#14 Neil Brunner

A year and a half ago, Neil Brunner was tired of living.  His life, as he saw it at that time, was a joke–a very bad, sad joke.  Burdened by debts, feeling lonely and isolated (despite having a loving family) and turned down yet again for being a “nice guy, but not someone I’d….”, Neil’s graduate studies were not working out.

So he decided to take his own life.  He almost succeeded.  On the ER table, Neil actually died for about four minutes.  When he was brought back, everyone noticed a change in him–more patient, less cynical, more forgiving of the small stuff.  In truth, Neil had an out-of-body experience and was given a choice–give up and spend an unknown time wandering the afterlife aimlessly, or go back and become a tracker of rouge spirits.

Neil chose the latter.  Now, in the present, he works as an agent of the Sigma Agency, tracking down and taking on rouge souls that have possessed innocents.  His graduate studies and part-time job at a publishing company are only covers.  Using a special weapon that resembles a 9mm Baretta pistol, Neil can dispatch the enemy back to Hell–or rather, a dimension of pure chaos and evil.  Sometimes he works solo, sometimes with a partner–but he has no idea how long this will last.

Neil found out–the hard way–that there really is a heaven and a hell.  It’s much, much more complicated than believers and non-believers expect.  And the Devil is a woman.

Category: 2011, Fantasy, Horror, Manga