Taichi Betsuyaku

"All of the flavor bits fell out and died!!"

- Taichi Betsuyaku to his teammates

Taichi Betsuyaku is a B-rank Sniper and a member of Suzunari First.

Appearance
Betsuyaku is a thin, light-skinned boy with a round face, big eyes, notable eyelashes, especially under his eyes, and medium-long, unkempt black hair over which he is usually seen wearing a brown deer-stalker hat with elongated ear flaps. He appears to like wearing black sweaters with a simple image on the chest, and on one occasion a sweater with dark, horizontal stripes.

Betsuyaku's uniform is nearly identical to his teammates'. It consists of a forest green shrug jacket with vertical black stripes on the sides of the sleeves and horizontal black stripes around the collar. The jacket is split in two parts, covering Betsuyaku's arms, shoulders, and part of his ribcage and back on either side. The two sections are connected by the collar, two thin straps on the front, and one on the back. Border's logo is emblazoned at the top of each sleeve. The uniform is completed by a black shirt with one vertical green line running along each side, beige pants, and brown boots that reach up almost to Betsuyaku's knees, and an identical hat to the one he wears in his normal body.

Personality
Betsuyaku is the archetypal klutz, being extremely clumsy and frequently tactless with his words, not uncommonly as a result of thoughtlessly acting out of excessive eagerness or earnestness. He is a very expressive person, which manifests both in his cheerfulness and his dismay, which is often caused by his own catastrophic actions. For all his clumsiness, he is in fact a caring, well-intentioned person, and he always apologizes for the trouble he makes. Betsuyaku is easily excitable and very optimistic, and his infectious positivity energizes his teammates. The comedy he provides is not exclusively unintentional, and he appears to enjoy making others laugh. He is surprisingly sensitive to criticism, bursting into tears when the strategy he proposed in round 7 did not work as well as it could have, although his mood changed extremely quickly as soon as he was indirectly praised.

Betsuyaku's optimism and clumsiness carry over to the battlefield, frequently leading him to underestimate his opponents and act recklessly. This penchant for getting carried away sometimes puts him in danger. He is quick to worry and even panic; however, he seems to calm down rather just as quickly, especially when he is with someone else, and might have grown more capable of maintaining his cool over time. In addition, he has a notable tendency to fall over awkwardly during combat, and while many of these instances were due to the extreme weather conditions of round 3, there are also cases in which his loss of balance was solely the result of his own actions.

For all the downsides of his personality in combat situations, Betsuyaku has demonstrated a useful ability to think outside the box which, when applicable to strategy, makes his Squad's courses of actions very difficult to predict, leaving opponents guessing. He can also be unexpectedly perceptive, immediately noticing that Rei Nasu's bullets had become slightly slower than before, thus saving Tatsuya Kuruma in a rare moment of clarity and decisiveness.

Quotes

 * (To his teammates) "All of the flavor bits fell out and died!!"
 * (To his teammates) "That's because Kō surpassed him already! Maybe Arafune just realized he has no talent?"
 * (To Tatsuya Kuruma) "Compared to the humanoid Neighbors, taking care of Nasu will be a piece of cake!"
 * (To Yuka Kon) "It's fine, Kon. She can't see me, either, in this rain! I think..."
 * (To Kuruma) "You saved me! Nasu's scaaary!"
 * (To his teammates) "We'll move up too! I hope Tamakoma Second loses big!"
 * (To his teammates) "We'll be fiiine! Cuz this is their first time up against our new formation!"
 * (To his teammates) "We could try poisoning the other squads' Operators? How about that?"
 * (To his teammates) "How about I do that thing I've been itching to try!"
 * "When the tide turns rough, beat a retreat."

Trivia

 * "Taichi" (太一) is composed of the kanji for "thick" and "one". "Betsuyaku" (別役) means "different role".
 * Betsuyaku likes Neopolitan pasta, tomato-based foods, and making dioramas.
 * Like Arafune and Akane, Betsuyaku keeps his hat in his trion body to shade his eyes while sniping.
 * According to the author, if Betsuyaku were to leave Border, his memories would probably be sealed to prevent leaks of information.