Ryoshu - Limbus Company

*Ryōshū (Hangul: 료슈, ryo-syu; Japanese: 良秀, りょうしゅう, ryōshū) is designated Sinner #4 of Limbus Company's LCB department.

Ryōshū is an ungovernable woman with a fascination for artistic merit and little tolerance for what disinterests or offends her. She was previously affiliated with a group of powerful figures connected to the Five Fingers of the Backstreets known as the House of Spiders prior to joining Limbus Company.

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.

Along with this, she typically carries around a sheathed ōdachi on her back, 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. 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.

Background:

Born as Yoshihide to the Dihui Star (Shiomi Yoru) through the deliberate orchestration of the Five Fingers, she was engineered purely to be a supreme swordsman compatible with the Relic Arayashiki, a sword possessing the power of perfect temporal perception and the terrifying ability to completely erase anything from existence. Raised within the clandestine House of Spiders by five distinct Nursefathers representing each major Syndicate—Valencina of the Thumb, Rien of the Index, Matthias of the Middle, Callisto of the Ring, and her biological mother Shiomi Yoru of the Pinky—her entire youth was stripped of autonomy, normal schooling, and basic human warmth, replaced instead with brutal assassin training dictated by the cryptic Prescripts. When she briefly attempted to attend a Ring art academy, Matthias violently slaughtered the instructors and students over a minor playground argument, destroying any illusion that she could ever live a normal life.

Her life took a darker turn during a training session with Capo Lei Heng, where unsheathing the Arayashiki dealt a massive psychic blow, revealing its cruelest mechanism: each time it is drawn, it permanently erases the wielder's memories starting from their most cherished ones. Terrified of this consequence, her Nursefathers sealed the blade, requiring unanimous consent to unsheathe it. Years later, during a mission at a Thumb laboratory, Yoshihide discovered Araya, a child biologically engineered from her own DNA. Defying the harsh opposition of her guardians—particularly Yoru, who viewed maternal love as a weakness—Yoshihide raised Araya with deep devotion, teaching her to read and inadvertently sparking her own acronym-heavy speech patterns through an exchange about schoolyard abbreviations.

However, her continued obligations to the House of Spiders forced her to leave Araya behind and draw the Arayashiki nine times total, five of which occurred after Araya's birth. Each swing steadily burned away her most treasured memories of her daughter. Realizing she was losing the very person she fought to protect, Yoshihide hatched an escape plan: she sealed Araya inside a T Corp. Time Vault—a safe where internal time moves significantly slower, protecting the child for a perceived two-year span—and launched a merciless crusade against her abusers. Using the cursed blade, she permanently mutilated each of her five Nursefathers, cutting Valencina's eye, Rien's face, Matthias's arm, Callisto's sword, and Yoru's tongue, while sacrificing the remainder of her memories of Araya to the sword's toll. Left an amnesiac warrior, she was approached by Faust and recruited into Limbus Company under the name "Ryōshū," trading allegiance for a promised path to destroy the House of Spiders and reclaim her daughter within two years.

The Raid and Betrayal

When the LCB prepared to leave Hongyuan, they were ambushed by the syndicate. The House of Spiders raided Limbus Company HQ to steal retrieved Golden Boughs, using a spiral weapon on Alyssa and flooding the base with Abnormalities and automanikins. During the chaos, Dante's group was intercepted by the Pinky Nursefather (the Dihui Star) and syndicate apprentices. Though the Dihui Star escaped with the Golden Boughs, Rien (the Index Nursefather) handed Ryōshū the unlock code for the spiral and the time vault holding her daughter, Araya, before departing. Upon opening the vault, a shocked Ryōshū found it empty. Operation Spider Pyre

Limbus Company launched a full counter-offensive against the House of Spiders. Ryōshū confronted the Dihui Star in the Pinky Corridor, repeatedly stabbing her with Arayashiki. Moving to the rooftop, she realized the horrifying truth: the person wearing the Dihui Star's guise and whom she had just killed was actually her own daughter, Araya. Broken by the revelation, Ryōshū shattered her contract with Dante and plunged into a mindless state of Muga, transforming into a living "Concept Incinerator" that wiped out the remaining apprentices.

However, Dante heard Araya's voice calling out, using a new Ira ability to connect her back to Ryōshū. Araya's love and a new scabbard forged from her E.G.O. partially restored the connection before Araya was sliced away. Ryōshū then finished off Rien, ending the House of Spiders and safely storing the Golden Boughs inside Araya's red randoseru, though her memories of her daughter were entirely wiped out. Aftermath and Investigations

Following the conflict, Ryōshū tied up loose ends:

Recruited Kira, a surviving Middle apprentice betrayed by Matthias, after showing her unexpected sympathy.

Explored various corridors of the House of Spiders alongside Alan from Wayfarer Company and the LCB.

Visited Backdoors tied to her fragmented memories—visiting a childhood park with Saru, a U Corp location tied to Matthias, an old office from Gregor's past, and Rien's basement.

Debated art and aesthetics with Fauvist Docent Rufo, ultimately being forced to draw Arayashiki once more to carve an escape route.

Examinations by Hohenheim revealed that Arayashiki's new, strong-willed scabbard selectively chooses which memories are sacrificed. With this mechanism, Ryōshū regained confidence that she might eventually recover everything she lost once all the Golden Boughs are collected.