Hei

Hei
A.K.A.	The Black Reaper Li Shengshun Lee Heyonsik BK201
Age	19(or so he says)
Voice Actor	Kiuchi Hidenobu
Relatives	Bai
Series	Darker than Black
Player	Frank

• Name: Hei
• Character Tier: Tier 1
• Age: 19 he claims
• Sex: Male
• Birthday: Unknown
• Parents: Unknown
  • Place of Birth: Unknown
  • Nationality: Chinese (as Li Shengshun)
  • Hobbies: Astronomy
  • Likes: Eating
  • Dislikes: Losing loved ones
  • Favorite Food: Anything in large quantities
  • Least Favorite Food: Unknown
  • Most Valuable Possessions: Mask
  • Level of Education: Lifelong Assassin Training
  • Seiyuu/Voice Actor: Kiuchi Hidenobu

• Physical Stats
  • Height: 5'7"
  • Weight: 160lbs
  • Eyes: Dark blue.
  • Hair: Black
  • Special: Often wears a mask.

Appearance

Hei is a young man, with black hair and dark blue eyes. When off duty, Hei can be seen in the casual attire of a Chinese transfer student. When operating as a Contractor, however, Hei dons a black, bullet-proof trench coat and a white mask.

Personality

As a member of the Syndicate, Hei regularly takes on false identities and personas for his missions and day to day life, such as Li Shengshun (李舜生 (リ・シェンシュン), Ri Shengshun): a good-natured, timid Chinese exchange student who tries to help others but otherwise generally keeps to himself.

Hei is a calculating assassin. Unusually for a Contractor, Hei exhibits and sometimes acts upon emotions. Hei also has a huge appetite, often surprising people with how much he can eat. Despite having the power of a Contractor, Hei still has his human emotions. He deeply cares for his sister, Bai, and searches for her after her disappearance.

Background

Before he became a Contractor, Hei was a caring brother who looked after his little sister Bai. Despite his age Hei seemed to be the guardian of Bai. During a meteor shower his sister became a Contractor, with the ability to control and change matter on a molecular level, causing her to become the original BK-201. Soon after, Bai was recruited into the Syndicate. Although Hei hated killing, he did so anyway so as to be with his sister, and not view her as just a senseless killer. He became so good at fighting, that even before he obtained his Contractor power, he became known as "The Black Reaper".
During the "Heaven's War", Bai went missing with the rest of Hei's team. Hei then came into possession of Bai's power and took over as the new "BK-201". He continued to serve the Syndicate in hopes of finding out what happened in South America's Heaven's Gate, and more importantly what happened to his sister. Hei also has a past history with the leader of the Evening Primrose and former Syndicate co-worker, Amber.

[show details]

The Black ContractorEdit

While wearing his mask and coat, Hei comes face to face with Louis on a rooftop in Tokyo. He comments on the price he has to pay for his powers. When Louis attempts to throw his new opponent into the air, Hei uses cables to grab onto the railing and also onto Louis himself. This starts choking Louis, and he’s soon forced to the ground. The masked man wants to know about a stolen item, but Louis only knows that a woman has it. Hei then contacts a girl named Yin to ask about the police, and she tells him how close they are. Hei then grabs Louis’s head and kills him despite his other partner’s objection.[2]

The next morning Hei searches for his new apartment building under the alias of Chinese student named Li Shengshun. Li finds the place, but the landlady mistakes him for the repairman and has him fix her TV. He accomplishes this after hitting the TV a few times and a surge of electricity somehow fixes it. The landlady eventually shows him up to his room (coincidentally, the room's number is 201, the same number as Hei's star); though the two first run into his new neighbor, a woman named Haraguchi. She, however, doesn’t say anything to him and just leaves.[2]

Later that night Chiaki runs to a nearby park and finds Li there observing the starry night with his telescope. After he sees her and realizes that she’s being chased, he pushes her against the tree and kisses her so that the policemen only see what appears to be a couple kissing. Once the police are gone, Li panics and apologizes for what he did. She notices that he was looking at what she calls the fake stars and then realizes that he looks familiar. This causes Li to recognize that she’s Haraguchi and reintroduces himself, though she responds by thanking him and running off. Chiaki is then attacked by Jean. Jean attempts to knock her out with a chloroformed handkerchief, but before he succeeds, Jean is knocked out by Li. He tries to lead her away, but Chiaki thinks that he should run instead. As the two pass over a bridge, Jean suddenly materializes from a stone structure and punches Li. The force of the hit causes Li to stagger backwards to the railing, and Jean’s second punch knocks Li over and down right as a train is passing below. Having seen Jean’s Contractor abilities, Chiaki is powerless to his chloroformed handkerchief the second time around. She wakes up sometime later in a room with Jean and two other men. Chiaki then attempts to run away, but the door is locked, so she can’t get out. The lights suddenly go off, and the door surges with electricity before opening to allow Chiaki to escape. The men try to chase after her, but a black cat jumps out and into one of their faces. Chiaki runs a distance in the rain before she runs into Li again at a street corner. He catches her as she collapses onto the ground and holds her as she starts to cry.[2]

As Li carries Chiaki home, she tells him about how each shooting star signifies the death of a Contractor. On that day 10 years ago, the real starry sky disappeared and this fake sky took its place. She also tells him how her parents were killed in front of her by a contractor and tell him they are heartless beings, Li and Chiaki arrive back at her apartment, but they find that the inside has been ransacked. When Li tries to get her to change clothes and starts to leave for his own room next door, she clings to him because she doesn’t want to be left alone. Lying on the floor in Li’s dark room, Chiaki comments on how this room seems strange even though she should be used to the arrangement - it seems fake. Li offers to run away together and says that coming here and meeting her was fate, but the two soon get interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the metal walkway outside.[1]

Li and Chiaki get out of Li’s apartment and head to a restaurant in town where he reveals that he’s got an acquaintance who’s working in Macao foreign trade. She realizes that he wants to illegally enter China, but he also says that they need a lot of money for this. Since they don’t have that money, Chiaki thinks that they can sell some of the classified information she has instead. Because Li is still calling her Haraguchi, Chiaki finally tells him her real name - Shinoda Chiaki - and he formally introduces himself too. The waitress then brings an entire cart worth of food to their table, and Chiaki is shocked to find out that Li is going to eat it all. Starting to drink a little, she tells Li that he’ll get fat - he might be okay now, but he’ll definitely be fat by the time he turns 30. The two end up having a good laugh, however Chiaki suddenly stops when her eyes become lifeless for a moment. She returns to normal as soon as Li asks if she’s okay, though she then excuses herself to use the restroom. While she’s gone, the man sitting behind Li - one of his partners - warns him to quickly get what they’re after. Li then notices Jean’s two men are coming into the building, so he gets up and heads towards the bathroom. When Chiaki comes out, he rushes her towards the back, but the two of them still get seen by their enemies. Chiaki and Li take cover in the kitchen as one of their pursuers starts shooting with a gun, though Li manages to create a smoke screen by getting their enemy to shoot the flour. One of the men uses his power to explode a bag of large beans, causing them to fly at a high velocity in every direction. The beans kill the two chefs in the room, and they cut Li’s arm as he tries to escape out the back door. Blocking off the back entrance with a locker, Li buys himself some time as he runs off with Chiaki. By the time the two men go back out the front entrance and around to the rear, Li and Chiaki are gone. As the guy with the gun calls up Jean to report what happened, the other guy eats a dandelion claiming it is his price.[1]

Later Li and Chiaki are at the bottom of some stairs somewhere in the middle of the city. She bandages up his arm wound and blames herself for what happened. Chiaki thinks that it’s impossible for them to run away from their pursuers, but Li just places his hand on her cheek and notes how her tired face is like the dead. she places her head on his lap. Starting to talk about her past, Chiaki reveals that the thing she can’t forgive herself for is how the appearance of the Contractors charm her. She explains that the Contractor who killed her parents had still been a child, and although she could not see the child’s face, that sparkling became engraved into her mind because of how beautiful it was.[1]

Li suggests that it would have been better if she had lost her memory about the Contractor, but Chiaki feels that if she lost it, then she would lose herself. Eventually, she opens up the heel of her shoe to reveal a key and hands it to Li. As she’s doing so, she asks him if he has feelings that he cannot erase even though he wants to erase them. He responds by saying that Contractors are not humans - they are killing machines who wear human skins. To keep their risk at a minimum, they always kill witnesses, and Li feels that they are liars and traitors. The next day, the two take the train and eventually arrive at an area filled will coin-operated lockers. Chiaki’s key opens one of these lockers and inside is a book. Li, however, soon notices that Jean and his two men are coming after them, so they start hurrying away. On the street, he sees a police car and some officers in front of them, so he orders her to forget. She suddenly stops in her tracks and fall unconscious because of what he said, but Li continues walking. As the policemen rush to her side to help her, Jean and his goons keep chasing after Li. <[1]

Hei pulls out his black coat and puts it on before he stops to read the book. He finds it filled with blank pages, and by the time he’s finished flipping through it, Jean and company have caught up. They know that he’s a Contractor and have figured out that he’s the one who killed Louis. Chiaki appears at the other side of the empty lot that Hei is standing in and can’t believe what she just heard. In response, Hei reminds her of what he said about Contractors being liars. Jean remarks that the mouse has walked into a trap, and this causes Chiaki’s eyes to turn lifeless again. One of Jean’s men then raises his gun at Chiaki, so Hei gets in the line of fire to protect her, but the bullet ends up coming from behind him because Chiaki is the one who fires. After Hei falls to the ground, Jean explains that this woman is not Shinoda Chiaki, but rather a Doll with her memories. They were using her as a trap to lure out Hei. One of Jean’s men then shoots Hei a few more times in the back to finish him off. He comments on how easy it was, but Mao then speaks up and reveals that Hei’s jacket is bullet-proof.[1]

By the time the guy with the gun turns around to look at Hei again, Hei is already back up and tosses his cable at the guy’s throat. Hei pulls the guy in and uses his powers to kill him, so the black guy responds by exploding his dead comrade’s body. Hei manages to get out of the way and throws his cable at the black guy. He is only able to catch the black guy’s left arm, but that’s enough for him to use his power to kill the guy. Jean then attempts to use his matter-exchange teleportation power on Hei, but surprisingly, Chiaki gets in the way and gets her still-beating heart taken out instead. With his attack failed and his allies dead, Jean escapes by exchanging himself with water. Huang then arrives on the scene and wonders if this was a decoy too. When he asks why Hei didn’t kill the doll, Hei explains that she wasn’t a doll - she was alive. Huang nevertheless still thinks of her as a doll and of Contractors as killing machines. Their job isn’t done yet because Jean is still on the loose, so Mao has Yin track him down through her water-enabled sensing powers. Hei thus is able to find Jean quickly, and though Jean tries to swim further out into the water, it’s too late for him.[1]

Skills

Physical Skills:

• Alertness: Incredible
• Athletics: Amazing
• Stealth: Amazing

Social Skills:

• Subterfuge: Incredible
• Streetwise: Very Good
• Intimidation: Very Good
• Etiquette: Novice
• Performance: Very Good

Mental Skills:

• Computers: Novice
• Investigation: Very Good

Other Skills:

• Survival: Incredible
• Empathy: Good
• Cooking: Incredible
• Languages: English, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese.

Special Abilities

Peak Athlete: Hei's contract powers are especially useful because of his amazing agility, speed, endurance, dexterity, and natural strength.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Hei is obviously extremely skilled in martial arts and is an accomplished acrobat easily able to do backflips and mid-air cartwheels with little effort in terms of physical strain. Hei's natural abilities are so impressive that even without his contractor powers Hei is easily able to take on other contractors. A combination of these physical attributes coupled with what appears to be the most powerful contractor power as well as a lack of obeisance arguably makes Hei the strongest character in the series.

Powers & Merits

Contractor Power

Hei using his power.

Molecular/Electricity Manipulation: Hei possesses the ability to generate and discharge electricity through conductive media (i.e. he cannot discharge it through air or concrete) at sufficiently high amounts to kill grown men or short out a building's electrical systems. The power is more than simple electric shocks, as he can alter matter on the quantum level. He has shown the ability to transform integral particles on the quantum level. He is capable of special particle luminance, meaning he is able to change molecules similar to how humans are changed into contractors. This ability is also one of the most, if not the most, powerful and coveted powers known as it is the only one capable of altering gate particles at will. This ability is not actually his as he is really only human, but it was granted to him when his sister fused with him.
Hei can use this ability to turn machinery on or off (provided, of course, it is electrical), use it as a stungun, defibrillator, and in most other forms generally applied to electrcity. He cannot use it without a medium (meaning he can't fire lightning bolts), but he does not seem to have an upper limit, as he has been known to power up a whole amusement park in a few seconds.
Hei cannot be harmed by electricity. While he can be shocked and he can be hit with a backlash, it will cause no damage to him unless he lets it, or will is to, being able to use his powers as a defibrillator on himself. However, he can still be stunned or blown back by something electrical releasing force.

Obeisance: None. This inheritance means that Hei doesn't have an Obeisance unlike other contractors. The reason behind this is that he is actually a human who has fused with his sister a contractor, therefore he has no price to pay.

Unique Items

Nothing.

Items Of Note

Mask: Hei wears a white mask with a purple lightning symbol over the right eye.
Knife: His trademark weapon is a knife on a metal wire, which he uses as an offensive weapon, a grappling hook, or as a conduit through which to discharge his electricity.
Wire: In addition to using it with his knife, Hei also uses his wire with a carabiner attached to the end, which allows the wire to anchor to any object that it wraps around.
Black Trench Coat: Hei's long black trench coat is bullet proof and is often used as a shield.

Gallery

Hei is a well known figure among Contractors and in the Underworld. Several depictions of him exist.

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  The Black Reaper and his team in an alley.

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  The Black Reaper's eye.

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  The Black Reaper unmasking.

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  The Black Reaper's cracked mask.

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  The Black Reaper's Contractor Power.

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  Rare footage of the Black Reaper on a job.

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  The Black Reaper without his mask.

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  The Black Reaper.

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  Black Reaper Swinging.

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  Hei swinging his knife.

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  Hei's dark look.

Weaknesses & Flaws

Mao.

Powers: Hei's powers need contact or conductivity to function. He cannot alter physical laws or project electricity. Isolation will work against him, as will not being grounded.
Family: Threatening or hiding Hei's family or close friends is an easy way to make him your enemy, and to get him off his game CONSIDERABLY if he doesn't know where they are.

NPC(s) to go with char

Mao, a Black cat.
Yin, a Doll.