List of Darker Than Black Characters - The Syndicate

The Syndicate

At the beginning of the series, The Syndicate (組織, Soshiki?) is introduced as a mysterious underground organization with no apparent objective. Its operatives work with both Contractors and Dolls and even have access to M.E. technology in order to erase sightings of their affairs from witness' minds. The Syndicate makes extensive use of "word of mouth" communication in relaying both missions and operative status. In the later course of the show, it is revealed that The Syndicate is in fact merely another façade for a global organization in control of PANDORA, that declares to be looking for stabilizing the world order and destroying Hell's Gate.

At the ending of Ryūsei no Gemini, a new Syndicate is established consisting of Misaki, Kobayashi, Mao and Madame Oreille after American occupation forces have subdued the old Syndicate.

Hei (黒（ヘイ）?, pinyin: Hēi, lit. Black)

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Jason Liebrecht (English),

The main protagonist. Codename "Hei", he is an elite contractor with the Messier Code BK-201. Hei has a double persona in the series: as a civilian, he is referred to as Lee Shenshun (李舜生（リ・シェンシュン）, Ri Shenshun?, pinyin: Lǐ Shùnshēng), a good-natured Chinese exchange student living in an old apartment complex for foreigners and getting by through brief part-time jobs. These are typically related to the current mission he is on. When he is working with the Syndicate, he acts almost exactly as a typical contractor, appearing to be cold and rational. Nonetheless, Hei still demonstrates compassion and sorrow, and these mannerisms are noted as unusual by other contractors. Hei began working with the syndicate as a child assassin to protect his sister, Pai, in South America during the Heaven's Gate war. Hei's goal is to find her once again. Though he usually calls himself an exchange student, he has never once gone to any University throughout the course of the series, using his title as a student only to gain access to the gate on one occasion. At the end of the first series, his disappearance was reported as him getting deported.

Hei possesses the ability to generate electricity in deadly concentrations. It is revealed that Hei's abilities are inherited from his sister, Pai (the first contractor linked to BK-201), whose true contractor ability was manipulating molecules on the quantum level. Due to this control over molecules, Pai actually resides in Hei's body. Thus, even though he has the abilities of one, Hei is not a true contractor, because he has no remuneration (His probable remuneration might be eating a lot of food) and can still express a range of emotion. Hei's trademark weapon is a double-bladed knife tied to a metal wire, which he uses as an offensive weapon, a grappling hook, and an electricity conductor. In season two of Darker than Black series, Hei loses his powers due to an anti-contractor device developed by Section 3, and relies only on his skills as a human to survive.

He develops a deep attachment to Yin later in the series. Even after she is taken over by a being from the gate known as Izanami, he still refuses to kill her. At the end of the second season, Hei is seen walking from Hell's Gate with Yin's body in his arms. It is unknown whether he "killed" her or extracted Izanami with his control over molecules. His whereabouts are unknown.

"Hei" is the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for the kanji "黒". The Japanese reading is "kuro", corresponding to Hei's nickname as "Kuro no Shinigami", or the "Black God of Death".

Yin (銀（イン）, In?, pinyin: Yín, lit. Silver)

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen (Japanese), Brina Palencia (English)

The main heroine of the story, A member of Hei's team, an emotionless spirit medium known as a "Doll". Her power lies in tracking and observation through direct contact with water. Huang mentions that her "program" is a minimal one, incapable of showing emotion or even allowing her to make decisions for herself; however, she later debunks this by making the decision to keep working with Hei and the others when given the choice of leaving, a possible sign of her recovering her humanity. Yin is of Finnish origin and her real name is Kirsi, which is the Finnish diminutive form of either Kirsikka (meaning "cherry") or Christina. She was once a student of a famed Finnish pianist named Eelis Kastinen (or Kostinen, depending on translation; both are Finnish surnames). Yin's father died in a plane crash; not long after, her mother was killed saving her from an incoming truck. Yin blames herself for her mother's death, saying if she hadn't seen her mother and her piano instructor about to kiss that day, her mother would not have died. Little, if anything, is known about Yin becoming a Doll, but it seems to be linked to her personal tragedy.

It is implied that she has feelings for Hei, when Amber compared that they were both similar in that aspect and asked her to take care of him. Throughout the course of the series, Yin begins to display emotions and her own will, deciding to follow Hei and remain to be his partner, and even observes and notices a change in his behavior, despite not being ordered to do so. This has been made apparent when she called Hei from the void to come back to her and not leave her alone. In the process, her observation apparition evolved or upgraded, now having a human-like body shaped with her silhouette and is capable of physical touch. Episode 2 of Gaiden reveals that "Izanami" possessed Yin during the events of episode 25, which explains her new abilities.

"Yin" is the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of "銀" while the Japanese pronunciation is "gin". It is pronounced with a hard "g" instead of a soft "g" /dʒ/.

Huang (黄（ホァン）, Hwan?, pinyin: Huáng, lit. Yellow)

Voiced by: Masaru Ikeda (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

Huang is the leader of Hei's team, and is usually the one giving orders and explaining the mission to the members of the team. Huang is usually very demanding of everyone on the team and often makes clear his distaste of working with Contractors and Dolls. Aside from being the middle man between the Syndicate and Hei's team, Huang will usually show up to provide backup in situations that would have normally contributed to the loss of a team member. He is often seen in his trademark vest, coat, and beret, smoking a cigar and relaying information via cellphone. Prior to the start of the series, Huang was a police officer known as Kiyoshi Kuno. After seeing the Contractor Shihoko in action, the Syndicate gave him the choice: join the Syndicate, or have his memories of the event erased. This caused Huang hatred towards Contractors and Dolls, since he fell in love with Shihoko, whom he thought was only pretending to love him to extract information from him, used to kill his colleague and to erase the memories of the colleague's wife. When he met up with Shihoko again on a mission, Huang learns that she was the reason why his memories weren't erased, because to her, erasing someone's memories is the same thing as killing them. Later on, Huang and the rest of his team are cut out of the Syndicate. Huang later dies while helping Hei and the others get to Hell's Gate.

His main weapon is a Beretta M 1934 pistol. He also used a bolt action sniper rifle for shooting Itzhak in episode 14.

"Huang" is the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of "黄", literally yellow, while the Japanese pronunciation is "ki".

Mao (猫（マオ）?, pinyin: Māo, lit. Cat)

Voiced by: Ikuya Sawaki (Japanese), Kent Williams (English)

A Contractor who now, due to his power, resides within the body of a black cat. His Messier code is HM-432. His brain is directly connected to a wireless network which enables him to send and receive information at any time, as well as subduing the natural instincts of the animals he possesses. Mao usually creates diversions for Hei in battle. Mao's ability is to possess the bodies of other animals. While he completely fulfilled his remuneration losing his body, he must connect periodically with the wireless network or run the risk of having the animal's natural instincts take over. Near the end of the series one, his wireless connection is cut off when he defects from the Syndicate with the rest of his team, resulting in his human consciousness vanishing; however, he manages to reunite with Hei via a backup network under the control of an unknown organization. It is likely that "Mao" is his codename; like Hei, his real name was never stated, though it could be speculated to be "Ricardo", as he is called by that name when he first meets Madam Oreille. At the beginning of the second season, he is also in hiding in Russia with Hei and resides in the body of Suō's pet flying squirrel, Petya.

During season two of the series, it shows Mao briefly with his human body before it was destroyed in a building explosion setup by the Syndicate.

Mao hates spring season, as most cats would try to find a partner to breed kittens. (Notable, cats continue to pursue him even after he "moved" to the squirrel form.)

"Mao" is the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of "猫". In Japanese, the cat is called "neko".