Dear Santa

Dear stands at 130 cm (4'3") — small even by the standards of his age, with the consequence that the standard Cleaner jacket he wears is too large for him, its sleeves covering his hands entirely. He has freckles scattered across his cheeks.

His hair is two-toned — white and black, split symmetrically — tied up in eight separate spiky ponytails that jut upward and outward in different directions: three on the left, three on the right, one at the top of his head, and one large one at the back. His eyes are blue with squared pupils, typically shown as indifferent and cold. He has thick eyebrows that usually curve inward, and a generally frowning expression that makes him look perpetually annoyed regardless of the situation. He always has his pacifier in his mouth — it is both a comfort object and his Vital Instrument.

His outer garment is a large baggy blue overall with one broken strap, worn over the Cleaners jacket. He is almost always depicted with something of a permanent scowl, which gives him an intimidating quality that is genuinely surprising for someone his size and age.

Dear is, on the surface, irritable and intimidating — a combination that does not typically describe a ten-year-old, and that is precisely the point. He grew up inside the Cleaners, surrounded by combat-oriented adults operating in genuinely dangerous conditions, and his personality reflects that environment without being defined by it.

Non-Verbal Communication

Dear does not speak. He communicates exclusively through facial expressions, gestures, and noises — a mode of interaction that Bro reads with enough accuracy to relay to others. The messages Bro interprets tend to express annoyance more often than not. This is not limitation. It is a style. Dear communicates what he needs to communicate, and he communicates it clearly enough that veteran Raiders understand his position without a word being exchanged.

Ten Years Old, Actually

He likes sweets and sleep. He dislikes boredom, long conversations, and feeling drowsy when he wants to stay alert. He will demand another person's candy with the specific certainty of someone who believes their claim is legitimate. He gets physically tired if missions run too late into the night — a fact Bro manages operationally by noting that they need to finish before Dear "gets the sleepies." These are the details that establish him as a child, running alongside the combat stoicism that would be extraordinary in an adult.

Refuses to Be Patronised

When Bundus Beggalcate attempted to call him "Dearie boy" during the Penta standoff, Dear was visibly angered. The irritation was not wounded pride. It was the specific response of someone who knows exactly what being condescended to looks like and is not going to permit it. He does not require Bro to handle that particular disrespect on his behalf. He handles it himself, through expression and the immediate readying of his Vital Instrument.

Quiet Curiosity About Rudo

Dear maintains a quiet interest in Rudo Surebrec — specifically in Rudo's background, his "mean look," and his ability to weaponise discarded objects. He has been annoyed when Bro mentioned this interest aloud, but the curiosity persists. For a child who grew up inside the Cleaners, Rudo represents something unfamiliar: someone who arrived from the Sphere, who fights differently, who carries something that even other Givers do not have.

The specifics of Dear's life before the Cleaners are not disclosed. What is established: he and Bro Santa are not related by blood, and at some point in his early childhood, Bro adopted him. He joined the Cleaners and was placed in Team Child — the unit designed for younger Givers requiring experienced supervision — where Bro serves as both guardian and team leader.

He turned ten years old one month before the mission to the Penta No Man's Land, which means he has been part of the organisation for a significant portion of his life to date. He grew up inside the Cleaners' operational culture rather than encountering it from the outside, which shapes the specific way he carries himself: the combat readiness is not learned behaviour overlaid on a civilian baseline. It is simply how he exists.

His Vital Instrument is his pacifier — the object he keeps in his mouth constantly, which is both a comfort item and a Jinki. The choice of instrument is the clearest evidence the series offers that whatever Dear has been through, some part of his childhood remained accessible enough to cherish something. He uses it to channel high-level Anima in combat. He also just likes having it in his mouth.

The Penta Arc — Standing Ground

Dear accompanied the senior Cleaners to Penta to investigate Amo Empool. When he and Bro became separated from the main group, they were intercepted by Bundus Beggalcate — 44 years old, 200 cm tall, and one of the most experienced Givers on the Ground. Dear's response to the encounter was immediate: pacifier in mouth, Anima ready, watching.

When Bundus attempted to address him as "Dearie boy," Dear mocked the attempt — a response that registered clearly despite no words being exchanged. He functioned as Bro's sentry throughout the negotiation, providing the presence and the pressure that made Bro's diplomatic position credible. The standoff ended with the Cleaners acquiring the intelligence that the Raiders had successfully manufactured Trash Beasts. Dear held the line for the entire exchange without incident.

The Border Arc — First Deployment of Full Power

Near the Border, Bundus launched a surprise assault on the Cleaners using his Real Mode — the full cannon configuration of his mechanical apparatus. Dear and Bro activated their combined technique: "Vital Cloth! Instrument Centra-lian!" Dear concentrated his Anima through the pacifier into an energetic output that amplified Bro's Centralian, creating a defensive and offensive shockwave capable of holding back Bundus's mechanical limbs at full power. When Zodyl Typhon arrived and the environment began fracturing, Dear coordinated the tactical withdrawal and ensured the younger Team Child members, including Guita, were not caught in the collapse.

The Doll Festival — Civilian Defence

During Mymo's takeover of the South Ward, Dear was deployed as part of the Rapid Response Force managing the festival crowds. He used his Anima to repel Mymo's "Connect" frequencies in his immediate area and protect civilians from the debris generated by the larger fight between Rudo and Mymo's Apostle form. As the South Ward was pushed toward collapse by Mymo's final operation, Dear remained on the defensive lines — one of the few who stayed functional as Mymo's Rule caused others around him to degenerate.

Inside the Border Trash Beast — Survival

Dear, Bro, and Semiu Graea were trapped inside a massive airborne Trash Beast heading toward the Border. The interior was a living junk pile filled with acidic internal conditions and biological defensive mechanisms. Where an ordinary human would have been polluted or killed by the environment, Dear maintained his focus and Anima resonance with Bro throughout. They located and destroyed the creature's inner cores using their combined Centralian strikes — forcing the Beast to crash or expel them. The arc is Dear's clearest demonstration of endurance: he is ten years old, and he survived conditions the series explicitly describes as lethal to ordinary people.

Vital Instrument — The Pacifier

Dear's Jinki is his pacifier — the object that is always in his mouth, which doubles as both a comfort item and a weapon. When activated, the pacifier allows Dear to concentrate Anima into a focused burst while in a state of physical exertion. The instrument is classified as a power-draining type: the more Dear strikes a target, the more power he drains from them, which simultaneously increases his own strength output. It scales with sustained engagement rather than delivering a single fixed force.

The choice of instrument is thematically precise in the series' framework: a Vital Instrument becomes a Jinki through the sincerity and duration of the bond between wielder and object. For Dear, the pacifier is the thing he has carried since early childhood — the object most inseparable from his identity. That it became one of the more efficient combat instruments in Team Child is entirely consistent with how the power system works.

Combined Technique — "Vital Cloth! Instrument Centra-lian!"

Dear's primary combat deployment is the synchronised activation he performs with Bro Santa. Dear concentrates his Anima through the pacifier into an energetic output that functions as a "cloth" or resonant field wrapping around Bro's Centralian bandana. The combination amplifies the mass and destructive output of Bro's instrument, producing a defensive and offensive shockwave capable of holding back weapons with a "ride quality" significantly above standard Jinki — including Bundus Beggalcate's Real Mode configuration. The technique requires both of them to initiate simultaneously, making it a genuine dual-entity move rather than Dear simply augmenting Bro's attack.

Area Denial and Frequency Resistance

During the Doll Festival arc, Dear demonstrated the ability to use his Anima to repel Mymo's "Connect" frequencies in his immediate area — preventing the Rule power from affecting the civilians he was protecting. Whether this is a specific property of the pacifier or a general application of high-quality Anima output functioning as interference has not been explicitly explained, but the practical effect was reliable enough that he held his position throughout the Mymo battle without being compromised.

Endurance

Dear's combat record includes surviving the interior of a flying Trash Beast — an environment the series describes as acidic, polluted, and lethal to ordinary humans. He maintained focus and Anima resonance with Bro throughout the encounter. The endurance he demonstrated is not explained through a specific power but is consistent with the general pattern of Givers with genuine sincerity and intact identity being more resistant to environmental mental pollution than ordinary people.

Penta Standoff vs. Bundus Beggalcate

Dear's first significant combat appearance was also his first demonstration of psychological composure under pressure that most adults could not replicate. Intercepted by a Raider who is 34 years older and 70 cm taller, Dear's immediate response was to ready his Vital Instrument — pacifier in, Anima building — without any visible alarm. When Bundus attempted to address him as "Dearie boy," Dear mocked the patronisation through expression alone, making his position clear without a word. He functioned as Bro's sentry for the entire negotiation: present, armed, and entirely unwilling to be treated as a child in a conversation he was part of. The encounter ended without combat but with the Cleaners possessing critical intelligence about the Raiders' Trash Beast manufacturing capability.

Border Ambush vs. Bundus (Real Mode)

The first deployment of Dear's full combat ability. Bundus launched a surprise assault near the Border using his Real Mode cannon configuration — a weapon the series explicitly describes as having a "ride quality" far above standard Jinki. Dear and Bro activated "Vital Cloth! Instrument Centra-lian!" — Dear's Anima output wrapping around Centralian to produce the amplified shockwave that held back Bundus's mechanical limbs. The fact that a ten-year-old's synchronized contribution was necessary to match a 44-year-old veteran at full power establishes Dear's actual combat tier more clearly than any description could. When Zodyl arrived and the landscape began fracturing, Dear coordinated the withdrawal and kept Guita safe during the collapse.

Doll Festival — Civilian Defence Against Mymo's Rule

Dear was deployed as part of the Rapid Response Force managing the festival civilians Mymo had turned into mindless puppets through his Rule power. His role was restraint and protection rather than offensive engagement: using Anima to repel Mymo's Connect frequencies in his immediate area, preventing further degeneration of the civilians he was managing, and keeping people clear of the debris produced by the larger battle. As the South Ward was pushed toward collapse in Mymo's final operation, Dear held his position — one of the few still functional as others around him succumbed to the broadcast's effects.

Interior of the Border Trash Beast — Survival Combat

The most physically punishing engagement of Dear's arc. Swallowed by a massive airborne Trash Beast heading toward the Border, Dear, Bro, and Semiu Graea were trapped in an environment of acidic interior conditions and biological defence mechanisms. Dear maintained his Anima resonance with Bro throughout — an endurance the series frames as remarkable given that ordinary humans would have been killed or mentally polluted by the same conditions. Together they located and destroyed the creature's inner cores using their combined Centralian strikes, forcing the Beast to crash or expel them. Dear sustained the engagement for as long as it required.

Dear Santa almost never speaks. The quote above is among his only confirmed verbal lines in the series. The rest of his communication is conducted through expression, gesture, and sound — which Bro translates in real-time and which, judging by the responses of the people around him, carries exactly as much weight as any spoken sentence.

• Dear's birthday is September 17th — placing him under Virgo, a zodiac sign associated with precision, practicality, and a tendency to express care through action rather than words. The alignment is unusually accurate.
• He is voiced by Hana Sato in the Japanese anime adaptation (Studio Bones, 2025).
• He turned ten years old one month before the Penta mission — meaning the standoff with Bundus Beggalcate, his first significant combat encounter, occurred when he was very recently ten. His profile lists him as having celebrated his birthday in the immediate prior period to the arc's events.
• Dear's Vital Instrument — his pacifier — is the most overtly childlike instrument in the series. In the Gachiakuta power system, a Jinki develops through the depth and duration of the bond between a person and a specific object. The pacifier being his instrument means it is the thing he has carried most sincerely for most of his conscious life. The series treats this without irony.
• The pacifier's drain mechanic — where each hit on a target drains their power while increasing Dear's own — makes his combat style most effective in sustained engagements rather than single decisive strikes. His patience and endurance, demonstrated clearly during the Trash Beast interior battle, match this mechanic exactly.
• Dear never speaks in any standard social interaction. His one confirmed verbal exchange — "Ha, ha! I guess that's a no" — was directed at Bundus Beggalcate after the "Dearie boy" incident. The fact that he chose to speak in that specific moment, to that specific person, communicates something about the threshold required to get a word out of him.
• He has freckles — a detail confirmed from the Gachiakuta Fandom wiki that is easy to miss in the manga's art style but is part of his official character design, and contributes to the contrast between his visually young face and his consistently unimpressed expression.
• His name is a direct counterpart to "Bro Santa" — the two of them forming the "Santa" family unit. Within the Cleaners, this naming convention communicates the relationship more directly than any official paperwork would.
• Despite his age, Dear is treated as a full professional member of the Cleaners — deployed on dangerous missions, listed in the organisation's combat charts, and expected to hold a frontline position alongside adults. The series does not frame this as exploitation. Bro works to limit the most damaging exposures. It is still a ten-year-old fighting on the Ground.