Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki

Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki is the ace of the Blue Pegasus Guild, as well as the leader of the Trimens (composed of Hibiki Lates, Ren Akatsuki and Eve Tearm). Many have called him an old man because of the way he looks, despite being 29 years old when first introduced.

Appearance
Ichiya is a short man with a distinctively big, somehow rectangular-shaped face, with a large flat nose which always seems to be shining, and prominent cheekbones. He has dark eyes and eyebrows, with a pair of lines pointing towards his nose below them, plus some stubble around his mouth and prominent chin. His orange hair was initially kept in a wavy style with many curved spikes jutting outwards, with one acting as a fringe on the left side of his face. He seems to possess mildly hairy legs. After seven years from Fairy Tail’s incident on Tenrou Island, Ichiya’s appearance hasn’t changed much, with the only visible difference being his hair, which has gotten longer and is kept in a different hairstyle, with the wavy, spiky strands being kept downwards and covering the sides of his face.

Ichiya’s first attire consisted of a white suit with elbow-long sleeves, with distinctive pants ending below his knees in dark hems, adorned by Blue Pegasus’ symbol on its left shoulder, over an orange shirt covered in many dark leaf motifs, possessing sleeves reaching down below his elbows and closed around the neck by a red papillon, and elegant light shoes paired with light socks. The left part of his chest was adorned by a large flower reminiscent of a rose, and a wide, dark belt was seen hanging over his right hip, with several flasks attacked to it, containing perfumes used for Ichiya’s Perfume Magic. After the 7-years time skip, his attire underwent subtle changes, getting visibly simpler, with his short pants losing the dark hems, his jacket seemingly covering a plain shirt which is dark in the lower part, and his shoes being dark.

Personality
Ichiya is a womanizer like the rest of his group. Unlike them, he is nowhere near as handsome, though he thinks of himself as such. Regardless, the Trimens call him aniki (older brother) and show a great deal of respect for him. He and Erza Scarlet apparently have some history together, much to her disgust, and he constantly continues to hit on her. Ichiya is also as cowardly as he is vain, and usually prefers to run from a fight. However, there is a rare exception where he proves to be courageous by going against the Council to save Jellal Fernandes for Erza's sake. He is an ardent fan of perfumes. He has a habit of saying the English word "men" all the time, and he calls Erza "my honey" (also in English).

Oración Seis arc
Ichiya, along with his team, are selected to represent Blue Pegasus for the guild alliance alongside Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, and Cait Shelter to combat Oración Seis. Before he can help his team explain the situation to the others, including who the Oración Seis are, Ichiya is beaten by Oración Seis member Angel, who has Gemini take his guise.

The real Ichiya appears after Oración Seis defeats all the other members of the alliance and kidnaps Wendy Marvell and Happy. Together with Jura, he manages to heal the others' injuries using his Healing Perfume on them.

The alliance regroups and splits up to find Oración Seis' base and rescue Wendy and Happy. Ichiya goes off on his own and runs into a small group of thugs from one of the dark guilds allied with Oración Seis. Rather than fight, Ichiya cowardly begs for his life. He is captured, tied to a pole, and carried off by the dark guild, all the while trying to bargain with the thugs to let him go. After Nirvana is activated by Brain and forms into a walking entity, Ichiya is abandoned by his captors and hanging from one of the towers on Nirvana, still tied to the pole.

Despite this silly obstacle and claiming to be unable to help because of it, Ichiya manages to reach and destroy one of the lacrima powering Nirvana's legs with his Power Perfume. Ichiya escapes from Nirvana before its destruction and prepares to leave to use the bathroom, but is trapped by a magic barrier created by Lahar, who had come to arrest Hoteye and Jellal. Ichiya fights alongside the others to save Jellal in an attempt to please Erza, but stops after Erza pleads them to. With their mission complete, Ichiya leads the Trimens back to Blue Pegasus.

X791 arc
Ichiya, along with the rest of The Trimens, visit Fairy Tail to tell to inform them of the possibility that Tenrou Island may still exist.

Grand Magic Games arc
Five days before the beginning of the Grand Magic Games, Blue Pegasus hears about Lyon and Jura joining the games under Lamia Scale. Ichiya gets uneasy with the idea but Bob tells him that they should allow their strongest Mages to join the fray as well. He and Hibiki are awakened by the announcement of the beginning of the preliminary round during the Grand Magic Games. The Trimens, along with another member that looks like a rabbit, pass the preliminaries in fifth place. The team chooses to let Eve play for the first event of the games, Hidden. At the end of the event, Eve scores four points for Blue Pegasus, coming in fourth overall in the game. During the subsequent battles, Ichiya doesn't seem to pay attention to the battles,, except when it comes to battles of his teammates. During Ren Akatsuki's fight against Arania Web, Natsu wonders if the members of Blue Pegasus, mainly Ichiya, got strong like Ren, to which Erza replies that Ichiya's abilities since the start have always been exceptional, making him the strongest Mage in Blue Pegasus, which makes Natsu eager to fight Ichiya.

Ichiya later participates in the second day's event, Chariot and was initially in second place after Kurohebi of Team Raven Tail. However, he fails to keep his position and is overtaken by Bacchus of Team Quatro Cerberus, Risley of Team Mermaid Heel and Yuka of Team Lamia Scale, ultimately causing him to fall to fifth place, earning his team 3 points. It is later revealed that reserve member Jenny Realight took his place in the team as the competition portion had been physically exhausting for him.

Jenny loses her battle against Mirajane Strauss, and Ichiya, recovered, comes back during the MPF event, telling Eve and Ren to trust Hibiki, that was competing in the event.

In the Battle Portion of the third day, Eve is defeated by Rufus Lohr in the second match. Worried about their team's position, Hibiki and Ren comment with Ichiya about their fall in the ranking. However, Ichiya replies saying not to worry because they still have the unnamed rabbit-costumed person as their secret weapon, and emphasizes saying it twice. Hibiki and Ren thank Ichiya for the lesson, but get worried because they don't know the person's identity, thinking that he could not be a member of the Guild, which is against the Games' rules.

After the Naval Battle event is completed, the tag teams battles get started, with the formation of the new Team Fairy Tail. Ichiya is seen alongside the unnamed rabbit-costumed Mage waiting sternly for the battles to commence.

Later, Ichiya and the Rabbit enter the battle field, facing the Quatro Cerberus duo - Bacchus and Rocker. Before the battle starts, the Rabbit, Ichiya's secret weapon, is revealed to be Nichiya, utterly shocking the audience. Suddenly, Bacchus charges at Nichiya, knocking him out with a single palm strike.

Seeing this, Ichiya is surprised, having thought that Nichiya would possess the same power as him due to Nichiya and him having the same appearance. As Bacchus and Rocker land multiple blows on him, a sad Ichiya realizes Nichiya's heroic actions. With these thoughts, Ichiya is determined to let his comrade smell the perfume of victory.

Ichiya uses his Perfume Magic, enhancing his muscles. He then attacks with his Smiling Smash, punching both of his opponents who are, as a result, completely knocked out at the same time. Everyone in the arena is impressed by Ichiya's strength. After doing his usual poses, he heads to Nichiya, taking him in his arms and asking him if he is gravely injured. Nichiya replies that he is just not feeling too manly.

Magic and Abilities
Perfume Magic (香り魔法 Kaori Mahō ): Ichiya uses magical perfume as his spells. These perfumes have a myriad of effects that he can exploit at his disposal. This seems to be pretty useful, but so far most of his spells are supportive, passive and somewhat cowardly. Erza has said he is a powerful Mage, of the "well-to-do" sort; however, he has yet to show his true "power".
 * Pain Relieving Perfume: A perfume that Ichiya uses to heal his own wounds, as well and others around him that also smell the perfume. It was also described to have a magnificent fragance. However, it's inefective against poison.
 * Pain Perfume: A perfume originally used by Gemini on Jura; still, it is almost certain that Ichiya can use it too. This perfume makes his opponent unable to fight by causing intense pain and taking away their will to battle. (Anime Only)
 * Paralyzing Perfume: A perfume Ichiya uses to paralyze his enemies so he doesn't have to fight them.


 * Power Perfume: A perfume that causes Ichiya to greatly increase his muscles' structure.
 * Enhanced Strength: His large muscles improve Ichiya's physical power to the point where he can destroy the massive lacrima crystal in one of Nirvana's legs with his bare hands.
 * Smiling Smash: With his strength enhanced, Ichiya aims a punch at his foes, sending them flying.
 * Fleet-Foot Perfume: Zero Distance Inhalation: A perfume that Ichiya inserts in his nose, increasing his speed.
 * Enhanced Speed: While under the effects of this perfume, Ichiya's speed dramatically increases, enabling them to dodge his opponent's attacks.

Enhanced Smell: Ichiya possesses a remarkable sense of smell, probably on par (if not greater) with that a Dragon Slayer's, being able to tell whether a Mage has good or rare Magic simply by their smell.

Enhanced Durability: In spite of his small stature, Ichiya has proven himself to be quite resilient to physical punishment: he was shown capable of remaining conscious while suffering a heavy beating from two opponents, enduring both the blows from Rocker's Drill Rock and, most importantly, the Magically-enhanced palm strikes from the melee specialist Bacchus, and subsequently managed to fight back.

Dancer: While never openly shown, Ichiya seems to be a capable dancer, having defeated Vijeeter Ecor, someone specializing in dance and even employing it as the medium for his main Magic, in a dance battle which took place during the Grand Magic Games, several years prior to X791.

Video Games
Ichiya appears as a playable character in the DS Game, Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou, upon being unlocked.

Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou
In the video-game Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou, Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki is a playable character. In this game, Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki possess the following moves:
 * Main: Acid Perfume
 * Sub 1: Pain Perfume
 * Sub 2: Fight Loss Perfume
 * Sub 3: Speed Perfume
 * Super: Power Perfume

Battles & Events

 * Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki vs. Unnamed Dark Guild
 * Jellal Fernandes's Arrest
 * Chariot

Trivia

 * His counterpart in Edolas is shown to be part of the Exceed race.


 * In Volume 32's extra content, Mashima provided the battle statistics for 31 of the 40 X791 contestants in the Grand Magic Games. The stats, however, were provided not from Mashima's point-of-view as the author but from the view point of Sorcerer Magazine reporter Jason. Which explains why some stats are missing and why others may be inaccurate. According to Jason from the Sorcerer Magazine, during his participation in the Grand Magic Games of X791, Ichiya's stats are: