Mahiru Hīragi

Mahiru Hīragi 「柊 真昼, Hīragi Mahiru」 is the love interest and demon weapon of Guren Ichinose. She is also the main female character and plays an important role in the Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen light novel series.

Mahiru was the next successor of the Hīragi Family. She stole Krul's brother Asura from her and used him as her own demon weapon. She would eventually turn herself into a demon and was sealed within Guren's weapon, becoming a Cursed Gear called Mahiru-no-Yo.

Appearance
Mahiru has long blueish-gray hair with fringe and amber eyes; after becoming a vampire, she has red eyes and fangs. Unlike her younger sister, Shinoa Hīragi, she has a taller, well-developed figure.
 * Anime: Her hair has more of a lavender color.

She is usually seen with the First Shibuya High school uniform, a sailor fuku which consists of a blouse with red trim around the collar with a grayish blue sailor-style collar which also has red trim and a similarly colored skirt with a belt. The red uniform ribbon which is thinner than normal sailor fuku, is attached to the bottom right end of the collar. The school's emblem is located on the right breast. She wears thigh length grayish blue stockings and dark blue dress shoes along with it.

Personality
According to Shinoa, she has no qualms about betraying family. The fact that she became a possession-type demon suggests she is particularly violent.

In the Catastrophe light novel, Mahiru is shown to be extremely merciless towards those she considers an obstacle in her path. She is seen knocking out Guren's squad and attempting to choke Shinya during their first mission to investigate - and then exterminate, a Horsemen. She forced Guren to get possessed by a demon so he could join her and rule the world.

However, she is seen to truly care for Guren, crying when Guren cuts off his own arm to stop the demon from taking over and frantically trying to reattach that broken arm. She explains that she had given up on everything; betraying her family and the Hyakuya Church just so she could be with Guren. In the prologue of Volume 3, she said to Shinya that sometimes she wishes that she was just an ordinary girl, and not the heiress of the Hīragi family.

Despite her being ruthless and quite merciless to those get in her way, she did care a lot for Guren and Shinoa deeply when she was a human.

History
Mahiru along with her younger sister, Shinoa, were conceived through artificial insemination using the seed of Tenri Hīragi in a demon-possessed woman.

Mahiru was in love with Guren since they were children; but Guren was not welcomed by her family, so they were forcefully separated at a very young age.

When he was ten years old, Shinya had been selected by the Hīragi family to be the potential mate for Mahiru, and he was adopted into their family to this end. This was a plan by the Hīragi to keep their bloodline strong. However, when Shinya and Mahiru first met she told him she wouldn't fall in love with him as she already had someone. Had she openly stated to her family she didn't want Shinya, they would have disposed of him; and she wasn't allowed to be with Guren, whom she loved. For these reasons, they both agreed Shinya would be her cover-up fiancé until she could be with the person she loved.

Growing up, she saw visions of the future and even prophesied the end of the world on Christmas Day 2012 as God's punishment against human ambition for meddling with the taboo. The trumpets of the Apocalypse would sound, and the Seraph would descend.

Later on, her research on demons eventually turned her into one until Guren killed her. She became the demon within his Cursed Gear and part of the Black Demon Series.

Volume 1
The English omnibus with volumes 1 and 2 comes out January 26th! Be sure to buy them!

Volume 2
The English omnibus with volumes 1 and 2 comes out January 26th! Be sure to buy them!

Volume 3
In the prologue, Mahiru meets her victorious fiancé candidate, Shinya Hiragi, for the first time. She informs him that she will never love him because she already loves Guren, but he will have a fake relationship with her in order to protect Guren. However, Shinya says he does not plan to lose to Guren. They fight briefly, and Mahiru tricks him with an illusion before putting an exploding tag onto his back.

In the present day, Kureto pretends to torture Shinoa while interrogating Guren. Mahiru sends Kureto a message telling him to do as he pleases, and tears briefly form in Shinoa’s eyes. Kureto sends the IP address to Guren, and Guren sends a message to Mahiru. Mahiru calls Guren, and Guren puts the phone on speaker. Guren, Shinoa, and Kureto all speak to her. Shinoa says everything went as Mahiru predicted. Mahiru twists the conversation and repeatedly states that all of the events occurring since the first Catastrophe volume are his doing. She reveals the special ops he sent after her just now are already dead. A student rushes in and reveals that this entire conversation was just broadcasted over the whole school. After Kureto releases Guren and Shinoa, Mahiru calls him again. She says she only wants to hear his voice and says the demon was in control before. They establish a rendezvous at 5:30 p.m. in apartment 501 located fifteen minutes from Ikejiri-Ohashi Station.

Guren reads about the demon experiments ongoing in Mahiru and Shinoa. The research notes reveal Mahiru and Shinoa’s origin and how the demon’s will drastically increased when Mahiru hit puberty. To prevent Shinoa from suffering the same fate, Mahiru joined the Hyakuya Sect and used herself as a test subject.

Mahiru does not arrive until 7 p.m.

Although she tells Guren he cannot save her, he insists he can, and they have sex that evening. She tells Guren that he wants to protect his own comrades rather than her. Mahiru reveals she now has both her demon and Shinoa’s demon inside her body, which has sped up the rate of her degeneration. She shared part of the demon with Guren before in order to remove all of the demon from Shinoa, so he will eventually become a demon as well. When he asks to fight by her side, she tells him there is not enough time and reveals the Apocalypse occurring that Christmas.

The vampire who chased Guren and Shinya the previous night enters through the balcony and greets Mahiru, but Mahiru calls upon Asuramaru and quickly kills her.

Mahiru reveals she fabricated information to set the Hiragi House and Hyakuya Sect against each other. Guren says he refuses to let her give up her humanity. Mahiru jumps out the window.

When Guren learns that the Hyakuya Sect is attacking the school and leaves shortly afterward, he comes across a running motorcycle and a demonic sword waiting for him in an alley that were presumably left behind for him by Mahiru.

Volume 4
Mahiru has an illusion over the whole school and is responsible for instigating the conflict between the Hiragi and the Hyakuya Sect.

Mito, Shinya, and Goshi play video games at Guren’s apartment until Mahiru shows up. Guren attacks her, and they fall from the twenty-fifth floor. Mahiru stops her fall by using her sword. Guren is badly injured but recovers.

Volume 5
Mahiru visits Yuichiro Hyakuya, who is being experimented on and abused by the Hyakuya Sect. She asks him about his reason to live and if he has no right to live if he is a demon. Yu does not know how to answer. Since his mind has not broken from his experiences, she tells him he will find an answer one day. A researcher says he will erase all memory of this conversation from Yu’s mind. She asks about receiving one of the Hyakuya orphans to experiment on with cursed gear.

Kureto calls Mahiru and tells her in explicit detail about how he will torture Guren, but she only laughs and says she is going to Kyoto.

Mahiru visits one of the Hyakuya Orphanages with the pseudonym Miyuki Yamada. She chats with Akane Hyakuya and realizes she has a crush on Mikaela Hyakuya, one of the subjects with a body well-suited to experimentation. She “adopts” a child named Juni before taking him to a van on the opposite side of the street, killing the driver, and knocking Juni unconscious. She enters the freeway but is attacked by vampires. She fights them, but they cause a large car pile-up. The vampires capture Mahiru and take her to Kyoto.

Mahiru is tied to a cross deep within Sanguinem and is being tortured. Krul Tepes asks her if she is ready to talk and reveals the date is already December 20th. Mahiru summons Shikama Doji and breaks free. Krul asks Mahiru about Asura Tepes, but Mahiru only laughs.

Volume 6
The prologue shows Guren and Mahiru’s first meeting when they were five years old. Guren is training late and night and jumps into a river to cool off. Mahiru appears and claims to be a forest fairy, but Guren points out that they are in the mountains. She reveals that the Ichinose are the reason her mother died.

On December 2nd, Mahiru leaves Sanguinem as a vampire sired by Krul. Saito gives her a ring to protect her from sunlight, but she attacks him with Shikama Doji. Mahiru knocks out a human woman and drinks her blood, noting that it tastes different depending on the age and sex of the human. The blood turns bad once the human dies. Mahiru returns to Tokyo.

On December 10th, Kureto sends in Guren and his gang to take care of students that have become possessed by demons at the school. Guren arrives first and knocks out one demon-possessed boy. Mahiru, now a vampire, appears and applauds Guren’s strength. She admits this was her doing and asks about the experimentation on Asuramaru. She says a human must be modified in order to use a Black Demon, but the current success rate is less than 20%. Guren says he wants to protect both her and his friends and asks that she surrender, so he can extract the demon from her. She throws down Shikama Doji and instructs him to give it to Shinoa in order to protect her. The rest of the group arrive and attack Mahiru, but she escapes.

Guren calls Mahiru and says he will betray the Hiragi and join her. She laughs.

Story: Vampire Reign
Although she is present as Lieutenant Colonel Guren Ichinose's weapon from the moment Guren appears in the manga, readers first see her human appearance at the beginning of chapter 17 within his mind. She wants him to seek more power. When he addresses her, she says she's glad that he came as she wanted to meet with him.

Post-Shinjuku Arc
In the following chapter, Guren reveals her form during a fight with Yu. After hearing Guren summon his demon by calling out her name, Shinoa holds her scythe at Guren's neck. She reveals that her weapon specializes in long-range combat and consequently stands no chance against a melee fighter like Guren at that range. Guren calmly says he would let Shinoa kill him. Shinoa asks him if that is his way to atone for killing her sister, Mahiru. She asks if she is in his sword since she heard him call her name. Guren says that Mahiru is already gone since she turned into a demon and saved the world by completing Cursed Gear. Shinoa laughs, stating that Mahiru was never one to care about the world because she loved him. She longed to be with him since they could never be together and became obsessed with demons.

After discussing the events of eight years ago, Shinoa says that if Mahiru hadn't completed the development of Cursed Gear, humanity would have perished. Her sister, who was just a girl in love became something like a Messiah. But then she was killed when she became obsessed with her research and became a demon. She continues saying, the one who killed Mahiru was the person who used to be her lover, him, Guren.

Shinoa asks him if Mahiru is together with him inside his sword, stating that he is being possessed by her. Guren asks her if she and Mahiru ever got along. She explains that she was not close with her sister because Hīragis are raised without knowing familial love.

Shinoa asks if making use of Yu was one of Mahiru's orders and asks if her sister or the demon for lack of a better word inside his sword is ordering him. She then asks him to stop what he is doing if his goal does not benefit Yu.

Guren tells her that Mahiru is dead and isn't coming back. He says that the demon inside his sword is under control so he isn't being possessed by her. But Shinoa doesn't believe him.

Nagoya Arc
In chapter 23, she appears and whispers to Guren in order to make sure he follows her rather than Lieutenant General Kureto Hīragi.

She appears again in chapter 38. She possesses Guren and kills the noble beating him. She uses Guren's body to point a sword at Krul Tepes and states that Krul will help her conduct an experiment on the Seraph of the End at Nagoya Airport.

Forms and Abilities
In Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen, upon losing her humanity right after transforming into a vampire, Mahiru noted to herself that she have finally manage to obtain strength, which is equal to a third progenitor like Krul Tepes. Whereas a vampire's power is dependent upon both age and lineage for how long they've lived throughout the years, it's unknown if Mahiru is really as power as she believed to be. This was because of Mahiru's own age and lineage still being young during late teen, paling in comparison to Krul, who has lived for a really long time. Unlike Mikaela, who has also became a true noble vampire by Krul, however, Mahiru doesn't seem to have in possession a first-class vampire weapon, but still used the demon weapon, Shikama Dōji with its forms and abilities instead. While discarding it, Mahiru can truly unleash her potential power as a true noble vampire, which is greater than that of a demon she originally became before the events of Seraph of the End occurred. Even so, despite the tremendous power she has greatly attained from Krul, it was still not far from enough to lift a scratch against the second progenitor, Saitō and defeat him.
 * Demon's Thrall: Mahiru-no-Yo may enter her host's mind and consume him with illusions in an attempt to break his will. If she wins, she gains control over his body.


 * Basic Form: Mahiru-no-Yo appears as a black katana with a red streak down the middle. Merely drawing her increases her bearer's physical abilities significantly and calling upon her name increases them tremendously.
 * Namanari: A human one step from becoming a demon. Mahiru-no-Yo has managed to turn Guren into one of these. In this form, Guren and Mahiru cooperate and have tremendous power. However, Guren's personality changes to a more demonic, heartless, and demanding one. It is unclear whether this is the demonic side of Guren that Mahiru began to create the summer before the Apocalypse when they were both human or if Mahiru is the one in control of Guren's body.

Cursed Gear
Asuramaru 「阿修羅丸, Ashūramaru, lit. "Perfect Asura"」: Asuramaru is a possession-type demon weapon of the Black Demon Series. It resides inside a black sword that Mahiru once used. Whilst in use, the blade developed a thick green aura. She could call upon Asuramaru to fully use its power to attack opponents.

Shikama Dōji 「四鎌童子, lit. Four-Scythe Child」: A manifestation-type demon weapon from an unknown series. It is strongest at mid-range. Her primary ability is to detect anything that comes within the attack radius of her scythe.

Trivia

 * Mahiru 「真昼」 means "midday."
 * Hīragi 「柊」 means "Holly."
 * Her demon name Mahiru-no-Yo 「真昼ノ夜」 means "midday's night."
 * Mahiru is the only character known so far to be a demon who is possessed by another demon. It is almost as if the demon itself replaced Mahiru completely, besides her appearance.
 * Both Mahiru's demons; Asuramaru and Shikama Dōji are currently in possession by the male and female lead or the manga series.
 * According to the light novel, she and her younger sister Shinoa were born with demons inside of them.
 * In the popularity poll, Mahiru earned 8th place at 957 points.
 * According to the official 8.5 fan book:
 * Interests/Likes: Guren's future, ambition, lust, "Seraph of the End" experiment
 * Favorite food: Human hearts/minds, demons
 * Crush: Guren

Manga

 * "Demand it! Ask for it! Seek out more power!!"--The demon Mahiru Hīragi to Guren, Chapter 17, "Cursed Guinea Pig"
 * "Oh, Guren! You came. I was just thinking I'd like to see you."--The demon Mahiru to Guren, Chapter 17, "Cursed Guinea Pig"
 * "No, Guren. You won't. You'll follow me, right?"--The demon Mahiru to Guren when Kureto tries to lure Guren to his side, Chapter 23, "Ambition in the Demon Army"