Ango Higuchi

### Quote

"I'm sorry to tell you... but if you think about coming any closer... Callisto will run you through the wringer. Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it, weakling."

## Debut

### First Apperance

Ango Higuchi *(安居火口, Higuchi Ango*) is one of the Four Horsemen of Callisto. He was once a great spider King before Grim offered him a position as a member of the Horsemen. Due to a Horsemen's sudden disappearance, he is the replacement and only human amongst the Horsemen. He holds the title as **"Ruler of War"** (*軍旅*, Gunryo).

## Appearance

Higuchi is a slender and tall pale-skinned man with messy, shoulder-length black hair that partially hangs in front of his face and often half-opened black eyes. He is usually recognized for his worn-out appearance, often appearing as if he just rolled out of bed. His facial hair remains unkempt and his eyes almost always looked tired and flat.

Higuchi sports a ragged black outfit that consists of a long-sleeved shirt and matching pants that tuck into his boots. He also wears a utility belt and his signature scarf at all times. He hides a pair of yellow goggles underneath his scarf for when he needs to use them in battle. He wears his traditional robes when he's lounging around Callisto.

Higuchi has a deep scar underneath his right eye due to an encounter with Zooey.

## Personality

Higuchi is a very stern and mostly reserved man who has lofty expectations of his companions. He is primarily moved by logic and does not believe in the necessity to maintain a clean-cut appearance or filter his words or ideas for others. He often comes off as cold, apathetic, and impatient and exhorts very little energy in most situations, preferring to take naps in his sleeping bag instead.

As a previous King of high expectations, Higuchi is known to kill those who he feels are not suited for Callisto. It is noteworthy that he has not killed or attempted to hurt any of the Roses yet despite being well known for doing so. He can be rigid and strict when necessary, and also has little tolerance for disobedient behavior. Higuchi is not afraid of putting his friends through rigorous training and often pushes the more unpleasant parts of Heroism so that his friends can overcome their limits.

Despite his apathetic traits, Higuchi genuinely cares about those around him and will go to great lengths to protect them as he saved Elise Goody from a Commandment, in spite of his grievous injuries. He has also expressed belief in his friends on multiple occasions and is confident that even the likes of V would not be allowed herself to be taken by a Commandment.

Higuchi has shown on several occasions that he is not completely devoid of joy or humor. Despite his personality, he often grins whenever he is impressed by someone around him or after he tricks them with one of his rational deceptions.

## Relationships

### Grim

Grim was like a father figure to him, and still, now he wishes her to be happy in Callisto - saving him from a lonely dark kingdom after the war. He thinks of Grim to be very childish, but he still regards her in the highest regard. Getting very angry whenever someone calls or degrees Grim in front of him. He is very close to Grim and follows her orders without a doubt.

### Shizuka Etou & Elise

Shizuka often picks fights with Higuchi, he dreams one day of Shizuka bowing down to him and apologizing. Higuchi implies to Shizuka that he should marry V already as he pushes the magician closer towards Ikuto with a blank expression.
The two often teasing one another and picking a fight within the palace walls. Higuchi gets along with them, but cannot stand when they constantly fight over what's better, sword or magic. He also mentions to Kida that the two were lost after his death and would have been jubilant to find out he's alive.

### V

The two seem close and trust each other fully. They also work together well when fighting alongside each other. V was the person who taught Higuchi more about humanity.

### Fynn & Kida

Higuchi seems to have a soft spot for both Kida & Fynn, seen when he tries to keep Kida happy when he brings up Ikuto, and when he covered his eyes during Grim's supposedly evil deed towards the young girl (though it was mostly because he didn't want Fynn to see what they thought had happened).
When Kida revealed himself as the Seiheiki to Grim, Higuchi was the first to object about having Kida help them stop Erebus - seeing a little weak human girl like her. It can also be hinted that Kida would refer to him as Big Bro.

### Ikuto Mikazuki

Higuchi and Ikuto often butt heads. Seeing how Ikuto is just a rotten brat in his eyes.

## Abilities

### **Master Magician**

As a previous magical King, Higuchi is capable of performing and utilizing Magic. Unlike most Mages, he does not specialize in direct attack spells and instead, his magic is generally used to attack an opponent from within (psychologically).

* Higuchi's Reiastu is considered very immense for someone as old as he is. It has once increased to the point where it was unrecognizable to Grim but great enough that it prompted her to evacuate everyone out of the Callisto Hall, despite the presence of many powerful Mages.
* As a former King and head of one of the Five Noble Houses, Higuchi possesses a considerable amount of spiritual energy, but he used to have a greater amount of it before losing his powers. Zero and Tsubasa are able to sense its strong presence from miles away. Fynn was stunned by the level of Higuchi's power when he watched Higuchi killed a Grand Hollow with one swing of his sealed Sacred Treasure.
* V has described if he is serious, his magic is the greatest amongst them.

### **Genius Intellect**

* Higuchi has shown himself to be highly manipulative and deceptive. He comes out unscathed due to the calm confusion he plays at, which is a testament to his overall strategy.
* In his battle with Eden, Higuchi was able to manipulate the positions of three people so Eden would have to choose between saving his own life or Henry's without any visible effort.
* He is capable of simple deception by having his opponent focus on one thing while hiding the true threat.
* **Psychological Warfare**: Higuchi is a master at toying with his opponent's mind and weakening their resolve.
* Higuchi had been seen to have a keen observation and evaluation skills. He can easily evaluate his peer's personalities and their mental state.

### **Hand-to-Hand Combat**

* Without truly using his full Magic, Higuchi relies on his hand to hand skills and is shown to be an expert in close quarters combat. He uses his combat skills successively with his capturing weapon and is very strong, as well as quick. He effectively held his own while surrounded and outnumbered dozens to one, evading multiple attacks from Hollows of various sizes before restraining them and sending them flying with calculated counter attacks.

### **Master Swordsman**

* Despite being rusty, Higuchi still possesses great skill in swordsmanship, allowing him to effortlessly slice through a grand Hollow's body and his Scared Treasure with a single swing of his sealed sword.

* + While fighting against a Sin, Higuchi used *kendō*, which he performed very proficiently, breaking concrete into pieces with a single strike.
* **Agitowari** (顎割, *Jaw Splitting*): A single sword attack which cuts an opponent in half from the jaw down the length of the body until the target is bisected.

### **Expert Healer**

* Higuchi is a skilled healer and doctor, as he noted that during his education from his long life and previous affiliation of being a King, medicine was the only lecture he paid attention to from Grim. Higuchi can handle anything short of major surgeries.

### **Immense Reiastu**

* As one of the oldest Horsemen, Higuchi has tremendous spiritual power. He, alongside V, are said to possess Reiatsu unmatched by their peers or predecessors. He is not overwhelmed by the Reiatsu of Grim, though most people would be in such a situation. His power is further displayed in his ability to defeat a Sin without using his full magic.

### **Enhanced Durability**

* Even without his full Kingly powers, Higuchi can take severe physical punishment (e.g. fighting with Shizuka and being kicked by Ikuto). Higuchi has proven that he is very durable, even by Mage standards.
* He was able to endure the attacks of Grim, whose Sacred Treasure is the most devastating in all of Callisto in terms of destructive power. He was also able to withstand a Cero at point-blank range from a Sin in his released form without any noticeable injuries.

### **Master Strategist & Tactician**

* Despite his laid-back attitude, Higuchi has repeatedly shown himself to be a perceptive and insightful man. According to Yamamoto, even when he was younger, Shunsui has always had an eye for seeing the true character of anyone he meets.[165] Shunsui easily saw through Kurotsuchi's attempt to hide being used by the Bounts. He was also one of the few people to suspect that Aizen was hiding something.[158] In battle, Shunsui has proven to be very adept at noticing and understanding details in an opponent's skills or attack patterns. During his battle against Chad, he quickly determined the basics behind Chad's Reiryoku blasts, warning him about those kinds of techniques, and even explaining that his energy blasts would eventually use up his life energy.[166] Shunsui has also proven himself very persuasive. Shortly after becoming Captain-Commander, he was able to convince Central 46 to agree to all his new requests.

### **Immense Agility**

* Higuchi possesses incredible speed. He was capable of moving from the floor of a warehouse to the ceiling in seconds, despite carrying someone with him. He was also capable of tying up multiple people in her silk before they even had time to react. He's even fast enough to dodge any kind of attack with ease.

### **Temperature Sensitivity**

* Due to his Arthropod nature, Higuchi is very sensitive to both high and low temperatures. Higher heat or cold that beings like humans or the like would still be comfortable with would already be too extreme for Higuchi. Due to this, he cannot tolerate hot baths or snow very well.
* While it's unknown if he's cold-blooded, he will enter hibernation if the surrounding temperature is too low.
* Grim will often tease him with snowballs because he cannot tolerate them.

## Kumo (蜘蛛, Spider; "Spinning Spider")

* Due to his previous position as the King of Arachne's and a former head of the Five Noble Men, Higuchi welds a sort of Magic involving the creation of Magic Lifeform spiders from his body, allowing him to see and hear through the spiders to function as spy devices.

* These spiders also compose the majority of his body.

* He can break his own body down into tiny pieces of spiders and use such capability to escape from danger.
* Rachnera is able to use her threads to manipulate a person's movements to an extent. With a few small, invisible threads she was able to nimbly move Luz through the air in a way that gave of the illusion the Kitsune was actually flying

### **Thread (糸, Ito)**

* A Magic which creates magically-enchanted web presumably from Higuchi's soul and can be inserted into objects like that of the Oldest Golem. In turn, this thread can infect a victim and cause instant paralysis which takes several days to dissipate, even for magic carriers.
* Higuchi is capable of spinning very fine silk webs. The silk is said to be stronger than steel. It was capable of lifting Elise's Beasts, and several thin, invisible strands were able to support Alexanders's full weight.
* The silk Higuchi produces has a wide variety of applications. Aside from using it to tie people up, Higuchi can detect its vibrations to listen in on conversations and use it to make his own clothes. It is apparently also very valuable, as the director was capable of making money off of it.