Yaichi

弥一

The charismatic leader of the "Five Leaves." A mysterious figure, he dislikes talking about his own past and lives in a local brothel, where he protects and flirts with the women working there. Distinguishable by his light-colored hair and tanned skin, he is often seen smoking a pipe. At the beginning of the series, he is calm and carefree, seemingly living life to the fullest and intent on living only in the present, as he tells Masanosuke. He even does Masanosuke a favor by recruiting him into the Five Leaves gang at a time when he is at his weakest socially (because he is very shy) and financially. His initial reason for befriending the samurai was that he found him so naive, but over the course of the series, Yaichi has a sort of falling out with him because Masanosuke was "annoying." Yaichi eventually becomes the subject of Masanosuke's personal investigation into his past, something Yaichi has long repressed.

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