Noel Vermillion

Overview

What is known is that Noel was adopted at a young age after being found in the burning fields of Ikaruga by the Vermillion family. Her strong fighting and magical abilities won her a spot in the Library's military academy where she ended up in the same class as Jin Kisaragi, Carl Clover, Tsubaki Yayoi and Makoto. One day when Noel was out in the forest, she was attacked by a strange wolf-like creature. As if answering her calls, Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk appeared on her hands. Bolverk is used to supress Noel's emotions and keep them under check, but without it she turns into a weak little girl mentally. Even so, Rachel seems to think that Noel could be the key to ending the time loop affecting everyone in the story.

Calamity Trigger

Throughout the story, Noel seems to get the short end of the stick. She is tasked by the NOL Intelligence Chief Hazama with tracking down Jin after he fled his post. However, Carl tries to kill her, Jin hates her for her resemblance to his dead sister (and also tries to kill her), and in one story arc she even gets eaten by the Black Beast after V-13 successfully merges with Ragna. On top of that, she holds an inferiority complex about her breast size and is strangely attracted to the cute, fuzzy panda Litchi wears in her hair (even shouting "Hands off the panda!" when fighting Litchi in-game). Near the end of Noel's story, she sees flashes of herself in a hospital bed, and ends up speaking robotically when she comes into contact with v-13, unable to comprehend the reason. Apparently, Noel is μ-12 , and like v-13 was somehow created from Saya's DNA, which explains why Jin seems to find her appearance familiar.

During the True Ending, Noel manages to catch Ragna and pull him back before he falls into the Cauldron with v-13, thus breaking the time loop that had affected everyone in the game. Rachel reveals that Noel is apparently supposed to carry the true Azure Grimoire instead of Ragna. Noel then ends up finding out Hazama's true form as the evil being Terumi, but accidentally shows him the power of the Grimoire through her gaze (don't ask me to explain this). Afterwards, Hazama later orders her former classmate Tsubaki to hunt her down with Jin in the epilogue.

Continuum Shift

Noel tries to follow Ragna after the end of the last story and find more about who he is and why he's become a fugitive, but Ragna is uninterested in talking and tells her to piss off, so they part ways and Noel finds herself at a playground where she sits on a swing when she ends up running into her friend Makoto by accident. She's happy to finally meet an old friendly face in this harsh enviornment.

Later, Noel hears that Jin was transferred into a hospital ship above Kagutsuchi after fighting Ragna, so she goes to meet him. However, by the time she gets to the port, Jin has disappeared again, and Noel decides to go around Kagutsuchi to find him. While she continues her search, Noel finds that both Sector Seven and the Library are trying to capture her. Noel runs into her friend Tsubaki only to discover that she's been ordered to kill her as well, but Noel manages to defeat her instead. She runs to the top of the Library to fight against Hazama for manipulating her friend into fighting her, but Hazama succeeds in screwing with her mind instead.

He reveals, among other things, that Noel is not exactly human, but more of a copy of an experiment by some scientists who grew a little too curious about what mysteries lied beyond the other side of the Boundary, and Noel was one of those units created to find out. However, they didn't quite know when to stop. Thanks to the power of the Azure Grimoire, she is able to observe things as they truly are (hence Takamagahara referring to Noel as "The Eye"), but at the same time she sees some downright horrible things that threaten her sanity. After screwing with her head enough, Hazama convinces Noel to release the seals on her Bolverk. While the guns served as a useful tool for Noel's self-defense, it also turns out that they served as a limiter on her true power. With the limiter removed, Noel soon becomes transformed with the real Azure Grimoire into the form of Kusanagi called Mu-12.

Obeying Hazama, she heads down to the cauldron and prepares to destroy the Amaterasu unit, possibly leading to the destruction of the world. However, she is stalled by both Jin and Hakumen, and then Ragna sacrifices his own left arm to destroy Mu-12's armor and bring Noel back to the surface.

After the battle, she is seen meeting with Tager and Makoto, ready to off into Ikaruga.

From Noel's joke ending, it can be deduced that Noel is lacking in the culinary arts. When Noel was left to be the replacement chef at a local chinese diner where she comically prepares the same poisonous dishes to every when of the customers. The only one capable of eating and even enjoying the food was Hazama.

True Form (μ-12) Mu-12

Noel's physical appearance is basically unchanged in her true form, with the exception of blank blue eyes and a slight fray to her blond hair. Out of combat her outfit is not dissimilar from Nu's but features lights, thigh-high socks, and a horned helmet. In battle her armor features floating blades similar to Nu's, but reveals much more skin.

Being the Kusanagi Unit, her entire purpose is to destroy the Amaterasu unit. When she fuses with the Kusanagi sword, she gains the armor worn by Nu and Lambda, but slightly more advanced. She has the ability to summon an energy barrier using the blades in formation. She has the basic abilities of being able to hover and fly through the air and can use the floating swords in both offense and defense. Longer range powers include opening wormholes and sticking her weapons through them to attack from afar.

Her drive attack is the Steins Gunner which is used to displace floating units. There are three different types of these units based on the number of blocks. They are used in attacking from all sides and throwing off the opponent's focus. The units release a beam of energy upon being deployed, however she can also use her own beams of energy to maximize their usefulness.

When in unlimited mode, her Sword of Decimation is a short range attack involving summoning of a triangle shaped pillar. She obtains a distortion drive that will launch several explosions in a row in the direction of the attacker. Her heat gauge does not refill automatically over time, unlike some other characters.

Gameplay

In the game, despite having a pair of large handguns, Noel doesn't have very many long-range attacks outside of her Optic Barrel specials and her Distortion Drive. Noel doesn't have great attack power with individual strikes, but her fast attacks and her Chain Revolver Drive ability can allow a skilled user to string together plenty of combos and air juggling, making her a force to be reckoned with. Her Distortion Drive somehow transforms Bolverk into a heavy machinegun (on the ground), a crossbow (finisher, if the first hit comes from the machinegun itself), or an RPG (in the air).