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| Introduction |
Saegusa Kouichi (七草 弘一) is the head of the Saegusa family, one of the more prominent families in the Ten Master Clans. He is the real patron of the National Defense Force Intelligence 3rd Division. Mayumi has referred to him as "Sly Fox", hinting at his personality.
Appearance[]
He is described as a relatively skinny and gentle-looking individual and is always seen wearing darkglasses to hide his artificial right eye. He looks more like a sharp businessman than a leader.[1]
Personality[]
When it comes to his rivalry with the Yotsuba, Kouichi has no qualms on the methods he employs to weaken them and disregards the negative consequences of its possible outcome. This is seen when Kouichi has planned to damage the Yotsuba's reputation by collaborating with Congressman Kanda's Anti-Magician Party and Zhou Gongjin despite being warned by Juumonji Katsuto to stop his activities as it will have negative consequences to Japan's Magic Community and it nearly caused the Saegusa to lose their position in the Ten Master Clans. [1]
He is also willing of take advantage of any opportunity presented to him and has no regard on how bad the public will view the consequences even towards his own daughter. When the Yotsuba formally announces the engagement of Tatsuya and Miyuki that Ichijou Gouki objected to, Kouichi pushes the marriage of Tatsuya and Mayumi despite the possibility that Mayumi will be viewed negatively by the public for trying to steal her underclassman's fiancé.[2]
Background[]
When he was younger, the Yotsuba and the Saegusa Family's had arranged an engagement between Yotsuba Maya and him, but when he was fourteen and Maya was twelve, she was kidnapped and he was gravely injured trying to protect her. When she returned, she had lost her emotional connection to Kouichi and her natural ability to reproduce, so the engagement was dissolved. The incident cost him his right eye, which he had replaced with a mechanical eye instead of a new eye constructed for himself using cloning technology. He did this as a reminder of his failure to protect his fiancée and because of him wearing an eye patch, he was known as the "Eye Patch Boy Magician". He later wears sunglasses both indoors and out to hide the artificial eye. [3]
He, along with Yotsuba Miya and Maya, were tutored by Kudou Retsu, whom he still refers to as "Sensei".
He is first seen after the events of the Scorched Halloween, where he was talking to Itsuwa Family Members Itsuwa Mio and Itsuwa Hirofumi. They, along with Mayumi, were discussing Mio's deployment by the Japanese government to rattle swords with the Great Asian Union, in order to better negotiate with them.[4]
Nakura Saburou was his right hand and Kouichi often consulted with him and even tasks him of coordinating his plan with Zhou Gongjin
It is mentioned that the past discord between Kouichi and Maya makes their relationship very tense and they are now rivals, with Kouichi involved in a plot to undermine the Yotsuba Family and reduce their influence. This may be due to the Saegusa Family leading the Ten Master Clans, and therefore having great influence over the other Families, which is now threatened by the increase in power and influence of the Yotsuba. (Kudou Retsu has stated that, headed by the trio of Tatsuya, Miyuki and Maya, the Yotsuba may be more powerful than the nine other Master Clans combined).
Plot[]
Kouichi calculated that Tatsuya will be the most likely to leave the Yotsuba compared to Miyuki and Maya. But when the Yotsuba announced the engagement of Tatsuya and Miyuki, Kouichi is completely blind sided by this development and negotiated with his daughters on his plan to have Tatsuya marry Mayumi instead.[2]
Kouichi had initially hoped that Mayumi may marry either Juumonji Katsuto or Itsuwa Hirofumi, the heirs to two of the other Ten Master Clans, but these plans did not bear fruit as no authentic romantic feelings ever blossomed. Ichijou Masaki was not considered due to him being too young. After finding out the identity of Shiba Tatsuya, Kouichi was willing to have him marry Mayumi as she appeared to have feelings for him which he could use to undermine the engagement between Miyuki and Tatsuya, and by extension the Yotsuba Family itself, and he colluded with Ichijou Gouki to this end.[2]
During the Ten Master Clans Conference, Kouichi opposed the engagement of Tatsuya and Miyuki then proposes that Mayumi marry Tatsuya disregarding the damage on Mayumi's reputation in the eyes of the public that will see her as a seducer for trying to marry her underclassman who just announced their engagement that was already pointed out by her daughters. Maya refuses as the Ten Master Clans has no control on another family's affair but eventually a compromise is made to allow Masaki to approach Miyuki and win her heart but the engagement still stands. Kouichi insists on his proposal that this will also apply to Mayumi and Tatsuya that caused the rest of the clan heads to be peeved by his bile. [1]
After the break, Maya mentions the name Zhou Gongjin, Kouichi remained silent who is revealed to be already dead to the relief of the other clan heads. When Kouichi's collusion with Zhou Gongjin and the Anti-Magician Movement is revealed, Kouichi asks Maya to provide her basis to which Juumonji Katsuto testifies that Kouichi admits it to him then Mutsuzuka Atsuko cross examines Kouichi for his excuse. Kouichi reasons that he was trying to stop the media from targeting magicians as a whole but Maya counters that colluding with Zhou who already caused to much harm to Japan makes it inappropriate for someone from the Ten Master Clans to which the rest of the clan heads agrees.
Abilities[]
It has been hinted that his Magic is linked with light, and that he has the ability to instantly burn up a paper card into ashes.
Octet[]
Octet in the Manga
Kouichi can prepare a maximum of up to eight magic sequences from 4 different systems, keep them on stand by, and unleash each one of them later at blinding speed to deal with a variety of situations instantly, hence the name Octet which is similar to Mitsuya Gen's Speed Loader making them both the fastest to take action against the attackers. [1]
Trivia[]
- The kanji for Kouichi's name which can also be read as Hiroichi means the following: 弘 means "wide" and 一 means "one."