Characters / Black Cat (Anime & Manga)

Character sheet for Black Cat.

Main Characters

The Power Trio and their Honorary True Companion.

Train Heartnet

Voiced by: Takashi Kondo (JP), Minami Takayama (JP, child), Jason Liebrecht (EN), Luci Christian (EN, child), Sergio Mesa (SP)

Formerly the Chrono Number XIII and the World's Best Warrior, nicknamed the Black Cat for the bad luck he brought to his targets, Train abandoned his career as an assassin to become a Sweeper: a licensed bounty-hunter. Easy going and friendly, Train just wants to live free. Unfortunately, as the re-emergence of his ex-partner Creed Diskenth proves, Train's past may not be as far behind him as he thinks.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the manga, he does wants to avenge Saya, but he is done grieving and eventually resolves to capture Creed instead of killing him. In the anime however, he remains obsessed and enraged until the Final Battle, having Catapult Nightmares in which he wakes up screaming her name.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the Manga, Train is carefree, mischievous, teasing and fun-loving, treasuring his life of freedom and being only serious in battle. He even sheds the remnants of his murderous past halfway through the story. By contrast, the anime has him alterning between over the top goofy and outright stupid antics that would make even his manga counterpart facepalm, and (most often) brooding, uncaring and redefining Revenge Before Reason, to the point of jumping into traps and endangering his friends without second thoughts many times. He goes as far as disliking being a bounty-hunter and Walking the Earth alone at the end.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the anime, he never gains the Rail Gun, nor displays his most powerful techniques. And he struggles against foes that his manga counterpart would have trounced with little to no trouble.
• Animal Motifs: Cats, of course. Stray cats, to be precise.
  Train Heartnet: "Stray cats and domesticated cats are both meant to live free."
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Though not blatantly obvious, several of his Charles Atlas Superpowers are cat-themed: Incredible agility, including being able to jump several meters in the air. Very acute senses of vision, smell, and hearing. Even him using Hades as a bludgeon is portrayed like a cat swiping its claws.
• The Atoner: His defining character moment and part of the reason why he left Chronos. He encourages former enemies to become this in turn.
• Art Evolution: He already looks quite obviously handsome in the first volumes, but as chapter 173 came, he has become a downright bombshell.
• Badass Adorable: When he was transformed into a child. Downplayed on the "badass" bit where he couldn't handle his gun very well and couldn't move and dodge as fast as his adult self, making him much less powerful (but still able to get the upper hand on a Chrono Number).
• Badass Boast: Doubles as a Character Catchphrase: "I've come to bring you bad luck..."
• Badass Longcoat: During his days in Chronos. (Which also contributes to the reason why some people thought he was better off in Chronos in the anime than when he went off on his own and started wearing doughnuts on his clothes.)
• Badass Normal: He has no power, even though his Super-Strength and Super-Speed borders on sheer supernatural, and is the World's Best Warrior above and beyond super-powered psychos.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Train greatly enjoys beating crooks in the field they boast to be the best, speed for one, martial arts for the other, and so on and so forth...
• Big Damn Heroes: Invoked. He waits up from the ceiling beams shortly after regaining his adult body back and watches the new Gas Mask Mooks, only stepping in at the last minute because he thought it would be cool. Cue the next panel where Sven beats Train to within an inch of his life.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: He's shown having a HUGE hangover soon after drinking a small bottle of wine. In the manga, it was a Gargle Blaster though, making it more understandable as he never drinks.
• Character Development: Had this in his backstory, after shedding the shell of a Social Darwinist, violent murderer who Hates Everyone Equally thanks to Saya's Positive Friend Influence. (Much to Creed's dismay.) He sheds the remnants of his hatred and killing intent during the story proper.
• Character Exaggeration: The anime ramps up his manchild tendencies and hatred of Creed, to the point of shattering the manga's Aesop of moving on from the past and treasuring freedom. It takes a lot more effort to put him on the right track.
• Characterization Marches On: Train for most of the series is so averse to killing that he'll spare psychos like Shiki, The Doctor, and Creed (Though not without a dose of Warrior Therapist and Cruel Mercy). However, he killed two much less threatening opponents in cold blood in the first two issues. Justified in story as him letting fully go his assassin's past and adopting the bounty hunters' rule of always catching their target alive to face justice.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Train's ridiculous abilities? Pure training combined with a really sweet gun.
• Chick Magnet: Kyoko, Rinslet, Saya, and... it gets into the realm of Even the Guys Want Him. Saya was not in love with him though.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: A Rare Male Example of a criminal with a cat theme. The series title is his alias and he shamelessly sports a fluttering black cloak and a bell on a red string as a necklace.
• Color Animal Codename: As the Black Cat, of course.
• Cruel Mercy: He adamantly refuses Creed's pleas to be killed after defeating him, calling it a coward's way out. Instead he sentences him to bear the weight of his failures, his crimes and his newfound powerlessness for the rest of his life.
• Dark and Troubled Past: At ten years old, he entered his living room to find his parents murdered by a hitman, who asked him (with a gun to his face) if he wanted to live, and took him in to "make him powerful enough to survive". He followed the Training from Hell hoping to kill him, only to find him shot dead and having to live in the streets as a small thug. He was then taken in by Chronos and the rest was history.
• Defector from Decadence: He defects from Chronos after Saya's death at the hands of Creed.
• The Dreaded: Even after quitting Chronos, he still makes people shit their pants just by revealing who he is. It's saying something when even the Ax-Crazy Creed, a psychopath who doesn't fear anyone, doesn't want to deal with Train when he's angry.
• Disappointed by the Motive: He's far from impressed by the villain's obsessions and makes it known.
• Dodge the Bullet: Every character does this many times, but Train makes it an art form. He litterally runs in circles around machine gun shooters.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: He gains the Rail Gun detailed below late in the manga, and it becomes invaluable to win most major fights from then on.
• Empowered Badass Normal: He later gets the power to turn his gun into a Rail Gun, an electric gun firing incredibly fast and powerful shots. He loses it once he no longer needed it - i.e., after defeating Creed.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Sure, a huge portion of girls in the series want him. And so does Creed.
• Fatal Attractor: He doesn't seem to be able to attract very normal love interests. It would be rather interesting to know if he would still choose to be a Celibate Hero and appear to be asexual if a halfway decent and semi-normal woman would come into his life. He held no romantic feelings for Saya (the most normal of female companions) and any hope of a Relationship Upgrade was cut very short by... a certain male Yandere. Rinslet is a very manipulative thief who constantly takes advantage of him and tricks him into doing things for her. Kyoko is overly aggressive and a Stalker with a Crush. And that's not even mentioning Creed, who is the most insane and obsessive pervert when it comes to Train.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From an innocent ten-year-old to The Dreaded World's Best Warrior. He is a good guy now but went through a hefty Heel–Face Turn.
• Fountain of Youth: Train gets turned back into a child by nanomachines for a while. Turning back to normal activates his 11th-Hour Superpower
• Gun Fu: As the best gun-fightier ever, he is a virtuoso in the trade. He can fire doing cartwheels and sommersaults, in mid-jump or even upside down, always with chirurgical precision.
• Gun Kata: The guy can do whatever fighting moves ever seen in fiction involving a gun. He uses his own as a blunt weapon quite often, even for his mightiest moves.
• The Gunslinger: The main one of the series. He is able to react to three men firing their guns at a target, pull out his own and intercept their bullets with his own in an instant, giving a notorious Professional Killer who happened to be nearby a huge Oh, Crap! reaction.
• Heel–Face Turn: Had one before this story begins.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Became ambidextrous through training. Still slightly more skilled with his left hand though.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Sven travel together as sweepers all the time, and adopt a "kid".
• Hidden Depths: Train proves suprizingly insightful for such an apparent goofball, and he can read Eve's train of thoughs very well when he's not busy teasing her.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He can shoot down other people's bullets, fire several bullets in the same hole of a bouncing tin can, among many, many other absurd feats.
• It's Personal: Train really, really wants to kill (and later capture) Creed for killing the first and only real friend he made after being orphaned.
• Made of Indestructium: His Black Gun "Hades", which serves as a shield and a blunt weapon or Epic Flail.
• Manchild: Train always acts playful, teasing and frankly immature, in comedic contrast with the Wise Beyond Their Years Eve, much to his comrades' frustration. Justified considering his childhood was destroyed at ten years old, he is now acting like the child he could never be. Downplayed as well as this is an act, he is well-adjusted and proves very serious and observant when needed.
• Meaningful Name: His first name, Train, was chosen per Word of God for a character who travels a lot.
• My Greatest Failure: Not being able to save Saya from being killed by Creed.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Even after leaving Chronos, his old nickname still paralyzes his bounty targets with fear.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Neither are especially well-off, but Train rough, carefree attitude contrasts Sven's dignified attitude.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Train like acts a clueless buffoon more often than not, to the point that even his friends tend to get surprised when he acts rationally or even gets serious. But don't get fooled...
• Oblivious to Love: Train is very oblivious of a lot of character's feelings for him. Though he's especially this way with Creed, who is unbelievably outright about his scary obsessive love for him. When other characters are creeped out by this, Train dismisses it by telling them to ignore him, and that Creed being a creeper is simply being selfish and weird.
• Older Than They Look: He is 21 in the anime and 23 in the manga, that is, around the same age as Rinslet and Creed. For how he looks, however, and especially in the anime, you would be forgiven for thinking he was a high-schooler like Kyoko.
• The Perils of Being the Best: Contrary to what the Too Dumb to Live imposter Woodney believes, the name Black Cat does cower enemies, but attracts more wannabes wanting to take a potshot.
• Pinball Projectile: Train masters the Reflect Shot technique, making his bullets bounce on walls and ground to strike from unpredictable angles. Doubles as a Tragic Keepsake for he learned it from Saya and uses it against the Big Bad who killed her.
• Pistol-Whipping: A common short-range attack of his.
• Playful Cat Smile: Unsurprisingly often, given his cat theme and mischievous nature.
• Protagonist Title: The series is named after his alias.
• Red Baron: The Black Cat.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: His trademarked gun Hades.
• Roof Hopping: His most casual mean of transport in cities. Lampshaded by Rinslet, who notes that normal people cannot do that without practical gear, while he treats that like something commonplace.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Sven and Eve wondered whether Train was romantically involved with Saya, but they both made clear that they were BFF.
  • The anime however cut the precisions and amped up the ambiguity.
• Showy Invincible Hero: With Train, the question is never "if" he will win but rather "how" or to be precise "what outlandish, physics-defying feat will he come up with?" Only the Big Bad and The Dragon are powerful enought to give him real trouble, and even then he would have beaten the former sooner if it was not for this pesky Healing Factor.
• Southpaw Advantage: He was born left-handed and became ambidextrous through training, though his left hand is still slightly faster and more accurate when he uses his gun. He spends the entire Battle on Clarken Island using his left hand alone, to show how seriously he is taking the job and his opponents.
• Sprouting Ears: In comedic moments, he sprouts cat ears. Definitely going along with his Animal Motifs.
• Super-Senses: He has exceptional vision and is totally unbothered even in the dark. In the Anime, when blinded by a plant-based monster's pollen, he was able to fire a perfect shot to the heart by just listening to the sound of the monster's necklace jingling.
• Super-Reflexes: For many heroes, Bullet Time is an exceptional feat. For this one? He could do this all day, and even in his sleep.
• Super-Speed: So fast that he can nonchalantly and effortlessly outrun machine gun fire.
• Super-Strength: For such a lithe young man, he is incredibly strong. Not only can he lift many times his weight or punch a well-built man through a window with no effort, he has enough strength in his legs to jump atop a building and more.
• Terror Hero: Not that it could be said at first glance, but this goofball is a walking Mook Horror Show.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In his backstory before his defection. Lampshaded by Saya, who notes that he has re-learnt to smile and enjoy life.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Come Volume 3, he decides not to kill anyone any longer.
• Trigger-Happy: Of the non-lethal variety. He's shown to get antsy and irritated when he hasn't shot anything in a while.
• The Un-Reveal: It’s never been shown or explained why, his parents were killed.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Train is freakishly fast, spry and strong, but he never trained to use it. Still, it does not hinder him the slightest, as he can best supremely skilled martial artists in a purely physical brawl, with minimal effort on his part.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Led a perfectly normal life until he was ten-years-old. Contrary to most examples he is a happy and well-adjusted (if extremely dangerous) adult, but he came back from a loooooong way.
• Warrior Therapist: Displays this late in the story, when discussing his foes' motives and making them understand that they are losing themselves. He triggers a Heel–Face Turn for Shiki that way.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: His yellow, cat-like eyes. They're commented on several times by Creed and Saya - both of whom say that they're beautiful.
• World's Best Warrior: The most powerful fighter bar none. Only the Big Good, the Big Bad and The Dragon come close to his level, and he still surpasses them.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Train has been an assassin for many years.....but the biggest soft spot he possesses is about children. In the manga, he describes how he was about to shoot a man, but he realized the man was holding a young girl. He stopped, and couldn't pull the trigger, so he was shot, instead. He lived, but this is part of the major Heel–Face Turn he undergoes throughout the series.

Sven Vollfied

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (JP), Brandon Potter (EN), Dani Albiac (SP)

Train's partner, Sven is a former agent with the International Bureau of Investigations (IBI). He considers himself a gentlemen, and believes one should always treat women with respect. His infamous trick briefcase, and Vision Eye allow him to be a highly effective Sweeper.

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• Adaptational Wimp: Zigzagged. He never evolves his Magical Eye in the anime, but on the other hand, he can use it long enough to defeat one of the super-powered villains, and without suffering its normal ill-effects, which would have been out of question in the manga.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: A very powerful bounty-hunter, always dressed to the nines.
• Badass Normal: The only one of the three without superhuman powers and skills, though he does performs feats impossible for normal humans. This does not mean that he is powerless, oh far from it.
• Briefcase Blaster: His modified suitcase contains a machine gun, a net launcher, some gas, explosives, and other nifty gadgets for almost every occasion.
• Bullet Time: He gets this as an ability by training with his Vision Eye, machine gunfire included. Unfortunately, this was left out of the anime.
• Cast from Stamina: Using his Magical Eye exhausts him very quickly. After taking many levels in badass, he loses the drawback and can now use his even mightier power without ill-effect.
• Combat Clairvoyance: His right eye can see in-between a few seconds to a maximum of five minutes into the future. However, it drains him of his energy, to the point of knocking him out cold after a few minutes. It's actually a Tragic Keepsake from his friend and former colleague Lloyd.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Less tragic than his comrades, but he still got to see his best friend die Taking the Bullet for him, with the tremendous Survivor's Guilt that comes with it.
• Dodge the Bullet: His Magical Eye enables him to push the trope Beyond the Impossible, as a foe is emptying a truckload of huge machine guns on him without so much as grazing his hat.
• Dual Wielding: Does this against Golem, one of the Doctor's cyborgs, with a pistol in one hand and his briefcase in the other.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: See Magical Eye and Took a Level in Badass to see which one.
• Empowered Badass Normal: He was plenty badass before gaining the Vision Eye. Not to mention after he evolved it into the Grasper Eye, a Game-Breaker if there ever was any.
• FBI Agent: Sven used to work for its in-universe counterpart the International Bureau of Investigations. He resigned after the death of his friend, but keeps useful contacts.
• Eyepatch of Power: Over his right eye. When he takes it off, he can see into the future.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Particularly specialized for creating various innovative weapons. Sven created every kind of special bullets and bombs that both him and Train use.
• Gentleman Detective: No longer a detective but still investigating to track down criminals, and very much your quintessential gentleman.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Sven travels around with Train as sweepers all the time, and adopt a "kid".
• Honor Before Reason: Seems to be this at first, chivalry and gentlemany behaviour being his biggest values, but subverted in that he will fight women and children who can fight back or whom he does not trust, despite not liking it a bit.
• The Lancer: Sven is Train's best friend and closest confidant, and functions as second-in-command of their team once Eve and Rinslet join up.
• Magical Eye: He can first use his Vision Eye for Combat Clairvoyance, but he later gains the way mightier Grasper Eye, that makes anything he sees considerably slower, making dodging even the deadliest attacks a piece of cake while looking like he moved at the speed of sound.
• Never Bareheaded: Sven never stops doing two things; wearing a hat and smoking.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Not exactly of privileged upbringing, but Sven is the classy, refined male to Train's goofy and rambuctious one.
• Old-School Chivalry: Sven's raison d'être is to act like the quintessential gentleman, dapper, poised, courteous and gallant. Played for Laughs but ultimately downplayed, he is fully aware than in times chivalry solves nothing and acts accordingly.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Despite being a genuinely powerful fighter with lots of impressive weapons and tricks, he is seriously outmatched by both Train and soon Eve. Aware of the trope, he undertakes a Training from Hell to become able to see eye-to-eye with his partners for the Final Battle.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Very elegant, no matter what happens.
• Signature Headgear: Never seen without his fedora. Even when it's destroyed, he keeps a spare at ready.
• The Smart Guy: He's the go-to-guy for technology, inventing gadgets, and fights his opponents based on uncovering and exploiting their weaknesses.
• Smoking Is Cool: It's one of his signature habits.
• Super-Strength: While eclipsed by Train, let's not forget that this dapper gentleman packs a mean punch and can jump from several stories and land on his feet like nothing.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Uses one he designed himself, masked as an attache case.
• Took a Level in Badass: Goes from being little more than the gadget-guy, and the brains of the party, to a powerful force in his own right, after enduring Training from Hell to evolve his Magical Eye, becoming able to walk all over the monstrously powerful Apostles of the Star, without the ill-effects of the previous one.
• Tragic Keepsake: His Vision Eye is a gift from his long-deceased friend Lloyd.
• Weak, but Skilled: Not exactly weak, more "less monstrously overpowered than his comrades". Still, Sven remains a tremendously skilled Gadgeteer Genius and crack shot, with a Game-Breaker power.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Defenceless girls, if they prove dangerous on the other hand he subverts the trope.

Eve

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen (JP), Brina Palencia (EN), Ariadna Jiménez (SP)

An eleven-year old girl taken in by Train and Sven, Eve started life as a biological weapon created by the mob boss Torneo Rudman, and commissioned by Creed Diskenth. The shapeshifting nanomachines in her blood let her fight on Train and Sven's level.

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• Absurd Cutting Power: By the time of the Final Battle, she can create a BFS that cuts at molecular level, slicing to pieces down the best armours like wet papercloth.
• Adaptational Personality Change: She is more traditionally girly in the anime, especially in her enjoyment of fireworks, something she is never seen even watching in the manga.
• Artificial Human: A genetically-engineered bioweapon who was made with the use of nanotechnology. It is later revealed that she's a clone of Dr. Tearyu Lunatique.
• The Atoner: She strives to protect people to atone for all those she murdered under Torneo's command.
• Badass Bookworm: Can remember the contents from every book she has read, and uses this to her advantage to take a truckload of levels in badass.
• Badass in Distress: When she gets captured by the Doctor (for vivisection in the manga, to fuel the Doomsday Device in the anime), prompting Train to rush to her rescue.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Eve has only known emotionless obedience. Then, out of the blue, she gets lost and this nice fellow treats her with ice cream and a walk in the park, before going to hell and back for her sake.
• BFS: Her hands and pigtails can morph into blades, almost as big as she is.
• The Big Girl: Eve is physically the most powerful member of the team, and is borderline bulletproof. She frequently uses herself to shield others, and while she's super smart, her strategy for defeating enemies typically relies on hitting them very hard.
• Break the Cutie: Durham tried this and uses Eve's blood to leave her friends a message. While it did made her doubt and fear, she averts it at the end by only strengthening her resolve.
• Carry a Big Stick: Her favorite form of non-lethal combat. She can morph her hair into a giant hammer (or any bludgeoning weapon for the matter) to smash her enemies with.
• Child Prodigy: Of the super smart variation. She is created from the greatest genius of the world and clearly takes after her.
• Consistent Clothing Style: Unlike Train and Sven, she's been seen wearing all kinds of clothing, but mostly Elegant Gothic Lolita dresses.
• Cute Bruiser: No matter how misanthropic you are, it's tough to deny that Eve's a cute little girl.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: "Papa Sven" does this to her, by unknowingly being the first to treat her like a normal little girl.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: She usually wears a lot of lolita dresses of varying styles.
• Emotionless Girl: At the very first, becoming as normal a little girl as she can be (uber badassness and intelligence aside) during the course of the story.
• Feather Flechettes: She can fire barrages of pointy feathers as a long-range move.
• Genius Bruiser: She is very smart, read and memorized hundreds of books, and can perform incredibly complicated calculations in seconds. She's also pretty good with technology, which likely stems from the nanomachines inside her. Moreover, she gradually becomes highly powerful and exceptionally versatile in battle, as she establishes against both Kelly Barris, and Leon.
• Girlish Pigtails: Occasionally changes her hairstyle to this for no reason.
• Hair Intakes: Her hairstyle has two little "cat ears".
• Heel–Face Turn: Has her's at the very start of the series. Not that she could be really called evil even then, being more of an unknowing Tyke Bomb.
• Like Brother and Sister: Her relationship with Train has shades of this. Her "rivalry" with Train can be seen as a type of Sibling Rivalry, as Sven is definitely the most mature of the trio and the closest thing to a father figure she has. Add in the fact Train acts as a Manchild, Eve could very well see him almost as an older brother, competent enough for her to feel the need to prove to "Papa Sven" that she's at least as competent as him, if not better. They learn to get along when Sven is away for training.
• Little Miss Badass: Is she ever. She grows up into one of the mightiest fighters of the story, able to defeat one of the most dangerous Apostles.
• Little Professor Dialog: A little girl able to answer highly complex questions of archeology and physics.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Her hands and hair can morph into shields for defense.
• Made of Iron: She can turn into a litteral example of the trope by turning herself to steel, partially or entirely, to block attacks.
• Meaningful Name: Eve is not only a female name, but is a shortened form of evening. Per the author, it is meant to symbolise innocence.
• One-Winged Angel: Only used once in the anime when Torneo's lackey uses a device on her to stir her nanomachines. She becomes more demonic with her arms, legs, and hair turning into blades, glows yellow, is able to fly, and has a very menacing Death Glare. Sven saves her from this state by pulling the device out, barely surviving in the process.
  • In the manga, Train prevents the transformation from happening, by shooting the device out of Torneo's hand before he could put it on her.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Eve has transformed herself into a mermaid during her battle against Leon, giving her full movement underwater and allowing her to pull off a surprise attack from the river.
• Power Gives You Wings: She can sprout wings to gain Flight.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: In the anime adaptation only. She becomes the power source for Eden, a mechanical lifeform controlled by the Zero Numbers.
• Precocious Crush: On Sven, albeit zigzagged for she sees him as a father figure and nothing more. Interestingly enough, she finds Train's relationship with Sven enough of a threat to be jealous of Train. Fangirls have interpretations of what this means.
• Prehensile Hair: Shapeshifting prehensile hair, no less.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Just like Rei Ayanami, Eve is a red-eyed, pale-skinned Artificial Human who at first seems to be an Emotionless Girl, but eventually opens up and reveals a Sugar-and-Ice Personality. She even shares a dub voice with her.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Her entire schtick consists of changing shape throughout a battle, picking the best form as required by circumstance.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: At first appears to be an Emotionless Girl, and even once she gets over it she's still rather cool and quiet. She's also immensely intelligent, loyal, insatiably curious, and one of the kindest people in the series.
• Super-Speed Reading: Eve regularly reads almost every book she can get her hands on inhumanly fast. It's possible this is part of her accelerated growth, giving her an instinct to stimulate her mind so it can mature as fast as her body.
• Tagalong Kid: She starts out as one before she improved her control of her nanomachines, fully becoming a part of the team.
• Took a Level in Badass: When she starts out she can only shift her hands into blades, and at best serves as a distraction when capturing bounties. She later upgrades to being the knockout weapon, and as the series progresses, is even able to take down a few bounties with little to no help from Train and Sven, becoming a fully licensed Sweeper. Her shapeshifting also improves, allowing her to do full-body transformations. All her training comes together for her battle against Leon, which, in addition to being one of the series' best fights, demonstrates just how far Eve has come.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Killing people without showing emotion is not exactly the sign of a well-adjusted eleven-year-old.
• Tyke Bomb: She was raised by Torneo Rudman to be a weapon and executioner, and a murderer before she was eleven years old. Defused, and subsequently adopted by Sven.
• Unknown Rival: She views Train as her 'rival', both as a Sweeper (her goal is to one day be stronger than him) and for Sven's attention. It annoys her to no end that he doesn't take this seriously at all, and seems to prefer teasing her about it than returning the thought.
• Winged Humanoid: Can become this at will.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Acts mostly like a collected adult, but she can still act childish, like her Unknown Rival thing with Train.
• Younger than She Looks: In one of the early volume extras, the author commented Eve was physically about eleven, but may age differently than a regular human. Only half a year passes in-series, but in later chapters she looks well into her teens. Another volume extra has Sven explicitly state Eve is growing up fast, both physically and emotionally.

Rinslet Walker

Voiced by: Yukana (JP), Jamie Marchi (EN), Pilar Morales (SP)

A thief-for-hire who contracts Train and Sven for help with a job, Rinslet later becomes a part-time member of the team.

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• Action Girl: In addition to her exceptional thieving skills, she is very stealthy and very good with a gun or later a whip.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the manga, she does have moments in which she shows that she cares for the three. Much less in the anime, which tones up her abrasive and domineering traits. She remains on rather good terms but still colder.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the manga, she is a very competent thief and can hold her own against many Mooks at once, without trouble. Not at all in the anime version.
• Anger Born of Worry: The more violent she gets against both Train and Jenos is when she finds them too reckless for their own good.
• Badass Normal: Rinslet might be considerably weaker than the heroes and villains, but only because they are ridiculously superhuman, not because she is bad in any sense.
• Badass in Distress: When she is captured by the Apostles of the Stars. Twice, much to her chagrin.
• Big Damn Hero: She saves Eve from going splat against a wall, after being sent flying by a T-Rex.
• Challenge Seeker: Her main motivation, even before money.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: She lacks a cat theme but definitely fits all of the main requirements. She's flirtatious, sly and very proud of being one of the best, most resourceful thieves in the world. She likes jewels, but dislikes stealing anything that she cannot carry on person.
• Cool Big Sis: She desperately attempts to become this to Eve. The little girl likes her allright, but is pretty indifferent to her displays of affection.
• Crazy-Prepared: Rinslet always have pins on her in case she gets captured, up to a parachute in her bag just should it happen.
• Damsel out of Distress: Rinslet is captured by The Dragon and held in manacles, but she is able to free herself with a pin, kicks her captor and takes out a defense gun. Against a normal criminal, she would have turned the tables quite beautifully, but alas for her it is eventually averted.
• Dub Name Change: Known as Rinsel Walker in Spain, for wholly unknown reasons.
• Faux Action Girl: In the anime, she is all bark and no bite.
• Femme Fatale: Fully willing to use her charms to get what she wants.
• Femme Fatale Spy: Does not seduce anyone to do that, but she is often tasked to do spy work by governments and networks by stealing highly classified information.
• Hostage Situation: She is taken hostage by the Big Bad in the second tome, to force Train to come to their fateful reunion whether he likes it or not.
• Impossible Theft: She does this for a living, and enjoys the thrill of succeeding.
• In-Series Nickname: Her friends call her "Rins".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is abrasive and easily angry at Train and Jenos, but deep down she cares about them and worries for their lives. If only she could show it better. While she gleefully exploits the Power Trio, she makes sure to embark them in quest where they too have something to gain.
• Limited Wardrobe: Averted. Just like Eve, Rinslet is seen wearing various outfits.
• Master of Disguise: She is not at Train's level, and leagues below the biggest example of the trope in the story, but she is still very skilled in the trade.
• Ms. Fanservice: She certainly likes to flaunt her very good looks in revealing outfits, and even gets a Shower Scene in the manga.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: She is at peak human condition, which in any other story would be more than impressive. Too bad she lives in one hell of a World of Badass.
• Quest Giver: The story really starts when she directs Train and Sven towards Starter Villain Torneo Rudman, where they meet Eve and hear about Creed.
• Secret Test of Thieving Skill: Rinslet's first mission for Chronos is in fact this, much to her incredulous annoyance.
• Tsundere: In the manga, she's one over Train (emphasis on the dere-side). In the anime, she's one over Sven (emphasis on the tsun-side), in both she's one over Jenos (emphasis very much on the tsun-side).

Chronos

The Conspiracy from which Train deserted. They pretty much control global economy and politics from the shadows as a Necessarily Evil, which Big Bad Creed yearns to take them down.

Supreme Elder Willzark

Known as the Wisest Elder of Chronos, he is the Supreme Ruler of the secret society and the Chrono Numbers unquestionably follow him.

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• Bad Boss: He views his underlings as his property to use as he sees fit, and his callous disregard toward Train was the last straw to make him desert.
• Control Freak: Big time! Willzark wants the entire world to dance to his tune without objection and orders the death of anyone who dares thinking otherwise.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More like "control cannot understand freedom". He is genuinely baffled when Train disobeys him, following his own choices rather than orders. Even two years later, he is still unable to process that Train would prefer a life of freedom but poverty to a life of luxury when all he could do is to obey orders without discussion.
• Death by Adaptation: The three elders are killed offscreen in Chronos' destruction at the end of the anime. Just to show that the Zero Numbers are playing for keeps.
• A God Am I: His undisputed control over the world makes him act as if he is a god who cannot be wrong, has a right of life and death over anyone, and can never be disobeyed. For all his posturing, he can do jackshit to prevent Train from deserting and needs the Chrono Numbers to handle the threat of the Apostles of the Star.
• Grandpa God: Willzark looks and evokes the part, and acts as such but while definitely no normal human, he is not divine.
• Jerkass God: Again, he is no god, but he looks and acts the part, and is clearly unconcerned with pesky things like free will or justice.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: The secret ruler of the world who can only be seen by his mightiest enforcers. Not only is he much less impressive than them, but he seems to need them for protection.
• Minor Major Character: Willzark is only seen for a handful of panels, but he is pretty much the God-Emperor of the world and the ruler of the secret society from which both The Hero and the Big Bad deserted. Without it, there would be no plot.
• Mysterious Past: Nothing is known about him. His exact age? Where he was born? How has he risen to the top of Chronos? Has he founded it? All left for speculation.
• Non-Action Big Bad: More of a Greater-Scope Villain, but still. Willzark is never seen fighting, and it is doubtful he even can.
• Pointy Ears: He has them, hinting that he his more than a mere mortal.
• Vague Age: All that can be said is that he is very old. But is he normally old or Really 700 Years Old?
• Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Willzark commands one of the best Badass Crew in any manga, but displays no fighting skills whatsoever.

No. I, Sephiria Arks

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (JP), Lydia Mackay (EN), Isabel Muntané (SP)

The leader of the Chrono Numbers. Train's former superior who taught him what it means to wield a weapon, Sephiria is tasked with eliminating threats to Chronos, especially Creed and his Apostles of the Star.

---

• Action Girl: The leader of the Chronos Numbers and the best swordsfighter you will ever meet.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the manga, she holds zero animosity towards Train after his defection, and even understands his reasons. In the anime, she hates him and is howling for his blood.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the manga, she is a caring and benevolent Reasonable Authority Figure. In the anime she is a fanatical zealot ready to kill anyone for standing up to Chronos. Though she undergoes Character Development and mellows out considerably, ending up ressembling her original counterpart.
• Big Good: More morally ambiguous than most examples.
• Blade Spam: Can strikes many times in a second. Her most powerful attack deals several hundreds of stabs in less than a second.
• Cool Sword: Wields a cutlass-like blade made of Orichalcum.
• Dead Man Switch: Should someone prove badass enough to kill her, ex explosive bangle would detonate and kill them as well.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: In the anime, Sephiria repeats the use of "Chronos" during her talk with Train:
  Sephiria: Chronos will deal with the enemies of Chronos in the Chronos way.
  Train: Would you mind saying Chronos a few more times?
• Flash Step: One of her signature abilities.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: She can juggle a wineglass. On the tip of her sword. Without spilling a single drop. Not to mention her ultimate attack, wherein her sword can (somehow) disintegrate people.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: She's a Lady of War who leads a special military unit of assassins, is ridiculously skilled at using a sword, and her last name is probably a homage to Joan d'Arc.
• Lady of War: Beautiful, elegant, soft-spoken, wields a lady-like cutlass, and the only person in the series other than Train who actually comes close to beating Creed one-on-one. Creed himself even admits that her skills are superior to his; her strongest attack would have bypassed his Healing Factor and killed him had he not hidden under the floor at the last second; and she even had an explosive device concealed on her person that would have killed Creed as well had he finished her off.
• Master Swordsman: The very best sword-fighter in the world.
• A Mother to Her Men: She genuinely cares for the other Numbers, and is even seen crying over the death of Beluga.
• Noble Top Enforcer: Much more moral and well-intentioned than her superiors in rank.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the manga at least. In the anime she comes across as more of a fanatical Knight Templar zealot than anything else.
• Starring Smurfette: She's the leader of the Chronos Numbers, and their only female member.
• Super-Speed: Sephira's fast as a matter of course, but a few of her attacks nudge her into this territory.
• Tyke Bomb: She was raised by Chronos to be trained as an assassin.

No. II, Belze Rochefort

Voiced by: Hideyuki Hori (JP), Mike McFarland (EN)

The second-in-command of the Chrono Numbers, Belze is extremely loyal to Sephira. He tends to handle day-to-day matters and interacts with their subordinates more often then she does. An utter badass.

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• Badass Longcoat: Wears a military-looking coat, complete with shoulderboards and braiding.
• Crazy-Prepared: Belze didn't know about Kyoko's fire-manipulating abilities. That didn't stop him from showing up to their fight in a flame-proof trenchcoat. As Charden puts it, "Got to hand it to the Numbers: they come prepared."
• Knight in Sour Armor: Knows that Chronos isn't the nicest group of people, but also knows that without them to stabilize the world will be overrun with anarchy.
• Number Two: In addition to the obvious, he serves as Sephira's second-in-command.
• Weapon Specialization: His weapon of choice is a spear.

No. III, Emilio Lowe

Voiced by: Susumu Chiba (JP), Orion Pitts (EN)

One of the Numbers who never appear in the manga.

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• Adaptational Villainy: Just like Mason, he goes from a loyal enforcer to Chronos to a traitor out to Take Over the World and live forever.
• Ascended Extra: The manga does not even grace him with an actual appearance, just a casual mention. The anime however, expands his role during its final arc.
• Canon Foreigner: Doesn't make an appearence in the manga but he's one of the Zero Numbers in the anime.
• Elective Mute: Almost never heard speaking.
• Flat Character: The least developped villain of the series, just there to smirk wickedly and fight the heroes.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses and is working for Chronos.

No. IV, Kranz Maduke

Voiced by: Atsushi Kakehashi (JP), Viktor Walker (EN)

Using enhanced senses to compensate for eye damage, blind Number Krantz can most often be found in the company of his partner, Baldor.

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• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Uses one as his weapon. The fact that it's made of Orichalcum and can cut through anything is nothing to sneeze at, even moreso when he can make it vibrate and increase its sharpness tenfold.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the manga, he is an enforcer whose loyalty to Chronos is his single most defining trait. In the anime, he betrays it without a care and covet control and immortality.
• Adaptational Villainy: Think he was bad in the manga? In the anime he wants to rule the world forever and use everyone as a fuel.
• Ax-Crazy: Between his actions and the testimony of other characters, its clear that Kranz agrees with Baldor's viewpoints and is almost as much of a psycho. He's simply far less obvious about it.
• Bash Brothers: Along with Baldor, they serve as powerful assassins.
• Cool Helmet: He uses a Zechs Merquise-ish one to cover his damaged eyes.
• Faux Affably Evil: Kranz is just as violent, taunting and scornful towards anyone he deems "weak" as Baldor, but at least he tries to be polite, genuinely converses with his foes and explains his point of view and is curious about their own.
• Handicapped Badass: Being blinded doesn't seem to slow Kranz down much.
• Psycho Knife Nut: He fights with a dagger and is not exactly sound of mind.
• The Quiet One: He doesn't speak a lot and mostly remains silent.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Baldor's Red Oni, being cold, collected and stoic while his partner.
• The Stoic: Completely inflapable and still.
• Tyke Bomb: Raised from birth to be an assassin.
• Vibrating Weapon: He can press a button to make his dagger vibrate, multiplying its cutting power.

No. V, Nizer Bruckheimer

Voiced by: Hisao Egawa (JP), Daniel Penz (EN)

The leader of Chronos' Cerberus commando team, Nizer has some personal issues with Creed, stemming from his murder of the previous No. X, his close friend Ash.

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• Ambiguously Brown: Lightskinned, but with a stereotypically black facial structure.
• Bald Head of Toughness: Played with. He's the bald leader of Cerberus, a guerilla assassination squad within Chronos and is in charge of close-range combat specifically. However, of the three that make up Cerberus, his strong-suit is his speed; Beluga is the power house on the team.
• It's Personal: Really, really loathes Creed for killing his best friend.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Attempts this against Creed, but is saved by Jenos.
• Lightning Bruiser: A close range, hand to hand combat specialist who relies on his superior speed to obliterate any foe before they can react.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Does it with tonfas, hitting so hard, so fast and so often that he can obliterate an enemy with a Healing Factor, faster than it can regenerate.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Subverted. He fails to even wound Creed, and is severely injured by Echidna's sneak attack.

No. VI, Anubis

Voiced by: Andrew Tipps (EN)

A giant black wolf capable of human speech who is the last Chronos Number to be introduced. Anime only.

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• Canis Major: A giant black wolf.
• Canon Foreigner: He only appears near the end of the anime.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A huge, black and threatening wolf with a scary voice, and firmly on the side of good.
• It Can Think: Despite being a wolf, he is capable of human thinking and speech.
• Meaningful Name: Considering the mythological motif the Numbers seem to like, it only makes sense to name a werewolf Anubis.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes always glow red just to show how competent and dangerous he is.
• Rolling Attack: He does this with his sharp tail whip to shred his enemies to pieces.

No. VII, Jenos Hazard

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Troy Baker (EN), Óscar Redondo (SP)

Chrono Number VII fancies himself a ladies man and can be a bit of an idiot, but he's definitely a useful person to have around in a fight. A member of the Cerberus commando unit.

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• Casanova Wannabe: He never once succeeds at picking up women, despite trying multiple times throughout the series. His character profile even notes that he has a remarkably low success rate.
• Chivalrous Pervert: For all of his annoying flirting, he does respect women. Woe to anyone who tries and hurt a girl in front of him. Especially Rinslet.
• Fanboy: He's shown to be a really huge fan of Echidna Parass and her movies. That is, until he finds out that she's with the Apostles.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Jenos "Hazard". As in dangerous. As in, will cut you to pieces with wires if you don't get your hands off that girl.
• Pretty Boy: He might have not be successful with the ladies, but he is quite the hearthrobb.
• Razor Floss: Uses it as his main weapon, doing everything from catching Rinslet, to deflecting Beluga's shot at Nizer, and severing Creed's arm.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Outside of the elders of Chronos, the Chrono Numbers are noted as being among the top of the command chain, and Sven even reacts to one of Jenos' appearances as finally being able to talk with someone sensible from Chronos.
• Token Good Teammate: Okay, the Numbers aren't exactly evil per se, but their morality is pretty loose at the best of times, something that Jenos has some obvious problems with. Especially when it comes to the idea of sacrificing his teammates.

No. VIII, Baldorias Fanghini

Voiced by: Anri Katsu (JP), Justin Cook (EN)

Some people join Chronos because they believe they can use its power and influence to make a difference in the world. Baldor, as he is usually called, is not one of them. If the Numbers give out "Most Unpleasant" awards, this guy will be the winner, every time.

---

• Adaptational Personality Change: In the manga, he is an enforcer whose loyalty to Chronos is his single most defining trait. In the anime, he betrays it without a care and covet control and immortality.
• Adaptational Villainy: Think he was bad in the manga? In the anime he wants to rule the world forever and use everyone as a fuel.
• Ax-Crazy: Easily the most openly sadistic, overly ruthless, and clearly unstable member of the Numbers, Baldor derives enjoyment from bullying and tormenting others, and likes his job far, far too much. Even the other Numbers are wary around him.
  • Just in case you didn't realize that he was completely insane when you first saw him, Belze has a line where he mentions that he (Baldor) and Kranz wiped out an entire town at some point. Maybe an exaggeration, but still...
• Bash Brothers: Along with Krantz, Baldor can kick major ass when he needs to.
• Beard of Evil: He has a classic, evil goatee.
• Epic Flail: His weapon of choice is a very long, very heavy chain ending in what is essentially a bowling ball. It lacks the handle, but remains a most Epic Flail.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Baldor is almost as bad as the people he hunts down.
• Improbable Weapon User: A flail? Fine. A flail that has a rocket on the head so he can remote-control it after throwing it? Now you're getting weird.
• Jerkass: When he isn't being psychotic, he's giving cold-hearted, speeches on the pointlessness of sparing your enemies or showing mercy, and criticising the heroes' way of living. Not even his badassery can keep him from coming off as a completely unlikeable, unflinchingly brutal creep.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Happens twice in the manga. The first time, he correctly points out that, despite having pulled a Heel–Face Turn, Kyoko is still an international terrorist; the second time, he mocks Eve for saving the life of one of Creed's mooks, and his insults are proven somewhat correct when the ungrateful mook tries to pull a Taking You with Me on the group.
• Pet the Dog: Right before confronting Train's group in the hotel room they're staying at, Baldor tosses the hotel's desk clerk a huge wad of cash to cover the repair costs.
• Psycho for Hire: Borderline example. The only thing keeping him out of it is his devotion to Chronos.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Kranz's Blue Oni.
• Slasher Smile: He even has one after getting hit in the head with a steel briefcase! He may be a total lunatic but you have to admit he's a badass.
• Token Evil Teammate: He definitely makes an appropriate counter to Jenos.
• Tyke Bomb: Raised from birth to become an assassin. Considering that, is it really a surprise he turned out how he did?
• Would Hurt a Child: Absolutely. Him encountering Train after being de-aged by the Lucifer nanomachine doesn't stop him and Kranz from attacking him, on the grounds that he was helping Kyoko.

No. IX, David Papper

Voiced by: Takaya Kuroda (JP), Daniel Drumm (EN)

The only black member of the Numbers, he appears to be good friends with Jenos. Anime only.

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• Canon Foreigner: He only appeared in the anime.
• Dreadlock Warrior: One of the best fighters alive, sporting nice dreadlocks.
• The Gambler: He uses a deck of playing cards made of orichalcum as his main weapon.
• Scary Black Man: Averted, he's a pretty affable guy.
• Death Dealer: While in use, his cards glow gold and are able to cut through even the hardest surfaces.
• Taking You with Me: He's on the receiving end of this by Maro, who grabs him by the leg and drops a massive Gravity Bomb on them both, crushing his bones.

No. X, Lin Shao Lee

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN)

Chronos' master of disguise can make himself look like almost anything.

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• Berserk Button: Accidentally stumbles onto Train's berserk button, by using his Master of Disguise powers to look like Creed. After Train threatens him, Lin takes off the disguise, and apologizes.
• Cloth Fu: His weapons is a scarf made of Orichalcum cloth. He uses it something like a ribbon dancer in rhythmic gymnastics, as a combination of whip and shield, and makes kicking his opponents' asses look elegant and graceful.
• Cultured Badass: He's really dignified for a Chronos Number.
• Dance Battler: He fights with his scarf in such a way that it makes him look like he's dancing.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: You wouldn't guess his gender at first, until you hear his voice.
• Hitman with a Heart: He's frightening in battle, but surprisingly cheerful outside of it. He also feels an obligation to the Sweepers he got involved in the Final Battle, going out of his way to bail them out.
• Master of Disguise: He can look like just about anyone, to the point where it borders on Shapeshifting.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Amusingly, given the above, his longest-running disguise really just looks like himself wearing a pair of glasses. Though, as he points out, he doesn't really need an elaborate disguise given that none of the people he's trying to fool know what his real face looks like.
• Red Baron: He is known as "the Magician" due to his exceptional Master of Disguise skills.
• Scarf of Asskicking: A very literal take on the trope.

No. XI, Beluga J. Head

Voiced by: Kouji Ishii (JP), Gordon Holey (EN)

The final member of the Cerberus commando unit, Beluga is easily one of the most physically-imposing characters in series, a fact which his ridiculous name somehow fails to detract from.

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• Bash Brothers: With Nizer.
• BFG: His bazooka is huuuge! It can also transform, doubling as a Big Freakin' Hammer.
• The Big Guy: For the entirety of the Chrono Numbers.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Despite having a ridiculous-sounding name, he is very strong, determined, and not to be underestimated in battle.
• Heroic Sacrifice: As he and the other members of Cerberus flee Creed's castle, the ceiling collapses. Beluga stays behind, holding it up while Jenos hauls the half-dead Nizer out.
• The Quiet One: At least in comparison to Nizer and Jenos.

No. XII, Mason Ordrosso

Voiced by: Rokurō Naya (JP), Randy Tallman (EN)

The oldest member of the Numbers and a veteran of the Tao Wars. Mason makes only a brief cameo in the manga, but plays a major role in the anime.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In the anime, he betrays Chronos and becomes the leader of the Zero Numbers, and plans to assimilate the whole world with Eden.
• Ascended Extra: Goes from a one-page cameo in the manga to a major antagonist in the anime.
• Assimilation Plot: His goal in the anime.
• Last Episode, New Character: In the manga, he's only shown briefly in the last chapter, joining Belze in attacking one of the Apostles of the Stars' satellite facilities.
• Light 'em Up: His primary way of attacking is with blinding flashes of light.
• Old Master: He's been in the Numbers for longer than many of the other members have been alive.
• Powered Armor: His weapon is an enhanced suit of armour with retractables Blade Below the Shoulder, protecting all his body but his head.
• True Final Boss: In the anime, he is revealed to be a traitor to Chronos and is the main antagonist of the Eden arc.

Apostles of the Stars

The villainous faction, painting itself as a revolutionary group out to destroy Chronos for the sake of the world, but in fact just a mean to an end for Creed to Take Over the World

Creed Diskenth

Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki (JP), Chris Patton (EN), Ramón Rocabayera (SP)

A complete and utter nut-job, Creed is Train's former partner from his assassin days, before he became a Chrono Number. Completely incapable of understanding other people's emotions, or even basic social conventions, Creed murdered Train's not-girlfriend Saya and is now intent on forcing him to join up with his revolution against Chronos. The strongest antagonist in the series, he is not to be trifled with.

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• A God Am I: Once he gains full power over Tao and nanotechnology, he claims himself to be one.
• Achilles' Heel: He tells both Sephira and Train that if they can destroy his brain, his new Healing Factor won't be able to save him. Destroying the Imagine Blade at Level 3 is eventually revealed to be a second one, which even Creed was unaware of. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he did realize that that weak point existed, but he wasn't aware that it was possible to exploit.
• Adaptational Sexuality: While his obsession with Train in the manga can easily be seen as romantic, the anime made it much more blatantly sexual, to the point of moaning the man’s name while taking a bath. The anime also adds a suggestion that he's attracted to women as well. He’s implied to be starting a relationship with Echidna in the end, in stark contrast to the manga, where he shows no signs of reciprocating her feelings.
• Age Lift: All but stated to be the case in the Spanish dub, which has Creed voiced by a middle-aged actor who puts effort in sounding jaded, not young. Chances are that they didn't get the memo about Creed's canonical age (the same as Train in the manga, two years older in the anime) and interpreted by his grey hair and insanity that he was meant to be a veteran gone mad by his career in the killing business.
• Ambiguously Gay: Although the only thing that keeps it ambiguous is that he never comes right out and says "I love you Train!"
• An Arm and a Leg: He loses his arm courtesy of Jenos.
• Arch-Enemy: There is no one that Train wants to take down more.
• Art Evolution: At first, Creed looks like this in chapter 12 when he was first introduced. Despite complimenting on his looks, he actually didn't look that good. But in chapter 173, he has evolved into a much, much more obviously pretty boy.
• Ax-Crazy: An utterly crazed psychopath who cherishes slaughter.
• Bad Boss: Creed has no problem murdering subordinates who disobey orders, no matter what the effect may be on the morale of his other henchmen.
• Berserk Button: He has quite a few:
  • Don't talk about Train as though you are close to him.
  • Anything that reminds him of Saya, including the mere mention of her name, will make him furious to the point that he suffers a Villainous Breakdown because of it.
    • Ironically, Train, not knowing that Creed hates Saya because of the jealousy he feels toward her, keeps on pushing this button of Creed by keeping on praising Saya, talking about how much of a wonderful person she is. Poor Creed gets pissed off more the more he has to hear her name.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of the series.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: As part of his Body Horror.
• Body Horror: After he activates his Imagine Blade Level Three. It fuses with him, adding an extra arm, complete with far too many eyes and transforms his real arm into a sword. Because Creed just wasn't vile enough apparently.
• Camp Gay: He's got leopard print, high-heeled boots, a laced corset, feathers, takes a bath filled with rose petals (in the anime), and there's that business with Train....
• Combat Sadomasochist: Especially prominent when fighting Train where he cackles and grins like a crazy maniac. At one point, he invites Train to shoot him, 'binding them forever'. With a twisted smile on his face, of course. He becomes quite upset when Echidna and Charden stop the bullet from going through his head. He could have just as easily moved his blade a few inches to the side and sliced Train's neck.
• Cool Sword: It's invisible. Its secondary mode on the other hand, is less Cool, and more creepy. As for mode three....
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Creed is in love with Train's carnage, and wants him badly. Badly enough that he gets downright murderous toward anyone he sees as "in the way", including Train's not-girlfriend Saya, and even Sven as one point.
• Cruel Mercy: He gets this from Train in the manga ending. After Creed was defeated by Train, Train asks Eve to destroy all of the nanomachines inside Creed’s body, depraving him of his god-like power. Creed is horrified at this and begs Train to kill him instead, saying that it’s much more preferable. However, Train refuses to kill him or even putting him in prison, and tell him to live while trying to make up for all he’s done. The refusal to validate even a shred of Creed's beliefs destroyed his last remaining sanity that wasn't destroyed by the destruction of his Imagine Blade. In the epilogue, he’s shown living with Echidna in a catatonic state.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was abandoned by his mom, who blamed him for the lack of men in her life. He later lived on the streets, and was assaulted by the police on at least one occasion before joining Chronos.
• Depraved Homosexual: He's a depraved something or other - it seems like he isn't gay so much as Train-sexual.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Not in the manga. In the anime, he may have been defeated by Train. But all there is left at this point is Mason.
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: While it is stated that Creed is mentally ill, it's never said about what condition he actually has.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: The manga always show him with pitch black, blank eyes that looks honestly creepy. The anime averted this by making his eyes violet, but his blank black eyes in the manga is a great way of showing that this dude is insane.
• Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age: Played with, and bordering on a deconstruction. While Creed is one of the few people in the series able to survive a World of Badass with a sword, he owes that to the fact that the Tao elixir gives him supernatural powers that continually evolve, to the point that his weapon barely qualifies as a sword in it's later stages.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Creed was already extremely dangerous—as in capable of blocking bullets with his sword—before Shiki came along and said, "Hey, want to unlock your inner potential? Just drink this Tao elixir." He spends most of the series continually upgrading his potential, resulting in his use of the Immortality Nanomachines in his last battles against Sephira and Train.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As crazy and bloodthirsty Creed is, he really genuinely loves Train. He keeps attempting to have Train join him despite being rejected many times, and only Train can make him show emotions other than cockiness and apathy. In fact, while Creed can ruthlessly kill people for no reason at all, he only attempts to kill Train because he believes that the "witch" had corrupted him so much that killing Train is the only way Creed can have him by his side. He even cries when he is about to finish Train off, showing clearly just how much he would rather not do that.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Creed is the living embodiment of this, although it at times verges on "Insanity Cannot Comprehend Sanity." Literally every problem in series was triggered by Creed's inability to process, or even understand ordinary human feeling. Creed honestly can't understand why his murder of Saya would prevent Train from wanting to join him. Similarly, it leaves him unable to understand why his Bad Boss tendencies will lead to poor morale among his subordinates. Creed seems to see people as existing apart from one another, and as such social cause and effect has almost no meaning for him, which only fuels his issues.
• Evil Counterpart: To Train. While their personalities are quite different, morally he's who the Black Cat might have become, had he not met Saya. He was even considered for the position of Number XIII but was passed over due to his mental instability.
• Evil Laugh: Constantly. Just in case we hadn't figured out that he was completely nuts.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In the Spanish dub, in contrast to his slender body and face. It's all but stated that this version of Creed is older than he lets on.
• Evolving Weapon: Four stages, each more horrific than the previous.
  • Ok, an invisible and extensible sword. Dangerous in the hand of such a Master Swordsman, but could be worse...
  • ...Worse like a Sentient Weapon moving on its own accord impredictably, and swallowing and spitting back projectiles for instance.
  • And the least we say about his One-Winged Angel full of Body Horror the best.
  • Or what about said One-Winged Angel turning its blade into a building-sized Sinister Scimitar of Pure Energy, able to dust a manor in one swipe?
• Explaining Your Powers to the Enemy: He tells both Sephiria and Train that his brain is the only thing his Healing Factor can't repair damage to, arrogantly believing neither has a way to exploit it. He's wrong: Sephiria has two ways of getting past it, the first he only survived by hiding from it at the last moment and the second being a suicide bomb he didn't know about that would have killed him had he defeated her; and Train simply finds another weakness to exploit.
• Failure Is the Only Option: When you really think about it, his plans were fucked from the get-go:
  • Even if Train had never met Saya, he'd have still refused to join Creed, as Train got along with a few of the other Chronos Numbers, looked up to one of the organization's executives as a surrogate dad, and despite Creed's beliefs, he never regarded Creed as a friend and treated him coldly even when they were partners. That's not even getting into the fact that Train would have died from a gunshot wound had Saya not come across him^note His target was carrying a child, causing Train to hesitate long enough for the target's bodyguard to shoot him.
  • His organization, while certainly formidable and resourceful, was not as strong as he claimed it to be, as the Chronos Numbers proved capable of handling his subordinates; and had he managed to kill Sephiria, the bomb she had concealed would have detonated, damaging his brain (the only part of him that he can't regenerate) and taking him down with her.
• Freudian Excuse: Creed had an abusive mother who was implied to be a prostitute and liked to throw glass bottles at him, blaming him for the lack of men in her life. And after being eventually thrown out of the house, he had to feed himself through trash bins and got beaten up by police officers, which was his Start of Darkness.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: His past revealed that he used to be an abused, poor child that had to feed off trash bins. By the start of the series he’s become an insanely dangerous and widely feared criminal.
• Godhood Seeker: Narcissist megalomaniacs like him would want nothing more.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Toward Train, and anyone who he percieves as coming between the two of them.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: And it's not played for laughs, being linked to both his Bad Boss and Axe-Crazy tendencies.
• Healing Factor: The whole point of the immortality nanomachines; no matter what is done to him, they restore him to perfect condition in a matter of moments. He claims the only way to stop him would be to destroy his brain, but Train gets around that.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Creed's attempt to turn Sven into a monster to get Train to join him again gave Train the ability to use the rail gun shot that destroyed the Imagine Blade and literally broke Creed's mind.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He considers Train to be a dear friend, and believes that the feeling is reciprocated. It isn't, and never was, nor ever will be. He also believes that the stone-cold version of Train from his time as an assassin was his true self, but Creed is wrong about that, too.
• If I Can't Have You…: He eventually comes to this conclusion as a last resort, when he finally realizes that Train probably is not going to change his mind and become Creed's partner. Heck, he even mentions that if he can't make him come to his side to rule the world, he'll just keep him by his side as a dead body. This disturbs Train only slightly (considering it's pretty tame compared to some of the other crap Creed does).
• Immortality Seeker: He wants immortality desperately.
• Implacable Man: Thanks to his Healing Factor.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: He is exceptionally skilled with parrying blades and bullets with ease.
• In Love with Your Carnage: He became obsessed with Train because of his swift and precise assassination skills (and also Train's hate-filled eyes).
• Ironic Hell: His final fate. He who ranted endlessly about power and wanted to eliminate everyone he deemed useless, is rendered vegetative, even worse than just powerless.
• Katanas Are Just Better: He could face off against gunmen with Kotetsu, before Saya destroyed it's blade.
• Lack of Empathy: As discussed under Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, Creed seems to be incapable of empathising with anyone. Not only does he casually murder subordinates who fail him, but he doesn't seem to comprehend why this behaviour would bother the other members of his team; similarly he does not understand why his killing of Saya prevents Train from wanting to join him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The only Apostle to get what he deserves. He isn't killed or imprisoned, but his mind is shattered and his body becomes useless.
• Lightning Bruiser: Of the hardhitting speedster variety. Creed's almost as quick as Sephira (save when she uses her Super-Speed) and inflicts blows that regularly shatter the architecture around him.
• Mad Love: He's absolutely crazy about Train. Train constantly tries to beat him off of him, and attempts numerous times to kill him. And Creed just can't seem to take a hint. Train must be resisting because someone "evil" is influencing him... and that person must be killed.
• Master Swordsman: Creed is dangerous with a sword, capable of splitting bullets and being one of the very few people able to face off against Train. It's later subverted in that he gradually becomes more dependent on using the magic of the Tao elixer and high-tech nanomachines to keep up with his competition.
• The Mentally Ill: Creed's a rare case of sociopathy, megalomania and raging narcissism being played as serious mental illnesses.
• Might Makes Right: "I killed you so that means you were wrong and I am right. QED" He's proven wrong through his own "logic" by the end.
• Mr. Fanservice: Creed may be a major nut job, but he's a handsome man.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: "Oh, so you're the cause of why Train won't come to me! Time for you to Die." He attempts this at least three times, with at least three different people.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: Creed's whole goal is to cleanse the world of weak people that don't have superpowers and rule the remaining people as King with Train as his Queen. Er, partner.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He certainly likes to paint himself as one with ambitions to overthrow Chronos and make the world a better place. However his mad dream of godhood, his unstable sociopathic nature and his obsession with Train makes him anything but.
• One-Winged Angel: Twice, once against Sephira and once against Train. Made worse because you really don't see it coming.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When he was about to kill Train in chapter 182, he cried. That was probably the only time Creed truly showed sadness and devastation as he really would not want to kill Train.
• Orchestral Bombing: Taken to great effect with his Leitmotifs in the anime, complete with an opera chorus.
• Power Born of Madness: Creed's Villainous Breakdowns and Freak Outs only serve to fuel his already monstrous abilities.
• Scenery Censor: Creed is pretty much the character that is seen butt-naked the most in the entire series. Though one of the more infamous moments with this is when he's in a bathtub daydreaming and moaning about Train, only for his privates to be covered by strategically floating rose petals.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Creed is most definitely Train-sexual. Poor Echidna, she doesn't have a chance.
• Slasher Smile: He does this a couple of times.
• Smug Snake:
  • He is completely convinced that Train will eventually join him, despite copious amounts of evidence pointing to the contrary. When he finally realizes the truth, he does not take it well.
  • He also seriously overestimates his organization, arrogantly proclaiming that the Apostles of the Stars can defeat the Numbers. They can match them allright, but never defeated any.
• The Sociopath: Big time. He cares less for the people and the world for the matter. He just wants to be with Train no matter the costs.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: In the manga, he is usually calm and polite, until getting angry. His anime voice is also sweet and very soft.
• Something about a Rose: Creed often carries a rose, and this is taken to ridiculous extremes in the anime version, where his bath is full of roses. Also, he encloses a rose in the letter he sends to Train. Train is not amused.
• Stalker Shrine: In the episode 20, he's revealed to have made a giant sculpture in Train's likeness as well as a painting of Train and him together. He angrily destroys both of them after realizing that Train will never join him.
• Stalker with a Crush: His obsession with, and borderline hero-worship of Train definitely comes off as this. He's like a fangirl gone horribly wrong. Some notable examples include him searching for and stalking Train for two years (with photos he took of Train and the people who are getting between him and Train), spying on Train and Saya's bantering and playful interactions (all while getting pissed off to the point of clenching his fists until they're bleeding, while cursing Saya for daring to come near his Train), following Train and getting orgasms while Train went around killing people, using Shiki's insects as spy cameras to watch Train as he sleeps...
• Villainous Breakdown: A couple of times. It only makes him more dangerous, as his insanity fuels his powers. One of his greatest ones was when he saw Saya’s soul appearing behind Train, aiding him in his last battle with Creed. Creed got EXTREMELY angry and screamed “How dare you appear in front of me, you damn WITCH?!!”
• Villainous BSoD:
  • After Train broke Imagine Blade and refuses to kill him. He's left comatose in a wheelchair. Since Imagine Blade represents his mind and will, breaking it literally breaks his mind.
  • Also after Train intercepts the injection of nanites that Creed was going to use to turn Sven into a monster. Train even notes that Creed shouldn't have used it if he wasn't prepared to deal with every possible outcome.
• Villainous Crush: His crazy rampaging crush and dangerously possessive love on Train is so obvious that everyone notices it... except Train.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: His later clothes have his chest constantly exposed.
• We Can Rule Together: He offers Train this countless times. According to him, his entire plot to rule the world will always be incomplete if Train isn't by his side. When he finally realizes that Train will never join him, he decides he'll have to kill him himself and keep him by his side as a dead body.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Creed is not only white-haired, but insane, bloodthirsty, and wants to conquer the world; dude even compares himself to Lucifer. He also has a really creepy crush on Train.
• Wicked Cultured: He has great tastes in art and classical music.
• Yandere: He's insanely obsessed with Train and seriously loses all his cool and rationale when there's anything to do with Train, letting his jealousy and obsession make him go out of his way to kill anyone getting in the way of him and Train... including making a serious effort to kill Train himself, by the end.

Charden Flamberg

Voiced by: Show Hayami (JP), Kent Williams (EN)

One of Creed's Apostles, and one of the first ones we meet. Always dressed like he just stepped out of a Gothic novel.

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• Cool Shades: Of the classic variety.
• Bloody Murder: Charden's Tao ability involves manipulating his own blood, to move it like a limb and shape it as he pleases.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's out to tear down the current social order and permanently take out Chronos. That said, he strongly implies that he's only doing so because he wants to set up a better world, and he avoids unnecessary killing when he can. The fact that Creed is so willing to kill those who fail him is what pushes Charden to strike out on his own to accomplish his agenda. He also pushes Kyoko to live a normal life, as he doesn't want her wrapped up in a revolution.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Averted. He's probably the sanest member of Creed's little party.
• Give Her a Normal Life: He asks Train and Sven to take Kyoko to safety, because she shouldn't, in his eyes, be risking her life to deal with Chronos.
• Grim Reaper: His blood can take on the forms of grim reapers wielding Sinister Scythes, of which, he can control at will.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the anime only, he gives up on his ambition to take down Chronos after Train breaks up his fight with Sephiria, and he proceeds to live a normal life. He later teams up with Train's group along with Kyoko to take down Eden later.
• Karma Houdini: He defects after witnessing Creed's Bad Boss tendencies, and makes a clean escape. He was one of the stabler members of the group, although a panel in the last volume suggests he may have have acquired an Incurable Cough of Death complete with Blood from the Mouth. How karmic. He avoids this fate in the anime though.
• Noble Demon: Unlike the other Apostles, Charden has legitimate complaints about Chronos, cares about his teammates, and genuinely wants to make the world a better place.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He decides to leave the Apostles after realizing Creed's evil deeds.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: If you're fond of nineteenth century fashion, anyway.
• Signature Headgear: A very nice hat. It's how some characters (read: Train) have come to identify him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Unlike Creed, Charden definitely wants to overthrow Chronos and make the world a better place. He gives up on this ambition in the anime after his fight with Sephiria.

Deak Slathky

One of the later additions to the Apostles of the Stars. Yet another Ax-Crazy jail reject granted Ice Powers. Likes to kill women and freeze their corpses. Charming...

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• Ax-Crazy: He affects a collected, gentleman-like facade, but it veils nothing of his sadism and disgusting enjoyment of murders.
• Barrier Warrior: The most defence-oriented fighter in the series, Deek has an automatic Ice Armour power neutralizing even machine gun fire without even tickling him, and can intercept powerful attacks by conjuring a pillar of ice. Finding a way around said defence is the challenge to beat him.
• Death In All Directions: Surrounds victims with dozens of icicles to prevent escape.
• Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: With him being one of the most beautiful characters in the cast, it's hard to tell he's a guy until he starts ranting about how much he relishes in hurting women.
• Evil Gloating: This guy loves to boast and sing his own praises, more than what is healthy.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: A handsome bishonen... and a depraved, Ax-Crazy Serial Killer.
• Faux Affably Evil: He likes to play courteous and friendly, but demeans his foes at every turn and enjoys killing waaay too much for the facade to work.
• Flat Character: Solely there for Sven to show his cool 11th-Hour Superpower.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Deek tries very hard to look suave and stylish, but the second things does not turn the way he wants, he gets angrier and angrier.
• An Ice Person: Has the power to create and control ice and frost from the moisture in the air.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: This creep kills the girls he likes and keeps them in his freezer to "own" them as much as he wants. Yuck!
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Derives a deeply twisted, almost sexual enjoyment of making his victims suffer before killing them.
• Serial Killer: Used to keep women's bodies in his freezer. Way to pick'em Creed.
• Shadow Archetype: Like Sven, he is a Sharp-Dressed Man who plays the gentleman, but he is a sadistic, immature freak while Sven is serious about his chivalrous, honourable code. Like Sven, he has a good head on his shoulders, but unlike him, he totally cracks at the first pressure while Sven never loses his cool, even badly wounded.
• Smug Snake: A bit less offensive than Durham and Preta for he does learn about his target, fights tactically and is as powerful as he boasts, but still exceedingly overconfident and unable to stand the very prospect of not being in control.
• The Strategist: The only things that can be said in his favour is that he is good at tactics. He studies his targets, builds a near-perfect defence, calculates his timing well, and always immobilizes or cut all escape for his targets to land a certain kill. Until his foe resists a bit too much for his liking, that is...
• Villainous Breakdown: Completely loses it as he is defeated, dropping all tactics in favour of an Attack! Attack! Attack! mindset, Forgot About His Powers and pays the price.
• Would Hit a Girl: Would kill them and freeze them to own them forever, gloating and laughing all the while. Charming really.

The Doctor

Voiced by: Yuu Mizushima (JP), J. Michael Tatum (EN)

One of Creed's closest and most fanatical followers, the Doctor is one scary SOB who shows utterly no remorse for his actions and sees the entire world as test subjects for his exmperiments.

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• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In the manga, the two only interact for two pages at most. In the anime on the other hand, he was a researcher under Dr. Tearyu Lunatique.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": No name is given as of the last volume, and is only referred to as "The Doctor". The anime does give him a name, see below.
• Evil Genius: Along with Echidna and Shiki, the Doctor forms the Apostles' uppermost rank, taking orders directly from Creed, instead of through Shiki like the rest of the group. His function seems to be providing Creed with the latest technology, and setting the overall agenda whenever Creed is absent.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Werewolves, bioweapons, berserker-rage inducing drugs...what will he think of next?
• For Science!: That in a nutshell, is his motivation for why he does what he does.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He is perhaps the most cold-hearted character in the entire series. Even more so than Creed himself.
• Hulking Out: In the anime, he hulks out his entire body using Tao and nanomachines. His abilities are never displayed on-screen though, as the next scene shows him perishing along with the other Zero members when Train shoots Eden's core.
• Lack of Empathy: He only cares for science and experimentation, and he doesn't care if his subjects happen to be human.
• Mask of Sanity: When Train first meet him, he seemed a perfectly cordial, congenial fellow, far less evil than the rest of the bunch. If only he knew...
• Mad Scientist: His motive for joining Creed was to gain access to test subjects.
• Mental World: His Warp World ability, which traps targetd in an alternate reality of his design, under his total control. He can tap into victims' memories to materialize them.
• The Medic: Proof that even this trope can be used for evil. The Doctor is the rare, non-heroic, and utterly sadistic version, using his abilities to keep Creed and the other Apostles going, no matter how badly injured they may be.
• Mind Screw: His powers run on this, trapping you in a Mental World of his imagining, where the people you love most appear to be trying to kill you.
• Named by the Adaptation: The anime gives him the name of Kyosuke Kanzaki.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Went from The Medic to master of a Mental World, moslty to make him a threat during the Final Battle.
• Sadist: He's only in the revolution for the chance to "experiment". That is to say, submit unwilling guinea pigs to horrendous mutations and Mind Rape. And he enjoys it.
• The Sociopath: To a horrifying degree. He's completely devoid of empathy and remorse, needs stimulation from his scientific "breakthroughs", and affects a superficial charm.
• Squishy Wizard: It only takes one hit to put him down.

Durham Glaster

Voiced by: Shinya Fukumatsu (JP), R. Bruce Elliott (EN), Tasio Alonso (SP)

A cowboyish-looking man, who can channel his Chi into his guns, vastly increasing their power. Later goes to challenge Train for the title of the Ultimate Gunman.

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• Adaptational Wimp: The worst of the many examples in the anime. In the manga he is an excellent shot with the tremendously dangerous power of firing devastating Energy Balls without regard for ammunition. In the anime, his power is downgraded to firing mere Magic Bullets. He can change their course and still fire as much as he wants, but this is an utter joke compared to the original.
  • Just look at how the character is treated in each. In the manga, he is a Knight of Cerebus who wounds Annette and puts Eve through the brink of death For the Evulz, and while utterly owned, he lasts a few chapters against Train, something very few can boast. In the anime on the other hand, he is a minor inconvenience treated like a joke.
• Ax-Crazy: Like you would not believe. If he wants to beat somene up he will, without second thoughts, and they can count themselves lucky he did not kill them, for he just loves slaughter.
• Blood Knight: Big time. He's always looking for a fight. In fact, it's the only reason he signed on with Creed in the first place.
• Cool Mask: Has a Hannibal-style one over his mouth. He's hiding a gun inside it.
• Cowboy: He invokes the image of one.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: He leaves a note to Train to duel him by using Eve's blood after he injured her badly. He gets his fight all right.
• Energy Ball: His power in the manga. He channels his ki through his gun to fire devastating blasts of variable size and power, as much as he likes. His mightiest attacks vary from Kamehame Hadoken to Wave-Motion Gun.
• The Gunslinger: Complete with cowboy hat, boots, and poncho.
• Magic Bullets: In the anime. He creates them and charges them up with his Tao powers for maximum effect, and can change their trajectory.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": This guy is an utterly repulsive Ax-Crazy psycho without a single decent bone in his gangly body.
• Sadist: Horribly so. He lives and breathes to inflict pain.
• Small Name, Big Ego: While a genuinely super-powerful warrior and an excellent shot, he delusionally fancies himself as the most powerful gunslinger in the world, while compared to Train he is but a Menhir in front of the Uluru... Surprising no-one, he gets his ass handed to him seven ways to Sunday and seven ways back. And he still refuses to admit how much out of his depth he is. Creed is not amused.
• Trigger-Happy: Durham loves to shoot his gun on someone he hates, especially Train. One scene in the anime shows him shooting a crystal ball displaying Train several times out of anger.
• Vader Breath: A variant. His mask distorts his voice to sound more mechanical.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Durham doesn't get a lot of screen time. He gets curb-stomped by Train and is the first member of the Apostles to be killed.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Never was sane to begin with, but his power went waaay into his deranged head, givning him a bad case of delusions of invincibility.
• You Have Failed Me: Gets killed by Creed after being defeated by Train.

Eathes

An ape that has taken the Tao elixir, and who has gained the ability to copy others based on who he sends his spirit out to copy.

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• Clipped-Wing Angel: He transforms into a huge muscle-bound wrestler to fight Train. Too bad for him, while impressively strong he remains a normal human that doesn't hold a candle to the World's Best Warrior. Had he been Genre Savvy enough to copy a Badass Normal, he would have fared much better... But still not enough.
• Creative Sterility: While Eathes can duplicate the skills and knowledge of anyone, he's unable to apply it in any way to make something new.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Train takes out Eathes with a single kick to the head. In this case, Eathes was still quite conscious and could have continued fighting; he just knew realized how badly outmatched he was, and decided to switch tactics.
• Collector of Forms: He went out of his way to copy as many strong people as he could.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Eathes is stated to start thinking of himself as more and more human each time that he uses his ability. By the time of the final battle, it's suggested that he just thinks of himself as an ape-shaped human. Avoids developping empathy, though, likely due to the fact that he spends much of his time around The Doctor and Creed.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Pretends to pull a Heel–Face Turn to take out the main trio while they're distracted, but they see through it.
• Mega Manning: His main ability. He can copy anyone and take their form, with all their skills and strengths. Too bad for him, he can only assume one form at a time.
• Pointy Ears: The main distinguishing feature of Eathes' human transformations (besides, of course, keeping his hat and robes).
• Stealth Pun: A monkey with the power to imitate (i.e. "monkeying" or "aping") the abilities of others.
• Uplifted Animal: A normal monkey (though with a dormant power) who becomes talkative and human-like after copying so many people.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Once Eathes has used his spirit to copy someone, he can transform into said person at will. It's implied that he must transform into that person to be able to use their skills.

Echidna Parass

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (JP), Stephanie Young (EN)

One of the higher-ranking Apostles, Echidna has direct access to Creed, and often conveys his orders to the rest of the Taoists. Her ability to teleport makes her very, very dangerous.

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• Catchphrase: "The dice has been cast!"
• Combat Pragmatist: Has no problem shooting people in the back if she thinks it will help Creed on his way to victory.
• Criss-Cross Attack: She uses her powers to fire several bullets from different angles at the same time.
• The Baroness: She's definitely got the personality down.
• Combat Pragmatist: Echidna almost never troubles herself with normal fights, preferring using her powers from point-blank, nearly unavoidable sneak attacks.
• Death In All Directions: When she goes all out, she warps her bullets all around her foes.
• Declaration of Protection: To Creed, after the latter falls into a coma.
• Defector from Decadence: In an odd way. She was an A-List international movie star before becoming Creed's right-hand woman.
• For Happiness: Her motivations are purely to give happiness to Creed.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Creed is far too busy obsessing over Train to notice her.
• Karma Houdini: Subverted. Echidna gets away, but she sees Creed, the one person she cares about more than anyone else slip into a coma from which he is unlikely to return. Indicators are she'll spend the rest of her life taking care of him.
• Love Martyr: Despite being an extremely attractive, popular and world-famous actress who could definitely find a much nicer man, she chooses to stay by Creed's side. And it's made clear that she doesn't go through with doing evil things because she really likes to - it's all for Creed's happiness. Even though Creed is shown openly to be incredibly obsessed with Train and have very disturbing sexual fantasies about Train.
• Number Two: Shiki's a more traditional Dragon and acts as the field leader, but Echidna actually runs the organisation for Creed.
• Psycho Supporter: Her support for Creed verges on full out obsession.
• Spam Attack: Fires several bullets at once, and combines it with her powers for deadly effects.
• Thinking Up Portals: Creates gates in space itself, through which she and anyone can walk. She uses it to transport her comrades or send her foes into traps. She can also create smaller ones for battle.
• Undying Loyalty: She is loyal to Creed.
• Villain Teleportation: She's a villain. She teleports. At the end of the day she's more or less Creed's getaway-woman.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Subverted. Everyone knows Echidna is a famous actress, and some people, like Jenos, even look up to her. But as soon as everyone finds out that she's with the Apostles, the governments don't hesitate to put a bounty on her head.
• Weaponized Teleportation: Echidna uses her portals to stab or shoot targets from any side she wants no matter the distance. Worse, she can strike from several sides at once and teleports grenades and other weapons into position for a sneak attack.
• When She Smiles: In the end of the anime, after retiring with Creed to the country villa.

Kyoko Kirisaki

Voiced by: Chiemi Chiba (JP), Monica Rial (EN), Mar Nicolás (SP)

An ordinary high school girl... or so she seems to be.

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• Adaptational Heroism: The anime tones down a lot her murderous tendencies. She only kills one person, who actually deserved it.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the manga, she showcased a wide variety of abilities, such as being able to increase the temperature of her body and her close surroundings up to 1000 degree Celsius and burn everything she touches have it be stone, steel or even a well-built man. She could even hold her own against Belze Rochefort, the vice commander of the Chronos Numbers. The anime however, only shows her fire-breathing ability.
• Affably Evil: A Genki Girl and Cloud Cuckoo Lander who is surprisingly friendly for someone who kills people by burning them alive from the inside out. She seems to have a genuine Villainous Friendship with some of her fellow Apostles Of The Stars. After Train "saves" her from a thug that was threatening her (she was seconds away from killing said thug so he really didn't save her, she just thought it was the thought that counted and that he was really cute) she develops a crush on him, which leads to her making a Heel–Face Turn.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Her anime version. She's just as much a Cloud Cuckoolander, and seems really sweet and innocent, but when she cheerfully burns a female thug to death with the same innocent smile, you really start to wonder how put together she is in her head.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Kyoko's morality standards are hard to understand. She doesn't seem to realize that her powers are harming people, nor does she think that she's using them for a good cause. She also doesn't display any interest in the Apostles' revolution, just wanting to use her powers purely for fun, even if it means senselessly killing people as if it's no big deal. The only reason setting her on the right path is her crush on Train, and even then, he's surprised by her sudden shift in character.
• Character Development: She's a totally different character before and after defecting, and more importantly befriending Train. She learns to think before she acts and to take responsibility for her actions, finally grasping right and wrong, refusing to let Train endanger himself for her sake, and steadfastly keeping true to her word even in the face of death.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Kyoko doesn't really seem to understand the Apostles of the Star's goal. She just kind of does whatever she feels like doing, no matter how little sense it makes.
• Cute and Psycho: Yeah, she's cute as a button. She also has no qualms at all with killing people by burning them to death, and in the manga, she deliberately kills them by burning them from the inside out just for the laughs.
• For the Evulz: There really is no justification for Kyoko joining the Apostles other than having the opportunity to burn stuff and enjoying it. Though she mellows out from this mindset because of Train.
• Genki Girl: She's a very bubbly, energetic, cheerful girl.
• The Glomp: Has a liking for tackling Train down yearningly, sometimes to extreme extents like bursting through windows to get him. She usually follows by trying to kiss him, although he always reaches for one of his white stray cats to receive the smooch in his place.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: And played completely straight, no less.
• Heel–Face Turn: She abandons the Apostles of the Star along with Charden.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Her infamous Kiss of Death. Dropped later in favour of her Cloud Cuckoo Lander characterization.
• Japanese Delinquents: Not overtly, but she wears loose socks instead of the traditional kneesocks as part of her school uniform, which is associated to juvenile rebellion in Japan. Also, her clique of friends contains a ganguro who dresses even more like a female delinquent.
• Kawaiiko: A dark deconstruction, mixing the usual cuteness with a murderous Cloud Cuckoo Lander working for a terrorist organisation.
• Karma Houdini: After murdering numerous people by burning them alive from the inside out, all with disgusting sexual overtones, she gets off scott free. It's a bit harder to swallow than the business with Charden, as she's a worse person. Mitigated by her Character Development, for she genuinely turns around a new leaf, but she is never punished.
• Kiss of Death: Fiery kiss of death.
• Lethal Chef: Presumably for being such a Cloud Cuckoolander, she pours pepper in a chocolate cake meant for Train. Surprisingly, it gets kind of subverted because Train seems to like it that way; he only turns red and runs for water because she put too much.
• Little Miss Badass: She may be a school girl, but she is not to be taken lightly, even by heavyweight champions of badassery like Belze.
• Love Redeems: While her "love" is questionable due to her obviously teenaged feelings, it is sincere enough to committing herself to Train's own personal philosophy to not kill senselessly.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Unlike the other Apostle members, Kyoko has no clear motive for her actions, and displays no interest in the organization's causes. She just wants to use her fire powers purely for fun and enjoyment.
• Perky Female Minion: She's one of the most enthusiastic members of the Apostles.
• Playing with Fire: Has the ability to exhale flames thanks to her awakened Tao power.
• Pyromaniac: An utter nutjob who likes kissing people so that she can burn them alive from the inside out. Manga only.
• Psycho for Hire: Combine Cloud Cuckoo Lander with villainy and you get this. Kyoko doesn't give a damn about Creed's revolution, but enjoys the opportunity to use her powers on other people.
• Rescue Romance: She falls hard for Train after he 'saves' her from a thug who was threatening her. Amusingly, she had been about three seconds away from brutally murdering the criminal when Train took him down, so he didn't actually save her from anything... she just thought he looked really cool while he was doing it, and that was good enough for her.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Pretty much the foundation of her interactions with Train.
• Stalker with a Crush: To Train, played for laughs.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: She picks this up after becoming smitten with Train, after spending most of the series prior as a ruthless killer. Even he notes that it's a rather drastic shift in her outlook, but then again she is a very weird girl.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She loves popsicles.

Leon Elliott

Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (JP), Aaron Dismuke (EN), Carlos Lladó (SP)

A young boy who serves as one of the most dangerous, if inexperienced members of Creed's faction.

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• Adaptational Badass: Subverted at first, as he is knocked out by falling rubble in the anime during the showdown at the old castle, which he would have dodged or deflected without a glance in the manga. Gloriously played straight during the Final Battle, as he is the only Apostle lasting longer and faring better in the anime.
• Adults Are Useless: He views all adults as nothing but corrupt bastards, thus thinks they're useless to run the world. Considering the hell he lived due to a civil war, one can see where that comes from...
• Adult Hater: Killing adults is the only moments where he expresses other feelings that boredom.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Crossed with Stupid Evil. Leon's strategy against Eve pretty much boils down to "Hit it 'till it stops moving." As Eve points out in the manga, Leon could easily have beaten her by sucking all the air out of her lungs, but didn't because she deliberately kept him too enraged, causing him to focus on trying to cut her in half instead. Likely justified by his age.
• Blow You Away: Leon has the power to manipulate the wind, using for both offensive and defensive purposes, as well as flight.
• Blade Spam: He attacks with barrages of Aero Slash Blades in the anime, up to ten at once.
• Child Soldier: After living through a never-ending civil war, where the government ignored the plight of people like himself, Leon thinks that this is the only way to get the "stupid grown-ups" to listen.
• Enfant Terrible: Leon's behaviour is what you'd expect from an especially sadistic twelve year old.
• Freudian Excuse: Leon's parents died when he was four, and he was raised by his older sister, who was shot three years prior to the start of the story, leaving him with the impression that good people are always the first to die.
• Heel–Face Turn: Eve makes him promise to defect from the Apostles if she beats him, and he complies. At the very end, he saves Train and Creed from falling to their deaths, an act which helps him dodge the Karma Houdini status of many of the other Apostles.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: "The good people...the naive people...they die first." Leon is one bleak-minded little jerk, stemming from a history of very grim life experiences. He's not quite Creed yet, but he's getting there.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Consistently mocks and looks down on Eve for being a girl. Granted, at his age, it's more a sign of immaturity than outright misogyny.
• Razor-Sharp Hand: Justified by his powers, enabling him to strike with his hand surrounded by Razor Wind like a bladed weapon.
• Razor Wind: His Signature Move Aero Slash hurls crescent-shaped blades of pressurized air, cutting clean through trees. How many he fires and how strong depends on his mood.
• Sky Surfing: Uses a surfboard propelled by his own wind powers.
• Story-Breaker Power: Leon could kill just about anyone in-story by dispersing the air that they need to breathe. And he does to some Red Shirt in his Establishing Character Moment. Eve immediately realizes how dangerous he is and makes a point to enrage him too much for him to consider it.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As said in his backstory, he is one of the few Apostles who genuinely joined to make a better world - in his case stopping wars. However, he is sorely misguided and lashing out.

Maro

Voiced by: Yasuhiko Kawazu (JP), Brad Jackson (EN)

Hailing from the birthplace of the Tao, Maro is one of the original members of the Apostles of the Stars, and affects the appearance of a sumo wrestler. He is Shiki's lifelong friend.

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• Acrofatic: For a guy that big, he can move!
• Barrier Warrior: He makes all projectiles (and attackers in the anime) fall to the ground with gravity, before they can reach him.
• Berserk Button: Calling him "fat" or insinuating that he's obese. Also, mocking his ancestral traditions and clothing.
• Blood Knight: Maro loves to fight and makes it known.
• The Brute: It's unlikely that Maro's ever heard the word, "subtle" — as of the Apostles who take orders from Shiki instead of Creed, he seems to be the highest-ranking.
• Culture Equals Costume: Enforced in-universe. He wears his people's traditional garb, and woe betides anyone who makes fun of it.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Discussed. He is dispatched by Train quickly and without much effort, but still gave him some trouble and forced him to rush the fight with an underhanded tactic. Train admits that without it the fight would have lasted longer, going as far as repeatedly calling him tough. One hell of a praise coming from the World's Best Warrior.
• Enhanced Punch: Maro's Signature Move Gravity Harite concentrates gravity to increase the weight of his palm strikes tenfold.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He is a brutal Blood Knight who kills without a qualm, but he openly scolds Kyoko for her disgusting Kiss of Death.
• Genius Bruiser: Maro is actually quite observant and clever in battle, provided that you don't push his Berserk Button. His own cleverness would turn against him though when Train or David use his gravity powers to their advantage.
• Gravity Master: Controls the gravity in the area immediately around him, and can direct compressed "gravity bombs" at his opponents.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • He uses his gravity powers to both enhance his strikes and weaken/stop the blows of his foes (particularly Train's bullets, which fall to the ground uselessly). Train eventually defeats him by attacking from above - because the bullets are going down, Maro's Gravity Master abilities make them even faster, and thus even more damaging.
  • In the anime, he dies fighting David, who leaps over Maro and uses the combination of the falling "gravity bomb" and his own enhanced downwards kick to knock Maro down. However, Maro survives long enough to grab David and fire off a huge "gravity bomb" that fatally crushes them both.
• Last of His Kind: Like with Shiki, Maro is one of the last surviving true Taoists on Earth.
• No-Sell: He can cancel all frontal attacks by increasing gravity to make all opponents and projectiles fall before they can reach him. Train defeats him by firing from above.
• Lightning Bruiser: Contrary to the appearances, Maro is super fast and spry, and his attacks are swift and powerful enough to crush rock and dent metal.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: He's a Taoist who's descended from an ancient land, and a proud warrior.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Can spams dozens of Enhanced Punches in seconds.
• Rolling Attack: Can perform a devastating one.
• Smarter Than You Look: Maro might be boastful and comically not taken seriously by the heroes, but he is very observant and tactical, being the only one noticing Charden's growing disilusionment.
• Underestimating Badassery: Both at the giving and receiving ends of the trope. Maro cannot consider having equals and is frequently (and painfully) proved wrong. On the other hands, people dismissing him as a fatso in odd clothes are in for a world of pain.
• Villainous Friendship: Shiki's closest friend since childhood. Also, he gets along well with other apostles.

Preta Ghoul

Voiced by: Susumu Chiba (JP), Taliesin Jaffe (EN)

A late addition to the Apostles of the Stars, and a nasty one at that. Preta is a former preacher who turned mass murderer. Has the power to make stuff rot just by touching it.

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• Acid Attack: Preta has the ability to breathe corrosive, acid-like clouds.
• Ax-Crazy: A repulsive psycho who lives and breathe to kill. And that's before his capture in the anime, in which he is reduced to a raging, barely functional killing machine.
• Badass Preacher: Averted. Preta is very powerful and dangerous, but physically weak, and far too disgusting to be badass.
• Bald of Evil: His hair fell out when his abilities activated.
• Character Exaggeration: He was not exactly subtle in the manga, but the anime ramps up his creepiness and unhinged sadism tenfold.
• Barrier Warrior: His Corrosive Aura is a creepy variation, surrounding him with an aura withering bullets and projectiles before they even touch him, and dooming any poor schmuck trying close-range. This makes him very dangerous, for only intangible attack can get through it at full power. River in the manga, Say and Sven in the anime, must find ways to bypass it to defeat him.
• Close-Range Combatant: He mostly fight with his Touch of Death, though he can also fire a decaying Wave-Motion Gun, and decaying clouds in the anime.
• Fangs Are Evil: He has elongated canine teeth.
• Flat Character: Only there to showcase the abilities of River in the manga and Saya in the anime.
• Make Them Rot: Instantly decays anything he touches with his ki, either causing disgusting wounds or withering it to dust.
• Pointy Ears: Preta has short, pointed ears.
• Smug Snake: Arguably the worst in the series. He is very powerful but it is clear that even with that he is painfully out of his depth, and never bothered to train to the fullest. Yet, he talks like nothing can beat him and is quickly proven wrong.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He might affect an air of politeness and never raise his voice, but he delights in slowly rotting his victims.
• Tattooed Crook: Preta has red tattoos all over his body in the anime.
• Touch of Death: He mostly uses his power that way. But in fact, everything that comes in contact with his ki is done for.
• Serial Killer: Killed sixteen people.
• Weak, but Skilled: He is an excellent fighter, fast, spry and skilled, who controls his power perfectly, but he is built like a twig and just as durable.

Shiki

Voiced by: Mayumi Yamaguchi (JP), Greg Ayres (EN)

A founding member of the Apostles of the Stars and the one who introduced Creed to Taoist powers. The most powerful of the group after Creed himself, Shiki is a true Tao master serving as both the Apostles' second-in-command and one of their more dangerous field agents.

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• Adaptational Personality Change: In the manga, Shiki wants to force the use of Tao all over the world, and scorns things like immortality and ruling for the sake of power, his goal in the anime.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the manga, Shiki has Combo Platter Powers as versatile as it is deadly, and is one of the two foes forcing Train to go all out. In the anime, he never uses his mightiest or tricky insects or his Paper Talisman spells, being a much lesser threat.
• The Beastmaster: Uses Summon Magic to create and augment insects of all shapes and sizes, with various abilities.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Creating them and using them in battle is Shiki's specialty.
• Combo Platter Powers: Shiki can create insects for Sinister Surveillance, Mind Control, transportation, pain-suppression, and the Stray Cat knows what else...
  • Same when he resorts to Paper Talisman, he uses them for all sorts of deadly attacks.
• Cool Mask: Keeps his entire face covered in purple bandages to conceal his appearance. Also a case of Mask of Power: it stores his Chi and reroutes it through him, allowing his strength to charge while he wears it. When the mask comes off… watch out, Train.
• Cool Sword: Uses a sword forged from Tao seals against Train. It throws fire!
• The Dragon: Creed's most powerful follower, who commands the defence of the island, and has to be defeated before Train can enter Creed's mansion. With the exception of Echidna and the Doctor, Creed's orders to the other Apostles are sent through him, and he serves as a field commander while Creed is occupied. It's worth noting that it takes River and Train cooperating to bring him down.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Shiki couldn't care less about defeating Chronos or bringing revolution to the world. He's just out to prove that the Tao is the world's most superior weapon, and he'll hurt however many people he has to in order to do it.
• Glass Cannon: Shiki's regular attacks do more damage than anything this side of Train's rail-gun, Sephira's That One Attack and Creed's One-Winged Angel. Good thing he's a Squishy Wizard.
• The Greatest Style: Shiki is adamant that Tao is this, dedicating his whole existence to prove it to the entire world. Train begs to differ...
• Last of His Kind: He's one of the last surviving true Taoists on Earth after nearly all of them were wiped out by Chronos in the Taoist war.
• Magic Knight: Shiki masters his Story-Breaker Power and tremendous Paper Talisman magic, in addition to being extremely skilled with a sword.
• Malevolent Masked Man: An amoral mage who keeps his face under wraps.
• Paper Talisman: Shiki can use those to cast all sorts of attack spells: Explosions, fire blasts, energy beams, barriers, weapons, you name it...
• Playing with Fire: Shiki's mightiest attacks involve enormous fire blasts.
• Power Limiter: His turban of all things hampers his Chi. Without it he is one of the four mightiest characters of the manga.
• Psychotic Smirk: Seems to be his default expression once the mask comes off.
• Squishy Wizard: Shiki is maybe five feet tall, slender, and unimposing, especially once the mask comes off. He relies on seals, barriers, and various powers of the Tao to keep him safe, in both distance and close-range combat, avoiding getting hit until near the very end of his battle with Train. When Train finally does hit him, he goes down from a single attack.
• Smug Super: Shiki is extremely proud of his mastery of Tao, within reason considering how powerful he is.
• Summon Magic: His most commonly used combat technique is the ability to summon assorted giant insects to fight on his behalf.
• Superpower Lottery: Shiki has a formidable power, and masters all of his clan's fuda techniques. Everybody else, even Creed, has only their power by comparison. If it weren't for his fragility, he'd be literally unbeatable.
• Wave-Motion Gun: One of his deadliest attacks create a star formation to hurl a gigantic energy beam.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He has white hair and is a member of the Apostles.

The Demon Star Force

A group of five Mooks specially altered with robotic technology. They confront Sven, Eve, Baldor, Kranz, Jenos, and Shaolee in the final volume of the manga.

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• Cyborg: Their bodies are enhanced by cybernetics.
• Elite Mooks: They serve as lackeys of the Apostles.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Like all of Creed's Mooks, they wear masks to conceal their faces.
• More Dakka: The Golem model, who has had eighty percent of his body replaced with machine guns.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The snake and four-armed models are disposed of off-screen, and the shell model that Jenos faces doesn't last much longer.

Sweeper Alliance

A group of powerful Bounty Hunters, the very best in the profession, gathered to capture Creed.

River Zastory

Voiced by: Nobutoshi Canna (JP), John Burgmeier (EN), Ángel del Río (SP)

A member of the Sweeper Alliance, and probably it's strongest after Train. He's been a Sweeper for five years when we meet him, and is a master of the Garbell Commando, a martial arts form that lets him—wait for it—punch bullets out of the air.

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• Adaptational Wimp: In the anime, he's gets lost in the sewers, constantly attacked and shown to be incompetent, cowardly and as such mocked by everyone, and tends to get his ass kicked a lot. This does not happen in the manga, in which he is doubtless the best sweeper aside from the Power Trio.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In the manga, he is a knowledgeable and tactical fighter who knows how to analize his foe's fighting style. In the anime, he is an incompetent moron.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga he's blonde, while the anime gave him pink hair.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Goes in unarmed when everyone else is packing an arsenal. He is a practicioner of the martial art called Garbel Commando, using only fists against all sorts of weaponry.
• Bullet Time: The sign he is just as superhumanly badass as the main character.
• Butt-Monkey: In the anime, he is never safe from any type of abuse, in a stark contrast with the manga.
• Catch and Return: Not only can he intercept bullets with his punches, but he sends them back at the shooter with equal force.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: He punches bullets out of midair.
• Clothing Damage: During his fight against Preta Ghoul, his clothes get damaged.
• Determinator: Almost to the same degree as Train. He's been shot, blown up, had his ribs cracked by a giant insect, and gotten up every time.
• Extremity Extremist: Considers using any other weapon than his fists disgraceful.
• Genius Bruiser: Don't let his cockiness and braggin fool you, he is well-read and pretty tactical.
• Gentle Giant: He's certainly a very nice guy under his intimidating appearance.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Ends up Storming the Castle alongside Train, and goes as far as taking down one Apostle and playing a crucial role against The Dragon.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Not especially fan of subtlety and tactic, much to Train's disbelieving dismay. Though he can when he needs to.
• Lovable Coward: In the anime, he is an incompetent but a friendly individual.
• Megaton Punch: His most powerful move, Cyclone Grenade can reduces rocks to rubble. Train compares it to a bakooka.
• My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Less pronounced than most and mostly Played for Laughs, but he wants to test his fist techniques against the World's Best Warrior to prove its worth.
• No Sense of Direction: In the anime, River somehow manages to get lost and wander into a sewer.
• Power Fist: His one concession to practicality are his gauntlets, which tend to come in handy when punching bullets, acid-skinned psychopaths and whatnot.
• The Rival: Becomes one to Train, albeit of the friendly variety. Instead of fighting one another, he decides they should have a contest to see who can capture Creed first.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: River wants to prove his worth to The Hero, rather than the other way around, but he otherwise fits the bill. He is cocky, likes to show-off, and just as good as he boasts to be.
• Unknown Rival: Train is more amused than anything else by his competitiveness, but humours him as long as it suits his mood. In the anime however, he does not even acknowledge him.
• Younger Than They Look: He looks to be one of the older sweepers but he's in fact 19 years old.

Kevin McDougal

A young sweeper who allies with Eve following Shiki's assault on the Sweeper Alliance's boat. Rumored to have brought down an entire drug cartel by himself.

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• Adaptational Wimp: In the manga, he is such a highly powerful Badass Normal that he serves as a Guest-Star Party Member. In the anime, he is a useless comic relief. Talk about Character Derailment...
• Badass Normal: Possibly the most realistic version in the entire manga, among with Rinslet and the other sweepers.
• Butt-Monkey: Kevin just gets pounded all throughout the final arc. He's wounded in the landing, Leon kicks his ass, Train kicks his ass (In one shot! Entirely by accident!), and to cap it all off he almost dies Taking the Bullet for Eve. Poor guy, though, to be fair, this only applies in the manga as in the anime, the role of the Butt-Monkey goes to River.
• Crazy-Prepared: Never ventures in battle without a well-furbished first-aid kit. It ends up saving his life.
• Genius Bruiser: Not only is he a grade A Badass Normal, but he is knowledgeable and knows how to find and target weak points.
• Guns Akimbo: He uses two revolvers with tremendous amounts of skill.
• The Gunslinger: One of the very best among many in the manga, arguably second only to (though still leagues behind) Train himself.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Ends up Storming the Castle alongside Eve, but despite being a Grade-A Badass Normal he fares much less than fellow guest member River.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Grows one with Eve during the Final Battle.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He's able to shoot Creed's guards through the gaps in their otherwise impervious armor, even as they are hidden underneath their clothes.
• Ineffectual Loner: Subverted as he's very much willing to work with people if the situation calls for it.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Took down an entire drug trafficking ring all by himself.
• Older Than He Looks: He is referred to as a kid many times (especially in the anime) and does appear to be 16 but he's actually 23.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Kevin is one of the best fighters in the series, but the Power Trio and the super-powered villains are so far above him that he does little to nothing for the Final Battle.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: He is first seen reading a manga and knows a lot about Echidna's past as an A-List Actress, among others.
• Taking the Bullet: Ends up taking a spear stab close to the heart to protect Eve, out of gratitude for saving him. Fortunately, he survives.
• The Quiet One: Comes off as one in the anime.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Especially in twos.
• Staying Alive: Despite nearly getting hurt multiple times, he manages to stay alive.

Silfy Dearcroft

The only girl among the Sweeper Alliance, whom Sven saves from Deek Slasky.

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• Action Girl: A genuinely powerful sweeper in peak physical condition. Too bad she could not know her targets were all way beyond that point.
• Badass in Distress: She can handle hardened criminals without trouble, but super-powered terrorists are too much even for her, needing Sven for the rescue.
  • In the anime, she is tracked down by a berserker Preta.
• Badass Normal: Like Rinslet and Kevin, she is a realistic example.
• Blade Enthusiast: She can fight with daggers if her gun is not enough.
• Daddy's Girl: She was taught how to fight by her bounty-hunter father, and became one after his mysterious death (most likely an execution as a revenge), to honour his memory.
• Demoted to Extra: Barely exists in the anime. At least River and Kevin still had some screen time, even as comic reliefs.
• Determinator: Silfy refuses to give up, despite the odds being against her, and resents being told to stand aside. Unfortunately, she is out of her depth against Tao wielders. (To be fair, against another Apostle without Deek's defences she could have faired better.)
• Game-Breaking Injury: The heavy frostbites inflicted by Deek on her gun-wielding arm prevents her from fighting any further, so she never becomes a Guest-Star Party Member like River and Kevin.
• The Gunslinger: A very good shot, but unfortunately her foe is Immune to Bullets.
• Kick Chick: Her character profile describes kicks as her speciality. And she does demonstrate a masterful hammer kick.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Sorry Silfy, you're very good but out of the heroes' and villains' league.
• Shooting Lessons From Your Parents: Her father taught her how to fight, and she follows his footsteps.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: She is the one who finishes off the psycho who almost killed her.
• Tomboy: Downplayed, Silfy wears boyish clothes and cuts her hair short, but only out of practicality for her physically demanding job.

Toma Fudo

A famed veteran bounty-hunter who takes part in the Final Battle on Clarken Island. Alas, not the way he would have wanted.

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• Badass Longrobe: Wears one, fitting his Warrior Monk aspect, and it does not impede his considerable fighting skills the slightest.
• Badass in Distress: Is captured off-screen by the Doctor, along with Mundock.
  • Later, Chrono Number X helps them escape from Mooks they cannot fight since they must take their wounded comrades to safety.
• Badass Normal: When the World's Best Warrior finds you tough, you sure earned the title.
• The Berserker: What the nanomachines turning him Brainwashed and Crazy make of him: a killing machine immune to pain, who will not stop until everyone he sees is dead or until he dies of exhaustion.
• Hidden Weapons: Hides a blade on his Martial Arts Staff for dangerous foes.
• Blade Spam: Can deliver dozens of stabs in seconds.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Doctor injects him and Mundock Berserker nanomachines and sends them against the Power Trio.
• Fighting Your Friend: Not by his own violition, mind you, but still. It is quite a punch in the gut for the heroes, and especially Eve, who makes a point in freeing them.
• Manly Facial Hair: Fudo harbours a sleek mustache, suiting him as an older yet powerful character.
• Martial Arts Staff: A renowned expert in fighting with a staff.
• Must Make Amends: No-one holds anything against Fudo and Mundock, brainwashing an all that jazz, but they insist on treating their victims' wounds and spend the rest of the Final Battle protecting them.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He is famed in the profession for single-handedly taking down several criminals of the highest tier.
• Old Master: Downplayed, while older and more experimented than the other characters, he is in his fourties at most, and still in activity for a long time.
• Warrior Monk: Fudo evokes the trope in looks, but ultimately subverts it by being a bounty-hunter and nothing more.

Mundock

The least featured among the plot-relevant bounty-hunters taking part in the Final Battle. He ends up captured and used by the resident Mad Scientist for sick mind games.

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• Acrofatic: Mundock might be overweight, but he is swifter and sprier than meets the eye.
• Badass Normal: When the World's Best Warrior finds you tough, you sure earned the title.
• Badass in Distress: Is captured off-screen by the Doctor, along with Toma Fudo.
  • Later, Chrono Number X helps them escape from Mooks they cannot fight since they must take their wounded comrades to safety.
• The Berserker: What the nanomachines turning him Brainwashed and Crazy make of him: a killing machine immune to pain, who will not stop until everyone he sees is dead or until he dies of exhaustion.
• The Big Guy: The biggest and most physically oriented fighter in the Sweeper Alliance.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Doctor injects him and Fudo Berserker nanomachines and sends them against the Power Trio.
• Carry a Big Stick: Two in fact. Huge, spiked clubs serving also as shields.
• Dual Wielding: Mundock fights with two clubs.
• Fighting Your Friend: Not by his own violition, mind you, but still. It is quite a punch in the gut for the heroes, and especially Eve, who makes a point in freeing them.
• Gonk: Downplayed. He is overweight with big lips and a piggish nose, but not exactly ugly.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast and agile despite his size, and able to deal massive damage.
• Must Make Amends: No-one holds anything against Mundock and Fudo, brainwashing an all that jazz, but they insist on treating their victims' wounds and spend the rest of the Final Battle protecting them.
• Stout Strength: He is overweight, but has big muscles and can wield two huge clubs with no effort.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: His clubs have concealed guns inside for sneak attacks.

Others

Others plot-relevant characters, mostly from the past of the heroes.

Saya Minatsuki

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (JP), Caitlin Glass (EN), María Rosa Guillén (SP)

A Sweeper who lived in Train's apartment building, Saya became an extremely close friend of the No. XIII. It was her influence that ultimately prompted him to consider leaving Chronos and becoming a better human being, a fact that Creed did not take well...

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• Action Girl: An extremely talented bounty-hunter who casually dismantles gangs and effortlessly stomps in one panel an angry group of thugs all bigger and burlier than her.
• Boyish Short Hair: She wears her hair in a bob-cut.
• Death by Origin Story: Creed kills Saya, which motivates Train to leave Chronos and become partners with Sven and Eve.
• Disposable Woman: Being Train's first real friend, her death gives Train the reason to want to kill Creed.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: In the manga, Saya met Train after he was injured during a failed assassination event, in which Train hesitated at killing his target because his target was holding a child. After Saya found the injured Train, she decided to take him in and treat his wounds. They built a very close friendship afterwards.
• Fragile Speedster: She runs very fast, especially considering she always wears geta sandals.
• Girly Bruiser: She was sweet, friendly and enjoys elegant clothing, but she could kick ass seven ways to sunday and seven ways back without breaking a sweat.
• Genki Girl: Saya was fairly energetic for being a Sweeper.
• Hair Intakes: Her hairdo had two intakes that resemble little cat ears.
• Hot-Blooded: Saya does not show it at first glance, but when around people she knows and trusts she could fly in comically fierces rages when angered.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Creed kills her.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: She uses the Reflect Shot against Creed, bouncing the a bullet off of various objects until it finally strikes him from behind.
• Limited Wardrobe: Only in the anime, in which she wears her yukata all the time, even in places and moments it would be quite impractical (then again, she can outrun Train while wearing sandals). In the manga, she shows a wider variety of outfits.
• The Mentor: She teaches Train how to be a better human being and survivor.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: She doesn't survive her fight with Creed.
• The Not-Love Interest: Her function in the plot is similar to that of a traditional dead lover / love interest; in fact, Train's affection for her is enough to cause Creed to "take drastic measures". But it's later revealed, perfectly and seriously, that Train never contemplated any romantic involvement with her.
• Pinball Projectile: Her entire fighting style is based on this. Her Reflect Shot technique bounces her bullets off several hard surfaces to strike her target from unpredictable angles. After her death, Train learns to pull this off as well, as a Tragic Keepsake.
• The Pollyanna: The end of the manga reveals that despite her Dark and Troubled Past, she was carefree and had a positive view in life. It comes to bite her in the ass, because Creed only sees her as a carefree girl who has never understood pain and loneliness and therefore, does not understand Train.
• Positive Friend Influence: Saya taught Train to enjoy life again and smile in earnest, breaking the shell of hatred and misanthropy he built himself to cope with the loss of his parents.
• Posthumous Character: She was killed by Creed long before the start of the series.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: She has no memories of her life before the age of ten, due to heavy abuse from her parents. Her first real memory is waking up in hospital and being carried off to a relative's house. She also suffered a lot of hardships before becoming a Sweeper.

Zagine Axelock

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (JP), Christopher Sabat (EN)

The character who killed Train's parents before the series began, and also trains him to being a professional assassin.

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• Cultured Badass: Was reading what appears to be The Art of War in one of the flashbacks in the manga.
• Evil Mentor: He occupation was an assassin and his intents were to build Train into one so he'd be strong enough to keep on living.
• The Gunslinger: Given he was the one who conditioned Train, it's to be expected.
• Jerkass: Seemingly taunts Train during his training, which doesn't help as he killed his parents.
• Pet the Dog: Taking Train him and making him a fighter was an act of mercy for him.
• Posthumous Character: He died long before the start of the series.
• Social Darwinist: He shows a few shades of these beliefs in the recaps involving him, but it doesn't appear to be out of arrogance.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: In fact, he refuses to assassinate people raising children. His client knew this fact and omitted any information regarding Train so he would take the assignment.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: He raised Train in place of his parents after he killed them.

Torneo Rudman

Voiced by: Shin Aomori (JP), Grant James (EN)

The boss of an organized crime ring, he's also been dabbling in weapons engineering. Funding nanotech research led him to create Eve, as well as give money and research information to the Apostles of the Stars.

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• Bad Boss: Torneo really doesn't care for his lackeys and sees them as disposable pawns to use as prey for Eve.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The real conflict between the Sweepers, the Apostles of the Star and Chronos starts after he is defeated. In fact, he serves to introduce the real Big Bad, with whom he was in cahoots, and promptly gets rid of him.
• Fat Bastard: Of every definition of it.
• Humiliation Conga: Not only he loses all his investment when Eve leaves for Sven, but his research literally goes up in flames, his mansion is a wreck, and gets captured before Creed offs him. Of course, he deserved every bit of it for being a monster.
• Karmic Death: In the anime, Torneo suffers a similar but different fate when he heads down to his lab to find it going up in flames. He breaks down mentally despite his lackey telling him to evacuate and the lab explodes on him.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Unable to fight whatsoever, he needs Eve to be a threat.
• Starter Villain: The first serious enemy faced by the heroes, who kick-starts the plot.
• The Unfought: Justified in that he's not the combat type. He lets his guards and Eve fight for him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After his capture, Creed has Shiki kill him.

Ganzer Lejick

Voiced by: Masuo Amada (JP), Chris Rager (EN)

A killer that was given the Tao elixir by the Apostles of the Stars, but turns his back on them when they try to recruit him later.

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• Achilles' Heel: His right knee sports an old injury that Sven gave him years ago. Train takes Gyanza down in the anime by shooting at his knee with an explosive round.
• Afro Asskicker: Has a nice afro and has Super-Strength.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: His Tao power turns his skin green.
• Ax-Crazy: Noted as being a bit unbalanced even before taking the elixir, but Charden tells Kyoko that some people like Ganzer, completely lose their sanity upon taking it.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: As his power is to increase the power and density of his muscles, he doesn't bother with anything else.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After Train defeats him with a freezing bullet, his body burns off the rest of his energy via his Tao powers.
• It's Personal: He's intent on going after Sven because Sven had arrested Gyanza years ago.
• Made of Iron: When he increases his muscle density.
• Smug Snake: He thinks he's the most powerful Taoist in the world. In reality, he's nothing but fodder compared to the Apostles, and his powers give him the least potential.
• Super-Strength: His Tao power allows him to increase the strength of his muscles to superhuman levels.

Lugart Won

A professional assassin that specializes in hand-to-hand combat. He runs across Train when Train was brought to a party as a token date by Rinslet.

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• Badass Normal: Can easily put his hand through a wall with nothing beyond sheer training.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: An extremely powerful killer who uses martial arts to fight.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Exceptionally well trained, and a superhumanly skilled martial artist.
• Lightning Bruiser: Able to quickly take out a dozen bodyguards in an eyeblink, and even managed to hold his own against Train.
• Mad Artist: Of sorts - sees assassination itself as an art, and prefers to do it as efficiently as possible (including killing only the target, and doing so in a single blow).
• Professional Killer: He ears a living by killing people, and is the best in his trade.
• The Rival: He comes to view Train as his rival.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He promises to one day have a match with Train to see if his martial arts are superior to Train's brawling and gun skills, and is never seen again.