Rai-Dei the Blade

Origin

It is unknown where Rai-Dei came from or if he had any relatives; it is possible he is of Japanese descent. It is unknown where he learned his samurai techniques. He states that he has fought many battles and trained on the corpses of his enemies. Sometime in his past he gave up on his humanity in order to gain power, according to what he has said he apparently gave up his humanity in order to learn his samurai technique.

Creation

Rai-Dei was created by Yasuhiro Nightow for his Trigun series.

Major Story Arcs

Fifth Moon

Rai-Dei was among those Gung Ho Guns that witnessed Knives’ second coming; he was also there when Legato was crippled by Knives and when Vash made a huge crater in the moon. 

Resume Our Business

Two years later he was present at a meeting of the Gung Ho Guns, where they got their new objectives by Legato, primarily to make Vash suffer rather than kill him, and destroy the image of humanity he made for himself. After this meeting, Rai-Dei went after Vash on a giant sandworm. 
When he caught up to Vash, he challenged him to a death match, and was rather surprised to find fellow Gung Ho Guns member, Nicholas D Wolfwood, with Vash. Rai-Dei however had no qualms about Wolfwood watching him battle Vash, so long as he didn’t interrupt his match with Vash. The battle began quickly with Rai-Dei gaining the upper hand by surprising Vash with the speed of his blade, coupled with that of his special roller skates. 

Samurai Showdown

Rai-Dei proved to deadly serious during this death match, unwilling to underestimating Vash in the least.
After a few moves, Wolfwood tried to help Vash, but both Rai-Dai and Vash told him to stay out of it. Rai-Dei managed to dodge every bullet Vash threw at him, almost defeating him, but Vash used a combination of sumo technique with his gun style and managed to win, much to the chagrin of Rai-Dei.

Wolfwood

After being defeated, Rai-Dei was given a chance to live a normal life by Vash, but he refused to take it, saying that he had given up on too much to get to this point and he tried to kill Vash from behind, but he was shot and killed by Wolfwood.

Powers and Abilities

Rai-Dei has mastered what is called by him the strongest, lost sword style, known as Jigenzan Ittou, a samurai style that includes evading your opponent and crushing him afterwards. He also has a few weapons that help him in his mission to make Vash suffer, including a special samurai sword that enables him to create vibration waves that can even go through walls, and roller skates that give him incredible speed and mobility, to the point that he’s able to evade many of Vash’s shots. Rai-Dei is without a doubt one of the fastest members of the Gung Ho Guns.

Anime version

The anime version of Rai-Dei the Blade is very similar to the Rai-Dei of the manga, except for the fact that he does not wear roller skates. 
His battle with Vash also takes place in a city, and it is ended by Vash when his Angel Arm is activated by Legato. Surviving Vash’s Angel Arm, he asks Wolfwood for help in his quest to kill Vash the Stampede, but Wolfwood refuses and kills him.