Pearl

Pearl is a towering figure who hauls two heavy iron slabs across his front and back, plus smaller plates set with large pearls for delivering crushing blows. On his debut he proudly billed himself as both a shield man and a dandy man, referring at once to his metal armor and to what he considered his handsome face. The manga gives his plates an orange-and-white scheme and his hair a red tone, while the anime renders the armor in gray steel with black lining and his hair black.

By the time of the Egghead Arc he sports a far bulkier version of the armor that wraps his entire torso, with larger pads on his arms, and he has let his hair grow out longer.

Cocky to the core, Pearl bragged that he had never lost a single drop of blood and liked to call himself dandy. He shares Krieg's win-at-any-cost philosophy and is happy to fight dirty. His glaring weakness is the sight of his own blood, which throws him into a panicked frenzy, suggesting a phobia or simply rage at his perfect record being broken. For all his arrogance, he knows his place beneath both Krieg and the second-in-command Gin.

As second-unit commander, Pearl answers only to Krieg. His iron plating grants formidable defense, turning aside bullets and even cannon fire, and he claimed sixty-one battles without bleeding. When he does take a wound, panic triggers his most dangerous trait: friction sparks ignite a coat of intensely hot flames around his body, turning him into Fire Pearl, a state in which the heat never harms him while he sets foes ablaze and hurls burning pearls.

His techniques all revolve around battering and crushing with his shields, often enhanced by fire. Pearl Present is a straight shield-punch strong enough to knock Patty and Carne out of the fight, while Cho Tennen Pearl Present hits far harder. Fire Pearl Daitokuten rains small flaming pearls, Pearl Close slams both shields against an opponent's skull, and other variants like Service Pearl Ibushigin Present and Dameoshi Pearl Present finish off weakened enemies. His indiscriminate flames nearly burned down the very Baratie his crew hoped to seize.