Train Heartnet
Train Heartnet
is the one of the four primary protagonists in the anime and manga Black Cat. In the beginning of both the manga and the anime Train is a ruthless assassin hired by the organization known as Chronos. He is given the number XIII by Chronos because he is the "bringer of bad luck", hence his nickname being the Black Cat. In the very beginning of the anime, and a little ways into the manga Train meets a woman by the name of Saya Minatsuki. After this fateful meeting Train begins to learn the ways of what he calls the "stray cat" (i.e. do what you want, as you want). After what seems like a few days of knowing Saya he quits Chronos and goes about on his own. After his change of heart, he works as a sweeper alongside Sven Vollfied and Eve. He is never seen without his cat collar (a red ribbon with a golden bell hanging from it) around his neck, which was fashioned for him by Eve after their meeting (only in the anime). After leaving Chronos Train never returns, though he does keep his weapon, a gun made of Orihalcum that was given to him by number I of Chronos: Sephiria. For a while he views Chronos as an enemy, but in the anime he asks for their help in the end.
A Bit About Train
Zagine was on a mission when he assassinated Train's parents, when Train was 10. But as he did not know that the couple had a child, he was surprised, and asked Train whether he wanted to live or die along with his parents. After Train chose to live, Zagine takes Train under his wing, albeit against Train's will, and pushes him to become powerful, telling him he can only depend on himself. When Zagine is later killed (in the manga) Train is then left to fend for himself. In the manga he is picked up by a powerful man in Chronos at the age of thirteen. In the anime, Train seems to find his way to Chronos on his own. Little else is known about Train's past, including the faces of his parents. No sign of siblings are shown in either the manga or the anime, and it seems he has never had any form of attraction towards another person until Saya.
Train in the Manga
Train as a child in the manga
In the manga version of Black Cat, Train Heartnet is a lighthearted, courageous man who's highly skilled with a gun, on a practically supernatural level. He works as a sweeper with his partner Sven. He seems to enjoy tormenting him and tightening their already small budget as low-paid sweepers, as it is shown, for example, by his exaggerated food consumption. Some of Train's distinguishing features are his spikey brown ruffled hair, his catlike slitted eyes, a choker with a tiny bell attached to it, and the XIII tattoo he has on his chest. He has low alcohol tolerance, but loves to drink milk. Contrarily, for some reason unknown, it seems his liking of fish is very minimal. His nickname is "Black Cat", and was given to him when he was still working as an assassin in Chronos. His weapon-of-choice is Hades, an ornate black revolver with a matching XIII engraved into its side. He received this gun when he entered Chronos, and still uses it. He is also skilled at disguises, can sleep anywhere even inside a cramped porcelain vase and tends to be clueless about most other important things, for instance he couldn't remember what he originally looked like after turning into a child and gets bored of reading after the contents page. In the past, he was once a bitter, emotionless assassin, but after he met Minatsuki Saya, he began to loosen up and was moved by her freedom as a sweeper. So,his partner in Chronos, Creed Diskenth, was not pleased by this change in Train, and killed Saya. Train afterwards left Chronos in order to be an independent sweeper in the memory of Saya, and later on joined with Sven Vollfied as his partner. Once Creed appears, Train decides to capture him, not as an assassin seeking revenge, but as a sweeper. Following his incident of being reverted to a child due to Doctor's Lucifer nanomachine, Train becomes able to charge his Hades with his body's cell energy to make a regular bullet much faster and more powerful; enough to actually pierce an alloy plate. Hades is then compared to one of the scientific-research supersonic-speed-shooting guns, no more no less than a "Rail Gun". He also has a few melee moves he uses with Hades, which he uses when he wants to defeat Shiki at Clarken Island, when he realizes that he trusts too much in Tao, so he decides to try to make Shiki realize Tao's not a "Perfect" technique, so he shoots his fourth Rail Gun shot at the air (He only could shoot four per day if he wanted the Rail Gun energy circle to renovate normally), saying that he doesn't even need the Rail Gun to beat Tao. In the final battle, he beats Creed by focusing all of his mental and physical energy into shooting one more Rail Gun shot, in combination with a burst bullet. The resulting shot is so powerful, it shatters Creed's sword, as well as partly destroying Hades. After the defeat of Creed, Train was unable to use the rail gun attack. His own theory on this occurrence was that Saya provided it for him spiritually only in order to defeat Creed.
Eight months later, Sven repaired Hades for Train albeit with some parts not made of Orichalcum, shown in the ending. Although Hades is repaired, Train can no longer use Rail gun anymore, though in the first place he believed that Rail gun is used to defeat Creed. Having served its purpose, Rail gun will not be used anymore.
Train in the Anime
In the anime version of Black Cat, Train's overall personality remained unchanged, but certain events are different. For example, Train and Sven met before the death of Saya, and conflicted against one another as they received the same target for their respective jobs of Eraser and Sweeper. Train also changes after Saya Minatsuki, a sweeper, come to his life telling him that a gun is not meant for killing but for protecting. Train's bell choker was actually given to him by Eve who read an old fable believing that the bell would change him into a "good cat". It shows in one of the episodes that Eve apparently has feelings for Sven. 6 months later after the event, Train joins Sven as a sweeper. Also worth noting is the fact that Sven referred to Train as a "kid" during their first meeting. This could imply that Train in the anime is younger than 23. He does appear slightly younger, but that could be the difference in art style. In the Anime, Train's transformation through Lucifer wasn't even intentional once again but instead the Doctor meant to hit Kyoko rather than Train, and he doesn't need Dr. Tearju's help to return back, Dr. Tearju only appeared around the end of the anime, helping in the defeat of Mason. Apparently Train return back as his adult self when he was showering in the anime. Train doesn't beat Creed using the Rail Gun, as he doesn't even acquire that skill in the Anime, but by using an Orichalcon Bullet Sephiria told him to use, to unleash "Hades's true power". When the Eden plot takes place, Train goes along with Sven to save Eve, and runs into Mason, the mastermind behind the Eden plot. Creed appears and takes over the battle for them, so Sven and Train can progress on their way to save Eve. However they both were split up by force; Train wound up meeting Zagine's "ghost", while Sven aimlessly tries to save Eve. Train's the one who fires the crucial shot that hits the flower that is imprisoning Eve right in its stem, freeing Eve from Eden. After that, he left Sven and Eve, to travel the world as a "stray cat". Sven explains to Eve, that he'll eventually come back, because Train is "a stray cat".
