Asa Mitaka

Аса Митака

"I wish... I'd tried living just a little more selfishly."

Asa Mitaka (アサ) is the main protagonist of the Academy Saga. She is a high school student who became the host of the War Devil, Yoru, making her the inhabitance of the War Fiend (の), though she still retains her human personality when the War Fiend allows her control, making her a rare case of a living fiend host. She attends Fourth East High School with Denji.

Appearance
Asa is a high school girl of average build and height. She has brown eyes that are usually pitch dark, though the irises become much brighter when Asa is surprised or shocked. Her hair is black and is sometimes colored with a purple tint. Her hair reaches the middle of her back and she wears it in two low twin tails, making it appear shorter. When possessed by the War Devil, her appearance changes somewhat. Her hair is usually worn loose, multiple scars appear across her left cheek and nose, and her eyes have a spiral pattern similar to Makima's.

She wears the same school uniform as the rest of the girls in her class. The uniform consists of a long-sleeved button up shirt worn beneath a pinafore style dress with a pleated skirt that extends below the knee, a bow at the collar, a wide belt at the waist, and black, knee-high socks. She also wears sneakers.

Personality
Asa is initially a quiet and unsociable girl. She dislikes her classmates, frequently wishing they would drop dead and spurning any offers of friendship. She has a very negative outlook on the world, other humans and devils and tends to assume the worst of others. She is however very fond of cats and would rather kill a human. Asa later admits to herself that her mean-spirited altitude towards her peers was a result of jealousy. She also suffers from low self-esteem, considers herself a clumsy individual. Despite this Asa can be falsely self-assured and overconfident such as her belief that she would easily be able to seduce Denji. Asa can be extremely socially inept, such as believing that boring Denji with ocean facts on their aquarium date would be a great way to win his affection.

Mitaka's fairly altruistic, putting herself in harm's way to save others even when she is afraid. Asa would be willing to endure bad situations if only she were to suffer, but refuses to drag others with her. After being saved by Chainsaw Man, she realizes she's glad she's not dead and is no longer as negative towards other humans or towards all Devils.

Asa doesn't cope well with failure or when things don't go her way. Because of past experiences she is extremely afraid of making mistakes. Once she does make a mistake she usually get's very angry blaming everyone around her except herself. Though after calming down she'll break down in self-deprecating rants.

History
Asa grew up with a loving mother whom she lost when they got attacked by the Typhoon Devil, and her mother sacrificed herself to save Asa while she was saving a cat. Following that, Asa came to an orphanage where she preferred to spend time with herself and the cat she rescued, Crambon. There, her caretaker, whose mother also died because of the Typhoon Devil, convinced her to give Crambon away to give him a happier home. However, another orphan later told Asa that the children found a dead cat at the bottom of a river. It turned out that the caretaker had lied to Asa and killed Crambon because she was jealous that Asa still had someone she considered family.

Yoru
Yoru resurrected and inhabits Asa's body, turning her into the War Fiend, but left half of Asa's brain intact, keeping Asa alive. With the two now sharing one body, Asa was initially overwhelmed with her situation and needed time to accept reality; she eventually agrees to help Yoru defeat Chainsaw Man under threat of permanent death and so long as she gets her body back after they defeat Chainsaw Man.

Because of Yoru's personality, Asa often gets put in awkward social situations, like asking Yoshida to be her boyfriend in an attempt to make him into a weapon or getting caught kissing Denji by Nayuta. Despite her situation, Asa shows little to no fear toward Yoru. After being briefly intimidated by Yoru, Asa acts very casually towards the War Devil and isn't afraid to talk back or defy the devil if it demands something she isn't willing to do. Because of her more passive and talk-oriented approach to conflicts, Asa commonly clashes with Yoru's methods regarding the problems they face. Asa occasionally exploits the flaws in Yoru's personality to get what she wants. She also wonders if she can "tame" Yoru.

Despite their conflicts of interest, Asa grows used to chatting with her devilish companion as seen when she instinctively tries chatting with her during the aquarium date after being separated. Adding to that Yoru will mention when she thinks Asa is being to self-deprecating and half heartedly try to comfort her.

Yoru views Mitaka as indispensable to her as she admits only Asa can make the strong weapons she desires.

Yuko
Yuko and Asa first met in their school's Devil Hunter Club tryout, when they were assigned to the same group. Asa was originally hesitant to befriend Yuko, mistaking her kindness for pity. However, Yuko explained her belief that she cares more about her heart being in the right place than whether or not her actions are a mistake. Asa quickly grew to like Yuko and said that spending time with Yuko was the most fun she had in a long time. Yuko's belief would have a heavy impact on Asa, who resolved to live her life the same and later refused to kill Yuko and turn her into a weapon for the War Devil. Even though turning Yuko into a weapon would have increased her own survival against the Bat Devil's assault, Asa instead risked her own life to save Yuko. After Yuko revealed her true colors to Asa, she felt into an almost catatonic state and refused to accept the issue, even blaming herself for Yuko's actions. Even after Yuko transformed into a monster via the Justice Devil and killed many students, Asa was still reluctant to fight her and chose to bring her back to life after killing her.

Denji
After Hirofumi Yoshida introduces Asa to Denji, there is immediate friction between them due to their conflicting attitudes, and when Denji reveals himself to be the Chainsaw Man, she doubts him and calls him a loser. The next time they meet, Denji is aggressive toward her, but still accepts her offer to take him on a date.

On that date, she barrages Denji with talk of sea anemones, believing lecturing him for long periods of time will make their date interesting and make him fall in love with her. However, due to her lack of dating experience and social skills with boys, Denji found her extremely boring. Asa also unintentionally triggered his trauma by telling him he doesn't have to think about anything, something Makima would say.

Denji and Asa's relationship begins to improve after days of being trapped in the aquarium. Denji finds Asa sitting alone and asks how she is doing, to which she apologizes to him for the situation they are in and blames herself for asking him on a date in the first place. Denji tries to cheer her up by smiling and trying to find her something to eat, asking if she's ever had starfish before, which also implies that he was paying attention to her during her exposition on sea life. They further bond after Denji says he considers Asa fun to watch. This cheers up Asa as she enthusiastically affirms Denji's assessment of her character. Amused, Denji says that her enthusiastic and self-aggrandizing attitude reminds him of an old friend, implying that friend to be Power.

After the two leave the aquarium, Denji admits to her that he actually enjoyed their disastrous first date and asks her to go on a second one together, to which Asa agrees. Yoru then comments that Asa is currently experiencing feelings of love for Denji, much to her shock and embarrassment. After Yoru fails to turn Denji into a weapon, Asa's feelings towards Denji become more complicated as she gets angry after believing he does not like her. On their next date, the two agree to watch a movie at Denji's home. When Denji brings up the topic of kissing, a flustered Asa says she has no desire to kiss him and hates him. She then tries to push him away by saying that she only went on a date to have a distraction and that if they keep dating, he'll wind up dead. Though this was most likely out of care for him as she doesn't want Yoru to turn him into a weapon.

Due to interference from Nayuta, Asa and Yoru lose all memories of the second date and believe Denji stood Asa up. Initially claiming to be unaffected by this, Asa begins to ramble before admitting that she does care, feeling down.

Supernatural Abilities
War Devil Possession: After having her body and half of her brain taken over by the War Devil, while still retaining her consciousness, Asa is able to tap into the powers of the War Devil. These Powers include:

Physical Prowess

 * Enhanced Speed: After becoming host of the War Devil, Asa's speed is improved to the point that she is able to move very quickly, easily jumping around and dodging attacks from the contracted Class President.
 * Enhanced Strength: As a host of the War Devil, Asa's strength is improved to the point that she is able to pull Tanaka's head off his shoulders and spinal cord out of his body, requiring a great deal of force, and is able to easily carry objects as big as herself with one arm over her head.
 * Enhanced Durability: After becoming host of the War Devil, Asa's durability has enhanced to the point that she survived a building collapsing on top of her with no outward injuries, though she was temporarily knocked unconscious.

Weapons Creation
As a host of the War Devil, Asa is able to use the abilities of the War Devil to turn anything that belongs to her into a weapon. This includes both objects and living things. She can manipulate the detached body parts of other people and form them into weapons. This does not appear to immediately kill the victim, as they can still scream in pain even after having their head detached from their body. This seems to only happen when the body or body part is considered a belonging of the War Devil, either after being taken by force via being cut off and stolen, or if someone is devoted enough to the War Devil to make them its belonging. As explained by Asa, there is no objective measure of when something belongs to Asa or Yoru, it relies entirely on their own perception and logic as shown when Asa paid one million yen to "buy" an entire aquarium and despite it being nowhere near enough money, it still qualified to be turned into a weapon.
 * Object Weapons Creation: Asa is able to turn any object that belongs to her into a weapon. An object that belongs to her can either be something she bought or took. The more guilt Asa feels about creating the weapon, the stronger the weapon will be. Object weapons created by Asa thus far are:
 * Super-Strong Uniform Sword: A rectangular shaped sword made from Asa’s uniform. Due to the sentimental value of it, as it was given to Asa by her late mother, the sword is extremely powerful. It was able to slice and dice Yuko in her devil form into dozens of small pieces in an instant despite the sword being knocked away. Despite its power, the sword is extremely brittle and was destroyed in the school's collapse.
 * Aquarium Spear: A two-pronged spear approximately two meters long, made from the aquarium building Asa purchased for one million yen. The tips of the spear are fish shaped and the handle of the spear drips water. Once impaled into a target, the full contents of the aquarium explode out of the victims wound. This weapon is especially powerful due to the guilt Asa felt about destroying an entire aquarium, and was strong enough to instantly kill the Eternity Devil.

Skill Set
Swordsmanship: Asa carries a katana as her weapon of choice, suggesting that she is capable of handling it.

Trivia

 * Asa's debut heavily parallels that of Denji as both her parents are deceased and she is killed in a betrayal by someone close to her, the class president, and in Denji's case the yakuza handler. She is then revived by a Devil who inhabits her body, and uses the newfound powers she gained to kill her murderer. This was likely intentional, especially since the chapter titles for Chapter 1 and Chapter 98 parallel one another.
 * Asa and Yoru’s exact species or “type” hasn’t been confirmed or explicitly stated in the manga as of currently, which has lead to much debate about their species, but for simplicity of the wiki and until else is confirmed, Asa will be referred to as the living host of the War Fiend.

Etymology

 * Asa's surname Mitaka means "three" (三) (mi) and "hawk/falcon" (鷹) (taka).
 * It is unknown if the distinctive head trait of the War Fiend is actually visual to others or if only Asa can see it.