Ryōshū is a woman of average height and build, with straight black hair in a bob cut style and sharp red eyes, which at times can be seen glowing. She wears the dark gray and red LCB coat around her shoulders, secured by a small belt that goes over her right arm. Attached to the coat itself is her ID card. She wears black trousers, and her shirt uniform untucked; she foregoes the tie. She is occasionally depicted with a black glove on her left hand. She also has black cat ears and a black cat tail here because, why not?? In the third scenario she was wearing a red shirt and then was taking it off revealing a blank tank top which also shows that she has a flat chest. She also wears black sports shorts in this scenario so uh her legs are also exposed here. In the second scenario she wears a maid dress. Also she doesn’t have literal cat claws, still human fingernails acting like so.

Along with this, she typically carries around a sheathed ōdachi on her back,[5] with the words 無我夢中 阿鼻叫喚 支離滅裂 (mugamuchū abikyōkan shirimetsuretsu, "Wading through a dream, the self nowhere to be found. Like the Naraka of Avīci and Raurava. Severed and torn until even the form is undone.") across it. The ōdachi's hilt is golden, and decorated with a butterfly pattern. The end of the sheath is wrapped in a red ribbon. The blade is consistently sheathed, as pointed out during the story.[6] In Mirror Worlds, she typically wields a separate weapon, while noticeably still carrying her ōdachi behind her. After Canto IX, Ryōshū's ōdachi changes appearance, now being white with red string wrapped around the handle of the blade and along the scabbard. The words 三生縁分 三千世界 三世因果 (sanshou enbun sanzensekai sanzeinga, roughly "We are tied across all our lives, all possible worlds, and all possible times") are written upon it in the calligraphic style of her original scabbard. The sword is also revealed to be titled Arayashiki (阿頼耶識

Ryōshū has an individualistic, free-spirited, and somewhat sadistic personality. She feels little obligation to uphold common courtesies like politeness or attentiveness, and near the beginning of the game, the majority of her comments are hostile or violent in nature. Even among the Sinners, Ryōshū comes off as strikingly unfriendly and forthright, preferring to live at her own peculiar pace. While willing to back down if given the order, Ryōshū loathes being told what to do, which she's not afraid to make clear to Dante and Faust.

Ryōshū starts out as one of the least talkative members of the LCB, and one who is easily frustrated. She labels herself as someone who dislikes butting in,[7] and tends to scoff at the others for overthinking matters or sentimentality. Oftentimes, she sees the rest of the Sinners as ignorant for not understanding "true artwork", which, for Ryōshū, typically involves gruesome murder. When she does speak, her words almost always include a form of SANGRIA (abbreviation). Though she presents the choice as a form of efficiency,[8] this is later revealed to be a habit she picked up from her daughter. Ryōshū grows very irritated whenever these acronyms are misunderstood, even despite the fact she seems largely unconcerned with how other people perceive her.

The woman's abbreviations also give her the chance to engage in wordplay, one of several habits which demonstrate a penchant for humor. While there are times where Ryōshū is depicted as genuinely stoked to engage in bloodshed and suffering, other occasions paint her as purposefully over-the-top, finding enjoyment in acting provocatively and getting a reaction out of people. For Ryōshū, teasing seems to be a form of bonding, though not one easily understood by those around her.

Although Ryōshū would continue to come off as somewhat standoffish for several story chapters, in time she's shown to be capable of paying heed to other people's feelings, such as her choice to encourage Rodya to smile at the end of Intervallo IV: Timekilling Time. During Spring Cultivation, her more attentive side comes to light even further, as Ryōshū's class for Sinclair and Xichun reveals a delicate understanding of children's needs. Canto IX eventually explains that these are skills Ryōshū developed in order to provide Araya the best life she was capable of. As the Canto unravels Ryōshū's character, it comes to light that she has always had a caring side, but years of severe abuse have heavily restricted her ability and desire to express it. Though she was more outwardly affectionate during her childhood, Ryōshū's displays of love became charmingly stilted as she grew up. As a parent and a friend, she seems to prefer displaying care through actions rather than words overall. In particular, her love for Araya goes to the point that Ryōshū believed it would be necessary for them to part in order to keep her daughter safe, and was ready to do so as long as it meant Araya could lead a happy life.[9]

Aggravation has always been a major aspect of Ryōshū's behavior, and this is similarly prominent throughout her Canto. She becomes seething and unrelenting in the face of her helplessness against the Nursefathers, who are painful reminders of the agony she's suffered and her need to get her child back. Araya is Ryōshū's everything to the point that Ryōshū completely loses herself after unintentionally erasing her, exposing a horrible depression and insecurity underneath the Sinner's usual aloofness, as a woman who has spent years persevering for just one little girl. The workings of the Arayashiki Relic try to set the two apart, but despite everything, the duo come to understand each other enough to know that they will remain connected despite it. Ryōshū even manages to tie the sentiment into her artwork, deciding that what is absent from a piece is the most felt of all. After everything, Ryōshū also shows more willingness to share personal details with the Sinners, while still maintaining the cryptic attitude that defines her.

Despite her mutilated memories, Ryōshū continues forward with the belief that the most important goodbyes are only temporary, and fits comfortably into the role of the LCB's smug and exaggerated swordswoman until the day comes for her to step up as a mother again.

Ryōshū's SANGRIA (Korean: 만단지예, "Mandanjiye"; Japanese: 万短至芸, "Bantanshigei") work similarly to Japanese Yojijukugo or Korean Sajaseong-eo—idioms made up of no more than 4 characters each. However, rather than using the actual meanings of the characters to form compound words or idiomatic phrases, she is forming abbreviations using their literal pronunciation sounds. This is a list of all of the ones Ryōshū uses across the game.

As many of Ryōshū's acronyms are left vague within the text, not all of them can be translated with certainty. Here, "confirmed" refers to SANGRIA that are explicitly translated in-game; "highly likely" to easy solutions anyone could agree upon but go untranslated in-game; "presumed" to reasonable but untranslated solutions that have room for alternative interpretations; and "conjecture" to the best (but shaky) guesses for extremely difficult, low-context SANGRIA.

Example: S.Y.N.C. (Snap your Neck Completely).

She also tends to act somewhat like a cat because well…she is literally partially a cat with the ears and tail that she has, so uh? She also has cat like habits as well, but not everything obviously since she’s still technically human obviously.