Ishi Haseo

 

''This is the Ishi of Sword Art Online: Blade Master. For the original character from Clashing Blades, see Ishi.''

Ishi Haseo is a player of Sword Art Online, and is the main character of Sword Art Online: Blade Master.

Appearance
Ishi wears a black sleeveless shirt with black pants and black knee high boots with metal plating. He wears a white two tailed jacket with black trim and a gray fur-lined collar. He wears Arondight on his back and Gilgamesh on his left forearm.

He bears multiple scars on his right arm, in addition two the two scars on his face, which is why he tends to keep the arm covered by his jacket sleeve.

In real life, he wears the normal uniform of his high school, being a white collared shirt with a black blazer, with black slacks and black shoes.

Background
Ishi's mother died during childbirth, and his father drank himself to death when he was 5. After that, he was taken in by his grandparents, who cared for him until they died when Ishi was 13 and 14. After that, Ishi inherited his grandparent's house and is now living off the money his wealthy aunt and uncle send him monthly. It was with this money that he was able to acquire a NerveGear.

Ishi's childhood was mostly spend in deep and near suicidal depression, with emotional and physical abuse from his peers. This is how he gained the scars on his right arm, as well as on his face, after he was cut multiple times by a sword one of his bullies possessed in a kenjutsu class he used to take. After the incident, Ishi began teaching himself in his own way of handling a blade, quickly developing his own personal style. In a short amount of time, he gained skill enough to directly confront the same bully with a blade of his own, managing to deliver a swift and powerful slash to the face and stomach, causing the bully to lose an eye as well as nearly be disemboweled. Ishi was able to claim self-defense with the incident and got away with it.

This incident was the catalyst that gave Ishi his insatiable bloodlust, which is the reason why he has repressed the memory. The years of childhood trauma has lead Ishi to have a natural distrust of people, and he has just a few friends, and almost no close friends because of this.

Personality
Ishi is usually cold and uncaring about most people, and tends to stick to himself on all things. He prefers to be alone in most situations, seeing other people as useless, and has gone so far as to say he hates other people. He rarely lets anyone get close to him as he tends to expect the worst in people. Despite this, he is not outright malicious to others.

Despite this, the years of emotional and physical abuse have indeed made Ishi a kind and caring person at heart to those who manage to get past his cold exterior. To this end, he can be very loyal, compassionate, and empathetic, despite what first impressions may tell. He is especially caring towards those who share similar pasts, and can empathize with these people instantly.

He is often left confused and uncertain about some situations because of this duality between his dislike of people and his knowledge of humanity's ability to be cruel to one another, and his sense of empathy and compassion telling him that people are worth more. He is unsure of which side to believe.

He has shown to possess wisdom beyond his years due to his life experiences, and the lessons he's taken from all his hardships and trials.

Relationships
Misaki Akimi - Misaki was Ishi's only childhood friend, and is also his closest friend, helping him through his depression during childhood. It is due to their close bond through the years that they formed a romantic relationship, and ended up sleeping with each other not long before SAO. Ishi cares for Misaki deeply, and has even thought about proposing to her in a few years.

Abilities
Ishi is a naturally skilled swordsman, utilizing his single-handed blade, Arondight, and his clawed gauntlet, Gilgamesh, to an inhuman level of ability. He is near undefeatable in close quarters, as his special self-taught fighting style is both deadly and unpredictable, with varying techniques that Ishi can switch between mid-combat to keep an enemy on their toes. His unique skill, Zero Shift, allows him to achieve ultimate speed and agility in combat, allowing him to evade and close distance near instantaneously in a single step. Ishi possesses no other combat skills, refusing to learn any others and prefering to use his own self-taught techniques unassisted.

Even outside the game, Ishi was naturally talented, developing his skills over years into his own natural fighting style that doesn't resemble any other kind of art in the world, making the unorthodox technique quite lethal to the unprepared.

Due to his hardships during childhood, as well as his uncaring personality, Ishi is abnormally resistant to pain, being able to shrug off damage that would cripple a normal person. He has claimed that he can indeed feel the pain as anyone else would, but that he just doesn't care to acknowledge it.