Ayase Souju

Ayase Souju
Japanese Name	双樹あやせ (Souju Ayase)
Weapon	Sword and fireballs

"Now that we're acquainted, I'll show you something good. ♡" ~ Ayase Souju, Chapter 7.

Ayase Souju (双樹あやせ) is an antagonist appearing in Puella Magi Kazumi Magica.

She is a traveling Puella Magi who collects Soul Gems from her opponents. Her targets are the Pleiades Saints.

This section may contain major spoilers for the Kazumi Magica manga!

Please refrain from reading if you haven't read the latest chapter yet.

She carries two Soul Gems, the second one housing the personality and powers of a girl called Luca Souju (双樹ルカ).

Personality

Ayase acts cheerful and innocent, but only to drop her enemies' guard before letting loose her more vicious side. She is obsessed with collecting new Soul Gems, particularly the brighter ones of powerful Puella Magi.

History

Instead of fighting over witch-hunting territory, Ayase wanders the countryside in search of new Soul Gems for her collection. She was en route to Mitakihara Town, but decided to stop by Asunaro City after hearing about the Pleiades Saints.

Ayase made her debut in Chapter 7. She followed the Kaoru, Saki, Satomi, and Mirai across the city and witnessed them taking a girl's Soul Gem for an as-of-yet unknown purpose. This, coupled with the brightness of their Soul Gems, made her determined to claim them for her collection. The next day, she follows Nico and Kazumi to Asunaro's amusement park, Lavie-Land. After introducing herself and showing off her gems, she taunts Nico for also having engaged in "gem picking". This leads to a battle between the two.

Eventually, Ayase is corned by Nico's clones and has her Soul Gem removed. Nico thinks she has defeated Ayase, but is caught by surprise when Luca awakens in her place and attacks. Luca reclaims Ayase's Soul Gem at the end of the chapter.

Powers, Weapons and Abilities

While she wields a sword, Ayase mainly fights by shooting fireballs at her enemies. Because of her second Soul Gem, she can fight even after being incapacitated by switching to Luca's personality.

Luca can use ice magic, with a spell called Cazzo Freddo. The pair can also combine and use a spell called Pici Generati (Twin Peaks). This spell uses their opposing magic types, fire and ice (contraction and expansion), and causes an explosion.

Trivia

Her debut draws several parallels to Kyouko Sakura. She spies on her future opponents with enchanted binoculars, wears similar casual clothing and has the same hair-style.

Speculation

Ayase comments that the Pleiades have been taking Soul Gems that are dirtied. She has a fairly large Soul Gem collection, but apparently doesn't have to collect Grief Seeds and replenish them. From this, it can be assumed that Soul Gems stop accumulating darkness if they're separated from the owner, which may be why the Pleiades are taking Soul Gems from other Puella Magi (so they don't become witches). She may have Juubey clean them, although he doesn't seem to know her at first (but he may be hiding it as part of some larger scheme).
Nico remarks that her surname means "twin trees". Souju may not be her last real name. It is unknown if she and Luca are related, or who their body originally belonged to.
Presumably, there is some sort of method that lets Ayase and Luca, but not any of their other Soul Gems, control the body. See also Speculah:Homura Identity Swap Theory.
- The pair says that this requires the use of other Soul Gems, though it's unclear how or why.
Some have come to believe that Walpurgisnacht and Ayase have things in common. Such as the fact that Walpurgisnacht is said to be a compilation of all magical girls turned witches. The similarities being that if Ayase eventually collects enough soul gems, they might merge with her and she will become the ultimate magical girl.