José Martínez

* Light Novel
* Anime
* Manga
* Manga 2nd Arc

**José Martínez** (ホセ・マルティネス, *José Martínez*) is a member of the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens baseball team and a skilled torturer. He occasionally works with Jiro, taking on work with the avengers because of a lack of torturing jobs.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

Martínez is a muscular man with tan skin who is said to be almost two meters tall. In official illustrations, he is bald despite being described as having a buzzcut with narrowly-shaved lines in the novels, and he has the letter S tattooed on both of his upper arms. His usual attire consists of a dark-colored tank top and pants with sandals, which the anime depicts as foam clog shoes. He occasionally wears a black leather jacket.

### Personality

As a professional torturer, Martínez will employ any means necessary to inflict pain and fear upon someone deserving of it. Despite his occupation, however, he is kindhearted and sincere, noted to despise hurting and killing people. When compared to his other friends in the underground business, he has a level head and a much more grounded moral compass. He is approachable and supportive of his friends, often listening or offering advice, particularly for his close and long-term friend Enokida.

Martínez is openly gay, known to read love novels avidly and make comparisons between his books and current situations. He has stated that he likes younger, naive men who have no idea how the world really works, though he shows an extreme disgust toward pedophiles.

## Background

Martínez was raised up poor in the Dominican Republic as a boy named Alejandro Rodrigez. He had a huge passion for baseball and strove to make it big by getting into the major league and support his family. While his efforts allowed him to be accepted into the academy, he quickly realized he was no match to the other students there, resulting in him dropping out and turning to the underground to make ends meet.

After a few years of living with this lifestyle, he was presented with the opportunity to join one of the largest drug cartels in Venezuela. He went through the test with other participants, which required them to beat up a traitor without killing him. At his turn, Martínez felt pity for the man and decided to end his misery, shooting him in the head instead. The drug lord, Ramiro Sanchez, questioned him for his disobedience. To appease the man, Martínez lied, claiming he just wanted to test his shooting skill. Ramiro Sanchez took a liking to his answer and allowed him to join. Martínez grew to be a close partner to their leader and well trusted by him, enough to where Sanchez tasked him to become their group's torturer and taught him the necessary skills he needed. Martínez continued to work for him, even ascending so far into the hierarchy to essentially become Sanchez's right hand man until one day he was ordered to kill a man and his entire family, reminding him of his own family back in the Dominican Republic and decided to quit the drug cartel. In coincidental timing, Martínez was tasked the following day to torture a rat in their group, Ricardo Seiya Ortega - an American spy. He was left alone with his target to abstract information from him before killing him, but he instead let the man go. Once Martínez insured the man could escape, he himself fled before the rest of the group found out what he did and headed to Japan.

Upon arriving to Japan, he officially began going by his new name and left his old life behind him. He found work as a torturer for a man named Suetsugu, helping his small gang extract information from people. One of his victims was a man who hid money stolen from him. Martínez promised the man after torturing him he would help him escape with his life if he told him the information he wanted, which the man provides. After reporting to Suetsugu, Martínez had the man take a sleeping pill, knowing Suetsugu would order him to kill the man once they retrieved the stolen money. Once the man fell into a deep sleep, Martínez received the order he was expecting and followed through with it, allowing the man to pass peacefully and unaware.

The following day, Martínez received another job from Suetsugu, who instructed him to get all the information out of a hacker that had been looking into his group recently. Martínez headed to their hideout to find a young teenager strapped to a chair, who proclaimed to have no name, asking for Martínez to give one to him instead. Feeling pity, Martínez injects a truth serum into the boy to get information about him, only for the teenager to use the truth serum to his advantage and make Martínez relax around him, accidentally slipping up and admitting a detail about himself. Now that the boy knew who Martínez was, he proceeded to tell him about Suetsugu and the group Martínez worked for, mentioning their plot to frame Martínez so they could get away from the police. Upon realizing that the information the hacker provided was most likely true, Martínez let the man go and quickly got away before the police could arrive to arrest him.

A few days later, Martínez saw the report of the police managing to arrest Suetsugu and his gang. Without any employer, Martínez began to consider his options for work when he spotted the same hacker, now with dyed blond hair. With the teenager's new look, Martínez decided to give him the name Enokida, which the boy begrudgingly accepted. The two chat and Martínez realized that the boy likely lied to him about the police already being sent to Suetsugu's hideout and that the hacker probably informed the police after his escape, meaning the teenager did not sell him out. With Martínez in his debt, he decided to do what the boy had asked and become his baseball instructor. After asking Enokida if he was free that evening, he took him to see a baseball game with the tickets he got from his past torturer victim. It was assumed after this that Martínez began to resume his work as a torturer with the help of Enokida.

## History

### Mayor Harada Scandal Arc

Martínez is first seen helping Jiro take revenge on Shota Yamazaki, a young man who has been torturing and killing cats. He gives Shota the same brutal treatment he inflicted on the cats until eventually decapitating him. His next job is to deal with Saitoh, but at that moment, Jiro receives a phone call from Yamato, who hires him for an avengers mission. Martínez agrees to take on the job in Jiro’s place and goes out to find the man who had punched Yamato. He eventually spots Lin on the street and punches him in the stomach. Lin goes to retaliate, believing Martínez to be a killer sent by Zhang, but Martínez informs him that he was only hired to deliver that punch on Yamato's behalf before handing him his business card.

The following day, after Yusuke Harada is captured by Banba and Lin and forced to admit his crimes on camera, Jiro hires Martínez to torture him. Since Yusuke raped and murdered Qiaomei Lin, Martínez is tasked to inflict the same upon him.

### Niwaka Impersonator Arc

Martínez joins in on a practice game in early summer, where he has to physically break up a fight between Lin and Banba on the field. He later meets Enokida at a cafe, where he mentions that Lin and Banba's poor coordination is affecting his own ability to play, and he worries about the Ramens' prospects in the upcoming tournament. Back to business, Martínez asks Enokida to help locate the driver of a vehicle involved in a traffic accident. He reveals that he is trying to find this person on Jiro’s behalf, since he is busy and Martínez could use the work. Hearing this, Enokida puts an ad on Undergroundjobs.com, advertising Martínez’s services.

Martínez is contacted on underground jobs a weeks later and is sent a photo of Lin, who is disguised as the Niwaka Samurai. Martínez has Saeki and Jiro prepare a dead body to make it look like Lin before heading to the address provided by his clients. Upon his arrival, Martínez requests that he be alone while he tortures Lin. Once alone, he helps him escape by mutilating the body he brought with him and putting Lin into a suitcase. Before leaving, he tells Abe and Yamamoto that Lin had died and that the only information he got out of him was that he is a friend of the Niwaka Samurai. When they make it out of the building, Martínez notices Abe and Yamamoto’s van and attaches a red back spider model listening device to it, allowing him to locate them.

When Jiro and Misaki work on capturing Abe and Yamamoto for an avenging job, Yamamoto manages to escape but he is stopped when Martínez hits his van from behind with his SUV. To Jiro's surprise, Martínez reveals that these were the culprits behind the hit and run they were investigating. Martínez is asked by Enokida to hand over Yamamoto to him so they can use him as a fake Saitoh to deceive Nguyen.

### Shou Wang Arc

Martínez participates in a weekly baseball practice, where they decide to teach Lin the team's signs. A month later, he and Enokida meet other members of the Tonkotsu Nine at Bar Babylon and leave for the fireworks festival together.

### .mmm Arc

Martínez and Saitoh eat at Gen-chan, where Saitoh and Genzo fill him in on the incident of Saitoh's questioning with cybercrime investigators. After the meal, he accepts an avenging assignment from Jiro and meets with a woman from an animal welfare group. She shows him a video online that depicts a man stuffing a puppy into a bag and stabbing the bag repeatedly. The account posting the video has several others just like it, and the woman asks Martínez to make the person behind the brutal videos pay. He meets with Enokida shortly after to collect information on the target, Shinji Taniyama, and to deliver the now unneeded wig Jiro had made for Misaki's school play.

Taniyama opens his door for Martínez innocently, and the torturer forces his way inside. Confronted about the brutal videos, Taniyama admits they are fake and explains his process and reasoning for making them. Martínez is annoyed at himself for falling for the fake videos and at furious Taniyama for using the puppies and returning them to the shelter. He orders Taniyama to assume responsibility for the dogs.

The following evening, Martínez receives a text from Enokida with an invitation to dinner. He calls Enokida to clarify but Irasawa answers, informing Martínez that Enokida is about to be killed, before hanging up and turning off the phone. Later that night, Enokida calls him out to Irasawa's house. After recovering from the surprise of two Enokidas, he enlists the others to help him move Irasawa from his boxing ring to the avengers' warehouse, where Martínez spends the next five hours getting information out of him. After the torture, and Enokida visit Taniyama, who is displeased to see them, and hire him to create a fake video.

Several days later, the team is out to dinner at a yakiniku restaurant reserved by Martínez, and he agrees to cover the bill in celebration of Enokida and his father making up.

### Avengers Arc

Martínez joins in the Ramens' weekly practice session, that evening visiting Genzo's ramen stand along with Enokida, Banba, Lin, and Jiro, where the group listens to Jiro's worries about Misaki's attitude in school and her future prospects. As the personal experiences of the others force Jiro to consider what kind of parent he should be, Martínez is the first to suggest the possibility of giving Misaki up to foster parents in an effort to allow her to live a normal life.

Several days later, after Misaki is rescued from her traffickers, Martínez begins picking her up from school daily for her protection.

## Quotes

"*I'm not a hitman anymore. I don't have to kill people.*" (Volume 6, 5th Inning)

## Trivia

* His current name is based off of a professional Venezuelan baseball player.
* His race is likely mixed. People of mixed race make up 73% of the Dominican Republic's population.