Ayase Ayatsuji

"Righteousness without results is just caprice."

- Ayase Ayatsuji

Ayase Ayatsuji is a third-year student from Hagun Academy. She is a D-Rank Blazer who uses the katana-style Device Hizume.

Appearance
Ayase is a beautiful young girl with a voluptuous womanly figure and long, jet black hair that covers her forehead and most of her eyes. It is also back length. She has very gentle, dark brown eyes, which, like her personality, shows her as a kind person. Ayase is usually seen wearing her school uniform.

Personality
Ayase has shown to be a very shy and anxious person as shown in her initial encounter with Ikki, Stella, Shizuku, and Alice after being found out as the former's stalker. She is especially shy around boys her age, having not much interaction with another male who wasn't a mentor or pupil, which causes her to be very unwilling to look one in the eyes as shown with Ikki. However, it has been shown when holding a sword that her shyness and anxiety passes as though it was never even there, as seen when she showed a vast amount of capability when training with Ikki who she was initially shy around.

She also has a dark and deceptive nature as shown when she tricked Ikki into activating Ittou Shura a few hours before their match, although her regret over her action ended up dulling her skills during their match, which Ikki noted was because she honestly didn't want to do such things to him.

Despite Ayase's shyness around boys, she is still just as interested in love and romance as any other girl of her age. She even gleefully admitted to Stella that she was jealous of her (Stella's) relationship with Ikki and wanted to fall in love too. She also enjoyed asking and teasing Stella about the details of her love life.

History
Ayase is the daughter of Kaito and Ayako Ayatsuji, the latter has died at some point in her life. She was raised and trained under the tutelage of her father in the Ayatsuji Itto-ryu who was known as the Last Samurai and was capable of defeating Blazers in his prime. Even after being diagnosed with an illness that weakened him, he still continued to train his daughter who had been born as a Blazer.

Two years prior to the start of the series, the Ayatsuji Dojo was challenged by Kuraudo Kurashiki, the Sword Eater who had left almost all the students with injuries that left them unable to wield swords even if they all healed. Kaito had accepted the challenge which Ayase had protested before she agreed to be the judge and in the end, she watched as Kuraudo crush her father's ribs in their last clash and took their dojo as a prize. This event led to Ayase having an immense hatred towards Kuraudo. Following that incident, Ayase had continued to challenge Kuraudo time and time again, but to no avail, as she was easily toyed with every time, to the point where Kuraudo lost interest in her and no longer accepted her challenge.

Disciple, Encounter and Betrayal
Ayase is first seen, after being caught by Ikki Kurogane, in the hospital, after she injures herself, running away from Ikki who catches her stalking him. She explained that she only stalked Ikki to help her with her training, and Ikki gleefully agrees. She then goes to the forest with Ikki and friends, where Ikki accurately points out the reason for Ayase's slum, the difference of gender between her and her father which caused her movement to be flawed. He then offers to correct her stance to make use of the advantages of her body, greatly improving her reaction time.

Ayase is then seen on an outing with Stella and Ikki, initially enjoying themselves, before Kuraudo Kurashiki comes along, and tries, but fails, to cause a fight with Ikki. Ayase then receives a message on her student notebook, which informed her that her tenth opponent for the participation round was Ikki. Ayase, after not talking with the group for a while, then invites Ikki to the rooftops, before the day of the match, which he comes to alone. She then proceeds to make him activate his Ittou Shura and then reveals to him that she only invited him to the roof so she could trick him into using it, as she knows he can only activate it once a day.

Impossible Victory, Decisive Battle, and New Beginnings
Ayase is next seen fighting Ikki in her tenth selection match. Ayase is able to have the upper hand against him, thanks to her tactics on the top of the building, as well as setting up traps before the start of the match. Ayase is then slashed by Ikki's illusionary form of Intetsu, after being able to see through Ayase's traps. Ayase is then unable to get up, knowing that what she did, and was doing, was wrong, and gives up, giving Ikki the victory.

Ayase then tells Ikki of her tragic story, and Ikki agrees to help Ayase regain her cherished dojo from Kuraudo. Ayase then watches as Ikki fights and beats Kuraudo, giving the Ayatsuji Dojo back to her. After the duel, Ayase decides to tell the Selection Battle committee of her cheating, causing her to lose her right to enter the Seven Star Sword Art Festival. A week after the duel between Ikki and Kuraudo, Ayase sends a message to Ikki that her father has awoken, being extremely happy. Under Kaito's demand to thank Ikki, Ayase then calls Ikki only to be surprised by her own father suddenly telling Ikki to marry Ayase, as an embarrassed and angry Ayase assaults her father and ends the call after apologizing.

Siege, Reunion and Trap
Ayase is seen among one of the supporters for Ikki during his match against Touka Toudou, encouraging him.

Akatsuki Strikes
Ayase had come to Hagun Academy, while the participants of Hagun Academy training camp were away, to thank Yuuri for looking the other way during her match with Ikki. The conversation is then interrupted by members of the Akatsuki academy, one of which attacks Ayase, who had no way of defending herself. She was saved by Yuuri who planned on taking the attacker out but was unable to do so due to the person's ability, Total Reflect. Ayase and Yuuri are later found by Stella and Ikki knocked unconscious, along with a destroyed Hagun Academy.

The End of the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival
Ayase attends the awards ceremony and then the celebration party at Moroboshi's restaurant after Ikki won the tournament.

Abilities
Wound Manipulation: Ayase's ability as a Blazer, she is able to manipulate the concept of "Wounds", which lets her inflict wounds and makes those caused by her Hizume more severe. It doesn't work on just living beings, but also on objects and her surroundings as well. All information about her powers remained due to Ayase's lack of participation in official matches for the previous year.

Master Swordsmanship: Having been trained since childhood by her father, Ayase has shown to be quite skilled in swordsmanship with her main style being the Ayatsuji Itto-ryu, but at some point, she hit a rut due to mimicking the motions of her father due to their difference in structural features between men and women, which Ikki fixed in their training. Ayase soon started to use the benefits granted by her feminine build causing her strikes to become a lot faster as well as improving in her techniques. After further training and practice with Kuraudo, she improved her sword skill to where she is able to handle fighting against Ginji Ookuma, an escaped criminal who Kaito had fought fifteen years prior.
 * Ten'i Muhou (天衣無縫, Heaven-Clad Null Shroud): The ultimate technique of the Ayatsuji Itto-ryu, which Ayase had used in her fight against Ginji.

Great Stamina: Ayase is shown to have a great amount of stamina, being able to easily follow Ikki and Stella in their daily jog.

Device
Hizume (緋爪, Scarlet Nail): A vivid red blade that takes the form of a Japanese katana without a hand guard, shirasaya type. In the anime, it is manifested by Ayase by saying the command: Turn scarlet and opening a rift from where the sword emerges.
 * Mark of the Wind: (風の爪痕, Kaze no Tsumeato) Ayase's Noble Art. She cuts through space using Hizume which effectively leaves behind a vacuum blade. These blades are activated when Ayase points down Hizume and taps on the handguard using her little finger. When triggered, it unleashes a sharp gust of wind that slices through the openings created by Hizume.

Trivia

 * She is described as a Yamato Nadeshiko, which in Japanese term describes an ideal woman.