(Anfang) 

(ishi_yuki) 

(Flip)

(TWILTY)

(Amphloo)

(Grantora)

(Felow)

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” –Confucius

Chihiro Rokuhira, the sorcerer blacksmith and inheritor of the enchanted blade Enten from Kagurabachi.

Hoshimi Miyabi, New Eridu’s youngest Void Hunter and inheritor of the cursed blade Tailless from Zenless Zone Zero.

Enough time has passed. 

They’re the new kids on the block, the up-and-coming youngsters ready to make a name for themselves. Shonen Jump’s torchbearer faces off against Hoyoverse’s latest and greatest in a good ‘ol fashioned sword fight! Cursed blades and traumatic pasts abound in this collision between protectors of the innocent, vanquishers of evil. Have Chihiro’s travels already proven he has what it takes to carry another Shonen Jump victory, or will Miyabi trailblaze forward with Hoyoverse’s debut win?

Before We Start…

Please note that both series are currently ongoing and things about the matchup can change at any time. We cannot predict the future but we have still tried being as accurate as possible at the current time. This blog will cover up to chapter 77 of Kagurabachi and patch 1.7 of Zenless Zone Zero. As Kagurabachi is still relatively new (having not even hit 100 chapters as of the time of this writing), Chihiro will only be able to receive what content has been published in the manga. Any possible future media, including guidebooks, interviews, or an inevitable anime adaptation, are unable to be accounted for at this time.

Conversely, as a character in a live-service videogame, Miyabi will be afforded content from throughout ZZZ’s history, including those that are no longer available to play at the moment. Furthermore, while ZZZ isn’t exactly on the level of most RPGs in terms of player customization and options, it does still have a substantial amount of in-game gear and equipment the player can dictate Miyabi uses. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll be giving Miyabi the items she is designed to synergize most with, as can be demonstrably proven by her developer-chosen in-game builds and loadouts within certain modes. We will also be referencing all of the official media featuring Miyabi, including the main 1.4 story of ZZZ, “A Storm of Falling Stars,” side events such as “Into the Pale Wasteland,” and all of her promotional material, including her character demo, teaser, and short film.

Lastly, as both series are still currently ongoing and there are details and plot points that haven’t been revealed/addressed, certain parts of this blog may be speculative and up to interpretation. As aforementioned, we cannot predict the future, but we’ve tried our best to be as accurate as possible with the current information we have. We encourage readers to draw their own conclusions based on the information provided for both sides.

Background

Chihiro

“Do I seem sane to you? I don’t care if they’re monsters. I have to… cut them down.”

Kunishige Rokuhira was a man revered all throughout Japan for his meticulous sword smithing skills. In particular, he was renowned for his heroism, where, during the Seitei War that had been ravaging the country, he would go on to forge six legendary enchanted blades that would change the outcome of the war. These enchanted blades, forged with a mysterious, yet powerful ore known as Datenseki, held immense power, coupled with mystical powers and abilities on top. It was the creation of these enchanted blades that would ultimately swing the pendulum in favor for Japan, ultimately securing their victory in the war. Right around when the war ended, Kunishige’s son would be born, and, with the war now over, he’d go into hiding, finding a nice, secluded part of the country to settle down and raise his child.

Kunishige’s son, Chihiro Rokuhira, looked up to his father, both as a hero and as a master swordsmith. As far back as when he was a young child, he’d constantly work with his dad day after day, practicing and honing his sword smithing skills in hopes of one day becoming a legendary swordsmith just like him. Kunishige was carefree, lax, and easygoing, to the point where oftentimes, Chihiro was the one doing things like cooking and cleaning around the house. Not exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from a supposed legendary hero swordsmith. But the life they lived was comfortable. Relaxing. Peaceful.

One day, when Chihiro was 15 years old, Kunishige set aside the time to really have a one-on-one talk with his son. He explained that, at the end of the day, katana are weapons forged and used with the intention of killing. As swordsmiths, both him and Chihiro are responsible for the deaths that come as a result of their weapons. In his own words, “katana should be wielded by those dedicated to vanquishing evil and protecting the weak.” Turning to his son, he asked him whether or not he’d be willing to handle that burden. The burden of forging weapons used to take lives, weapons that, if held in the wrong hands, could take the lives of the good and innocent. The young Chihiro, steeling his resolve, told his father that although he wasn’t sure whether or not he was capable of handling it, he’d be willing to try, anyways. That seemed to be all Kunishige wanted to hear out of his son. For a while, things seemed to return back to normal, with the father and son living their ordinary day to day lives. But Kunishige’s conversation with his son, if anything, seemed to be an omen for what was to come.

It was a day in August. Kunishige’s long-time friend from the war, Shiba, had rushed over to the Rokuhira household in a panic. The home, protected by a magic barrier, was designed to alert the man at any instance should the barrier be broken. Shiba looked on at the now destroyed Rokuhira home, broken apart and set ablaze. And in the center of it all was a young Chihiro, holding the corpse of his own father. Three sorcerers, part of a criminal organization known as the Hishaku, invaded the Rokuhira’s home, intent on stealing the six legendary enchanted blades Kunishige had stowed away after the war had ended. All Chihiro could remember was the three sorcerers standing over his bloody and bruised father, before blacking out. When he awoke, his home had been destroyed, the enchanted blades had been taken, and his father laid dead before him. As the young boy wept over his father’s death, it was then that his resolve had truly been realized. These people, these criminals, took his father’s enchanted blades, legendary weapons used to stop the war and save Japan, and intended to use them for who knows what? They had to know what his father believed in. As a swordsmith, and as his son, it was his responsibility. No matter what happened…he had to stop them. He had to cut them down.

Kunishige Rokuhira was known for his six legendary enchanted blades. But what the public didn’t know was that there was actually the existence of a hidden, seventh blade. Chihiro, now determined to seek revenge on the group who killed his father, picked up this seventh enchanted blade, Enten, and steeled himself. The scar he got on that fateful August day only strengthened his conviction further. He’d take matters into his own hands. Those Hishaku bastards would pay. Three years went by, and Chihiro, now 18 years old, set out on his newfound quest for revenge, wielding Enten as he struck down anyone who stood in his way.

“Katana should be wielded by those dedicated to vanquishing evil and protecting the weak.” His father’s late words are Chihiro’s guiding force throughout his revenge quest. Katanas are weapons forged with the intention of killing people, but that doesn’t mean they should be used aimlessly to take the lives of innocents. Chihiro understands this better than anyone else, and as he continues unraveling the truths about the Hishaku, and even what really happened during the Seitei War, his resolve only grows stronger and stronger. Chihiro has fought and killed a lot, and I mean a lot of people. Crazed killers who want to cause destruction and wreak havoc, powerful and influential political figureheads, equivalent prodigies with clashing ideals to his own. But no matter how many times he gets beaten down, how many times he gets knocked over, so long as he’s still alive, he always gets back up and keeps fighting. Because at the end of the day, nothing will stop him from hunting down the Hishaku, retrieving his father’s blades, and bringing justice down on those who took his dad away from him. And if that means sinking himself down to the deepest, darkest pits of hell to achieve his goals…then so be it. 

Miyabi

“I shall not seek peace until all those responsible for the Fall of the Old Capital are apprehended. I’ll catch them all. None will escape me.”

Ever since she was a little girl, Hoshimi Miyabi has always wanted to be a hero. If you asked her back then what a hero did, she’d respond eagerly with “destroying all the bad guys.” As a member of the Hoshimi family, a legendary martial arts family known throughout all of Eridu, it seemed as if Miyabi was always destined to live the life of a warrior. Even as a child, she naturally found herself drawn towards the blade. Her mother, however, wanted something different for her. Better. In her eyes, no child should ever be burdened with the expectations of becoming a warrior at birth. Truthfully, all Miyabi’s mother wanted was for her to live a normal, peaceful life, and for a time, things seemed like they were going in that direction.

But as it always is with these stories, the times of peace always come crashing down. Within the world of Zenless Zone Zero exist Hollows, giant blank masses that distort space within them. These hollows are considered supernatural disasters, and it would be the very first one, Hollow Zero, that would bring tragedy to the Hoshimi family. Hollow Zero would expand rapidly, consuming and corrupting the entire then city of Eridu, and the Hoshimi family household would fall victim. Dozens of people, including multiple members of the Hoshimi family, would become corrupted and turn into Ethereals, freakish monsters that form as a result of Ether Corruption from Hollows.

Miyabi’s mother sat alongside her daughter in the burning building of the Hoshimi family household as ethereals slowly began surrounding them. Ether crystals slowly began forming on her as she slowly began to succumb to the effects of her corruption. Although the woman wanted her daughter to simply live a normal, peaceful life, it seemed things couldn’t turn out the way she intended. At the very least, she wanted her daughter to live on. So, with the last of her strength, she entrusted the Hoshimi Family’s heirloom to her daughter, the legendary cursed blade, Tailless, and forced Miyabi to stab her through the chest before she turned into an ethereal. The young Miyabi, overwhelmed with emotion, let out an anguished cry, and, with Tailless’ power consuming her, she went on a massacre, killing every single ethereal in the area. Then…things went dark.

This event would forever change the young Miyabi, shaping her from an innocent girl curious about the world to one hardened by the harsh realities of it. Now fully entrusted with her family’s blade, she began to hone her skills, immediately making a name for herself as her talent for swordsmanship shone through. Motivated by her past trauma, she found a new drive and forged a strong sense of justice. She not only wanted to protect lives so that an incident like hers would never happen again, but she also wanted to reign justice on those responsible for the incident that took her mother’s life. Those responsible for “The Fall of the Old Capital.” She’d find the group behind the kickstarting of Hollow Zero and bring them to justice.

Some time would pass, as Miyabi would continue making a name for herself as the newest, youngest member of the Hoshimi family. In a particular event of note, a massive, out of control ethereal, Lerna, was wreaking havoc on the newly formed city of New Eridu. With over 200 lives at stake, Miyabi dived into the giant mass, slaying the giant, city sized ethereals in just under three minutes. This event and her act of heroism would grant her the legendary title of Void Hunter, or individuals who’ve made great contributions in fighting against the Hollow disasters. 

With her newfound position as New Eridu’s youngest void hunter, she’d gather a group of talented individuals to work under her, including ex Defense Force member Tsukishiro Yanagi, H.A.N.D. executive officer Asaba Harumasa, and a young, curious oni girl named Soukaku. Forming the faction known as Hollow Special Operations Section 6, she and her newfound group would protect the citizens of New Eridu, while also continuing to look for clues upon the true culprits behind the Fall of the Old Capital.

Being a hero isn’t easy. It’s not just about “destroying all the bad guys,” but it’s also about upholding justice and protecting the innocent. Despite everything she went through, Miyabi found the sheathes to help support her blade through her fellow coworkers in Section 6, and even some legendary proxies in Wise and Belle. In the present, Miyabi is determined to expose the roots of evil corrupting New Eridu, and to be the blade that severs that corruption. She became the hero that she always dreamed of being, and whether it’s giant ethereals or corrupt politicians, no evil shall escape the might of her blade.

Experience & Skill

Chihiro

Don’t let Chihiro’s seemingly limited experience fool you in regards to his skill. From when he was a child, Chihiro trained and worked rigorously with his father day after day in hopes of following in his footsteps as a swordsmith. Because of this, he knows practically everything there is to know about the enchanted blades, being able to accurately discern their abilities and weaknesses. And despite only actively using Enten for just three years, Chihiro has shown himself time and time again to be an extremely skilled and adept swordsman. He’s been referred to as a prodigy by Shiba, and Azami also mentions both his mind and body as being “well honed” wielding his enchanted blade. Chihiro has fought against and killed dozens of experienced sorcerers, but he’s also fought against and defeated equivalent prodigies and adept sorcerers such as Sojo, Kyora Sazanami, and Hiruhiko.

Chihiro is also known for his intelligence and incredible adaptability in the heat of battle. On multiple occasions, he’s created specific variations of Enten’s abilities in order to best help his current situation, such as Kuro: Shred and Mei: Shred. He’s also been shown managing to outsmart and outwit more experienced sorcerers, like when he intentionally tricked Hiyuki into grabbing his short sword, or when, with the help of Hakuri, he manages to outsmart Kyora and bypass his seemingly impenetrable defenses. Chihiro has also been shown capable of outright copying others’ abilities and tactics just by watching them in action. This is thanks largely in part to his special eyes (more on that later.) Some examples of this include him imitating Sojo’s Mei Cloak after he utilizes it in their fight, copying Hiruhiko’s tactic of completely covering the area in sorcery to detect his position, and imitating the Iai White Purity Style simply by watching it in action.

Miyabi

From when she was a young girl, Miyabi has always had aspirations to be a hero, and the experience and skill she’s garnered throughout her life attests to that. As a child, Miyabi was trained in a multitude of different weapons, from hammers, axes, and spears, before eventually picking up and wielding her cursed blade, Tailless. Miyabi’s skill and expertise with a sword is emphasized time and time again within the story of Zenless Zone Zero, as she holds the title of being the youngest Void Hunter in history thanks to her role in defeating the massive ethereal Lerna and containing the Argos Hollow. This would then lead to her forming her own special operations department within the HSO, that being Section 6. 

Additionally, her Mindscape Cinema 03 mentions her family’s tradition of martial arts practices and her commitment to her swordsmanship. Her Mindscape Cinema 06 goes as far as saying she’s “favored greatly by a god of swordsmanship,” calling her a prodigious talent at the same time. Miyabi’s father attributes her success to her own talents, rather than her sword’s, calling her a “true genius of the Hoshimi Family.” Miyabi is training obsessed, from her time spent as a young girl to her current status as Chief of Section 6, she can always be found honing her skills in some way, shape, or form, to the point where she’ll often brush off her work-related duties to train. Her training can be so intense, it can cause her to black out and enter a trance-like state, where all she can do is speak the last spoken word of whoever’s talking to her. Outside of her combat skills, she’s also shown talent in horse riding, calligraphy, playing instruments, and poem writing.

Equipment

Chihiro

Enten

The seventh enchanted blade forged by his late father, Enten is a powerful weapon that holds immense power. The blade itself was forged using Datenseki, a mysterious substance found on an island by Kunishige Rokuhira. Datenseki holds immense amounts of spirit energy, which, while being shown capable of giving ordinary sorcerers immense power, has also been shown to be lethal and basically guarantee death. However, Kunishige was able to contain the power of the Datenseki stones, utilizing the ore to forge his enchanted blades.

When unsheathing his sword and utilizing attacks, Chihiro will have goldfish appear beside him, which are masses of energy and manifestations of the blade’s spirit energy. Enten amplifies Chihiro’s own spirit energy into a hyper-concentrated form, which results in the goldfish appearing when he utilizes the sword’s abilities. While ordinary sorcerers use their own spirit energy to utilize their abilities, the sword itself uses Chihiro’s own spirit energy. This is thanks to a system Kunishige formed with the enchanted blades known as Lifelong Contracts. With the Lifelong Contract Chihiro has with Enten, it makes it so that he’s the only one capable of wielding the blade and utilizing its abilities. However, in exchange for this security, Chihiro can only use Enten’s abilities and is unable to use his own sorcery.

This isn’t exactly a bad downside though, considering how powerful of a blade Enten is. It comes with three distinct abilities (more on them later), all of which give Chihiro incredible versatility, from extending the range of his attacks, to boosting his physical capabilities. Chihiro is also capable of using Enten’s abilities remotely, even when disarmed or without the sword itself. The capabilities of Enten also change with how Chihiro wields it. In his father’s words, “its limitations can completely transform based on its holder.” While not exactly clear what influences the swords in this way, it makes it so that Enten can often evolve with Chihiro in the heat of battle, granting him variations of its pre-existing abilities in order to best aid him in battle.

Cloud Gouger

Initially wielded by Genichiro Sojo, after defeating him, Chihiro took the broken hilt of the blade for himself as an alternative weapon while he didn’t have Enten. Cloud Gouger shares all of the same properties as Enten, being a fellow enchanted blade, and, despite being broken, Cloud Gouger still shows itself to be immensely powerful, coming with its own set of unique abilities. Cloud Gouger also has the ability to charge its attacks, building up more power in order to deal even more damage.  However, it’s important to note that because of the fact that it’s broken, Chihiro only has a set number of uses with it before it completely breaks, becoming unusable.

Wakizashi

A short sword that Chihiro often carries with him as a backup weapon. He primarily used it in tandem with Cloud Gouger when he didn’t have access to Enten, but he also utilizes it even with Enten in various ways, from using it as a throwable weapon to tricking enemies into anticipating an Enten attack.

Katana

Chihiro has also been shown using an ordinary katana on multiple occasions. It sort of speaks for itself, but it’s a way for Chihiro to rely more on his pure swordsmanship rather than the abilities of Enten.

Miyabi

Tailless

Passed down from generation to generation in the Hoshimi family, Tailless is a cursed blade that holds immense power. The blade itself was forged out of pure etheric matter using special techniques, and as such, surges with etheric energy. The floating eye companion that hovers around Miyabi is actually a physical manifestation of the curse residing within Tailless, merging itself with the sword whenever Miyabi uses its power. Tailless also has a specially designed sheathe, utilizing a fingerprint scanner so that Miyabi is the only one capable of wielding the sword. The sheathe itself is also used as means to help contain Tailless’ power when it’s not being used.

Speaking of said power, Miyabi’s sword emits foxfire, capable of inflicting and dealing Frost damage to her enemies (more on that later.) The frost itself is described as being capable of “chilling to the bone, being so cold it burns.” Miyabi is extremely efficient with her blade, being able to swing hundreds of times in seconds. She can attack both close range and from her distance, as her sword is capable of sending slashes that can shoot out in front of her.

While Miyabi can normally use her blade without issue, its immense power also comes with some notable drawbacks. Should the blade’s seal come undone, the sword will seemingly go berserk, with the curse trying to break free from within. This can cause Miyabi to lose control over the blade, or worse, lose control over herself, trapping her in an illusion of sorts where she acts completely on instinct. Miyabi has managed to gain better control over Tailless, however, and has gained a far better understanding of its power.

Tailless’ power is no joke, capable of slicing clean through bullets, signs, crates, and even an entire ship. Oh yeah, and it may or may not also be able to cut through space, too. (Debatable; More in Before the Verdict)

Drive Disc Set: Branch & Blade Song

In lore, Drive Discs are music discs that agents utilize in order to help fend against corruption. According to the shopkeeper Enzo, there was a person who discovered that soundwaves could help protect against the effects of corruption. As a result of this, agents will often utilize these discs and listen to music while fighting against ethereals, with Anby being a prime example of this.

In game, Drive Discs are essentially upgradable gear utilized to boost up an agent’s stats. Miyabi in particular has her own signature drive disc set, that being Branch & Blade Song. When 2 pieces are equipped, Miyabi gains a small boost to her damage output, and when 4 pieces are equipped, this effect is further bolstered. Additionally, when the Freeze or Shatter effects are triggered on an enemy, the rate of Miyabi’s powerful strikes increases.

Hailstorm Shrine

W-Engines are combat tools and equipment that, according to Anby, release ultrasonic waves that resonate with Ether weapons, boosting the performance of those utilizing them by “44.21% on average.” Every agent in ZZZ has their own personalized W-Engine tailored for them, which can vary from a supercomputer to a simple lighter. In the case of Miyabi, her signature W-Engine, Hailstorm Shrine, is what appears to be a tool used as a means to help contain the foxfire Tailless exudes.

A home for foxfire isn’t all it’s used for though, as in game, it also provides Miyabi with considerable stat boosts. For her in particular, when equipped, Hailstorm Shrine gives Miyabi a considerable boost to her damage output. Additionally, when utilizing her EX Special Attacks or when applying the Frost Attribute Anomaly, the power of her ice-based attacks also increases.

Agent Gulliver

A pro version Bangboo belonging to Section 6, this little helper has assisted the faction in numerous emergency situations with flawless precision., As the chief of Section 6, it isn’t unreasonable to give her access to him, as the various other factions in the game also have their own personalized Bangboo to help them in battle. Bangboo were originally created by one of the original seven Void Hunters, Sunbringer, during an evacuation effort. Since then, Bangboo have evolved drastically, and are now seen covering major aspects of New Eridu, from shopkeeping to construction, and yes, even combat, with these special ones uniquely categorized in-game as Combat Bangboo.

Gulliver himself is equipped with a specialized gun that dishes out electric damage with his active skill, Emergency Operation, dealing piercing damage in three consecutive shots, with an additional powerful round aptly named Assault Time (it’s broken af). He can also summon a door his own size to break down and stagger the enemy.

Abilities

Chihiro

Spirit Energy

Spirit Energy is sort of like ki an energy found within every human that essentially acts as a life force. It’s what powers both Sorcery and Enchanted Blades. Any human in the world of Kagurabachi is hypothetically capable of utilizing their Spirit Energy so long as they know they have it. As Shiba explains, the process of becoming a sorcerer involves training to summon your own spirit energy and having it circulate throughout your body and channeling it in order to unleash your sorcery. Every person has an innate, predetermined sorcery power within them, and once it’s unleashed, it becomes a matter of learning its abilities and how to properly utilize it.

Sorcerers utilizing Spirit Energy get an inherent boost to their physical capabilities, showing themselves to be stronger, faster, and tougher than an average person. Spirit Energy can also enhance the capabilities of swords, as circulating spirit energy into even an ordinary katana can greatly boost its power. As aforementioned, Chihiro is unable to use his own sorcery as a result of the Lifelong Contract he has with Enten, but he can still utilize it in order to boost his physical stats and strengthen both Enten and his other swords. It’s also important to note that Chihiro himself has a finite amount of spirit energy, and utilizing Enten’s abilities will burn through the reserves of spirit energy he has. If he runs out of it, he’s unable to utilize any of Enten’s abilities, as well as losing the physical amp it naturally gives.

Kuro

Kuro is Enten’s first ability. With it, Chihiro manifests a black goldfish, which merges with the blade and cloaks it with a black liquid. This empowers Chihiro’s slashes, giving them an immense boost in both range and power. The range of the attack itself is also dependent on the size of the goldfish that manifests, so the larger the goldfish, the larger the range of Kuro. Chihiro has been shown utilizing Kuro in a variety of different ways. The most basic use of it is, as aforementioned, empowering his slashes, which can do everything from effortlessly cutting people in half (as seen above) to breaking apart trees and rocks. Chihiro can also shrink down the size of the attack to make more precise cuts, such as precisely attacking sorcery holding Char, specifically targeting a light source to kill the lights in a room, and specifically aiming at people’s necks and slicing them.

He’s also been shown getting more creative with its usage, like utilizing it to propel himself forward while injured and combining it with the properties of his Aka-absorbed attack. Additionally, Chihiro can also summon the goldfish for various other purposes outside of offense, like using it for reconnaissance, imbuing people with his spirit energy, and shrouding an entire room in darkness to locate people’s presences.

Kuro: Shred

A variation of Kuro first utilized while he was injured, Chihiro summons 20 smaller goldfish and fills up an entire area with them. Kuro: Shred uses the same amount of Spirit Energy as a regular Kuro, but exchanges the more powerful singular slash attack for multiple weaker, rapid attacks. Kuro: Shred is a less taxing version of Kuro that allows for rapid, compact swings without putting as much strain on Chihiro’s body. He can also utilize the attack as a cover of sorts, as he’s been shown capable of disappearing within the large mass of goldfish.

Aka

With Enten’s second ability, Chihiro summons a red goldfish, appearing beside him as he utilizes the ability. Aka allows Chihiro to absorb attacks, storing them within Enten for seemingly as long as he wants before throwing them back at the enemy. Chihiro can use Aka to block attacks, absorbing both their damage and properties of the attacks themselves. He’s been shown absorbing attacks such as Daruma’s explosions and Hiyuki’s Flame Bone. Chihiro can also combine the properties of his absorbed attacks with his other abilities, such as when he shot out a flame-covered Kuro after absorbing Flame Bone.

While Aka can absorb attacks, it also isn’t without limits. Extremely powerful attacks won’t be fully absorbed by Aka, which was shown when he wasn’t fully able to absorb the entirety of Flame Bone. Additionally, as shown with his fight against Hiruhiko, Chihiro is unable to absorb physical objects, limiting him to just non physical and energy based attacks.

Nishiki

Nishiki, Enten’s third and final ability, summons a multi-colored goldfish that merges with Chihiro himself, forming a cloak of sorts that covers him. Nishiki augments Chihiro’s attacks with highly concentrated spirit energy, boosting both his strength and speed considerably, as supported with Sojo himself commenting that Chihiro fights with “a whole new level of power and speed” while cloaked. Additionally, rather than using it to amp himself, Chihiro can also use the cloak to support himself, such as when he used it while injured in order to help aid his movements, and when he used it to fortify his body to defend against Hiruhiko’s paper cranes. 

Should the situation call for it, Chihiro can also increase the amount of spirit energy cloaking his body, up to three times the normal amount, to give himself an even bigger boost in power and speed. However, it’s important to note that he was only ever shown doing this once in his fight against Sojo, and it strains his body to the point where he can only maintain the cloak for a few seconds at most before facing heavy repercussions. 

Mei

The first of Cloud Gouger’s abilities, Mei conjures electricity through the sword, before shooting out powerful bolts of lightning, capable of shattering rocks and blowing holes through walls. As aforementioned in the Cloud Gouger section, the more the attack is charged, the stronger the resulting Mei will be, though releasing a high-powered Mei leaves the sword with a 10-20 second interval to recharge. Even with the broken hilt of Cloud Gouger, Mei has still shown itself to be immensely powerful, as shown when Chihiro completely decimated two giant pillars with the attack.

“Cloaked” Mei

A technique initially utilized by Genichiro Sojo, Chihiro can use Mei to cloak himself with electricity, giving him a boost in both power and speed. It works extremely similar in function to Nishiki, but it seems like the speed boost granted by Mei’s cloak is greater, as mentioned by Chihiro during his final fight against Sojo.

Mei: Shred

When ready to stake his own life, Chihiro utilized this technique, in which he gets surrounded by black lightning rather than the usual white. With Mei: Shred, Cloud Gouger “unleashes lightning beyond its limits,” granting Chihiro an immense boost in both power and speed, seeming to eclipse that of even a standard Nishiki or Mei Cloak. With it, he was able to blow through Yura’s massive tree formation, before blitzing him and taking his arm off. In exchange for the massive power and speed boost this technique grants, however, it seems to burn through Cloud Gouger’s usages at a quicker rate than its other abilities.

Yui

The second of Cloud Gouger’s abilities, Yui grants Chihiro the properties of ice, capable of summoning ice formations. Yui acts as a strong balance of both offense and defense, capable of being used in a multitude of different ways, such as freezing people solid, forming giant ice structures, and, as shown above, freezing objects and projectiles in place. 

Kou

While Chihiro has technically never been shown utilizing this ability, given that it’s also one of Cloud Gouger’s abilities, there isn’t any reason to assume that he doesn’t have access to it. Cloud Gouger’s third and final ability, Kou, utilizes the properties of water. It can be used to summon mist, forming a giant smokescreen for cover or quick getaways, or, in a more creative usage, it can also be used along with Mei, taking advantage of its conductivity in order to boost the area and range of Mei greatly.

Rokuhira Eyes

Kunishige Rokuhira’s eyes were special thanks to his role as a master swordsmith. Working tirelessly day by day, constantly standing and watching melting stones, he picked up the ability to gauge the changing temperature and composition of steel purely by sight. In fact, the sole reason as to why Kunishige was the only person ever capable of utilizing the Datenseki’s power was because of his unique observational abilities, being able to draw out the Datenseki’s stabilizing properties and using it to forge his seven enchanted blades.

Chihiro, having worked day by day with his dad, picked up this unique, heightened sense of observation, utilizing it in combat as he gains the ability to both copy and imitate movements and attacks solely by watching them. Purely by sight, he was able to imitate the Iai White Purity Style after watching it once as a child, and although it admittedly wasn’t a perfect replica of the attack initially, he was able to use his unique eyes yet again to perform a perfect rendition of the attack after observing the way Iori Samura wielded her katana. Outside of copying and imitating attacks, Chihiro’s Rokuhira Eyes also give him heightened perception, as he was able to see through and counter Hiruhiko’s unorthodox and unpredictable fighting style. 

Iai White Purity Style

The Iai White Purity Style is a sword stance initially created by swordsman Itsuo Shirakai as a way for swordsmen to maximize their speed and velocity while retaining the power in their sword slashes. The technique itself involves building up spirit energy and containing it within the sword’s scabbard, releasing explosively as the user unsheathes their blade and dashes forward in a burst of extreme speed. While sounding simple on the surface level, the technique is far more unorthodox and complex than it seems, being extremely difficult to master thanks to the rather strange action required of the user rotating their blade a full 180 degrees before reaching their target.

When sword fighters in the world of Kagurabachi imbue their katanas with spirit energy, concentration is required to do so, and because attention is diverted to having to regrip the sword right before attacking the opponent, it diverts the focus away from imbuing the katana with spirit energy, causing the spirit energy in the blade to disperse, with the user losing both speed and power as a result. It’s because of this incredibly difficult and complex process that the only two known masters of the stance aside from Itsuo Shirakai himself are the two legendary swordmasters, Seiichi Samura and Yoji Uruha.

As aforementioned, Chihiro was able to imitate the White Purity Style as a result of his Rokuhira eyes, although he himself admitted that it wasn’t a perfect imitation because of how much speed and power he lost trying to focus on regripping the blade. After watching Iori Samura in combat, however, Chihiro seems to have grasped a far better understanding of the technique required for the stance, using it in his standoff against Hiruhiko to dash forward and blitz him in one fell swoop. 

Endurance

If there’s one quality Chihiro is known for, it’s his sheer tenacity and endurance. He’s someone that can take constant punishment and will push himself past his limits, no matter what hits him. Even after taking a direct attack from Sojo’s Mei, he used Nishiki to cloak himself anyways in order to keep fighting. Following this encounter, he continues to fight against guards and enemies even while being severely injured. In his second and final fight against Sojo, he continues fighting even after getting his arm cut off, and pushes his own body past his limits by utilizing 3x the amount of spirit energy his body could handle. 

He ran what was essentially a gauntlet during the Rakuzaichi auction, fighting against dozens of guards, the Tou, Yura, and Kyora Sazanami, and even when at his limits, he still dove back into Kyora’s collapsing storehouse to save the lives of the prisoners stuck inside. He also purposely took the blunt force of dozens of Hiruhiko’s paper cranes in order to wear them out. Suffice to say, if an attack doesn’t straight up knock him unconscious or kill him, Chihiro will find a way to keep fighting no matter what.

Miyabi

Thiren Physiology

She’s all ears.

In the world of Zenless Zone Zero, thirens are essentially humans with animal-like features, or humanoid animals. Thirens vary drastically in appearance, from cat and shark girls, to sentient, anthropomorphic bears and wolves. In the case of Miyabi, she happens to be a fox thiren, made apparent by the big, floofy ears resting atop her head.

Those ears aren’t just to make her deceptively taller, though. Thirens have been stated time and time again to have far better senses in comparison to ordinary humans, such as enhanced sight, smell, and hearing (go figure.) Miyabi’s thiren physiology gives her these heightened senses, allowing her to see, smell, and hear things far better than an ordinary person can.

Frost Attribute

When dealing damage, Miyabi builds up Attribute Anomaly on enemies, which are status effects that slowly build up as you deal elemental damage on an enemy. These can vary from element to element, from inflicting burns with Fire based attacks, to causing shocks with Electric ones. In the case of Miyabi, her attribute anomaly is Frost, which is actually a subset of the typical Ice attribute. When her Frost damage accumulates, she can trigger the Freeze, Shatter, and Frostbite effects on enemies. Freeze, well, freezes enemies solid and prevents them from moving or attacking for a certain period of time. When landing a heavy attack on a frozen enemy, they get shattered, which deals additional damage as they get unfrozen. Once the Shatter effect occurs, the Frostbite effect also kicks in, which increases the amount of damage the afflicted enemy takes for a certain period of time.

Miyabi’s Frost attacks will automatically trigger the typical Freeze, Shatter, and Frostbite effects found with regular Ice Anomaly. However, Frost damage also has the added benefit of being separate from typical Ice damage, which means that she can attack with both Frost and Ice attacks to inflict Disorder, a status effect that occurs when two separate attribute anomalies are stacked on top of one another. Triggering Disorder will deal heavy damage to enemies afflicted with it while also still inflicting enemies with the Freeze, Shatter, and Frostbite effects.

Basic Attack: Kazahana

Miyabi’s Basic Attack, Kazahana, is a string of five slashes, with the first two inflicting basic damage, and the last three inflicting Frost damage. Additionally, Miyabi has the ability to block enemy attacks during the 5th hit.

Basic Attack: Shimotsuki

A variation of her Basic Attack, Shimotsuki is an attack that Miyabi can use when gaining Fallen Frost points. Miyabi will immediately gain three Fallen Frost points upon beginning combat, and will naturally gain more points as she utilizes her other skills and techniques. Miyabi can stack up to six Fallen Frost points, gaining a different attack for every two uses. These attacks range from a multi-slash projectile barrage to a full-screen flurry of slashes at maximum charge.

Dodge: Mizutori

Miyabi’s dodge is a quick dash that gives her considerable distance when used. As the name suggests, she can use this to dodge attacks or gain distance.

Dash Attack: Fuyubachi

Miyabi’s dash attack is a simple slash forward with Tailless, dealing basic damage.

Dodge Counter: Kan Suzume

Miyabi’s dodge counter is an attack triggered when she follows up a dodge with an attack. After dodging an attack, Miyabi immediately dashes forward before delivering a flurry of slashes to the enemy, dealing Frost damage as she does so.

Defensive Assist/Assist Follow-Up: Drifting Petals/Falling Petals

Miyabi’s defensive assist is a counter attack used when she blocks or parries an attack. Similar in vain to her dodge counter, Miyabi will dash forward after blocking an attack before overwhelming her opponent with a flurry of slashes. This attack will also deal Frost damage when landed.

Special Attack: Miyuki/EX Special Attack: Hisetsu

Miyabi’s special attack has two different variations that are dependent on the amount of energy she has. With no energy, Miyabi uses Miyuki, a simple draw of her blade as she slashes horizontally. This attack deals Frost damage when used.

With energy, Miyabi uses Hisetsu, rushing forward as she unleashes a flurry of powerful slashes in her path. With enough energy, Miyabi can also utilize a follow up attack with this move, quickly sending a horizontal slash back before dashing back forward with an even larger flurry of slashes.

Judgement Cut End Ultimate: Lingering Snow

The physical manifestation of her blade’s curse enters her sword as Miyabi performs several high speed slashes, before, you guessed it, finishing the attack off with even more slashes as she’s the storm that is approaching. The attack deals large amounts of Frost damage, and she’ll also recover 3 Fallen Frost points upon using it (the full 6 with her Snow Debris gear.) Additionally, she gains a boost in attack power to her Ice damage for a few seconds afterwards, giving her even more damage to finish her opponents off if they survive. Close enough, welcome back Vergil

Core Passive: Searing Cold

Miyabi deals Frost damage, which applies the Frostburn status to enemies, lasting up to 30 seconds. While Miyabi accumulates Frost Anomaly Buildup through Frostburn, this increases the rate at which the Frost Anomaly is applied to enemies. As Miyabi continues to build up Frost Anomaly, it has its own Attribute Anomaly Buildup gauge that triggers the Freeze, Shatter and Frostbite effects and other Attribute Anomalies that include the Ice Attribute Anomaly, triggering Disorder.

Mindscape Cinemas

Mindscape Cinemas are succeeding upgrades for agents that provide both stat boosts and buffs to their abilities and moves. Essentially, they’re the games’ way of getting you to spend more money rewarding you by pulling more copies of a certain character. In the case of Miyabi’s Mindscape Cinemas, there are six levels that all give her varying buffs and changes to her kit.

• Mindscape Cinema 01: “Frost Atop the Snow” – While in her Shimotsuki Stance, every point of Fallen Frost consumed will allow the attack to bypass a small percentage of an enemy’s defense. Additionally, when a level three Shimotsuki hits an enemy inflicted with Frostburn, the Frostburn state will be removed, instead buffing the rate at which she inflicts her Frost Attribute effects slightly.
• Mindscape Cinema 02: “Breath Technique” – Miyabi’s regular Basic Attack, Kazahana, and her Dodge Counter, Kan Suzume, have their damage increased slightly. Miyabi gains a point of Fallen Frost when the final move of the 5th hit of Kazahana hits an enemy. Miyabi will also immediately gain a full six stack of Fallen Frost points upon entering the battlefield, as well as boosting the power of her attacks further.
• Mindscape Cinema 03: “Martial Discipline” – This cinema simply boosts Miyabi’s Basic Attack, Dodge, Assist, Special Attack, and Chain Attack by two levels.
• Mindscape Cinema 04: “Rupture” – The damage enemies take when inflicted with Frostburn increases..
• Mindscape Cinema 05: “Anniversary” – This cinema also boosts Miyabi’s Basic Attack, Dodge, Assist, Special Attack, and Chain Attack by an additional two levels.
• Mindscape Cinema 06: “Prodigious Talent” – While in her Shimotsuki Stance, Miyabi will gain a new Polar effect, which boosts her Shimotsuki damage. While the Polar effect is active, Miyabi automatically draws her blade and unleashes slashes based on Shimotsuki’s charge level. The slashes unleashed by Polar will not interrupt Miyabi as she’s consuming Fallen Frost and charging Shimotsuki. Polar will unleash up to 3 draws and slashes per Shimotsuki charge level.

“Lost Void” Agent Gears

“Lost Void” is a game mode variant of Hollow Zero, in which agents assist in the investigation and suppression of Hollow Zero as part of an Independent Investigation Team. The game mode itself features various special effects and gears that can be utilized to buff up agents. In particular, Lost Void also features various agent-specific gears that can be equipped in order to both boost, change, and even grant an agent new moves entirely, with Miyabi herself just so happening to have a gear set for herself.

Gear	Description
Hoshimi Miyabi: Sparrows in the Flowers	After Hoshimi Miyabi activates Kan Suzume and Dancing Petals, she will automatically chain into the alternate attack Frost Storm, unleashing a blast of air to attack nearby enemies. When the enemy is Stunned, Hoshimi Miyabi gains 3 Fallen Frost points, and the rate at which enemies are stunned is increased.
Hoshimi Miyabi: Dance of the Sparrows	When Hoshimi Miyabi is attacked by an enemy, she will automatically dodge the attack, triggering Perfect Dodge and Vital View. Vital View lasts for 3s. The automatic dodge effect can trigger once every 12s. When the effect is triggered, Hoshimi Miyabi’s attack power is boosted substantially.
Hoshimi Miyabi: Awakening of the Bees	Replace Fuyubachi with Fuyubachi — Maximum. Upon activating this skill, Hoshimi Miyabi will dash forward and deal Frost damage to enemies. After the skill is replaced, when Hoshimi Miyabi is knocked back or launched, using Basic Attack or Special Attack while a target is staggered will immediately trigger Fuyubachi — Maximum, restoring a portion of the damage she took as health and giving her invulnerability for a brief timeframe.
Hoshimi Miyabi: Snow Debris	When activating Ultimate: Lingering Snow, Hoshimi Miyabi gains 6 Fallen Frost points.
Hoshimi Miyabi: Unbreakable Ice	Enemies afflicted with Frostburn will take Frost damage over time for each second Frostburn is afflicted. When the effect wears off, Hoshimi Miyabi can bypass the restrictions of Frostburn and immediately reapply the effect to enemies.
Hoshimi Miyabi: Endless Blizzard	When the effects of Frostburn wear off, Hoshimi Miyabi’s next EX Special Attack will get a boost in power to enemies afflicted with an Attribute Anomaly. This effect can trigger once every 30s.

“Into That Pale Wasteland” Gear Deployment

“Into That Pale Wasteland” is a limited time exploration event where the Section 6 takes on the Melinoe Hollow’s ever shifting environment and suppresses its problem from the inside. As you complete key missions or investigation commissions you would slowly build up your Investigation Level, granting you 1 Combat Permit each that you can use in the Gear Deployment section to enhance both Miyabi and Yanagi’s combat prowess in the form of a simple skill tree. As some of these gears can already be found in Lost Void, this list will pertain to ones exclusive for this mode.

• Cross Slash: Slightly increases the damage dealt when inflicting the Disorder effect.
• Snowmoon Blossom: Increases the damage of her Chain Attack and Ultimate.
• Frostveiled Edge: Increases the damage of her basic Frost attacks.
• Art of Sheathing: Increases the rate at which she gains energy for her attacks.
• Iaidou: Boosts the power of her attacks slightly.
• Jadebound Steel: Increases the rate at which she can inflict her Attribute Anomaly effects.
• Unfading Bloom: When attacked, if low on health, Miyabi will immediately gain a shield equal to a portion of her health, lasting for 60s. Can trigger once every 60s.
• Unyielding Blade: Increases the overall damage of all her attacks slightly.
• Endless Frost: When applying the Disorder effect to an enemy, recover a small percentage of her health.

Resistances

• Ether: Miyabi can stay in the Hollows for extended periods of time which has ether in the air that’ll eventually corrupt someone and turn them into Ethereals. Miyabi might be a special case too as she can carry someone affected by it with no ill signs herself. Ether has quite a few attributes such as:
  • Corruption: You’ll eventually lose your consciousness and sense of self should it overtake you. This’ll strike faster with anyone with a soul.
  • Transmutation: This’ll forcefully transform anyone into an Ethereal should they be exposed to ether for too long of a time.
  • Extreme Pain: The process is of course very painful as ether crystals start appearing around your body. It will also eventually kill you should your body can’t take it like when it happened to a little boy.
• (Limited?) Mind Manipulation: The spirit within Miyabi’s sword was able to trap Miyabi in a mental illusion that tested her sanity with countless voices in her head, but she was eventually able to break free (though this took a while)

Forms 

Chihiro

Evil Kagurabachi

None notable.

Miyabi

“Berserker” State

Miyabi’s “Berserker” state is a form she takes on when she loses control over Tailless’ power. The form itself also seems to be heavily tied to her emotional state, as the two times we’ve seen it occur was when she was overwhelmed with the death of her mother, and overwhelmed after having Tailless taken from her and used in front of her. When in this form, Miyabi acts completely on instinct, becoming a ruthless killing machine that kills pretty much anything in her path. Miyabi herself, meanwhile, gets trapped in her own mind, seeing illusions and visions as a result of her blade’s curse. 

While Miyabi would initially faint right after using this form, she’s gotten better control of her blade since then. While still not having full control over her “berserker” state, rather than fainting after using it, she instead simply enters a daze where she stands idly, though she’s able to collect herself quickly afterwards. She’s also since trained herself in hallucination resistance to help combat the illusions she sees from Tailless.

Miyaboo

In the Virtual Revenge Special Episode, Miyabi was transformed into a Bangboo by the notorious hacker Null_Face. She can’t really fight in this form, since she’s too small to wield her sword. But it’s really damn cute, at least. Please Hoyo, give us a usable Miyaboo Bangboo

Miyaball

Miyabi’s true, ultimate form. Every time her ears move, “thousands of universes slash to death.” Her cursed blade can erase anything, regardless of its mass and shape. Her sheer power is enough to wipe life as we know it off the face of the map, and can completely destroy the very fabric of reality. Using it in this debate would obviously be overkill, and as such, it will not be included in the final verdict.

Feats

Chihiro

Overall

• Became extremely proficient at using Enten in just three years
• Considered a prodigy with his enchanted blade
• Has fought and killed dozens of skilled sorcerers
• Stopped the Rakuzaichi auction from occurring and reclaimed the Shinuchi
• Saved the lives of countless citizens from Sojo’s Mei, and also saved 36 prisoners trapped in Kyora’s collapsing storehouse
• Defeated Genichi Sojo, Kyora Sazanami, and Hiruhiko
• Fought against extremely skilled sorcerers like Hiyuki and Yura
• Survived getting axed in Shonen Jump and climbed out of meme status to become a genuinely good series
• Beat the edgelord allegations when he adopted a kid

Power

• Bisects an entire group of people with a single slash
• Cuts some trees in half while attacking Sojo
• With Cloud Gouger, unleashes a Mei powerful enough to destroy two giant pillars (See Above)
• Destroys the ground of Kyora’s storehouse
• Sends out a slash that has enough force to shatter a train’s windows
• Tackles Hiruhiko out of a train, leaving behind a decently sized hole
• Cuts through Sojo’s giant ice formation
• Blows a hole through Yura’s tree formation with Mei: Shred
• The force of his, Hiruhiko, and Samura’s swords clashing sends a slash that slices through part of the hotel (2.5 – 3.3 megajoules)

Speed

• Catches Sojo off guard with his sheer speed after cloaking himself with Nishiki
• While cloaked in Nishiki, manages to catch up to a speeding car
• Can consistently move faster than the eye can see, disappearing and killing people before they can even react
• Fights and defeats Sojo in 12 seconds
• Weaves through and dodges grenade explosions (See Above)
• Manages to save thirty six people in Kyora’s collapsing storehouse
• Blitzes Hiruhiko and pins him against the ground before he can even react
• Manages to react to a sudden blitz attempt from Samura
• Dodges Daruma’s point blank explosions
  • Method 1: Mach 2.5
  • Method 2: Mach 7.63 – 9.31
• Hiyuki compares his speed to that of lightning (Mach 285.7)
• Intercepts Sojo’s Mei and uses himself as a lightning rod before it can harm the nearby civilians (Likely Invalid; See Before the Verdict)

Durability

• Gets sent flying through a wall by Sojo’s Mei and comes out basically unscathed
• Gets sent flying into some stands after being hit by Kyora’s Centipede attack
• Gets hit with an attack that sends him crashing through the roof of a building
• Takes dozens of hits from Hiruhiko’s paper cranes after enforcing his body with Nishiki
  • Said paper cranes were shown capable of effortlessly plowing straight through ordinary people
• Unfazed after being in an elevator that falls and crashes multiple stories
• Gets sent through a wall by Daruma’s explosion (0.0172 Tons)

Miyabi

Overall

• Holds the title of being New Eridu’s youngest Void Hunter
• Considered a genius and prodigy within the Hoshimi family
• Has slayed hundreds, if not thousands of Ethereals throughout her lifetime
• Opened up her own Hollow Special Operations branch in the form of Section 6
• Fought and defeated Bringer and a clone of herself
• Held off Nineveh, the Ethereal Hive Queen
• Destroyed the giant Ethereal Lerna and contained the Argos Hollow in three minutes, saving 208 lives in the process
• Still the best character in the game months after her release
• Short queen

Power

• Picks up Perlman with one hand and tosses him into a Hollow
• Slices clean through a metal sign
• Slashes with enough force to shatter a train’s windows
• An attack from her clone momentarily stopped rain and left a dent in a building
• All playable characters are capable of breaking wooden crates with their attacks (34 Kilojoules – 0.004 Tons of TNT)
• Ice Attribute Agents can freeze people and larger ethereals/mechs solid (At least 0.005 Tons of TNT)
• Creates a giant explosion from her attack colliding with Nineveh (4.6 tons of TNT)
• Cuts a ship in half and freezes the surrounding water around it (See Above – 790.2 tons of TNT)
  • The force of her attack also leaves a hole in the hollow (See Above – 265 Tons – 5 Kilotons of TNT)

Speed

• Cuts clean through bullets
• Casually runs at 200 km/h
• Slices a piece of candy into four pieces as Harumasa throws it at her from behind
• Cuts up Ethereals while also being precise enough to slice raindrops in half
• Blitzes a clone of herself immediately after being returned to normal after transforming into a Bangboo
• Blitzes and kills a giant Ethereal before it can even react
• Dodges a laser shot at her by an Ethereal
• Destroys the giant Ethereal Lerna and all of its cores within three minutes
• Kills hundreds of ethereals in seconds (See Above)
• Miyabi and other characters in-game can deflect point blank gunfire (Mach 10)
• Slashes multiple times in tandem with gunfire(Mach 257)
  • While the enemies technically use ether bullets, there’s no reason to believe they’re slower than regular gunfire. They behave like normal bullets even when hitting other medals like a blade, so these should be fine to count as bullet speed.
• Can slash in tandem with lightning as well (Mach 1266) (Debatable)
  • The debatable comes from whether or not you think this counts as cloud to ground lightning, since the lightning technically comes from the sword. However, it should be noted Bringer creates a storm beforehand and utilizes clouds to ground lightning in his other attacks. The lightning used here appears to be no different from the CtG lightning seen with his other attacks, so we’re personally fine with this feat. We leave it to readers to think if this is viable or not.
• Moves in tandem with lasers (0.09c) (See Before the Verdict)

Durability

• Falls from a moving vehicle onto the ground and is completely unscathed
• Tanks an attack from her clone that causes a giant explosion (See Above)
• Falls from an airship all the way into the Argos Hollow
• All playable characters can tank hits from Ether infused lightning, which can completely vaporize normal people (0.068 – 0.072 Tons of TNT)

Scaling

Chihiro

Genichi Sojo

Easily Chihiro’s most iconic enemy, Genichi Sojo was an affiliate of the Hishaku who served as a foil to Chihiro as a result of his contrasting ideals and his possession of one of Kunishige Rokuhira’s enchanted blades, Cloud Gouger. Given the two fought twice, with Chihiro ultimately coming out on top in their second bout, it’s pretty easy to give Chihiro scaling to all of Sojo’s feats.

• Blows a hole through a wall with Mei
• Reacts to a surprise attack from Chihiro
• Destroys trees by running straight through them
• Freezes Daruma solid with Yui (At least 0.005 Tons of TNT)
• Vaporizes the ground with Mei (4.13 Tons)
• Destroys part of a rock formation (14.57 Tons)
• Creates a giant ice formation with Yui (20.5 Tons)

Kamunabi

The Kamunabi are a government-affiliated organization within the world of Kagurabachi that, following the end of the Seitei War, was established in order to help defend against and eliminate any dangers that may threaten the country of Japan. Given Chihiro’s current affiliate status with the Kamunabi, and also given the fact that he’s been shown fighting both against and alongside various members, it’s also very safe to scale him to it’s member’s feats.

• Hiyuki blows a hole through the wall behind Chihiro
• Hiyuki creates a giant explosion with her flame fist
• Hiyuki intercepts Kyora’s Dragonfly attack and causes a giant explosion
• Hiyuki blows through the Rakuzaichi auction house (9.07 Tons)
• Shiyumi creates a giant platform in the sky (44.65 Tons)
• Shiyumi creates a giant rock formation with Gansui (3.26 – 46.37 Tons)
• Azami blitzes a sorcerer before he can react (141 m/s)
• Shiyumi creates a rock formation to intercept Sojo’s Mei (Mach 145.3, some info taken from this) 

Sazanami Clan

The Sazanami Clan is a powerful clan of sorcerers within the world of Kagurabachi. Known for their powerful Isou shockwave sorcery as well as their hosting of the Rakuzaichi, an extremely large annual auction within the Japanese underworld, they served as major antagonists to Chihiro while he was aiming to retrieve the Shinuchi, one of the enchanted blades. Having fought against multiple members of the clan along with the head of the clan himself, Kyora Sazanami, Chihiro should reasonably scale to them.

• Soya’s Isou destroys a large portion of a building
• Soya’s Isou creates a giant crater in the wall behind Hakuri
• Tenri creates a crater in the ground by dashing and briefly overwhelms Shiba with his speed
• Kyora creates large pillars that he sends towards Chihiro
• The force of Kyora’s Centipede attacks sends Chihiro and Hiyuki flying, along with pieces of rubble from the ground

Hishaku (Partially Debatable) 

The main antagonists of the series and the organization that orchestrated the death of Kunishige Rokuhira, the Hishaku are a group of ten elite sorcerers whos ultimate goal is to retrieve all of Kunishige’s enchanted blades, utilizing their powers for themselves in order to completely take over the country. Chihiro has had plenty of encounters with various Hishaku members, and although scaling him to the stronger members like Yura may be a bit debatable, he can for sure scale to lower tier members such as Kuguri and Hiruhiko.

• Yura creates a giant plant wall (29 tons)
• Hiruhiko’s blood cranes effortlessly blow through people’s bodies
• Some Hishaku sorcerers blow a large hole through Senkutsuji Temple’s roof
• Some more Hishaku sorcerers blow another large hole through one of the temple’s walls
• Hiruhiko shrouds an entire area with paper and lifts several people up
• Kuguri reacts to and blocks a point blank attack from Chihiro
• Hiruhiko destroys the entire hotel with Play (0.34 – 0.52 tons of TNT)
• Kuguri slices through a bus (4.9 Megajoules)
• A bunch of branches seem to emerge from dead Hishaku sorcerers, completely destroying Senkutsuji Temple(260 Tons)
  • As it stands currently in the manga, Chihiro likely wouldn’t scale to this feat. However, given the current limited content for both Chihiro and Miyabi, we’ve decided to at least note it and consider it for the final verdict. (See Before the Verdict)

Swordbearers (Debatable)

The swordbearers are the swordsmen Kunishige Rokuhira entrusted his six enchanted blades to during the Seitei War. They’re the pinnacle of both power and skill within the world of Kagurabachi, and currently, Chihiro is looking to find all of the former swordbearers in order to protect them while the Hishaku attempts to assassinate them in order to sever their lifelong contracts. Although Chihiro scaling to them is pretty debatable given their far superior strength and skill, (See Before the Verdict) we believe that it’s at least worth noting their feats as a possible reference for Chihiro’s future potential.

• Uruha reacts to a surprise attack and kills someone coming at him through a window
• Samura bisects a sorcerer before they can even react
• Samura kills dozens of people and slashes apart the giant Hishaku branches
• Samura cloaks the entirety of Japan with Owl (Not applicable for AP)
  • While this is impressive range, Samura was merely trying to use this move to detect and sense enchanted blades and there’s nothing indicating this is applicable for raw power, thus calculating a feat for this is impossible.
• The Swordmaster’s Malediction causes mass destruction and kills 200,000 people
• The Enchanted Blades during the Seitei War seem to have caused untold amounts of destruction
• Samura barrels through the entire hotel, causing a giant explosion before restoring all of it’s damage with Suzaku

Miyabi

Section 6

Hollow Special Operations Section 6 is the faction Miyabi leads, comprised of Deputy Chief Tsukishiro Yanagi, expert archer Asaba Harumasa, oni girl Soukaku, and bangboo Agent Gulliver. Naturally, as the leader of her group, it should be no surprise that Miyabi reasonably scales to their feats.

• Soukaku, Yanagi and Harumasa all survive a giant shockwave from Bringer followed up by a surprise punch that sends them all off platform.
• Harumasa was able to shoot an arrow at target perfectly despite being injured and sick
• Yanagi blitzes and kills an entire horde of ethereals
• Yanagi moves several feet in an instant and stabs an enemy through the chest
• Yanagi is able to dodge and move while a raindrop is completely still 

Other Factions

Within the world of Zenless Zone Zero consists of a number of different factions and agents, from police officers to maids to members of a biker gang. Having fought alongside various other factions and agents during the climax of Chapter 5, along with the heavy implication that Miyabi is currently the strongest character in the series to date, it should be very reasonable to scale Miyabi to other agent’s feats.

• The Cunning Hares tank a missile explosion that sends them all falling into a hollow
• Anby reacts to a surprise attack from a Dullahan
• Anby reacts to and parries an attack from the Dead End Butcher
• Anby blitzes an entire horde of ethereals, with the force of her attacks being enough to launch rubble and rock into the air
• Anby and Billy get sent flying and falling out of a building by another explosion
• Billy monologues while a bullet comes flying towards him (questionable)
• Belobog Heavy Industries dodges some lasers and Missiles from the Unknown Corruption Complex
• Belobog’s machines can casually lift and throw shipping containers
• Koleda holds Anton and five other Belobog employees (including a bear thiren) on her shoulders
• Grace reacts to and dodges a point blank laser
• Grace dodges gunfire
• Anton holds an out of control machine down until Ben stops it in it’s tracks with a single hit
• Lycaon scales a building and jumps to reach an airship in a few seconds
• Ellen dodges and weaves around missiles while also being precise enough to slice through them
• Ellen breaks through glass and dodges gunfire
• Ellen suggests that her and Corin could make a hole through a metal door
• Corin saws through a train door
• Qingyi deflects crossbow fire
• Caesar dodges and parries gunfire
• Lighter sends a giant ethereal flying with a single punch
• Lighter had to fight Burnice for an entire day just to tire her out
• Burnice tanks a point blank C4 explosion
• Soldier 11 parries gunfire
• Ben swings his giant battering ram around (1.3 megajoules)
• Qingyi stops a speeding car (3.3 megajoules / 66 m/s)
• Qingyi lifts ~15 Bangboo out of a hollow while fatigued and suffering Ether Corruption (A bangboo, Teddy, is mentioned earlier on in the story to weigh 32 kg/70 lbs, so assuming this is the average weight of a Bangboo, Qingyi is carrying 480 kg/1050 lbs)
• Lighter punches the ground and creates a large explosion (0.057 Tons)
• Astra can use her singing to power the Starloop Tower to lift the top platform into the air, potentially above the clouds (confirmed to be her doing) (5.18 – 57.8 Tons of TNT)
• Evelyn attacks in tandem with bullets (Mach 115)
• Every strike from Soldier 0 Anby is like a “sudden surge of lightning” (Mach 285.7)

Ethereals/Bosses

Ethereals are monsters that are found and roam within hollows, ranging drastically in size, appearance, and power. Miyabi has shown herself capable of slaying hundreds of Ethereals ranging in size and power, so it’s pretty apparent that Miyabi should reasonably scale to what various enemies and boss ethereals have shown themselves capable of.

• A Rampart Brute swings his bat around (14.8 megajoules)
• The Dead End Butcher lifts an Oil Tanker (25.4 megajoules)
• The Dead End Butcher blows a hole through three walls (0.0225 Tons)
• The Dead End Butcher swings his mace down (0.01 Tons)
• Bringer swings his sword down (6.1 megajoules)
• Bringer creates a storm within the hollow
  • Calc 1: 120 – 240 Tons of TNT
  • Calc 2: 1.21 – 2.42 kilotons of TNT
    • He clearly states he absorbed the power of the cursed blade (aka Tailless, Miyabi’s katana) in order to do this feat and take the form of an Ethereal. 

Weaknesses

Chihiro

Chihiro is an extremely gifted and powerful swordsman, but he isn’t without his limits. Despite being an extremely skilled swordsman, it’s important to note that he does still only have three years of actual experience as a swordsman, admitting himself to being over reliant on Enten’s abilities as opposed to his own swordsmanship (though granted, this is a problem he’s currently working on resolving in the manga at the time this blog is being made.) 

Chihiro has a limited pool of spirit energy to pull from, and if he runs out, he’s unable to use any of his sword’s abilities. On the topic of his sword’s abilities, as previously mentioned, being just a hilt, Cloud Gouger has a limited number of usages with its abilities, and once Chihiro uses up the sword, it’s gone for good. Chihiro’s various abilities with Enten also come with their own limitations, such as Aka’s limit on the attacks it can absorb, and the time limit that comes with Nishiki.

He also has a tendency to act very recklessly in battle, oftentimes going for extremely risky gambles without any regard for his own safety. While this works out for him more times than not, it does show that Chihiro is time and time again willing to injure and put himself in harm’s way in order to come out on top. This recklessness can also come at the cost of his spirit energy reserves, as these risky and dangerous plays can often lead to him burning through his spirit energy reserves quickly in exchange for attempting to end fights as quickly as possible.

Miyabi

The seemingly invincible void hunter of New Eridu isn’t without her faults. While far from being dumb, Miyabi hasn’t exactly shown herself to be much of a strategist in combat. Her role as a powerful weapon makes it so that, oftentimes, other people like the rest of Section 6 and Phaethon are the ones guiding and strategizing for her. The “strategies” she comes up with herself mostly just consist of overwhelming her opponents with her sheer strength and speed in order to end fights as quickly as possible, which, to be fair, isn’t exactly a bad strategy to have when you’re as powerful as she is. 

As powerful as her blade is, it also comes with its own set of shortcomings. As aforementioned, Miyabi’s blade can go berserk if she isn’t careful, and the blade itself can cause her to lose control over herself. While her Berserker form is immensely powerful, it’s also Miyabi not really being in control over her body, throwing out what little “strategy” she already had to begin with in exchange for acting on pure instinct. Her Berserker form also leaves her vulnerable when it’s used, leaving her at best, in a daze after exiting it, and at worst rendering her completely unconscious. 

Also, for some reason, she’s really susceptible to falling for scams.

Before The Verdict

Chihiro

FTL Kagurabachi???

There’s a notable speed feat for Chihiro mentioned in his speed section that gets him as fast as 2.2c… supposedly. This calc in particular comes from Chapter 9 of the manga, where, as Sojo readies a Mei in order to kill all the nearby civilians, Chihiro manages to intercept it by drawing the attack to him, using himself as a lightning rod to take the blunt force of the attack. Basically the whole idea of it is that it uses Chihiro as a lightning bolt and he would have to move faster than the flash of a lightning bolt to catch it. An insane feat on paper, right? Well, let’s take a closer look.

Let’s start off by examining the feat panel by panel. Chihiro and Sojo are standing on a roof together, having their conversation about their ideals. Sojo, sick of hearing Chihiro talk, suddenly jumps off the roof, and we see Chihiro jump off after him. Sojo lands and begins to prepare a Mei to attack the nearby civilians, and we see Chihiro continuing to fall as Sojo charges the attack. Chihiro lands and sticks his sword out, before the giant attack happens. We then see Chihiro standing in front of Sojo, having taken the blunt force of the attack by drawing it in towards him.

Firstly, it’s important to understand how Chihiro did this. He turned himself into a lightning rod by emitting electricity from the tip of his sword, creating an unbalanced charge relative to the source of the lightning. This provided a safe path of least resistance for the lightning and thus, drew the lightning to the rod. The calc assumes Chihiro needed to move in order to position himself to intercept the Mei, when this isn’t true. Although we clearly see him falling from the building and landing, that doesn’t mean he’d have to move to position himself. Chihiro moving in order to intercept the lightning also goes against the very nature of how lightning rods work. They don’t need to move towards lightning in order to attract it; in fact, they’re generally quite stationary. And, if it were the case that they would somehow need to be moving faster than light to function, they would be impossible to utilize in real life. 

So although this feat does seem very impressive on paper, it ultimately does misinterpret the scene and the events leading up to the Mei attack. So no, unfortunately, Chihiro isn’t FTL by chapter 9 of the series.

Can Chihiro scale to everyone in the series?

Short answer: Not currently, but likely will in the future. There’s at least two groups of people that Chihiro is unable to scale right now. Let’s start with the swordbearers. For those who don’t know, they are the six swordsmen Kunishige Rokuhira entrusted with his six legendary Enchanted Blades during the Seitei War. They’re the pinnacle of both swordsmanship and power, and they’re easily some of the strongest people in the series without question. Of the aforementioned swordbearers, the three we know of currently are Koji Uruha, wielder of Kumeyuri, Seiichi Samura, wielder of Tobimune, and the “Swordmaster,” wielder of Shinuchi. As fellow enchanted blade users, it’d make sense for Chihiro to be able to scale to and utilize their feats for himself, right?

No. Not really.

Kagurabachi has shown us that Chihiro, at least currently, is completely outclassed in both strength and skill by the swordbearers The one showing we have of Chihiro fighting against a swordbearer was Chapter 59, during his brief scuffle with Samura. He readied himself to fight, only to…get blitzed and oneshot. He wasn’t just heavily injured in this confrontation, he straight up died, only revived thanks to Tobimune’s power.

Well, what about the Hishaku? Things are slightly more complicated. They’re the main enemies Chihiro fights on a daily basis since the start of the series, so naturally, Chihiro scales to a good number of feats performed by them. However, there are two enemies within the organization that Chihiro doesn’t scale, that being the Hishaku Sorcerer (unnamed till the time of publication) and Yura, the boss of the organization. They are consistently portrayed as somewhere ≥ Samura, so naturally you understand why Chihiro shouldn’t scale to them if you were reading until now. But wait, didn’t our John Kagurabachi cut Yura’s arm in Chapter 32? Why wouldn’t that prove, even if Yura wasn’t taking the fight seriously, that at the very least Chihiro scales in AP to both of these Hishaku men and by extension the swordbearers?

Well, it’s extremely dubious, given Yura wasn’t using sorcery in this fight, and here is where lies the issue. In Kagurabachi, sorcery is used to boost the user’s physical stats. How much is this boost? Does it have any kind of multiplier? 1.5x? 2x? 3x? 10x? Also undefined. At best, we can gauge that when Chihiro fought Sojo, he got around a 2x/3x boost in his overall stats when he cloaked himself with Nishiki. This is already an assumption, and it’s impossible to determine how much of a boost any characters get overall in comparison with any other type of ability. Given it’s impossible to say how much a base Yura compares to when he is using sorcery, it’s impossible to say how much Chihiro would downscale from their feats.

So it’s pretty clear that, at least where he stands currently in the manga, Chihiro shouldn’t realistically scale to any of the swordbearers in strength, nor the top brass of the Hishaku. But, considering the limited material both of these series have currently, and considering the fact that, as the main protagonist, Chihiro will more than likely reach that level of power eventually as Kagurabachi progresses, we’ve decided to futureproof a bit for this blog and give Chihiro scaling to both the swordbearers and the higher end Hishaku sorcerers. Since both Chihiro and Miyabi are rather limited in what they have at the time of this blog’s creation, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to give them all available options to make for a more interesting debate.

The Strangeness of Kyora’s Storehouse

Kyora Sazanami, leader of the Sazanami Clan and host of the annual Japanese Rakuzaichi auction, has an ability that specifically allows him to store his prized possessions and auctioning items within his own personal subspace, that being his Storehouse ability. Kyora’s storehouse is described as sorcery magic, a subspace created long ago by one of the earlier heads of the Sazanami Clan, passed down from generation to generation with every new clan leader. 

Creating an entire subspace with sorcery certainly lends itself to being extremely impressive, but let’s take a look at the finer details. There are multiple statements that support the idea that the subspace doesn’t actually exist, or, at the very least, doesn’t exist in the regular world. There’s also a statement in which Chihiro brings up the fact that the storehouse “extends infinitely.” However, this statement seems to be suggesting that the empty subspace within the storehouse extends infinitely, rather than the actual physical storehouse itself. Multiple storehouses can exist within the subspace, as implied by Kyora himself. We also know that the subspace and storehouse as a whole is tied to Kyora, as he says early on that if he dies, the storehouse ceases to exist, and we see this very thing happen at the very end of the Rakuzaichi arc when the storehouse begins to collapse as Kyora is dying. The fact that the storehouse collapsing is something that happens within a window of time, as seen with Chihiro having just enough time to save everyone inside before it fully collapses, also adds to the idea of the physical storehouse within the subspace not being infinite in size.

So what’s the general consensus for this? It’s pretty weird, and honestly, we’re not sure if it’s something that can even really be classified as a feat. The idea of Kyora sustaining an infinite subspace is something that we think is simply just too vague and tricky to try calculating, and even then, various statements from the manga seem to suggest that the empty subspace is infinite in size rather than the physical storehouse itself (and of course, Chihiro being infinite universal off this really iffy feat would obviously just be a humongous outlier with how Kagurabachi is right now). While it is a very interesting feat, we’ve ultimately decided to not look into it too much when considering the final verdict.

Miyabi

Lasers in ZZZ; are they legit or not?

Various different kinds of tech and machines that utilize lasers in their attack exist within ZZZ’s world, which is a given from the pretty highly advanced technology that exists within New Eridu. Of course, this then begs the question of whether or not they qualify for light speed, and thus can be used for fast speed calculations. 

The answer is…maybe? First things first, they are indeed called lasers, go in a straight line, go at consistent speeds and are stated to be able to burn, not explode. Coupled with the fact that most of these attacks come from machines, with similar lasers also used as laser fences, mirroring real life laser fences, and that should be more than enough evidence to qualify them as legitimate lasers, right? 

Nooot exactly. The primary argument supporting the fact that they’re legitimate is that they’re stated to be called lasers, which often doesn’t mean much in fiction when varying kinds of beams are considered “lasers.” A fictional beam being referred to as a “laser” doesn’t immediately qualify it as light speed. And while there’s not much evidence contradicting it, there’s also no further evidence supporting it, either. (IE. no lightspeed statements or if they’re made of photons or light, etc.) 

That being said, there’s nothing inherently contradicting them, and it is divisive amongst blog members, so ultimately, we’ve decided to label these lasers as debatable. Miyabi moving in tandem with them gets her to about 0.09c, or Sub-Relativistic if you buy them. As far as this blog goes, Miyabi’s laser dodging will only be considered as a maximum high end for her, at least until further proof is provided to argue for their legitimacy. This feat will otherwise NOT play a factor in the verdict.

What even IS a Hollow???

As previously mentioned, hollows in the world of ZZZ are supernatural disasters that appear without warning and can consume entire cities in one giant, black mass. The properties of a hollow seem to be extremely erratic in nature, with constantly shifting environments and spatial fissures that can warp people around. Prolonged exposure to the hollow environment can result in ether corruption, causing symptoms such as dizziness and fatigue, and eventually, full corruption, turning non-organic objects into ether crystals and organic life into ethereals, monsters found in varying forms all throughout hollows. 

So why bring this up, exactly? Well, in ZZZ’s Chapter 5 story, the very climactic and epic final showdown between Section 6 and Bringer has Miyabi using Tailless’ power to cut Bringer down, and, in the process, tear a hole straight through a hollow. Considering hollows are consistently described as “spherical dimensions” that have weird spacetime affecting properties to them, this begs the question of whether or not Miyabi’s hollow cut would classify as cutting through space, and more importantly, whether or not we can consider it durability negation. And if not, what exactly is a hollow even made of? Is it something that’s even calculable?

Firstly, let’s break down the weird spacetime shenanigans. Hollows have time and time again been described as “spherical dimensions.” The official Hollow Survival Guide tells us that “the internal spacetime environment becomes disorderly due to unknown influences.” Fissures are also a frequent occurrence found in hollows, spatial disorders in which new areas are continually generated within a hollow. The interior of hollows are continuously shifting and changing, and fissures themselves act as warps, transporting people around or out of hollows. We see two examples of people both entering and utilizing hollows/fissures in cutscenes. The first of which is Anby, who, after getting sent flying out of a building by an explosion, dives into a hollow, which seems to warp the environment around her as she enters. The other example of this is Zhu Yuan and Qingyi, who we see taking advantage of Hollow fissures to warp around while being chased by a group of bandits.

So they’re called spherical dimensions, they’re consistently stated to have weird, spacetime altering properties, and within Hollows exist spatial fissures that warp people around like wormholes. So it’s an open and shut case, right? Well…it’s not really that easy. Despite what their internal properties might tell you, hollows are implied to have at least some kind of mass. The expansion of Hollow Zero was stopped thanks to the detonation of the Shiyu Pillars and the formation of The Chasm. The makeup of the Hollows themselves also seem to be made of pure etheric matter, which New Eridu not only actively mines and converts to energy, but also utilizes in the formation of things such as W-Engine energy modules, ether plating agents, and even bullets. There also exists actual pure ether crystals, which form within the hollows themselves as a result of highly concentrated ether. The very nature of hollows and their etheric matter and how they’re utilized as both an energy source and a material for things like plating agents and bullets is very reminiscent of real life fossil fuels, all of which is to say that it isn’t unlikely for the hollows to have some kind of physical mass to them, and therefore, not fully be comprised of weird…space time stuff.

The weird, space-time altering effects of the Hollows also only occur within the interiors of the Hollows themselves, which seems to more so imply these being side effects of highly concentrated ether and ether corruption within the hollows rather than just being the actual makeup of the hollows themselves. So…what exactly is the mass of a hollow, then? While comparing a hollow’s density to crystals seems tempting at first given the existence of ether crystals within hollows, we don’t really have any way to determine the makeup of an ether crystal to compare it to a real life equivalent. Instead, we’ve decided to utilize ZZZ’s bullets, many of which, as aforementioned, are specifically made with ether, such as the Scout Jaeger’s bullets and Zhu Yuan’s ether buckshots. Given these bullets act pretty much identically to real life bullets, and also given that bullets are typically made of lead, we figured this would be a good metric to use in determining the density of the Hollow bubble. The results of the calcs we did for Miyabi’s hollow cut got within the ranges of 265 tons to 5 kilotons of TNT, depending on whether or not you buy fragmentation or pulverization.

At the end of the day, we simply don’t know enough about the actual makeup of the hollows themselves with the knowledge we currently have in order to draw a completely airtight conclusion though as you can see we have tried our best. The conclusion we came to was formed as a result of our own internal debating and discussions, and we personally believe it to be the best approach when it comes to Miyabi’s hollow cutting (assuming lead is also technically a safe low ball too). Ultimately, whether you think Hollows are made up of spacetime stuff or not, we encourage readers to come to their own conclusions.

ZZZ’s “Black Holes”

In case you’re unaware, there are some attacks within ZZZ that both resemble and are occasionally referred to as “black holes,” the notable examples being Nicole’s Special Attacks and Ultimate, as well as the Resonaboo and Devilboo’s attacks.

Let’s make this very clear, these are not black holes. Nicole’s special attacks are specifically referred to as “ether bombs” and not black holes. Meanwhile, both Resonaboo and Devilboo’s attacks constantly flip flop back and forth between being called ether bombs and black holes. But even if they were consistently called black holes, there isn’t really any evidence to support them being, well, actual black holes. They’re dark, black masses that suck enemies in, and…that’s it. No spaghettification, no light being unable to escape them or anything that supports them being actual black holes. Even if there was more evidence supporting this, in general, it’d just be way too big of an outlier to be considered valid. So no, unfortunately, ZZZ does not get black hole scaling from these attacks, and Miyabi isn’t going to be one-shotting Chihiro with planet-star level attacks anytime soon.

Both

Why this matchup?

Amphloo

Hey all! Amphloo here, though those on Reddit might better know me as u/Cold-Note1983. I’m the creator of this matchup, and to have a MU I made evolve into an entire blog effort, complete with research, thumbnails, fanart, and the like is a surreal feeling, to say the least. Taking the time to really delve deep into both of these characters and the matchup in general has really made me love this matchup a lot, and I hope that reading through this blog and learning more about both Chihiro and Miyabi, whether you’re someone familiar with them or not, has helped you like the matchup even a tiny bit. On the topic of the matchup itself, why does it exist, anyways? Well, I made a pretty lengthy megapost really diving into the matchup’s connections, the fight potential, story potential, and all that jazz, so if you’re interested, you’re free to check that out. But for those of you who don’t feel like doing that, don’t worry, I’ll give a more condensed version of that post here.

Connections : 

• Two young, black haired, red-eyed swordsman from popular 2020’s IPs (Kagurabachi and Zenless Zone Zero) considered prodigies with the sword
• On the surface, the two come off as being distant and quiet, but deep down, the two are kind-hearted and determined, with both having strong senses of justice when it comes to good and evil
• Both are part of influential families within their respective series (the Rokuhira and Hoshimi families) and would initially live normal, mundane lives with their parental figures (Chihiro’s father and Miyabi’s mother.) The two parents ultimately wanted nothing more but for their children to live normal, unassuming lives, not having to worry about the heavy burdens that they carried with them (Kunishige Rokuhira sought out a hidden location following the end of the Seitei War to raise Chihiro normally, whereas Miyabi’s mother actively steered Miyabi away from the blade and trained her in various other things in order to get her to live a normal, peaceful life)
• Tragedy would befall the two as their parents would be killed right in front of them, with their deaths being tied to shady, corrupt organizations (The Hishaku and those responsible for the Fall of the Old Capital.) It’d be these tragic losses that would steel the resolves of both characters, as they’d then proceed to pick up their families’ legendary blades that they initially had no intention of wielding (Enten and Tailless)
• Both of their blades were forged with special materials within their respective series, granting their swords unique properties. (Datenseki and highly concentrated etheric matter.) Both of their blades come with special and unique abilities, and both blades have familiars/summons tied to their swords that are physical manifestations of their blades’ power (Chihiro’s goldfish are masses of energy and manifestations of the blade’s spirit energy. The eye that floats beside Miyabi while her sword is sheathed is a manifestation of her blade’s curse, merging with her blade whenever she unsheathes it and uses it to attack.)
• Both of their stories/characters are founded by ideas of heroism (Chihiro’s father and the swordbearers were considered heroes throughout Japan for stopping the Seitei War, a trait that Chihiro both heard constantly and admitted. Miyabi herself wanted to grow up to become a hero, someone who “slayed all the bad guys”)
• Both of their blades play crucial roles in their development and growth, with their swords evolving as they do, and, despite the dark truths about their swords/families that would get uncovered, these truths would only serve to strengthen their resolve further (Chihiro gets small snippets about the dark truth behind the Swordbearers and the cover up involving the Master Swordsman and the Shinuchi. He steels his resolve and tells Shiba that no matter what the truth is, he’s determined to see things through to the end, willing to learn the truth behind the swordbearers no matter how grim it may be. After getting trapped within the illusions of her blade, Miyabi learns more about the inheritance traditions involving Tailless, and all of the lives sacrificed to pass on the blade from family member to family member, including that of her own mother. Miyabi declares to the voices within her blade that under her possession, no more sacrifices will ever be given to Tailless, and in exchange for the blade’s true power, she vows to only use her sword to vanquish evil)

So yeah, needless to say, the connections, at least in my opinion, do a lot for both characters. It covers all of the important aspects about them, from their revenge quests, to their parents, to even the very swords they utilize. On the other hand, you also have both the fight and story potential, which is also great. Both fighters are known for their extremely flashy techniques and attacks, so aside from having a good old fashioned sword duel, you also have fast, high speed action with crazy slashes and attacks being thrown at each other. As for the story potential, you can really tell a great story that also ties into the awesome fight potential. Have the two encounter one another on a train, fighting for a bit before it leads them into a hollow. From there, you could have a really cool chase/fight scene, with the two hopping around fissure to fissure whilst fighting each other. Pull a ChiefSlayer and have them fight off hordes of ethereals amidst their fight. And for an awesome climax, put Miyabi’s berserker form up against Chihiro’s 3x Nishiki amp. This is just scratching the surface of the potential both the fight and story has, and I think there are plenty of ways to get really creative with it.

I think the most important part of why I like this matchup so much is that these two characters, and the series they come from are just awesome. Kagurabachi, despite it’s initial meme status, really proved itself to be an extremely high quality shonen, complete with great art, awesome fight scenes and choreography, and a simple, yet compelling story. Chihiro is a part of that. He’s hype moments and aura personified, but he also feels relatable, and he feels more like an actual person with struggles rather than a blank slate edgelord character. On the other hand, you have Zenless Zone Zero, a really awesome and honestly refreshing game to enter the gacha landscape. It has a grounded, yet really cool urban setting, with a compelling plot and an extremely charming cast of characters. Its action is simple, yet fun, and its soundtrack is an absolute banger, too. Miyabi herself is a really cool character, and there’s a reason why she was so hyped up from the moment she was teased. Both of these series are fresh takes on their respective genres, and I think that’s a shared sentiment between the two characters that makes me really like this matchup as a whole. I also really like the potential this matchup has to grow and evolve as the home series do. Both Kagurabachi and Zenless Zone Zero are still extremely young and new series, and both Chihiro and Miyabi still have major roles to play in both of their respective stories, so there’s no doubt that they’ll get new feats and abilities in the distant future that could really change the outcome of this matchup. People might be a bit confused as to why we’re doing a blog on this matchup so early into both of these series’ lifespans, but I think that’s ultimately a part of it. It’s a fun way to keep this blog as a sort of time capsule, a way to look back in the future to see how much both of these characters have evolved from the time we talked about them. 

I could probably fill up a couple more pages talking about why I love this matchup so much, but I’m sure you’re all tired of reading at this point and just want to get to the verdict, so I’ll leave you with this. If you’re someone who’s read Kagurabachi but hasn’t played Zenless Zone Zero, give it a shot. Despite its status as a gacha game, I think it’s a really refreshing take on the genre that has a really compelling story and a cast of unique, interesting characters. If you’re someone who’s played ZZZ but hasn’t read Kagurabachi, go read it. It hasn’t even hit 100 chapters yet, but it’s already shaping up to be a timeless shonen, subverting typical tropes and in general just having awesome fight scenes and choreography wrapped up in a simple, yet interesting story. And if you’re someone who isn’t familiar with either character, reading this blog as a way to learn more about them, do both. Give Kagurabachi a read, and while you’re at it, play Zenless Zone Zero, too. I promise you won’t regret it.

Grantora

Nice to meet you all! This is Grantora and yeah, it’s a pleasure to be part of the research team for this matchup! I was taken aback after Anfang gave me the offer to join and I’m very glad I took that opportunity to work on my very first matchup. I really appreciate it once again. Anyways, I know what you’re here for and that’s why I’m going to tell you all a bit of this matchup’s history just to cover the bases after amphloo’s excellent explanation about its appeal on a general scale. So, AHEM. 

As I know it, this matchup was originally conceived around early December of last year, around the same time Miyabi properly debuted as a playable character in version 1.4. This takes us to the Official Death Battle Discord server where some members were rummaging for ideas and like usual, someone went ahead and brought up Chihiro and Levi Ackerman and it was so far the best idea she had by a mile though interest is still a bit small due to not many still processing it beyond a surface level understanding for both character. Slowly but surely however, vs Chihiro began to take steam as more and more people caught up with Kagurabachi, meaning it’s thumbnail churning hour!

2 months later, Ballot Banter opened its door again and Chihiro vs Miyabi was submitted, very early in the line-up in fact that it made its appearance in the very first video of this year’s BB with the team taking an immediate liking to the idea. This positive assertion led to this matchup getting greenlit by the G1 team, replacing the originally planned Levi vs Miyabi in order to cultivate public awareness on a growing idea and provide a sort of time capsule on where both the series currently sits in VS (and also it’s a lot easier to researched than other planned Hoyo matchup so rip bozo) with the only public sighting being amphloo’s original post, and here we are today!

Overall, it’s a very neat matchup with a lot of potential to grow as time went on and the quality speaks for itself with how much stuff you can come up with this early in their lifespan. I wouldn’t say I’m this MU’s #1 fan but be on the look-out for a blog glazing this idea for the second time! (…whenever I’m free from doing assignments).

Bonus Art

(Carbonated-Jem)

(Mau)

(BlackPen_BP)

(Amphloo)

Fight Script

Hey all, Amphloo here again! Last time I’m popping in, I swear. To celebrate this blog’s release, TWILTY and I collaborated together in order to write a short fight script! Big shoutouts to them for making the idea possible, and in general for just helping a lot with different parts of the script and helping to provide ideas for the script as a whole. Things definitely wouldn’t have gone as smoothly if it weren’t for them. It’s been a loooooong time since I last wrote a fight script, and I mean it. Regardless though, I’m actually pretty happy with how it turned out!

Here’s the script for anyone who wants to read it. Hope you enjoy reading through it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

Verdict

Stats

Let’s start things off with speed, since it’s the thing the two characters are pretty well known for in their respective series. Chihiro is comparable to characters who can react to lightning, and he himself has even been stated to move at speeds comparable to lightning according to Hiyuki, which puts him at a cool Mach 285, or Massively Hypersonic. Miyabi isn’t falling too far behind herself though. Being able to slash multiple times in tandem with gunfire gets her at Mach 257. Additionally, being able to dodge Bringer’s lightning, as well as being comparable and likely above Anby, who’s attacks were stated to be like “sudden surges of lightning” should also get her in that lightning timing range as well. Both of these characters are pretty comfortable lightning timers, having both feats and statements to support that, so it’s pretty safe to say that they tie in this regard.

In terms of strength, however, is where things start leaning in favor of one side. Chihiro isn’t a slouch in the strength department by any means, being able to beat Sojo and scaling above Shiyumi, who created a giant rock formation in the sky calced at 45 tons of TNT. However, even Astra’s tower lifting feat beats this feat out at the higher ends, getting to up to 58 tons, and this isn’t even going into Miyabi’s higher showings. The lowest end of Bringer’s storm creation feat gets up to 120 tons, making her at the bare minimum 3 times stronger than Chihiro.

So it’s pretty clear that, while they’re comparable in speed, Miyabi has a pretty clear strength advantage. That isn’t the end of the stats debate, though. While currently unable to scale to Samura or the other swordbearers (at least up until chapter 77, but 78 might change that), given the fact that Chihiro should more than likely be able to keep up with and fight against Samura in the near future, for this blog, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he should scale to Samura and other top tiers of Kagurabachi. How does this change things?

Let’s go back to speed. While there aren’t any higher speed feats Chihiro can scale to, he can amp his speed with Nishiki, Mei: Cloak, and Mei: Shred. The exact metric is unknown, but we know it’s at least substantial enough to have him go from barely being able to match Sojo, to catching him off guard and briefly blitzing him. We also at least know the upper limits of his amp, that being 3x before he faces heavy repercussions. Giving him this 3x amp, we can get his speed up to Mach 855, which would make him 3x faster than Miyabi…maybe. Don’t forget, Miyabi also has higher end speed feats herself. Her slashing in tandem with lightning gets to about Mach 1260, making her about 1.5x faster than Chihiro. Now, of course, this depends if you think the feat counts at cloud to ground lightning and you can argue against it, but granted, we’re being a bit generous to Chihiro to apply this multiplier and it’ll depend on your standards for multipliers in general. Safest option is to say they tie as both have ways to make themselves comparable in speed…again.

Going back to power, Samura should at least be comparable to Mr. John Hishaku over here, who created giant branches that completely engulfed Senkutsuji Temple. This feat gets him to about 260 tons of TNT, which, when applying Chihiro’s 3x amp, gives him a maximum of 795 tons. Very impressive, but even then, Miyabi still has him beat. The higher ends of Bringer’s storm creation feat can get in the kiloton ranges, and, at her highest, her hollow cutting feat would get her at up to 5 kilotons. At best, they’d roughly even out in strength using the lower ends of Miyabi’s hollow cutting feat, and at worst, she’d be anywhere from 1.5x to 6.2x stronger. No matter how you slice it, whether it’s the lower end or the higher ends, Miyabi has him beat in power.

There’s also one glaring issue with this 3x stat amp: It simply isn’t sustainable. Chihiro, amping himself with this much spirit energy, was only able to maintain it during his fight against Sojo for a few seconds at most, and even then, he faced heavy whiplash and repercussions afterwards. Chihiro’s endurance is no doubt nothing to scoff at, especially given the fact that we saw him continue fighting in the very same fight even after getting his arm blown off. But maintaining this high of an amp for even a few seconds at most is extremely taxing on his body, and keeping it up for any longer would more than likely be fatal. A few seconds simply isn’t enough time to finish the job against someone comparable and, in most cases, superior to him in stats, and once his time runs out, it’d leave him wide open for Miyabi to attack.

So in general, they’d likely be pretty comparable to each other in speed, with Chihiro taking the slight edge thanks to his ability to speed himself up. But in terms of power, Miyabi pretty handedly takes it, being stronger at both the lower and higher ends.

Arsenal & Abilities

Stats might be an important aspect to any fight, but in a good old fashioned sword fight like this, their arsenals and sets of abilities are equally important. How do they compare? Let’s take a closer look..

On the surface level, it’s pretty clear that Chihiro beats the void hunter out when it comes to his variety of different abilities. Kuro, Kuro: Shred, Nishiki, Aka, plus all of Cloud Gouger’s abilities, the Rokuhira Eyes and the Iai Purity White Style, Chihiro undoubtedly has more to work with than Miyabi’s far simpler moveset of…slashing and freezing in comparison. Chihiro has plenty of things to work with that he can throw at Miyabi to keep her on her toes and catch her off guard. But, funnily enough, when you take a closer look at things, it turns out that, despite her far simpler arsenal in comparison, Miyabi actually has pretty much everything she needs in order to both match and deal with all of Chihiro’s abilities. Let’s break it down further.

Kuro can be matched by Miyabi’s own ranged slashes, which, thanks to her superior AP, would be more than capable of matching and likely even overpowering the attacks. A similar idea goes for Kuro: Shred. While powerful, Miyabi would be able to manage with her own widespread AOE attacks, and, if worst comes to worst, she’d more than likely be able to react fast enough to get away given the attack’s setup time. Aka has explicitly been stated to have a limit on how much of an attack it can absorb, especially with the more powerful said attack is. Once again, Miyabi would be more than capable of simply overpowering Aka’s absorption as a result of her superior power. And even then, if Chihiro shot one of her Aka-absorbed attacks at her, nothing’s stopping her from simply countering with another attack or getting out of the way.

Nishiki, and by extension Mei’s Cloak and Mei: Shred, are definitely Chihiro’s more useful tools. While Miyabi wouldn’t be able to match the speed boost these abilities provide, with her W-Engine, Drive Disc, Mindscape Cinemas, and various gears, she also at least ways of amping herself to keep up with the power boost (not that she necessarily needs those, given her power advantage.) Mei, while extremely powerful, is a telegraphed attack that requires charge time and buildup, which Miyabi would more than likely be able to anticipate and react to. She can also just, you know, dodge the attack given her status as a fellow lightning timer. Yui is met and arguably beaten by her own ice manipulation, especially given the knowledge that her foxfire is “chilling to the bone, cold enough to burn.” And while a combination of Kou and Mei would definitely be able to give her the slip to land an attack, keep in mind that this combo attack sacrifices part of Mei’s power in exchange for a wider AOE. Given she’s able to shrug off similar electric-based attacks, Miyabi would more than likely be able to shrug off a Kou + Mei combo attack and keep fighting. There’s also the important note of Cloud Gouger being limited in usage, so once its uses are finished, Chihiro loses a lot of the versatility in his arsenal.

The Rokuhira Eyes grant Chihiro heightened perception and sight, but…Miyabi also has that and more, given the fact that she’s a fox thiren. But, more importantly, it also gives Chihiro the ability to straight up copy attacks just by seeing them, as he did with the Iai White Purity Style. This gives Chihiro the ability to copy Miyabi’s fighting style just by watching her, something that could definitely trip her up and catch her off guard…maybe. While the two times we’ve seen it occur are definitely up for contention, Miyabi has been shown fighting against doppelgangers of herself before. Even then, doppelgangers are a form of Ethereal that do exist canonically within the world of ZZZ, and given Miyabi’s extensive history of ethereal slaying, there isn’t really any reason to assume she hasn’t fought against a doppelganger of herself. Realistically speaking, there’s a possibility that Chihiro copying her fighting style wouldn’t be something that’d even really faze her. Even if it was something that Miyabi had no experience fighting against, given her advantage in power, it likely wouldn’t make that big of a difference in the end. The Iai White Purity Style could definitely catch Miyabi off guard, especially if it was amped with Nishiki, Mei Cloak, or Mei: Shred, so that’s a valid option for him. 

On Miyabi’s end, despite her smaller set of abilities, her ice manipulation and foxfire would definitely be able to keep Chihiro on his toes, as, if not careful, a few attacks would be able to freeze him solid, giving him a variety of debuffs and hampering him down. There’s also one other part of Miyabi’s kit that hasn’t been addressed yet that could actually swing the pendulum in her favor, and that’s none other than the myth, the legend, the bangboo himself, Agent Gulliver. Despite how he looks, the little guy’s actually surprisingly tough, being able to, at the very least, shrug off hits from powerful bosses and ethereals like the Rampart Brute and Dullahan. With his electric gun, he’d be able to provide additional support on the side against Chihiro, and his ability to shrug off hits from powerful bosses and ethereals means he actually isn’t just dead weight waiting to get destroyed by a stray attack from the two. This essentially forces Chihiro into a 2v1 scenario where he has to not only worry about dealing with Miyabi herself, but also Agent Gulliver providing supporting fire from the side, too.

All in all, Chihiro’s best abilities against Miyabi are his amping abilities, the Rokuhira Eyes, and Iai White Purity Style, which is…a far more limited amount than his entire kit. Simply put, despite his far more varied kit, Miyabi just has ways of dealing with or matching most of his arsenal, and even then, her power advantage and similar speed also likely renders a majority of Chihiro’s arsenal moot. That being said, Chihiro does have a lot of abilities to go through and could likely keep Miyabi on her toes. Miyabi does counter most of them, so you could argue they tie here, but we feel his versatility gives him a slight edge here.

Tertiary Factors

When it comes to tertiaries, both of these sword fighters have a lot of notable factors to go over, so let’s break it down in order to determine who’s overall superior. It can be difficult to determine at first, considering how both characters are skilled enough to be called prodigies, but there are more things to analyze here.

Experience is a given; Chihiro may have been a swordsmanship for three years, but this pales in comparison to Miyabi, who has been training since she was a little kid. Chihiro had training as a child too, but as a swordsmith. Not to mention, Miyabi constantly trains every opportunity she gets to — so intensely to the point she enters trance states. That’s without mentioning how much more variety of enemies she faces in her battles, so, yeah, this is an easy edge for Section 6’s Void Hunter. Another thing that seems to favor Miyabi is her stamina — simply due to the fact that her attacks don’t require as much energy as Chihiro, favoring her on a peak condition. Chihiro’s abilities are directly tied to Spirit Energy,  and given his limited pool, in theory, it would make him exhaust faster. If that isn’t enough, things like the Virtual Revenge special episode implies Miyabi was fighting for, at the very least, a few hours against Ethereals, and inferior characters like Burnice could fight for an entire day.

But let’s talk about skill. Miyabi’s notably skilled in not only her swordsmanship, but also martial arts, as it is part of a family tradition. Her talent is enough to classify her as a genius of the family, so it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that her skill is pretty dang good. But there’s a lot of things that help Chihiro match Miyabi, and that is his tactical mind and sheer adaptability. He constantly changes his combat style and abilities so it can better fit the current opponent, and — thanks to his Rokuhira eyes — can even copy others’ techniques. This is not even mentioning that he could potentially trick Miyabi or outsmart her given his past showings that he was capable of doing before with more experienced people. Ultimately, while Miyabi likely has a better sword and martial art skill, Chihiro’s intelligence and adaptation could help him close the gap — despite not being a swordsman for as long as Miyabi.

Another thing favoring Chihiro is his absurd endurance. What can we say? The boy’s tuff; taking a huge amount of hits, and still keeps fighting even if he’s severely injured and losing limbs, and even after reaching his limits, Bachi Man simply refuses to give up. He even fought while using three times the amount of Spirit Energy his body could handle. He’s too hardcore! Miyabi’s obviously tough, but Chihiro is just on a whole ‘nother level of toughness. To end tertiaries, let’s discuss range. Both of them have so many abilities, but when you look at it, Miyabi’s attacks have been shown to possess more range than Chihiro’s abilities like Kuro: Shred more often than not — and while you can maybe argue inter-dimensional range because of the Storehouse, it’s far from being combat applicable.

To summarize, Chihiro’s intelligence and combat adaptation can let him keep up in skill, and when you add it up with his insane endurance, he proves himself to be quite a threat to Miyabi, but her experience, skill, stamina and overall attack range and AoE gives her the edge on tertiary factors. 

Conclusion

Chihiro

“I’m a sinner, too. The first time I killed a person… I accepted that I’m a monster. The least that I can do is refrain from causing pain to others, and take you Hishaku bastards to hell with me.”

Advantages:

• Can gain the edge in speed at the lower ends via various amps
• Far more varied arsenal of abilities…
• Smarter
• Rokuhira Eyes and his superior intelligence / adaptability can help match Miyabi’s experience
• Better endurance overall
• Relative speed & skill
• Goated fandom
  • Seriously, read Kagurabachi, it’s great

Disadvantages:

• Weaker overall both at the lower and higher ends
• …but Miyabi can manage and deal with most of it
• Slower at the highest ends
• Doesn’t really have an answer to Miyabi’s superior ice manipulation
• Reached a new level of brainrot in its very first break week

Miyabi

“I’ve already found the reason to wield my blade. I’ll keep seeking a purpose that goes beyond wielding the blade. A hero’s battle has to have an end, right? When the day comes that all evil has been eradicated, ask me again, Proxy. Ask me if I’ve found a reason to live without a blade in my hand.”

Advantages:

• Stronger overall at both the lower and higher ends
• Faster at the higher ends
• Has ways of managing and dealing with most of Chihiro’s abilities
• Superior ice manipulation that would keep Chihiro on his toes
• Agent Gulliver essentially makes the fight a 2v1
• Far more experienced fighter
• Better stamina overall
• Superior ranged and AOE options
• Relative speed & skill
• Is the storm that is approaching (we had to include this here)
• Cristina Vee

Disadvantages:

• Less intelligent
• Less varied arsenal overall
• We had to hold back on making Vergil jokes as much as we could
• It’s not that kind of game guys, we swear
  • Seriously, Zenless Zone Zero is a great game, try it out if you’re interested

Taking everything into account, this was quite an interesting debate, and while it certainly wouldn’t be an easy fight for either party, there is clearly a decisive winner.

For one, Chihiro and Miyabi have a good number of tricks they can pull from their sleeves. Chihiro inherited the Rokuhira eyes from his father and with it some insane level of perception. A perception he’s used to copy complex techniques and fighting styles to match up to opponents initially superior to him. In recent chapters of Kagurabachi, it’s been reiterated that the Rokuhira eyes are what allow Chihiro not only to match experienced swordmasters, but let him overcome freak prodigies like Hiruhiko, whose newly developed unorthodox fighting style let him stomp swordmasters with decades of experience under their belt. So the Rokuhira eyes, alongside his superior intelligence and adaptability are more than capable of matching Miyabi’s formal training and experience. And with everything he’s capable of with both Enten and Cloud Gouger, Chihiro is undoubtedly going to be a challenging and tricky opponent for Miyabi to have to combat against. Just from the world of ZZZ and the different types of enemies she’d have faced across her career, no one (yet) is quite as versatile as Chihiro Rokuhira. Miyabi’s base abilities, while fundamentally very strong despite their simplicity, simply aren’t on par with Chihiro’s full arsenal and what he can do with them.

In terms of physicals, however, the advantage simply goes to Miyabi. Both have a very similar range when it comes to speed, with Mach 285 for Chihiro and Mach 257 for Miyabi respectively, and both have feats and statements to support them being comparable to the speed of lightning. But at their highest ends? Chihiro can briefly amp himself up to 3x his base speed which, presently, translates to Mach 855. Compared to Miyabi,  who’s attacks alongside lightning can get to Mach 1260,  this all-in-all gives her about a 50% speed gap in her favor. It’s important to keep in mind however that, as aforementioned, Chihiro’s 3x amp isn’t sustainable for prolonged periods of time, and keeping it up for longer than a few seconds at most harms his body, especially assuming he’d likely have already been straining it beforehand in the midst of their battle. And that leads into what’s undoubtedly the biggest decider in this debate: Power.

As things stand at the time of writing, Miyabi is just too physically strong and tough for the sorcerer to handle. Both Bringer’s storm and Miyabi’s slicing of a section of a Hollow come out to 2 – 5 Kilotons of TNT. Compare that to Chihiro and all his own feats and scaling which usually cap out at single to double digit Tons of TNT, going up to 260 Tons of TNT if we’re generous and give him scaling to Mr. John Hishaku, and by extension, Samura. Even slapping on the 3x multiplier for Chihiro doesn’t close that gap. And while Chihiro has definitely been in lengthy battles in his own right, Miyabi and her fellow Section 6 members can fight and traverse through hollows for hours on end without any signs of exhaustion or fatigue, evident in the Virtual Revenge episode. She should also very reasonably upscale from other characters with similar feats of prolonged fighting, like the Cunning Hares, who fought and traversed through a hollow for well over 4x the recommended amount of time, or Burnice, who Lighter needed to fight for an entire day just to wear down. Granted, Chihiro can keep fighting even with mortal wounds and whole limbs missing, but Miyabi’s physical stats would make it difficult to bring her into a similar state of wear.

So as tricky of an opponent Chihiro can be with his varied arsenal, Miyabi can afford to make mistakes throughout the fight, and anything he does have in his ability set, from his eyes to his various weapons simply can’t make up for the difference in power. And while one could say we’re too early in Kagurabachi’s story to tell how strong Chihiro could get, the exact same could be said for Zenless Zone Zero and the coming threats Miyabi and other members of the ZZZ cast will have to face. 

Ultimately, while the sorcerer swordsmith may have entended to come out on top, against New Eridu’s prodigy void hunter, his chances were zero.

The winner is Hoshimi Miyabi.

(This is NOT Chihiro slander, this drawing is a JOKE and was made in good fun. Both characters are awesome, no slander is tolerated for either one)

It should have been Pas tbh

Thanks so much for reading, a lot of people on the team love Kagurabachi and Zenless Zone Zero and made this blog with a lot of passion. Hope y’all enjoyed it!

Final Tally

Rokuhira Chihiro (2) – door-kun, Flip

Hoshimi Miyabi (9) – amphloo, Felow, Frost, Grantora, ishi_yuki, Pasbros, The Cardinal King, TWILTY, WWAL