Santa Claus

"Tolka. I'll tell you the secret to making a sophisticated doll. Take the human you'll turn into a doll and add emotions only humans have. Pity. Worship. Adoration. And the secret ingredient: guilt."

- “My mind is connected to all of my puppets around the world.”

Santa Claus (サンタクロース) is a global hive mind of perfect doll assassins, indistinguishable from regular humans, controlled by one individual with the help of the Doll Devil.

Due to the form Santa Claus took when Cosmo sent her mind into her own mind, the aforementioned individual and the main body of Santa Claus is presumed to be a mysterious woman who has a contract with the Doll Devil allowing her to control several different bodies, one of which poses as a Devil Hunter from Germany.

Santa Claus serves as the main antagonist of the International Assassins arc.

Appearance
Santa Claus’s main body is presumed to be a dark blue-haired, green eyed woman with a mole under her eye. She wears a dark skirt and a orange sweater.

After she ate a piece of Darkness Devil's flesh, she gained several doll arms and appendages and her legs were made of doll heads from the pile of dolls she was in. During night, she transformed and became larger and more devilish. She also grew horns just like the Darkness Devil has and sharp teeth.

In the colored manga, the darker skin of the body at night is a dark purplish-gray while the lighter doll head torso and legs are the same color as Santa’s human skin as the doll heads mimic her original face when she was human. She has 40 eyes on her monstrous form in total, with 10 arms at day and even more arms at night.

Personality
Santa Claus is a tactical and strategic being. She hid herself in a remote region, while using a perfect doll to bargain and negotiate. When introduced, Santa Claus appear to be a lecherous being who asked for several children of either gender as their reward for bringing in the Chainsaw Devil from Japan, apparently for use in contracts and for pleasure (although this is likely done to instill strong emotions into them and groomed them to be the next perfect doll). It is later revealed that three of the children are meant to be used for contract with Hell Devil along with the old man perfect doll.

She has no issues with forcibly recruiting large numbers of civilians to work for her by transforming them into puppets, as well as no regard for those who seem to care for her. For example, when her ally Tolka had subdued Denji, Santa Claus turned him into a puppet to communicate with the Darkness Devil and complete the contract.

During battle, Santa Claus displayed a more ruthless tactic by transmitting her pain across puppets all over the world. In order to eliminate Quanxi, Santa brought back the personalities of some puppets to dishearten and kill Denji.

History
At some point of time, Santa Claus made a contract with the Doll Devil which allowed her to create dolls and perfect dolls, which then spread throughout the world. One of the perfect dolls of Santa Claus is a short, mostly bald elderly man with a thin mustache and beard, which became known as the Santa Claus of Germany (ドイツのサンタクロース). However, another body of Santa Claus remained residing in the Soviet Union, who is presumably Santa’s true body. She is there to train Tolka to become another perfect doll. She is referred to as Master by Tolka. It was also revealed that she only had half a year to live for unknown reasons.

International Assassins arc
She is hunting the woods with Tolka when they come across a fox which he shoots with an arrow. He questions the point of the hunt they're on while his master repeatedly asks him whether he thinks he has taken a life or not. They return to their cottage and cook the fox. She reveals that their next job is not a job to hunt a devil but to hunt and kill a sixteen-year old boy, much like the fox they have just hunted and killed. Tolka swears to her that he can kill. He makes a promise to her that since she has just half a year left to live that he wants her to live her remaining days in a peaceful retirement.

Makima and Kishibe discuss the potential threats that may be coming from overseas, with Santa Claus of Germany being among them. Makima states that she heard a rumor that "he" died of old age and Kishibe acknowledges that they should pray that is the case.

In Germany, a military man sat down at the same bench as one of the perfect dolls of Santa Claus who was reading a newspaper. He told Santa Claus that Christmas has come early, and that they want "him" to bring in the Chainsaw Devil from Japan. When asked for "his" desire for a reward "he" stated that "he" wanted to adopt four good-looking children for use in contracts and for pleasure.

Later, both herself and her perfect doll travel to Japan separately. Old doll came from Germany while she and Tolka come from the Soviet Union.

In Japan, she discretely stabs Denji three times with a nail and drops it in front of Tolka, who is sitting at a nearby table. She explains the details of their contract with the Curse Devil and entrusts the fourth and final stab to Tolka. Meanwhile, the old doll uses her contracted abilities to convert a crowd of people on a street into dolls.

Old doll hides within a coffee shop nearby to a department store that Denji and his bodyguards are visiting. "He" orders their dolls to attack once Denji enters the store. "He" continues to send in an entire army of puppets after Denji in preparation for delivering a present.

After Tolka kills Denji, Santa Claus comes to congratulate Tolka and tells him that he is now part of the family. She then turns Tolka into a perfect doll by touching him. At the same time, Santa Claus sacrifices her old doll and three of "his" beloved children as to use her contract with Hell Devil to transport the Devil Hunters along with Tolka to Hell. During this, the main body sits on a doll and watches as the hunters are transported to Hell. Tolka, one of her perfect dolls, states to the Darkness Devil that "he" has brought the Chainsaw's heart for the power to kill Makima.

The Darkness Devil then accepts the contract and grants the main body the power of darkness, transforming it into a monstrous being. After a short exchange of blows with Denji while marveling at her new regeneration ability, Santa Claus orders her enhanced dolls to attack Denji. A little later, a now transformed Quanxi attacks Santa Claus, but to no avail as Santa Claus discovers that not only has her regenerative ability been enhanced, but she could also split her sense of pain to her dolls. She then made all the dolls attacking Denji seemingly regain their human consciousness.

Quanxi attempts to help Denji fight against the sapient Dolls, who Quanxi alleges are only imitations of their human selves. Quanxi is seemingly slowed down by Santa Claus as the latter attempted to attack her as she skillfully evaded. However, as nighttime hits, Santa Claus becomes more powerful, and her body becomes increasingly nightmarish. As a result, she is able to attack and temporarily disable Denji. Santa Claus turns two of Quanxi's girlfriends into dolls in order to distract her and leave her open to attack. As Quanxi hugs one of her former girlfriends, she is impaled.

Fortunately, Denji comes up with the idea to use gasoline to light himself on fire in order to defeat Santa Claus, who is weakened by the light. As she is burned alive, Denji destroys Santa Claus's body by slamming a car into her. After defeating her current body, she claims that she will simply continue to come back in the form of her many dolls. In order to fully defeat her, her consciousness is brought into Cosmo's mind telepathically, where she is forced to learn all the universe's knowledge. As a result of Cosmo's power, Santa Claus is left incapable of thinking of anything other than Halloween, and her body burns to ashes as all her dolls goes haywire, with all of them saying "Halloween" over and over.

Abilities
Makima and Kishibe hold “him” in high regard as the most dangerous threat towards Denji amongst the world's assassins and devil hunters as they say it will all be over if Santa Claus uses “his” devils against them.

Devil Contracts

 * Doll Devil Contract: Santa Claus had a contract with the Doll Devil for an unknown price.
 * Doll Creation: Santa Claus can create dolls out of people to obey her will. The effect is caused by touch and spreads contagiously as each doll touches another person, allowing them to create an army of dolls out of a crowd. The dolls can also transform one of their arms into blades as well as generating blades under their feet. However Santa Claus must remain in the nearby area in order to maintain control of their army of dolls, and the conversion process has no effect on fiends nor hybrids. She could also made the doll regain their human consciousness, although it’s unclear if she always has this ability or has gained it after eating the Darkness Devil’s flesh.
 * Perfect Doll Creation: By instilling emotions that only humans can have into a puppet, such as respect, worship, admiration, and guilt, Santa Claus can turn people into perfect dolls, become a part of Santa Claus and are able to make devil contracts in Santa's place. Known perfect dolls include: Santa Claus in Germany, Tolka, and possibly Master. Perfect dolls that are not directly controlled by Santa’s consciousness seem to be possessed by the Doll Devil itself, since Tolka referred to himself as the Doll Devil when talking to the Darkness Devil.
 * Mind Transfer: Santa Claus states that she can transfer her consciousness to any one of the dolls she has made across the world, effectively making her immortal as long as one of her dolls is still functioning. It is unclear if she has the ability to completely mind transfer her consciousness to another body prior to obtaining the Darkness Devil’s flesh, further causing ambiguity as to whether or not Master is Santa’s original body. It may be the case that she did not have this ability prior to her contract with the Darkness Devil, since she seemed to want to avoid the impending death of her main body.
 * Curse Devil Contract: Santa Claus was contracted with the Curse Devil. In exchange for the loss of sensations in several of their fingers, Santa Claus can use the Curse Devil's power. The contract requires the nail to be stabbed 4 times into the intended victim, after which the Curse Devil will appear and kill the target. It is not required that the stabbing must be occurring at same time or by the same person.
 * Hell Devil Contract: Santa Claus was contracted with the Hell Devil. Santa Claus can transport any living beings to Hell by naming the place they are currently in. However not only must they sacrifice three of their children, but they also need to sacrifice one of their own bodies as well. Later, Makima used this contract via one of their perfect dolls to return any living beings back to human world.
 * Darkness Devil Contract: In exchange for bringing Denji to Hell, the Darkness Devil gave Santa Claus a small piece of its flesh to ingest, which gave her a boost in several abilities such as:
 * Enhanced Doll Devil Power: Santa is freely able to distribute her senses and pain to all of her dolls. She is also able to turn fiends and maybe even hybrids into dolls when she previously couldn’t, although the latter is only speculated to be possible by Santa herself and was stopped by Denji before she could attempt to do it. It may also be questionable if she can only turn dead fiends into dolls, as people turn into dolls through touch even through their clothes, and when the two doll fiends were holding the living one hostage she did not turn into a doll. The dolls she made have also been enhanced, as they are able to continue functioning despite being fatally wounded when they previously couldn’t.
 * Enhanced Strength: Santa was strong enough to hit Denji through several floors and walls. Her strength is further increased at night.
 * Enhanced Speed: Santa was fast enough to jump from the ground to the top of a multi-story building in a few seconds, she was also able to catch several arrows that were as fast as bullets. Her agility also increases at night.
 * Regeneration: Santa was able to heal her wounds by being in darkness, recovering from fatal injuries in an instant. Once again, she is able to regenerate faster at night.
 * Devil Transformation: Santa became much taller, grew many more arms, and had many other changes to her body that resembled dolls. She grows even more devilish during nights.

Trivia

 * Santa Claus's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
 * Santa Claus ranked 16th in the First Popularity Poll with 2,608 votes.
 * Santa Claus ranked 24th in the Second Popularity Poll with 2,442 votes.
 * Santa Claus is the first character seen to have a devil transformation.
 * Given her nature as a hivemind, even if her supposed main body was destroyed, the mind of Santa Claus exists in the other dolls. The reason she is considered incapacitated and not dead is because she is still alive through the dolls but mentally damaged.