Manga / Gun×Clover

Gun X Clover is a manga written by Yamaguchi Mikoto and illustrated by D.P., which was serialized in the shonen magazine Dragon Age from 2012 to 2017.

Mikado High School trains the best students to be the best mercenary bodyguards. But Morito Hayama, a merc escort student with no rank whatsoever, is suddenly assigned to guard a person so highly valued that no escort has ever survived before. Will his subject survive the experience? Will HE survive?!

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Provides examples of:

• Adorably Precocious Child: Morito is very good in acting like one.
• Almighty Janitor: Morito, a merc without rank is in fact one of 13 people in the world that hold the Instructor Rank, a person that assigns the ranks to other mercs, and as such he's free to promote or demote any merc he wants. Furthermore, he personally trained some of the teachers at the school, including Elena.
• An Arm and a Leg: Morito gets an arm blown off protecting Futaba from Simon Beiler.
• Ax-Crazy: Possibly Morito. Alex Valentine Jr., Morito's protege, though he regrets his actions later in the story.
• Berserk Button: Morito hates people making fun of his height. And then there's his past name, Yasen, which he ''hates''.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Morito. Dear Lord you do not want to get on his bad side.
• Blood Knight: Morito, once he really gets going.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Elena way back in the middle of an operation drank one cup of wine to keep warm and got smashed. She wiped out everyone friend and foe alike.
• Chick Magnet: Morito, full stop. He's well aware of it too, though he tends to ignore it.
• Clark Kent Outfit:
  • Anything Morito wears that isn't a swimsuit or tankop that conveniently hides the fact that he's Covered with Scars, has six-pack abs, and is just plain toned all over.
  • At first Mikado High School Student’s Council President Minoru Shishio comes across as very Bishōnen. Interestingly after The Reveal this is no longer the case.
• Close-Range Combatant: Chico the Fire Dragon wields a katana for combat, where guns are not useless, nor hard to get. He doesn't need guns, since he's a Pyrokinetic who can simply ignite all ammunition and force his enemies into melee.

• Covered with Scars: Morito has a sizable collection of cuts, gunshot wounds, and burn scars (including a massive one across his torso that might have been the result of torture and was actually caused by Sayuri burning a dead language off him to limit his power). Most of the time they're hidden under his clothes.

• The Dreaded: Morito is feared by many people that know his true identity. And it's for a good reason.
• Cute and Psycho: Sayuri, Morito's Master.
• Dork Knight: Chico the Fire Dragon is one of the top mercs with Pyrokinetic powers, wears a really cool suit and exceedingly dangerous in combat. He has a personal vendetta against Crow due to what she did to Valentine, the woman he ever loved. Turns out Valentine was Crow disguising herself to get close to Chico. Chico knew, but he insisted that Crow be punished for 'toying with his heart' and since Crow has never reused this persona, Valentine is 'dead' to Chico. Crow's method to defeat him was to shapeshift back into her Valentine persona, which left Chico flabbergasted for an opening.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Crow’s Shapeshifting Seducer act on Chico is Played for Laughs.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Master Morito is a real hardass with a bit of a sadistic streak; and that's when he's being nice. However, when he's 'really pissed off, he enters a state that his students call "Drill Sargent Mode"... and they are all terrified of it.

• Empowered Badass Normal: Morito's body is not only covered in scars, those scars have runes carved on them. Some have voiced suspicion that this is how Morito possesses such powerful strength and endurance. Sayuri outright confirms this in chapter 51, when one that she had burned off him is being restored.
• Enemy Mine: To rescue Kotonoha, Morito has to team with Sayuri and several other former adversaries.
• Enfant Terrible: Morito. No, it's not just his appearance. Sayuri noted that before she trained him, Morito knew all there is to murder a person brutally. In fact, her training was noted to make him weaker. Then he lost his memories, reverting to his cute, childlike persona... and insanely brutal in combat.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon:
  • Alex Valentine, despite acting like a nice guy, seemingly kills two girls (Enfa and Suiran) that were his escort just to piss off Morito, presenting one disembodied arm from both of the girls. However, Chapter 25 shows two girls who look strikingly similar to them (albeit with their bodies being partially framed in shadow) accompanying him during the Meeting of the Thirteen as his "unidentified underlings". Chapter 50 properly reveals that Enfa and Suiran are alive and well (with a replacement arm for both of them to boot), with Alex explaining in the following chapter that rather than killing them, he cut off one of their arms each in order to stop Mutsuha from controlling them via the dead language characters that were inscribed in their arms, while also admitting that he believes his actions from back then were inexcusable.
  • Morito as well, when we see just what he was like in the past.
    Child!Morito: Onee-chan~ This one already broke...
• First-Episode Twist: Morito's "Naive Rookie Merc" persona is just an act, and there is a very good reason he was assigned the protection duty.
• Four Is Death: Out of the 13 Master ranked mercenaries Morito is number 4. Sayuri was formerly number 4.
• Gender Bender: Daigo was a male who became a very busty woman, much to the surprise of Morito. Apparently she could revert back to her male form, losing her massive boobs in the process, and becoming more masculine in appearance.

• Glass Cannon: Minoru Shishio has the rare power of Numerology, the ability to decipher and rule the world via numbers. Despite having a power beyond S-rank mercenaries she went down after a single hit from Morito.
• Handicapped Badass: Ann Shimona, the school headmistress is presumably paraplegic since she goes around on wheelchair. She even goes into battle with her personal butler pushing her wheelchair around. As ridiculous as it sounds, her strength lies in her extreme marksmanship, with such degree of accuracy from such long range that even Sayuri had to run for it.
• Hot Teacher: Elena.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: At the end of chapter 49, Mutsuha wipes almost everyone's minds of any memory of Kotonoha to protect her and grant her wish of an ideal world where she would never be harmed, performing a Face–Heel Turn and allying with Simon Belier in the process. Those with dead languages inscribed on them, alternate personalities, numerologists, those who have infiltrated the Towers of Babel perpetuating the effect, and the largely-mechanical Sol White are either outright immune or have had their memories restored.

• Logical Weakness: 'Numerology' user can see the solution to any threat or problem. Which means, a Flashbang is all it takes to disable their power.
• Made of Iron: Morito was able to survive injuries that would kill a lesser person, and recover from his injuries at inhuman rate. He actually tanked one of Nanoha's attacks with little effect. There's hints that this trait isn't natural.
• Multi-Gendered Split Personalities: Kotonoha Nanase has seven different personalities which protect her primary personality, who has been targeted since childhood because of a unique ability to read dead languages. Her fifth personality is a Hot-Blooded male martial artist named Itsuba.
• Older Than They Look: Morito and Sayuri. The former looks like a diminutive high school freshman but is strongly implied to be middle-aged at least since he has a flashback of being propositioned by the mother of a girl who is also confessing her love in the present. He looks exactly the same in the flashback as he does in the present. The latter looks even younger and looked the same when she took in Morito as a child.
• Playing with Fire: Chico the Fire Dragon, one of the top mercs. Wielding a single sword into battle might sound suicidal when your enemy packs many different kinds of firearms, but Chico can use his powers to ignite the ammunition rendering guns useless and force them into melee combat.

• Reality Warper: Numerology ability is basically this. To wit, one proficient user can use it to deliver 'Atomic Punch', which is exactly what it sounds like.
• Shapeshifting Seducer: Crow will occasionally do this to get what she wants. In fact it’s the basis for Chico’s grudge against her as she did it to him for over a year.
• Shotgun Wedding: Gisele Hamelin mother Jeanne tried to force Morito to marry her at gun point.
• Split Personality: Kotonoha Nanase has seven personalities themed off the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • "Kotonoha" Nanase: The first, and original, personality. Her "Language Grave" ability makes her one of the most sought out individuals in the world, and the other personalities exist to protect her. Is the "Greed" of the group because on those rare occasions when the other personalities let her come out, she is insatiable for world experience, and with no understanding of social taboos.
  • "Futaba" (two leaves): The Glasses-wearing second personality. Very Icy and calculating, her purpose is to keep others at arms length in order to judge their trustworthiness. She is themed along "Envy", and is the most oft seen of the other 6 personalities. The first of the personalities to declare their love for Morito.
  • "Mitsuba" (Three Leaves, seeing a pattern here?): A violent Wild Child that's unleashed whenever Nanase gets backed into a corner. Is strong enough to be on the level of "S-class" mercs, but also borderline feral. "Wrath", obviously.
  • "Yotsuba" (Four Leaves): The "Lust" of the seven. She acts like a cute ditz, but actually has a genius level IQ, and is both haughty and manipulative. Despite this, she's shown to be the most empathetic of the personalities, and actually doesn't like to see people hurt.
  • "Itsuba" (5 leaves): A Fight happy martial artist and the best fighter of the personalities. Represents "Gluttony" due to her love of fighting.
  • "Mutsuha" (6 leaves): Loli Apparently represents "Sloth" as, by her own admission, she has been sleeping for the entire story, and probably way before then. She's finally revealed at the last page of chapter 34. Possibly the most extreme in protecting Kotonoha, she can erase memories and control others through dead languages. Performed a Face–Heel Turn at the end of chapter 49, and is directly labeled "the betrayer personality" in chapter 51.
  • "Nanoha" (Seven Leaves): The 7th and the most dangerous personality. Represents "Pride".
  • Later, all of Kotonoha's split personalities and their powers unite into one: "Kureha-Sama". This personality uses the number 0 and is nicknamed "The Agent of God".
  • Morito's "daughter", Rena, has one: Juri, AKA Master rank mercenary #13 "Sis".
• Slasher Smile: Morito gets this whenever he get's really angry.
• Super Breeding Program: The house of Hamelin has for generations carried on a legacy of powerful members. However its strength comes from passing on the strongest genes.
• Underestimating Badassery: Due to him not having a rank and being short and weak looking, people tend to look down on Morito, it's only after he shows his strength that people realize how wrong they are.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Morito to Gisele for refusing to call for reinforcement because that would imply that she wasn’t good enough to inherit her house. Morito flat out said he would have shot her if this was a real war.

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