Hakumen

""I am the white void. I am the cold steel. I am the just sword. With blade in hand I shall reap the sins of this world and cleanse it in the fires of destruction. I am Hakumen. The end has come!""

Hakumen (ハクメン) is the former leader of the Six Heroes who resides within the Sankishin's Susano'o Unit. He is the former wielder of the Interfectum Malus: Ookami. Before donning the mantle of 'Hakumen', he was a time-displaced Jin Kisaragi who was transported nearly 100 years in the past.

Hakumen is one of the original twelve playable characters who debuted in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.

Appearance
Hakumen is in possession of the Susano'o unit, which takes its form with him with white heavy armor on his head, shoulders, abdomen, upper legs, and feet. He also wears a traditional hakama and a black bodysuit. The armor on his shoulders has two red eyes on each shoulder, two red eyes on the back of each hand and each foot armor has four eyes on it. His helmet has two horns on it and he has long silver hair tied back into a ponytail.

This appears to be the default form of the Susano'o Unit. Hakumen can take off his mask, but it is unknown what his face looks like underneath.

Personality
"Hakumen approaches every situation with almost mechanical detachment, and engages with only one purpose: total victory."

Stoic and disciplined - Hakumen is a man of few words who only speaks when necessary. He believes in balancing the world and will do anything in his power to do so. He is a firm believer in his principles of justice and doing what is right, yet never fails to say exactly what is on his mind when the time is right. Hakumen's pride can border on hubris, but his confidence in his own abilities is founded in his overwhelming capability.

Although he seems quiet, Hakumen's mind is always analyzing the situation at hand, mechanically assessing the best way through it. Despite the fact that he is hailed across the world as a heroic icon and his name is known by everyone, Hakumen does not revel in the popularity. Popularity and fame are irrelevant to him; all that matters is his mission to destroy everything left behind by the Black Beast and Yuuki Terumi. Every single battle is approached with no mercy or remorse, only the objective of an annihilating victory.

Hakumen is not without his humanity, however, and his personality as Jin still lingers deep beneath his silence. For example: he still hates the moon, something born out of his childhood fear of it crashing down to Earth. He cares greatly for Tsubaki Yayoi, and harbors feelings of regret for not being able to save her in his original timeline. Although he would loathe to admit it, Hakumen does also care for the other Six Heroes (bar Terumi), particularly Jubei and Trinity Glassfille. He would never turn his back on his comrades, and would go out of his way into mortal danger to save them. Celica A. Mercury is another person that Hakumen thinks highly of thanks to the time they spent together during the Dark War.

Powers & Techniques
Being the leader of the legendary Six Heroes is enough of an indicator towards Hakumen's undeniable strength. He is permanently clad in the Susano'o Unit, one of the Sankishin. This gives him complete immunity to seithr, incredible physical power, and nigh impenetrable armor; the hide of the Susano'o Unit is so tough that it cannot be dented by firearms. The true ability of the Unit is to allow its user to slash through time itself, something that Hakumen can use in conjunction with his Nox Nyctores - the Intefectum Malus: Ookami. Ookami is a weapon that can nullify Ars Magus itself with its special blade, but its true power has yet to be actually seen. Regardless, it is still a Nox-class weapon, and used in conjunction with the power of the Susano'o Unit, Hakumen is an extremely powerful figure.

During the Dark War, Hakumen demonstrated strength that defies belief. Using just one swing of an ordinary odachi, Hakumen was able to create a shockwave that upended trees, walls, and people; some caught in the shockwave nearly died. On a separate occasion, Hakumen annihilated an entire squadron of Orbis Librarius Norma soldiers in under a minute. He was able to take direct hit from the Black Beast and remain relatively unscathed.

In gameplay, Hakumen is one of the more unique characters. He has a unique , instead of a Heat Gauge, which is used for him to activate his special attacks. His gameplay Drive is ', alternatively known as ' - Hakumen briefly conjures a small shield-like sigil in front of him and launches a counter whenever attacked. Outside of gameplay, one of Hakumen's most powerful attacks is a technique called  which strips a target of all their remaining time in the world and instantly kills them. Although this ability is powerful, an Observer can Observe themselves to stave off the effect for a week, and the ability is useless against individuals such as Izanami.

Power is not the only thing in Hakumen's possession. He is also a product of Order and he can employ its power to fight against great threats to the world. This was most evident in his battles against the Black Beast. Hakumen is also a cunning and strategical leader who employs his vast knowledge of the world in every battle, proving himself well versed in many areas. Even Hakumen's own presence is enough to leave men such as Ragna the Bloodedge so scared that they are unable to move. The legendary knight is well trained from his years as Jin under the Kisaragi household, meaning that he excels in hand-to-hand martial arts and academics.

Yet, for all his strengths, Hakumen is not as powerful as he once was. Thanks to the complicated circumstances surrounding the Observation from Kokonoe and Rachel Alucard, Hakumen is only at 20% of his original strength, putting him at a severe disadvantage, although then Rachel assumed superior observational position on him, making him regain some portion of his strength, which, according to Bullet's victory quote in the arcade mode of BlazBlue: Central Fiction, he's now at one third of his former power. He is, however, not so proud as to underestimate his opponents, and does not let his personality come between himself and victory. Hakumen's own will is enough to survive his soul being shattered and to stay within the Boundary for nearly a century without losing himself to insanity. Hakumen is also susceptible to attacks that can directly affect and cut souls, such as Hihiirokane, which Terumi used on him to reclaim the Susano'o Unit.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Official Site Profile
''One of the "Six Heroes" who defeated the Black Beast, who disappeared after the Dark War. Now that he has appeared once again, what could his goal possibly be? ''

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Official Site Profile
''A member of the "Six Heroes" who defeated the Black Beast during the First War of Ars Magus. He was defeated by Ragna, who had unsealed the power of the Azure, and was restrained by Kokonoe. However, Rachel released him by summoning him. He now cooperates with Rachel to reach his goal. ''

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Official Site Profile
''Hakumen, one of the "Six Heroes" who defeated the Black Beast. To carry out his own "justice," he travels to Ikaruga. He intends to rid the region of the "evil" residing there, and to sever the curse of the ones known as the Six Heroes. ''

BlazBlue: Central Fiction Official Site Profile
''One of the "Six Heroes" who defeated the Black Beast. After fighting with the Black Beast during the Dark War, he disappeared. Now that he has appeared once again, what could his goal possibly be? ''Hakumen approaches every situation with almost mechanical detachment, and engages with only one purpose: total victory. ''
 * Story
 * Personality

BlazBlue: Central Fiction Library Entry
''One of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast. He analyzes every situation calmly and mechanically, always taking the best possible option.
 * Hakumen

''He shows no concern for anyone or thing that is not his enemy. The truth behind his identity, however, is jin, who slipped through time while falling into the cauldron with Ragna and Nu. On the verge of death, Rachel decides to save Jin by merging him with the Susano'o Unit, turning him into Hakumen.

''Since Hakumen and Jin are in fact the same existence, they would not normally be able to exist in the same plane, but because of the continuum shift, they are able to coexist.

''After defeating the Black Beast, he is sealed away in another dimension at the hands of a certain someone, but is later salvaged from the Boundary by Kokonoe. His prolonged time in the dimensional prison has stripped from him a majority of his strength.

''While under Kokonoe's control upon being salvaged, Rachel frees him. He then heads towards Ikaruga so that he might see his own form of justice through.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Official Site Profile
''One of the who defeated the Black Beast. He takes interest in nothing but his enemies, and spends all of his time thinking about how to defeat his enemies.

''He can stop his opponents' attacks and counterattack with, and disable projectiles by slashing at them. Furthermore, each slash of his weapon, the, possesses overwhelming destructive power! ''

BlazBlue 10th Anniversary Official Site Profile
''One of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast during the Dark War, and the leader who brought everything together. He cares for nothing aside from the enemy, and thinks only of how to defeat the enemy.''

Appearances in other Media

 * The mobile game Mabinogi Duel stars Hakumen as a playable card.
 * In the MOBA, Smite, the Goddess Nemesis references Hakumen's signature 'White void' speech in one of her taunts in her Blind Vengeance skin.
 * In the game Slay the Spire, the Ironclad character's idle stance is identical to Hakumens. This is an intentional reference as one of the developers stated that he liked the stance.
 * The action-RPG Fallen Legion Revenants features a DLC in which the Exemplar Zulfiqar receives an outfit based on Hakumen. This collaboration was likely made possible due to Arc System Works publishing the Japanese version.

Trivia

 * In the BlazBlue 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Hakumen placed 17th out of the 84 candidates. He scored one place above Nine the Phantom and one place below Kokonoe. He had 1,650 votes.
 * Hakumen's birthday is April 6th. It is unknown if this is his actual birthday or the day that he became Hakumen and discarded his identity as Jin, although Jin's birthday being February 14 would make it point towards the latter.
 * Most of Hakumen's moveset is named after nature.
 * Tsubaki is named after Tsubaki Yayoi. He named the move in honor of her after watching her die in his original timeline.
 * Hakumen's "I am the white void" speech has a hidden meaning in Japanese. The speech has the line "Ware wa Jin" (localized as "I am the just sword"), which has two meanings: "I am justice" and/or "I am Jin".
 * Hakumen shares his English voice actor, David Vincent, with Jin.
 * In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, there is a special interaction between the Six Heroes if they are chosen. In the English version, Hakumen does not say anything despite having lines in Japanese. This was fixed in the 2.0 update.
 * There was originally supposed to be a D-arts figure for Hakumen that would have been developed by Bandai. However, it was cancelled.
 * Hakumen is creator Mori Toshimichi's favorite character.
 * In an interview in ARC Live!, Daisuke Ishiwatari, creator of the Guilty Gear franchise, stated that Hakumen is one of his favorite characters alongside Taokaka and Nine the Phantom.
 * Despite having a Vs theme against Susano'o, Hakumen has never fought against Terumi in that form.
 * Hakumen is illustrated in the following Grimoire for BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War:
 * 夢幻 (Fantasy).
 * 断ち切る者 (Those Torn Apart).