Le Majeur

Le Majeur is a supporting character in Rei Hiroe’s Black Lagoon and an informal new member of the Lagoon Company. Her real name has never been revealed. “Le Majeur” is a French codename meaning “the middle finger,” reflecting her former position in Les Cinq Doigts—“The Five Fingers”—a five-woman covert-action unit whose members were named after the fingers of the hand. Japanese by birth, she later moved to France and became a French national before entering the country’s clandestine world as an assassin connected to the Service d’Action Civique. Les Cinq Doigts performed deniable operations outside ordinary government oversight, principally to preserve French influence in Africa. Majeur is a slim, pale-skinned woman with dark hair usually worn in two upward-swept ponytails resembling rabbit ears. During her first appearance, she wears the same black bullet-resistant business suit as the other Fingers and carries a Jericho pistol. Concealed beneath her formal clothing is an elaborate irezumi-style tattoo extending across her back, shoulders and upper arms. She later loses her left eye after being shot by one of her comrades and begins wearing an eyepatch. After settling in Roanapur, she replaces her government-issued weapon with a Mitchell Arms pistol selected at Praiyachat’s gun shop. Before coming to Roanapur, Majeur participated in a disastrous operation in Nigeria to locate an African operative known as “La Mouche.” The mission relied upon unreliable intelligence supplied by the unit’s leader, Le Pouce. The original L’Auriculaire—whom Majeur regarded much like a younger sister—was killed during the operation. Majeur came to believe that Le Pouce had knowingly treated the woman as expendable, destroying her trust in her commander and creating a bitter fracture within Les Cinq Doigts even after a replacement L’Auriculaire was recruited. Les Cinq Doigts later travel to Roanapur after receiving information that La Mouche is a towering Black man connected to anti-French activity in Africa. Their indiscriminate search leads them to interrogate and murder several Black men throughout the city, including people associated with its major criminal organizations. Their evidence increasingly points toward Dutch, whose claimed past as an American Vietnam veteran consequently comes under suspicion. Majeur remains deeply skeptical of Le Pouce’s intelligence, fearing that the unit is repeating the mistakes that caused the Nigerian disaster. During a firefight at an antique shop, Majeur is captured by Revy, Shenhua and their allies. Rock recognizes the hostility between her and the other Fingers and offers her a way out: help Roanapur eliminate the unit and earn a chance to survive. Majeur accepts, returns to her comrades and convinces them that La Mouche will appear at a nightclub. Dutch serves as the bait while Balalaika and the Vysotniki wait inside to spring the trap. Once the ambush begins, the remaining Fingers realize Majeur has betrayed them. The replacement L’Auriculaire pursues her and shoots her directly through the left eye, but Majeur survives. Les Cinq Doigts are gradually wiped out in the ensuing battle, and Majeur ultimately confronts Le Pouce. When her former commander admits that she had anticipated the betrayal and continued manipulating those around her, Majeur shoots her dead, severing her final connection to the organization. Survival does not make Majeur free. She is brought before a council consisting of Balalaika, Mister Chang and Ronnie the Jaws to answer for Les Cinq Doigts’ killings. Ronnie wants her executed, arguing that someone who betrayed her own unit cannot be trusted. Rock counters that her training and intelligence make her valuable, while Revy unexpectedly stakes her reputation on Majeur and offers to place her under Lagoon Company supervision. Balalaika agrees to spare her on the condition that Majeur become an outside asset of Hotel Moscow and report whenever she is summoned. She is therefore protected and employed by Lagoon Company, but a portion of her life still belongs to Balalaika. Revy takes responsibility for helping Majeur establish herself in Roanapur. She introduces her to a forger for new identity papers, brings her to a doctor to treat her destroyed eye and helps her select a new handgun. Dutch then tests her suitability for Lagoon Company work by examining her seamanship and ordering her to swim from the Black Lagoon to the large Buddha statue in Roanapur Bay and back. Majeur completes the exhausting swim and passes, becoming the closest thing Lagoon Company has had to a fifth operative. Despite her profession, Majeur is not emotionally numb. She is observant, pragmatic and capable of killing without hesitation, but she is also sensitive, deeply affected by betrayal and fiercely attached to the few people she trusts. Her grief over the original L’Auriculaire reveals that her hatred of Le Pouce is rooted as much in wounded loyalty as in self-preservation. She also possesses a more casual side through her love of music, listening to Japanese television themes as well as Western pop songs. Unlike most of Roanapur’s gunfighters, she does not smoke. Her habit of addressing Revy as “sis” reflects the unusual bond that develops between them. Revy behaves as a demanding older mentor, teaching her Roanapur’s unwritten survival rules while refusing to coddle her. Majeur, in turn, increasingly treats Revy as someone dependable—an older-sister figure fundamentally different from the manipulative commander she followed in Les Cinq Doigts. Revy’s willingness to accept personal responsibility for her is ultimately what gives Majeur a place in the city. By the current manga storyline, Majeur continues operating alongside Lagoon Company while fulfilling Balalaika’s orders whenever required. During Hotel Moscow’s conflict with Los Soldados, she is assigned to defend one of Balalaika’s casinos before joining Revy and Eda in pursuing the cartel gunmen who flee with Rock. Her status remains precarious: Lagoon Company has provided employment, companionship and the possibility of a new identity, but Hotel Moscow can still call her into potentially lethal service at any time. Le Majeur’s story is ultimately that of a professional killer escaping one hierarchy only to enter another. She betrays Les Cinq Doigts to survive, yet her decision is not motivated solely by cowardice. She has recognized that the unit’s supposed loyalty was fraudulent and that Le Pouce regarded its members as disposable tools. Through Revy and Lagoon Company, she receives her first genuine opportunity to decide what kind of person she will become. Whether Roanapur can offer her real freedom—or merely a more tolerable form of servitude—remains unresolved. Majeur is a young Japanese woman of French nationality with a skinny build, pale skin, and short black hair in two rabbit-style twin tails. She wears a bullet-resistant black pantsuit. Later on, her left eye was shot by one of her comrades, resulting in her wearing a white medical eyepatch over her left socket onward from that incident. On her back and upper biceps, she has a large tattoo with a design related to the kabuki play Aoto Zōshi Hana no Nishikie. In general, Le Majeur has a modest personality, feeling greatly indebted to friends and others who help her. When her friend, the first L'auriculaire, dies, Majeur feels resentful over her death, blaming Le Pouce for it and not letting the subject go. Majeur also has a tranquil demeanor about her, not being scared of criminals in Roanapur who interrogated her as well as calmly listening to music occasionally. She takes care of her physical health, specifically rejecting the use of both cigarettes and drugs due to the bodily harm from both. Le Majeur seems to have a sister complex, as it is implied the first L'auriculaire was similar to her biological sister, leading to Majeur's attachment to her. She quickly starts to bond with Revy after getting captured and calls her "sis" from that point on. She is greatly fond of music and likes to listen to Japanese pop songs and Western songs, such as Japanese TV openings as well as the song "Easy" by the Commodores. Weapon Mitchell Arms 1911 pistol (currently) Jericho pistol (formerly)