Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki

Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki (一夜=ヴァンダレイ=寿 Ichiya Vandarei 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 referred him as an old man because of the way he looks, despite being 29 years old when first introduced.

Appearance
Ichiya is a short and rather stout man with a distinctively big, somewhat rectangular face, a large flat nose which always seems to be shining, and prominent cheekbones. He has dark eyes and thick eyebrows, with a pair of lines pointing towards his nose below them, plus some stubble around his mouth and a 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 bow tie, 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) or master 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".

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 alone 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 seen 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, visits Fairy Tail to tell to inform them of the possibility that Tenrou Island may still exist.

Key of the Starry Sky arc
Note: Events in this arc occur only in the anime and do not constitute canon material.

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 is wearing a rabbit mascot, 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 Araña Webb, 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 Lore in the second match. Hibiki, Ren, and Ichiya, worried about their team's position, comment 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. Ichiya, standing in front of his team, watches as the battle reaches its climax with Natsu easily overpowering Sabertooth's Sting and Rogue. When the match ends with Natsu victorious, Ichiya listens with a smile on his face as the announcers declare that tomorrow's event will have every team member participating. Hearing this and Bob's new goal to take out Fairy Tail, Ichiya asks Natsu to have some fun with him.

After the third day of the Grand Magic Games ends, Ichiya is seen with the Trimens in Ryuzetsu Land flirting with Erza and Lucy. Erza scolds them one by one, except for Ichiya, who begs for scolding. He then relaxes while Natsu is busy eating a meal. After relaxing, he and Natsu rush to the pool, Bisca warns him to think about his age as the attitude he displays is immature. When he assures her, he slips and slides around, passing Jellal and Erza forcing them to duck in the water.

On the last day of the Grand Magic Games, Ichiya is seen alongside Hibiki, Ren, Eve and Jenny (replacing Nichiya) proudly entering the Domus Flau to compete in the final event.

As the announcers explain the rules of the event, Ichiya is shown with the rest of his team. As his teammates are defeated one by one, Ichiya tells them that he will handle the rest, although only moments later, he is defeated by Jura Neekis. In the end, Team Fairy Tail is declared the victor of the games, for which Ichiya and the rest of the Trimens congratulate them, Ichiya raising his hand with a happy expression on his face in doing so.

Ichiya, and the members of every other Guild who took part in the Grand Magic Games, is summoned by Toma E. Fiore, Fiore's King, and is told that 10,000 Dragons will attack Fiore, and that they have prepared to execute a plan called the Eclipse Plan in order to eradicate the Dragons. The King then states, however, that even if they use the Eclipse Cannon, up to several hundred Dragons may be left alive, and he asks the Mages go band together and protect Fiore. As the Mages around him declare, in unison, that they'll protect Fiore, Ichiya strikes a pose. Ichiya then remarks on the beauty of such a large-scale alliance, with Nichiya adding on that such a thing is a spectacular perfume.

Ichiya and his group move out to their instructed position in Crocus and await the Dragons arrival. Before long, he and the rest of the Blue Pegasus guild are approached by a humongous Dragon, and, as the rest of his guild become nervous in its presence, Ichiya tells them not to back down, rather, show it the power of their guild. However, the guild seem to struggle against the huge beast, and, seeing their strategy to use sex appeal against it fail, Ichiya decides to unleash one of his secret perfumes, opening one of his vials to release a horrible stench that almost knocks out the guild. Revealing it to be an odour taken directly from his armpits, Ichiya is then left in disbelief when the Dragon reveals that it has no nose, and is therefore unaffected by the attack. Before the Dragon can launch a counterattack though, Cobra drops down from above, slamming the reptile into the ground. Hearing Cobra call him a freak show and demand that he get out of the way, Ichiya becomes dismayed.

Several days after the destruction of the Eclipse Gate and the defeat of the Dragons, Ichiya and all the other Mages who helped protect Crocus are invited to a banquet celebrating their victory; with everyone arriving, Ichiya greets Bacchus with a bow. Ichiya then grabs a microphone and demands that the band play "that song" in B Flat much to their confusion. Later, with Mermaid Heel, Sabertooth, and Fairy Tail fighting over which of them Yukino Aguria will join, Ichiya and Team Blue Pegasus join the argument, with Ichiya commenting that Yukino has a beautiful, forlorn perfume. With the rest of the guilds joining the fray, a brawl soon starts, during which Ichiya dodges much of the roughhousing and strikes a pose.

Tartarus arc
Ichiya and the Trimens, alongside Jenny, fly out in Christina, aiming to destroy the Face bombs around Fiore. However, as Magic is drained from Earth Land, Christina begins to fall. Just then, a voice calls out to them, asking them to move aside; a figure soon appearing and destroying a nearby Face. Upon a closer look, Blue Pegasus realizes that the Sky Dragon Grandeeney has returned.

Magic and Abilities
Perfume Magic (香り魔法, パルファムマジック, Parufamu Majikku): 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 with the exception of Power Perfume, most of his spells are supportive and passive. Erza has said he is a powerful Mage, of the "well-to-do" sort.


 * Pain Relieving Perfume (痛み止め香り Itamidome Parufamu): 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 fragrance. However, it's ineffective 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.


 * Power Perfume (力の香り Chikara no Parufamu): 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 (微笑みスマッシュ Hohoemi Sumasshu): With his strength enhanced, Ichiya aims a punch at his foes, sending them flying.


 * Fleet-Foot Perfume: Zero Distance Inhalation (駿足の香り 零距離吸引 Shunsoku no Parufamu Zero Kyori Kyūin): 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.


 * Armpit Perfume: A very stinky perfume that can stun and disgust the opponent. Ichiya keeps this hidden due to its repulsive nature.

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 'n Rock and, most importantly, the Magically-enhanced palm strikes from the melee specialist Bacchus, and subsequently managed to fight back.

Hand to Hand Combatant: Due to Ichiya's primary Magic being a supportive type Perfume Magic, Ichiya has been seen to employ hand to hand combat in battles. He uses this means of fighting while being enhanced by his Power Perfume in which he become skillful enough to defeat Bacchus in melee combat.

Dancing Specialist: 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.

The Trimens
As the leader of The Trimens, Ichiya is held in very high regard by his teammates Hibiki, Eve and Ren, often being looked up to as a role model; they often accompany him when he travels. . In addition, the majority of Team Blue Pegasus was composed of Ichiya and fellow members of The Trimens. As such, he is always referred to with the utmost respect in mind, being addressed with the suffix "-sama", and the terms "Aniki", "boss", and "Sensei", among other things.

Ichiya's every word is taken as a valuable piece of knowledge to The Trimens, even if they are accompanied by his own personal quirks, such as during the battle portion of the Third Day of the Grand Magic Games when he told Hibiki and Ren not to lose hope, as they still had their "secret weapon". He said such a thing twice, as it was "important", and was happily thanked by the two for the "lesson". However, he is also cared for by his so-called subordinates, as when Lyon Vastia threw him, The Trimens immediately jumped to his defense. This is also seen when he jumped off of the Christina: he was asked by Hibiki to settle down as his action was extreme and he could've gotten hurt, with Ren additionally pointing out that he is a user of Air Magic and could've gotten him down safely. Likewise, Ichiya himself also cares for his fellows, as when they were defeated during the Grand Magic Game, he declared that he would win for them, though he himself was quickly tossed aside.

Erza Scarlet
When Ichiya attended a dinner party of Guild Masters, he met Erza (whom was brought along by Makarov) there and fell in love with her at first sight, and since then, he conveys his love and fondness towards her at every encounter, even calling her names such as "honey" or utilizing his Magic to impress her. On the contrary, Erza appears to be mortified whenever Ichiya exhibits such behavior towards her, and she would not be shy to use violence if necessary to pacify him. However, she still appreciates and acknowledges Ichiya as a renown Mage, even stating that he is the strongest member of his Guild.

Nichiya
Nichiya is Ichiya's Edolas counterpart. Ichiya brought Nichiya to the Grand Magic Games as a "secret weapon" dressed in a Rabbit's costume. Ichiya appears to care deeply for his Exceed counterpart. When he realized that Nichiya chose to fight alongside him in the Grand Magic Games even though he had no fighting capabilities, he was touched by how "handsome" it was, and got revenge for the injured Exceed by defeating the two Mages that injured him, Bacchus and Rocker. After defeating the Mages, Ichiya rushed to Nichiya, took him in his arms and asked if he was injured.

Natsu Dragneel
Ichiya's first encounter with Natsu Dragneel took place during the alliance of four noteworthy Guilds—Cait Shelter, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Fairy Tail. During said time, a brawl quickly surfaced with Natsu confronting Ichiya and the Trimens without a formal reason; reflecting Natsu's common behavior when meeting new people. Despite this, however, Natsu shows admiration to Ichiya's abilities and listens to his every word when the latter outlines their mission before engaging in combat with the Oración Seis. Ichiya also supported Natsu against his own jealousy when the Fire Dragon Slayer stood against the Magic Council to rescue Jellal Fernandes, a man whose, as he states, departure will make Erza, a Mage whom he fell in love with at first glance, ultimately sad. After defeating the Oración Seis, Natsu and Ichiya have become rather good allies, with Natsu imitating Blue Pegasus' lively poses, and even to the point of praising his combat abilities and wanting to fight him as he calls him a sure-to-be strong opponent, and in return Ichiya shows happiness when Natsu completely dominates the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth. When the core members of Fairy Tail and Tenrou Island itself disappeared without a trace, it was stated that Ichiya helped greatly in the search. Their friendship is further emphasized when the two converse in Ryuzetsu Land, with Ichiya applauding Natsu for his many good deeds as a Mage, as well as being moved by his reasons for fighting. The two have also engaged in friendly competitions such as a race around Ryuzetsu Land.

Whose Clothes Are These?
As the Fairy Tail Guild partakes in a game of swapping clothes, Ichiya spontaneously appears and questions where his clothes went, with Gajeel later revealing to be wearing them. As Gajeel notes his fondness of Ichiya's clothing by mentioning how it suits him perfectly, Ichiya astonishingly denies it.

The Exciting Ryuzetsu Land
On a trip to the Fiore hotspot known as Ryuzetsu Land, Ichiya and the Trimens initially spend their time attempting to flirt with Erza and Lucy. As Ichiya and the men start talking about perfume, Erza has enough of their talk and scolds each of them individually, except for Ichiya in whom she has no interest. Distraught, Ichiya grabs her bikini top and begs to be scolded, earning him a kick which sends him flying as Erza dislikes her "legendary" swimsuit being pulled. Returning shortly after to talk about "legendary perfume" as a result, Ichiya is once again kicked away. Landing and getting stuck face-first into a rock formation, Ichiya soon breaks out and meets with Natsu, with whom he decides to go eat.

While eating, Ichiya praises Natsu for his triumphs and asks him about his thoughts on the future of the country. As Natsu simply says that he will get rid of his problems, Ichiya praises his simple approach to complicated solutions. Once finished, Ichiya and Natsu begin running around the resort and, after ignoring warnings, the former slips and begins spinning in the water. Narrowly missing Erza thanks to Jellal, Ichiya hits his head on a rock before sinking to the bottom of the pool. As the resort is soon destroyed thanks to the antics of Natsu and several others, Ichiya winds up face-down in the rubble, devoid of clothes.

Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou
Ichiya appears as a playable character in the DS Game, Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou, upon being unlocked. In this game, he possesses the following moves:
 * Main: Acid Perfume
 * Sub 1: Pain Perfume
 * Sub 2: Fight Loss Perfume
 * Sub 3: Speed Perfume
 * Super: Power Perfume

Trivia

 * 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. This 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:

Quotes

 * (To Ren Akatsuki and Eve Tearm) "Men... But there's a lot to learn from failure. You can take this and strive to do better, for example."
 * (To Bacchus Groh and Rocker) "Let me dedicate to you, the perfume called victory!"