Peyote Diaz

Peyote Diaz (ペヨーテ・ディアス, Peyote deiasu) is a fictional character in the manga and anime series of Shaman King. He is a shaman from Mexico and is one of Hao's followers.

Appearance
Peyote is usually seen wearing a Mexican sarape. He is also commonly seen hiding his face with a sombrero, scarf and jet goggles. He wear long black boots, with a knee plate saying Hao and long black pipe-like gloves, with knuckle plates that have Hao written on them. He wears black clothing decorated with bones and a skull on his scarf, and when not used he constantly wears his guitar on his back in a strap.

He has a long smooth green hair and is clean shaven in one half of his head. Later on Peyote gains a thin beard around his mouth.

Personality
At first he appears as a very cruel and emotionless man who will do anything to follow Asakura Hao's orders, without a question, even using the Boz brothers beaten bodies for oversouls. He also believes that one should have a reason to fight otherwise would one die as a loser and ones story will be a losers story. However towards the end of the manga he appears very sensitive and questioned Asakura Hao. He even cried saying that because he loved Hao so much he was also the one who hated him the most.

Abilities and Powers
He doesn't appear as a very strong Shaman and because of his low amount of fights it is unknown how capable he is. However he is also a guitar player and appears as a very good one as he can control his oversouls with it. As explained by himself his powers allow him to play with the dead and he can make souls vibrate to some of his music. He was also the lead guitarist of his former Mariachi band.

Spirits

 * See More: Peyote's Mariachi Band

Peyote's spirits consists of his old Mariachi band that was killed during stupid and meaningless bar fights. The spirits are Carlos, Juan (friends of Peyotes), Antonio, Jose, Pancho, Miguel & Zapata (all Mariachi players). Carlos and Juan were gunned down by angry saloon clients while Antonio, Jose, Pancho, Miguel and Zapata died in fights. He uses caravela dolls and even his own two teammates, the "Boz" brothers, as medium for his oversouls, giving him an offensive and defensive strategy.

Past
Peyote is shaman from Oaxaca, Mexico and was born on September 11, 1970, to parents that were a Spanish exorcist and an Aztec priest. He was once part of a Mariachi band considered the best in the whole country and famous for the brawls they started. Apparantly two of them were owners of a saloon. They were best friends and all of them acted like true men, however all the members except him were killed in stupid brawls or gunned down because of an unhappy saloon client.

When he was 21 he was found by child Asakura Hao, while sitting in a bar and was apparently surprised by the child. At first he decided to follow him out of curiosity of his incredible powers, but unknown to him at first he was drawn to the darkness of Hao's heart and a desire to fix it himself, even if it meant dying.

Shaman Fight Second Round
He was first seen together with Hao's team as Chocolove McDonell talked about them in the Patch Village. He made his first official appearance during the first fight of the Shaman Fights in Tokyo with the BoZ Brothers as Team "Tsuchi-Gumi"(Team "Earth") who were fighting against Team "The Ren". During the begining of the fight, Tao Ren and Horohoro, decided that Chocolove would be more than enough to deal with the BoZ Brother, Ren even called them mere henchmen.

After Goldva officialy started the fights, the BoZ Brothers jumped Chocolove and bombarded him using the Chimimoryo, something that at first seemed to have gotten him, but as the attacked was stopped, Chocolove was seen standing unharmed behind the BoZ Brothers. Seeing this the brothers remixed the Chimi Chimi Moryo and tried to attack him once again, only to have their small spirits eaten scratched and stomped to death by Chocolove's guardian ghost Mic the Jaguar. Chocolove then proceeded to oversoul Mic into his own body and attacked the BoZ Brothers, avoiding all the nature spirits and at the same time delivered a shattering Shaft attack, that knocked out the brothers.

It is then that Peyote kicks both of the BoZ Brothers, thus seemingly awakening them and making them attack Chocolove once again, this time using only their instruments as blunt weapons. It is then revealed by Ren that the BoZ Brothers had been unconscious for some time and their bodies were now controlled like puppets by Peyote, something Peyote himself revealed to be true by using his catch phrase "Eres Correcto" and revealed his spirits Carlos and Juan.

Chocolove gets very angry, because of Peyote's lack of empathy towards his teammates, and tries to attack him, but a tiny skeleton appears from underneath Peyote's scarf and punches Chocolove in the face. Peyote explains that the tiny skeleton is possessed by Antonio, the leader of the Mariachi Band, and more skeletons fall from Peyote's sarape and are possessed by the other mariachis. However, Chocolove uses the Gag Wind O.S. to make the ghosts laugh, thus distracting Peyote, giving Tao Ren the chance to defeat him.

After being defeated, Peyote lies in bed at the Patch's Medical Center, acompanied by Turbine. After recovering of his wounds, he goes with Hang Zang-Ching and Turbine to attack "The Ren". While they are fighting, Turbine reveals that Nichrom is the young brother of Chrom, the Patch Officiant whom Tao Ren killed before. Albeit a cold-blooded Nichrom says to Ren "don't feel bad, my brother was a loser who risked his life underestimating you in the preliminars", Ren is very shocked by this, and Peyote takes advantage of it, by attacking him with the Grande Phantasma O.S., thus killing Tao Ren. Later, Yoh arrives and defeats Peyote, Hang Zang-Ching and Turbine with just one attack.

Betrayal
Eventually, after being defeated yet again, Peyote seemingly becomes disillusioned and acts rather mad, and turns on his comrades. While the group were ordered to deal with a fleet of human warships they begin to wonder if they are doing the right thing and when Matilda Matisse says that Hao was working to create a better world Peyote remarks that they cannot be sure of this. He acknowledges that they had failed at every single mission, but they are not the only ones to be blamed as it was also because of Hao's faults and Peyote wonders if Hao really was fighting for such a noble cause. As Peyote is scolded by others for his thoughts Mohamed Tabarsi reveals that he too has had the same thoughts and removes his head cloth. Peyote reveals that he remembered how he had the thoughts after his defeat by Team "The Ren" and removes his sombrero goggles and scarf. The two men face eachother on the beach and Mohamed warns Peyote about his next words. Peyote defends himself and says that he only wanted to give them some thoughts on the subject and did not intend to start an argument. When Hang Zang-Ching ask them to stop because they scare him he is suddenly killed by Peyote's O.S. "Grande Phantasma"(O.S. 大きい・ファンタズム) Over Soul. "Big Guy" Bill Burton and Mohamed proceeds to attack him while questioning his actions. Peyote only tells them to calm down as he only wants to make them stronger by dying, but then pierces Bill completely and reveals that he was kidding. Turbine then starts to yell at Peyote, but is shot in the face by Tamurazaki Midori.

Peyote then proceeds to severely wound Blocken Meyer by skewering him with his Over Soul. When Blocken calls him crazy for betraying Hao, Peyote shrugs it of saying it was them who were crazy because their bond to Hao had made them loose their objectivity and that Hao was only a strong shaman. When the "Hana-Gumi" appears behind Peyote prepared to kill him with a curse, Tamurazaki Midori shoots them down with a handheld railgun. However the three girls are still alive and rush Midori only to be stopped by Peyote himself who reveals Hao's abillity to read minds to them and that he somehow understands him. Screaming that he loves Hao the most, yet that he is therefore also the one who hates him the most, he takes his own life as well the lives of Kanna, Matilda and Marion, by crushing them all with his gigantic Over Soul, saying: "Screw the Shaman Fight, nothing matters to me anymore".

It is later revealed by "Big Guy" Bill Burton, in a conversation with Anahol Pokki, that because his and Mohamed Tabarsi's bodies took too much damage, they were the only ones from the slaughter who were unable to be revived.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the 4Kids dub, he was given a Méxican accent and his name was changed into Ramiro. In the Anime, he never betrayed Hao and remain on Hao's side throughout the whole series. He was defeated by Lyserg in the final assault.

Also in the anime, he and the BoZ Brothers didn't fight Team Ren in the tournament and instead attacked them before they arrived at the Second Round. Peyote also oversouled the brothers from the beginning of the fight.

Trivia

 * "Peyote" is the name of a small spineless cactus native to México and the Southern United States of which a hallucinogenic drug is produced, highly apreciated and used in traditional indigenous ceremonies and shamanic rituals.
 * Peyote's last name "Diaz" means "son of Diego" in Spanish.