Dead Master

Dead Master (デッドマスター) is the antagonist in the Black★Rock Shooter OVA and the manga series Black★Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~.

Original Concept
Dead Master is a girl with wavy dark green hair, straight bangs, and neon green eyes. Her outfit shows resemblance to Gothic Lolita style. She wears a black dress and a black bolero; her dress extends down to her thighs and is accented with a white ribbon on the waist. She wears a pair of leggings and black pumps, and black gauntlets on each hand. On her head are of long horns that resemble vertebrae, with each tip made out of three tips joined at the end. She also has a wings which sit low on her back, that look like a thick zigzag.

Her weapon of choice is a large scythe named Dead Scythe. Most of the time she is accompanied by two floating skulls, each with glowing green cavities, which she uses to attack.

Black★Rock Shooter (OVA) In addition to her general appearance as Dead Master, her wings are somewhat thinner and smaller. Her eyes have a concentric circle pattern, a trait she shares with other characters in the OVA. She is described as being 167cm tall, while her human counterpart, Yomi, is 160cm tall.

Black★Rock Shooter (2012)
Her hair is somewhat less wavy, and wears green-framed glasses. She also wears a bridal veil over her head. Her black horns and pair of wings are bright green, as well as the tips of her much larger claws. She still wears her Gothic Lolita-like dress, though it is now more dark green than black. Her sleeves are larger with green frills at the ends, and her skirt is longer and larger with white frills. Her leggings are also frilled at the ends, which are held by green rose-like ribbons. She also now wears cross-laced ankle ribbons, and green-heeled footwear.

Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)
She is showy and sinister when trying to kill Black★Rock Shooter and shows great skills with her scythe. She makes a large show of threatening, wicked smiles, and while she is quiet, she is silently taunting her enemy. She also makes hissing noises when agitated.

Black★Rock Shooter (2012)
She is somewhat sympathetic, while at the same time very brutal when she fights. She appears to be under the influence of Chariot, and after being freed from this, is captured by Black★Gold Saw, becoming antagonistic towards Black★Rock Shooter after both she and Yomi lose control.

Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)
She sits on a throne at the beginning of the OVA in her castle, apparently expecting Black★Rock Shooter. They fight after Black★Rock Shooter extends her hand to her, rejecting the offer to go with her. Making a show of her nature, she tries to make herself threatening to her enemy throughout the battle.

She gains an advantage when she manages to trap Black★Rock Shooter in chains, but Black★Rock Shooter gains enough strength to break the chains. She makes the same hand gesture, but Dead Master, again rejects her offer, and backs away, but starts to fall off of a ledge. Black★Rock Shooter catches her and holds her in an embrace.

Unable to handle this, the Dead Master escapes the body of Takanashi Yomi, whom she had been possessing, and dissolves; the reason is unknown, but it is likely either due to having left Yomi's body or the "affection" having damaged her in some way.

Black★Rock Shooter (2012)
While Chariot is torturing Black★Rock Shooter, Dead Master is seen watching. She eventually accosts Black★Rock Shooter and ties her in chains, but Black★Rock Shooter reverses this. Black★Rock Shooter suddenly ceases her attack when she notices a heart-shaped scar, identical to the one carved into Yomi by Kagari. However, a swarm of Chariot's spiders surround her and carry her away, with Black★Rock Shooter chasing after.

She is locked up within a doll inside a house in the sky, but Black★Rock Shooter finds her. The moment she reaches for her, Chariot attacks, and the falling apart of the floating house reveals that Dead Master is chained to a large heart-shaped stone in the sky. However, as Yomi faces Kagari, she pulls the chains down and breaks the stone. The chains recede into the sky, starting the destruction of Chariot's world.

She comes down and looks and joins Black★Rock Shooter as Chariot is being sucked into the void, but suddenly Black★Gold Saw appears. She saves Chariot and cuts into the ground, creating a fissure that drags Dead Master in, separating her from the others.

Black★Gold Saw apparently holds Dead Master captured, leading to Black★Rock Shooter tracking them both down. Due to Yomi's instability in the real world, Dead Master also goes into turmoil and surrounds herself in chains, eventually summoning a castle and several minions. She then begins to battle Black★Rock Shooter.

After a long battle Black★Rock Shooter stabs Dead Master with her Black Blade, seemingly killing her. The emotional stress of the events turns B★RS into Insane Black★Rock Shooter.

Later Strength is shown dragging her body away; what happens to her is not shown in that episode.

It is later revealed she is in the abyss that Chariot was in and seems to begin reawakening to life when Yomi's memories of Mato start to return.

In the final episode, Dead Master is shown in her own world, and is heard quoting her own feelings along with Black★Gold Saw and Chariot and how their only wish is to protect their human counterparts. After Insane Black★Rock Shooter's defeat, she, along with Chariot, come back to life, resulting in Yomi regaining all her memories of Mato. She is seen with Chariot, Black★Gold Saw, and the hooded figures together as the worlds of each respective other self merged into one.

Abilities
Dead Master is completely fluent in moving her Sythe about, and at the same type can command (at will) the 2 large skulls she posseses that are constantly by her side. Alongside those skulls, in the 2012 anime series, it is seen that she is the "master" of a lair filled with many skeletons; she can also control them at will.

Trivia

 * Dead Master is one of three characters in the Black★Rock Shooter series who uses a scythe. The other two being White Rock Shooter and Death Scythe.
 * In Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME, there is an armament called "Dead Master" which is modeled after her.
 * One piece of artwork of her shows her with normal hands and a mechanical scythe.