Vulcan Joseph

**Vulcan Joseph** (ヴァルカン・ジョゼフ, *Barukan Jōsefu*), famously known as the **God of Fire and Smithing** (炎と鍛冶の神, *Honō To Kaji No Kami*) is the former engineer for Special Fire Force Company 8.

## Appearance

Vulcan is a young man of average height and athletic build, with short red hair, shaved sides, and blue eyes. He has striped tattoos over his body, from two black stripes around his neck, three black horizontal stripes on his shoulders, two on his upper-arms, and one stripe on his left forearm. When working, he wears a eerie-looking ram mask with twisted horns and goggles. He also wears somewhat dark trousers with a toolbelt, a white belt and white skull as the buckle, black boots and thick white gloves. He also wears a white t-shirt with black outlines, text on the torso saying "THE ANIMALS", and a black dog's paw below it. As a member of Company 8 he casually wears his animal-themed shirts with the bottom after of his bunker gear. On missions he wears the complete uniform except for the helmet.

## Personality

Vulcan is a very skilled engineer with a love for animals, who often fit animal themes into his builds. His goal in life is to build something like his family's Amaterasu to supply enough energy to the world, in order to save the world's endangered animals. Despite his grand ideals, he desires to remain independent. This is rooted in his total hatred for Haijima Industries as he blames them from the death of his family, which also initially bleeds into a total distrust of the Special Fire Force. Vulcan is very passionate about his occupation and loves creating new inventions. HIs approach to engineering involves building machines and then trying to smash them as hard as he can, out of belief that tools need to be as reliable as possible because important things cannot be allowed to break. He also makes sure to emphasize that this inventions are just machines or tools to be used, believing that faith in people and animals is far more real than any misguided belief in mechs. At the same time, Vulcan is very stubborn, demanding and straightforward about what he wants. He values his family above all else and refuses to break his promises to them. The only thing that can make him go against his word is the need to protect his family, regardless of blood ties.

When he joins the Company 8, he is shown to be more open minded and easygoing, forming a brotherly bond with Shinra and rest of the Special Fire Force Company 8, constantly hanging out and going on missions with them, despite his job as an engineer allowing him to stay back at their base at all times. Despite this, he is still violently hateful towards Haijima and rushes to action if they ever do anything wrong. Out of all the people that he met, Vulcan has shown to hate Giovanni the most: for breaking his promise to his family by joining Haijima, blacklisting him from getting new materials and tools to prevent him from inventing things further, hurting his friend Yu, and manipulating Lisa as a tool and hostage during a fight. resulting in Vulcan being displeased whenever he meets or has to talk about Giovanni. Despite this Vulcan does not believe that Giovanni is trying to kill him at first because he believes this bitterness is one-sided. When he found out that Giovanni does intend to kill him, Vulcan's hatred towards him grows even further.

Out of all Special Fire Force Company 8, he is the most aware of Arthur's delusions and has skillfully manipulated the young third generation pyrokinetic's delusions numerous times, which he has used to his advantage, and by proxy to the benefit of Company 8.

## Abilities

Vulcan's first and foremost ability lies in his knowledge and passion for engineering, which he puts to work by building, as well as maintaining, almost all of Company 8's existing and new equipment. His engineering expertise is to such an extent that he could build equipment tailored to a member's specific abilities, most notably Maki's Iron Owls, which are both used as flying battering rams as well as surveillance equipment.

Due to having rigorously trained physically, well beyond that needed for his job, he is also surprisingly fit and could hold his own in physical combat. As such, he often goes out on missions with his teammates, not only for logistical support but also for actual fighting as well.

## Background

As a child, Vulcan enjoyed building machines with his father and uncle. Back then, when Giovanni was trying to recruit the engineers, Vulcan's father and grandfather were suspiciously turned into Infernals, making Vulcan wary of Giovanni, Haijima and the Special Fire Brigades.

## Plot

### Vulcan's Workshop arc

Vulcan first appeared when Shinra, Arthur and Iris showed up at his workshop. When he heard Arthur shouting, he opened the entrance only to poke out his hand, told them to leave, and threw soda cans at the two fire officers. He prepared to throw a third at Iris, but noticed her squealing, and shut the door. Yū calls out to Vulcan, letting him know that he's retrieved the materials he'd asked for, to which Vulcan walks out with his mask on. As Vulcan picks up the bag and begins to walk back inside, Shinra and Arthur shout at him to wait. Vulcan removes his mask, and exclaims to them both that he will not help any fire brigades, and tells them to leave, shutting the door behind him. After the fire officers manage to get inside, they discover Vulcan riding and banging loudly on a machine. He then twirls a tool in his hand, beats the machine one more time, and kicks it away, shocking the fire officers. Vulcan asserts with a smile on his face that he's finally got the machine to work, while Shinra puts him down by saying he only kicked it and could have broken it, to which Vulcan says that a machine that would have broke would have been a defective product anyway. Realizing that they've come inside, Vulcan reiterates that they're not supposed to be here. He then shouts at Yū to bring tea, and when he does, grabs the can and launches it at Shinra's feet, but the fire officer dodges. He picks up another, saying he's heard enough of the nonsense from the fire brigades, and launches the can at Arthur this time, to which he hits with a bat to try and reflect it, but instead cracks it open, with the tea going all over him, much to Vulcan's amusement. The doorbell rings, and Lisa hints to Vulcan who it is at the door. Vulcan then puts on a shirt, and says he will go alone, despite Lisa's concern.

### Netherworld arc

Suiting up with Viktor, Vulcan joins in the investigation into the Netherworld and shows no signs of fear walking into the Underworld. After seeing a copy of Princess Hibana is dragged into the darkness, Company 8 is caught in a huge fog and pulled apart by traps, illusions and copies. Vulcan is left alone with Akitaru because he calmly put on his goggles to allow him to better handle the situation. Giovanni and Lisa (under the name Feeler) confront Vulcan and Akitaru. After Vulcan starts be to friendly towards Lisa, Giovanni asserts his dominance by reminding her that she owes everything, including her life with Vulcan, to him. Terrified and refocused, Feeler unleashes her flames to battle their foes and protect her master. Feeler is able to quickly restrain Vulcan and Akitaru with her tentacles and their lack of powers forces them to use technology to free themselves. After Obi extinguishes Lisa's flames, Vulcan manages to catch her.

Before she can fully accept them saving her, Giovanni once again asserts control over her. Deciding that she can’t betray him, Lisa plans on returning to Giovanni only for him to take her hostage and offer an ultimatum: Vulcan will shoot and kill Captain Obi in exchange for Lisa’s life. Sliding a gun across the floor, Giovanni threatens to shoot and decapitate Lisa if Vulcan does not comply with this demand. After much hesitation, Vulcan shoots Akitaru and Giovanni releases Lisa while cackling over his victory. However, Vulcan managed to get Obi a bulletproof vest before the mission started so that he is able to survive and quickly catch Giovanni off-guard to allow Vulcan to smash through Giovanni's weaponry with his Penguinmet. Other members of Company 8 arrive. Giovanni disappears into the shadows, abandoning Lisa. Telling them that other members of the Fire Force know of the Adolla. Vulcan carries Lisa with him deeper and deeper into the Nether until they find Shinra. Upon saving him from Haumea, Vulcan and Lisa flee with the rest to Company 6 for treatment. While Shinra is undergoing treatment, Vulcan stays with Lisa.

### Ōbi's Rescue arc

Learning that Akitaru was arrested by Tokyo Army, and that they were in league with the White-Clad, Vulcan and his brigade decide to rescue him at the cost of being branded traitors to the empire. Viktor takes the brigade to Joker, leading to the criminal taking the fire soldiers to his underground secret base.

## Trivia

* There are several characters in *Fire Force*whose names are allusions to or directly taken from both monotheistic and pantheistic religions and notable religious figures.
	+ Vulcan shares his given name with the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth.
	+ His surname, Joseph, is possibly a reference to a figure of the same name in the Christian and Jewish faiths who was sold into slavery by his jealous elder brothers.
* The tattoos on Vulcan's shoulders are similar to the ones featured on the shoulders of characters from Okubo's previous work *Soul Eater:* Alexander and Dengu Dinga of DWMA's African Branch.
* Given his family's history with the Amaterasu and his complete lack of fear when it comes to the Nether, it appears that Vulcan does not believe in the Holy Sol's teachings.
* According to his Character Profile:
	+ His self-proclaimed nicknames are "I dunno! Just call me turdface."
	+ His favorite foods are Lisa's cooking, fries, and soda.
	+ He does not have a least favorite goof, as he "wouldn't hate food."
	+ He favorite music is punk, with a lot of distortion.
	+ His favorite animals are all of them.
	+ His favorite color is metallic.
	+ His type is a girl who plays along and eats a lot.
	+ He respects his dad and grandpa, along with his ancestors who made Amaterasu.
	+ He has trouble around Dr. Giovanni.
	+ He's not afraid of anyone in particular.
	+ His hobbies are drums.
	+ His daily routine involves animal watching, mech maintenance, catch with Yu, remodeling Company 9, and cleaning up after Iris.
	+ His dream is to revive the world.
	+ His shoe size is 28.5 cm [10.5].
	+ His eyesight is 1.5 [20/12.5].
	+ His favorite subject is technology and biology.
	+ His least favorite subject are the annoying ones.