Haji (Blood +)

Haji is one of the main characters from the Blood + anime and manga.

Haji is Saya's first, and only living chevalier and also her love interest.

Appearance
Although Haji is over 140 years old, he maintains the look of a 25 year old man because that is the age at which he became a chevalier. Despite his origins being a complete mystery, he is said to be of Eastern European descent. He is quite tall, has fair skin and jet black hair that falls to his shoulders with somewhat wavy bangs falling over his eyes. His eye color is pale blue which turns crimson when his Chiropteran powers are unleashed. He usually keeps his hair tied in a ponytail at the nape of his neck with a blue ribbon. In flashbacks, he is shown to have let his hair remain unbound.

Haji is nearly always seen wearing a charcoal suit that has two front and two back tails of equal length. The jacket has a narrow black band at the waist and a black buckled band on his Chriopteran arm. He pairs the jacket with a white Barrymore shirt, charcoal trousers and black shoes. In the flashback to the Russian village sequence, he is shown bare-chested with a towel around his lower torso. He is also often seen with his cello case, both a genuine instrument vessel as well as storage for Saya's sword.

Personality
When Haji started living at the Zoo, he was rather taciturn and occasionally rude, partly because Saya herself was spoiled and selfish. It was only after revealing his true circumstances (namely, that his parents had sold him to the original Joel for a loaf of bread) that they gradually became friends. While Haji was still living with Saya in France as an adult, he was charming, kind and chivalrous, even parental. These attitudes only grew stronger after Hagi became her chevalier.

Haji is shown to have a rather calm, solitary, stoic and quiet personality for the majority of the series, rarely showing his feeling or talking. When he does, he only says a few sentences and speaks rather monotonously. It is revealed that he actually gave up showing his emotions after being shocked and disappointed during the Vietnam incident, coming to believe that as Saya's chevalier, his duties are to obey her orders and look after her well-being, keeping his deep feelings for her to himself. He even goes so far as to avoid ever using his full power, as he ended up frightening Saya the first time he did it. Hagi is also shown to greatly appreciate his immortal life, as it allows him to watch over Saya during her 30-year periods of sleep.

Although considered to be a doormat by several people, Amshel in particular, Haji is in fact far from it; his number one priority is fulfill Saya's wishes, but he also isn't against voicing his opinion on what he thinks is best for her and does so more and more frequently as the series progresses, particularly after the one-year timeskip. This is notably makes him the complete opposite of Diva's chevaliers; they all spoil Diva rotten, but the majority of them are secretly following their own agendas, with only James being completely loyal to her. Nevertheless, there are times when Haji's loyalty can get the better of him, as he would have stood back and let Saya kill herself had Kai not intervened.

Throughout his life, even prior to becoming a chevalier, Haji has always been loyal, not only to Saya, but to her friends and family. The one time he disobeyed her was when Kai had convinced him to confess his love for Saya and what he wished for. He wished for her to live on because at that point she would no longer have to fight. The two soon kissed afterwards. In his fight with Amshel, in fact, he says that in spite of everything he's been through, he has no regrets whatsoever, just because he was able to meet Saya.

Abilities
Musician: Haji plays the cello, a skill he learned from Saya and later taught to Riku. He usually carries his cello in a large black case that bears a heavy resemblance to a Victorian-era coffin.

Feeding: As with most chevaliers, Haji doesn't need to eat or sleep, and he stays awake while Saya eats, sleeps, or goes into long periods of hibernation. But he does need to feed on human blood, something that he does not succumb to doing.

Hand-to-Hand Combat: Throughout the series, Haji displays great proficiency in close quarters combat, being able to perform swift movements with not only his bare hands but also maneuvers such as leg sweeps and roundhouse kicks.

Blood Attributes:
 * Regeneration: Haji's blood is capable of healing self wounds. However, if the wound is inflicted by the queen who has made him chevalier, the regenerated part is likely to take permanent chiropteran form.


 * Awakening/ Strengthening Queen: Saya was forcefully awakened during the Vietnam war by injecting Hagi's blood. This indicates that Hagi's blood is a source of his queen's chiropteran strength. It can also awaken her chiropteran mode. Saya is shown to consume Haji's blood several times.
 * Transformation: Unlike Diva's chevaliers, Haji never makes a full transformation into a chiropteran form; however, this is by his own choice rather than a limitation of his power. He only fully transformed into his chiropteran self when he first became chevalier. After seeing him kill people in that form, Saya was frightened, so he never fully transformed again. Haji rarely resorts to using his chiropteran form, unless it is absolutely necessary. He keeps his right hand bandaged most of the time to hide the fact that its form is permanently chiropteran since Saya injured it while going crazy from being forced awake decades ago in Vietnam. Although Chiropterans can heal themselves simply by sticking their severed limbs back on (as Solomon did) it seems as though Haji simply left it detached from his body for too long, leaving it unable to change back into human form. After returning from the battle with Amshel on the final episode, his both hands are shown to have transformed. In the opening credits of the final season, Hagi is shown with bat-like wings, but he does not use them in the series until Episode 43 where he uses them to save Saya from falling off of a building. During the fight with Amshel, when he uses his wings again, one of his wings is torn by Amshel during the fight on top of the Chrysler Building.

Equipment

 * Cello-case: Haji uses his cello-case as a blunt weapon and a shield, and the case also holds Saya's sword. His cello case looks like an old Victorian coffin with a hard metal coating of a odd design and a black lacquer finish.


 * Daggers: He also fights with a handful of silver daggers that he keeps on his person.

Trivia

 * The name Haji means "my celebration" in Hebrew.
 * Even though he was born in Bourdoux, France he does not speak with a french accent in the dubbed version of the anime.
 * In past flashbacks the same ribbon that was around his neck is the same ribbon he uses to tie his hair up now.