Asuka R. Kreutz

Do-Gooder
Full Name	Asuka R. Kreutz
Alias(es)	That Man Asuka R♯ Gear Maker
Origin	Guilty Gear XX
Occupation	Scientist (formerly) Affiliate of the Gear Project team
Powers / Skills	High intellect Scientific skills Magic powers Cunning
Hobby	Creating Gears.
Goals	To have Gears and humanity living in one unity. To stop the Universal Will. To give Sol Badguy a normal life (all succeeded).
Family	None
Friends / Allies	Sol Badguy Jack-O' Valentine Raven Ky Kiske
Enemies	Happy Chaos (evil counterpart) Ariels (archenemy) The Conclave
Type of Hero	Remorseful Extremist

“	Long time no see, Frederick...	„
	~ Asuka R. Kreutz to Sol Badguy.

Asuka R. Kreutz, (also known as That Man) is one of the main characters of the video game, Guilty Gear, formerly introduced as the main antagonist of the series. He was the former best friend and arch-rival of Sol Badguy and the leader of his own group, comprising of I-No, Raven and Jack-O' Valentine.

Appearance

Asuka's face and body are never seen and is usually covered in cloaks. However, one artbook showed him with a pure white hair and a normal build. However, during the day when he was with Freddick (Sol) and Aria (Justice) he had white hair. In Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator, he reveals his young true appearance which confirms his white hair, blue eyes with a eyepatch on the right one, an inverted red cross design on his bangs and pointy red ears.

Story

Asuka is one of the lead scientists on the Gear Project alongside Sol Badguy (aka Frederick Bulsara) and a female researcher named Aria Hale. Like Sol, he wishes to atone for the gears he created going on an anti-human rampage. But unlike Sol, who decided to hunt down the gears, he chose to pursue another, mysterious goal by manipulating events from the shadows.

As the one of the co-creators of the Gears, he has a deep connection with Sol and Justice, and has become a target of multiple other characters in the series like Baiken, Anji, and Axl Low for the destruction his creations wrought. He also has multiple agents carrying out his various agendas, including the immortal Raven, the witch I-no, and the gear Jack-O'.

His existence is first alludded to in the events of Missing Link, where Justice mentions him in Ky's ending and recalls his existence as part of her and Sol's past in Sol's ending. However, he only appears in earnest in XX, where he reveals himself to Sol after I-No's defeat, invites Anji to join him in "the betterment of the world", and other cryptic actions.

Overture and Xrd however reveal his true name, his history, and his motivations. The Gear Maker, a.k.a. Asuka R. Kreutz, was one of the Apostles who trained under the man who discovered the Backyard, The Original. After the sudden disappearance of their teacher within the Backyard and the oncoming threat of an entity called the Universal Will, he and the other Apostles, who would eventually become known as the Conclave, had a falling out due to a difference in ideals of how they should proceed. While the Conclave believed it was necessary to hold humanity back so as to not incur the Will's wrath, Asuka believed that a more progressive approach was needed to counteract it, and so he turned to applying his knowledge of magic as a scientist, where he would later meet Frederick and Aria. He would go on to create the Gears, but would end up losing control of his creations to the Universal Will. Seeking to destroy humanity for their perceived imperfections, the Will brainwashed the Gears to serve as its puppets, leading to the destruction of Japan and the century long Crusades. Asuka, meanwhile, had made it his life mission to release the Gears from others' control, and create a world where humans and Gears can at last co-exist as equals, no matter what methods he must resort to. In the end, his private war with the Universal Will ends with his victory, and with that he sets forth to put the final phase of his plan for human-Gear coexistence into motion.

Personality

For a major antagonist, Asuka is shockingly polite, and most of his subordinates seem to genuinely like him. Axl even points out (and I-No agrees) he expected the guy to be someone more villainous. Despite being antagonistic towards a lot of characters, he ultimately wants to bring about a peaceful world where gears and humans can live side by side. Also, while Sol is flawed because of his guilt in creating the Gears and killing the woman he loved, he is still sociable and eventually learned to let go of his past and move forward. Asuka is driven by his guilt of driving his companions away due to his inability to express his true feelings, a flaw he isn't able to realize until much later after everything is said and done, and doesn't actively take steps to overcome until the endgame of his plans.