Justice

Justice
ジャスティス Jasutisu
Anime name	Justice
Alternate names	The Number One
Debut	Episode 1: Revenge (Anime) Chapter 01 (Manga)
Appears in	Afro Samurai (Anime) Afro Samurai: Resurrection
Gender	Male
Height	6’5”
Occupation	Gunman
Likes	Power

Justice (ジャスティス, Jasutisu) is the main antagonist of Afro Samurai. He was the holder of the Number One Headband for most of Season 1. He dresses in traditional cowboy garb and wields two long-barreled revolvers. Like many other characters in the series, Justice is a smoker. His skin appears to be disease-ridden with various blotches around his body (his bio on the Afro Samurai website states that this was the result of a past accident; he was presumably submerged with toxic waste, as this would explain his bizarre traits, i.e., his diseased skin and his third arm).

Justice becomes Number one when, as the Number Two, he arrives at Mt. Shumi to challenge Afro's Father, Rokutaro, for the Number one headband. The clash between Justice and Rokutaro is short, albeit fierce. The duel ends with Justice decapitating Rokutaro. We are never shown how this is done in the first episode, but in episode 5 we are shown Justice's third arm in Afro's flashback. After the duel, Justice dons the Number one headband before discarding the Number two headband and his opponent's head. He tells a grief ridden Afro that it was unfortunate that he had to bear witness to this, and that this moment would haunt him forever. He then tells Afro to challenge him when he's ready to duel a god, followed by a string of maniacal laughter.

In the Finale of Season 1, he reveals his reason for claiming the Number one. He and Rokutaro had different views on bringing peace and ending the Headband Wars. Justice believed in using Absolute Power and Afro's Father believed in simply hiding the Headbands as Sword Master tried to do. Justice believed that, at the time, all he needed to become God was the Number One Headband but as time passes while Afro grows up, he comes to believe that all the Headbands are required in order to become God. Because of this, it is safe to assume that Justice had killed all the other Headband holders. Their corpses are shown in his throne room, with one still having flesh on his head and a face.

In the Duel between himself and Afro samurai, he attempts to kill the already wounded Afro with his guns and lands one bullet in Afro before Afro attacks and dodges the bullets to get close to Justice and cuts off his arms. Justice then resorts to using his hidden third arm (wielding a katana) but fails, as Afro remembers him using this trick on his father and manages to dodge his would-be surprise attack. However, Otsuru's comb is broken whilst Afro dodges the attack. Afro then slices most of the way through Justice's neck leaving his head hanging by a layer of flesh. Justice, however, is not defeated and his eyes spark yet again with life. He then speaks of humanity and its endless ocean of bloodshed and how Afro's vengeance is insignificant in light of all that. Afterwards, he sits up, recorrects his head's position and grows fleshy tendrils which appear at his arm stumps, which connect to the ground, causing a spike to shoot forth from the ground in front of Afro, seemingly piercing his head (the same attack seems to have been used on the other headband users seen in the area).

Justice, believing he has killed Afro, walks towards Afro and revels in his victory and the knowledge that he owns all the Headbands and will become God. He then begins laughing happily at this revelation, but Afro's eyes open, revealing that the spike had not killed him, but simply pierced his hair and swings down his sword, still clutched in his hand, slicing Justice from shoulder to waist, then with a flurry of slices, he chops Justice into dozens of smaller pieces which collapse, his hat falling off and the Number One headband landing in Afro's hand.

Justice makes several small cameos in Afro Samurai Resurrection including a statue head, as part of a hallucination alongside Afro's Father and at the very ending of the film, he is shown fully healed and meeting with Takimoto who comments on waiting for him for a long time and the camera zooms into Takimoto's pupil, showing the face of Justice. Throughout Resurrection it is common knowledge that Justice is dead before his big reappearance at the end of the film.

Justice is also a Character in the Afro Samurai video game as the final boss though not really, as Justice is shown to be long dead in the Number one's throne room. Instead, he is fought in Afro's mind as an incarnation of his inner demons and guilt of being the Number 2 as a faux Justice. The Faux Justice justified the actions of the real one and had various powers and skills such as exceptional gunmanship, growing tree like arms, teleportation, extending his legs, as well as generating several spikes to spring up and impale Afro. Despite his abilities and the difference between the game and the anime, he is killed like his Anime counterpart and is sliced to pieces in a similar manner.

Manga

In the manga he is similar to his anime counterpart. He killed Afro's father and took the number one head band to gain the power of a god. Later he traveled to Mt. Sumeru and took residence in Bhava-agra, the City of the Gods, where he lived inside the head of a giant Buddha. He utilized the power of the city left behind by the people of the mountain who called themselves gods to take control of the world. He founded his own religion and was referred to by his followers as "The One". He even had his own symbol (it looked like a crucifix with an additional cross at a jaunty angle like the Union Flag). Churches were built with a statue created in his image but were burned down when his followers left a settlement as idol worship was forbidden. He had "teachings" created for his followers similar to the Bible to direct their lives, even attending their own form of Mass in his honour. When Afro finally faced Justice he rushed forward to stab him only to discover that Justice was already dead. He turned to dust right in front of Afro's eyes.

Abilities

Justice is an exceptionally skilled Gunman/Gunslinger; he is able to wield two long barreled pistols, and also has control of a third arm on his back which is noticeably longer and more twisted than his regular arms. This arm is used to hold a short sword that he can use for surprise attacks. His nickname: 'Three Armed Gunman', stems from this. He is able to survive being nearly decapitated, and maybe being decapitated as well, and may also have regenerative abilities as assumed since his return at the end of Afro Samurai Resurrection, appearing unscathed, with no bandaging or stitches. Justice also seemed to have the ability to control the Number One's throne room to an extent, an example of course being when he created a spike to impale Afro. However, this may apply to all those who become Number One.

He appears to be able to enter a death like state where he appears old wrinkled and shriveled up due to a lack of blood, but is still able to communicate. In order to regenerate from this state, he must absorb blood into his veins.

He has the ability to regenerate from blood as seen before his fight with Afro as he was decrepit, and drew blood to his body across the throne room floor. Steam rises from him as the blood fills out his veins and after the blood has restored him, he looks the same as when he fought Afro's father years before.