Ryujin and the Master He Couldn't Protect

Ryujin and the Master He Couldn't Protect Ryujin's introduction is pretty blunt. A man brings Shinobu information about Masumi, expecting the Yakuza to reward him. Ryujin breaks his neck instead. Shinobu thanks him and gives him another job. That tells you most of what you need to know about the arrangement. Shinobu makes plans. Ryujin carries them out, and another person's life is barely an interruption between assignments. Spoilers for Masumi: Blades of Sin #1–4. He becomes a serious problem because he can actually fight Masumi. Shinobu wants the power in her swords, and Ryujin gets close enough to take one. In the Sea of Trees, Masumi ends up hanging in a trap. She gets out of it and counters him, but the fight keeps moving through distractions and attacks rather than giving her a clean advantage. Demonic impersonations of people she's lost interfere with her, and Ryujin takes the opening. I don't think you need to invent a huge set of powers for him to make that threatening. He's dangerous in the scenes themselves. He can exploit a distraction, keep attacking, and use the weapon he takes. By the final confrontation, Masumi is dealing with him on a giant shogi board rigged with explosives while Legion speaks from his side of the fight. Shinobu sees Masumi's concern for humans as a weakness. Ryujin doesn't seem troubled by that concern. The operation he serves has already bombed the train carrying Mei and Hiroto, and Shinobu praises him as an especially worthy acolyte. This is a man willing to carry out a plan that reaches people trying to get away, not just somebody who wants a fair fight with a strong opponent. But his loyalty doesn't let him control what happens in the room. An explosion throws Masumi into Shinobu, killing him with her blade. Ryujin attacks again, the swords clash and shatter, and Legion is released. His master is dead, and the power they'd been trying to acquire is walking away on its own. The scene afterward is why I think Ryujin deserves a closer look. He's preparing to kill himself to atone for Shinobu's death when Legion approaches. Ryujin tells him to leave. He says the covenant with demons brought failure, and he wants nothing more to do with it. Legion has no interest in respecting that refusal. He tells Ryujin that the mistake was following a human who thought he could control demons. Then he touches his chest, changes him, and announces that they'll begin with Pride. It's a nasty place to leave a character who spent the whole story obeying somebody else. He couldn't protect Shinobu, and now even his attempt to decide how his own life ends gets interrupted by another master. I'm interested in what remains of Ryujin in that arrangement, because the last thing he actually tells Legion is that he doesn't want it.