Ikaruga

Ikaruga (斑鳩 Ikaruga) is the leader of the Trinity Raven, a group of assassins from the Death's Head Caucus Guild.

Appearance
Ikaruga has long, bright pink hair which is tied on top of her head in two large buns. She has a curvaceous figure, peach skin, a beauty mark underneath each eye, and red lipstick. She wears a long, slightly loose white kimono with a red stripe in between two black stripes around the waist as well as a red triangle at the bottom of her dress, decorated by flames and skulls motifs, open at the top to reveal her shoulders and a fair amount of cleavage and closed around the waist by a large black belt adorned with a horned skull. Her guild insignia is incorporated into her kimono and seen at the end of both her sleeves. In the anime, both the skulls on her robe and the one on her belt were left out. She also has ribbons tied around her sleeves, a buckled strap around her neck and traditional sandals with extremely high platforms soles. Her guild insignia can be seen at the bottom of her robe. Sakura petals can often be seen floating around her.

Personality
Ikaruga is a calm and collected person. She retains a calm demeanor even during battle, though she is not above mocking her opponents and their abilities, yet she can also be seen praising their skills if they prove themselves worthy. However, she was visibly upset when she thought Erza Scarlet was underestimating her, implying very great self-confidence and pride. She seems to have a penchant for poetic phrasing, and, despite being dressed quite scantily herself, reprimanded Erza for donning such revealing armors in a male's presence.

History
She fought in the Cabria War along with her teammates and killed every ranked officer under the Western Army's command. She has been with the Death's Head Caucus Guild since its founding and had not lost a battle until she faced Erza Scarlet.

Tower of Heaven arc
Ikaruga first appeared with her teammates after Natsu Dragneel defeated Millianna and Wally Buchanan. She is then seen when Jellal Fernandes explains the rules of his "game" to Team Natsu, Juvia, Shô, Simon, and Wally. Later, she confronted Shô as he tried to escape from the Tower of Paradise with Erza Scarlet, who was in card form at the moment, and attacked them out of nowhere. Her attacks unintentionally cut through the dimensional barriers on the cards, and allowed Erza to escape and confront her. Although Erza used her strongest armors, Ikaruga overwhelmed her and destroyed them all.

Eventually Erza changed tact and switched to a normal battle outfit, with no armor. Believing that Erza was not taking her power seriously, Ikaruga decided to kill her, and they crossed swords for the final time. Although Erza sustained a wound on her shoulder, she succeeded in inflicting a mortal wound on Ikaruga, much to the latter's surprise. Before losing consciousness, she praised Erza's skill, but warned her that they would all die when the Tower of Heaven was annihilated by Etherion.

Magic and Abilities
Sword Magic (剣の魔法 Ken no Mahō): Through this magic which she used concurrently with her sword, Mugetsu-Ryu, Ikaruga could perform various sword spells which are strong enough to break one of Erza's most powerful armor.
 * Garuda Flame (迦楼羅炎 Karura-en): A technique that creates fire from Ikaruga's blade, it has the same properties as Yasha's Empty Flash, and was powerful enough to destroy Erza Scarlet's Flame Empress Armor, which is known for halving the damage inflicted by fire-based attacks.
 * Yasha's Empty Flash (夜叉閃空 Yasha Senkū): A technique that allows Ikaruga to slash whatever she is attacking without touching it with the blade, shattering even Magic armor or weapons with one attack.

Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Ikaruga is masterful in swordsmanship, and before her match with Erza Scarlet she had never lost a battle. She was able to easily slice and defeat Shô before he could react, and to match and even overwhelm Erza with her swordplay. She is seemingly capable of attacking things which are out of her sword's range, sending slashes which fly through the air itself, and, according to Ikaruga, can even remain floating in it until the right moment to slash.

Immense Speed: Ikaruga was able to slice Erza and Shô, who were both some meters away from her position, without them seeing her move. She was also able to destroy Erza's Purgatory Armor before Erza could react.

Equipment
Mugetsu-Ryu (無月流 Mugetsu-Ryū): Ikaruga uses a katana named Mugetsu-Ryu which according to Erza Scarlet is not a normal katana.

In the manga, Mugetsu-Ryu looks like a normal katana with an extremely long blade, reminiscent of a nodachi, with a decorated handguard, and traditional hilt-wrapping and pommel.

In the anime, however, it is given a much more distinctive appearance, sporting a western-looking red and black handguard and having the traditional yellow and red hilt-wrapping flanked by golden-colored plates on the hilt, which ends in a very ornate, carved pommel. The lacquered sheath is red. Ikaruga states that it has the ability to cut through anything.

Trivia

 * Her name, Ikaruga is the Japanese name for a Japanese Grosbeak.
 * In the manga, she has a skull pattern on her kimono, though in the anime this is absent.
 * In the manga Trinity Raven's fate is unknown. In the anime, near the end of the arc, Fukuro is the one to save Ikaruga and Vidaldus, taking them away from the exploding tower through the use of his rockets.
 * When Ikaruga is first shown in the anime, the song playing in the background is the traditional Japanese score, "Sakura".

Censorship
In the manga, when Erza defeated her, she was shown receiving a clean cut wound in her body which caused her to bleed quite badly. In the anime, after they exchange blows, she was only shown falling to the ground while her sword, Mugetsu-Ryu, breaks and shatters to pieces.

Quotes

 * (To Jellal Fernandes) "Perhaps it is the fate of both love and life to scatter on the wind... Tonight shall be a festival."
 * (To Shô) "There exists nothing under the sun that I cannot slice."
 * (To Erza Scarlet) "I have never been defeated, not once since the guild was founded until this day... However both you and Jellal are destined for defeat. Fifteen minutes, see it plummet down, shining light of justice bright, bringing death to all... A beastly poem..."

Battles & Events

 * Erza Scarlet & Shô vs. Ikaruga