Jail Murdoch

"Just give it a rest already. My iron... is my conviction given form... If I had cut you down in Hoemmh... Then, right now, you would feel my conviction. My iron will cut your convictionless sword!"

- Jail Murdoch when he blocking Licht's attack

Jail Murdoch (ジェイル＝マードック) is the deuteragonist in Plunderer. He is associated with the Althea Royal Guard and is the squad leader with the rank of Lieutenant. Jail is also the commander of special troop in Gefängnis.

Appearance
Jail has short icy blue hair and a long streak of black that matches the color of his iron. His eyes are also a blue color. Jail is seen wearing his military uniform, a pair of white gloves and his signature glasses.

Personality
Jail is very detail-oriented, making him a potent soldier and a capable combatant. His conviction is the key component of his personality and ends up being a driving force of his character development. This eventually leads him to make decisions based on his deep-seated sense of justice.

At a glance, Jail appears to be asexual and very career oriented. For instance, he has been in a situation where he was within close proximity to naked female bodies and he casually told them to "lose weight". However, it is during the time travel plot when things seem to change, in terms of Jail's reaction towards a particular character.

Past Events
Jail was an orphan who has never once befriended anyone. His parents were killed by a Ballot Holder when he was only 5 years-old. He eventually got adopted by Alexandrov Grigorovich at the age of 7. When Jail first met Alexandrov, he said he didn't like him and tried to attack him, but was quickly stopped. Alexandrov told Jail that he should at least try to make a friend first before fighting him.

Legendary Red Baron Arc
Jail first appeared in Chapter 3, along with his army arrived at Nana Bassler's mobile tavern. Jail asks Nana about Licht Bach and she stated she doesn't know where did he gone. Although Jail claims Nana was lying and told her that he won't forgive any liars for not speak the truth. Then, Nana stated that all she knows is that Licht went to East. Soon, Jail orders his army go to the west and destroys Nana's mobile tavern.

When Jail and his army arrived at Hoemmh, he broke the girl's doll and attacked Licht with his iron spikes. Then, he ordered his army to surround Licht and told him to stop acting around, but Licht soon defeated the army easily with his Ballot. As the army fear at Licht, Jail told his army that he will handling him all by himself. Soon, he asks Lyne Mei about the Ballot Holder and Ballot's function, as to test her knowledge as a soldier. After Lyne finished her explanation, Licht asked Jail that if he really want to fight him or not, given that his count is merely 900 compared to Licht's 5700 counts. Then, Jail releases his attacks at Licht, which surprised him. As Licht tries to run away with his speed of flash, Jail claimed his speed is too slow and creates a iron pillar in front of him. Licht wonder how comes Jail is that strong and soon realized that he actually hiding his count. Jail explained that he hide his count was due to one of his conviction to punish evildoers with his own hands, and the rule from the army that someone with higher counts would be forced into a promotion. Soon, Jail revealed his true count is actually 12500, which shocked Licht as he think it'll be troublesome to deal with.

The fight between Licht and Jail continues, he fight Licht in hand-to-hand combat. As Licht showed his fighting style, Jail is surprised a bit. Licht was defeated by Jail in hand-to-hand combat and Jail took his Ballot. Soon, Jail return Licht's Ballot back to him and stated his "Flashing Strike" is too slow. Then, Licht tries to "fly" upon the sky to deal his final blow. As the army feared at it, Jail wonder if Licht really flying or if he just jump higher. After figured that Licht is jump higher, he throws a lot of kunai knife at Licht and turns into a iron chains. After Jail successful binding Licht, Jail created a huge iron pillar impacted and defeated him. After Licht was defeated, he was captured by Jail's uncuttable iron of "conviction". Since the mission on capturing the Red Baron had ended, Jail took his time to asking Licht a few questions, as he finds his mission highly unusual. He pointed out that Licht's fighting style is same as those of Althea Royal Guards used, so he suspect that Licht must be a soldier just like him. Despite this, Licht still refuses to answer his questions, so Jail resorts to more violent ways to get the truth out of him. Just as he strikes Licht with his iron chain, Lyne comes in between them and gets hurt instead, she believed Licht to be not a bad man as he had helped her distribute flyers and helped repair a little girl's doll. Jail tears apart Lyne's flyers calling it "stupid" and calling Lyne "useless". Despite the protests of the townsmen, Lyne apologizes to Jail, only to hear Licht says don't apologize.

Jail realizes that it wasn't that Licht couldn't cut through his iron but instead was too half-hearted to do so. Consequently, Licht 'easily' tears apart the iron binding him. Jail realized Licht is no mere 5700 and has yet to show his true strength. Jail and Licht attack each other again at their full strength, Jail gets stunned by Licht's immense strength. Licht ridicules Jail for not knowing anything about how the town's peacefulness and governing is because of Lyne, and so he merely orders Jail apologize to her. Because of the power emitting from Jail and Licht, it results to the ground to break of the portion where Lyne was standing and she fall down, shocked by the sudden turn of events Jail and Licht rush forward to save her, but before Jail could, Licht reaches her in a blink of an eye and catches Lyne. When Jail rushed down, Licht tosses Lyne towards him and saying how she is heavy so to be careful cheekily. Licht makes his escape by falling down. Jail stated he won't let him run away and tried to attack him, but he soon stopped his action and rushing back to Hoemmh.

After Jail carries Lyne to safety, he tosses her to the ground as she was heavy. He then remembers the way Licht had defended Lyne and instantly build's a children's park. He then says he will staying on Hoemmh for 3 days and asks them to plaster the iron from the ground as his iron doesn't hold if he wasn't around, only after that he will go after Licht. He also asks Lyne to join him in the mission as well, which she agreed. Soon, Jail's count goes from 12500 to 12499 due to his broken conviction. Jail also realises that the speed of Licht when he saves Lyne was far greater than him and that even till the last moment Licht showed such half-hearted behavior, never going all out on an enemy like him. Soon, an extremely angry little girl demanding Jail to fix her broken doll, as he was the one who broke it and Jail as he complies.

After Lyne has done created the playground, Jail and Lyne continue their mission and went to capture Licht. As they arrived at Linden, they found that the city was destroyed. Jail and Lyne wonder what's happened and Pele Poporo soon found the only survivor. They asked the survivor about the situation, he then said that the "Abyss Demon" came to destroy the city. Jail don't believe what the survivor stated and tried to suspect that it must be done by the Ballot Holder. The survivor also stated that the "Abyss Demon" can fly too, which shocked Jail as there's no Ballot Holder that can fly. Although Jail still don't believe what the survivor stated, he had no choice but to find Licht and ask him about the "Abyss Demon", as he's the only person who can "fly".

Later, along with Lyne, Jail went to Nana's mobile tavern and wait Licht's return. When Licht returned to the mobile tavern, Jail told him to have a drinking competition, in order to find the answer about the "Abyss Demon". He also stated if Licht don't do it, he would force him by use violence. Licht has no choice but agreed to do it. During the competition, Jail keep asking Licht about his identity and where did he came from, but Licht keep ignoring his questions which pissed him off. As Jail and Licht continues, Nana interrupted them and forced them to drink even more alcohols. Soon, a earthquake suddenly happened and discovered there's a black hole looked similar to the one from Linden. As soon as Licht recognized the sound, he told Jail and the Royal Guards to call everyone stay back. Jail angered at this and asked Licht about the true identity of the "Abyss Demon", which soon revealed to be a helicopter.

When the helicopter appeared, along with the rest of the citizen were confused at it. When the helicopter launch it's attack, Jail create a huge iron wall to block the attack. After a while, Licht revealed his rank as a soldier and temporarily took control of the Royal Guard, in which Jail finally believed that Licht is indeed the Legendary Red Baron. When the hands of Althing appeared from the ground, at first, Jail doesn't want to help Licht to stop the helicopter, as attacking the hands would result of them receive death penalty. After hearing Hina's words, Jail took off his glasses and decided to help Licht. Soon, it's revealed that a child is piloting the helicopter, which shocked Jail and Licht. Before they could think more, the helicopter was destroyed and Jail was "killed" by a mysterious girl, Sonohara Mizuka.

Later, after Licht activated his bloodlust genes and defeated Mizuka, it's revealed that Jail is still alive and he went to save her. Licht asked Jail if he is his enemy and Jail says yes. Then, Licht tries to attack him but Jail somehow blocked all of his attacks, although he shortly fall due to his injury received from Mizuka's gunshot earlier. When Licht tries to give Jail a finishing blow, Mizuka went to save him and apologies him for injured him, while she being crying, which Jail stated that's why she don't need to join part into the fight. When Licht tries to hit Jail, he blocks Licht's attack with a small piece of metal, claiming that Licht doesn't have a conviction and a sword without conviction won't able to hurt him. Soon, Jail changed the form of the small metal to a iron pillar and throws at him, asking Licht if he really being serious or not. Licht, while still being controlled by his bloodlust genes, he explained that he must kill everyone in the war in order to protect his friends and family. While Jail claims that Licht is just refuse to admit his mistakes, he said that he will also use his true strength as well. Soon, Jail revealed his second count is 45000 and created the iron devil, in his full strength. Licht, while managed to block the first few attacks of Jail's golem, he is completely no match against Jail and soon defeated by him with his conviction. After Licht was defeated, Jail kicked off Licht's mask and wonder if his original personality returned or not, which Licht revealed that he regained his sanity and crying. Soon, Mizuka thanks Jail for protecting her but he shortly fall into the ground afterward.

Return to the Past Arc
After the end of "Abyss Demon" incident, Jail is summoned by his father Alexandrov. When Jail arrived at Alexandrov's office, he tried to give Jail a hug but he avoids him and stated that if he doesn't have any reason to see him other than "father-son reunion" then he will leave without noticing. As Alexandrov started being serious, Jail reporting his encounter with the "strange group with black uniform" to him, and asking him if they were part of the Royal Guard as well. Alexandrov explained that they aren't under his control and they were different faction that handling assassination, known as the "Special Service", he also told Jail to be careful as they're spying around everywhere and he would end if getting himself kill if he's not careful enough. Then, Jail asked Alexandrov about Licht and his true identity. Alexandrov explains that while he didn't know about the full details, the Red Barons was in fact created as "mass weapons" for the Abandonment War, with Licht as the commander of the troop. Jail finds this ridiculous and stated there's no way a human can lives for 300 years long, Alexandrov explained they stopped aging at a certain point due to their status as "mass weapons".

Soon, Alexandrov noticed Jail's count has reduced to 12499, so he wonder if Jail hiding Licht from the army or not. While the count decreasing, Jail claimed that he didn't hiding Licht from anyone. This caused Alexandrov being upset at his action and told Jail to stop, but he didn't listen. Then, Alexandrov asked Jail if he acted against Althing which shocked Jail, he told Jail that he must capture Licht or he would ended up being killed by Special Service instead. Jail has no choice but was forced to capture Licht to the army.

After the meeting, Jail returns to find Licht and arrest him. Upon his return, Licht noticed that the Royal Guard forcing Jail to capture him so he claim he will surrender for Jail's sake. The girls tried t stop him but Jail push them away and bind them with his metal. When Jail is about to handcuff Licht, Nana appeared in front of him and slap him, saying that he shouldn't following what the others told him to do but his own wishes instead. After hearing Nana's words, Jail stopped his action and choose to help Licht like before. Soon, Nana reveals herself is an Baron and, with her time travel ability, sends him, Hina, Pele and Lyne to the past, begging them to change the past where she failed. After they were sent into the past, Jail was confused and wonders where are they and that huge building showed in front of them.

Schmelman's Alternative Tales
Jail appeared in the Drama CD Schmelman's Alternative Tales.

In Cinderella part, Jail portrayed as second eldest sister-in-Law of Cinderella. During the stage, Jail wonder why is he wearing women dress and angered, which makes Licht (As the eldest sister-in-Law) laughed at his clothing. Hina (As Cinderella) and Gespenst (As youngest sister-in-Law) try to stop them, but Jail said his pride and conviction won't allow him for do such a childish stuffs. Soon, both Jail and Licht arguing each other due to he sexual harassed Hina by looking her panties. After Jail and Licht finished arguing, he started his acting on the stage by scolding Hina that if she have her conviction or not. Jail also claims Hina is a useless girl who don't have any good sides on her.

Abilities and Power
Jail's count is 900, his count stands for his piercing conviction. Jail maintains his true count hidden so as not to be promoted to a higher rank, so that he can continue with field missions. His original count is 12500, later decreasing to 12496, due to the events of the series. Later, it's revealed that Jail can increases his count to 45,000 by activating his second glove, thus showing how great his conviction is. Later, after losing against Alexandrov in the game of "The Startheft Bout", Jail's count was reduced to only 1. Jail's current count is 325000, after Alexandrov gave his Ballot to Jail.

Jail has a few powers, the most prominent ones being his iron creation ability.


 * Iron Manipulation: Jail's signature ability, he can create iron constructs at will.
 * Iron Constructs: Jail can turn any iron he created into tools, objects, weapons and semi-living constructs. The most noble stuffs he made were the iron pillars, kunai knifes, iron groves and the Iron Devil.
 * Iron Projection: Jail can release metal to attacks of various shapes toward his enemy.


 * Conviction Empowerment: The power to gain strength from conviction.


 * Lie Detection: Jail can detect lies to the people with less conviction than himself. Jail do this when Nana lied him about Licht's whereabouts, and when Erin inform him that Gespenst betrayed Licht.


 * Deflection: In later chapters, Jail was shown being able to survive normally fatal wounds through will and conviction alone and eventually he was able to deflect bullets from people with less resolve than himself.


 * Superhuman Speed: Jail can move almost as fast as Licht in his 5700 count form.


 * Blast (爆撃): Later, during Jail's fight against Robert, Jail is shown to be able to use Alexandrov's ability thanks to his Ballot and conviction.
 * Pyrokinesis: The ability to control fire.
 * Explosive Fire Manipulation: The ability to control fire that explodes or turns anything that the fire burns into a ticking time bomb.
 * Fire Blast: The ability to release fire on a specific target area.

Trivia

 * Jail's character design is based on Sugata Eishirou from Minazuki Suu's previous works, Sora no Otoshimono.
 * Jail is Minazuki Suu's favorite character, as confirmed by the anime director Kanbe Hiroyuki in the interview.
 * In Yen Press's translation, Jail says “belief” instead of “conviction”.