Askin Nakk Le Vaar

Askin Nakk Le Vaar is a Quincy and a member of the Wandenreich’s Sternritter with the designation D: The Deathdealing. He is notable for being the only lower-ranking Sternritter promoted to Yhwach's elite guard, the Schutzstaffel. His signature ability, The Deathdealing, allows him to manipulate the lethal dose of any substance he touches, making normally harmless elements like blood or air fatal to his opponents. He can rapidly build immunity to these effects, effectively granting him a powerful healing factor and resistance to environmental hazards. In combat, Askin utilizes a Heilig Bogen (spirit bow) and his Vollständig, Hasshein (God's Poison Sight), which enhances his poison manipulation and grants him flight. He is characterized by a calm, eccentric personality and a tendency to act cowardly or lazy to lower his enemies' guards, preferring to kill through calculated poison rather than direct confrontation. Askin is a tall, slim, and fair-skinned man. His black hair is neck-length and slicked back, save for a strand that falls into his face, down to his mouth; Askin's face possesses high cheekbones, lavender eyes, kinky eyebrows, and full lips. Askin's Sternritter attire consists of a light-gray, ribbed, V-neck collar over his chest, which sits above (or is part of) Askin's long-sleeved shirt; the latter is white with a gray-ribbed hem that, on a front overlap, holds a gray disc brooch (pink in the colored manga). Above Askin's left wrist is a trio of bracers (magenta, pink, and orange) with ringed, disc-shaped knobs of gray (pink in the manga) color, one bearing a Quincy Zeichen, from which Askin draws his Heilig Bogen. Askin's lower wear consists of white harem pants with the same gray ribbing, tucked below the knees into black boots that feature gray soles, pointed toes, and knobbed hoops for decoration. Prior to his Schutzstaffel promotion, Askin would don a white Wandenreich cloak with a standing collar, lapels, and buttons marked with the empire's emblem (which is also emblazoned on the cloak's back). When brought to the Soul King Palace as part of Yhwach's guard, Askin swaps his cloak for a hooded one with a large, red Hagal rune on the left front. Askin later forgoes the cloak during the battle on Wahrwelt, wherein his shirt is eventually burned off, leaving only the collar on Askin's upper body. Askin is an eccentric man with a calm, laid-back disposition. He has a tendency to procrastinate and to not actively engage in a fight, favoring a more leisurely approach to observing his enemies while making playful banter at them[14] or having a picnic in the midst of a battlefield, while spectating a fellow Sternritter's fight through binoculars.[15] Askin is particularly fond of drinking café au lait and carries some with him in a thermos at all times.[16][17][18][19] Askin maintains a casual yet polite tone with allies and enemies alike, even introducing himself by name to the latter[20] and making small talk with them.[14][21][22][23] For unknown reasons, Askin's Quincy peers only address him by his last name, Nakk Le Vaar (even Gerard Valkyrie, who calls the other Schutzstaffel members by their given names).[24][25][26] At times Askin can be sarcastic, telling Bazz-B that he seemed calm after interrupting his attack on Haschwalth,[27] or downright condescending, such as questioning the intelligence of the SRDI scientists.[28] Askin has a self-deprecating sense of humor and is talkative to a fault: especially during battle he tends to go on long spiels about himself, his powers and inability to die (which he calls shameful), or the "fatal" mistakes of his opponents once they are hopelessly under The Deathdealing's influence;[29][30][31][32][33][34][23] Askin's catchphrase is "That's fatal" (致命的(だぜ), Chimei-teki (daze)), in reference to his Schrift.[35][36][37][38][39][19][40][41] Wanting to project the air of someone who is calm at all times, Askin dislikes using tough-sounding words, claiming that doing so betrays one's lack of control.[42] Even so, Askin is not completely aloof and can be shaken, such as being intimidated by Yhwach's eldritch appearance following his absorption of the Soul King[43] and panicking when Yhwach's power threatened the destruction of the Soul King Palace. Askin's MO in battle is to put on the act of a cowardly, ineffectual underling, at times even running away mid-battle, in order for his opponents to drop their guard and leave themselves vulnerable. In this regard, Askin is self-aware and claims to embrace the fact that he comes across as a weakling, exploiting the false impression he gives to gain the upper hand in his fights.[45][37][46][47][48][49][50] If faced with an enemy whom he deems troublesome[51] or a bad matchup for The Deathdealing,[37] Askin attempts to avoid engaging them. By his own admission, he is bad at dealing with finicky details and prefers his fights to finish quickly, hence dodging a confrontation against Mayuri Kurotsuchi after deciding that he would be too complicated to take on; still, Askin attempts to bait Mayuri into a trap as he leaves, highlighting his deceitful nature.[52] Askin is indolent and slow to involve himself in action.[46][47] Even when he does enter combat he remains cautious, not being one to reveal his powers carelessly[53] or underestimate his opposition. When unsure of his enemy's powers he will keep his distance, and even when falling victim to a disturbing ability he can keep a relatively cool head, something that was commended by Kisuke Urahara.[54] Askin aims to kill stealthily if possible[55] and is averse to head-on "power-versus-power" battles.[56] He also takes pride in his fighting style and firmly believes in adhering to it no matter what: namely to rely entirely on lethal doses to "elegantly" kill off opponents. As a rule, Askin eschews crude methods like choking to death those incapacitated by his Schrift, being visibly annoyed when others suggest he employ such tactics and telling Yoruichi Shihōin that women like her and Bambietta Basterbine are more suited to do so.[57] Stressing the importance of style, Askin also defines a woman's value not by superficial attributes like beauty, but instead by her style and presentation.[58] Unlike most Sternritter, Askin acts cordial towards his enemies, never resorting to insults or belittlement, and readily hands out praise to those who impress him.[59][60][61][62] During their confrontation he comes to greatly respect Urahara for his intellect and resourcefulness,[63][64] and even when ultimately brought down in a surprise attack, through external intervention on Urahara's behalf, Askin takes his defeat in stride, even complimenting Urahara with his dying breath.[65] As intuited by Urahara, Askin does not serve Yhwach out of pure loyalty, despite Askin's sarcastic insistence that he is "about twice as loyal as a Pomeranian". In his own words, Askin follows the Quincy King because he finds him "interesting" and harbors a deep curiosity about what will become of the Three Worlds once they are destroyed and remade in Yhwach's image; though Askin admits to liking Urahara's retort that scientists like he or Mayuri would prefer creating change themselves, Askin insists that he himself would rather see what Yhwach will make of the world. The Deathdealing (致死量ザ・デスディーリング, Za Desudīringu; Japanese for "Lethal Dose"): Askin's Schrift grants him precise control over lethal doses. After taking a particular substance into his body (usually by ingestion), Askin can then calculate its "perfect lethal dose" (完全致死量, kanzen chishiryō) — how much of that substance will 100% cause death — and adjust that value however he sees fit. By lowering lethal doses, Askin can make normally harmless or even vital substances (like blood, Reishi, or select chemical elements like oxygen and nitrogen) become deadly "poison" to enemies around him, killing or incapacitating them without needing to attack head-on; for example, by drinking blood, Askin can make opponents be killed by the very blood coursing through their veins. On the other hand, by drastically raising the lethal dose of a harmful substance or energy he absorbs (including an enemy's Reiatsu), Askin can develop an "immunity" to it, such that he becomes completely invulnerable to his enemies' powers following sufficient exposure to their attacks. Poisoning (中毒, Chūdoku): By lowering the lethal dose of a substance that enemies are exposed to or hold within their bodies (like blood or Reishi), Askin can make it fatal to them, pushing said enemies towards death. This "poisoning" effect seems to be faster the more Askin ingests of the target substance, and by decreasing the lethal dose of something vital like blood, he can make death all but certain — e.g., Askin may poison his opponent with their own blood so that, if they bleed themself to go back below the lethal dose, they instead die of blood loss. However, particularly strong opponents take considerably longer to be disabled or killed and may require extra-thorough poisoning, due to their high endurance. In order to facilitate the effects of his Schrift, Askin can release a tangible "poison" from his body that appears as a purple-violet (or green) miasma, and which he may either launch as projectiles or expand over the battlefield to make whoever touches it near-instantly succumb to his Schrift's effects.