Agni

Agni (アグニ, Aguni) is the titular protagonist of Fire Punch manga.

Appearance
Agni is a large, muscular young man with black hair. For the majority of the series, his entire body is on fire except for his mouth and the left side of his face. He briefly wore a fireproof suit composed of a black jacket and pants, a white dress shirt and red necktie, a grey hood, and metal armor on his right arm. During his mindless murder of Doma, as well as his brief final encounter with an older Sun, his entire face was engulfed in flames, giving him a more demonic appearance.

History
Growing up with his sister Luna, their house was broken into by a group of men, and their parents were killed to be used as food and fuel for fire. Agni and Luna were held prisoner by the men and repeatedly had their limbs cut off to be used for the same purpose as their parents. Due to their ability to regenerate, they grew their removed limbs back. Some time later, one of the men attempted to rape Luna, but Agni broke out of his shackles by breaking his own arm and killed the man with a butcher knife. Agni then freed Luna by cutting off her limbs, promising it would be the last time she would feel pain.

Agni and Luna wandered across the snowy wasteland in search of shelter. On the verge of death the two were found by a group of people and brought to their village.

Three years later, Luna assists Agni in providing meat for the village by chopping off his right arm repeatedly. When Luna suggests using her own arms at some point, Agni rejects it, refusing to let his sister go through any kind of pain. After delivering some of the meat to an older woman known as Granny Jishima, they go to visit a man named Bana, who turned out to have died from starvation, as he refused to ever eat human flesh. Agni feels responsible for Bana’s death, but Luna comforts him and suggests calling the Preist.

At dinner, Luna offers her brother some stew she made from his arm, but he declines, stating that his Regeneration Blessing makes eating unnecessary for him. Despite this, Luna insists he eat whether he needs food or not until he gives in.

As the siblings prepare to sleep, Agni tells Luna how he remembers swimming in the lake on hot days before the world froze, and how the water was different from the cold of the present. Agni promises to show her the world once it gets warmer.

In the next day, Agni returns home after hunting a deer. On his way home, he sees a plane flying towards the village. Investigating, he sees a large group of men rounding up the older members of the village at gunpoint. He intervenes, telling the men to leave the elders alone. Agni is approached by a man who introduces himself as Doma, stating they are searching for Blessed Ones to bring with them to the city of Behemdolg. Upon hearing one of the soldiers report that the village houses were filled with human meat and the villagers were In fact cannibals, Doma orders the soldiers to return to the plane before setting the village ablaze with his Fire Blessing. Agni is left burning, as his Blessing prevents him from dying, surrounded by charred corpses and burning buildings. Longing to die as he thinks of his family, a heavily burned Luna shuffles towards him. Just before her body is reduced to ash, she utters a single word: “Live”.

During the first year of Agni’s burning, he simply lay and screamed in agony through the blizzard. At year three, he stumbled across the wasteland and spit up blood. At year five, he was finally able to ignore the pain and become extremely muscular as a result of moving despite his pain, but was unable to properly breathe due to the flames. At the eighth year, he learned to focus the flames on his body and away from his face, allowing him to breath. He then began his search for the city of Behemdolg to exact his revenge against Doma.

As he travels, he encounters a boy about to be executed by Behemdolgian soldiers, which Agni quickly kills. After freeing the slaves who were captured by the soldiers, Agni states he had no intent of saving them, and asks where he should go to reach Behemdolg. As he heads for the city, the boy follows him, despite his protests. The boy introduces himself as Sun, who was caught by the soldiers after he was run out of his village.

That evening, Sun makes a campfire, and asks Agni to light it. Agni states that his fire is too dangerous to be used, and tells Sun to find another way to light the fire. Sun then lit the fire with his Blessing that allows him to conduct electricity. When Sun thanks Agni for rescuing him again, he states that he had no intention of saving the boy, and that he didn’t care whether he lived or not, but that he’d have difficulty sleeping if he saw someone die in front of him. After Sun fell asleep, Agni collapsed as he began to give in to the pain of his burns. He attempts to occupy himself with the thought of exacting his revenge on Doma to get his mind off of the pain. However, he is suddenly shot in the head by a soldier from Behemdolg. But due to his Regeneration Blessing, Agni is not killed by the bullet.

As the other soldiers prepare to rape Sun as they wait for Agni’s flames to die, one of the soldiers is set ablaze by him. As the soldiers attempt to gun Agni down, he proceeds to kill them one by one with a flurry of burning punches. Throughout the fight, Agni thinks about how he feels pleasure from punching others and being barraged with bullets, and how the pain of his burns mellows out. He stops, however, when he sees one remaining soldier holding Sun at gunpoint, threatening to kill him. Agni tells the soldier he doesn’t care what happens to Sun, as the boy followed him of his own volition. Sun thanks him for saving his life twice, and begs him to live for his sake should he die in that moment. As the soldier prepares to shoot Sun, he shocks the man. As Agni moves in, the three of them notice that the snow is beginning to pick up. They are then caught in a massive avalanche.

When Agni emerges from the snow, he finds that Sun is nowhere to be found. He begins calling for the boy as he digs through the snow. After a moment, he finds Sun’s arm sticking out of the snow. After rescuing him, he states that the boy’s safety was merely chance, as he happened to land near him.

The next day, Sun continues to follow Agni, despite the latter’s protests. While Sun goes to the bathroom, Agni leaves him behind to continue his journey. However, Sun catches up to him again with the help of a woman named Judah. It is quickly revealed that Judah is a soldier from Behemdolg, and decapitates Agni, quickly cutting her own arm off afterwards to prevent herself from being burned, while displaying that she had a regeneration blessing as well. To prevent Agni from regenerating his body, Judah orders that the other soldiers shoot his severed head regularly in the head to slow his abilities while she goes to get a fireproof cloth. As Judah picks up her charred arm and removes her helmet, Agni is shocked to see that she has an uncanny resemblance to Luna.

As they wait for the cloth to arrive while shooting Agni’s head, he tries to remind himself that the woman in front of him is not his sister, as she died years ago. When one of the soldiers ran out of ammo, Agni used the opportunity to spit a bullet at them, causing them to set ablaze. He was then able to regenerate his body and attack the remaining soldiers. As he prepared to attack one, though, he was hit with a blast of fire from Doma. However, due to a mental illness that Doma had developed, he was unable to recall Agni. Agni repeatedly charged Doma, but was shot back by the latter’s flames. Agni told Doma that he killed his sister, but the latter states that he didn’t ask him about that, and asked if it was really him who killed Luna. Enraged, Agni attempted to strike Doma again, but was again pushed back by flames. Doma asks what he can do to atone for killing Luna, apart from his own death. Agni is surprised by why he would ask this now. Despite Doma’s pleas, Agni again attempts to attack him.

It is later revealed that Agni’s body has been reduced to ash by Doma’s attacks, but still he regenerates. When Doma pleads for Agni to forgive him, he asks the former if he still remembers his name. After being weakened by another attack, Agni is decapitated again and his head is wrapped in fireproof cloth. His head is placed inside of a crate and put on a train headed for the sea, where the soldiers intended to dispose of him.

The train is disabled en route to the sea by Togata and Neneto, who steal the crate that Agni’s head is in. The crate is blown up with explosives, and Agni’s head falls into the water, where he regenerates. Shortly after, the three encounter Judah, who Togata had defeated on the train prior to liberating Agni. When Agni asks if she is his sister Luna, as she both looks and sounds exactly like her, Judah states the she has all her memories of her one hundred and thirty year-long life, and that she is not his sister. Shortly afterward, Togata decapitates her and tells Agni that they should kill her. Despite Agni pleading with her not to do so, she takes Juda’s head and tries to drown her. After chasing Togata around, Togata states that she wants to make a deal with Agni; in exchange for leaving Judah alive, Agni has to be the lead actor in the movie she is filming. Reluctantly, Agni agrees.

Fire Punch
Without Luna, Agni had nothing to live for. Upon hearing Luna's last words, he had to find something strong enough to keep him going so he cultivated his hatred for Doma, convinced himself he hated him and wanted him dead. To achieve this new arbitrary goal he had to become a being capable of it. That alter ego is commonly referred to as Fire Punch. He's often portrayed with a disfigured face.

The Flame Covered Man
Fire Punch is first eluded to in chapter 20, when Agni starts seeing visions of himself on his way to kill Doma.

> I know that even if I kill Doma, Luna won't come back.

> I hated him to distract myself from the pain... Eventually I forgot I was acting. Who was... the real me?

Flame Covering Man
His true entrance at the end of chapter 45. As Agni thinks about the trauma and pain he had to endure throughout the year, he imagines his sister asking him to kill Doma for her. Upon hearing her request to be Fire Punch, Agni disfigures his face and becomes Fire Punch.

The following appearance is chapter 59 when kills Behemdorg refugees posing a threat the life of the girls he lived with. Especially Luna's (Judah). In this instance he lights his face on fire with a torch.

Flame Burdened Man
During Neneto's attack on the facility Agni and the girls were living, Agni had to face the masked man. After being brutally sliced and pinned to ground with metal rods, he musters enough strength to stand up. As he rises, he imagines someone we can assume to be Luna or a delusion of his in the shape of Luna telling him to Become Fire Punch. Agni slices his face and becomes Fire Punch.

The last appearance occurs soon after the masked man defeat.

Tena begs him to not go after Judah and stay Agni for her, Oia and Lanou. When he hear this request, Agni reminisces about his past with Luna and the promise he made to her. He then declares to Tena he's not Agni but Fire Punch. After assaulting her, he's been cast Doma's flames again by her kid, Oia. Agni becomes both in image and spirit Fire Punch.

Regeneration
Agni possess the blessing of Regeneration. His regeneration is extremely powerful and is able to regrow lost limbs instantly and even regenerate from being beheaded, he is also the only one able to survive being burned by Doma's blessing.

Fire
Doma's fire kept Agni permanently ablaze due to it's properties and his regeneration. Anything or anyone he touches will result in the fire spreading and burning until there's nothing left. This type of fire cannot be extinguished.

Strength
Agni became very muscular as a result of growing up on fire and moving despite the flame’s strain on his muscles. He is a very capable fighter, being able to knock a man out with a single punch.

Relationships
Luna: Agni deeply loves and cares for his sister, wanting to keep her safe and away from pain. He willingly breaks his arms to escape his shackles and attack a man who attempted to rape Luna, and refuses to let her be used as a food source for their village. When Luna burns to death in front of him, he is driven to near madness with rage for Doma, seeking to avenge her death.

However, his love for her seems to manipulate his actions at times, as when he leaves Doma’s home in the forest, he sees a hallucination if Luna, telling him to “Become Fire Punch” and kill Doma. In response, he covers his face with fire and goes on a rampage in which he burns Doma’s house down and kills Doma, along with some of his children.

Judah: Agni's feelings towards Judah are very complex, as she bears the same face as Luna, but is not the same person. He confides in her appearance to believe that Luna is still alive within her, though deep down he knows that she is not. He bears a strong amount of hatred towards Judah for the first half of the series, but shifts to caring for her after she loses her memory and Agni reshapes her to be the ideal Luna. Later on, his facade of him playing as her older brother fades away and he begins to develop romantic feelings for her.

Trivia

 * He is named after the Vedic fire god of Hinduism.
 * Togata has compared him to both the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four and Zoro.