Osamu Kirin

"There's a British proverb that goes like this: "When in you find yourself in Rome, you should do as the Romans do." Which means while visiting an unfamiliar place, blend in."

- Osamu Kirin to Towa Higurashi

 is the English teacher at Saint Gabriel Academy and Towa Higurashi's homeroom teacher. In secret however, he is also the second incarnation of the qilin daiyōkai Lord of the Eastern Lands Kirinmaru. He is a major antagonist in the final battle of the Second Act.

Early Life
600 years ago in the, Kirinmaru lost his right arm in a battle with Tōga: he returned to his ship with his severed arm, and Zero ordered Riku to dispose of it. Riku dropped the arm in the Bone-Eater's Well where it transported to the, once there, it formed itself into the being known as Osamu Kirin in which he doesn't come out of the well that is inside the wellhouse until in 2000 in the , Kagome Higurashi went back in time to the Sengoku jidai. He went on to become a teacher at Saint Gabriel Academy in the.

Role in the Modern Era
Osamu lectured Towa and the fact that she was late and caught fighting with gang members. However, he opted not to tell Sōta and Moe Higurashi, and let the incident slide.

A few days later, Towa was looking out the window during Osamu's class, and he approached her, jokingly saying that whatever is out there won't save her from his class.

Seeing the Grim Comet
A sometime later, Osamu came to as he saw the Grim Comet approaching, and commented that it appears even in the Reiwa era before spotting Sōta with his young daughter, as his wife arrives from her trip in around the world where the orchestra concert is. He also took notice when Sōta said that nobody else could see the comet with the naked eye.

As Towa continues to be absent from school, he conveniently spends even more time with the Higurashi family as he looks for clues about himself, but he does not want to tell them why. He looks around and is sad about Bone-Eater's Well (but he didn't know that it's covered by the wellhouse). He stands next to the Sacred Tree of Ages, trying to think of what to do without asking them for help.

Osamu saw the Grim Comet is getting closing as he stands at the entrance to the shrine as Grandpa Higurashi sensed the Sacred Tree sensed something ominous. He later saved Mei and her friends from Shibugarasu with a stream of demonic energy and admitted that they were supposed to be extinct.

Osamu went into the sewers and destroyed some toad demons. He worried about his inability to destroy the Grim Comet, but vowed that he would continue to protect the people until it crashed. He also estimated that it was on the other side of the world currently and would crash in Japan the next day.

Working with the Half-Demon Princesses
The next day, Osamu would be working in the teachers lounge when Towa would approach him. Towa asks about the Grim Comet, and Osamu is surprised she would know anything about. On the roof of the school, Osamu realizes Towa is a hanyō and surmises Setsuna and Moroha are as well. He laments that he didn't know he was the foreign object, and the reason the Grim Comet had come back to Earth.

Moroha and Setsuna get ready to eliminate him, but Osmau turns around, and apologizes. Moroha and Setsuna are confused that Kirinmaru's right arm doesn't desire the destruction of the Reiwa Era. Osmau admits that he was the right arm of Kirinmaru, but thinks humanity deserves to live. As the girls decide whether or not to believe him, they are attacked by a group of carrion crows attacked them. The girls and Osamu destroyed them and he thanked them for their help.

Towa asks where the Grim Comet is and Osamu says it is on the other side of the world currently and won't be seen till night. He tells them that they can't destroy the grim comet since it isn't close enough and be assumes they can't fly. Osamu informs them the emergence of more demons during the 6x's concert, and asks for their help. The girls agree to help Osamu.

As nighttime fell, he used his pyrokinesis to incinerate the spider head-demons whom he realized were merely pawns for a ringleader hiding in the background. During this time, Kirinmaru kept demanding Osamu let him into the Reiwa Era. Osmau refuses since he doesn't want Kirinmaru to bring the degenerate age into the modern era. Afterwards, he reconvenes with the girls, and they see the Grim Comet, but the girls wonder why humans aren't reacting to it. Osamu says they can't see it.

Osamu and the girls head to the top of and face down the Grim Comet as it approaches them. He then goes right into the very center of the comet and discovers its true self as a pale blue glowing material deep within it. He tells the girls' to go according to this plan, which they do with their respective attacks. Upon witnessing Towa risk her own wellbeing by absorbing the comet's infinite demonic energies as her very kon continues to be drained from her, the right arm of Kirinmaru expresses his wonder at her self-sacrifice. He assures Towa that he will take on the mission of destroying both the comet and Kirinmaru with the Zanseiken as he had once wielded when he was Kirinmaru's right arm.

Arrival in the Feudal Era
Once glimpsing a large and wide pale blue glowing substance within the very center of the comet, he uses his mighty demonic abilities to bring it through space-time to the feudal era, where he finally meets his other half for the very first time in the flesh. Claiming that he had come to grant Kirinmaru's wish, he shows the Beast King images from around the modern world, which he is sure that Rion would enjoy them. He then tells his other half that only his sword, the almighty Bakuseiken, can most likely destroy the Grim Comet.

Osamu used the Zanseiken and slayed demons, offering their power up to help the Grim Butterfly take form. He later drugged Kirinmaru and stopped Rion from using the power of the Kyūyōkon Root on him. Rion recognized his scent and connection to the man her father used to be. Osamu later took Rion and Riku tried to stop him, and save Rion. Instead, Rion declared she no longer needed Riku, and used the power of the Kyūyōkon root to awaken the Grim Butterfly.

Merging with the Grim Butterfly
The Grim Butterfly immediately linked its fate to both Osamu and Rion, pulling them closer to itself. Osamu declared thay he and Rion will be immortal linked to the Grim Butterfly, and that now he won't die even if Kirinmaru does. Osamu offers Riku to join them, but he refuses and throws his sword at Osamu. Osamu throws the sword back at Riku, and the impact wakes up Kirinmaru, who sees Rion and Osamu being absorbed into the Grim Butterfly. Osamu notices Kirinmaru just before he sinks into it.

Inside the Grim Butterfly, Rion is trapped in a sphere while Osamu encourages her to use the Grim Butterfly's power to destroy all of the demons. Kirinmaru bursts into the room, and Osamu demands he kneel before his new king. Furious, Kirinmaru goes to attack Osamu, who blocks Kirinmaru's strike with the Zanseiken. Osamu laughs that he was Kirinmaru's original right hand, and is much stronger than his "shoddy replacement". Osamu kicks Kirinmaru away, who yells at Rion to open her eyes.

Osamu retorts that Kirinmaru is the one who needs to open his eyes, and proceeds to scold Kirinmaru for bringing Rion into the battle field even after the Dog General told him not to. Osamu says Kirinmaru is the worst kind of father, and Kirinmaru wonders if Osamu is right. Osamu then tells Kirinmaru to go and kill Sesshomaru as it is what both Kirinmaru and Rion want.

Battle with Towa
Osmau is confronted by Towa, Setsuna, Moroha, and Riku. Towa and Riku prepare to fight Osamu as Sestuna and Moroha proceed to where Rion is. Osamu defends his decision and says that Rion was killed by a half-demon. Riku thinks about how Rion was killed by a half-demon, yet doesn't hate them. Riku is about to tell Towa something about Rion when Rion's voice yells at him to shut up and wraps Riku up in a web like cocoon, and lifts him away.

Personality
Osamu is a very calm and friendly teacher. He does not approve of Towa's fighting, tardiness, and absences. For unknown reasons, he does not punish her. When viewing the Grim Comet, he was shown to be aware of its existence with his glasses, and was stern when understanding that regular humans in the future cannot perceive the comet in the sky. He has an attachment to the Higurashi shrine, his place of birth. His personality is not unlike Riku as he can be as gentle and cunning.

Rather mysterious and cryptic, Osamu tends to act in ways that aren't fully informative of his actual intentions and is thus difficult to read. Despite his yōkai origins, he claims to love humans and grow accostumed to the modern world, much unlike his original self who looked down on them. It was because of this self-professed attachment that he sought the means to stop the Grim Comet from colliding with Earth, knowing it would spell humanity's doom by a massive horde of yōkai. His intentions looked genuine enough as he continuously rejected his original self's orders to bring him to the present world, knowing of the chaos his forced time travel would cause for the sengoku era.

Osamu tends to act with rather exaggerated and strange manners, mixing proverbs, english dialogue and inflated self-praise. When the demon Princesses arrived and offered to help, he was delighted he had found "good retainers" viewing himself as a leading commander of sorts. He proved to be an efficient tactician and display proper combat intelligence during their teamwork, at the same time he wanted Towa to make sure to look at history books, stating his name would go down as a hero for dealing with the Grim Comet.

Ultimately much of these outwards display of humanity within him would only be one facet of his personality. He would reveal a far nastier, calculating, cruel and sadistic side, in many ways similar to Kirinmaru himself: He would seek to use the Grim Comet in order to elevate himself, spread genocidal chaos without any shred of remorse so long as it achieved his objectives, arrogantly look down on fundamentally everyone of his foes while displaying a lofty air, amongst many others. In this state he displays a fairly noticeable obsession with Rion much in the same way Kirinmaru did, trying to coerce her to his side, down to even displaying imagery of multiple countries from the modern world saved within his memory as a means to show to Rion since Kirinmaru had done the same during her younger days. A notable difference is that Osamu is far more manipulative on his methods, honey-lacing his words towards Rion while taking advantage of her still lingering feelings of affection for her father which were triggered through caring physical contact. Despite claiming to care for Rion, he is as equally selfish as Kirinmaru himself, believing himself to speak on her behalf and to actually understand and seek her true desires, while all he did was control her into acting on his behalf, while not even allowing Rion to actually voice her real wishes, a testament of his hypocrisy.

Now that he commands great power, Osamu's ego inflates to a dangerously megalomaniac point, believing Rion (and most likely himself by extension) will rule the world with the power of the Grim Butterfly, speaking in even more maniatical self-engrandoising ways regarding himself, even to the point of rubbing on Kirinmaru's face that he was his true right hand, and that the one he currently had was a mere fake. He actively rubs this superiority to the Demon Princesses as well, fundamentally Towa, to whom he pretends to give "a lesson" as they fight.

Another noticeable similarity with Kirinmaru is his boiling disgust towards humanity, albeit for completely different reasons. He voices his open distate for humanity effectively driving yōkai and half-demons away while whitewashing history to paint supernatural entities as both evil and fictional, despite the fact that these same beings were largely responsible for significant contributions on human progress. He attributes this facet of humanity to the fact they abhor truth and believes they should know the actual facts even if it is displeasing. Osamu even declares he originally wanted to be a history teacher, showing vocal distate for humanity's history developments between the past and present, filled with strife and conflict which reinforce his supposed belief that he (through Rion) is fit to rule the world to correct humanity's mistakes.

Physical description
Osamu seem to be on Kirinmaru's similar height, as well as his face partially being concealed, and the symbol on his right right arm. He has slightly tanned skin, long brown hair, and wears a pair of dark thick gray glasses that tend to obscure his dark green eyes, similar to what Riku's were before being blinded. He wears a white shirt with a green tie underneath a greenish brown blazer, matching greenish brown pants, grayish blue socks, and brown shoes. He also wears a light brown trench coat with a gray belt, a grayish blue scarf, and a pair of dark gray gloves during winter.

Powers and Abilities
As an incarnation of the mighty and powerful beast king Kirinmaru, he possess an array of demonic abilities and attacks, which he utilizes only at night to enjoy his hobby in slaying demons that have recently emerged from the Grim Comet.
 * Demonic Energy Barrage: Osamu uses his two fingers to slash the Carrion Crows to shreds by unleashing a stream of purple demonic energy from his hand.
 * Demonic Energy Shockwave: Osamu can release quite a strong shockwave of demonic energy from his hands.
 * Pyrokinesis: He can generate pale blue fire from his hand.
 * Flight: Unlike Riku, he can fly at will.
 * Longevity: Being born of a daiyōkai, he is capable living for many centuries, hence his journey through the Bone-Eater's Well that separated the feudal and modern timelines by five centuries. As such, he does not age.
 * Psychic Link: He has a telepathic connection with Kirinmaru, being his other half.
 * Evolved Intuition: His natural sixth sense of intuition is quite high, being the only being in the modern timeline able to see the Grim Comet and detect the presence of demonic energies nearby.
 * Immense Strength: Osamu Kirin is strong enough to stop the Grim Comet with his bare hands, and drag it into the feudal era. He can even buff up his muscles to give himself more power.

Weapons

 * Zanseiken: Osamu knows how to wield the Zanseiken since he has the memories and experience of when be was Kirinmaru's left arm. He can wield it efficiently and seamlessly as a result, being able to clash blades with Kirinmaru and Towa, and push the latter back.

Weakness

 * Left Arm: Osamu Kirin's left arm had the same insignia that was on Kirinmaru's arm. When Towa cut off that arm, Osamu's body was instantly destroying, implying that was a weakness since he was fine after being stabbed in the chest by Towa.

Former Weakness

 * Linked Fate: Being an incarnation of Kirinmaru, Osamu Kirin would perish when Kirinmaru does. He later cancelled out this connection by linking his fate to the Grim Butterfly, so that even if Kirinmaru were to die, he would still survive.

Relationships
Being his creator/father, he is very loyal to the Beast King of the Eastern Lands, allowing him to see and hear exactly what he does all through to the modern era. It is through him that Kirinmaru desires to go to the modern era and obliterate the Grim Comet for humanity and be worshiped as a god. Kirinmaru keeps ordering to let him through the Windmill of Time, but Osamu wouldn't allow him to bring forth the Degenerate Age. He finally meets his other half upon taking the Grim Comet to the warring states era. He says he is glad to meet him and tries to shake hands with him, but the rouge Beast King punches him in the face instead for his refusal to obey him. Osamu assures him that he will show the various places he has traveled while living in the modern era- Tokyo, modern Japan,, , , , , or even , - sure that she will enjoy their beauty. He then tells Kirinmaru that he has come to grant his wish by bringing the Grim Comet itself to the feudal era, as he is certain that the Bakuseiken is great enough for it to tremble at Kirinmaru's might.
 * Kirinmaru

A student of his at Saint Gabriel Academy, he let her first day of tardiness slide much to her shock. He even showed concern for her long-term absence from school. After Towa returned from the Sengoku era, he was surprised to learn of Towa being a hanyō. And while fighting demons at a concert, he recognizes the Zanseiken that Towa was wielding, and was amazed.
 * Towa Higurashi

He blissfully introduced himself to Towa's relatives, easily recognizing all of them while he was out stargazing. He discussed the comet with him in order to find out how much they know of the Grim Comet and the feudal era.
 * Sōta Higurashi

They have encountered each other so often, that she politely demanded that he go see Sōta regarding Towa's absence. However, he continues to vouch for her as long as he has unlimited access to the Higurashi shrine.
 * Ms. Higurashi

In a clandestine search for clues about his birth, Osamu Kirin asked Grandpa Higurashi if he still had any of the Shikon Jewel key-chains to sell.
 * Grandpa Higurashi

With no one else to turn to, he places his hand on the trunk of the insuperable entity of time to ask for its infinite wisdom and advice on what to do now he has become an anomaly in the fabric of time.
 * Sacred Tree of Ages

She is very kind and polite to Osamu, who is also very kind to her. Osamu later protects her and her friends from the carrion crow-demons by destroying them with a stream of demonic energy. He expressed sorrow at thinking of such a young life being wiped out by the Grim Comet and demons.
 * Mei Higurashi

Having retained his memories from when he was Kirinmaru's right arm, he deeply cares about Rion and is devastated to find out that she died. It causes Osamu to resolve to return to the feudal era with the Grim Comet, and destroy Kirinmaru and all the other demons.
 * Rion

Trivia

 * Osamu Kirin's Japanese voice actor (Yoshimasa Hosoya) and English voice actor (Crispin Freeman) both voice his "father" Kirinmaru.
 * His connection with Kirinmaru was hinted first given to his name and that they have the same voice. It would then be confirmed with his foreboding notice of the Grim Comet appearing in the Reiwa Era and when Kirinmaru of the Feudal era states that the comet even does appears in the modern era.
 * He, like Riku, is an incarnation of Kirinmaru, given that just like with Riku, Kirinmaru is able to see and hear through Kirin. This was proven when he was interacting with the infinitely powerful Sacred Tree of Ages, as while he was doing it, there's a glowing symbol on his right arm.
 * The Sacred Tree of Ages refers to him as "the foreign body" ordering the Half-Demon Princesses to put an end to him to save all that exists.