Risu (栗鼠) is a Magic-User who was introduced by the discovery of his severed head. He possesses rare “Curse” magic. He is also Aikawa’s close friend.
Appearance[]
Anime color scheme
Risu is tall and has a muscular build similar to Kaiman. Inhabitants of the Hole assumed he was Kaiman with his restored human face. His hair is dark-tipped and sometimes sticks up in spikes, but through most of the story it lays flat. He wears a single piece grey suit with no sleeves, later seen sleeved with a thick collar. Large, nail-shaped stakes are attached to his chest, arms, and legs.
Personality[]
Tends to play dumb and harmless near dangerous people until they let their guard down. While cunning and hotheaded, he's prone to outbursts of violence and has low self-esteem issues along with worrying frequently. Risu is always cautious due to his harsh childhood, making him a lonely person with difficulties building relationships. Aikawa was the only person in the world he trusted.
When he opens up a bit to Nikaido and Asu, he becomes a bit more melancholic, but at the same time more stable... except when Kai is involved.
History[]
Past (Childhood)[]
Born with the inability to produce smoke, Risu was labeled as a useless person and thus was subjected to abuse and rejection all his life, (because his magic is a Curse-type, only triggering with his death). He joined the Cross-Eyes to gain power and respect because he believed the organization was born to oppose the elite Magic Users and bring hope to those unable to do magic.
Past[]
After joining the Cross-Eyes, Risu was assigned an officer and started killing Magic Users and bringing their bodies to vans with the cross-eye symbol. In turn, they are sent to The Boss to make Black Powder (No one knew the purpose, believing the corpses were used merely for research in how low-rank Magic Users like them could produce smoke). Finally able to have money, an apartment, and recognition for his work, Risu decided to go to school, so he could learn how to use magic and have a proper life.
There he met Aikawa, pairing up with him to get rid of a Teacher who scammed and hurt students to have easy money, leaving the body in one of the Cross-eyes Vans. From that point forward, Risu and Aikawa became best friends, living and caring for one another. Until the day Risu discovered his own magic type. Eager to tell Aikawa about it, the "Entity" inside Aikawa knew Risu's magic would be useful, so Risu was sent on a mission that turned out to be a setup. He was killed by The Cross-Eyes Boss, triggering his magic and creating Curse in the process. The Boss took Risu's head and gave it to Dokuga to guard it until his return, so the cross-eye put it in a box and left it inside an apartment for over a year.
Present[]
Risu's Rotten Head
His head was found by the En Family, during an expedition ordered by En to discover the secrets behind Kaiman's identity, they stumbled across the apartment where Dokuga left the head, using a magic doll made by Turkey in resemblance of Risu. After a brief quarrel, when the doll went berserk after Fujita found the box, the doll was destroyed, and the head was put in Ebisu's bag (making the little sorceress freak out).
Risu's Mechanical Body
At En's Mansion, the head was resurrected with Kikurage's magic and placed in a smoke-powered robotic body. Risu was interrogated about "The lizard head guy", not knowing what they were talking about, Risu played as an innocent and scared nobody with vague recollections as a Cross-Eye. Nikaido tried to kidnap him thinking he was the link between Kaiman and "his past", the plan failed, and Nikaido retaliated against En. She smashes his face, which made the Boss go crazy and release a considerable amount of smoke that almost consumed everyone there. Risu was spared from the horrible fate thanks to his mechanical body, already working with En's smoke, rendering him invulnerable to it and was able to escape from the En Family during the commotion.
Heading towards his old apartment, he found it not only abandoned and dusty but his cactus dead and his food rotten. With this, he understood he was killed a long time ago and started to figure out what happened to him. He finally remembered his last moments and recognized his killer as a Cross-Eyes member. He then freaked out when he discovered the smoke charge in his back, halfway empty. Knowing his body would stop any moment, he quickly knew he would need help.
During the celebration of the Blue Night Festival, he sneaked inside the mansion once again in hopes of finding his old partner, believing he'd find him there. After a series of timely incidents, his body was regenerated by Noi's magic. With his body back, Risu headed to the Cross-Eyes Hideout, looking for answers about who or why he was killed in the city of Berith.
There he met Dokuga, Saji, Ton, Tetsujo and Ushishimada, the top officers of the organization whom were living in extremely poor conditions. Risu was unable to get any clues about his murder. Then he got captured by them when he tried to fight with Dokuga while looking for information (they believe he was just a thief). In the struggle, Risu accidentally killed the Landlady, giving the cross-eyes the rights of their house, but making them carry the dead body to the Landlady mansion.
He remained captive until Curse was released from Kaiman's body and bonded with him, becoming possessed by his own magic. Curse flew away from the hideout after severely wounding Tetsujo and Ton.
Risu merged with Curse
Wandering through the city, Curse sensed the man who killed him and flew directly to him. Curse almost killed him before he was interrupted by Professor Kasukabe and Haru who started to sing just for the hell of it. The only weakness of curse-type magic is the song of a Devil, which scared Curse, making him the old apartment, where he lived for over a month until Aikawa found him.
After he calmed down, Risu was able to regain control over his body, now knowing that Curse can be triggered by sensing a killing intent towards him. Trying to live as he used to in the past, he went to school again with Aikawa but tailing him in distrust.
Risu confronted Aikawa about how he didn't know anything about him, not even his magic. He knew he hadn't told anyone of his own magic except him. Risu believed Aikawa told someone about his magic and was killed because of it. Not having a proper answer from his friend, he became enraged, activating Curse and storming out on him.
He flew once again to the Cross-Eyes to get revenge for the way they mistreated him and to look for answers. The curse was repelled and subdued by Natsuki's magic and almost captured again, but was saved in the last minute by Aikawa, Nikaido and Asu, the previous two brought him along with them. They lived in Asu's House as a petition from his former friend, knowing that he could not accompany them thanks to the other persona residing inside him, Aikawa left Risu in Nikaido's care.
In Asu's mansion, Risu was often teased by him for being poor, useless and unable to produce smoke (Asu actually tried to be kind to him, but his devil nature made everything hard). However, this changes when the house gets destroyed by Nikaido's magic explosion, to create her time machine-like magic box and headed towards Hole.
The moment they arrived, Risu was annoyed by the inhabitants of Hole, thinking he was Kaiman, and living in the Hungry Bug along with Asu and Nikaido. There, she used his magic once more by traveling with him 2 years in the past to finally know the identity of the Cross-Eyes Boss, revealing the connection between Aikawa/Kai and Kaiman. The shocking revelation triggered Curse's transformation, Risu remained in that state all night after they came back to the present, now determined to kill "Aikawa" and end his curse once and for all.
He accompanied Nikaido to sell Gyozas at the central department store, where he was trapped along the rest of the humans in there (now turned into zombies), the En Family, and the Cross-Eyes. Feeling the killing intent inside the building, Risu transformed into Curse but was trapped by Artificial Devil Kai tubes. With Curse dispelled after regaining control over his body, Risu freed himself and headed towards the resurrected Kaiman, now possessed by Ai's spirit. They tagged along and listened to Ai's story of how everything turned like this. Ai apologized for failing Risu as a friend. They then headed towards the final battle against Hole.
Once they arrived at the room where the En's mushroom clones finally killed Devil Kai, Ai sliced the morbid head of Devil Kai. But a new one appeared, Ai's own rotten disfigured head. Realizing that Hole could not be killed if he was still alive, his spirit abandoned Kaiman's body and possessed his old head, growing from Kai's corpse, telling Risu that he has to kill him to finish with everything. Hesitant about the idea of killing his only friend, Ai/Aikawa told him that if he has to die, he would prefer to die at his hands, after a sad goodbye between them, Risu sliced Ai's head off from the neck of Devil Kai. Chapter 146
Trivia[]
- Jealous of elite magic users.
- Questions/doubts the Cross-eyes.
- Often thinks about Aikawa.
- Worries about rent, tuition, and other living expenses.
- Risu's name (栗鼠) means Squirrel in Japanese, it combines the kanji Kuri (栗) meaning chestnut and Nezumi (鼠) meaning mouse
- Uses cone like knives, two of them, unknown what the purpose of this is though.