Ju Ensuu

Ju Ensuu (朱炎雪, ジュ エンスウ）is a sword-bearing student at Tenchi Academy. Her shinyuu is Himuro Meiko.

Character
Ensuu is an overseas student from China. Her ability to speak and understand Japanese is very limited and she usually needs her shinyuu to act as an interpreter.

Ensuu is violent and feral. She has few interests outside of fighting, hunting, and eating. She does not care about the ranking system or the various rewards associated with the Hoshitori, simply using it as an opportunity to attack and fight other students. Her disregard for the contest's rules commonly brings her into conflict with the Umpiring Squad or school administration. Cast at times as sadistic, cruel, or vindictive, her actual motivations are difficult to discern, tending to be seen only through the lens of Meiko's manipulations and deceptions.

Her fighting style is acrobatic and relentless. She uses a modified sword with a cord attached to its hilt, allowing her to throw or swing it at range.

Volume 4

 * Ensuu first appears at a Student Council meeting prior to the Hoshikawa/Tsukishima pair's summit battle. She declines an offer to be promoted to Rank S if their challenge fails. It emerges that, at some point in the past, Ensuu herself took on President Amachi, and was defeated. (Pgs. 121, 123-125)

Volume 5

 * Ensuu appears briefly in a flashback as Ayana recalls the circumstances under which Yukari received her scar. Ayana, beaten badly, is shown charging toward Ensuu with a broken and jagged sword as Yukari attempts to stop her. (103)
 * Meiko finds a note in her locker from Yukari, challenging her and Ensuu to a Hoshitori duel during the upcoming School Festival. When informed of this, Ensuu smiles. Though Meiko's dialogue bubbles do not have the double borders that appear in later volumes, she is presumably meant to be speaking in Chinese here. (139-140)

Volume 6

 * Throughout the school festival, Yukari and Maki wait nervously for their appointed meeting with Ensuu, receiving encouragements from Yuuho, Jun, and Hayate. Through this duel, they hope both to avenge Yukari's previous defeat and (as Jun posits) to ease Ayana's guilt from the incident.
 * Meanwhile, Ensuu impatiently waits for the bell to ring, bouncing a balloon yo-yo she has won in the festival. Meiko is seen beside her reading Ohyabu Haruhiko's novel Yajuu Shisubeshi; the appearance of the term "Yajuu" here (meaning "wild beast") may allude to Ensuu. (122)
 * Ensuu's Swordbearer Register file is on page 124.
 * Ensuu appears in Ayana's flashback, as she reflects on the similar natures the two possess. Ensuu, speaking in actual Chinese (not stylized Japanese, as in later volumes), is seen calling Ayana "a person from 'our side'" (128-129).
 * The bell rings, and the two shinyuu pairs meet in the A area. Ensuu attacks instantaneously, but is surprised to find Yukari's shinyuu is no longer Ayana. She appears to brush this off, and continues a vicious assault on Maki. Her fighting style in the duel is savage, deliberately dislocating Maki's right wrist, but also refusing to attack her while she is disarmed. Her right hand disabled, Maki switches to a left-handed fencing stance, actually her stronger style, though her weapon is not suited to it. With this, she is able to push back Ensuu's attacks and fight on even terms. (133-184)

Volume 7

 * The battle continues. With the final bell approaching, Maki chides Ensuu for targeting her person and ignoring her star. Ensuu, evidently understanding her, replies in Chinese that merely stealing the opponent's star takes only an instant. (16-19)
 * Yukari defeats Meiko and comes to Maki's aid. Working together, they manage to land a blow on Ensuu's star, and the Head Umpire is prepared to award them victory. However, Maki protests that the strike came after the final bell, and the match is declared a draw. Displaying no ill will for her injury, she thanks Ensuu and Meiko for the duel, even apologizing that a decisive result was not reached, and leaving them with a promise to meet again in the Hoshitori. Ensuu, though indifferent to the official outcome, is highly unsatisfied with the duel, disappointed it was not Ayana she faced. (23-35)
 * Turning in her special modified sword to the umpires, Ensuu suddenly senses the presence of Ayana and attacks her without hesitation, though she is stopped by Sae and Akira and only succeeds in clocking Hayate in the head. The combined offenses of drawing her sword outside of the Hoshitori and using her modified weapon outside of the A area cost her 24 stars (96 points), dropping her and Meiko from Rank Special-A to Rank A, and earning herself house arrest.(46-54)
 * Ensuu eats some meat in her room. Meiko attempts to discuss her nefarious schemes with her, but Ensuu is not interested. She just wants more meat. She also once again asserts Ayana as her "comrade." (64-68)
 * Ayana remembers Ensuu attacking her (97). Page 98 marks the first appearance of Hayate's nickname for Ensuu, Moujuu, meaning "savage beast."

Volume 8

 * Ensuu is doing hanging sit-ups in her room when she suddenly perks up. She has sensed the presence of Nagi far beneath her in the underground tunnels. (41-43)
 * Ensuu features in more flashbacks of the day Yukari's face was scarred. Meiko explains the "truth" of the incident to Ayana: that Ensuu intentionally pulled Yukari into the path of Ayana's broken sword. She also describes Ensuu smiling afterwards, saying "The way people break is fun to watch, because it's so complicated." These are (as Meiko herself later admits) fabrications, but they accomplish their intended goal of provoking Ayana to challenge her and Ensuu in a Hoshitori duel. (83-84, 93-96)
 * Ayana thinks of Ensuu; she hopes to defeat her to draw closer to Yukari and to see the "blurry areas" of herself more clearly. (141)

Volume 9

 * Maki helps Hayate train by affecting Ensuu's fighting style, using a wooden sword with a stick tied to the end. Meanwhile, Ensuu runs on a treadmill. Meiko suggests she should take more pleasure in her destructive exploits, describing her own enjoyment at seeing people suffer, leading Ensuu to call her "weird." The exchange suggests that the line Meiko had earlier attributed to Ensuu (concerning the Yukari incident) in fact represented her own thoughts at the time, as further suggested by Ayana's memories, in which Meiko, not Ensuu, is the one smiling. (Ch. 49)
 * Ensuu's image appears in Hayate's thoughts. She is then seen perched in a tree, determinedly awaiting her match with Ayana. (Ch. 51)
 * The Hoshitori bell rings, and the Kurogane/Mudou v. Ju/Himuro duel commences. Ensuu is thrilled to finally be able to fight the person she addresses as "Compatriot" (or "Sister") once more. (Ch. 52)
 * Once again ignoring the intended goals and structure of Hoshitori duels, Ensuu knocks out Hayate (the Heaven Sword) so she can duel one-on-one with Ayana, even though, as Ayana is the Earth Sword, neither of them can strike a valid hit on the other. To facilitate the release of Ayana's violent inner nature, Meiko steals her glasses, which did not correct but blurred her vision. (Ch. 53)
 * Exposed to the ferocious, bestial glare of Ensuu's eyes, Ayana flies further and further into a mindless rage, until Hayate intervenes by catching her sword with her forehead. (Ch. 54)

Volume 10

 * Hayate absorbs Ensuu's attention long enough for Ayana to eliminate Meiko, leaving the duel two-against-one. Ayana swings Hayate like a sword, striking Ensuu's star and ending the match. Ensuu continues to attack, but Ayana is able to block her, and she is restrained by the umpires.
 * Following her defeat, Ensuu loses whatever remaining interest she had in the Hoshitori, and begins devoting herself more fully to sleeping and eating.