Kobeni Higashiyama

Kobeni Higashiyama is a major supporting character in the Chainsaw Man series. She is a Public Safety Devil Hunter who started as a member of Makima’s experimental squad until she was later transferred to the Tokyo Special Division 4.
She was voiced by in Japanese (who voiced Burnice White in Zenless Zone Zero) and by in English.
==Appearance==
She was a short 20 year old woman with short brown hair in a ponytail and a 2 red hairclips. She has brown eyes with white pupils. As with all other devil hunters she wears a black suit and a black tie. 
==Personality==
Despite being in her twenties, Kobeni is a very shy and cowardly individual, especially in situations against devils. In the Eternity Devil arc, Kobeni easily breaks down into tears as she and her squad are trapped inside a hotel which is actually inside the stomach of a devil. Her fear can make her gullible, since Himeno got her to do an embarrassing double peace sign pose, even though she only needed to lift an arm or face a direction to prove they were in a looped dimension. 
She has an extremely low self-esteem, however, contradictorily also has a strong attachment to living, since in spite of how she sees herself as below everyone, she is willing and even demanding that someone else die if that is the option to allow freedom. When terrified enough, she becomes paranoid and liable to personally murder her colleagues either to provide a sacrifice for the devil to leave her alone, or due to the irrational suspicion they are also devils working to kill her.
But when it comes to humans opponents, she seems to become more courageous, showing her incredible fighting and acrobatics skills, which allow her to even run across a summoned devil to reach the target, despite her overwhelming fear of devils. Although, once defeating an opponent, she returns to being subdued and quiet.
She seems to be unaware of how athletically gifted and skilled at combat she really is; or perhaps she is still fearful regardless of how capable a fighter she is in battle. Thereby, showing her cowardice and insecurity is so strong that not even her essentially superhuman talents can reassure her.
==Biography==
===Background===
Kobeni Higashiyama was born in Japan sometime in 1977, and is implied to come from an abusive and toxic family with eight sisters and and at least two brothers, one of which is a highschooler named Nobana. In primary school, her parents only bought her ice cream once just for her birthday, the taste was described to be so good for her that she started running, tripped on the ground and dropped her ice cream.
A few years later, she was faced with two options to make money for her brothers to attend college; be a sex worker or a devil hunter. Kobeni ended up chosing to become a devil hunter and joined the organization.
===Bat Devil Arc===
Kobeni first appears along with other member of Division 4; Arai, Himeno in the Bat Devil arc when Aki saves Denji from the Leech Devil.
===Eternity Devil Arc===
The Division 4, including Kobeni, were assigned to kill the Eternity Devil inside a hotel. Himeno hugs Kobeni after announcing she would give a kiss to anyone on the cheek if they kill the Eternity Devil. Inside the hotel, the group encounter what looks to be a walking head devil that comes out of a room. The small devil attempts to attack Kobeni but gets restrained by Himeno's contract with the Ghost Devil and gets slashed by Power. Later on the group realize that they're trapped inside the eight floor of the hotel, after Aki notices that the stairs loop. When the Eternity Devil appears, he orders the group to give him Denji, saying he will let the rest of the group out of the hotel if they comply. Kobeni then comes out of a room with a knife, ordering Denji to let the devil devour him. She then rushes at Denji with her knife but is knocked down by Himeno. Later on, Kobeni blames Power for their current state, as she thought that Power could heal others, however it is not part of Power's abilities as the Blood Fiend. The group panicking even more than before which help the Eternity Devil to grow while demanding for Denji's heart. Kobeni start begging for anyone to give Denji to the Eternity Devil. Kobeni tries to use her knife to stab him but is accidentally stab Aki instead who dove in the way of her attempt. Annoyed by everyone, Denji says that he will jump and get eaten while pulling his cord out to transform. Kobeni and the others watch in horror as Denji starts cuts the devil from the inside. After three days of waiting for Denji to finish the devil, Kobeni and the others come out of the hotel exhausted. Later on the group goes to a local bar and grill to wind down in which the squads become acquainted with each other. Kobeni tells everyone her age and hobbies but refuses to disclose the devil she is contracted with. 
===Katana Man Arc===
Sometime afterwards Kobeni and several devil hunter were targeted and by the Yakuza on the orders of Akane Sawatari and her partner "Samurai Sowrd". Just as Kobeni is about to be shot Hirokazu sacrifices himself and takes the bullet for her. Later on Kobeni confronts both Samurai and Akane as they are kidnapping Denji. Although, Akane tries to use her contract with the Snake Devil to kill Kobeni, she dodges the attacks and manages to ward them both off and save Denji. She then apologized to Denji for her earlier attempt to kill him and has a breakdown about how horrible her job is. Later on when Public Safety attacks the terrorists Kobeni is able to arrest Sawatari. Aki questions why she didn't quit yet, but she points out she wanted to get her bonus.
===Bomb Girl Arc===
Kobeni is later assigned to the Violence fiend named Galgali. Later on when Galgali and Kobeni are on patrol they try to hold off Reze a hybrid tasked with taking Denji's heart to the Gun Devil. However their attempts are futile and attempt to retreat but Kobeni's hip gives out and she collapses on the ground. Kobeni then begs Reze for mercy and claims she would quit her job, but Reze ignores her and leaves to continue her pursuit of Denji.
===International Assassins Arc===
Later on Galgali and Kobeni go in patrol and take down what they presume to be the Grape Devil. They take a break and Galgali treats her to ice-cream. Kobeni questions why he's so nice for a fiend in which he reveals that a lot of his hosts brain remained intact and he can remember a few things from his human life so he much prefers peace rather than violence. Kobeni and Galgali are then confronted by "Yutaro Kurose" whom claims that his partner and master were attacked and gunned down. he demands they report to HQ and they run off to obey him. Later on the duo are informed that they must protect Denji from various assassins who are out to take his heart. Power then notices Kobeni's car and demands to take a look at it. Power than fraudulently claims that it's her car which leads to an argument between the two ending with Power getting behind the wheel and accidentally running over "Yutaro" and Denji, killing the former. Although Power tries to frame Kobeni for the incident upon closer inspection, they realize that "Yutaro" is actually a disguised member of the three brothers assassins, they surmise he must have used a skin devil to change his appearance. Kobeni then checks her car and notices a sizable dent lamenting that it might be costly to fix.
Afterwards the group is attacked in a local mall by both the assassin Quanxi and her entourage of fiends as well as the assassin Santa Claus who turned several humans into dolls to kill the group. Kishibe then orders Kobeni and Galagi to face off against the dolls while he takes care of Quanxi's fiends. The ensuing fight leads to Kishibe and one of the brother Aldo to fall of the roof of the mall and unluckily enough crash on top of her car crushing the roof much to her shock and anguish. Eventually, Santa Claus and the Doll Devil transport the group to Hell itself where they are ambushed by a primal fear, the Darkness Devil. During the bout Darkness maganes to kill several members of the group including Galgali who sacrifices his life to save Kobeni. Eventually, Makima resuces the group and they are transported back to earth where Denji defeats Santa Claus. Later Kobeni finally comes to her senses and quits her job at Public Safety for good.
===Control Devil Arc===
After qutting Public Safety, Kobeni is forced to get a job at a fast food joint called Family Burger where she is physically abused by her manager for her shortcomings. Eventually she pleads to herself for help which attracts the attention of the newly revived Chainsaw Devil/Pochita. Pochita enters the store intent on fulfilling Denji's broken dreams demanding to be served a hamburger. Kobeni is then egged on by her co-worker and manager to serve the dangerous devil, but each time she tries to carry the food to his table she slips and falls leading her to break down in tears. Pochita, then remembers, Denji's dream to go on a date with a girl and kidnaps Kobeni and takes her to get ice-cream and forces her to play a game which appears to be Dance Dance Revolution. However she fails to notice Pochita leave to confront Makima and her hybrids. Later on Kobeni finishes the game with a perfect high score. She then quickly notices Pochita sitting docilely on the sidewalk much to her confusion. Suddenly Makima appears and reveals that Pochita's powers as a devil have considerably weakened because the world now loves and reveres Chainsaw Man rather than fearing him, and cites that even Kobeni no longer fears him. Out of spite Makima then launches a giant black sphere using Angel Devil's powers and attempts to kill Kobeni. However, Pochita shields her and injures himself in the process. 
Later on Kobeni, Denji and Kishibe retreat to a safe house to hide from Makima. Kishibe reveals that since Makima has ears everywhere she won't be able to contact her family again. However, Kobeni is rather relived by this as now she has an excuse finally cut ties with her abusive family. It can be assumed after Makima's defeat Kobeni moved on with her life now free from her awful situations.
==Abilities==
*Incredible speed and agility: In the Katana Man arc, Kobeni is shown to be incredibly fast and agile, able to dodge the Snake Devil’s attacks and bullets shot at her, and when Katana Man tries to take her down, she avoids by swinging and doing a flip on 2 street lamps.
*Knife Fighter
*Exceptional Stealth: She is able to approach an enemy without her presence being known until she revealed it herself.
==Trivia==
*A common theory in the Pizza Tower community is that they depict Kobeni as the daughter of Peppino Spaghetti, that is because of the both of them being extremely anxious and nervous all the time.
*At the end of part two Fujimoto was going to kill off either the Angel Devil or Kobeni and had his editor choose who dies. His editor chose Kobeni which prompted Fujimoto to do the opposite and kill Angel instead, allowing Kobeni to be one of the few survivors of the first saga of the story.
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