Gray the Ninelives

Origin

Not much is known about Gray the Ninelives, except for the fact that he isn’t actually a person, but is instead nine small, deformed dwarfs that control a robotic suit made of metal and flesh. His name Ninelives therefore comes from the nine dwarves that operate him.

Creation

Gray the Ninelives was created by Yasuhiro Nightow for his Trigun series.

Major Story Arcs

Fifth Moon

Gray was among the members of the Gung Ho Guns that gathered at the church on the mountain where Knives was healed up completely. He was also there when Vash made a crater in the moon.

Return of the Blue Wind of Death

Two years after this event, Gray is seen along with Midvalley hiding out at a ranch and having apparently been responsible for a rash of disappearances in the area. Having tracked the disappearances to the ranch, a sheriff and his task force of over forty officers, as well as a dangerous convict who was cooperating for a reduced sentence, gathered to storm the place. The convict wasted no time and impaled Gray with a massive, steel boomerang, laying waste to much of the ranch in the process. Gray however quickly got up afterwards and crushed the convict to a bloody pulp, simultaneously stabbing him with the boomerang that was still lodged in his chest. The rest of the task force was soon wiped out by other members of the Gung Ho Guns who were present.

A few days later, Gray was seen at the meeting of the Gung Ho Guns where Legato told them their new objective: to make Vash suffer.

Darkness

After Vash successfully destroyed one of Leonof the Puppet-Master‘s attacks aboard the SEEDS ship, Gray came up through the floor and dragged Wolfwood down with him to the lower level. Leaving Vash to face Leonof by himself.

Reservoir Dogs

Gray tried numerous times to crush Wolfwood with his hands, but he managed to dodge and counter with the machine gun in his cross each time. Despite being severely injured, Gray kept on coming, much to Wolfwood’s disbelief.

Cement

Furious, Gray grabbed his guns: two hand-held cannons. Quick as ever, Wolfwood managed to dodge Gray’s shots and let loose with his cross, shooting Gray relentlessly. No matter how many times Gray got shot however, he just kept on coming, only getting angrier and angrier, with not even numerous head shots slowing him down. Tossing one of his cannons at Wolfwood as a distraction, Gray managed to catch him off guard and hurled himself at him, breaking some of Wolfwood’s ribs with a punch from his remaining right-hand cannon. Immediately after striking him, Gray shot off a cannonball and almost killed Wolfwood with the resulting explosion, while also separating him from his cross. Going in for the kill, Gray let loose another cannonball, only for Wolfwood to shoot it with one of his pistols and explode it prematurely right in Gray’s face, nearly blowing off his right arm. In an attempt to grab Wolfwood, Gray ended up getting his right arm severed off when Wolfwood closed an automatic door over it. Glad to have separated himself from Gray, Wolfwood failed to notice that Gray’s severed arm was still moving.

No Escape

With the use of his severed arm, Gray was able to open the door back up, only to be met by a shot from the rocket launcher end of Wolfwood’s cross. The rocket did massive damage, but even with his body now barely in one piece, Gray kept on pursuing Wolfwood who used his machine gun to open up what was left of Gray’s belly. When he saw what was inside Gray, Wolfwood stabbed him with his cross and began shooting.

Long Goodbye

When Gray’s body finally stopped moving, the dwarfs that operated him started coming out, only to be attacked by Wolfwood who proceeded to beat them to death with his fists. Thinking he’d beaten Gray for good, Wolfwood failed to notice one of Gray’s remaining drivers about to kill him with what was left of Gray’s body. It was then that Meryl and Milly dropped in out of nowhere and crushed what was left of Gray’s body, saving a very surprised Wolfwood.

His Life as a…

In the end, two of Gray’s drivers managed to survive, who were both captured and thrown into a jail cell aboard the ship. They quickly escaped however when some of the ship’s surviving residents came to punish them for what they’d done to their families. The Gray drivers ended up going after Meryl and Milly, but Vash was luckily there to save them with his bulletproof coat. Unarmed and unprotected, Vash was about to be killed by the Gray dwarfs, until Wolfwood stepped in and knocked them out from behind.

Powers and Abilities

Gray the Ninelives is the powerhouse of the Gung Ho Guns. He possesses immense strength and his armor is considerably durable, being made of a combination of metal and flesh. Despite his size, Gray is also shown to be quite agile.

Gray has two guns, a pair of hand-held cannons that shoot explosive cannonballs. These guns can also be used as armored boxing gloves of sorts, and can be thrown as projectiles.

What makes Gray the Ninelives so dangerous however, is that he does in fact have nine lives because he is actually a robotic suit operated by nine dwarf drivers. These drivers are well protected inside Gray’s body and are distributed throughout it, shown when one of Gray’s severed arms could still move on its own. Even when Gray’s body is severely damaged, he can still function as long as one of his operators is still present. Therefore, in order to defeat Gray completely, each of his nine operators has to be defeated.

Even without Gray’s body, the dwarfs that operate it have been shown to be incredibly vicious and dangerous opponents.

Anime Version

The anime version of Gray the Ninelives is a little different from his manga counterpart. For starters, he is apparently a cyborg rather than a robot with nine dwarfs operating it, and he’s also shown to have several more weapons built into his body, including machine guns built into his fingers, missile launchers built into his chest, and rocket launchers in his legs.

Just like in the manga, Gray ends up being killed by Wolfwood, except Gray comes to the SEEDS ship along with both Leonof the Puppet-Master and Hoppered the Gauntlet in order to destroy the plants that power the ship and kill everyone dear to Vash. The battle between Gray and Wolfwood proves to be very intense, with Gray’s armor being completely bulletproof against Wolfwood’s cross. Gray is revealed to be a cyborg when Wolfwood manages to shoot out a pipe filled with corrosive acid over Gray that eats away his armored skin, after which Wolfwood blows off Gray’s torso with his rocket launcher. Gray’s legs manage to keep going however, as his brain was still intact and still attached, and he uses his leg-mounted rocket launcher to destroy the ship’s plant before Wolfwood is able to stop him.

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