Bullet

Bullet (バレット) is a mercenary and a playable character in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma.

Appearance
Bullet’s physical appearance is that of a young woman with white hair, golden eyes, dark skin, large breasts and a scar across her nose. She wears a black jacket with a white zipper tee and torn-up demin short shorts (jokingly called by a few characters as “hot pants”), along with knee high brown boots with black heels, yellow-outlined straps and white metal-toes. A single belt crosses her waist with considerable length that has its tail end point out from her left-to-her right from behind, and she has a gauntlet-like weapon on her arms.

In one of her win animations, she quickly undoes the zipper on her white T-shirt as she spins while taking off her black jacket and stands to her defeated opponent while handling her jacket over her shoulders as her strapless black bra is now seen. The black bra she wears is similar to Litchi’s.

As a child, her appearance is almost identical to her adult self, except she had shorter hair, she wore a short, white bra-like top with a short, black vest, and wore dark brown leather gloves.

Personality
Likely due to her upbringing, Bullet behaves in a very militaristic and literal manner, taking an aggressive approach to almost everything. In Story Mode, she frequently becomes impatient when things aren’t progressing as quickly as she expected and becomes increasingly hostile as a result, threatening a civilian when he began panicking during her attempt to interrogate him for information. During her brief travel with Bang, he noted how she was rather solitary and constantly on alert. She even has trouble smiling or laughing, only able to do so when Bang tries to humor her, only for her to laugh due to how hard he’s trying instead of the joke itself; this is actually taken to its extremes in her gag scenario.

Underneath her icy and militaristic attitude, Bullet is actually good-hearted; being able to become relatively close with Bang Shishigami. However, since her usual demeanour is unusually ill-tempered and antisocial, most of the cast are generally unaware of her softer side. Also Bullet admires authority figures who show strong audacity, leadership and tough love (as seen by Litchi who temporarily mimicked being a drill sergeant).

Bullet has very little experience in anything that isn’t related to combat, warfare or her own personal history. She doesn’t feel ashamed of her outfit even when other characters consider her costume to be very revealing, this is mainly because Bullet doesn’t even know what is 'normal' attire and is loyal to wearing her military uniform (even rescuing her outfit from inside a garbage truck when Litchi stole it in a gag scenario). Bullet also seems unaware about her attractive figure, even when rude characters make direct references to her (Tao calling her “Butt Lady” and Ragna calling her “Butt Floss”). In “Teach Me, Miss Litchi”, she is oblivious to and confused by Kagura’s sexist and perverted comments throughout most of the episode. Yet while Bullet has no shame in her own appearance she has, in a hypocritical manner, criticized the sexual outfits of other characters like Makoto and Platinum.

Bullet is also shown to be slightly racist towards beastmen, this is shown in her Arcade battle against Valkenhayn, where she asks him if he knows where Kokonoe is due to the both of them being beastmen. As well as this, she also remarks how she won’t hold back against a non-human who smells of blood. However, in her win quote against Makoto Nanaya, she shows no real qualities of harboring racist tendencies, yet, this does not stop her antagonizing the race in her search for Kokonoe.

History
Bullet is a member of a mercenary troop who appears to be against the 7th Agency, due to an incident in the past involving 7th Agency which led to the deaths of her squad mates. Having been raised by mercenaries since she was young, she fights from one battlefield to another. The incident in question is the retrieval of the Arch-Enemy Event Weapon, Machine God: Nirvana from the 4th Hierarchical City of Naobi; an event orchestrated by Relius Clover. While originally thought that Nirvana was the one who decimated Bullet’s mercenary troop and the squad sent by 7th Agency, in reality, it was the Mad Dog; Azrael.

She dislikes Amane Nishiki as he was once brought in to the squad to teach them how to fight, but he had taught them how to dance instead, since he had mistaken the word “troop” (部隊) for “troupe” (舞台).

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma
After having traversed Ikaruga for sometime, Bullet runs into Valkenhayn; however, the two begin a sour relationship as Bullet makes racist remarks towards him, questioning him on Kokonoe’s whereabouts due to him being a beastman like her. In response, Valkenhayn coldly tells her that he wouldn’t tell her any information even if he could. Bullet, believing that he actually knows about Kokonoe’s whereabouts, tries to forcefully get the information from Valkenhayn, commenting that she doesn’t like fighting those much older than her, but that she won’t hold back against someone who is drenched in the smell of blood, especially a beastman. They engage in combat but it is cut short as Rachel Alucard calls for Valkenhayn to come to her side; before he leaves, he comments that he has seen her fighting style before but he has forgotten where. Valkenhayn promptly leaves before Bullet can ask what he meant by those words; she begins to try and hunt him down in the hope that she may find some answers.

Desperately trying to track down Valkenhayn, Bullet instead runs into Tager, prompting him to ask what she is doing; dumbfounded by her luck, Bullet asks for Kokonoe. Tager comments on how she expects him to answer that question but instead, Kokonoe answers it; Kokonoe asks for Bullet’s name and Bullet replies her name and begins asking about the Machine God: Nirvana retrieval event in the 4th Hierarchical City of Naobi from five years ago, a mission which her squad where hired to partake in for 7th Agency. Kokonoe answered, lying that she didn’t know very much on the operation, only that Nirvana was found and retrieved; Bullet began to comment on how Relius Clover seemingly planned the entire operation and was the person responsible for hiring her squad, and revealing that the only reason that she is alive is because she was wounded prior to the operation and couldn’t participate. Angered by the truth of her survival, Bullet demanded to know who the other survivor of the operation is, only to have Kokonoe lie, and say that the person had actually died in combat but Bullet refused to acknowledge what had just been said. Getting sick of having her time wasted, and knowing that Bullet was digging into truths that she desired to be hidden; Kokonoe ordered Tager to remove Bullet. However, the shock of what he just heard had been nothing short of a blow to Tager and he asked Kokonoe to repeat the order; unable to concentrate, Tager engaged Bullet, but the fight was cut short as the ground began to shake, open up and swallow them both whole.

Arriving in the area around the Kiln of Ibukido, Bullet wonders where Tager disappeared to, but the time spent wondering is cut short once again as Nu-13 descends into the arena and begins to activate. Hazama looks on at the two combatants and comments on how a “strange” person got caught in the trap. Realizing that Bullet must be someone of some importance in the game that Hades: Izanami is playing, Hazama commands Nu to play with Bullet; confused and not sure of what else to do, Bullet readies herself to fight the Murakumo Unit. Shortly after the fight, Amaterasu rewinded time to the point where Bullet arrived in Ikaruga; all of the events that happened became nothing more than a blurry memory.

Arriving in Ikaruga once more, Bullet proceeded to search for some information, arriving to find Amane Nishiki a little while later. Bullet, barely recognizing the man from ten years prior, told him the tale of how a man, almost identical in appearance to Amane, was hired to be an instructor for her mercenary unit; instead of being taught to fight, however, the troops were forced to endure three solid days of learning an oriental dance, with the instructor leaving, exclaiming “It’s the wrong troop!”. Amane commented on the instructors mistake, pointing out how he may have become confused “troupe” with “troop”, Amane then further asked if the instructor looked like him, earning Bullet’s nod of acknowledgement; Amane confessed that it was indeed him and the two engaged as Bullet’s anger rose to boiling levels. After the fight, Amane left, commenting on Bullet’s strength as he did so. The mercenary pulled out a coin and flipped it afterwards; heads to hunt down Kokonoe, tails to hunt down Relius Clover; the coin landed heads and Bullet ventured deeper into Ikaruga.

A few days later, Bullet is seen resting somewhere underneath Wadatsumi castle, taking time to further plan her next few days in searching for leads; this was until she was interrupted by, a falling, Bang Shishigami. Marveled at how he managed to survive such a massive fall, she wondered closer to him, however, an extremely disorientated Bang proceeded to attempt to embrace Bullet as he mistook her for Litchi Faye Ling in his disconcerted state, earning him a swift blow to the face and knocking him out of consciousness.

After Bang awoke from his state, not being able to recognize who pummeled him earlier, he and Bullet conversed, each asking about the goals they had. Eventually, it came to be that Bang and Bullet began travelling together in a quest for Relius.

Around this time, Bullet experienced flashbacks of a few days before her encounter with Bang and after her encounter with Amane; having battled Azrael after he recognized her units emblem on her clothing. Being unable to best the Mad Dog, she escaped using a smoke grenade, proceeding to enter the 6th Hierarchical City of Yabiko a little while after. While in Yabiko, Bullet found Litchi Faye Ling near the Rail Station and attempted to interrogate her, however, Bullet’s short fuse quickly burnt out and the two began to battle, with Litchi eventually turning away to run, fearing that she may have been causing too much danger to the general public. In turn, Bullet proceeded to chase her down, but lost her at some point in the 8th Hierarchical City of Wadatsumi, where she soon became acquainted with Bang.

During her travels with Bang, the two became good friends, with Bang failing to make her laugh with his horribly delivered jokes, but succeeding with his belly dance (with Bullet instead laughing at the nature of his attempts, not the dance itself). The two then began to venture back into Yabiko where, after Bang and Bullet both failed to get information from the general population, they encountered Arakune. The two hunted down the liquid magic element until they arrived to the Kiln underneath the 5th Hierarchical City of Ibukido; striking gold as the encountered Relius Clover. However, their joy was cut short as Makoto Nanaya, Kagura Mutsuki, Litchi and Kokonoe arrived as well. It was soon after this point that Amaterasu rewinded time yet again, with Bullet’s kinship with Bang being lost in the erased time.

In the new timeline, Bullet entered a restaurant within Ikaruga and encountered Ragna the Bloodedge and Taokaka. Taokaka, being herself, began to slander Bullet’s choice of clothing, remembering the mercenary as “Butt Lady”, igniting the short fuse that Bullet has; when she begins to defend herself and attacks Ragna, he joins in on denigrating her. Instead of choosing to fight in a crowded area, Bullet gives him a straight warning and advises him on learning her name. After Ragna’s battle with Nu-13, time was rewound for the fourth, and final time.

In the final timeline created by Amaterasu, Bullet entered the same restaurant she did in the latter timeline, encountering Ragna once more, however, due to the Blue Grimoire becoming more unstable, Ragna’s soul began remembering the battle with Nu, bringing him uncontrollable agony; both Tao and Bullet attempted to help Ragna but he pushed them aside, startling Bullet as he called her by name, further adding to his confused state.

In the battle of Ragna the Bloodedge, Bullet entered in the hopes of being able to encounter Kokonoe and Kagura Mutsuki. She swiftly beat the majority of her opponents and was to be pitted against a challenger named Bob; even Rachel Alucard, believed that Bullet would win, complementing her battle style. However, this was to be false hope, as Bob, and every other contestant, was promptly beaten and replaced by Azrael as he entered to appease his yearning for more “meals”. Azrael acknowledged the units crest on Bullet’s clothing and the two fought. Bullet, however, was at an extreme disadvantage as the presence of Celica Ayatsuki Mercury nullified the magic element in the area, making Bullet’s Magic Formula weak, yet not having any affect on the non-magic element dependent Azrael. He began to physically destroy Bullet, breaking both her legs and at least one of her arms; unable to watch anymore, Ragna jumped into the fray as Bullet was evacuated out of the vicinity. Bullet was later healed by Celica after the tournament but her whereabouts became unknown soon afterwards.

Powers and abilities
Bullet wields gauntlets on her arms named Smash Hell (スマッシュ・ヘル), which she uses as armor to block attacks. But their main function is to create fireballs that she uses in some of her attacks. Yet these fireballs cannot act as projectiles unless Bullet fires them at the ground. Her Astral Heat shows that this weapon can expand into a larger mode, which acts like a piston: crushing down on her opponent with a full blast of heat.

Despite her powerful weapon, most of Bullet’s attacks involve her own physical strength. While she’s obviously weaker than characters like Tager or Azrael, she is strong enough to defeat other BlazBlue characters with her strength. This physical power is combined with her unique fighting style, which focuses on combos, agility, and brutality. Bullet is so vicious that she aims many of her strikes at an enemy’s face or neck. Because of her lack of projectiles, Bullet focuses on rushing at an enemy at close range and then thrashing them to submission. Yet despite her fast strikes, Bullet’s running speed isn’t as superhuman as other characters like Bang or Taokaka.

Bullet’s Drive is Lock On (ロックオン). Drive attacks will allow her to quickly rush at her opponent and grab them, provided that she is close enough to the opponent; all her Drive attacks can be blocked however, as they are only command grabs. For every successful grab, Bullet can gain a Heat Up level which increases her Drive strength, her projectile distance and her movement speed; up to two Heat Up levels can be gained and each level is lost over a certain period of time; when she lands an unsuccessful Drive attack or when she uses a projectile.

During her Overdrive, Heat the Beat (ヒート・ザ・ビート), Bullet is temporarily in an infinite “Heat Up” state.

Trivia

 * Bullet’s birthday, August 2, is Pants Day in Japan.
 * Her move set naming theme is military and fire.
 * Bullet can get caught off guard when romance is involved, shown in the Teach Me, Miss Litchi! segment where she becomes confused when Kagura attempts to flirt with her and again when Ragna is subjected to the Popularity Glasses A where she tries various approaches she read in a book.
 * Nu-13 rates Bullet’s combat ability at B+.
 * Despite Bullet’s slightly racist views on beastmen, it seems at least one member of her team was a beastman.