and is demanded by him to leave Urara's side, having found him and Ten to be worthless to Urara. Maruo states his refusal to listen to Kotton, resulting in him angering Kotton and Oboro having to calm him down. With Urara also refusing to listen to Kotton, Oboro suggests settling the matter between the Urara Family and the Todoroki Alliance by setting up a tag-team ritual duel, to which Maruo and Urara agree to.

Due to Urara being unable to last long in her yokai form, Maruo is paired up with Ten, who he tells that he does not plan to lose again. After the match begins, Kotton assumes his yokai form and delivers a blow to Maruo after charging at him with his super speed. Maruo manages to withstand the attack but is overwhelmed by Kotton's enhanced speed attacks from all directions and is left on the ground badly injured. Using her telepathy from his irezumi, Urara instructs Maruo to attack Kotton at either his head or heart-engine since these are the only weaknesses he has as a ittan-momen. After Kotton charges at him once more, Maruo manages to latch onto him by grabbing a piece of his loose cloth as he is running and strikes him from behind to target his heart-engine. However, he sees that his fist is caught in Kotton's cloth body, which leads to Kotton lecturing him on how he needed conviction in order to win against him in a ritual duel rather than brute strength alone. Kotton then ties Maruo's hands with his cloth and races up high to drop him to his death and claim his victory.

To stop himself from falling, Maruo slams his fist into the building in front of him and drops down on the platform beneath. He then hears from Urara that she has come up with a plan defeat Kotton but is interrupted after the ittan-momen rockets towards Maruo again, destroying the platform and having him fall down to the roof below. While trying to keep herself together after sharing Maruo's pain from falling, due to her telepathy, Urara explains to him that he would need to lure Kotton to the park fountain and have him soak in water in order to weigh him down since cloth becomes heavy once it absorbs liquid. As he makes his way to the fountain, Maruo questions Urara as to why she was making such a big risk in helping him win since, according to the terms of the bet, she will end up with the Todoroki Alliance as allies even if he were to lose, to which she answers that he was the only one she can count on since he does not obsess about Kio unlike the others in Kabukicho.

After arriving back at the park, Maruo tricks Kotton into chasing after him by taunting him and gets out of the way of his path to have him crash into the fountain as planned. However, after noticing what was up ahead, Kotton creates a cloth parachute to slow himself down right on time as he comes near the fountain. This then leads to Maruo having to come in from behind Kotton to destroy the fountain, causing an eruption. Seeing Kotton about to escape before getting a single droplet on him, Maruo grabs him by the leg and throws him through the fountain, successfully immobilizing and gaining a perfect opportunity to strike him down. However, Maruo stops mid-way to tell Kotton that the Urara Family has no intentions of taking down him and his gang but refuses to lose. Amused by his statement, Kotton happily declares his defeat. As he sees Urara coming his way feeling worried, Maruo falls unconscious but not before informing her of his victory and that he had fun in his fight.

Later, Maruo wakes up to find himself riding on the back of Oboro's motorcycle as the Todoroki Alliance head out on a drive with Urara and Ten, having officially allied with themselves with the Urara Family. While enjoying the ride, Maruo, Urara and Ten listen to Kotton explain the events concerning the Enma Syndicate two years ago. Having been informed that only Doppo knows as to why Kio appointed him as his successor, Maruo figures that they should confront him immediately, only for Kotton and Oboro to dismiss this idea after warning them how dangerous Kabukicho and the fact that the Urara Family need the support of Ayakashi ☆ B-Stars as well.

### Kori Hotel Arc

*Main article: Kori Hotel Arc*
Learning that Doppo is a hitorima, Maruo and Urara believe that they need to come up with a strategy to bypass his intangibility. To solve Maruo's problem with going about fighting Doppo the next time they meet, Kotton and Oboro introduces Maruo and Urara to Ozunu, a hanyo who can help teach Maruo how to use his prana. After having acupuncture needles inserted into his head to dull his senses, Maruo is instructed by Ozunu to pick out a few chestnuts from a fire pit before they completely roast by punching the fire itself, which will help to fix his flow of power. Maruo takes on the task, as well as receive training from the Todoroki Alliance, but finds himself having difficulty in completely it for the past ten days. Feeling too frustrated to continue, Maruo goes for a jog to calm himself down and figures that visualization is the key to succeeding in his training by focusing on his conviction on never losing again. After stopping, Maruo looks to see a burning building and rushes in after hearing a mother panic that her son was trapped inside. Hearing the boy's voice coming from inside a door, Maruo clenches his fist and manages to save the boy after successfully striking at the fire in his way. Having done so, Maruo also completes his training with Ozunu and is told by him that his suksma sarira is now in perfect shape.

With his suksma sarira approved by Ozunu, Maruo believes that he is ready to invent his ultimate technique. He and Oboro are then reunited with Kotton who orders Oboro to assemble the Todoroki Alliance for an emergency meeting. However, after being informed by Urara telepathically that she, Kotton, and Ten are being held captive at Kori Hotel, Maruo kicks the Kotton impersonator who reveals herself to be an employee of the Kori Hotel. After the Todoroki Alliance have her restrained, Maruo heads to the Kori Hotel with the biker gang to save Urara, Kotton, and Ten.

After arriving at the hotel, Maruo knocks out an employee out guard and informs Urara through her telepathy that he and the Todoroki Alliance have arrived. Maruo then become informed by her that they only have five hours until she, Ten, and Kotton become sealed away by exorcist, to which he promises that they will save them on time. Upon seeing a mother and daughter leaving the hotel and shocked to notice an employee on the ground, Maruo covers up his action by pretending to be an employee who finds his superior asleep, which manages to convince the mother and daughter as they make their leave. Seeing as how the human guests have no business with the conflict between the two sides, the Todoroki Alliance go off of Maruo's recommendation of fighting the Kori Hotel employees without making a scene. After Tamagawa makes his appearance to clear the lobby, Maruo is challenged by him to settle matters with a ritual duel. Upon agreeing to the match, Maruo becomes surprised to find Doppo appearing before him.

Maruo becomes warned by Urara that the Doppo in front of him is actually Tamagawa using a taboo tanuki technique called the Conceptual Transformation and witnesses the copier using Doppo's ability to unleash hitorima fire towards him. Maruo reacts on time to dodge them but is caught from behind by Tamagawa who plans to quickly put an end to the fight. Seeing as how he is basically fighting Doppo once again, Maruo happily thanks Tamagawa for the chance to test out his new power in preparation for his next match with the real Doppo. After Tamagawa releases another flame attack, Maruo uses his power to break through the flames with his fists and lands a hit on Tamagawa, much to his happiness to learn that his training with Ozunu paid off. Refusing to lose for the sake of Gyobu-Danuki, Tamagawa puts on Doppo's mask to enter the hitorima's yokai form, resulting in a complete berserker clone of Doppo being created. Maruo is then splashed and knocked unconscious with a release of Yobimizu by the clone, a black liquid that "extinguishes the light" of all living things.

As the Yobimizu starts to take its effects on him, Maruo has a dream where he is a manga artist working with his assistants. After hearing Urara's voice calling out to him to wake up and reminding himself that he is fighting for the sake of the Urara Family and the Todoroki Alliance, Maruo manages to regain consciousness to see Urara and his allies worrying about him. Informed by Kotton that the Doppo clone would be difficult to defeat due to transformation going out of control, Maruo thinks back to his training with Ozunu and believes that he can save Tamagawa by extracting him out of the clone the same way he practiced taking the chestnuts out of the fire barrel. Following Maruo's logic, both the Urara Family and the Todoroki Alliance take on the Doppo clone and manages to pin him down to allow Maruo to get close enough to use his ultimate attack. As he tries reaching for Doppo's spirit, the Doppo clone releases a burst of hitorima fire towards him to lose strength. With help from Urara, Maruo manages to grab Tamagawa's spirit and releases him from the transformation.

With the chaos over, Gyobu-Danuki makes his appearance to declare Maruo and his allies the victors and that he is willing to help them arrange a rematch against the real Doppo but warns them that it would be dangerous. After both Maruo and Urara state their reliance on each other at the same time, which leads to them to reacting with a smile, Maruo takes up Gyobu-Danuki's offer, telling him that they will be fine as long as they have their allies supporting them.

At an unknown point, Maruo and Urara manage to once again get their audience with Doppo Akari, along with the rest of the Enma Syndicate. As he utters the sacred words to the ritual duel, Maruo rushes in to strike Doppo.

## Abilities and Powers

As a Marebito, Maruo is a powerful human who is looked at by his race as being somewhat of a "monster" or a "human weapon". He is a highly capable combatant, having been able to defeat countless Ayashimon.

### Physical Abilities

A young Maruo splitting a boulder in half.Maruo effortlessly breaks a delinquent's collar bone.Maruo easily lifting a car above his head.
**Superhuman Strength**: After molding his body through extreme physical training at a very young age, Maruo managed to acquire an unbelievable level of superhuman strength that allows him to perform feats that can only be found within shonen manga. At the age of seven, Maruo was capable of splitting boulders with his small bare fists and could beat a grown man bloody. A feat that Maruo is known for was how he was able to single-handedly defeat a gang of delinquents and end up coming out unscathed. Another is how he is able to lift cars, which he showcased during his fight with the Uwan Family while being badly injured. With a punch that is put with more effort into it, Maruo is capable of decapitating his opponents and penetrating immensely strong material, such as Hashihime's harden wax body that she claims is stronger than steel.

Even without putting much effort into his hands, Maruo's immense strength allows him to damage almost anything he touches. After merely grabbing a delinquent's shoulder with no intentions behind it at all, Maruo accidently broke the young man's collarbone. With a single nonchalant punch, Maruo could send a Ayashimon (while in disguised) flying and leave them out of commission. This is a flaw Maruo finds to his superhuman power since he cannot control it, which prevents him from participating in any sporting activities, handling a simple job, and experience the fun that comes from fighting average opponents.

**Immense Durability**: In addition to possessing superhuman strength, Maruo also possesses immense durability. He is nigh-invulnerable to physical attacks from a human, as an average punch wouldn't be enough to bruise his body, let alone make him flinch. After taking a direct hit from one of the members of the Uwan Family that sent him crashing into a car, Maruo was able to stand back up while only suffering a minor head injury and found that the only serious damage done to his body was a cracked molar. He took the full impact of Hashihime's harder-than-steel wax punches without suffering any major injuries and came out of the battle unfazed by the bruises he received. Maruo's body has proven to be even more durable than a yokai's. After accidently creating a crater that caused both him and Amamehagi to fall, Maruo managed to survive being crushed by the huge amounts of rubble that fell on top of him as opposed to Amamehagi who died from the freak accident, a feat that not even he thought was possible.

**Immense Stamina & Endurance**: Maruo has a huge amount of stamina and vitality. He also possesses a very high tolerance to pain, being able to endure the most grievous injuries as if they were nothing. In fact, Maruo stated that he only finds pain exhilarating rather than a discomfort due to the many years he has been deprived of it since he was a child. He was able to endure fighting off every member of the Uwan Family and did not show any signs of fatigue after defeating them. Despite being knocked out for a few minutes by Hashihime, Maruo was able to quickly recover and lasted long enough to bring her down in their second round.

### Prana

**Conceptual Bypass**: By tapping into the power of his prana, Maruo is able to make contact with the suksma sarira of anything his fist lands an attack on, thereby destroying, or "denying", its concept. In other words, this power allows Maruo to hit anything that would otherwise be physically impossible to touch. So far, Maruo has mainly used this ability to punch fire itself, as his sole purpose for mastering this power is to defeat Doppo. During his time training with Ozunu, Maruo managed to save a child from a burning building by punching the flames keeping him trapped, which later allowed him to succeed in his training. In his battle with Tamagawa, where the tanuki used a forbidden shapeshifting technique to transform into Doppo, allowing him to use the hitorima's powers, Maruo was successful in breaking through a torrent of hitorima fire released at him, as well as land an attack on Tamagawa who had acquired Doppo's intangible body. Going off of his training with Ozunu, Maruo managed to save Tamagawa from going berserk as a Doppo clone by punching right through the concept of his body and extracting his spirit within.

### Fighting Style

**Hand-to-Hand Combat**: Maruo's primary style of combat in battle is short-range, as he mainly relies on his immense brute strength that comes from his fists. As part of his desire to take on the role of being a manga protagonist, Maruo chooses to make up names for his attacks or imitate a manga character's technique. However, all of these attacks simply consist of him using very powerful blows with little to no technique behind them. After his loss against Doppo, Maruo seems to have stopped fighting this way.

#### Techniques

* **My Version!! Kamehameha!!** (俺 (おれ) 流 (りゅう) !! かめはめ波 (は) !!, *Oreryū!! Kamehameha!!*?): A Dragon Ball-inspired attack where Maruo imitates the pose of Goku's trademark Kamehameha and follows up with an uppercut that is strong enough to decapitate his opponent's head.
* **Super Smart Attack** (頭 (あたま) 使 (かっ) っだうら, *Atama Tsukadda Ura*?): An attack where Maruo takes up a firm stance and throws a powerful fast punch to counter an oncoming attack.
* **Ultimate Final Conquering Destructo Heavenly True…** (究極奥儀覇王滅殺天将ほん…, *Kyūkyoku Okugi Haō Messatsu Ten Shō Hon…*?): While charging towards his opponent, Maruo throws a powerful straight foward punch that is capable of obliterating their upper body. Maruo first used this attack against Nyudo in order to defeat him. According to Maruo, he spent years since childhood coming up with a name for this technique, however, it is unknown as to what the full name is since it is too long for Maruo to call out before his opponent is defeated.

## Trivia

* Maruo's surname "Kaido" means "sea" (海, kai) and "temple, shrine" (堂, dō)
* Maruo's superhuman strength acquired through extreme physical training, hair type, and situation where his overwhelming strength prevents him from getting a thrill out of fighting is similar to Saitama, the main protagonist of the *One-Punch Man* series.
* List of manga Maruo is familiar with:
	+ Kinnikuman
	+ Ultraman
	+ Fist of the North Star
	+ Dragon Ball
	+ JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
	+ GeGeGe no Kitarō
	+ Baki the Grappler
	+ Mon Mon Mon!

## References

*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (pp. 23, 38).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 39-40).
3. ↑ *Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 42-43).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 48-49).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 2 (p. 18-19).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 9).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 14-15).
*Ayashimon* Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 8-9).

## Navigation

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