Black Cat, Volumes 1-4 (Yabuki)
Unlike the last series I read, there are more than 4 volumes of Black Cat. It's an ongoing series, but only the first four were available for me to read. The series was release in 2001, with the English versions arriving in 2006.
The series follows the exploits of Train Heartnet, once an assassin for an organization called "Chronos", who now makes a living as a "sweeper" or bounty hunter. Train has a tatoo of the Roman numeral XIII, which is as much a reference to bad luck as the name "Black Cat" itself. The name "Chronos" would indicate time, and the fact that he is number 13 is a little odd, but definitely keeping with his character. He's also an expert marksman, having as much luck as skill with his pistol. He can hit other people's bullets mid-flight.
The organization he worked for, and those who know of it, believe that the Black Cat has been dead for the past two years. It's likely that there will come a reckoning when Chronos comes after him, but, thankfully, that doesn't happen in the first four books. There's time for that.
Train's partner at sweeping is Sven Vollfied, who wears an eye patch (for a reason) and follows a code of conduct. Chivalry isn't dead. His backstory, and what's so special about the eye under the patch, show up early on.
The two of them rescue a girl named Eve, who was basically bio-engineered and filled with nanites or nanobots or whatever terminology you want to use. She'll like be a superhero in her own right in the future, but right now, she's just a kid who needs someone looking after her even if she wants to be useful to Sven and Train. She can morph parts of her body by concentrating so that, for example, her arm can become a sword.
Recurring in the first books (and on the cover of Volume 1) is Rinslet Walker. (There are times I read that as "Ringlet" -- I need new reading glasses.) She's a thief who hires the sweepers when it meets their mutual interests. She gets something valuable, and they get a bounty.
One of the problems so far is that Train and Sven are in a bit of debt from bills (no loan sharks or anything nefarious), so they could use one big job to pay it off. But even when they manage to score a big one, the money seems to get away from them pretty quickly. It may be a running gag, but it'll get old fast.
As mentioned before, Chronos is not looking for Train, but there is another organization that is forming, called Apostles of the Stars, and they intend to challenge and topple Chronos. Its leader is Creed Diskenth, who is surprised to learn Train is still alive. Train beat out Creed to be XIII in Chronos. (Numbered people are the important ones. Or the important ones get numbers.)
Where it will start to get wearisome is that everyone will have special powers and abilities. This will, in effect, make Black Cat less special. (This was a problem I had with One Piece, where eating the Devil fruit should've been bad for pirates, but it seems every powerful pirate had done just that!) We have people who can cut themselves and manipulate their blood or touch a person and raise their body temperature to explosive levels.
And even though we've met Number II in Chronos, who seems somewhat normal, who knows what powers I, and III-XII will possess?
Will that stop me from reading farther? Probably not. I'll probably start looking for these in the library before summertime.
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