Asahi Azayaka

## Portrayal

**Asahi Azayaka** is a major supporting character in Demon Slayer: Blade of the Night. He is a friend of Soichi Kurayame, and is the creator and sole user of the Light Breathing.

## **Appearance:**

Asahi is a tall boy with long, silky, light blonde hair, which he keeps styled in a long ponytail, ending just above his hips. Asahi often carries himself with a bright smile, and has flawless features.

Asahi wears a traditional Demon Slayer uniform, alongside a white haori with golden metallic edges at the sleeves and chest. These are not made with real gold

## **Personality:**

Asahi is a loud, proud and obnoxious boy, being generally seen as annoying by those around him. Asahi is often verbally berated by his friends due to this attitude, but he doesn't seem to mind.

He is quick to claim his greatness, and his bright future, with an irritating amount of pomposity, a thing he does so often that the only person that truly tolerates it is Soichi Kurayame himself. This attitude of his tends to get him in fights, seen with Ryo, Taro and Kanjuro.

Asahi has displayed that, despite his arrogance, he isn't above strategizing, and he can back up some of his bragging. This makes his overall demeanor all the more puzzling, as he doesn't seem to be truly arrogant, and rather pretends to be.

Another implication of this fake arrogance is his respect for those that beat him, such as Soichi, and more subtly so, Kanjuro, as Asahi was worried enough to speak out onto the latter's status while he was fainted due to the Mark's first activation. Another display of it was his drive to get Soichi to awaken the Mark so that he too would receive it, implying he sees achieving more power as a desirable goal.

Asahi has displayed this implicit meaning behind his bragging during his downtime after the fight against an unknown demon with illusory abilities. What exactly he saw in his visions is currently unknown, but it affected him so deeply that only Kin's words were able to pull him out. It is also currently unknown what about them forced this change of mind.

## **Synopsis:**

Nothing is known about Asahi's backstory, other that he became a friend of Soichi's before his initial introduction, and was said to be undefeated prior to the latter. Due to Soichi's lack of corrections, it can be inferred Asahi is telling the truth.

## **Abilities:**

**Superhuman Strength:** Asahi, as Soichi's rival, and a competent slayer, is quite physically powerful. However, most of Asahi's strength does come mostly from momentum, and he currently has no raw strength feats.

**Immense Speed:** Asahi is incredibly, amazingly fast. His current top speed is being capable of breaking the sound barrier with a dash, which might be a menial feat for a Tsuguko and anything above, but considering Asahi is still an unranked slayer that created his own Breathing Style, this achievement at such an early age with a lack of proper instruction cannot be overlooked.

**Superhuman Durability:** Asahi was able to withstand the damage of breaking the sound barrier head-on, without any sort of technique to dissipate the punch the feat packed, and instead, withstood the hit, all the while continuing to fight without a break.

**Tactical Intellect:** Asahi, as displayed during his fight with Kabe, is able to form competent strategies to deal with his opponent, seen when he attempted to deceive Kabe by getting the demon to underestimate him, slowly destroying his crystal barrier while pretending to be missing, and when the opening was formed, he'd strike, or when he used the ground and the top of the crystal dome to create momentum to destroy his prison.

**Total Concentration Breathing:** Asahi, despite creating his own Breathing Style, is displayed to have already mastered Total Concentration Breathing at an early age, and having very little basis to do so, unlike Obanai Iguro who could base his style on his serpent Kaburamaru, or Inosuke, who based it off of the beasts in the forest. Asahi created it from the ground up, and mastered it in very little time with no assistance.

**Demon Slayer Mark:** Asahi has unlocked his Demon Slayer Mark, composed of two star-like shapes in his pupils. It is currently unknown why his Mark is shaped and placed so oddly, as no other Mark like it exists. It appears to offer no additional effects from any other Mark. It is implied that Asahi had already awakened the Mark prior to his fight against Kabe

## **Fighting Style:**

**Skilled Swordsman:** Asahi is highly adept at swordsmanship, being undefeated by his peers until he met Soichi Kurayame. He has displayed enough skill to create eight unique techniques for a completely unique Breathing Style

### **Breathing Style:**

**Light Breathing** *(Hikari no Kokyu)*: A Breathing Style derived from the Thunder Breathing which was created and is currently solely used by Asahi Azayaka. This Style mostly centers around the swiftness and silent movements of light, putting an extremely heavy emphasis on speed.

#### **Technique**

* **First Form: Flashing Slash** *(Ichi no Kata: Shunji Giri)* - The user dashes towards the target, entirely silent and unbelievably fast. The attack will aim for a decapitation then and there.

* **Second Form: Blinding Glory** *(Ni no Kata: Memokuramu Eiko)* - The user twists their body while jumping downwards, slashing at the target’s head or neck. This attack can be a mercy kill, should the opponent provide easy access to their neck for easy decapitation

* **Third Form: Focus Point** *(San no Kata: Shuchu Ten)* - The user will jab at extreme speeds, often destroying the ground below them, the sheer force of the jab can tear off the opponent’s head. This attack must be performed to perfection, considering the user is exposing all their weak points by attacking

* **Fourth Form: Will O’ The Wisp** *(Shi no Kata: Onibi)* - The user will barely dodge incoming attacks, generating after-images and confusing the target, the attack culminating in a concentrated slash to the neck

* **Fifth Form: Dark State** *(Go no Kata: Kurai Shu)* - The user seemingly dissipates, moving as quickly as possible to the opponent’s blind spot. And once a defence is lifted, the user will slash the opponent’s neck out of seemingly nowhere

* **Sixth Form: Visual Static** *(Roku no Kata: Kashi Seiteki)* - The user continuously blocks incoming attacks with spinning sword movements. The movement is meant to distract the opponent’s attention while blocking attacks

* **Seventh Form: Alpenglow** *(Shichi no Kata: Arupenguro)* - The user dashes up, reaching a ceiling or some sort of roofing, and then jumps back down towards the enemy at incredible speeds, slashing at them and causing immense instantaneous damage

* **Eighth Form: Aurora Borealis** *(Hachi no Kata: Orora)* - The user will perform countless, continuous slashes while changing their footwork and ground, slashing wherever there are opponents, and either keeping continuous pressure on a single opponent, or dealing with many enemies at once

## **Equipment:**

**Standard Nichirin Sword:** Asahi carries around a standard Nichirin Katana, which is colored a light gold, due to the color coming from a mastery of the Light Breathing. Asahi's handguard is shaped like an X, with smooth indentations and a gold outline. Its insides are light tan.

## **Familiars:**

**Raito:** Asahi's crow Raito is just as boastful as its master, and it enjoys announcing Asahi's arrival wherever he goes. The problem is that Asahi is nowhere near famous enough for his name to be even mildly recognizable.

## **Battles:**

* Asahi vs Kanjuro (Sparring)
* Asahi and Kin vs Kabe

## **Trivia:**

* Asahi's name carries a plentitude of meanings, ranging from "Positive/Clarity/Serenity/Light/Great/Brilliance/Radiance/Rising/Brightness", but the one meaning this name carries, no matter the form of writing, is "Rising Sun". It also happens to be the only character that Asahi's name is composed of, meaning that all those other adjectives come from other spellings of his name. [Azayaka], however, means "Brilliant/Vivid/Clear", and it is often used to refer to someone's future.
* Asahi is very handsome, and his claims of his beautiful appearance are not incorrect. It must not be understated, however, that girls are immediately put off by his insufferable personality.
* Asahi has no favorite food, as he claims that he must eat everything edible in the world to form an opinion, and whatever is picked as his favorite, will by definition become objectively the best food in the world.
* Asahi does not believe he is a divinity, but he does claim he is the closest thing to one.
* Asahi's loss to Kanjuro was a reality shock, as it was the first time he ever insulted and bossed someone around and did not get away with it, as his loss against Soichi was quite amicable, and despite being surprised by the event, he didn't feel quite as shaken as in that case.
* During their first meeting, Iwajima and Asahi almost fought. At that point in time, Asahi would have won, but not by a large margin.