Kaina Tsutsumi,[1] known by her alias Lady Nagant,[2] is a former Villain and Pro Hero for the Hero Public Safety Commission.
She was freed from Tartarus by a riot caused by All For One in Tomura Shigaraki's body. She serves as one of the primary antagonists of the Dark Hero Arc.
After being convinced by Izuku Midoriya and Hawks, Lady Nagant sided with the Heroes during the Final War.[3] Following the war, Kaina was officially pardoned, but chose to remain in prison.[4] Eight years later, she has been released and is in retirement.[5]
Appearance#
Kaina is an adult woman with a muscular yet curvaceous build. She has short, jagged indigo hair with numerous pink streaks that is cut to chin level, paired with a set of crooked-shaped front bangs which separate in the middle of her forehead and prolong to her shoulders. She has fair skin along with light purple eyes with white pupils and thick brows. Occasionally, smoke is seen coming from Kaina's right elbow, likely being smoke emission from when she fires her Rifle Quirk.
Before working for the commission, Kaina's hair was more untidy and much longer. She had lopsided, off-center bangs curved inwardly at both sides of her face. Her hair extended down to just above her waist with numerous tufts pointing outward, followed with fairer skin, blushy cheeks, and a pair of widely-shaped purple eyes. She wore a fitting off-white sailors' seifuku with short sleeves, a pleated deep blue skirt, four navy blue buttons, and pinstriped trimming, complete with a knotted green ribbon at her collar. She also wore a bluish wrapping cloth around her right elbow.
As a Pro Hero, Kaina grew up to be a bright young woman with long, clumpy hair, which was hoisted up into a high ponytail and had thicker, longer frontal bangs which were evenly leveled. Her Hero Costume consisted of a sleeveless, dark high-collared jumpsuit with rumpled leggings and navy blue highlights. Two deep green plates cup the underside of her breasts, paired with matching knee guards, as well as a huge greenish-grey utility belt encircled at her hips. She also wore a blue scouter over her right eye.
Following her escape from Tartarus, Kaina had swapped the standard-issue prisons' uniform for that of a two-tone, dark violet turtleneck dress with no sleeves and a long, loose skirt which drapes down to her ankles. A lineup of three dark yellow studs vertically run below both sides of her armpits, matched with a thin golden trim that circles the ends of her skirt. She also wears a huge garnet-colored utility belt around her midsection, paired with sets of three dark yellow canisters embedded at the sides, where she stores her bullets. She followed with tall, pointed zip-up boots with black pinstripes and jet black toes and heels. In the anime, she also wears a pair of ebony black leggings, though they are commonly covered by her skirt.
During the Final War, Kaina returns after being detonated by All For One and now has two vertical scars running down both sides of her face, bisecting both her eyebrows. Her entire body was covered in bandages and she wore a blue hospital gown over the top of them.
Eight years after the war, Kaina has grown her hair down to shoulder length and she now wears circular frame glasses along with a purple dress.
Personality#
Kaina is a serious and disciplined woman who does not hesitate to hurt people to fulfill her mission or achieve her goals. She is direct and ruthless toward her adversaries, firing a warning shot at Izuku and threatening to dismember the young hero should he not come quietly. Outside of her stoic and cold-blooded attitude however, Kaina has a more casual and happier side that she shows on occasion. She proves to be quite fearless, not being intimidated upon being approached by All For One and even remarking over how she targeted him in the past.
In the past, Kaina had an optimistic outlook in her desire to be a great hero but was led down a dark path by her superiors, having been trained to kill villains and corrupt heroes, sometimes unjustly, who were threatening to disrupt the order in society. She assassinated criminals who the Hero Public Safety Commission wanted to have "disappear" rather than be handled by the proper legal process.
Kaina's repeated killings made her disillusioned, and she soon fell into a depressive state upon realizing that the Hero Commission maintains a fragile and hollow peace at the expense of others while hypocritically justifying that their actions are for the good of everyone. Upon seeing some young children in admiration over her, Kaina eventually reached her breaking point, realizing that the youth of society wholly admire Heroes and wish to become them while not being aware of the bloodshed behind the scenes. While reaching out to shake the hands of said children, she saw how bloodied her hand was and retracted it in horror, not wanting to pass said bloodshed on to them. Upon implying that she wished to leave her post and receiving a veiled threat to her life in response, Kaina finally snapped and killed her superior.
As All For One had declared, Kaina wishes to see the downfall of Hero Society, knowing just how corrupt it is underneath, and stated that the Symbol of Evil's rule would be preferable over the corrupt system she spent years serving under. She also shows pity to the victims of the heroic society, such as Kai Chisaki, yet is also willing to put his life in danger to distract and gain an advantage over Izuku, knowing how failing to save someone will weigh heavily on a hero's conscience.
Izuku, however, pointed out that Kaina wasn't serious about killing Kai because the trajectory of the bullet she fired at him was off, and he surmised she wasn't as supportive of All For One as she claimed to be because she could've easily fulfilled the contract to capture Izuku without engaging in battle. It is later proven that despite her low hopes and cynical view of society, she still cares about doing what's truly right in the end and that she became a hero with the good intention of helping others. After witnessing Izuku's skill and resolve in battle, as well as how he managed to save both Kai and her with no hesitation, Kaina deems Izuku to be a true hero.[6]
Through the words of Izuku and Hawks, Kaina gains the resolve to stand against the villains. Even after being mortally injured, she managed to reveal All For One's location to the heroes, albeit she didn't know that it was a trap.[7] During the Final War, she willingly put herself at risk to aid Izuku during his battle against Tomura Shigaraki, despite being warned that she could die given her condition, and states that Izuku and Hawks had reminded her of the hope she wanted to represent as a hero. Even when her wounds reopened, Kaina remained determined and used the last of her strength to snipe Tomura, giving Izuku enough time to recover and continue his fight.[3]
Following the Final War, Kaina is officially pardoned for her crimes, but despite that, chooses to remain in prison out of fear of being exploited again. Kaina tells Hawks that she wishes to see how society will change in response to Izuku and the rest of the Heroes' efforts, joking that the taxpayers will be covering her meals in the meantime.[8] Sometime after this, Kaina leaves and is finally free to choose her own future, happily living a new life while occasionally receiving visits from Hawks and Izuku.[5]
Abilities#
Overall Abilities: Kaina is an exceptionally strong woman, with skills even recognized by All For One, the most powerful villain in Japan, and feared by Hawks, the former No. 2 Pro Hero. Having served as an assassin for the Hero Public Safety Commission, Kaina took out many villains during her time and was revered as a sniper rifle in human form, being admired and envied by Heroes with long-ranged Quirks all over Japan. Being Hawks' senior, she also went through similar training as the commission's Pro Hero agent and harnessed a vast number of skills while working for them, which made locating her Hawks' top priority. Aware of her deadly skills, Hawks warned Izuku to drop everything and flee if she had him in her sights.[2]
- Enhanced Marksmanship: Kaina is considered the country's best long-range fighter. Even Snipe, a prominent Pro Hero with a Quirk that improves his ranged attacks, admits that he can't hope to compete with her, as she far outclasses his Quirk with raw skill alone. Her skill is so great that she was able to hit Deku from over a kilometer away, despite it being night-time and raining heavily, as well as her target's greatly enhanced speed and ability to detect danger.[2] She was able to land a hit while moving in mid-air with her rifle pointed behind her back, and Deku freely admitted without Danger Sense he would have been a goner.[9]
- Enhanced Eyesight: Kaina seemingly has enhanced eyesight levels, effortlessly hitting targets up to 3 kilometers away without any visible scope. Her sight is seemingly unaffected by either darkness or weather conditions, such as heavy rainfall.
- Enhanced Stamina: Kaina possesses remarkable endurance, as she survived internal detonation and remained conscious enough to tell the heroes about All For One's plan.
- Enhanced Durability: Kaina displayed remarkable durability, with the doctors at Central Hospital surprised that she had managed to survive internal detonation. However, even after recovering somewhat, her scars hadn't fully healed yet, and the strain of firing her rifle caused them to worsen and bleed.
Quirks#
Rifle: Kaina's Quirk allows her to extend a rifle from her right elbow. She loads bullets into the rifle through a hole in her palm. Her firing range is 3 kilometers. Additionally, she can increase the velocity of her shots by dramatically increasing the rifles power output, causing the gun barrel to expand and bulge out, though this does risk the gun jamming.[6]
She can also extend a tendril from her rifle that she can curl up to form a scope.
Rifle also allows her to pluck strands of her bi-colored hair, which she can twist and mold like Epoxy putty and harden to create various types of bullets (such as hollow-point bullets and curving bullets) that are as strong as any ammo. These hair bullets are capable of recording her voice and replaying the message after they hit.
Air Walk: Kaina's second Quirk allows her to levitate and jump in mid-air. She primarily uses this Quirk in tandem with her Rifle Quirk, allowing her to quickly change sniping positions and chase after her target, greatly expanding the range of her shots. Kaina received this Quirk from All For One, who gave it to her as a form of payment for going after Izuku.
Unnamed Self-Destruct Quirk: All For One is able to detonate Kaina's body from afar, creating a massive explosion and leaving her charred. All For One secretly gave this to Kaina as a contingency in the event that she changed her mind about helping him.[7] It is unknown whether or not All For One has some degree of control over this transferred Quirk, or if he used a different Quirk to make Kaina detonate.
Battles & Events#
Paranormal Liberation War Arc Paranormal Liberation War Assault on Tartarus Dark Hero Arc Deku vs. Lady Nagant
Chapter Appearances#
debut
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
m
flash
m
flash
m
flash
m
yes
yes
yes
flash
flash
yes
yes
Anime Appearances#
debut
yes
yes
yes
yes
flash
flash
m
yes
yes
yes
flash
yes
yes
flash
yes
Trivia#
- Lady Nagant's given name means "fire", "Italy, that one", and "what". Her surname contains the characters of "gun barrel" and "beautiful".
- Her given name is also pronounced the same way as the archaic Japanese word for "arm".
- Kaina's alias "Lady Nagant" name may be a reference to the Soviet (Ukrainian) sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, nicknamed "Lady Death", who served in the Red Army during World War II and is accredited with 309 confirmed kills. Pavlichenko is known to have used a sniper variant of the Mosin–Nagant, a military rifle first developed in the late 1800s still used in conflicts in the present day.
- Kaina's prisoner number was 656698.
- Kohei Horikoshi stated that her skill in curving bullets was directly inspired from Angelina Jolie's role as Fox in Wanted.
- Kaina likes pretty and cute things.[1]
- Kaina is the second known villain in the series to be a former Pro Hero, after Slidin' Go.
- Despite possessing three Quirks, Kaina has yet to display any of the drawbacks associated with having multiple Quirks.
Quotes#
- (To Izuku) "This superpowered society is a gilded daydream seen through rose-colored glasses. But it's paper-thin. A fragile illusion. Say you bring back the status quo. Then what? History will just repeat itself. The public gets to stargaze at the bright and shiny side... while the dark truth gnaws away at someone else. At least a future ruled by All For One... will be a helluva lot more transparent."[10]