Taro Sasaga'e

"This is bad, JinJin... THIS SORTA QUALITY IS REALLY EXPENSIVE RIGHT?!"

Taro Sasagae is a close friend of Mai Natsume, Jin Kisaragi, and Akane Teruhiko. He was Jin's bodyguard during his days at the Military Academy, and is a member of the Mutsuki family. He fights using Ars Magus threads, and has defected from the Novus Orbis Librarium to protect Mai.

Appearance
Taro is a tall young man with dark skin, red eyes, and messy black hair. He wears an olive green jacket over his shoulders, never wearing it properly, and has a white shirt with numerous patterns near the collar. Taro also wears jeans, standard shoes, and black gloves with which he controls his Ars Magus threads.

In the Military Academy, Taro dressed nearly identically, except he wore his uniform over his shoulders and had a striped belt. He wore numerous white shirts with different logos on the front.

Personality
Initially, Taro may seem naive and slightly dim-witted, but he has a gentle heart. Taro cares for everyone around him, and will do anything to protect them. He can get easily distracted, however, and has been known to feign ignorance, being much smarter than what others may credit him with.

He cares greatly for Jin and especially Mai. It's heavily implied that he has romantic feelings towards the latter.

Biography
Upon enrolling into the Military Academy and passing numerous exams, Taro was assigned to protect Jin by Kagura Mutsuki. He protected him for every year he was in the Academy, fighting off and killing numerous assassins without anyone having noticed. Taro became roommates with Akane and Jin, and soon a member of the student council. At some point in his life, he had met Rin Hazuki.

Remix Heart
During the Torifune Festival in his third year, Taro was introduced to Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi, Makoto Nanaya, Kajun Faycott and Mai Natsume. He was happy to finally have the chance of meeting Tsubaki after hearing about her from Jin for the last two years. Taro saw Mai in a maid uniform after she had been tricked into wearing it by Kajun. When the sports festival arrived, Taro (with Jin, Akane, and Estella McKenzie helped judge the competition, with him telling everyone to do their best to not die. When Team Remix Heart came back from the lowest levels with the Conversion Grimoire, they were awarded MVP, although Taro was more concerned with the quality of a Pakumen plush and how expensive it could be.

When Torifune's weather system collapsed and the city reverted back to its naturally mountainous weather, Taro accidentally pushed Jin and Team Remix Heart, making himself and them slide across the ice and into Akane's igloo, which sent them hurtling into a beach far from the city. There, Taro changed into Golden Angel swimming trunks supplied to him by Kajun. They found the Regulation Grimoire and restored it to its former glory, correcting the weather problems. They were soon picked up and returned to Torifune. He soon noticed something wrong with Jin when a mysterious presence had entered the Academy. Taro was knocked into by Mai in a hallway not long afterwards, and the two accidentally shared a kiss. Mai ran away extremely embarrassed and Taro was left by himself until Kagura asked him who she was. They happily talked, although Taro was less than happy about Kagura's attitude towards women, telling him that flirting with Estella is a death sentence. His relative left after talking about Jin's progress. Taro cooked that night for his dorm, but he had inherited Noel's cooking from Mai's kiss, making Jin, Akane, and himself bedridden.

Team Remix Heart started to care for the boys, and both Akane and Jin joked that Mai wouldn't fall for an "idiot" like Taro. They were introduced to Shiori Kirihito, who offered to help. Upon Jin being gifted some porridge by the girls, Taro snuck in to test it for poison, and saw Jin soon rampage afterwards with his Nox Nyctores - Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa. Taro equipped his gloves and did his best to protect Mai from Jin's onslaught of attacks. Cypher Albar appeared and knocked Jin out, leaving Taro and Akane to carry their friend to a temporary dorm. Mai and Taro shared a heart-to-heart conversation that evening, becoming closer as they talked about the events that had happened earlier. He soon left to return back to his dorm. Because of his involvement in the incident with Yukianesa, Taro was ordered to watch over the numerous icebergs, but he ended up becoming distracted by Shiori, and the two had a competition to eat shaven ice - Taro won, and a kumite competition was formed against him, making him much happier than he had been throughout the day. While bathing with Jin and Akane, Taro received a letter sealed with an Ars but he could not open it, even with help from Seifer. The letter was to ask Taro on a date with Mai, and he turned up late, being berated by all of Team Remix Heart for doing so.

Taro was one of the students gathered to help save Mai from an alchemy induced coma. When he realised it was a trap by Seifer, he pulled Akane and Jin outside of an alchemy barrier before it solidified. He watched as Chachakaka and Shiori broke alchemy that was draining everyone of their ability to use Ars Magus, and saw Mai awake from her come to shatter the barrier, saving the girls inside. He watched Mai battle Seifer and be teleported away by him. Taro, on Jin's orders, helped gather the Academy's Ars Magus users to help counteract Seifer's plan of using everyone within the city as a sacrifice to create the Burning Red Grimoire. They succeeded. After Mai had recovered from her battle with Seifer and was brought to the higher levels of Torifune again, Taro visited her and they share a warm conversation before Akane dragged Taro back to deal with the numerous paperwork related to the incident.

Variable Heart
One year after graduating, Taro was with Jin for his medal ceremony as he had ended the Ikaruga Civil War. He soon defected from the NOL, choosing to protect Mai from the Zero Squadron. He reunited with Shiori, and travelled to a mountainside near the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. There, they found Kajun, and saved her from numerous officers. They soon found Mai further down the mountain, saving her from Ragna the Bloodedge - Taro was shocked when the Grim Reaper effortlessly broke out of his threads. Instead of fighting him, however, they were all met by Fuzzy, who preceded summon multiple ghouls for Taro, Shiori, Mai, Kajun, and Bell to fight - Taro could not battle, however, as he had to thread strings together after they were broken by Ragna. After having done so, he backed up Ragna as the Grim Reaper fought against a massive Bone Dragon. Having fought the dragon more, Taro was knocked back but caught by Shiori. After carrying Mai, Bell, and Kajun away from Fuzzy, Taro sustained multiple wounds, and allowed Mai to throw her Legacy Weapon - Gallia Sphyras: Outseal at the vampire, wounding him and breaking the skull of the dragon. As Mai defeated Fuzzy, the group were soon surrounded by the Zero Squadron, with Meifang Lapislazuli leading them, but they were teleported out of the area by Rachel Alucard to the 11th Hierarchical City of Shinatsu. The group soon travelled to the Hazuki estate in the distance.

In the Hazuki estate, he met Rin again, and saw Houichirou Hazuki battle Mai and win. He watched Mai train with Rin, being shocked that the latter had copied his threads using Vision. When the rematch between Houichirou and Mai ensued, Taro watched, but the match was interrupted by Kokonoe and Litchi Faye-Ling. Taro sided with Mai, and the group travelled to the cauldron of Shinatsu so they could be transported to Sector Seven. A Fuzzy appeared and kidnapped Bell, and Mai followed - Kokonoe teleported Iron Tager to their location, and the group, consisting of Taro, Shiori, Kokonoe, Kajun, Litchi, and Tager, began to fight the vampires.

Powers and Abilities
Taro is extremely gifted in the use of Ars Magus threads, using them to ensnare opponents; in order to use them, he has to wear special gloves. His fighting skills are enough that he managed to protect Jin from numerous assassins from his time in the Academy without either him or Akane properly noticing. He also knows an Ars that allows him to erase a person's weight so he can carry them long distances.

Although he is gifted in the Ars' that he deploys, Taro can be naive and doesn't know some simple Ars, like one used to open sealed letters.

Taro
''A mentor to Noel and Makoto at the Military Academy, who also happens to be Jin's roommate. His full name is Taro Sasagae, and he used to call Jin by the nickname, Jinny.