Yamanaka Shikanosuke

Yamanaka Shikanosuke(山中鹿之助) is a former retainer of the Amako Clan and an enemy of the Mori clan, who're responsible for destroying the Amako Clan. She is the leader of the Amako's Heroes and an eventual retainer of Sagara Yoshiharu.

Appearance
Shikanosuke wears a crescent shaped helm and has short hair. she also wears samurai armour befitting her role. she has been noted to bear some similarities to Shibata Katsuie.

Personality
She is extremely loyal to the Amako clan and as such bears a strong grudge towards the Mori clan. When she heard that Sagara Yoshiharu was fighting against the Mori she readily aided him and swore her loyalty to him.

She often preys to gods and the moon not for victory, but suffering on her own part, which Sagara believes is evidence of her being a mascoshist. she also appeared delighted by the idea of being "attacked" by Yoshiharu's carniverous nature, despite his insistance that he isn't doing anything to her. She also notes that she will call Yoshiharu as "Master" rather than her lord, and would litterally obey any command given by him, literally blushing when he accepted her as a retainer. When offered to draw a tariot card by Kanbei, she even intentionally wished for a future in which she suffers, and noted in the past that she escaped from the Mori clan by asking to use the bathroom. She is even shown to pant and heat up when remembering these events.

While on the outside she seems to be noticably similar to Katsuie, Yoshiharu notes that her personality on the inside is different and more pure, she is also far less dense than Juubei, who cannot read the atmosphere. In fact, he notes she might be the only pure girl amongst all of the Oda forces, if one ignores her blatantly obvious masochism.

However, deep down she is both distrusting and extremely loyal to her masters, even long after the Amako clan's fall she continues to serve them, and would rather die than serve anyone else, she has been repeatedly betrayed by others, her allies, subordinates, even the man who gave her her name "Yamanaka" twice in fact. Finally, she realised she would have to swallow her pride and serve another lord to get the power she needed, so she chose Yoshiharu. Later, when she does at last form bonds with Yoshiharu and his men, she resolves to hand herself over to the enemy to get Kanbei back. She is stopped by Yoshiharu, who continues to stand no matter how she pleads with him or beats him to get him out of her way, finally, he convinces her that he will save everyone, including Hanbei, Kanbei and her, and she finally starts to trust him as her master. Since then she has insisted that Yoshiharu refer to her as he would a subordinate, almost an inversion of how Katsuie insisted he refer to her as his superior.

Background
Some time in the past she was a retainer of the Amako clan, who were later wiped out by the Mori clan. With the goal of restoring the clan she then became an active enemy of the Mori. She killed numerous officers of the Mori and claimed multiple locations, but would always lose these locations after her resources ran out or her allies turned on her, ultimately making no progress on her own.

Return of the Ashikaga Shogunate Arc
When Yoshiharu and Kanbei were lured into a trap by Ukita Naoie at Kotsuki Castle, she sent an envoy to Yoshiharu's retainer, Takenaka Hanbei, who then asked her to invade the now empty castle and entrap the Naoie army. after rescuing Sagara, she swore her loyalty to him as a retainer. She is present when Yoshiharu hears the news about Hannou Temple burning down from Goemon.