Ryūhō Ryu

Ryuho is a member of HOLY and a main character in S-CRY-ed

Personality
Ryuho cares most about insuring order, which leads him to sound cold and often being alone. His biggest rival is Kazuma, who has changed his personality drastically.

History
Born and raised in the Lost Ground, Ryuho lived the first years of his life in a cautious but generally good-natured manner. Born into high society, he was to become the heir to the vast Ryu fortune his family had built after the Uprising. However, fate would deal him a series of cruel curve balls.

First, Ryuho discovers that he is an Alter User. When pressed about the matter by a young Mimori Kiryu, he inadvertently Alters and creates a small piece of stone (Mimori eventually keeps the stone and makes it into a pendant). He becomes reluctant to be around other people because he realizes he's different.

Then, six years before the story begins, tragedy strikes. A mysterious Alter, possessing a white left arm and a black right arm, rampages through the city. In the process, his mother and his dog are killed. In rage and frustration, Ryuho summons his Alter power and creates the Alter that will follow him for the rest of his life: Zetsuei.

He soon joins the recently-formed Alter User unit known as HOLY and gains a reputation as the strongest and most ruthless of the Native Hunters.

Synopsis
As the series begins, Ryuho is the HOLY Member initially dispatched to capture Kazuma. At this time, he swiftly defeats Kazuma with little effort, but the outcome, coupled with Ryuho's smug attitude, ignites a fire within Kazuma and it's not long before he escapes and becomes Ryuho's most sought after capture. As Kazuma repeatedly crushes every attempt by HOLY, Ryuho eventually grows so demented that he steps in personally to cease his actions. Though not their first one-on-one battle, it is the first in which Ryuho goes entirely all out, summoning not only the full power form of his Alter Zetsuei, but a near homicidal rage for killing Kazuma once and for all. He eventually becomes so clouded that he even refuses the advice, or aid, from fellow HOLY members. This epic battle eventually sends the Lost Ground into its second uprising, with Ryuho temporarily losing his memory in the process.

His convictions remain as strong as ever, but without any of the hatred that had so fueled him early on. Without knowledge that he is even an Alter User himself, he reappears and actually saves a village of Inners from the corrupt Native Alter Dread Red, without even summoning his Alter. Scherice and Urizane, both two of his closest allies in HOLY arrive to take him back, but he does not recognize them and swiftly refuses, choosing instead to protect the village. After a devious ploy by other HOLY officers, and former allies, Unkei and Kigetsuki, Ryuho's memory is restored after defeating them. Sickened however by HOLY's methods in coaxing him, which included kidnapping his newfound friend Kanami (ironically, Kazuma's closest ally whom he doesn't recognize), and even altering his own memories, he remains true to his convictions and admits that now he is finally able to see clearly. While not attacking either Urizane or Scherice, he makes it clear that he has no intention of returning to HOLY. Urizane respects his decision, but warns that they might be enemies the next they meet. Scherice, smitten with Ryuho, however, decides to stay wherever he is and disbands from HOLY as well. Later, after another attack by Kigetsuki, and the reappearance of both Kazuma and Mimori, Ryuho and Kazuma join forces to defeat him. However, it was a ploy crafted by new HOLY mastermind, an Alter User from the Mainland, Kyoji Mujo, who uses the HOLY EYE satellite to contact the both of them, and reveals that Ryuho's father, Tairen, is dead. Mujo claims that Tairen killed himself to protect Ryuho, although it is likely that Mujo actually killed him himself.

Shortly after receiving the satellite transmission, Kazuma and Ryuho storm Mujo's alter-enhanced HOLY HQ, intending to defeat him once and for all and begrudgingly join forces. There, Ryuho fights four crucial battles. The first is against Martin Zigmarl, his former commanding officer of HOLY. During this fight, Zigmarl reveals to Ryuho that the Crystal was not a Native Alter, but a sentient being created purely from Alter energy, and he essentially lied to him about the details to keep him motivated. It is here that Ryuho finally unlocks the true power of the "Other Side" by morphing Zetsuei into an Alter armor, which he uses to defeat and kill Zigmarl; though Zigmarl stated that was his plan from the start; to hone Ryuho's full ability to defeat Mujo. The second battle is against the Crystal embodiment where Ryuho actually is impaled and killed. However, due to Scherice sacrificing herself by using her unstable, healing Alter power, he is revived. As both Kazuma and Ryuho storm into the heart of Mujo's stronghold, Mujo summons the Crystal embodiment to handle Ryuho, while he personally takes care of Kazuma. During this battle, Zetsuei's second form proves no match against the Crystal until Ryuho summons the power of his third form once more and finally defeats it, sending it back to the dimension from whence it came. In the final battle in Mujo's stronghold, Ryuho and Kazuma tag-team in their final Alter forms to defeat the corrupt Alter User once and for all. Following Mujo's defeat, Ryuho and Kazuma join forces for several months to destroy the massive military invasion coming from the Mainland. During this time, they come to respect one another, but still can't call themselves friends. Just as they are about to part ways and handle the invasion separately, Kazuma realizes that finally they are free to fight one another without distraction. Ryuho is rather amused by the proposal and the two battle to decide who was really the strongest after all. After the earth shaking battle, it seems that both combatants were rendered unconscious, but slowly a hand raises itself over the battle field, signaling itself as the winner. There is much debate as to who the victor really was, as, just before the first goes up, it forms Ryuho's straightened edge pose before slowly, one finger at a time, clenching into a fist (Kazuma's typical process of fist-clenching).

Abilities
Ryuho is an Alter User and his alter, Zetsuei, is named after his deceased, childhood doberman, which he had used as material to first form it.
 * Healing Acceleration: In the manga, through his ability to deconstruct matter, Ryuhou demonstrates the power to forcibly regenerate his flesh, massively accelerate his healing factor rate and recovering from injuries in minutes, what would normally take days or weeks to naturally heal. Forms prominent spikes around his body wounds in the process.

Zetsuei Stage 1
Zetsuei Stage 1: At stage one, Zetsuei in its sealed form appears as a black-and-white, humanoid figure, with its arms bound together in a crossed position by the tight cloth around its shoulders. Around its face is a large, metal plate, usually obscuring half of its face. There are a pair of purple, metal hinges around Zetsuei's waist, while the purple boundaries around the cloth extend outwards from Zetsuei's body to form two purple, razor-sharp, ribbon-like appendages that can stretch to any length desired and cut like blades. Zetsuei typically manipulates the structure of the ribbon tips to form sharp spear-heads to maximize potency against individuals. In the manga the number of ribbons it can generate are well into the tens in quantity

Zetsuei Stage 2
Zetsuei Stage 2: The true manifestation of Ryuhou's "Alter". As referenced before, the "Stage 1" form of Zetsuei is actually a suppression of the "Alter"'s original power; when Ryuhou decides to release its seal, it reverts back into this form. His form changes to resemble a lamia (or a naga to be accurate), with greatly increased speed and power. This stage also has two rocket arms, and two regular arms.

Standing well above Ryuhou himself in height, "Stage 2" Zetsuei has a physical appearance not unlike that of a nāga: a vaguely humanoid head and torso, with a lack of legs and a serpentine form from the waist downwards (the upper and lower halves of Zetsuei are separate, but close enough to give the impression that it is whole). The black-and-white "bodysuit" of the sealed form has disappeared and is replaced by a distinctly, mechanical structure, with a curious, large eye in its chest region (a deep, green pupil in a yellow sclera) and purple metal extensions jutting out of its shoulders and its waist. A pair of detachable rocket-like appendages are attached to the upper arms, facing downwards and towards the back. The pair of ribbon-based appendages are still retained for "Stage 2" Zetsuei, with their location now extending from around Zetsuei's head.


 * Vigorous Right Fist, Fukuryu (Crouching Dragon): The rocket-limb on the right-hand side of "Stage 2" Zetsuei detaches itself from the body and flies straight towards the opponent, colliding and delivering a powerful strike on impact.


 * Vigorous Left Fist, Garyu (Bowing Dragon): Effectively the same as "Vigorous Right Fist, Fukuryu", except positioned on the left-hand side of "Stage 2" Zetsuei.


 * Raitsujin: "Stage 2 Zetsuei" twists its two ribbons together into an enlongated spear, boosting their offensive power even further. It's name is only mentioned once in the last episode. A fifth attack, possibly the same as Raitsujin, is used in Episode 13.


 * Rocket Punch: In the manga, Zetsuei possesses a rocket punch, with the ability to physically manipulate the position and angle of its rockets before firing them. It appears that an almost spatial effect is responsible for the incredible power of the rockets.

Zetsuei Stage 3
Zetsuei Touryudan: In the third and final stage, Zetsuei becomes a harmonic, or s-CRY-ed, Alter, just like Kazuma's Shell Bullet, meaning it forms on Ryuho's body. Stage 3 Zetsuei" appears in the form of extremely pointed and sharp metallic armor, deep purple in color, that are mostly reinforced around the head, shoulders and chest regions, but also extend across the limbs. In this form, Ryuhou and Zetsuei are nearly as fast as the speed of light. The weapons for this stage are Ryuho's fists, which are given incredible cutting power, strong enough that a swing of one of Ryuho's swords can easily cut multiple air jets and even battleships at longer distances. The shoulder-spikes are also detachable, and can be re-arranged together to form special wristblades for Ryuhou. Ryuhou can release invisible slashes of air pressure from the weapon and the force generated by Ryuhou's swing is sufficient to slice through even large "Alter" bomber aircraft and aircraft carriers. This diamond-shaped sword is powerful enough to cut the fabric of space allowing him to theoretically bypass conventional defensive methods to strike a multitude of opponents. The resulting tear can extend for up to several kilometers in horizontal length.

Trivia
It is unknown if, when the diamond blades are removed from his shoulders, Ryuhou can reattach them and remove them later on.