Sakahagi サカハギ

“That skin of yours will make a nice coat!”

Sakahagi is another exceptional, strong Manikin, but for all the wrong reasons: Sakahagi is a monster among Manikins, a serial killer who kills, then skins the face of his victims to wear as a grotesque coat over his blood-soaked robe.

Sakahagi is first encountered in Asakusa itself, once it is rebuilt. He came in the terrorize the Manikins some more and kill a few. In fact, the protagonist catches him with his latest victim. Sakahagi expresses surprise that a demon like the protagonist wouldn't want in on the action too to collect magatsuhi. In fact, the purpose of Sakahagi's horrible overcoat is to gather magatsuhi from his victims, since he understands that magatsuhi makes demons stronger. Whether his method works or not is left up in the air. Sakahagi departs and seemingly leaves Asakusa on a quest to become king of all demons.

He appears later in Yoyogi Park, having stolen the Yahirono Himorogi from the fairies of Yoyogi Park and made them his slaves to guard the park for him while he searches for the source of the magatsuhi in the park, not realising it's already in his hands. He uses the power of tha Yahirono Himorogi to summon a giant Girimehkala to fight the protagonist with, but that drains out the Yahirono Himorogi's energy. Once the Girimehkala is defeated, Sakahagi is left to defend himself with his own power. While strong for a Manikin, he is no match for the protagonist and is quickly defeated, leaving behind the drained stone.

It is the end of the plot involvement of Sakahagi, but not the end of his story.

If the protagonist chooses to explore the Labyrinth of Amala and makes it to the Fourth Kalpa, he can find the Hell Maze in the Twelve Meters of Eternity on even numbered Kagutsuchi phases that are not New, Half or Full. Inside, he can find a lot of souls, but two in particular stand out: the Old Soul and the Young Soul.

The Old Soul, dressed in a business suit, asks the protagonist if, with the fortune he had gathered and everything he desired in his possession, he has had a successful life. The Old Soul, it turns out, is that of a successful business man whose life was ruined by “a boy”. He gives no further detail about this boy, or what happened, but he says he was consumed by the desire to kill but did not act on it in life because it was wrong. After obtaining the Afterlife Bell in Zishigaya Cemeteray from an unfortnate Manikin who used it to become human again and was killed instantly upon reverting because the Vortex doesn't allow humans to live there, the protagonist can return to Hell's Maze and ring the bell for the Old Soul. The Old Soul is then freed from the maze and allowed to move on, allowing the part of his soul that had become the Manikin Sakahagi to be reborn as a demon of the Foul race, which is made of lowly demons like Slimes, and ghosts, all hostile to life.

Name Significance

According to my research, the name Sakahagi comes from the word sakahagi 逆剝 which means “reverse flaying”. According to the myth, Susano-O was being insufferable towards his sister Amaterasu, doing a thousand and one thing to, essential, be a jerk to her. One of the things he did was take a sacred piebald horse and skin in. However, instead of skinning it from tail to head, which I understand is the correct way to do it, he skinned it starting with the head, backward. He then threw the hide in Amaterasu's weaving room after that, but the point is that sakahagi means to flay an animal starting with the head, which is horribly appropriate for a being who skins the face of his victims.

Stats

Once fused, Sakahagi becomes a level 45 Foul race demon with some good skills, including the second tier, all enemies magic spell for all 4 elements. In later dungeons, though, where single target spells become more vital, he can start to fall behind.

An interesting thing to note is that both Futomimi and Sakahagi have a skill common to regular Manikins, War Cry, and that Sakahagi also has Panic Voice, another skill regular Manikins can have.

Reason

King of Demons

Much like Chiaki, Sakahagi dreams of power. Like Futomimi, he refuses to be a slave anymore; however, given his origin as a man's desire to kill, he chooses an entirely different path, one that would make him the sole king of all demons so no one could trample him anymore. He doesn't give a crap about the other Manikins, though, and would probably slaughter them all in his path to becoming king if given the time.

In addition to being a Manikin and having creation forbidden from him, he wastes the power of the Yahirono Himorogi, using it to control the fairies, then using it to summon a demon instead of a sponsor god for himself.

Perhaps it was for the best.