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 and black hair that 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, and she would prefer to study over making friends. She dislikes all Devils as a result of her parents being killed by one. Asa later realizes that she was truly jealous of her peers, and wanted to fit in with them as well. After Asa becomes the host of the War Devil she gets a second chance at life and resolves to live more selfishly, to have the things she desired, like friends and a boyfriend. Asa admits she use to not care if she lived or died, but when she is later saved by Chainsaw Man, she realizes she is glad she isn't dead and is no longer as negative towards other humans or towards all Devils. She appreciates Chainsaw Man for saving her life, but is still willing to work with Yoru in order to defeat him. Despite wanting to live more selfishly, Asa is fairly altruistic, putting herself in harm's way to save others even when she is afraid. She wants to believe that as long as her heart is in the right place, it's okay to make mistakes. However, she still tends to assume the worst of others, often interpreting actions and intentions of others as being more mean-spirited than they actually are, such as believing Denji sold cigarettes to others solely to benefit himself, unaware that he was raising money to afford Nayuta's university tuition.

Asa wants to help Yoru defeat Chainsaw Man as quickly as possible, since Yoru makes her and the people around her miserable. Asa would be willing to endure her situation if only she were to suffer, but refuses to drag others with her. However, she is also willing to kill a human by turning them into one of Yoru's weapons. At first she tries to compromise and suggests killing someone who "deserves it", like a criminal. But when Yoru makes it clear that Asa has to feel guilt over the person she kills, she still considers sacrificing someone whom she doesn't like, even if she doesn't think they deserve to die. Asa doesn't think of herself as a good person.

Though she considers it, Asa can't murder a person in cold blood, as she is obsessed with following the rules and doing the right thing. However, Fami believes that, like most humans, Asa can throw away her morals under the right circumstances, like starvation. Asa later admits that she has no idea what is right or wrong, and that her decisions are driven by an attempt to avoid making mistakes. Despite her efforts, Asa's choices almost always end with disastrous outcomes.

Asa suffers from low self-esteem and considers herself a clumsy individual, shown at several important points during her lifetime when she would trip and fall, most importantly when her home was destroyed by the Typhoon Devil and her mother sacrificed herself after Asa fell trying to save a cat. Asa feels guilt and incredible pain of her mother's death and the circumstances surrounding it, and greatly cherishes her memory. She can also be prone to embarrassment and becomes flustered when dealing with awkward situations, such as when she and Yoshida were partnered up together shortly after Yoru, whilst possessing her, tried to hit on him.

When Yoru is in control of her body, Yoru's personality takes over. Still, Asa can observe Yoru's actions and is usually against her more violent and head-on methods. Asa is very attached to cats, shown by her trying to save one while being attacked by the Typhoon Devil, and later saying she'd rather kill a human than a cat.

Asa can be extremely socially inept in novel situations for her, such as romance and going on a date. She believed that going to the library to learn everything about ocean facts, so she could recite them to Denji while on their date at an aquarium, would make him easily fall in love with her. Asa also believed that boys can fall for a girl easily as long as they are shown a fraction of a good time. This also shows how Asa can be falsely self-assured and overconfident in situations. When Denji showed no inclinations towards her and ditched her to look at penguins, she was confused, believing he should have fallen for her by that point because of her plan, and refused to admit that the reason the date wasn't working was because she was boring. She later admits that the reason she's a "total bore" is due to her not knowing what is right and wrong. Her attempts of trying not to make mistakes often leads her to make them.

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. Despite her situation, Asa shows little to no fear towards Yoru. After being briefly intimidated by Yoru, Asa acts very casual towards the War Devil and isn't afraid to talk back or defy the devil if it demands something that 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.

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
Asa and Denji are heavily intertwined, though neither fully knows it yet. Yoru, the War Devil who has taken Asa's body as a fiend, is extremely desperate to kill the Chainsaw Man in order to ignite the seeds of war in the world again, and shows an aggressive and deep loathing of him. Initially, Asa held strongly negative feelings towards the Chainsaw Man, believing him to be a fraud and lumped him with the devil that killed her family. However, she has progressively become more neutral to him. After Hirofumi Yoshida introduced 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 disbelieves him and calls him a loser. The next time they meet, Denji is aggressive towards 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, like Makima.

Denji and Asa's relationship begins to soften after days of being trapped in the aquarium by Fami. 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 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. Denji is the only person in the aquarium not to judge Asa for saying she can't eat normal fish.

Eventually, Asa gets so hungry that she does try to eat cooked fish, but keeps making disgusted faces every time she takes a bite because she finds the look and taste of fish revolting. This makes Denji laugh as he tells her that though her speeches are boring, she herself is interesting to watch and considers her to be a fun person. Asa, in turn, blushes, stands up and enthusiastically affirms Denji's assessment of her character, adding that she is a charming person and that Denji has a good eye for noticing. Amused, Denji goes on to say that Asa's enthusiastic and self-aggrandizing attitude reminds him of an old friend, implying that friend to be Power. As the two of them bond, she also learns that Denji's illicit methods for attaining money are for the sake of his ward, which surprises Asa and significantly improves her opinion of him. As she and Denji scour the aquarium for money as a part of Asa's plan, the two are noticeably laughing and enjoying each other's company. Asa proceeds to ask Denji to give her the yen that they've collected in exchange for a promise that she'll fulfill any request that he desires, earning his immediate obedience. Following the defeat of the Eternity Devil, Denji escorts Asa home and reminds her of her promise. 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 with a smile. Yoru comments that Asa is currently experiencing feelings of love for Denji, much to her shock and embarrassment.

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 guiltier 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.

Etymology

 * Asa's surname Mitaka means "three" (三) (mi) and "hawk/falcon" (鷹) (taka).