Nurugai is the last remaining member of the Sanka and a wrongly convicted death-row criminal. After the shogun called for convicted criminals to acquire the Elixir of Life from the dangerous island known as Kotaku, in exchange for a pardon for their past crimes, Nurugai accepted the invitation to be a part of the competition mission. Upon taking the mission, Yamada Asaemon Tensa was chosen as her assigned monitor. Shortly after, Nurugai became a part of a united front formed from the remaining surviving criminals and executioners to defeat Lord Tensen, work together in capturing the elixir, and have everyone escape the island. Nurugai has quite an androgynous appearance, with her Asaemon having only figured out that she was a girl after undressing. She has dark tanned skin and long, black, messy hair that reaches down past her shoulders when left untied; although she usually ties the hair up above her head. Later in the chapters, Nurugai's hair becomes smoother. Her body is also noticeably muscular. She is seen wearing very scrappy clothes, her top lacking sleeves, a bone necklace, and bandages wrapped around both of her wrists. She also wears black pants that end somewhere halfway down her calves, also lacking any footwear. After briefly settling in Hōrai, Nurugai changed into an orange vest with a mandarin collar and black pants. She keeps her bone necklace and carries her sword on her back. Nurugai originally looked down on samurai, viewing them as stupid. Her disdain for them stems from the fact that they were partially responsible for killing her people. Because of this incident, Nurugai felt a strong guilt for leading her village's extermination, even believed that the reason why she is on a dangerous mission is because she was receiving divine punishment for her actions and accepted death. However, after Tensa makes Nurugai take her own desires into account, Nurugai realizes that she wants to stay alive to return back to her home. After being influenced by Tensa and being by Shion's side, with his task of protecting her, Nurugai's opinion of samurai may have changed and sees that not all of them are bad. Nurugai cares greatly towards the people she has a deep connection with. She cherished the time she had with her grandfather and felt that she needed to be punished for causing his death. After the death of Tensa, Nurugai begged Shion to teach her swordsmanship and his ability to sense Tao to avenge him, stating that she could not stand by and watch as more people she cares for die in front of her. During her and Shion's fight with Zhu Jin, Nurugai ran out of the Taisoku Temple with tears running down her face after Shion begged her to leave him as he prepares to sacrifice himself to kill the Tensen. However, after remembering how Tensa opened up her resolve, Nurugai returned to save Shion and counselled him into giving up his vengeance. Nurugai is also very helpful. She was generous enough to guide a group of samurai that were lost (not knowing that their mission was to execute her people). She removed Senta's flowers from his Arborified body just in time, tried to help Yuzuriha by unknowingly using the Tao restoration and assisted Sagiri in helping Shion fight Mu Dan in his Kishikai. Nurugai also showed that she has a lowest level of modesty, having no shame when she exposed her naked body to Tensa. Despite not always expressing it, Nurugai can sometimes bring out her feminine side. After being charmed by Tensa's chivalry, Nurugai vowed to make him her groom and wanted to try on new clothes with Yuzuriha.
Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku
Gabimaru the Hollow, a former ninja assassin of Iwagakure who is known and feared as a heartless husk of a man, spends his days on death row wondering when an executioner skilled enough to so much as harm him will arrive, as he thinks nothing of seeing an end to his meaningless existence... Or so he thought. After a skilled female executioner belonging to the Yamada clan by the name of Yamada Asaemon Sagiri confronts him, she makes the young ninja open his eyes to the fact that he wants live in order to reunite with his wife and offers him a proposition: if he ever wishes to see his beloved wife again, he is, under the auspices of the shogunate, to embark on a perilous voyage to a mysterious mystic island said to house the Elixir of Life. Should he be the one among many rival death-row fiends and scoundrels to find the elixir and return with it for the shogun, he will earn a full exoneration, and, more importantly, a chance at an ordinary married life with the light of his life — the woman who made the world seem not so ugly. Gabimaru gladly accepts the task but soon finds out that he has received more than what he bargained for. Is what awaiting him and the other contenders Hell? Paradise? Or Hell's Paradise?
