Yukichi Fukuzawa

Yukichi Fukuzawa (福沢 諭吉,) is the President of the Armed Detective Agency.

Appearance
Fukuzawa is a tall man who almost always has a stern expression on his face. He has long silver hair, which ends just above his shoulder, and metallic blue eyes, which appear to have wrinkles eyebags under them.

He is always seen wearing a green ' under a black ' (a traditional Japanese thigh-length kimono-style jacket, commonly worn by men) with golden borders with a zigzag pattern, and ' (flat sandals) with white ' (toe-divided socks).

Twelve years ago, before the Agency was founded and Fukuzawa was still under Sōseki Natsume's tutelage, he wore a black ' (a pair of large, pleated, traditional trousers), a ' underneath a longer haori and a small scarf with a circle pattern on it. His hair was also shorter, just reaching past the nape of his neck.

During his teenage years, he wears a hakama with , the standard uniform for.

After the cannibalism, Fukuzawa wears a black yukata and haori and a gray divided umanori.

When he received the Birch Bow of Exorcism, Fukuzawa wears a formal suit.

Personality
Fukuzawa is, as expected from the president of the Agency, a serious man, capable of maintaining his calm expression at every time, even in front of an adversary. As a leader, he prioritizes the welfare of his subordinates, especially seen when he once ordered all the personnel from the Agency to focus on finding and rescuing Atsushi Nakajima and put their ensuing work to a freeze.

Moreover, he places great value in the Agency and its members, unyielding to give them up even in crucial situations and once threatening some assassins to target him alone rather than involve the Agency. Hence, he naturally became indignant when he learned that the Port Mafia lured in the Guild with their Agency clerks, even breaking a pen with his bare hands out of rage.

His undisputed authority is prevalent over his subordinates, to the point that even the confident Ranpo Edogawa dropped the idea of finding a murder case to solve rather than helping look for Atsushi after Kenji Miyazawa warned him against Fukuzawa's wrath if he did so. Moreover, Fukuzawa has a rather commanding aura within him that some Agency members, including Doppo Kunikida and Atsushi, occasionally flinch possibly out of intimidation whenever in the presence of the President. Nevertheless, he knows his subordinates' capabilities and will not hesitate to seek them out when the situation calls for it.

As one-third of the constituents of the Tripartite Framework, Fukuzawa has an overflowing regard for the order and peace of Yokohama and for wanting justice to prevail in however way he can, which ultimately caused Fukuzawa to found the Agency. He further asserts that praise and rewards are a "light drizzle" to their primary endeavor of preventing chaos to ensue within the city. Even when afflicted with the Cannibalism virus, Fukuzawa strugglingly issued out the orders to his subordinates not to fight the Port Mafia in protecting him, lest it disrupt the balance and tranquility of Yokohama.

While Fukuzawa is emotionally reserved and impassive, he can display a scathing sense of humor: twelve years ago, while he was on his way to save Ōgai Mori from low-level criminals, the criminals threatened to kill the doctor and Fukuzawa wished them to have fun doing so, though this may be also be partly out of his hunch that Mori could handle the situation himself. When reunited with his childhood friend Ōchi Fukuchi, while Fukuzawa complemented the latter for being a Hunting Dogs commander, he nonetheless claimed that his leadership is "five times better" than Fukuchi, albeit admitting that it had quite dropped.

He's never seen smiling, although it's heavily implied he has a soft spot for cute things. After Kyōka Izumi makes a cute face while asking the President to let her stay in the Agency, he hires her on the spot; Jun'ichirō Tanizaki remembered this instance and even attempted to ask Kyōka to apologize to the President on their behalf when they disobeyed his orders. Notably, he also has a fondness for cats to the point of keeping treats for them in the sleeves of his yukata. Mori is especially aware of this penchant that he even humored Fukuzawa during their confrontation if he was still "talking to cats".

Moreover, he does not fail to participate in some moments of merriment especially in the Agency, such as attending Kyōka's welcome party and, in the anime, joining in the Agency cruise aboard S.S. Zelda after the Cannibalism incident.

Ability
His ability, All Men Are Equal, allows him to suppress the abilities of those in the Armed Detective Agency. According to Dazai, it can "adjust the power of their abilities so that they may be controlled." However, applicants have to pass an "exam entrance" (i.e. they have to display values compatible with the Agency's in perilous situations) to fall under the range of the ability.

Skills

 * Martial Arts: Fukuzawa proficiency in martial arts since a younger age are unmatched, as seen at his past before founding the agency. He possesses enough strength and reflexes to take on a group of assassins. As such, he is noted to have never lost a match to his mentee, Kunikida, and keep a intense combat against Mori even facing his unpredictable fighting style.
 * Kote gaeshi: One of Fukuzawa's trademark defenses is (小手返, lit. "forearm return"), a throwing technique in  that uses an opponent's momentum against them.
 * Seoi nage: Fukuzawa is also proficient in (背負投, lit. "shoulder throw"), a shoulder throw (throwing technique) in.
 * Iaido: Fukuzawa also has a mastery of
 * Swordsmanship Skills: Fukuzawa used to practice swordsmnship, trained at a government-run school of martial arts and was one of the greatest swordsmen in the government known as Goken.

Background
When Fukuzawa was young, he trained at a government-run school of martial arts. He was good friends with Fukuchi while in martial arts training. They had a friendly rivalry and spent time together after Fukuzawa took in Ranpo as well. Fukuzawa was a part of the Goken, the five greatest swordsmen in the government. He worked as an assassin who was tasked to kill war hawk bureaucrats and the leaders of foreign military parties who supported them towards the end of the Great War. At some point, he earned himself the nickname of the Silver Wolf (銀狼,), as his skills were unanimously praised.

He stepped down from this position after he realized that he was starting to look forward to killing his targets because of how simple and easy assassinations were to him. He was shunned for this decision, but he ultimately permanently laid down his sword and became a lone wolf. He soon worked as a professional bodyguard for two types of job, namely contract jobs and one-off bodyguard gigs. During this time, he met Ranpo and assisted him in solving a case involving a theater murder case. He ultimately lost his job shortly after he began looking after Ranpo. Nevertheless, the two were requested by various clients and became notorious throughout Yokohama for their services, with Ranpo's detective skills and Fukuzawa's extraordinary strength.

Sometime during their partnership, Fukuzawa and Ranpo were able to locate Natsume, who was rumored to have connections in the government and underground organizations in Yokohama. Fukuzawa then sought his help in acquiring a skilled business permit for his Armed Detective Agency, which he envisioned to be an organization that would comprise strong and kind detectives based around Ranpo even after he would be gone.

Appearances
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 * -|BEAST=


 * -|DEAD APPLE=

Quotes

 * (To Ranpo Edogawa) "You're free to flaunt your gift, and you can challenge your opponents with it! But you have to stop gambling with your life!"
 * (To Ranpo Edogawa) "A comrade is in danger. We need to rescue him. Is there some weightier logic in the world which trumps that?"
 * (To Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald) "A human life is priceless, and,in its own way, so is that license. That is the soul of our company. It contains the very heart and soul of Natsume-sensei who devoted his all to bringing that agency to our side. You nouveau riche types, heads stuffed with bales of cash… you could never obtain one that easily."
 * (To assassins) "Go back and tell your master that I appreciate his prudence. Even next time, I alone should be his target. If he lays a finger on any of my people, then I will take any means necessary to come over and twist the heads off your necks."
 * (To the Agency) "Out of all three sides, only one will survive. There is no way forward except to fight!"
 * (To Ōgai Mori) "And I see you still tarnish your profession by killing with a scalpel, Mori-sensei. Do you still lust after young girls?"
 * (To Ōgai Mori) "Because we share only one thing in common—we both love this city. Both our groups live in this city. We protect it. We cannot afford to have foreign ability users burn it to the ground."
 * (To the Agency) "We cannot fight against the Mafia……! 'Do not protect me! Protect the city's balance! Its tranquility……!''"
 * (To Ōgai Mori) "We have the same stench—the disgusting stench of death."
 * (To the Agency) "To us, praise and rewards are a light drizzle. Even if we were underground thieves with no honor, we must stake our lives to prevent this murder."

Etymology

 * The name Yukichi means "warn" (諭) (yu) and "good luck" (吉) (kichi).
 * The surname Fukuzawa means "luck" (福) (fuku) and "brilliant" (沢) (sawa/zawa).

Namesake



 * Yukichi Fukuzawa (January 10, 1835 – February 3, 1901)
 * A liberal ideologist, prolific writer, critic, philosopher, educator, and more. Fukuzawa is seen as one of the fathers of modern Japan. The ability "All Men are Equal" refers to "An Encouragement of Learning", a seventeen-volume series on how equal opportunities for education are vital to society. Fukuzawa's face appears on the Japanese 10,000 yen bill.

Trivia

 * Much like his, Fukuzawa is almost never seen wearing Western-style clothes, preferring traditional Japanese ones. An exception is during the awarding ceremony after the events of Cannibalism.
 * Fukuzawa has never been seen smiling in the manga until chapter 80. However, he does so in the anime directly at the end of the Cannibalism events after he congratulated his subordinates for their work.
 * Fukuzawa is not explicitly present during the Agency cruise in the manga, and the Agency members even worried about their punishment for their disobedience. This is altered in the anime, where they apologize to the President; in turn, Fukuzawa admits that he is grateful for their work and smiles at them.
 * He shares his birthday with Kōyō Ozaki, on January 10.
 * Fukuzawa addresses Fukuchi as Gen'ichirō, the birth name of the real-life.
 * When the President is in custody, Fukuchi reminds Fukuzawa about a countryside woman named Kin, an implied mutual friend of the two. The woman may be a reference to the real-life Fukuzawa's wife, Okin.