Noel Vermillion

Noel Vermillion is a former lieutenant of the Novus Orbis Librarium who was assigned to return the AWOL Jin Kisaragi to his post. She is a playable character and the main heroine in the BlazBlue series.

Information
Noel was born on December 25, 2194, by Sector Seven as "dimensional boundary contact medium No. 12". She was rescued at the burning fields of Ikaruga and adopted by the Vermillion family, specifically by Edgar and Claire Vermillion.

The Vermillion family was once a noble one, but Edgar, being the head of the family, originally lacked an heir before he adopted Noel and, after heavily criticizing the Librarium, the Vermillions lost their aristocratic rights and their family was sentenced to relegation from the NOL.

While living in the Vermillion household, Noel obtained her Nox Nyctores, Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk, after being attacked by a monster in a forest. A few years after her adoption, she found out about the upcoming banishment of the Vermillion household from the NOL and, concerned for the Vermillion family's future, decided to take the entrance exam for the Military Academy in Torifune. Even though her physical and academic results were not very high, her synchronization rates with the Armagus were the highest ever recorded, allowing her to pass the exam and enter the Academy in year AD 2196.

In the Military Academy, she became friends with Tsubaki Yayoi, Makoto Nanaya, and Carl Clover. Jin Kisaragi, however, treated her like dirt (to put it mildly), due to her resemblance to his sister.

Six months before her graduation and shortly after Jin's promotion to a major and commander of the 4th division, Noel was given an offer to immediately join the army as a lieutenant in the 4th division of the Praetorian Guard. She should officially only be Jin's secretary, but in reality she would actually be a special solo soldier tasked mainly with intelligence and assassination. In return, the Vermillions' reputation and rights would be restored. Noel accepted the offer for the sake of her family. In reality, Noel specifically sought for a job outside of the military lines of the NOL, however, the Intelligence Department, specifically Hazama, forced her into Jin's service by using the fate of the Vermillions as blackmail.

Afterwards, she was assigned in year AD 2198 as Jin's direct subordinate, though he still treated her just as poorly, if not worse. When Jin abandoned his post to pursue Ragna the Bloodedge, Noel was assigned to bring back Jin to his post, with explicit instructions not to engage Ragna, should she encounter the criminal.

Noel does not remember her past life as Mu-12, the previous Saya replica before Nu-13. They both share the same voice, face, and memories of Saya. Since she was the only survivor of the burning field of Ikaruga, she is the "Eye of the Azure", the true possessor of the Azure.

Her weakness is her family, as well as anything and everything cute, stuffed animals in particular. In one of her Alternate Endings during the story of Calamity Trigger, she agreed to be dressed up by Litchi Faye-Ling in exchange for petting Litchi's panda. In the same ending, Bang Shishigami mistook Noel for a boy, and referred to her as "young man" because of her lack of bosoms. She has a complex about this; all her victories against Litchi seem hollow since, regardless of the outcome, the doctor still beats Noel out in cup size, though Noel never states this outright.

Calamity Trigger
After Jin had abandoned his post, Noel was assigned a new mission to bring him back and to not engage with Ragna the Bloodedge; however, as soon as she was dropped off in the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi right after meeting up with Hazama (who was 'assigned' to help her), she was attacked by Carl Clover after she refused to give him valuable information on Ragna. Hazama disappeared to NOL headquarters, where he would later kill the NOL officers that were situated there to help him smelt Noel, and Noel had wandered around Orient Town, thinking about her days at the Academy. She later bumped into Tager and the two engaged into a duel because Sector Seven should not be in Kagutsuchi at the current time.

After triumphing over Tager, she eventually wandered off again and ended up in Ronin-Gai, where Bang Shishigami confronted her because of the injuries Carl had sustained when fighting Noel. After being verbally abused by Bang several times, they fought and Bang fell to her power. She was later able to find her way back to the NOL headquarters and met with Hazama.

After pondering why the headquarters was empty, she finds Jin unconscious after his battle with Ragna, and decides to chase after him despite Hazama's warnings. After standing at the Sheol Gates, Noel sees memories of her and of an unknown person's past and gets confused. There, she has an encounter with Nu-13. Due to unknown reasons, Noel loses control of her body which acts like a machine, just like Nu. She is then forced to fight Nu, but cannot defeat her. Right before her death blow, Ragna intervenes and saves her, but cannot defeat Nu, either. Noel then saves Ragna from being taken by Nu, who wanted to fuse and jump into the Cauldron with him. After the incident, she and Jin are targeted for assassination by the NOL.

Continuum Shift
After the incident at the NOL branch, Noel travels with Ragna for a bit, though he later demands that she leave, upsetting her. She runs into Makoto shortly thereafter, and tells her everything that happened. Makoto relays her suspicions of Hazama, saying she does not know what he is thinking. They part ways and Noel sees a severely wounded Carl who she tries to help, but is interrupted by Bang who, once again, jumps to the wrong conclusion. After calming him down, Noel asks Bang to look after Carl as she had more important things to attend to.

Noel meets up with Tager and manages to defend herself, fleeing in the process from him. However, she then runs into Relius Clover who attempts to capture her, though Rachel intervenes before Relius can order Ignis to attack. She is cared for by Jubei momentarily, who manages to console her frantic mind. Noel, her head finally clear, goes to the NOL and runs into her friend, Tsubaki, who was ordered to kill her. After the fight, the two friends decide to leave each other be for the moment, neither having the heart to fight, let alone kill one another.

She finally meets with Hazama, who tells Noel her true origins and nature, calling her a puppet and inhuman. This causes her emotions to run wild, in turn causing Bolverk to go haywire and allowing Hazama the opportunity smelt her in the Cauldron. She ascends as Mu-12, full of hate for the world, and is ordered by Hazama to destroy the Master Unit Amaterasu. She manages to fight off both Hakumen and Jin before Ragna arrives and breaks her free of her current mindset by waking her consciousness, though in the process, Ragna's left arm is destroyed.

In the wake of the battle, Noel, at last, learns that Jin and Ragna are brothers and that their sister is the Imperator of the Novus Orbis Librarium, who is the boss of Hazama and Relius Clover, as well as an apparently brainwashed Tsubaki. She leaves Kagutsuchi with Tager and Makoto (recently defected from the NOL). Jubei said that he has managed to hide her parents in a safe location, and that they told her to fight the Librarium.

Chronophantasma
Noel and Makoto flee with Iron Tager to Sector Seven. Noel asks Makoto and Tager about Kokonoe, where Tager tells her some details about her, including that Kokonoe likes to remodel people. However, after Tager receives a communication from Kokonoe, their destination changes from Sector Seven to Ikaruga. Tager tells Noel and Makoto to rest well until they arrive at Ikaruga, but Makoto complains that she has rested for way too long. Noel suggests they eat, and tells them she will make a meal for everyone on the ship, where Makoto panickingly stops Noel from doing such thing. After they arrive in Ikaruga, Noel and Makoto observe the place, but Tager tells them they didn't come to tour around. They are then approached by NOL soldiers and are arrested, and sent to a prison cell, where Makoto becomes tired of staying. She tries to break out, only to have her efforts become useless due to a seal placed on the prison cell. They are then set free and are sent to meet Kagura Mutsuki, who is shown to be a flirt and pervert. Kokonoe then appears from Kagura's room, where she tells him she remodeled the room into an elevator, which makes him panic and run into his room to see what happened to it. Noel greets Kokonoe, who tells Noel to follow her. Noel refuses to follow Kokonoe due to the fear of being modeled because of the story Tager told Noel before. Noel asks Kokonoe if she isn't going to remodel her, which prompts Kokonoe to threaten Noel with actually remodeling her out of frustration. Noel and Makoto are then given new outfits by Kokonoe; Noel asks Kokonoe if it is really okay for them to receive such good outfits. Kokonoe tells her it would be troublesome if they go around in NOL uniforms due to the influence of Ikaruga Civil War. Kagura then comes back and after seeing Noel, he tries to flirt with her until Makoto hits Kagura away. Kokonoe tells Noel and Makoto they are free to walk around now since they are no longer in NOL uniforms. After Makoto overhears the conversation between Kokonoe and Kagura about Tsubaki, Makoto tries to run away with Noel to go meet Tsubaki in Ikaruga.

While out in Ikaruga, Noel meets Ragna, who had run away from Celica. Ragna requested Noel to come with him, but due to him being in an enraged state, he grabs her painfully to drag her away with him, only to have Kagura come to save her from Ragna's grasp.

Ragna becomes arrested and put in jail, and when Kagura sarcastically states that Ragna would normally be executed for his crimes, Noel and Celica tries to stop Kagura from doing such a thing.

Later, after Kagura and Kokonoe explain the plan to defeat Azrael and Tsubaki to Noel and the others, Jin approached Noel and Makoto in order to explain the plan about how to bring Tsubaki back to normal. Jin ordered Noel to use her power as the Eye of the Azure to "observe" into Tsubaki's mind. However Noel explained that she doesn't know how to use her power as the Eye of the Azure.

While Noel is sleeping, she becomes concerned about the plans. Suddenly, she is sent back to Kagutsuchi by Rachel. With her help, Noel meets with Mu-12 inside her, where she accepts the Murakumo Unit as herself. Because of this, she is granted the ability to transform into Mu-12 at will. She then goes back to Ikaruga to save Tsubaki.

Noel, Makoto and Jin later fight against Tsubaki after Ragna and Kagura fight and seal away Azrael. Makoto first fights against Tsubaki and wears her down. Noel then engages Tsubaki, but only runs away from her attacks and tries to use her power as Eye of the Azure to observe Tsubaki, and Jin fights against Tsubaki to free her from the Mind Eater technique. After Tsubaki becomes free from Izanami's grasp, Tsubaki tearily apologizes to Jin, Noel and Makoto for what she had done to them.

Noel is later ambushed by Relius Clover and Nu-13, where she is forcefully synchronized with Nu, an act which transforms Nu into a second Successor of the Azure, albeit in status only. Using this, Nu is able to summon the Amaterasu Unit into reality.

Ragna, Jin and Noel go to fight Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi, which was summoned by Izanami to destroy the Amaterasu Unit. They were greeted off by Celica A. Mercury, and at that time, Noel saw a vision of the Sister who took care Ragna, Jin and Saya.

Later on, Nu reveals Noel's past to Ragna: during the Ikaruga Civil War, Sector Seven tried to create the Black Beast as a desperate measure to win the war, by fusing Noel with Hazama to become the Black Beast's heart. However, she did not want to fuse with him, as he was the one responsible for destroying her family and her own mind; as a result, she wanted to die instead, but due to Take-Mikazuchi's attack during that time, she was saved from fusing with Hazama.

After Take-Mikazuchi is stopped, Ragna, Celica and Nu are ejected out of its core. Izanami and Phantom then appear. Hakumen tries to use his 'Time Killer' technique on Izanami, but it fails due to time not affecting her. Phantom teleports Hakumen away before he can attack Izanami again. Noel transforms into Mu-12 to stop Izanami; the goddess notes that since Mu-12 is known as the 'Sword of the Godslayer', she must strike back. Izanami forcefully makes Ragna and Nu go berserk, which causes Nu to attack Ragna, injuring him. Then, by making his Azure Grimoire go berserk, she turns Ragna into a Black Beast-like state. Ragna tells Noel and Jin to run away with Celica, but the two of them refuse to leave and try to stop the berserk Ragna. After Tsubaki appears at the scene, it is seen that Ragna disappeared and Noel was lightly wounded while Jin was heavily injured.

Appearance
Noel is a young girl with long back length blonde hair (although she covers her hair in her blue balmoral cap, making it seem like she has short hair), and green eyes. She wears a NOL blue cloak with hood, long black socks, and blue military boots. When she is in battle, she wears a jolting sapphire NOL uniform dress with a white collar and a short red tie, with two separate long sleeves that have two heavy metal bands and a long red strap, white gloves, and carries two giant pistols linked together, the Bolverk. As a replica of Saya, Noel shares her physical appearance only her hair a deeper blonde then Saya

When she was adopted by the Vermillion family, she had her hair cut short and wore a white shirt with long sleeves, a black tie, a long, black skirt, and white stockings with dark brown shoes. However, in Amane's Astral Heat, she is shown wearing a red tie and blue skirt.

When she was in the Military Academy, she had slightly shoulder-length hair and wore the standard school uniform with a short skirt, long white stockings and brown shoes.

In Chronophantasma, Noel is given a new outfit by Kokonoe so that she isn't associated with the NOL. It is somewhat similar to her original outfit but doing away with the sleeves, replacing it with a sleeveless collared cloth, leaving only a pair of white gloves and has a short skirt. She now wears two large holsters on her back, which house Bolverk. Her long hair now flows freely with the addition of two blue hairpieces on opposite sides of her head, which are meant to restrain her power as the Eye of the Azure.

Personality
Noel is the definition of the "shrinking violet" archetype. She is shy, clumsy, and tends to get worked up over the smallest things. Noel is extremely self-conscious, especially regarding her notoriously flat breasts. She can be socially awkward at times, but this has actually served as an endearing trait, which earned her Tsubaki and Makoto's friendship. In spite of this, she is shown to be quite passionate and determined when motivated, and is loyal to her friends and allies.

Then there's the soft and unfettered side to her personality that shows compassion to every person and being, and how everyone is being treated. With her job out of the way, she enjoys relaxing with friends and reminiscing, nostalgically. When she cares for others' well-being, she overlooks her traits and is much more responsible.

Then there's the typical Japanese school girl syndrome about her, always late, apologizing profusely, and even her outfit looks a lot like a school uniform of a Japanese girl. All of this changes when she is reverted into her true form: Mu-12. In Chronophantasma, the experiences Noel has gone through have caused her to develop a new level of self-confidence and a determination to protect her friends.

The term Lacking Lady, by Taokaka, directed at Noel Vermillion, is one thing she can't seem to stand, though being called a boy or a man is worse. Each sets off a domino effect. The first makes her feel vulnerable and then ponder her role as a woman as she looks to other woman with bigger breasts. The second triggers a dormant volcano of emotion that is then directed at the person who makes the remark. When she is finally angry, she puts aside all shame and forlorn and builds up the confidence to abuse her title of position to call it, "Obstruction of Justice!"

Powers and Abilities
Noel appears to be a professional gunslinger, effectively wielding the Nox Nyctores, Bolverk with incredible effectiveness under the Drive, Chain Revolver. Bolverk appears as a pair of large-barrel handguns, though it can take on other forms. Her style of fighting is a direct reference to the fictional fighting style known as 'gunkata', in which the practitioner uses stylized moves using firearms with the conclusion of the battle involving clashing the hammers together. Unfortunately, the Bolverk is Noel's only mean of offense, becoming utterly helpless when stripped of it. Being the true successor of the Azure and the perfect Murakumo Unit, Noel can assume a stronger form and persona known as Mu-12.

Being awakened as "the Eye of the Azure" in Continuum Shift, Noel has gained the ability to see the distant and recent memories of people she touches, as seen with Carl Clover, Tsubaki Yayoi and Lambda-11.

In Continuum Shift, she has some new moves. Also, her aura during Chain Revolver is now colored black, the color of Ragna's Blood Kain (it was originally colored green in Calamity Trigger).

Noel, being a replica of Saya, is also shown to have inherited some of Saya's memories from her childhood, although the memories appear to be far more prominent in her than any of the other replicas known thus far.

Etymology
Noël is French for Christmas, from Latin nātālis ("birthday of the Lord"). It is a unisex name traditionally given to French children born near or on Christmas Eve. It can be inferred that Noel is named so because of her birthdate; December 25.

Vermillion is an alternate spelling for vermilion, a brilliant red scarlet pigment that is usually made from the powdered mineral cinnabar. The word vermilion came from the Old French word vermeillon, which was derived from vermeil, from the Latin vermiculus, the diminutive of the Latin word vermis, or worm. It has the same origin as the English word vermin. The name originated because it had a similar color to the natural red dye made from an insect, the Kermes vermilio, which was widely used in Europe.

It is unknown if her surname, Vermillion, is an intentional word play on her role in the story as she is the true successor to the Azure. Given that red is the opposite of blue, it may be one of the writers' ingenious antics.

Trivia

 * When Zero-Gun: Fenrir initial hit connects, causing to give an additional blow, she will yell: "Nemesis Stabilizer" (ネメシススタビライザー), implying that Nemesis Stabilizer is the name of Fenrir's Additional Blow.
 * She holds an inferiority complex about her breast size (this is referred to several times in gag sections and by Taokaka) and is comically obsessed with Lao Jiu, the panda that Litchi wears on her hair (even going as far as yelling "Hands off the panda!" when fighting her in the English version of the game).
 * Even though Noel hates Taokaka for calling her "Lacking Lady", she seems jealous of her breast size as well, as when she wins against her, she sometimes kneels down near her and says: "I can't believe yours are… so much… than mine!"
 * Noel's fighting style is what is known as a fictionalized style of weapon-handling known as 'gun-kata' which is borrowed wholesale from the movie Equilibrium.
 * In her sprites, and story mode artwork in Calamity Trigger, she is one of the only playable female characters not to have any undergarments that are directly shown, aside from Nu, who wears a full-body outfit when not in her battle form.
 * Noel's Distortion Drives and Astral Heat have names that allude to Norse mythology. Thor is a Norse god, Fenrir is a Norse wolf, and the Valkyrie is a Norse holy warrior. When using her Drive, Noel will shout out various runes from the old Norse alphabet. Her hidden Distortion in her Unlimited Mode, is also called Gungnir, the spear of Odin.
 * If Noel meets a lady with a smaller chest size than her, she feels that they can become great friends, as seen in her Help Me, Professor Kokonoe! section.
 * Of all three known Murakumo Units, Noel is the only one that is known to have the most partial memories of Saya's childhood, as well being the one that resembles her the most (even than Saya herself after her appearance at the end of Continuum Shift). This is hinted more in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, where she unconsciously calls Ragna "Brother (Nii-sama in Japanese)", and the lost memories that Nu had gotten access to after synchronizing with her hints that Noel had actually remembered about the events of Saya's childhood.
 * Despite them being usually referred to as revolvers (underlined by her drive, Chain Revolver, and her Revolver Blast move), Bolverk is actually a pair of pistols, not revolvers. However, in one prototype sketch of Noel seen in the Material Collection, she is seen wielding a pair of revolvers instead, along with a more gag-like approach where she wields Equilibrium-styled "Clericguns". Noel also tends to drop used bullets while finishing her Chain Revolver, the same as with revolvers and shotguns.
 * Noel and Nu were featured in a montage of characters who were voiced by their current voice actress, Cristina Valenzuela. The montage was drawn by Alex Ahad, art director from the fighting game Skullgirls.
 * Noel, along with Taokaka, has been drawn as fan art by the artist of the fighting game Skullgirls.
 * Noel_Vermillion_(Queen's_Gate,_Artwork).jpg Noel is featured as a playable character in the spin-off of Queen's Blade; Queen's Gate. She appears as the BlazBlue representative and is one of two Arc System Works characters (with Dizzy representing the Guilty Gear series).
 * Noel's cooking is notoriously atrocious, having been referred to as "Death Dinner" in BlazBlue: Remix Heart. It even incapacitates many who eat it. However, it seems that Hazama and Mai Natsume can tolerate Noel's dreadful cooking: Hazama is the only person who can stomach Noel's cooking in her gag ending, and he even compliments it, while Mai is able to enjoy Noel's cooking thanks to her supertaster ability, allowing her to taste Noel's innocence within the food. Noel shares her horrendous ability to cook with the woman she is based on - Saya.
 * Noel, as well as Ragna, Jin and Rachel, is a playable character in the MOBA game; Chaos Heroes Online.
 * Noel is featured in Lord of Vermillion Re: 2 as a playable character along with Ragna the Bloodedge and Jin Kisaragi.
 * Noel, alongside Makoto, will guide the player in Chronophantasma's Tutorial Mode, specifically through the classes Beginner- Offense and Beginner- Defense.