『Himari Noihara』

Himari is a bakeneko, a shapeshifting demon cat, and the female protagonist of the series. She appears to Yuto as his bodyguard to protect him from the ayakashi out of an ancient oath set by her ancestor, who was spared by one of the Amakawa's heads after he refused to kill her.She is known to other ayakashi as the Crimson Blade of Noihara(野井原の緋剣, Noihara no Hiken) due to her expert swordsmanship, and refers to herself as the"sword that protects"(護り刀, mamorigatana) Yuto. She is usually seen wearing traditional Japanese clothes(when not in her school uniform) and always wears her hair in a long ponytail with a large pink bow to hold it in place, and uses keigo in her speech. She is very close to Yuto, whom she refers to as"Young Lord"(若殿, Wakadono), and is sometimes philosophical, worried that Yuto will kill her when his abilities awaken.However she is deeply in love with him, as she wants to be with him as a person, and is very flirtatious with him because she and Yuto got along well in Noihara in the past when she was a white cat. This flirting often annoys Rinko to no end. In the anime, Himari is one of the only people to have kissed Yuto(the other being Kuesu). Despite this, she is also very serious about her duty as a bodyguard, and is willing to protect Yuto from harm by any means.

In the final episode of anime series, Himari voluntarily gives her heart in to the darkness inside of her to fight Tama at her full strength, assuming a demonic form called Ayakashi Himari(妖緋鞠). Aside from the physical changes(white hair, pale skin with black markings, red claws, and a bushier tail), Himari also gains the ability to perform powerful claw swipes from a distance in addition to her increased demon powers, but the loss of her personality makes her a deadly killing machine, unable to distinguish friend from foe. After she was restored by Yuto and Shuten-dōji assumes his Oni form, Yuto imbues her Yasutsuna with his Light Ferry ability, allowing her to assume a powered-up form called Super Himari(スーパー緋鞠, Sūpā Himari), which consists of her wearing revealing samurai-like garments. As Super Himari, she gains the ability of levitation and can slice the strongest of demons in two with a single blow.

As a bakeneko, Himari can shapeshift from human to cat(the latter in which she can also talk in) and she can also reveal her cat ears and tail while in her human form(though this triggers Yuto's allergies while doing so). She also has superhuman speed, strength, and endurance(all of which surpasses Rinko, who was the school's top athlete prior, and she is extremely agile due to her cat-like nature. She is armed with Yasutsuna(安綱, lit."Gentle Crane"), a katana crafted in the Heian period that was handed down to her by Yuto's grandfather and the legendary blade that defeated Shuten-douji in the past,and is almost never seen without it(its blade was burned in chapters 18–29 of the manga and episodes 7–10 of the anime following her duel with Kuesu). Himari is also proficient with other bladed weapons as well, once using a scythe against Ageha in the anime,and she is also skilled in close-range combat.Because she is a cat, however, she shares some of their natural instincts as well, such as having a fear of water(Rinko speculates that Himari is afraid of deep water, water in quantity), a penchant for seafood,and being very sensitive to winter temperatures.Also, due to her ayakashi nature, she becomes weakened whenever she is near a Shinto shrine(to the point where even a thrown stone can knock her out instantly, as shown by Rinko during the summer festival).

When Himari loses her sanity during a fight, she goes on a berserker rampage, which is depicted by her having red eyes, an uncontrollable bloodlust, and(in the anime only) a dark aura surrounding her body. Also, Himari loses all rational thought, becoming a mindless killing machine bent on hunting and killing anything that moves, which Shizuku states is part of her kind's true nature. Shizuku also warns Yuto that there is a much higher risk of Himari reverting to her kind's killer instincts should she continue to fight.Rinko's nickname for Himari is"Cat Princess"(猫姫, Neko-hime), while Shizuku and Kuesu simply refer to her as"Cat"(猫, Neko)(or in Kuesu's case,"Demon Cat").