Buhee Hiramatsu is actually John Henry Schnell, a Westerner who originally served as a military advisor to the Aizu domain in the Boshin War. Six years before the main events, he attempted to broker a secret pact with Prussia, offering the Aizu and Shounai domains' Enzo territory in exchange for Prussian military aid. When both domains surrendered to the new imperial government before the deal finalized, he murdered Ikegami Souichirou (father of Kyōshirō Shuragami) and Souichirou's retainers aboard a Prussian ship to erase evidence of the failed agreement, simultaneously wounding Souichirou's son and causing the loss of his eye. After the samurai era's collapse, he adopted the Japanese name Buhee Hiramatsu and rose as a powerful underworld figure in Edo. He operates as the hidden mastermind controlling the Moriya and Fujishima yakuza clans, overseeing an extensive opium trafficking network. Despite the era's Westernization trend, he wears traditional samurai attire beneath a hood and uses the public alias "Gozen," manifestations of his deep contempt for the new government. His ultimate goal remains overthrowing the Meiji administration to restore political power to the samurai class. As part of his schemes, he ordered the massacre of women at Tsuruga Castle during the Boshin War, an event from which Sumie Kanomata (Shizuma Origasa's fiancée) narrowly escaped. In the present timeline, he orchestrates complex criminal operations, including framing the Moriya Clan for an ambush on his own opium shipment to punish their disloyalty. His most audacious plot involves conspiring to kidnap the Emperor to destabilize the government. Hiramatsu's vendetta against Shuragami culminates in a final confrontation aboard a ship intended for the Emperor's abduction. After Shuragami defeats him in combat and symbolically severs his chonmage (samurai topknot), Hiramatsu uses his last strength to shoot Shuragami during Shuragami's subsequent duel with Shizuma Origasa. Hiramatsu perishes immediately afterward, consumed by the flames engulfing the vessel. Physically, he is depicted as an adult male with blonde hair, blue eyes, and distinctive large eyebrows, often concealed beneath a hood during his criminal activities.