Akane Sawatari

Akane Sawatari (アカネ) was a former civilian devil hunter working with the Gun Devil. She also had a contract with the Snake Devil.

She is the secondary antagonist of the Katana Man arc.

Appearance
Akane is a petite young woman that has short blonde hair with dark brown roots, and her red eyes possess slit pupils like a snake. She usually has a neutral or bored expression, with her hands in her hoodie's pockets.

She normally wears black shorts and a red oversized hoodie. She also wears orange and white Nike Airmax 97s. In a photo that was taken of her while she was dealing guns, she could be seen wearing a tracksuit.

Personality
Although Akane is normally calm and cool headed, she can become panicked as seen when she was flustered after her subordinates started dying from Makima's counterattack. She usually has her hands in her pockets, presumably to hide her bloody fingernails, so others don't know what she sacrifices to her Snake Devil contract.

History
At some point, Akane had an arrangement with Samurai Sword where she replaced his heart with the Katana Devil, allowing him to transform into a hybrid.

Katana Man arc
After the Samurai Sword was defeated by Aki Hayakawa, Akane appeared on the scene and spoke to Aki about his Curse Devil, complimenting on him for doing well. Aki questions who she is, but Akane doesn't answer and instead crouches down over the Samurai Sword to resurrect him. As the Samurai Sword gets to his feet with everyone else looking on in shock, Akane tells him to finish the job and kill Aki.

After Himeno uses the full power of the Ghost Devil to overwhelm the Samurai Sword, Akane intervenes to save him by using her Snake Devil to swallow the Ghost Devil. She then resurrects the Samurai Sword once more, repairing the damage he sustained from the Ghost Devil. When Denji regenerates and transforms to fight the Samurai Sword, Akane reminds the Samurai Sword not to damage Denji's heart.

As the Samurai Sword and Denji duel, Akane looks on while radioing her subordinates to let them know that they're in combat and need backup.

After Denji is defeated by the Samurai Sword, Akane leads her people outside to put Denji into a van. Her subordinates start feeling weird being spontaneously being crushed by Makima from a distance causing Akane to freak out and check with her other subordinates whether Makima was killed or not. After she gets no response Akane watches helplessly as the rest of her subordinates are crushed to death except for the Samurai Sword.

Akane suggests to the Samurai Sword that they escape while they still can but Kobeni Higashiyama appears on the scenes. Kobeni dodges Akane's attempt to kill her with the Snake Devil and cuts off the Samurai Sword's hand to steal his gun and shoot him. Akane attempts to return fire after Kobeni runs out of bullets but Kobeni uses Denji's body as a shield. Without any other choice Akane retreats into the van with the Samurai Sword and drives away without Denji.

At her headquarters Akane tells her subordinates that they're prepared to fight against the invading Special Division 4 by using an army of zombies cultivated by the Yakuza due to their deal with the Zombie Devil.

Akane tells the Samurai Sword that they'll kill as many devil hunters as possible and try to steal Denji's heart if possible before escaping through the Snake Devil. After the Samurai Sword swears he'll kill Denji, Akane tells him not to lose his cool.

As Aki confronts Akane after fighting his way through her zombie army, Akane commands the Snake Devil to spit out the Ghost Devil which now fights on her behalf.

Although initially overwhelmed by the Ghost Devil, Aki eventually manages to decapitate and defeat it as Akane watches on in shock. She tries to summon the Snake Devil to fight Aki but is swiftly stopped by Kobeni who holds a knife to her throat.

Later, Makima reports to Public Safety on Akane's history as a former civilian devil hunter who made a contract with the Gun Devil. She reported that Akane was killed by the Snake Devil which she explains is likely due to an involuntary suicide clause in her contract with the Gun Devil.

Devil Contract
Snake Devil Contract: Akane has a contract with the Snake Devil that allows her to summon it at will through the following commands:
 * "Swallow it whole" (み): Akane fully summons the Snake Devil to absorb the target. She used this ability to devour the Ghost Devil completely besides its head.
 * "Spit it out" (きし): After being absorbed into the Snake Devil, the target being is restored and can be used to fight alongside Sawatari after speaking the command followed by the absorbed being's name. She used this against Aki Hayakawa to summon the Ghost Devil. However, releasing absorbed being caused her nose to bleed which indicates an internal damage due to sacrifice.
 * "Tail": Sawatari is also able to summon the tail of the Snake Devil. She used this ability against Kobeni Higashiyama who dodged easily.

In exchange for using each command, Sawatari loses one fingernail, leaving the sensitive nail bed and matrix exposed. Additionally, use of the Snake Devil's abilities requires hand motions, so, if her hands are restrained, she cannot use the abilities.

Etymology

 * The name Akane is written in katakana (アカネ), thus having no semantic meaning. However, when written in kanji (茜), it could possibly mean "deep red, dye from the rubia plant".
 * Akane's surname Sawatari means "marsh" and "transit, ford, ferry, cross, import, deliver, diameter, migrate".
 * Some concept art Fujimoto has dumped on one of his alternate Twitter accounts seems to show that Akane may have been based on an early design of Power.
 * There also seems to be an early version of the Snake Devil wrapping the prototypical Power, clearly showing inspiration for Akane's contract.
 * While it is obvious her snake eyes are meant to represent her devil contract, it is unknown if it only a stylistic choice or if they are actually there as it is never hinted by people pointing them out or not.

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