Вакаса Аябэ

Wakasa was the legendary kage no seisai ("shadow wife", essentially the secondary wife) of the now-disbanded Hogougumi's kumicho, Sou Mikaido. 14 years after her death, she is still regarded as a legend in the gokudo world due to her outstanding fighting skills and speed, and intimidating presence. Wakasa's situation was also exceptional among the gokudo, as she had to handle the fighting part of being a kumicho 's wife because the omote no seisai (primary wife) was too physically weak for it. Wakasa was killed in the final fight between Hogougumi and the rival yakuza group Garyukai. Her relation to Hogougumi: Although Wakasa was rumored to have had a strained relationship with the omote no seisai of Hogougumi, the two were actually very close friends — to the point that the omote no seisai convinced Wakasa to keep the child (Tsukasa) she had conceived with Sou. The video message that Wakasa left behind for Tsukasa reveals that the relationship between Wakasa and Sou was a tense one, with Sou desiring Wakasa and pursuing her insistently to the point where she agreed to sleep with him once, hoping that he'd get over her. Wakasa took pity on Shiva, Sou's younger brother, whom the rest of Hogougumi were ignoring due to him suffering from a terminal illness that would cut his life dramatically short. She was one of the few people to be kind to him, and he perceived her sleeping with Sou and choosing to be his kage no seisai, as a betrayal, leading to him betraying Hogougumi in turn. 14 years later, Shiva gets to hear the truth from the video message recorded by Wakasa for Tsukasa: Wakasa had never loved Sou, but Shiva, and wanted to do all she could so that Shiva would eventually find peace. Her relation to the Kozukis: Wakasa and the Kozukis were close friends. Ikumi and Yutaka agreed to take in Tsukasa and raise her as their own child should anything happen to Wakasa. After discovering the identity of her biological mother, Tsukasa gets very angry when other people positively compare her to Wakasa, as she feels that Wakasa abandoned her. However, after viewing the video message that Wakasa had left for her, Tsukasa ultimately understands that Wakasa wanted her to think of the Kozukis as her actual parents, and ends up respecting Wakasa more for not trying to act motherly. Despite claiming in the same video message that she'd wanted to terminate the pregnancy, Azuma remembers Wakasa being excited about seeing the person that Tsukasa would grow up to be, and expressing hope that she will have a happy life.