Yuuki Terumi

"This whole world is nothing but lies! LIES! Let me show you what I like to call the truth! The truth called DESPAIR!"

- Yuuki Terumi

Yuuki Terumi, also known as Black Susano'o, is the true main antagonist of the video game series, BlazBlue. He is a former member of the Six Heroes and the creator of the Azure Grimoire and by extension the Black Beast. He originally appeared as a non-playable character in the story mode of Calamity Trigger, but starting with Continuum Shift as the main antagonist, he became a playable character as well as his true form separated from Hazama in Choronophantasma. In Central Fiction, both Terumi and Hazama reappear as playable characters and do appear to be important characters to the story despite their status in Chronophantasma.

He was voiced by Yuichi Nakamura in the Japanese dub ever since Calamity Trigger, while in the English dub, he was voiced by Erik Davies from Calamity Trigger to Continuum Shift, and currently voiced by Doug Erholtz since Continuum Shift Extend.

Information
Yuuki Terumi was originally one of the Six Heroes who fought against the Black Beast in the First War of Ars Magus. He created the Azure Grimoire (and in turn, the Black Beast) and had wished to quell the mistake he had made. However after the beast was destroyed, he turned his back on the Six Heroes, and murdered one of them, Nine, who was the mother of a fellow heroes' child.

He was the original owner of the Susano'o Unit armor (which now belongs to Hakumen), and it is assumed that, after realizing he was forever linked to the Master Unit while in the armor, he drove himself out of it - which is possibly why he now appears as a ghost. He was formerly sealed away in the Boundary after Hakumen sacrificed himself to pull him in, with help from Jubei. He was later released before the events of Calamity Trigger by Takamagahara.

Years before the events of Calamity Trigger, Terumi had appeared at Celica's church, where Ragna, Jin, and Saya lived. Upon arrival, he killed Celica. After possessing Jin, Terumi burned down the church, cut off Ragna's arm, and abducted Saya (or in actually retrieved his boss Izanami who had trouble controlling Saya). For much the events of the first game, Ragna believed Jin to be responsible for this incident.

Phase Shift 0
When Relius Clover and Shūichirō Ayatsuki worked on an experiment to examine the Gate, Terumi offered his knowledge and information, as well as the Susano'o Unit, for their studies. During Relius' trial experiment, the Black Beast was unintentionally created and emerged from the Cauldron. Relius was swallowed by the Cauldron and Terumi's physical form was destroyed while his spirit form took heavy damage. It took five years for his spirit body to heal, after which Terumi contacted Relius in order to ask the whereabouts of his next body that Clover promised to prepare. The body, Kazuma Kval, was placed in Ishana, which was protected by a barrier that Terumi couldn't overcome in his current form. Instead, he opted to calling directly into Kazuma's mind from the Boundary itself.

​Phase Shift 1
Six years later, after the Black Beast's first arrival, Terumi's calls was ended up mostly ignored by Kazuma. However, when Tomonori threatened to end Kazuma's life, Terumi managed to reach him due to Kazuma's desperation for survival. The day after, after waking up from a dream, Kazuma sees Terumi as a delusion and was unable to recognize him and Terumi started tempting him with the Azure.

The Azure was a tempting proposal, as it not only gave Kval's life meaning, but also offered him a chance to reclaim what he lost, including his memories. Thus, Kazuma began his search for the Azure. After Kval fails to find anything about the Azure at the library, Terumi again appears in order to aid him in his journey. He surprises Kazuma with not only vast knowledge about the Mage's Guild, but also about Kval's own thoughts and feelings and is because the only pace that Terumi existed in Ishana, was in Kazuma's own mind. After Yuki's reveal that the Guild's secret information, hidden in the Cathedral, is a way to reach the Azure, they are again imprisoned in a barrier ars, this time performed by 3 Half-Beastkin assassins. In exchange for Kazuma's promise to obtain the Azure, Terumi kills of the 3 assailants. Later that night, worried Trinity comes to Kval's room, asking if something happened as Nine again had felt a strange power (ars), like the last time that Kazuma was attacked. After she leaves the room, Terumi manipulates Kazuma into believing that Trinity's real purpose was to keep him in check all along.

Finally, Kazuma manages to reach to the bottom of the Cathedral, where the man-made Cauldron is hidden. Unfortunately, Tomonori once again reappears and prepares to kill Kazuma. However, the Boundary opens and Terumi managed to enter Kazuma's body and kills Tomonori, but was injured during the battle. He tries to flee, but he is encountered by Valkenhayn, who beats him effortlessley. Terumi is then taken to Moonlight Castle, where Clavis Alucard successfully seals him away.

However, Konoe A. Mercury soon realized that Terumi's power and knowledge was necessary in defeating The Black Beast. She releases Terumi from his seal and uses the Mind Eater curse on him, binding him to Konoe's beck and call. However, Terumi managed to split his mind with Kazuma's before the spell connected, causing Terumi's controlled mind to be trapped inside the body while Kazuma takes control.

​Phase Shift 2
During the action, he is forced to follow Nine's order, but when no one is watching him, Kazuma takes over to act behind her back.

As Seven and Eight plan to go against Nine's order to dispose of the first Causality Weapon before it's complete, Kazuma appears to aid them in their schemes. He personally introduces them to the Novus Orbis Librarium and their collaboration with the organization begins. He's also shown seeping poisonous words into Trinity's ears.

During the Black Beast's appearance, he was part of Ishana's magician unit.

​Phase Shift 4
After the war, Kazuma manipulated Trinity Glassfille, who had feelings for him, into releasing Terumi from the spell. After his release, he murdered Konoe and Trinity, threw their bodies into the Boundary, and proceeded to seek out Hakumen and Jubei so he could the same. Terumi had the upper hand, but Jubei used Tomonori's Sekigan to force him materialize. As he was taken by surprise, Hakumen grabbed him and jumped into the Cauldron while Jubei closed the gate, sealing both Hakumen & Terumi.

Terumi was sealed and trapped inside the Boundary before being finally released by Takamagahara. He met Relius, who had just finished his time leap after being swallowed by the Cauldron, again and the two resumed their partnership. Relius apparently made Terumi a new body soon after (Hazama). However, Terumi and Hazama remain as separate entites cause of the Mind Eater's effects. During the creation of Mu-12, Sector Seven desired to merge both Hazama and Noel to make a Black Beast, but Takamagahara stopped their plans by using Take-Mikazuchi, destroying the facility, leaving Mu-12 incomplete, and adopting the new identity, Noel Vermillion.

The Wheel of Fortune
Terumi briefly appear in the original timeline when he switched faces with Hazama in order to fight Hakumen. After fighting for a brief while, he shouted out for Relius to help him and, after Hakumen attacked the Puppeteer, the two engaged the leader of the Six Heroes. After Phenomenon Intervention occurred, Terumi began to throw up as he had reached the limit of his-observation. He cockily told Relius to shut up and that he would handle the rest.

Calamity Trigger
During the majority of Calamity Trigger, Terumi only appeared both in his ghost form and taking over Hazama's body a couple times. During Rachel Alucard's story mode, he appears twice as Terumi, switch position the first time mocking Valkenhayn, and the second time mocking Rachel herself.

After the final fight of the True Ending in Calamity Trigger, he appears before Noel and Ragna, and after Rachel arrives, he loses his calm demeanor. His hair spikes up and his voice becomes much louder. Rachel and Ragna, having recognized Terumi from the attack on the church years before, attack him immediately, but he simply shrugs it off, and begins to taunt Ragna over the church attack before departing.

Continuum Shift
In Continuum Shift, Terumi appears as the main antagonist where he appears only in Hazama's astral or he takes over in story mode.

It is revealed that Terumi, like Hakumen and Rachel, will fade away without an Observer. Takamagahara, and later Mu (with the power of the Eye), with whom he shared a Life Link, observed him in BlazBlue. However, Mu lost her power after she turned back to Noel and Takamagahara was attacked by a magical virus from Phantom, losing its power. Terumi did not fade away, however, because he had awakened Izanami, using her vessel Saya as his Observer. As an added measure, he is using Ragna's hatred as a force to bind him to this world, as well.

Chronophantasma
He was tasked with erecting a barrier over the Ikaruga region, preparing the 13th Prime Field Device and managing Tsubaki Yayoi. Among his other goals was taking care of Ragna the Bloodedge and the remaining Six Heroes.

As part of their plan, Trinity and Rachel utilize Arma Reabore: Muchorin on a powerful level to materialize Terumi in the real world. To do so, they assault Terumi's mind and agitate him by having various illusions of characters he finds particularly annoying to taunts him, such as Bang, Ragna, and his fellow Six Heroes. Prior to Amaterasu's forced intervention, he even has fight himself, who claims that even Trinity might have not predicted so far. Eventually, Terumi's consicousness is forced to become the front side while Hazama's becomes the backside. The Heroes catch him downtown Yabiko, and almost kill him if not for Phantom's intervention. Terumi somehow manages to become the backside later, and meets Trinty again the Heroes split up to look for him. He easily defeats Trinity, but Hakumen appears to save her,. Terumi traps both of them in Phantom's Infinite Corridor to lock them away forever, but Trinity and Hakumen use the power of Muchorin to confront the source of the barrier.

In the finale, he goes to the Monolith as told by Hazama and meets Hakumen. As Hakumen tries to ascertain his existence, Terumi blames what happened on Trinity and Rachel, saying his regonition it all over the place despite benig finally set free. He then encounters Hakumen in battle. Terumi gains the upper hand by not allowing Hakumen any opening to charge his technique. However, as Trinity ambushes Hazama, the connection between him and Terumi put the latter to a temporary halt. Using the chance, Hakumen uses Time Killer on Terumi and kills all of his "time", effectively destroying him.

Central Fiction
Despite Hakumen's death blow, Terumi managed to survive by observing himself and he has to merge with Hazama again before he dies as his self-observing is only limited to a week. He became suspicious of Hazama so he decided to get a new vessel. For that reason, he discarded his fragment of Azure, and instead he went to the unobserved place in the Alucard Castle, where he found Clavis' coffin, and after fighting his duplicate created from some sort of protection spell, Terumi took a cube from it, stating that with this he will gain the best vessel and destroy everything.

Personality
Cruel, sadistic, selfish, and insane beyond measure, Terumi delights in the suffering of others, both physical and mentally, relishes pure chaos. He happily provokes and manipulates others for his own amusement, and ruthlessly tortures anyone who irritates him or get in his way. Unsurprisingly, this has earned him the contempt of almost every character in BlazBlue universe, most notably Ragna, Kokonoe, and Nine. However, he is prone to breakdowns and enraged tantrums when things don't go his way.

Appearance
Terumi wears a hooded yellow cape along with long black ribbons across his arms. He also retains a few articles of clothing from his Hazama persona, including an open shirt beneath his vest that shows his chest, two belts, and black pants. When he activates Nightmare Reaper, his Overdrive, the force of the activation removes his hood, revealing his spiky green hair. His hair is also revealed during Hazama's Distortion "Serpents Unholy Wrath" and the end of his Astral.

Powers and Abilities
Stated by Jubei to be a powerful magic-user, Terumi has proven to be one of the most powerful characters in the BlazBlue universe. Terumi's primary ability is to feed on the hatred of others to make himself stronger, and it also allows him to anchor himself into the physical world. In ghost form, Terumi is intangible and immune to most attacks save those that are specially designed to harm ghosts, such as Tomonori's Hihirokane. Despite his incorporeal state, Terumi is still able to physically interact with the world. Terumi was shown to be able to erase memories by "eating" them, commenting that they are delicious. He used this ability twice, both of which were on Jin Kisaragi.

In battle, Terumi is a powerful, vicious, and savage opponent, able to fight on par with both Hakumen and Jubei. In line with his sadism, Terumi's fighting style revolves around inflicting as much pain on his enemy as possible before finally killing them. In contrast to Hazama, who relies on his Ouroboros chains and whose fighting style was graceful and dance-like, Terumi's style is far more barbaric and cruel, relying more on his serpentine spirits, butterfly knives, and knives within the heels of his shoes. He is also adept in the use of his Ouroboros for direct attacks, using it for his Snake Bite, Retaliating Fang, Venomous Bite, and Screeches of the Condemned attacks, being these the only times he uses it as such. Terumi is also able to access the power of the Susano'o Unit despite no longer owning it, using it to transform into the Dark Susano'o, a black and green shadow version of Hakumen, and deal the final blow in his Astral Heat, Unholy Wrath of the Basilisk.

Terumi is a character with more Distortion Drives than special moves. His Drive, Force Eater, allows Terumi to have a much greater Heat Gauge gain while negating it to his opponents, allowing him to utilize his Heat-related abilities far more than any other character and having several combo opportunities to use them, making his potential damage output outright devastating. His Overdrive is Nightmare Reaper, which strengthens Terumi's Drive attacks and allows him to absorb the opponent's Heat Gauge, similar to Ragna the Bloodedge's Soul Eater.

Etymology
The "yū" in "Yūki" is from Japanese 優 yū – "gentleness, superiority" or 悠 yū – "distant, leisurely" is a literal translation. Whereas 希 ki – "hope", 輝 ki – "radiance" or 生 ki – "life" serves as the other half of the translation. However, the most likely translation is 幽鬼 yūki – "ghost" or "revenant".

His last name translates from Japanese as "beautiful shrine" and is a feminine name, although admittedly rare.

Hazama's Drive name, Ouroboros, refers to either a serpent or a dragon. The Ouroboros is usually represented by a snake biting its own tail, symbolizing infinity or a never-ending cycle. His Overdrive is named "Jormungand" which references the Jörmungandr of Norse mythology that grew large enough to bite its own tail, signifying the worlds end if it ever let go. Coincidentally, the symbol of Jörmungandr looks somewhat similar to the top half of Hazama's crest. Even more coincidentally, it reflects Terumi's relationship with Ragna, as Ragnar Lodbrok was a hero who slain the serpent Jörmungandr in some legends. Interestingly, the serpent itself is the symbol of Ouroboros in Norse Mythology.

Trivia

 * Terumi is considered to be one of the most hated and unlikable characters in video game history, mostly for his trollish antics and the negative affect he's had on all the main characters.
 * During the extra scene from the Arcade Mode of Continuum Shift II where he unleashes Mu-12, he is briefly voiced by Spike Spencer.
 * In all new scenes in Continuum Shift Extend, he is voiced by Doug Erholtz, who also voiced such anime and video game villains as Gin Ichimaru, Shinji Matou and MetalSeadramon.
 * His name "Hazama" comes from the place in the Boundary - the Edge - where he and Hakumen were sent.
 * Hazama's birthday falls on the International Dance Day, a reference to the fact some of his sprite movements are based off Michael Jackson, as well as an alternate color palette.Though Terumi's birthday is unknown.
 * Hazama does not have a human skeleton; what appears to be the imprint of his ghost form appears when he is electrocuted by.
 * Hazama is the only one who enjoys Noel's cooking, as seen in her gag ending. This leads to the assumption that Hazama has no taste in food.
 * Hazama is one of several characters, namely Ragna; Jin; Rachel; Hakumen and Platinum, who are playable in Lost Saga.
 * A bug has been observed in the Challenge Mode where when Hazama finishes a mission and then removes his hat, he may start the next mission with no hat and then having it spontaneously appearing on his head.
 * This has been observed for his poses with hair down. It doesn't happen when he makes his pose with spiked up hair.
 * Terumi is referred as the Lucifer/Satan figure of the BlazBlue universe:
 * Both uses many aliases to hide their true name.
 * Both led a rebellion against the gods.
 * Both were cast down (Lucifer to Hell and Terumi to the Boundary)
 * Both have took guises of normal humans and hiding their true self and intentions.
 * Both are fitting examples of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Wrath, Sloth, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Greed
 * Just like Satan, he is similar to the Antichrist.
 * Both of their plans involve to take over the world or start an apocalypse.
 * Both disguise themselves as either someone benevolent, unimportant, or harmless.
 * Both have try to undermine humanity.
 * Both are the embodiment of evil.
 * Terumi share similarities to a clown from Final Fantasy, Kefka Palazzo.
 * Both of their motive are to destroy the worlds.
 * Both are export characters of the Joker.
 * Both enjoy causing deaths, chaos, and misery.
 * They're the most dark and evil beings in their series.
 * Both see despair as the answer.
 * Both have disrespect and taunts their superiors, even betrayed them at one point.
 * Both succeed at becoming gods.
 * Mori in a BlazBlue Radio episode revealed that Yuuki Terumi is not his real name and is an alias he uses just like Hazama, this gives the implications that Soichiro Unomaru is Terumi's real name given the two share some similarities or at least Hazama.
 * Ripper from Xblaze is also similiar to Terumi not only in personialty but apperance in Lost Memories as Freaks.
 * Terumi is strikingly similar in many aspects to Medusa Gorgon from Soul Eater:
 * Both use snake like powers.
 * Both wear hoods with snake markings.
 * They needed bodies to host at one point (Medusa with Rachel & Arachne and Terumi with Hazama & Kazuma)
 * Considered the most evil beings in their respective universes.
 * Both are very powerful when it comes to close combat.
 * Both are known for acting like trolls in their series.
 * Both "die" through being forced out of their host bodies, being cut with a blade (Maka with Genie Hunter, Hakumen with Time Killer) and have hinted survivals (Medusa in the anime, Terumi with Central Fiction).
 * Their eyes glow with a certain color when hidden behind or under a shadow (Medusa's eye glow red while Terumi's glow green).
 * Both have deceived people until their cover is blown (Medusa as a school nurse, Terumi as Hazama).
 * Both of them have yellow eyes.
 * Both have controlled or corrupted people throughout their series (Medusa with Crona, Terumi with Tsubaki Yayoi).
 * Terumi also share similarities with Junko Enoshima from the Danganronpa series:
 * Both see despair as the only solution the world needs.
 * Both are responsible for the deaths around the main cast.
 * Both have manipulated people to the point of breaking them psychologically.
 * Both have used disguises to trick people (Terumi as Hazama, Junko as Monokuma).
 * Monaca Towa, the main antagonist of Ultra Despair Girls also shares similarities with Terumi on basically the exact reasons as Junko, but also:
 * Both of them successfully (for a brief period) managed to make protagonists fall into despair and become something they're not (Terumi turning Noel into Mu-12 and destroy the world and Monaca making Komaru almost break her controller, which would then start a civil war).
 * Both of them have also begged for the main protagonist to hate them to gain satisfaction to achieve their goal.
 * Terumi also has similarities to Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls.
 * Both act nice as a facade.
 * Both are incredibly sadistic once their true nature is revealed.
 * Both have plans to destroy the universe.
 * Both have manipulated main characters to complete their goals (Bill with Ford Pines, Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Li'l Gideon, & Blendin Blandin, and Hazama with Tsubaki Yayoi, Noel Vermillion, Litchi Faye-Ling, Arakune, Jin Kisaragi, Ragna the Bloodedge & Takamagahara).
 * Both of them wear hats.
 * Both are older than the universe they're living.
 * Both are extremely homicidal psychopaths.
 * Both made some powerful enemies (Bill Cipher to Ford Pines and Time Baby and Hazama to Ragna the Bloodedge, Hakumen & Rachel Alucard).
 * Terumi is also similar to Donquixote Doflamingo from One Piece series:
 * Both have influenced mad scientists in their series (Doflamingo to Caesar Clown and Terumi to Relius Clover).
 * Both have manipulated many people like puppets and ruined their lives.
 * They both killed the supporting character's wife/mother (Doflamingo killed Scarlett, Kyro's wife & Rebecca's mother, and Terumi killed Konoe A. Mercury, Jubei's wife & Kokonoe's mother).
 * Both of their goals involve destroying the world.
 * Both made a lot of enemies in their spare times (Doflamingo to Trafalgar Law, King Riku Dold III, Rebecca, Kyros, Viola, the Tontatta Kingdom, the Straw Hats, Gecko Moria, & the Celestial Dragons, and Terumi to Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi, Noel Vermilion, Rachel Alucard, Taokaka, Hakumen, Tsubaki Yayoi, Makoto Nanaya, Jubei, Platinum the Trinity, & Valkenhayn R. Hellsing).
 * Both have mastermind a terrible conflicts before the series began (Doflamingo for the Slaughter of Dressrosa and Terumi for the Ikaruga Civil War).
 * Both cut their most hated enemy's arm off (Doflamingo to Law and Terumi to Ragna).
 * Both are not very loyal to their superiors.
 * Both have been outgambitted and lost their positions.
 * Both have suffer many villainous breakdowns.
 * Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2 is compared to Yuuki Terumi as:
 * Both ruled a massive military that control an entire planet.
 * Both are examples of Fallen Heroes.
 * Both have went through several villainous breakdowns.
 * Both have use the leading female to summoning an all-powerful deities during a brief period (Jack use Lilith to summon the Warrior to destroy Pandora and Terumi use Noel to awake Mu-12 to kill Master Unit: Amaterasu)
 * They both enjoy mocking, trash-talking and trolling their enemies.
 * They flaunt their superiority and being sadistic in what they do.
 * Both have created the most destructive monsters and weapons.
 * He is also similar to Mal from Total Drama.
 * Both are Evils from the Past.
 * Both are Corrupting Influences.
 * Both enjoy reeking havoc and chaos.
 * ​Both of their actions have caused misery for others.
 * Both commit their heinous deeds under the guise of someone else (Yuuki as Hazama and Mal as Mike).
 * Both have different hair styles while using those guises
 * Both have manipulated others to further their plans or eliminate someone who poses a threat to them.
 * Both have no reasons for why they commit these heinous deeds other than for enjoyment.
 * Both of their punishments result in not only dying but being erased from existance.
 * Both are considered to be the darkest and most evil villains in their series.
 * Terumi is also similar to Nyarlathotep in Persona as they feed on hatred and worship despair.
 * Mephiles the Dark share similarties to Terumi since both are separated will of a god, completely insane, hates humanity, made of pure evil, and absolutely bloodthirsty.
 * He is also similar to Gilgamesh in Fate since they use female characters to summon all-powerful beasts to wipe out humanity.
 * They even look very similar and their hair spike up when they're true demeanor has been figured.
 * They are also heroes from an ancient past and were hailed until they found out how they truly were.
 * Both are incredibly powerful in their respective franchises.
 * Emperor Palpatine share many similarities to Terumi.
 * Both turned the hero into a villain.
 * Both created wars and controlled most part of the war.
 * Both created a political organization that has control over everything in the world and the galaxy.
 * Both were responsible for the majority of bad events in history.
 * Both are master manipulators.
 * Both are the most evil beings in the their universe.
 * Both posed as soft-spoken, polite, and benevolent character until they show their true colors.
 * Terumi and Palpatine have something extremely hilarious in everything they are planning. Palpatine: Everything is going as I predicted, and Terumi: See, I observed every. Single. Possibility.
 * Both are perfect example of Card-Carrying Villains.
 * Both have been using everyone in their series as pawns to further their goals.
 * They both have manipulated both sided into a war (the Republic and the Separatist Alliance for Palpatine, Sector Seven and Novus Orbis Labrarium for Terumi).
 * Both of them wear hoods.
 * Both already show appearance of how evil they are. For example: Palpatine has a hideously withered face, yellow eyes, a scary voice, and a black robe. Terumi has snake motifs, a slasher smile, laugh maniacally, and powers of darkness.
 * Both are Evil Counterparts to the Big Goods of their franchise. Palpatine as the Evil Counterpart of Yoda and Terumi as the Evil Counterpart of Hakumen.