Tsubaki Kurogane

Tsubaki is a young girl of short stature. She has large pink eyes and thick eyebrows. She is fair-skinned with straight brown hair reaching her lower back with cropped bangs, apart from chin-length strands that frame the sides of her face. She keeps her hair in a high-ponytail secured by a headpiece with two pink flower-like beads. She dresses in a traditional samurai attire, consisting of a white robe with pink lining on the colour and sleeves, a turtle-neck undershirt, shin-length pink pants, black legging and socks, and straw-sandals. She also wears black arm guards that cover her forearms. Secured regularly at her hip is a sword with a black cloth hilt, and scabbard with the hilt shaped like two opposite-pointing arrows. While travelling, she wears a traditional umbrella-shaped bamboo hat and a pink cloak.

When Tsubaki became a student to Mifune, she befriended a senior disciple, Sazanka, looking up to his commitment to honing his skills. They frequently trained together and discussed their goals. During a tournament, it was rumoured the winner's prize was the right to claim Kurosawa when Mifune retired. Tsubaki advanced to the final round, when she had to face Sazanka. Despite him having the clear advantage throughout the fight, she was able to exploit an opening at the last moment, defeating him. The loss shattered Sazanka, who went on to kill his other fellow disciples when they tried to stop him from claiming Kurosawa by force. After Sazanka's actions forced him to flee the Land of Iron as a wanted criminal, Tsubaki blamed herself for Sazanka's change.