Shikama Dōji

Shikama Dōji「四鎌童子, Four-Scythe Child」is a manifestation-type demon who formed a contract with Shinoa Hīragi, and became her Cursed Gear. While possessing Shinoa, he also concurrently possesses Tenri Hīragi and Kureto Hīragi. Historically, he has possessed every head of the Hīragi Family.

He is later revealed to be former First Progenitor of the vampire race, Sika Madu, who disappeared a thousand years ago until turning up again as an angelic looking demon.

Note: ''There was an error in the initial Japanese and English magazine publications of the chapter where Shikama Doji transfers possession from Tenri Hiragi to Kureto Hiragi, and the demon was incorrectly named "Shigama Doji." This was corrected in the following manga volumes.''

Vampire
Sika Madu's appearance as a vampire is unknown as he wore a flowing cloak with a hood that covered his face in Krul Tepes's flashback.

Demon
According to the the light novels, Shikama Dōji's true form is described as a slim androgynous person with horns, who appears to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, and Shinoa herself couldn't tell if the demon is a male or female.

He has waist-length hair with a fringe, and two curled strands that flows down to his front. On his head, he has two white wings curved around the top of his head and two smaller wings hanging behind his ears. Being a former vampire, he has pointed ears and fangs. It has yet to be revealed if he red eyes.

To emphasize his angelic appearance, Shikama has three pairs of white feathered wings protruding from his back, and wears a drapery style, off-the-shoulder dress with flowing long sleeves that are attached to the dress with shoulder straps. Tied around his waist is a dress piece, and he is barefoot.

Demon Weapon Manifestation
Shikama Dōji manifests as a dark, smoky amorphous creature with a wide "mouth," jagged fangs, and a pair of jagged horns that curve back behind his head. This "mouth" contains an eye-like glowing orb.

Vampire
Not much is known about his personality during his time as the First Progenitor except that according to Saitō, Sika Madu eventually disregarded everyone in the vampire race, except for Ashera Tepes.

Demon
Shikama Dōji appears to be very quiet and only shares his emotions with Shinoa. According to Shinoa, he talks within her heart, and the two seem to get along as Shinoa calls him "Shi-chan" in the Japanese version and "Shi" in English.

However, he eventually reveals his true personality by insisting Shinoa will be consumed with either lust or love for Yūichirō Hyakuya. He repeatedly tells her she is much stronger than her sister ever was.

Toward people other than Shinoa, Shikama Dōji is shown to be serene with a smile most of the time, due to him being pretty much immortal and near invincible, which makes him unperturbed by threats and the killing of his former host, Tenri Hiragi. This knowledge of being near immortal also doesn't let Shikama take anything seriously, which can be seen when Shikama responds to being stabbed by Kureto with a greeting to Raimeiki, the Cursed Gear being driven into his chest.

Near-immortality also has Shikama Dōji wanting to die, as he says to Kureto that if the latter manages to kill him, he'll be extremely grateful of that as being unable to die is painful.

Despite becoming a demon, who unlike all the other demons forget their past lives as vampires, Shikama Doji retains all of his memory as a vampire and demon intact, this is further shown when he remembers both Yu and Asuramaru who he calls him by his previous original name "Ashera Tepes".

History
A long time ago, the First Progenitor, known as "Sika Madu", sired the vampires of the Progenitor Council and created the laws for the vampire race. In his vampire life, Sika buys a slave named Yu, and then later on, buys Ashera Tepes with the promise that he will keep the boy safe. At some unknown point, he turns Ashera into a vampire along with his sister, Krul Tepes, after finding her eventually. but takes more interest in Ashera and leaving Krul behind. More time passes before Sika decides to leave the vampire race for a distant land.

With Urd Geales and Rígr Stafford as witnesses, he ignored the devastated pleas of Krul as he convinced Ashera that he must accompany him to an island some call the 'Land of the Rising Sun' and become a demon "for their future." Before the two leave, Sika comes up with Ashera's new demon name that would fit the language of the island: Asuramaru.

During his thousand-year disappearance, the First Progenitor soon became a demon himself known as Shikama Dōji, and would possess every head of the Hīragi Clan for generations. While possessing the current head of the family, Tenri Hīragi, Shikama Dōji became present in Shinoa Hīragi's body at birth as the result of an experimentation using Tenri's sperm to impregnate a demon-possessed woman. As Shinoa grew older, so did the demon's influence, which is the reason Shinoa's older sister, Mahiru Hīragi, extracted Shikama Dōji from Shinoa when the latter was very young. This also made Shinoa completely forget about Shikama Dōji until he was returned to her later on.

Mahiru then takes Shikama Dōji into herself which, combined with her demon quickens Mahiru's transformation into a demon. Shikama Dōji was sealed into a scythe and was used at twice by Mahiru until the demon requested to be returned to Shinoa, so Mahiru gave the demon to Guren to give to Shinoa.

While possessing Shinoa and Mahiru, he was also simultaneously possessing the Head of the Hiragi Clan.

Book 5
On December 2nd, 2012, Shikama Dōji appears as a black scythe when summoned by Mahiru in Sanguinem where the demon cuts the bindings holding Mahiru to the cross. Later that day, a vampire Mahiru uses Shikama Dōji to greatly increase her strength in her attack on Saitō.

Book 6
On December 10th, Mahiru gives Shikama Dōji to Guren for him to deliver to Shinoa. On December 23rd, Guren gives Shikama Dōji to Shinoa, and Shinoa loses consciousness.

Book 7
Shikama Dōji reunites with Shinoa of his own will because they were together from birth. With Shikama Dōji, Shinoa will be able to survive the Apocalypse. Since Shinoa can completely close off her heart from the demon far better than Mahiru ever could, Shikama Dōji tells her she is the perfect result of the experiment she was born from and may contact any number of demons without fear of losing control. He says Shinoa currently has little desire, but she will meet someone who will make her feel it in eight years.

Shinoa wakes up after ten hours of sleep and manifests Shikama Dōji to protect Norito Goshi from their assailants.

Story: Vampire Reign
Eight years after the apocalypse, Shikama Dōji first appears as a manifestation when Shinoa shows her Cursed Gear to Yu, and would continue to serve as Shinoa's weapon for Shinoa Squad and even when the squad defects from the Demon Army.

Osaka Arc
After Kureto Hīragi kills Tenri, Shikama is revealed to have also been possessing Tenri and every previous head of the Hīragi Family way before he came to possess Shinoa. Shikama declares Kureto the king of mankind, and asks what Tenri said about him. Upon hearing that he was described as an old god, Shikama laughs and says that God was more twisted than himself. Upon being stabbed by Raimeiki, Shikama greets the demon blade like an old friend before being slammed into a building. When Kureto tries to kill Shikama with Abaddon, Shikama commands Abaddon to cease its fire, and the demon stops. Shikama reveals that he is the reason for the Seraph of the End experiment, and even those won't be able to kill him. He then grabs Kureto and begins to possess him, introducing himself as the first vampire. However, Raimeiki is able to immediately halt Shikama's access to Kureto's heart, and though the angelic demon was stronger and was about to break through the thunder demon's guard, Shikama was sealed off (for now) when Raimeiki gained more strength from Kureto's greed.

Some time later, Shikama Doji speaks with Shinoa about the latter's desire to be loved, especially by Yu, and that Shinoa is much stronger than Mahiru. He then tries to open the door of Shinoa's mind to release her desires, but is immediately stopped Shinoa herself, who then had Shikama wrapped up tightly in chains. After arriving at Shibuya, when Guren, Shinya and Shinoa are allowed to enter to meet Kureto who is possessed by Shikama Doji. Shikama Doji stares at everyone in the room with a smile on his face.

When Kureto was attacking Guren, Mahiru-no-yo sees Shikama Doji floating behind Kureto and warn's Guren that he is being possessed by an unbelievably powerful monster describing Shikama. Later Shikama Doji manifests into his scythe form surprising both Guren and Kureto. Shinoa later talks with him in private inside her mind, and he appears in his scythe form instead of his actual appearance this time. When appearing behind Shinoa, he tells her he wont be able to show his true appearance anymore unless she opens her heart to him, which she refuses, saying she will possess her. Shikama explains that he is too busy possessing someone else which piques her interest and wonders who might that be. Shikama tells her she's acting innocent as she knows who he is possessing, telling her she is pretending to and always plays the dispassionate observer but he can see through her.

Shinoa tells him if she would ever notice it would make her life much more awkward and the moment she shows any weakness he will steal her heart though he reminds her that he can't and wont since she has a very strong resistance to demons. Shikama tells her that she needs to lower the walls around her heart since they are very tall but she refuses he tells her if she did she would see his memories and that she's not interested in that either but Shikama tells her if she'd do that she can save Kureto Hiragi insulting him, however she is not interested Shikama tells her she's too callous being her brother. When told by Shinoa if she should lower those walls surrounding her heart he would steal her heart and cease to be who she is and says if who's more important to her brother or herself and says the answer is obvious.

This causes Shikama to resort to another approach telling her about Mikaela being a vampire and saying if she should accept him into her heart she may discover a way to turn him back to human, Shinoa confused as how can he know such information. Shikama says if Mika were ever to turn into a human what kind of look would Yuichiro face have, calling Yu her beloved one. When Shinoa stops him he tells her just how self-controlled she can be and she tells him again that she is not interested. When asked how about Yu and return his humanity to him, Shinoa shouts to stop him bringing up such subjects Shikama says if Yu left as he is the angel and demon inside him will erode him and cease to be and tells her that he can tell her a way to save him.

She tells him to stop but he declines to do so, she silences him addressing him as a demon he reveals he is not a demon and he will tell her who he is if she lower her walls but yet again she answers him she is not interested, Shikama tells her that she's lying and is interested in saving Yu, he keeps this up to lower the walls and reveals he wont be needing Kureto as he will possess her instead. He also reveals that in all these hundreds of years he's been possessing the Hiragi family he never found a vessel of her caliber and he can hardly wait, this causes Shinoa to silence him in rage.

After Kureto was handcuffed, Shikama Doji shadow moves from Kureto to follow Yu and starts talking to Asuramaru In his sword form, calling him Ashera as he enters Asuramaru's mind. He greets the purple haired demon with his original name, Ashera Tepes, which Asuramaru asks about his identity. Shikama responds by claiming that Asuramaru isn't a demon, telling him it's time to remember him, when Asuramaru demands him to leave he declines and Asuramaru fights him noticing his weapon, commenting about his current weapon he is using and is glad that he is doing well Shikama Doji summons numerous scythes. When Asuramaru failed to strike him Asuramaru attacks him by affecting the space around him though he lets his guard down when he is confused mentioning that never someone entered his heart before.

Shikama Doji vanishes and come closer to Asuramaru holding him in place telling him it's time to remember who he was and what was done to him. Shikama Doji uses his fangs and bites him to drink his blood, he struggles as he as he begs Yu for power but Shikama Doji says he won't allow him to borrow Yu's greed and starts forming a barrier around them. When Yu arrives he rushes to him but is unable to take greed from Asuramaru. He summons his sword to him and Asuramaru returns to demon form manifested. Shikama Doji comments that watching them side-by-side together brings back memories and says it's been a long time since he last saw Yu.

He starts a conversation talking to Yu and Asuramaru by saying if they are doing well since he never saw them for a long time, Asuramaru warns him to ignore him when Yu asks him questions if he knows his identity, Yu denies knowing him. Shikama Doji says both of them don't have any memories of their past selves and he could tell them if they are interested, as both of them isn't interested he forcibly tells Yu about his parents which he falls into his desires giving Shikama Doji the opportunity to subdue him. Yu however just pretended to fall under his control and slashes Shikama Doji calling Yu a miserable empty vessel. Yu charges at Shikama Doji and slashes him multiple times, he falls to the ground then Asuramaru stabs him seemingly finished him off as he disappears into thin air.

However Shikama Doji suddenly appears unharmed telling both Asuramaru and Yu they are getting well much to his happiness, he shoves his hand into both Yu and Asuramaru chest telling them their good days are over and he will kill the two of them. Shinoa manages to enter Asuramaru and Yu's mind saying she won't let him do it as she stabs him with her scythe noting it is the first time he's been wounded complementing her skills. Shikama Doji reveals to Yu that Shinoa is in love with him all the more reason she came to rescue him and thanks to her desire feelings towards Yu, she failed to lower her inner walls that she maintained for 16 years which stopped Shikama Doji from killing Yu telling Yu and Asuramaru that this was his goal all along as he bids farewell to both Yu and Asuramaru.

He appears behind Shinoa grabbing her by the neck, Yu rushes to her rescue but he fails and as she loses consciousness he comments about her resistance that she loves Yu so much. Shinoa tries to resist him a little more to no avail, Shikama Doji opens a door and takes her with him then he closes it preventing Yu from coming along.

Vampire
He would have possessed strength and speed that are much greater than a human's, along with having rapid regeneration, and being immortal with eternal youth. As the former First Progenitor, Sika Madu was more likely the most powerful vampire that has ever existed, vastly more powerful than the members of Progenitor Council, such as the Second Progenitors, Urd Gaeles and Saitō, with the latter saying that the gap between him and the First Progenitor is great when he expressed shock that Ferid was able to capture Krul.

Demon
As stronger vampires make stronger demons, Sika Madu continues to be the most powerful being in existence as the demon, Shikama Dōji.
 * Demon's Thrall: He may enter the dreams of his host and use their memories to torment them in a battle of wills to possess their body. Shikama Dōji has yet to be shown using this ability.
 * Possession: Basic demon ability, but Shikama Dōji is able to somehow possess people simultaneously as he was able to be with Mahiru/Shinoa while still possessing the head of the Hīragi Family.
 * Near Invulnerability/Immortality: Shikama Dōji has stated that pretty much nothing, not even a Seraph, can kill him. Even after getting stabbed and electrocuted by Kureto, Shikama Dōji still appears to be unharmed.
 * Supreme Angelic/Demonic Command: Shown to have command over Seraphs and demons as he ordered Abaddon and Mirai to cease their attacks.
 * Other Host Thrall: Shikama Dōji can enter other hosts and he can have complete control on the host body, such as when he entered Asuramaru mind and is able stay there even if they would force him away as Asuramaru was unable to.
 * Barrier Sealing: Shikama Dōji is able to form a barrier and seal anyone in it away with him or prevent them from escaping, as shown when he was forming one to prevent Asuramaru from escaping and take Yu's greed.
 * Basic Form: He takes the form of a scythe with a glowing green blade. Shinoa can call out the demon to attack an enemy. A manifestation-type demon weapon strongest at mid-range. Shikama Dōji himself can summon numerous scythes as means to attack.
 * Miniature Form: A black pen-length rod that is more convenient to carry.
 * Perception: Shikama Dōji can detect anything that comes within the radius of his scythe.
 * Manifestation: At Shinoa's orders, he can manifest into a large smoky creature that will attack whoever she chooses. It is shown he can manifest on his own will to scythe form if he wants to as he did in Shinoa's hand.

Trivia

 * The Katakana for his appearance in chapter 57 of the manga accidentally spelled his name as "Shigama Doji." This was corrected in the official published volumes.
 * This demon is the only one known to possess multiple people at one time thus far in the series.
 * He possess Tenri Hiragi at the same time he is with Shinoa and Mahiru.
 * He possess Kureto Hiragi at the same time he is possessing Shinoa.
 * His name as a vampire was "Sika Madu," and this became "Shikama Doji" when he turned into a demon.
 * Shikama Doji is described as an unbelievably powerful monster by Mahiru-no-Yo, an unknown monster by Guren and a strong monster by Asuramaru proving his powerful strength and immortality.
 * It is probably his appearance as an angelic demon which made Asuramaru forget who Shikama Dōji is. When he was Sika Madu as a vampire and the first progenitor he didn't change that much except his angelic appearance.

Quotes: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen
TBA

Quotes: Vampire Reign

 * "..."--Shikama Dōji, Multiple Chapters
 * "It's all right. There is nothing to fear about becoming a demon. I shall stay with you always, even after you have become one."--To Ashera Tepes in a flashback of 1,000 years prior, Chapter 49, "Progenitor's Memory"
 * "Come, it's time we left. You must become a demon. Oh yes, what should I call you once you've become one? Hmm... Since you will be reborn on an island some call the 'Land of the Rising Sun,' let us tweak your name to fit their tongue-- Yes. You shall be called Asuramaru."--To Ashera Tepes in a flashback of 1,000 years prior, Chapter 49, "Progenitor's Memory"
 * "Hello. It seems one who could kill Tenri has finally appeared. So you are the new King of Men."--Shikama Doji to Kureto Hiragi, Chapter 57, "Defining a King"
 * "Aha ha ha! Oh, I am not God. He has a far more twisted personality than I."--Shikama Doji to Kureto Hiragi, Chapter 57, "Defining a King"
 * "Oh. Hello there, Raimeiki. Welcome home."--Shikama Doji to Kureto Hiragi's demon, Raimeiki, Chapter 57, "Defining a King"
 * "If you can, I would be quite grateful if you would. I've been having such trouble trying to die for quite some time now."--Shikama Doji to Kureto Hiragi after Kureto says he will kill him, Chapter 57, "Defining a King"
 * "Halt. Goodness. Don't tell me you meant to kill me with that? That is an experiment I have had humans working on for me for quite some time now. It is not yours. Besides, that is not enough to kill me in the first place. Now then... I shall possess you next, Kureto."--Shikama Doji to Kureto Hiragi after taking control of the Seraph of the End, Chapter 57, "Defining a King"
 * "My name... is Shikama Doji. I am the first vampire."--Shikama Doji to Kureto Hiragi, Chapter 57, "Defining a King"
 * "Aren't the virginal the ones who have the most lustful imaginations?"--To Shinoa, Chapter 66, "Shuttered Shinoa"
 * "Aha ha! You know that full well. She was sixteen. She was so passionate about everything, wasn't she? Both in life and in death."--To Shinoa about Mahiru when asking how old Mahiru was when she had sex with Guren, Chapter 66, "Shuttered Shinoa"
 * "Of course, you don't. Because you're stronger. You are so much stronger than she ever was."--To Shinoa about Mahiru, Chapter 66, "Shuttered Shinoa"
 * "Don't you think it's about time you opened that door? You can build walls in your heart. Tall, thick walls. Those walls will keep the love and the lust... the joy and the sadness... all of the emotions at bay."--To Shinoa about the emotional restrictions on her emotions, Chapter 66, "Shuttered Shinoa"
 * "What does a human have if they have no passion?"--To Shinoa, Chapter 66, "Shuttered Shinoa"
 * "You lie. You want to experience love. When you watch Yuichiro Hyakuya, you feel your heart race. Why don't I get this ball rolling by opening that door?"--To Shinoa, Chapter 66, "Shuttered Shinoa"
 * "Ashera, you poor child. You must have been so frightened. But it's all right now... From now on, I shall keep you safe. Yu, kindly take off his chains."--When Sika Madu buys Ashera Tepes as a slave, Chapter 69, "The Day the Sun Was Lost"
 * "Don't play innocent with me. I see straight through you. You know who I mean. You know it all. You just pretend that you don't notice. You're playing at being the dispassionate observer."--To Shinoa, Chapter 72, "Hiragi in a Cage"
 * "I won't. I can't. You were not made so that I could. You have a heart of ice, so that no matter how much of your heart is devoured by a demon, you can retain perfect control."--To Shinoa, Chapter 72, "Hiragi in a Cage"
 * "You lie. You are interested in a way to save Yuichiro. Aah, at this rate it won't be long before your walls come down. When they do, I'll no longer need Kureto Hiragi. I'll be able to possess you instead... I can hardly wait. In all the hundreds of years that I've possessed the Hiragi Family, not once has there been a vessel of your caliber--"--To Shinoa, Chapter 72, "Hiragi in a Cage"
 * "You liked looking up at the sky. At least... that is what you once told me."--Shikama Doji to Asuramaru, Chapter 73, "Inside Yu's Sword"