Hotaru

Hotaru is romantic but deeply pessimistic about lasting love. Her years in Yoshiwara leave her skeptical that genuine affection can survive circumstances that separate people or force them into relationships they did not choose.

As a child, she is more hopeful and confides in Tsukuyo about the boy she likes. Her inability to confess becomes a lasting regret and helps explain why the idea of chemically creating infatuation later holds such power over her.

Her actions during the Love Potion incident are harmful, but they emerge from loneliness and unresolved attachment rather than simple malice.

Hotaru has no established martial abilities comparable to Tsukuyo or the Hyakka.

Her principal weapon in the Love Potion conflict is Aizen Kou, a potent incense capable of causing people who inhale it to become intensely infatuated with the first person they see.

The incense can affect even highly disciplined individuals and creates widespread chaos when distributed throughout Yoshiwara. Its psychological effects make it dangerous despite not being a conventional combat weapon.

Hotaru's influence during the incident therefore comes from controlling access to the drug and exploiting its effects rather than physical strength.

Hotaru's history is introduced through childhood scenes with Tsukuyo. She tells her friend about a boy she loved in her hometown and regrets never having confessed before circumstances separated them.

In the present, a wave of incidents involving Aizen Kou spreads through Yoshiwara. Courtesans attempt to elope, customers fight over women and victims develop involuntary romantic fixations.

Hotaru is revealed as the person behind the distribution of the incense. Unable to let go of her first love and believing that genuine love is temporary, she attempts to create the certainty she could never achieve naturally.

Tsukuyo ultimately reaches Hotaru emotionally rather than simply defeating her. After the crisis ends, Hotaru learns that the man she loved has continued waiting for her outside Yoshiwara. She is given the opportunity to leave and reunite with him, providing the second chance she believed no longer existed.

Tsukuyo is Hotaru's childhood friend. Their conversations about love when they were young become central to the later Aizen Kou incident, and Tsukuyo ultimately helps Hotaru abandon the artificial love created by the incense and face her real feelings.

Sakata Gintoki becomes involved in investigating the Aizen Kou outbreak alongside Tsukuyo.

Hinowa helps care for Hotaru and provides the Yorozuya with information about the dangerous incense during the crisis.