Tanabata

His look reads more like a struggling indie musician than a top-tier killer. A pale Fender Telecaster plastered in stickers rides on his back inside a dark case, and a bucket hat covered in badges themed around the number seven often tops his head. Under a business blazer he layers a light hoodie, pairing it with loose dark trousers and pale sneakers. Small dark eyes sit beneath shaggy hair that spills past his ears toward his neck, and his frame roughly matches Shin in size and height.

Quiet and withdrawn, Tanabata rarely speaks and often seems detached from whatever surrounds him. Music is his one clear passion; he was first found seated on the pavement outside a pachinko parlor, strumming for himself. He guards the meaning behind his songs and grows prickly when listeners miss the point of them. His thoughts tend to spiral, as when a simple question about visiting an aquarium turns into him resolving to write a track about the mood once he gets home. That inward, faintly detached wiring recalls Joichiro Kaji and hints at thin empathy for the people near him.

Everything Tanabata does in a fight runs through his guitar. Away from assassin work he performs as a genuine professional, going on tour and drawing his songs from the act of killing. Struck chords let him move and react at blistering speed, once shattering the blade of Shin's knife mid-swing and outpacing Shin's punches.

His real threat is turning sound into a weapon. He channels vibrations from the instrument into shockwaves strong enough to blast Boiled through a wall, hurl opponents through billboards and parked cars, and rip up entire streets, even rigging a subway system to fling a train car off its rails. In his signature strike he pushed a wave through a sewer line until the manhole burst open, dropping Sakamoto and his companions with the concussive noise. He extends his reach with a cable that links the guitar to nearby objects, swings the body of the instrument as a bludgeon, and uses his pick to shred at close range.