Jackal

**Jackal** is an Etherious of the Dark Guild Tartaros and a member of the Nine Demon Gates.

## Physical Appearance

Jackal appears as a young muscular Etherious who, living up to his name, possesses a number of animal features: his dark brown hair, reaching down to his shoulders and covering the left side of his face, perpetually hiding his left eye from sight, juts upwards on top of his head in a pair of prominent protrusions shaped like ears (and which might actually serve such purpose, seeing as the Demon's human ears aren't visible), his nose is small and black like a canine's; he has a thick and furry tail protruding from his lower back, colored the same as his hair and shaped like an actual Jackal's, and pointed, triangular fang-like teeth. His one visible eye, complete with a dark slit pupil, bears a thick dark outline, and black spots are present both below it and above its linear eyebrow; Jackal's forearms and hands are covered by a larger variety of similarly colored shapes, getting closer and closer in position as they approach his wrists, in correspondence to which they fuse together to leave his hands completely black. His legs also have animal-like appendages, covered in light fur and sporting dark claws instead of toes, placed in a grappling position. Tartaros' guild mark is also visible on his now bare right pectoral.

Jackal is bare-chested, only wearing a pair of loose light-colored gloves, almost reaching up to his shoulders, each secured on top by two light buttoned bands, and bearing an ornamental motif consisting of large, dark rhombuses linked together on the outer sides; these gloves appear to reveal his dark fingers. He sports a dark green garb around his waist, secured by a large knot with hanging edges on the front (initially shown as held closed by a button on the front of its belt-like part) and split in two tails on the back, each adorned by a series of dark rectangles near their lower edges. Jackal also wears a pair of calf-length, baggy beige pants with light hems and light-ornamental bangs located his thighs, with jagged lower edges. He also wears a long dark scarf around his neck with light edges, circling his neck twice, which has its ends left hanging over Jackal's back, reaching down to his knees.

As an Etherious, Jackal has acces to a larger, grotesque and more muscular lycanthropic form, entering it during his battle with Natsu due to the shock of finding himself overwhelmed by a human. In such state, he grows fur over most of his body and gains a canine snout and face, complete with pointed fangs and a long tongue, mostly shown dangling down from the sides of his mouth. He grows massive dark claws on both his black hands, with his forearms having had their spots enlarged to accommodate their new size, and his now animal-like legs; his tail becomes longer and bushier. The disappearance of his hair exposes his left eye, crossed diagonally by a small scar; in this form, both of the Intherious' eyes are shown as blank and pupil-less, with more spots surrounding them.

## Personality

While appearing to be a laid-back and bored individual at first glance, Jackal possesses a violent, impulsive, and excessively savage personality alongside a lethal short temper and a brutal nature. However, despite his bloodlust and aggression in battle, Jackal is said to possess a feral cunning and has a knack for quickly exploiting any opening his opponent reveals for his ability to hit, much like the cunning and animal impulses Grimmjow has. In addition, he is very blunt, sarcastic, cruel, and quite sadistic, revealing a psychotic grin or laughing maniacally whenever he becomes excited. He is also very rude, quite disrespectful, and has a foul mouth when talking to either his kind or his superiors. In battle, the Etherious poses himself in a calm, arrogant manner, having the uttermost trust in his Curse, and going so far as to calmy explain its powers while foes are assaulting him.

Because of his sadistic and feral-like nature in battle, he takes great pleasure in torturing his opponents before murdering them, ignoring their pleads to stop and instead toying with them until the very end. His sadistic tendencies towards humans appear to partly stem from his belief that humans and Shinigami, beings much inferior to Demons, are corrupt and merciless creatures themselves, thus leaving him free to treat them as nothing more than playthings, rejoicing in seeing them suffer and act according to their own nature. He is also prone to make evil jokes in battle.

He is also very resentful and prone to hold grudges, wanting revenge on both Naruto Uzumaki and Sting Eucliffe for his humiliation during their fight; these very same grudges can be transferred to his offenders' friends, should Jackal believe the former ones to have died.

Jackal shows to be quite intolerant towards goofy behaviors. He is also perfectly capable of threatening or even killing his own comrades, should he feel annoyed by them. Despite his intolerance, Jackal is quite stubborn himself, always doing what he wants, even if someone as strict as Torafuzar tells him to stop playing around with his victims. In stark contrast, he has displayed a degree of loyalty towards Kyōka, apologizing to her for his defeat at Naruto's hands before turning his own body into a bomb in a last effort to kill the jinchūriki and his comrades.

## Abilities

**Bomb Curse**: Jackal, much like the other members of Tartaros, doesn't employ Magic, instead relying on a Curse, a power which he describes as standing above Magic. His Curse, in particular, revolves around the use of heat-based explosions, and is quite possibly the most destructive one out of all the Nine Demon Gates': Jackal has proven himself capable of effortlessly generating blasts of huge magnitude, wreaking havoc over both large buildings and entire towns, slaughtering even a large village in the Land of Earth. Its use appears to be focused around the Etherious' blackened arms, either through direct physical contact with his target or through arm gestures, the latter ones demonstrating the Curse's extreme casting range (at least a seeming kilometer). This Curse can also be employed defensively, allowing Jackal to dispel offending spells by tearing them apart with explosions before they have a chance to connect with him. One more aspect of Jackal's power (as well as, according to him, its real essence) resides in it manifesting complex markings on the body of anyone who has touched him, in correspondence to the point/s of contact: such markings turn the victim into a living bomb, having them burst into an explosion whose size depends on the number of times they have touched Jackal or he has touched them; discouraging physical attacks against him.

* **Exploding Spiral**: By first moving one arm backwards with the hand open, describing an arc in the air, and then rapidly bringing it back before him with a now closed palm, Jackal enfulfs the area in front of him into a massive explosion, surging up high and extending vertically, which is notable for taking the form of a spiralling column. This causes great damage to the targeted spot; at the same time, the blast sends nearby objects and people alike flying away, scattering them in the surrounding area. The Nine Demon Gates member empoyed this technique against Naruto, moderately injuring him, but not incapacitating the latter because of his Kurama Chakra-enhanced shroud.
* **Landmine Curse**: Jackal is capable of imbuing surfaces with his Curse's power by leaving circular, complex markings on them, at the same time turning the affected spot dark. These enchantments, as the name implies, act in a similar way to a landmine: once someone steps on them, they will explode on further movement, causing the victim to remain frozen in place to avoid being blown up. If Jackal is attacked while his Landmine Curse is still unexploded, the markings (and thus the threat they pose) disappear.

**Etherious Form**: Jackal, as an Etherious, has shown the ability to enter his true form: his Etherious Form.

* **Enhanced Strength**: Jackal's larger frame grants him considerable physical stregth, causing a burst of debris all around him (as well as behind his target) upon assaulting Sting with a punch; this very attack forced the Dragon Slayer to parry with both hands, despite his strength being enhanced by Dragon Force.
* **Enhanced Speed & Reflexes**: Despite the massive size of his Etherious form, Jackal is quick enough to keep up with a Dragon Force-enhanced during their final battle.
* **Enhanced Durability**: Jackal's enhanced state grants him greater durability, taking a barrage of attacks from Sting in both his normal and Dragon Force modes, including a blow to his jaw, as well as a barrage of Sting's Dragon Force-enhanced Holy Ray without suffering any visible damage.
* **Bomb Impact**: While in his transformed state, Jackal retains the ability to activate his Curse through physical contact, at the same time enhancing its already formidable destructive qualities: by having his clawed hands glow as they strike the enemy, he can unleash terrifying explosions, which create massive shockwaves, sending onlookers off their feet, and destroy the surroundings, all while leaving him perfectly unharmed; he is also able to boost his already powerful melee strikes by accompanying them with blasts, causing each assault to devastate the area behind his target upon hitting them.

**Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant**: While he refers to fighting at long-range, Jackal has shown an expert degree in unarmed combat, able to hold his own against two seasoned fighters such as Naruto and Sting, both separately enhanced by Kurama Chakra Mode and Light Dragon Slayer Magic. He can also use his Curse to enhance the blows of his punches and kicks to deal both physical, and explosive damage to his opponents, while using this to even wipe out 50 of Naruto's shadow clones with just a spiral of both hands enhanced by his Curse.

**Immense Durability**: Jackal appears to be incredibly resistant to damage, suffering a heavy beating from Naruto and Sting, enduring a prolonged barrage of attacks enhanced by Naruto in both his normal and Kurama Chakra Mode forms, and Sting's attacks enhanced by his Light Dragon Slayer Magic, only to stand back on his feet seconds later, following a brief moment of unconsciousness, showing only slight bruises and acting as if nothing happened.

**Enhanced Reflexes**: Jackal has shown to possess sharp reflexes, managing to both evade his opponents' attacks physically and to prevent them completely by anticipating them with his Curse, dispelling offending Magic with explosions.

**Highly Perceptive Combatant**: While usually savage and brutal, Jackal has shown a rare cunning that enabled him to discern from simple observation, during his fight against Naruto, that his Chakra has limits to the various techniques he uses, as well as increasing their power. He also notes during his fight with Sting that Naruto can only peform Wind Release: Rasenshuriken one more time at close-range, simply by observing the jinchūriki's battle with Mard Geer Tartaros despite being focused on Sting.

**Great Curse Power**: