Birthday: Apr. 1
Height: 6'
Weight: 150 lbs
Blood type: B
Possessed by: Yasuda Nagahide.

The current incarnation of Yasuda Nagahide who shows up in Takaya's class one day after hypnotizing everyone into believing that he's been one of Takaya's best friends for ages. He is described as being a prodigy at Jouhoku High who is popular both with the teachers and the girls. He wears glasses, has a well-proportioned body, and gives the impression of cool maturity. He is around two years older than Takaya and lives alone. He appears to have cut off all ties with his family.

Notes: He appears as 'Chiaki' in narration. Naoe and Haruie call him 'Nagahide', and Takaya calls him Chiaki. Most of the students at Jouhoku High call him Chiaki-kun.

Birthday: Dec. 9
Height: 5'5"
Weight: unknown
Blood type: A
Possessed by: Kakizaki Haruie.

Kakizaki Haruie's current incarnation: a female college student about four years older than Takaya who rides a Yamaha FZR400 motorcycle called Ecchan. She is described as a beauty with sauvage-style long hair and long, slim legs. She lives in Yokohama with her parents.

Notes: She appears as 'Ayako' in narration. Naoe and Nagahide call her 'Haruie', and Takaya calls her 'Nee-san'.

A crooked member of Hyougo Prefecture's parliament who makes a kickback deal with Sakuma Shouzou. His office is located in Kobe's Sannomiya.

The abbe of Uragami Cathedral, who is described as a man around forty years of age with a calm, gentle countenance. He is introduced to Naoe by Yanase Riho, and accepts the Maria Kwannon for the cathedral.

The Japanese priest to whom the former Jesuit missionary Torabas gives his statue of the Maria Kwannon.

Also known as: Nagao Kagetaka (長尾景孝), Nagao Toukurou (長尾藤九郎)
Title: Yamato no Kami (大和守)

Historically: Son of Nagao Akikage, he became head of the Sousha-Nagao Clan at a young age. He later (around 1545) passed the position to his younger brother Nagao Kagefusa. When the clan was destroyed by Takeda Shingen and their territory lost, the family escaped into Echigo. There Kagefusa became a monk, and Kagetaka was adopted by Naoe Sanetsuna when he married Sanetsuna's daughter, Osen-no-Kata. He succeeded his adopted father as master of Yoita Castle in 1577 and was a vassal of Uesugi Kenshin. He promptly took the side of Uesugi Kagekatsu during the war for succession after Kenshin's death and mobilized the members of the Naoe Clan at the castle to subdue Kagetora's troops.

After the intra-house war and Kagekatsu's victory, a question of reward was called into question. Yasuda Akimoto, one of Kagekatsu's trusted commanders, had promised rewards to Shibata Shigeie, Mouri Hidehiro, and others to convince them to join Kagekatsu's side. However, Yamazaki Hidenori, Naoe, and others objected, for they had risked life and limb at Kasugayama Castle from the very beginning of the battle, while Shibata Shigeie and the others had been lured by promise of reward from Yasuda Akimoto.

Yasuda Akimoto committed suicide when he could not keep his promise of reward. Later, Mouri Hidehiro, carrying a grudge for his death, murdered Yamazaki Hidenori at Kasugayama Castle; Naoe, who was with him at the time and took up a sword to defend himself, was killed as well. His death ended the Naoe line, which Kagekatsu later resurrected by marrying Naoe's widow, Osen-no-Kata to Higuchi Kanetsugu and commanding him to take the Naoe name.

In Mirage of Blaze: According to Kousaka Danjou, and Houjou Ujiteru he was the ringleader of Uesugi Kagekatsu's forces in the Otate no Ran. He is now Uesugi Kagetora's protector and one of the Yasha-shuu under his command. He alone, as Kagetora's protector, was given the power to perform kanshou on other souls, a power he used to force Kagetora's soul into Minako's body.

Also called: Oda Kippoushi
Title: Kazusa no Suke, Owari no Kami

Historically: The first of the "Three Unifiers"; born in Owari to a samurai, his unbridled, ruthless ambitious and military tactical genius enabled him to gain control of the imperial court in 1573 after having driven the shogun out of Kyoto. His seal read "the realm subjected to military power". Murdered at the age of forty-nine by his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide in the Honnou-ji in Kyoto.

Birthday: July 23
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 134 lbs
Blood type: O
Possessed by: Uesugi Kagetora

At the beginning of the story Takaya is a seventeen-year-old high school delinquent with no memory of his past. His parents divorced when he was a first-year junior high school student, probably because his father started drinking when his business failed. His mother remarried and lives in Sendai.

He was born and raised in Matsumoto and lives there with his sister, Miya. He attends Jouhoku High and is in the same class (Year Two Group Three) as his best friend, Narita Yuzuru.

Notes: He appears as 'Takaya' in narration. Nagahide and Haruie call him 'Kagetora', and Naoe calls him 'Kagetora-sama' and 'Takaya-san'. Most of the students at Jouhoku High call him 'Ougi-kun' (Chiaki calls him 'Ougi' at school). Miya calls him 'Onii-chan', and Yuzuru calls him 'Takaya'.

Described as an middle-aged man of medium height; possessed by Isshiki Yoshimichi. He goes to a hotel in Kobe to finalize a kickback deal made with the Hyougo Prefecture parliament member Kaneko.

Also known as: Kuranosuke—nickname (内蔵助)
Titles: Mutsu no Kami, Ecchuu no Kami, Chamberlain

A daimyo of the Sengoku, born in Owari. His father was Sassa Morimasa. His two older brothers, Sassa Masatsugu and Sassa Magosuke, died in battle, so Narimasa became head of the clan and master of Hira Castle in 1560. He distinguished himself in the loyal service of Oda Nobunaga and fought in many of Nobunaga's battles. His name was first on a list for the Kurohoro-gumi, an elite group of Nobunaga's bodyguards.

In 1580, he backed Jinbou Nagazumi against both the Uesugi Clan and the Ikkou-ikki in Ecchuu, and was given half the province. The following year, he was named governor (Kami) of the entire province when Jinbou Nagazumi lost his standing. He made Toyama Castle his main castle and performed extensive repairs and renovations on it.

After Nobunaga's death in 1582, Narimasa continued to engage in fierce battles with Uesugi Kagekatsu. He took the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobukatsu against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but later surrendered to him in 1585 when Hideyoshi laid siege to Toyama Castle with 10,000 troops. He lost Ecchuu, but was given a fief in Higo in 1587 for merits in the suppression of Kyuushuu, along with instructions on refraining from hasty reforms. Ignoring those instructions because of illness or perhaps misunderstanding, Narimasa immediately set out on Hideyoshi's nationwide land survey, resulting in rebellion of the province. He was charged with misgovernment and committed ritual suicide.

He wrote the following as his death-poem: "The shell of my begging bowl in which I have placed the evil delusions of these recent days now breaks" (この頃の　厄妄想を　入れ置きし　鉄鉢袋　今破るなり).

Narimasa is said to have brutally killed his concubine, Sayuri, along with her family for a rumor of infidelity. The legend goes that Sayuri cursed him before she died, and the curse was responsible for his death at the hand of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In Mirage of Blaze: He is kanshousha who has entered the «Yami-Sengoku» as one of the Oda's commanders, described as a tanned, fearless-looking young man, a "mountain cat in human skin." He and Mori Ranmaru don't appear to be on the best of terms. He later seeks his death at Sayuri's hands in remorse for the way he brutally tortured and killed her in their previous lives.

Tachibana Teruhiro, Tachibana Yoshiaki's eldest brother, is older than him by twelve years. He makes a living as a realtor, but also carries a monk's license. He is married and lives with his family at the temple in a separate building.

Also known as: Hernando Tabarez (エルナンド・トラバス)

A former Jesuit missionary who gives up Christianity due to persecution by the Tokugawa Shogunate. He asks a potter whom he had baptized to make a Maria Kannon, which he gives before his death to Mikami, a Japanese priest. After his death the statue miraculously begins to weep his tears of remorse at forsaking his religion.

Head of the Yanase family, a merchant house dealing in silk threads in Nagasaki. Son of Yanase Taizou.

Patriarch of the Yanase family, a merchant house dealing in silk threads in Nagasaki. Father of Yanase Ichirou. He speaks with Naoe about the history of the weeping Kwannon statue.