Kobeni Higashiyama

"I can't take it anymore... This job is going to drive me crazy..."

Kobeni Higashiyama (コベニ) is a former Public Safety Devil Hunter who started as a new recruit working under Makima's Special Squad. She later resigned from being a Devil Hunter after the battle against the Darkness Devil in Hell.

Appearance
Kobeni is a petite young woman with short brown hair, in both the anime and colored manga, tied in a ponytail. She has brown eyes with white pupils.

On her face are four moles, two under her left eye, one on the lower right side of her mouth, and one on her left cheek. She normally wears a professional suit and she has two hair clips.

At the newbie welcome party, she wore a hand-me-down dress from her older sister which was considered to be cute by a couple of other Devil Hunters.

Personality
Kobeni is exceptionally cowardly with few moments of courage. Her first confrontation with the Eternity Devil leads to her being paralyzed with fright and babbling. She is shown to easily crack under pressure and breaks down in tears when the group becomes trapped in the hotel and she is confronted with the possibility of them all starving to death without any rescue.

Her sense of fear causes her to take drastic action in order to save herself such as turning on Denji and threatening him at knifepoint once a Devil promised to free her in exchange for Denji's life. She even went as far as accusing Hirokazu Arai of being a spy for the Devils because he defended Power from Kobeni's delusional accusations. Despite how she acted towards them in her panicked state, she did feel remorse for her actions and gratitude towards Hirokazu for shielding her when they were attacked.

However, when Kobeni gets into action she had proven to be cool-headed and efficient, ruthlessly dealing with both the Katana Man and Akane Sawatari and forcing them to retreat; only breaking down in a panic once the fighting is over.

Despite being forced into a line of work that she hates by her family, Kobeni still cares about them as she sends her money to her brother to support him through college and chauffeurs her family around in her car. And despite wanting to quit she initially stays because it was the day she was going to receive a bonus.

Kobeni is shown to be nervous when hugged repeatedly by Himeno but tolerates her antics.

Kobeni is shown to enjoy alcohol, especially when it is paid for by someone else. Her hobby is to eat tasty things. She loves the flavor of ice cream which she has only experienced three times in her life.

Past
In grade school Kobeni had her parents buy her an ice cream just once for her birthday. The first taste was described by her as being so good that she broke into a run, tripped, and dropped the ice cream.

Kobeni became a Devil Hunter partially because her parents forced her into work to support her brother to be able to go to college. Faced with the choice of becoming a sex worker or a Devil Hunter, Kobeni opted to become a Devil Hunter and joined Public Safety despite wanting to go to college too.

Abilities
According to Himeno, Kobeni is talented, but she is held back by her timidness. This is later proven true when Kobeni manages to single-handedly defeat the Katana Man in his human form and forced Akane Sawatari to retreat.

Physical Prowess



 * Enhanced Strength: Kobeni is able cut a full grown man's arm clean off with a knife without much effort.
 * Enhanced Agility: Kobeni has an impressive level of agility, being able to dodge a tail attack from the Snake Devil before running across its body, a feat that prompted the Katana Man to call her a monkey. She also receives a perfect score when playing Dance Dance Mushroom.

Devil Contracts

 * Unknown Devil Contract: Kobeni has a contract with an unnamed Devil whose identity she keeps a secret.

Skillset

 * Knifemanship: Kobeni uses a knife as her primary weapon of choice, managing to easily defeat Katana Man in his human form by swiftly cutting off his arm.
 * Marksmanship: Kobeni has also showcased to be a skilled and accurate shooter, having severely injured Katana Man and shooting him twice before gunning Akane Sawatari and forcing her to retreat.
 * Driving: Kobeni possesses a driving license and her own car, which she primarily uses to chauffeur her family around but her exact skill is unknown as the only time she has been seen in the vehicle was when Power crashed it.
 * Dancing: Kobeni is a very skilled dancer, she received a perfect score when playing Dance Dance Mushroom.

Etymology

 * Kobeni's surname Higashiyama means "east" and "mountain, hill".

Trivia

 * Kobeni has the same moles as Togata from Fire Punch, another manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto.
 * Kobeni's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
 * Kobeni ranked 8th in the First Popularity Poll with 9,580 votes.
 * Kobeni ranked 10th in the Second Popularity Poll with 22,862 votes.
 * Tatsuki Fujimoto has once stated in an interview with his editor that Kobeni's original fate in the series was supposed to be Angel Devil's.
 * Funnily enough, this ended up not happening due to Fujimoto asking his editor Shihei Lin, during the writing process, who should die between Kobeni and Angel. Lin had then decided that Kobeni should die, which prompted Fujimoto to do the opposite and kill Angel instead.
 * Similar to Akane Sawatari, Kobeni is one of the only human characters drawn with unusual eyes, having white pupils instead of black. Given how both have devil contracts, it is unknown if it this done out of unique design choice or a deliberate part of her unknown Devil contract.

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