| “ | A pistol’s job is what its handler chooses. If I don’t wanna shoot, then I won’t | ” |
—Saya Minatsuki | ||
Saya Minatsuki is an accomplished sweeper, and friend of Train.
Appearance
Saya has short, bob-cut dark brown hair with bangs that fall to her big, aquamarine-coloured eyes. Saya's most commonly portrayed outfit is that of a white, longsleeved summer yukata with a pink flower pattern, a yellow obi sash, and geta sandals. Throughout the manga, she is shown wearing various, modern, everyday outfits. With every outfit, she is shown wearing a round glass bead on a string around her neck.
Personality
Saya thinks that she and Train are similar because of their love of rooftops. She appears in the beginning to steal Train's milk that he feeds the cats with. Soon, they would develop a friendship, and Saya makes Train smile again. Saya became a sweeper because she believed that the 'stray cat life' suited her.
Synopsis
Manga
However, the manga's original version is quite different from the anime. In the manga, Saya meets Train after he is injured during a failed assassination event, in which Train hesitated at killing his target because his target was holding a child. After Saya finds the injured Train, she decides to take him in and treat his wounds. After they build a friendship, Train starts learning from her "Stray cat" lifestyle, influencing him to let go targets that he is supposed to assassinate. As a result, the elders of chronos decide to lock Train up for 10 days.
Meanwhile, Creed, who feels that Saya is a witch for "diluting" Train and making him "weaker", plots to kill her. On Train's final day of being locked up (also the day of a fireworks carnival), Creed decides to assault her. Soon after Train is released, Creed attacks Saya at her apartment. This drives Saya to an abandoned alleyway, with less people, as a better place to fight Creed. Meanwhile, Train shows up at Saya's apartment to explain to her why he couldn't be contacted for the last 10 days. He finds the damage done to the apartment, and a rather creepy note left by Creed, informing Train that he (Creed) was going to kill Saya.
In the alleyway, Saya uses her reflect bullet technique and injures Creed by ricocheting her bullets around the abandoned alleyway. However, though he is surprised that he is hurt, Creed does not seem to be affected by the pain. Right after this, a group of 3-4 kids, aged between 10-12, show up at the alleyway as they were using it as a shortcut to get to the fireworks show. Saya noticed them and yelled for them to get out of there, as they were in imminent danger. Creed, using her distraction, struck Saya with his blade at her abdomen, creating a very deep wound (whether she was slashed or stabbed is unclear).
Creed decides to punish the "naughty" children, who were awestruck and petrified by the events. As Creed is about to kill the children, Saya finds some strength (which at that point is almost nonexistent, bleeding out on the ground) to reach for her gun, aim, and shoot Creed's katana at the spine as he raised it up to prepare for a strike. As a result, Creed's blade broke near the Tsuba (hand guard), and the children ran away. Creed then grabbed the main piece of the broken blade (despite it cutting his hand) to stab the half unconscious Saya through the heart, but as he was about to do so, Train showed up and punched Creed, sending him flying. Creed retreated, seeing his low chances of survival against Train. In her last moments, Train picks up Saya, who then tells Train to forget about her. She then passes in his arms.
The event was forever engraved into Train.
Anime
In the anime, Saya meets Train while singing her lullaby on a rooftop and befriends him (taking his milk in the process). She teaches Train that he has a choice between killing and not killing, causing him to have a more human outlook on life. They then begin to have regular meetings on the same rooftop. Train also begins to disobey orders from Chronos after befriending and talking with her, one example being when he decided not to kill Eve, remembering Saya's words. Train's new way of seeing things (thanks to Saya) eventually causes him to leave Chronos and later become a sweeper. Saya takes the job to capture the Apostle of the star member, Preta Ghoul, for a bounty of 1.8 million dollars. However, as she fights him, his hands nearly touch her head, which would've resulted in her disintegrating. However, Train shows up in the nick of time to save her. He angrily tries shooting Preta, proving it to be useless, so Saya shoots down a large object which crushes him.
Later, she and Train decide to meet at a carnival to watch fireworks. However, as she waits for him, she is confronted by Creed, who believes she has bewitched Train. Using his "imagine blade", he kills her, and she dies in Train's arms as he cries. Her death throws Train into a rage, swearing revenge on Creed. He tries then vows to end Creed's life, like how Creed ended Saya's. Saya appears in Train's dreams and her spirit guides him after she dies. Train holds a violent grudge against Creed for killing her, however, he eventually gives up his thirst for revenge, knowing that was not what Saya would have wanted, and that Creed was not worth turning back into a killer, something that both he and Saya did not want to happen. At the end of the series, Train moves on, letting his former best friend, go, therefore allowing Saya to rest in peace. Although he does let her go, Train never forgets about her, the person who changed his life for the better.
Skills
Saya's pistol.
Marksmanship: Saya chooses to fight with a pistol, which looks like a M93 Raffica/Beretta 93R with a lanyard which is also on Train's gun, Hades, and believes that she controls its actions, not the other way around.
- Reflect shot: Over the course of five years, Saya learned to fire bullets that ricochet off hard surfaces and strike opponents at odd angles and different velocities. It requires heavy marksmanship experience and a great deal of projectile calculation. Train later uses this skill to commemorate his beloved friend.
Gallery
Trivia
- When Kentaro Yabuki was naming Saya, he looked at her face and the name just popped into his head out of nowhere.
- Both Winry Rockbell of Fullmetal Alchemist (only the 2003 version due to Brotherhood having a new set of seiyuu) and Kyouko Iwase of Initial D have the same Japanese and English voice actor combo as Saya out of coincidence.
| e v | Sweepers | |
| Current: | Train Heartnet · Sven Vollfied · Eve · Rinslet Walker | |
| Deceased: | Saya Minatsuki | |
| Alliance: | River Zastory · Kevin McDougall · Silphy Dearcroft · Lacdoll · Gallom | |