Ayase/Luca Souju

"Now that we're acquainted, I'll show you something good. ♡"

- Ayase Souju

Ayase Souju is an antagonist appearing in Puella Magi Kazumi Magica. She is a traveling magical girl who collects Soul Gems from her opponents. Her targets are the Pleiades Saints.

She carries two Soul Gems, the second one housing the personality and powers of a girl called Luca Souju.

Personality
"Well done. Collecting your gem any other way wouldn't feel rewarding."

- - Luca Souju

Ayase acts cheerful and innocent, but only to drop her enemies' guard before letting loose her more vicious side. She is obsessed with collecting new Soul Gems, particularly the brighter ones of powerful magical girls.

Luca is more calm and reserved, though she is just as vicious as Ayase and seems to enjoy the challenge of collecting Soul Gems as well.

Both Ayase and Luca are very protective of each other's Soul Gems.

History
Instead of fighting over witch-hunting territory, Ayase wanders the countryside in search of new Soul Gems for her collection. She was en route to Mitakihara Town, but decided to stop by Asunaro City after hearing about the Pleiades Saints. Ayase made her debut in Chapter 7. She followed Kaoru, Saki, Satomi, and Mirai across the city and witnessed them taking a girl's Soul Gem for an as-of-yet unknown purpose. This, coupled with the brightness of their Soul Gems, made her determined to claim them for her collection. The next day, she follows Nico, Kazumi and Jubey to Asunaro's amusement park, Lavie-Land. After introducing herself and showing off her gems, she taunts Nico for also having engaged in "gem picking". This leads to a battle between the two.

Eventually, Ayase is corned by Nico's clones and has her Soul Gem removed. Nico thinks she has defeated Ayase, but is caught by surprise when Luca awakens in her place and attacks. Luca reclaims Ayase's Soul Gem at the end of the chapter.

Luca asks for Kazumi's name, threatening to take her Soul Gem. She claims that she has to collect Soul Gems or else she won't be able to coexist with Ayase. Jubey then claims that girls who lose their Soul Gems lose their magic and can even die (which is true, in a sense). Kazumi attacks Luca, but Luca uses "Cazzo Freddo" to freeze her. She notices the rarity of Kazumi's Soul Gem (her earring bell) not being located on her body, and tries to get ahold of it. Kazumi tells her not to touch it, suddenly unfreezing herself and hitting Luca in her Soul Gem. Luca then uses both her Soul Gems to be Ayase and Luca at the same time. Kazumi fires at her with Limiti Esterni while Ayase/Luca uses a new attack named "Pici Generati". The Soujous' attack makes it through and hits Kazumi, sending her flying. Watching the battle from afar, Nico receives a telepathic message from Saki, checking if Nico has taken Ayase/Ruka's Soul Gem. Nico asks Jubey what "Pici Generati" means, and he believes it means "Twin Peaks". After watching Ayase/Luca's power, Nico picks up Kazumi and flees with her and Jubey inside a roller coaster.

Nico tells Kazumi that Ayase/Luca's attack creates an explosion through their perfectly synchronized fire and ice magic. They are capable of this because they use the same body. Kazumi doesn't understand this, causing Nico to use tempura ice cream as a metaphor. Nico then claims that they have to do something similar with her own magic. This prompts Jubey to say that Kazumi's magic and Nico's reconstruction magic are like hot and cold. They encounter Ayase/Ruka again and all three of them fire. The Soujous' attack sends them flying, prompting Nico and Kazumi to try and combine their magic. Their magic hits Ayase/Luca's own attack, but it fails to negate it. Nico and Kazumi flee again through an underground 'Staff Only' tunnel, as Nico comments that the Soujous are better synchronized. When Ayase/Luca comes across them, Kazumi and Nico are holding hands. The Soujous fire "Pici Generati" again, but this time when Kazumi and Nico combine their magic Jubey bites their hands. This causes them to become synchronized, pushing their magic tight through Ayase/Luca's and causing an explosion that sends them to the surface.

Kazumi tells the Soujous that they've lost, but they respond by pulling out a box of Evil Nuts. They throw two of them at Nico and Kazumi, but Saki appears and catches them in mid-air. The other Pleiades jump down behind Kazumi, as Saki asks where the Soujous got the Evil Nuts. Ayase/Luca laughs instead of answering and tells the Pleiades to kill them, calling them "magical girl hunters" (similar to a phrase said by Yuuri some chapters before). Kaoru says they aren't murderers, but because they can't let the Soujous go they're taking they're Soul Gems. Kaoru says that Ayase and Ruka's Soul Gems are at their limit and pulls out both their gems.

In an attempt to keep magical girls from becoming witches, the Pleiades take Ayase and Luca's Soul Gems, along with their body, to the Freezer, where they are to be kept in stasis until they can be purified. Nico kept them in with the Soul Gem and body of another magical girl. The bodies of the magical girls had been shrunken to the point where they can be picked up by one hand. Nico puts into the bodies into two new containers, saying they "will keep on waiting for the prince's kiss."

Later on, as Saki becomes a witch, Mirai uses her "La Bestia" attack to retrieve the Soujus' Gems from the Freezer. Their corrupted Soul Gems simultaneously hatch into two Grief Seeds, giving birth to a giant witch with two faces. The Souju's witch then fights against Kaoru and Umika, protecting Saki's witch in the process.

Powers, Weapons and Abilities
While she wields a katana (a Japanese sword), Ayase mainly fights by shooting fireballs at her enemies. Because of her second Soul Gem, she can fight even after being incapacitated by switching to Luca's personality.

Likewise, Luca has a similar sword and can use ice magic with a spell called Cazzo Freddo. The pair can also combine and use a spell called Pici Generati (Twin Peaks), in which their attacks must be in sync or otherwise they would cancel each other out. However, since they share one body, they are able to synchronize their attacks perfectly. This spell uses their opposing magic types, fire and ice (contraction and expansion), and causes an explosion.

Trivia

 * Ayase's debut draws several parallels to Kyoko Sakura. She spies on her future opponents with enchanted binoculars, wears similar casual clothing and has a similar hair-style.
 * Ayase and Luca's outfits, Soul Gems and magic are all inversions of each other. While in egg form, their Gems share the same two emblems with the locations swapped. While transformed, their Gems on on opposite sides of their chests.
 * Despite using fire magic, Ayase's color scheme is primarily white and blue. **Likewise, Luca uses ice magic but has a primarily red outfit.