Piano Man

Piano Man (ピアノマン,) was a member of the Port Mafia's Flags who was responsible for crafting supernotes. The closest to the position of Mafia executive during his time, he was also the founder and de facto leader of the Flags.

Appearance
Piano Man had short white hair that reached just above his shoulder; it was styled in a bob cut parted in the middle, and there were black streaks on his hair's right portion arranged adjacently that resembled a piano's black keys. He was quite a tall person and had slender fingers. Dressed in black and white without exception, he wore a white shirt with checkerboard-patterned collar, underneath a white waistcoat with a belt sash tied around his abdomen and white slacks. He also donned a formal black overcoat with white lapels and a pair of black. Piano Man also kept at least two winding machines in his sleeves where his piano wires were wound.

Personality
Piano Man was the most senior member of the Flags and held responsibility over the group with his leadership. Filled with whimsy, delicacy, and cruelty, he was also said to be the youngest mafioso closest to becoming a Port Mafia executive. However, he sometimes tended to be fickle and fastidious, hence missing his deadlines by months if his crafted supernotes—counterfeit money—failed to meet his standards.

Nevertheless, Piano Man was quite trusted by Mafia boss Ōgai Mori to monitor Chūya Nakahara in case the latter attempted to betray the organization after being recruited from the Sheep. With his wit and intellect, however, Piano Man proved to be more of a comrade than a watcher to Chūya, to the point of going behind the boss's back and telling Chūya about the Mafia's confidential files only for executives that the latter wanted to know about.

Skills

 * Physical Prowess: Piano Man was a skilled combatant known for his method of killing using an automatic winding machine fitted with carbon steel piano wires for decapitation. Besides the invisible wires being highly invulnerable to brute strength since the string was made of industrial-grade wire that could lift iron and concrete blocks, Piano Man's speed made his method more deadly and efficient against any human target that even Chūya's gravity manipulation could theoretically make the piano wire lighter but still not evade decapitation.
 * Master Craftsman: Piano Man was considered as the only person in Yokohama who could create supernotes that were indistinguishable from genuine money.
 * Intelligence: Being ordered by Mori to keep an eye on Chūya in case he learned the secrets to his being, Piano Man cunningly found no issue keeping said secrets from Chūya. This thereby allowed the Flags to successfully move behind Mori's back into retrieving documents related to Chūya's background without possibly inciting punishment out of disobedience to the boss's order.

Background
Piano Man came to be known in the Mafia as such based on his signature method of killing, which was using piano wires to decapitate people. At some point, he founded the peer support group known at the time as the Young Bloods and essentially served from then on as their leader; Lippmann soon officially named this group as the Flags. Later on, Piano Man invited Chūya to the group, after which Mori assigned him to monitor Chūya in case he made any actions that might warrant his eventual betrayal to the Mafia, particularly if he managed to take a look at their classified files surrounding him.

King of Assassins Incident
Together with Albatross, Doc, Lippmann, and Iceman, Piano Man surprised and congratulated Chūya for his first-year anniversary in joining the Mafia. With the latter in a bad mood that day more so after learning that he was invited to the Flags to be kept under watch, Iceman and Chūya got into a brief skirmish which Piano Man thwarted. Instead, he gave Chūya a photograph of him in his childhood as their gift for his anniversary, a gift that Piano Man deemed to be quite challenging to find. Afterwards, the Flags played billiards in their usual place, where an unknown man suddenly joined them.

The Flags engaged with the man named Adam, suspecting that he is an ability user and may infiltrate the Mafia facility, more so after learning that he was a detective. Piano Man almost decapitated the man's head, only for his piano wire to glide around his skin. The misconception was soon relieved once Adam, also introducing himself as an android, revealed that his mission was to protect Chūya and arrest an assassin named Paul Verlaine. The seven soon continued playing billiards, with Piano Man pressing questions to Adam about his investigation. Soon after, Adam grabbed Chūya away from the place to show the proof that Verlaine was alive, leaving the Flags behind.

During Chūya's absence, Piano Man and the other Flags were "summoned" by the boss, Mori, but they were actually ambushed by Verlaine. Chūya returned soon after, where he found Piano Man dead amidst the other Flags' corpses.

Legacy
A funeral was held for Piano Man and the other Flags the following day after their deaths. He would later appear in a trance-like vision to Chūya alongside the other Flags, where he showed his still-existing concern over the boy's dangerous desire to destroy everything in his path out of revenge. Additionally, Piano Man and the Flags were buried in a well-kept graveyard near the mountains, which Chūya frequently visited after the King of Assassins Incident.

Quotes

 * (To Chūya Nakahara) "What can I say? I live for moments like this. Annoying people with my lame sense of humor is what gets me out of bed every morning."
 * (To Chūya Nakahara) "The boss gave me orders to keep an eye on you in case you learned the secret. He never told me to keep that secret from you, though."
 * (To Adam Frankenstein) "Coming in here alone against the six of us was a tremendous miscalculation on your part, detective. Not even God himself would last ten seconds against all of our skills at once."
 * (As a vision to Chūya Nakahara) "But you can't keep lying to yourself forever. Didn't I tell you that when I welcomed you into our group?"

Trivia

 * He is the only member of the Flags whose nickname is written in.