James

James is Sternritter M's second, which is an unusual job description because Mask De Masculine is a superhero and James is his audience. He is short, bald, wears overalls and sunglasses, and rings a bell to start each of Mask's matches like a boxing official.

That is not decoration. Mask's Schrift, The Superstar, converts admiration into strength, so the louder James cheers the harder Mask hits, and James is a crowd of one who never stops. He also regenerates: cut him into pieces and each piece grows a new James, so the cheering cannot be silenced by killing him. Renji Abarai works this out partway through the fight and it is genuinely one of the better puzzle designs in the arc.

The end is bleak in a way the character's presentation does not prepare you for. Mask fires Star Flash: Super Nova at Renji with James still in the blast radius, and James burns to death crying in disbelief while Mask tells him not to worry. The fan is consumed by the thing he was powering, and the hero he made does not break stride.