Damian Hoffman

**Damian Hoffman** is one of the survivors of the luxury liner incident. He is the possessor of one of the Four Fiends and Friends' Ancient Gears. He is later revealed to be a descendent of the Hoffman Family of the Four Watcher Families.

## Appearance

Damian is a handsome biracial young man of European and Japanese descent making him Eurasian. He has somewhat-long, messy flame-like brown hair and light green eyes.

Near the end of Volume 2, after leaving his previous school and entering Grigori's Nephilim Institute, like the others, Damian began to wear the special uniform of the institute, which act as his main battle attire.

After Volume 3 and on the recommendation of Beatrice and Lavinia, Damian cuts his hair into an more spiky style.

## History

Damian is a descendant of the Hoffman House via his grandmother Ingrid and father Andrew who were exiled members of the Hoffman Family. Damian himself comes from a mixed Japanese and European heritage and is one of the 11 students to have missed the school trip thus surviving the ordeal.

## Plot

### Volume 1

Damian makes his first appearance in the first volume alongside Natsume, interrupting Sasaki's attempt to kill Tobio Ikuse. After this, Damian and Natsume introduce themselves to the perplexed Tobio who doesn't recognise them. Natsume shows him a picture of himself on her cellphone and introduces themselves as two of the few survivors of the "Heavenly Aloha incident" just like himself. They head to a family restaurant upon her request, where they explain the nature of the 'Utsusemi' which just attacked Tobio, and gives him an egg. Upon inquiry, Natsume clarifies that the egg serves as a valuable weapon for defense against the Utsusemi. He and Natsume makes to leave and tells Tobio that they will visit him later.

Damian later appears at the rooftop of Tobio's apartment, and informs him of a safe place where they can hide from the Utsusemi. On their way, they are confronted by another Utsusemi who gets destroyed by a blonde foreigner before they could take any action. Damian and Natsume recognizes her and apologizes for being late. She then takes one of Tobio's bags and tells him they have to hurry to avoid other Utsusemi.

Upon arrival at the house, the blonde girl is introduced as Lavinia Reni to Tobio. Natsume plays a DVD and explains the circumstances and the current identity of their classmates as Utsusemi. Clarifying that they are being attacked because of their Ancient Gears, they tell Tobio that he and Natsume receives information from a certain "Governor-General" who also gave them their eggs. They then tell Tobio that their classmates are still alive and asks for his help against the Utsusemi Agency, expressing happiness when he agrees. Natsume says they are to meet with another ally, Kouki Samejima.

The next morning, Tobio prepares breakfast which they all finds to be delicious, they decide to look for Kouki. With Lavinia's help, they pinpoint a deserted departmental store and split up after collecting communication crystals. After a short while, Damian, Natsume and Lavinia are attacked but they successfully defeat their assailants. They later reach the fifth floor and meet up with Tobio and Kouki, deciding to meet up with the Governor-General who further explains the situation in depth and their Ancient Gears.

Later on, they discuss the current situation and decide to visit the house of Sae Tomoe without Vali Apollion and Asriel, who declines. They split up into two groups with Damian being with Natsume and Kouki. Soon after, they find out that they have been ambushed by the enemy, with Tobio telling him, Natsume and Kouki to escape. Upon reaching an abandoned factory, they are confronted by Kazuhisa Doumon and one of the Utsusemi, who injures Kouki. Damian directs his Esther to attack them alongside Gryphon - Natsume's Ancient Gear, but it is overwhelmed and seriously injured, leaving Damian in shock, falling to his knees. As Kouki tells them to escape, their Ancient Gears evolve and defeat the enemies. Vali and Asriel then appears and teleports the injured Kouki along with his Ancient Gear and Kazuhisa to the Grigori institute.

The four of them then head to the headquarters of the Utsusemi Agency, where Damian directs Esther to free the victims. Damian and Natsume then heads towards Tobio's location and becomes frightened upon seeing his Overdrive state. The Governor-General introduces himself as Azazel to him and Natsume and returns Tobio to his normal state with the help of Vali, Lavinia and Asriel.

Sometime later, he meets up with everyone where they learn that they will join a special school under the Grigori called Nephilim, where they have been assigned to the 'Barakiel Class'. Lavinia then explains the reason for her cooperation to them, to pursue the Wizards of Oz.

### Volume 2

Two months later, Damian is shown making his way to Tobio's room along with Kouki, Lavinia, Vali, Asriel, and Sae, where they see him in bed with Natsume, causing an awkward situation to manifest. As the misunderstanding is cleared up over breakfast, Azazel appears and takes them to Nephilim, where he introduces them to Baraqiel, who is to be their teacher.

Half a month later, he is seen at Nephilim, completing a training course with Tobio and Kouki and discussing with him. Baraqiel then places them in a sparring match against Vali, which they lose, much to their frustration. The following Saturday, he goes along with the rest of the team into town. As they rest at a park downtown, they are suddenly joined by a pair of a bespectacled and a ruffian looking young men who introduces themselves as Seiryuu Kushihashi and Andreas Hoffman. Quizzed on his intentions, Seiryuu replies in a vague manner, making Kouki irritated as he summons Byakusa. He fights against Seiryuu along with Kouki and Tobio, but the match is interrupted by the arrival of Baraqiel, Vali, Asriel, and Suzaku Himejima, who asks for a meeting.

At the meeting, Suzaku apologizes for the incident with the Utsusemi Agency and informs them that they are searching for their former classmates, who are being chased by the Utsusemi Agency and the Wizards of Oz. She then asks for an alliance, much to the surprise of himself and some others. They agree to the alliance, resolving to rescue their former classmates. As they prepare and head towards the location, Baraqiel warns them about the abilities of their potential enemies and Lavinia tells the team about her past, leading them to express their support for her. As they reach closer to the location, Sae raises an alarm, causing Baraqiel to investigate ahead. He finds Shigune Nanadare, one of their classmates, along with her Ancient Gear. She warns them to escape, just as they are confronted by a strange stone statue. Soon after Baraqiel cautious the team to close their eyes, the statue releases an intense light that is revealed to be capable of causing blindness. A man soon reveals himself, expressing his desire to make them blind. Damian attacks the statue along with Tobio and Kouki, as the man is forced to retreat. Shigune then tells them that Koga and Lily, their other classmates, are fighting alone in the village.

Following that, they head towards the village. After they feel a powerful aura determined to be that of Kokabiel, Baraqiel decides to pursue Kokabiel alone and gives instructions to the team. After they reach the location, they discover Koga and Lily who are surrounded by gruesome corpses, which disgusts the team. Koga acknowledges Damian and the rest of the Ryoukou students. They notice Augusta and several other magicians, who have surrounded them. As Lavinia pursues Augusta alone with the approval of the Ryoukou students, Kouki tells Tobio, Sae, Natsume and Shigune to follow Lavinia while he deals with the other magicians along with Damian, Vali, Koga and Lily.

Later, Damian and others are informed that Augusta managed to possess Lavinia's body. They receive instructions from Azazel on how to combat Augusta. Damian then helps the rest of the team to defeat Augusta and safely retrieve Lavinia. Ten days later, the team is shown together in a hospital as they express their support for Lavinia in her future goal.

## Powers and Abilities

**Flame Manipulation:** As a member of the Hoffman Family, Damian can utilize the Fire element, one of the Five Elements, letting him create and control blue-coloured flames which he uses in conjunction with his Ancient Gear. He has shown being able to create swords made of fire, pillar of flames using a single gesture of his hands, and a fire ball with enough power to burn a large hole in a three-meter tall monster.

**Expert Swordsman:** Damian has proven to be naturally adept at swordsmanship, capable of cutting through legions of Youkai and Satyrs using the Onimaru and Mikazuki with ease.

**Master Combatant:** Damian has shown to be an adept fighter. Having a natural talent for combat, with continuous training, his fighting skills developed at an accelerated rate, eventually becoming strong enough to fight on more of an equal level against extremely powerful enemies such as Andreas and Weiss Yeager.

**Magician:**

## Equipment

### Sterling Utahraptor

**Sterling Utahraptor** (煉獄の妖鬼スターリング・ユタラプトル, *Sutāringu Yutaraputoru*) also known as the **Purgatory Strange Demon**, is Damian's Ancient Gear, that takes the form of a large white raptor with red feathers, whom he named **Esther** (エスター, *Esutā*). It is one of the Four Fiends and Friends Ancient Gears bearing the spirit of a Utahraptor, classified as one of the high-tier Friends by Azazel. It has the power to create and manipulate flames. it also acts as an independent avatar type with its own instinct.

* **Flames** (焔, *Homura*)
* **True Form:** Esther grows to about three-meters and has azure flames releasing from her mouth. In this form, the flames created by Esther become hot enough to melt stone and a fully grown male human.
* **Sterling Maverick Blaze** (妖天鬼の乱刃鎧スターリング・マーベリック・ブレイズ, *Sutāringu Māberikku Bureizu*), also known as the **Mad Blade Armor of the Strange Heavenly Demon**, is Damian's Overdrive of Sterling Utahraptor. When he first used, Damian appeared in an disordered-looking, militaristic armor with five distorted swords appearing from his back and flames appearing around parts of his body. After it's second use and later uses, it appears as an sleek, clean, militaristic knight armor of dark-tone with flames appearing from his face, back and legs. The flames in this form are comparable to the strongest forms of flame magic, capable of melting away the skin of an human being. In Volume 4, after undergoing a ritual along with Beatrice and Gertrude Bauer, he became able to summon two of the swords within Esther.
	+ **Tenka Goken**
		- **Onimaru** (鬼丸おにまる, *Demon*)
		- **Mikazuki** (三日月みかずき, *Crescent Moon*)

## Trivia

* His first name Damian is a Greek given name meaning "tamer".