Graves Runnerman

**Graves** is the titular protagonist of the *Hitman Runnerman Novel* series. He was the main protagonist of *Part 1*, *Part 2* and is the deuteragonist of *Part 3.*

He does not remember his life before the age of thirteen but claims to have always been a hitman. Sometime around 1994, at the age of fourteen, he gets caught and is sold off to work in the Garrison family's farm as a slave. He works by chopping down trees and hunting pests that ruin the crops of the farm. In October of 1997, he encounters the Corpse Disorder and forms a pact to feed it the entirety of the farm in exchange for strength to massacre the farmland.

## Appearance

Graves is a teenage boy with long messy hair. He has hazel colored eyes and visible eye bags due to his insomnia. He has a lanky figure and is quite skinny because of malnutrition. He has multiple scars across his body, most notably, his x-shaped scar on his back that was caused due to the Corpse Disorder giving him a new spine.

## Personality

Graves is spiteful and hardworking as a result of his life as a hitman. He has a very violent outlook on life and comes across as a pessimist. He has no regard of empathy for people he does not care about and shows zero understanding of what a normal life looks like. Due to his amnesia, he recalls no memories of his life before he had turned thirteen which greatly determines his aloof nature. He shows no disgust in taking the life of innocent people and even goes as far as to justify why he does the things he does. His sadistic nature is also observed by the Garrison family, calling him the ''most effective hitman''.

When it becomes evident that the Garrison family will not be freeing him, Graves resorts to slaughtering them but he did not have enough tools or resources to take down the entire farm by himself. Once again, demonstrating his lack of disgust in the idea of murder. Upon encountering a weakened Disorder, he immediately agrees to any offer the creature has to make in exchange for strength to obtain freedom from the farm. Graves is shown to feel no guilt even after murdering the children of the Garrison family, further displaying his twisted mentality as a hitman.

While fighting, Graves seems to lose a sense of morality. His fight or flight instincts cause him to act deranged during combat, often resorting to sadistically making fun of his opponents and glorify cutting them open with his axe. Graves is shown to have immense confidence in his fighting prowess and believes he can cut through any Disorder with ''enough thinking''. As mindless as he can get, Graves is still a very tactical fighter and constantly looks for openings to get an upper-hand over his opponent. This is evident when he rips off his own spine in order to capitalize bodily regeneration from his pact with the Corpse Disorder. He also shows no hesitance in damaging the environment around him if he believes it would lead to landing some hits on the enemy. Furthermore, he has shown to be more than willing to give up other people's lives to defeat an opponent.

As he recollects more and more of his childhood, Graves begins to feel like he has been gaining parts of his humanity again. Most notably, when he begins to question what he wants with his life. It becomes painfully evident that Graves is a deranged human being with no idea on how to live a life away from killing. He was shown to be desensitized to the idea of rape, torture and child slavery when it was brought up by Iris at first. This is put up to the test when he continues to puke over and over again after witnessing a girl being raped through a VHS tape, proving a presence of humanity.

Towards the end of the first part, Graves begins to feel heavy guilt and remorse for killing Jackie, Scythe and majority of unit X. We see him lose all sense of self-trust and begins to dislike the idea of not being human. During his confrontation with Iris, she asks him if he is a man or a beast, to which he picks humanity. Further solidifying Graves' pursuit of being a human. After killing Iris, he talks to Captain Wayne about retirement and wanting to finally move on from being a hitman.

## Abilities

### Physical Abilities

* **Axe Mastery**: During his time as a hitman, Graves relied on an old axe with a broken down haft. Despite the condition of the tool, he still made great use of it and was capable of swiftly chopping his targets down. As far as he remembers, he was ''born with the axe''. After making a pact with the Corpse Disorder, it chose to give its vision to the axe, strengthening it and connecting it to Graves' spine.
* **Exceptional Pain Tolerance**: Graves has plausible tolerance and resistance to pain. He took twenty strokes of a metallic whip with seemingly little to no struggle. His mental resilience allowed him to patiently plan and wait to burn down Garrison's farm, burdening his daily beatings with barely any sleep and food. His pain barrier is put to the test when he faces off against the Punisher Disorder and bears six out of the ten punishments, showing a great feat of fortitude.
* **Exceptional Endurance**: As a hitman, slave and a hunter, Graves has shown great durability over and over again. This is proved during his battle with the Punisher Disorder and is once against tested when he can stand on two feet against the Risk Disorder. His endurance is showcased heavily when he manages to stay on par with Captain Wayne with no sleep in forty six hours.

### Pacts and Contracts

* **Corpse Disorder**: To date, Graves has made four known pacts with the Disorder of Corpses. The first pact was made under the condition that the Disorder would provide Graves with enough strength to massacre Garrison's farmland in return for all their bodies as feast. The second pact was made under the condition that the Disorder would save Graves from death in exchange for living in his spine and axe, granting him the strength of the Corpse Disorder. The third and fourth pacts were redos of the second pact after Iris separated the contract twice.
	+ **Spine Manipulation**: Graves can manipulate his spine and release them from the back in the form of tendrils to assist in combat. He can use his spine to capture enemies and bring them closer to him or use them to gain impressive momentum and speed. He was able to use his spine to grab a hold of multiple opponents at once and ram through them with his axe. His axe is connected to his spine which allows him to carry it with him wherever he goes.
		- **Spine Retraction**: Graves has the ability to withdraw his spine back inside his body in shape, allowing him to extract and retract his spinal tendrils at will. This ability sets the base of his capture and pull attack which requires him to entangle his enemy with his spine and bring them closer by retracting the tendril. This concept was implemented during his assault on Iris and her Disorders.
		- **Spine Mobility**: Graves' spine can work as tentacles allowing him to induce more momentum and power in his attacks. He can also cover distances by utilizing his spine to swing and move off nearby structures. He is able to use his spine to carry people or items, showing impressive use of its mobility.
		- **Spine Sheath**: Due to the pact with the Corpse Disorder, Graves' spine has a hard armor-plated covering that is almost impossible to break through. Due to the defensive nature of his tendrils, he can cover his body with them to soften hits from enemies or use them against his opponents to immobilize them. His spine is strong enough to break through the metallic objects, buildings, bullets, knives and even the ground as displayed in multiple instances through the story. Due to the sheer weight of the tendrils, he can crush whatever his tendrils are entangled to, as shown during his fight with Iris.
		- **Axe Manifestation**: As per the pact with the Corpse Disorder, Graves' axe is given the Disorder's vision and is connected to his spine. Due to this condition of the contract, he can manifest his axe whenever he wants.
	+ **Death Inducement**: After making the pact with the Disorder, Graves' axe obtained the ability to induce death through the Corpse Disorder's vision. He has the ability to know when and where to deliver the killing blow when put against one or more people. Due to this hit-kill ability, he is feared as a hitman and as a hunter by many Disorders. This ability is taken into plan when Iris' first attempt at killing him involved directly ripping out his spine to de-activate his vision. Though his axe is given the Corpse Disorder's vision, Graves can see where to use it through his own eyes. The reason for this is unknown but it most likely could be due to the fact that his axe is connected to his spine as per the pact. As deadly as it is, Graves' death inducement has its weaknesses. To state the obvious, it is effective only on living things and hence, Disorders that are birthed from post-mortem causes do not find themselves in the hit-kill effect.
	+ **Semi-Immortality**: Due to his pact with the Corpse Disorder, Graves is nearly immortal as his body warps around his spine and heals itself naturally whenever his spine is exposed. This was exploited by Graves multiple times to regenerate his blown up chest and oozing intestines.

* **Risk Disorder**: To date, Graves has made one known pact with the Disorder of Risk. The pact was made out of fear when Graves boasted that he would slaughter the Mercy Disorder, implying that even the Risk Disorder was afraid of the mother of all sins. The Risk Disorder agreed to a contract that excluded Graves from being one of its possible victims until he kills the Mercy Disorder, in fear of encountering the terrifying creature itself.
	+ **Risk Freedom**: As per the pact, Graves has the freedom to take risks without being one of the Risk Disorder's potential victims, allowing him to freely hunt for the Mercy Disorder without any extra precautions.
* **Chrono Disorder**: To date, Graves has made one known pact with the Disorder of Time. Hopelessly, on the verge of death, the pact was contracted under the condition that Graves would take Lie to Washington in return for him to momentarily separate Graves and the Corpse Disorder for a minute using his ritual technique. The pact was terminated after Lie's capture.
	+ **Disorder Awakening**: The Corpse Disorder and Graves were separated through Lie's ritual, leading him to summon a fully awakened Corpse Disorder for a total of one minute.
* **Vampire Disorder**: To date, Graves has made only one known pact with the Disorder of Bloodsucking. At death's door, the pact was made inside the hitman's conscious mind under the conditions that the Vampire Disorder would save him from passing by regenerating parts of his body and lending her sense of taste to his axe in exchange to kill the Mercy Disorder. The pact was not terminated even after Iris' death due to the Mercy Disorder's mutilated body parts being quarantined instead of exorcised.
	+ **Axe Manifestation**: By lending her sense of taste to his axe, it gained the the disorder's parasitic properties. Being able to delay anybody who's blood touches the axe's bodily functions, including a disorder's natural sense of regeneration.