Noin Claude
Name: Noin Claude
Alias: Shikaidou Hijiri
Age: 500+ years old (he's been alive since Joan of Arc was burned at the stake....very old)
Sidekick: Silk (manga)/Mist (anime)
Noin Claude was the lover of Jeanne De Arc (Joan of Arc for the French impaired). He sold his soul to the devil so that he could see her 500 years later. Isn't that sweet? He first appears at the very end of the 12th chapter of the manga. After seeing Maron de-transform, he lets out a simple "Jeanne..." In the next chapter, we meet Shikaidou Hijiri, a new teacher at Maron's school. He saves her from slipping off the roof of the school. He gives her a letter from her father, and they become friends. She instantly finds out that he was the man who saw her, but Shikaidou is very nice about the situation and gives advice to her about it.
In the 14th epsiode, we meet the demon knight, Noin. He becomes her new enemy and rival. What Maron doesn't know is that her friendly sensei and Noin are one in the same. Noin's mission is to stop Jeanne from being a Kaitou and to split up her relationship with Chiaki, which he does using Zen.
Zen was a boy in the hospital possessed by a demon. Maron has befriended him, but Noin appeared when she was first about to checkmate his demon, pointing out that the demon was keeping Zen alive. Jeanne then decided to wait until after Zen's operation to seal the demon. However, while Jeanne was working to stop Sindbad from checkmating the demon, Noin used a charm to awaken the demon inside of Zen. Jeanne still tried to prevent the checkmate. She held it off long enough for Zen to actually come back to his senses, but soon after Sindbad checkmated the demon, killing Zen.
Maron could no longer stand to be around Chiaki. She made a phonecall from a phone booth to tell Zen's mother the bad knews. She was fatigued from all the emotional stress of the day and fainted, conveinently enough, into the arms of her loving sensei. He takes her back to his house and takes care of her. This is where his famous quote comes in. Sensei left Maron alone to change and she started to cry. He opened the door and held her tight saying "Don't look like this. Please don't look like this. Please don't cry alone." (Awwww....he's so sweet!)
The next time they meet, Shikaidou-sensei visits Maron at her apartment. She makes tea for him, but tea isn't what he is after. He gives Maron the shock of her life, revealing himself to be Noin. He tells the story of his love for Jeanne De Arc. He also says he has to take away her purity because he can't stand to see her throw her life away to the people she is protecting the way that she did those 500 years ago. He also reveals that he awakened the demon in Zen, which Maron flips out about. He then binds her hands down with a charm and proceeds to "take away her purity" so that she can no longer be Kaitou Jeanne. However, Chiaki ruins his plans and they have a small fight.
Noin escapes and isn't seen much for 1 or 2 chapters. He's mostly around to antagonize Chiaki a bit. The next big thing for Noin is when he saves Maron. She jumps off her 7th story balcony to save her falling rosario. Noin catches her halfway, breaking her fall. Instead of Maron dying, they're both knocked unconscious. While in their little comas, they get sent back to 15th century France. They land outside of Jeanne de Arc's prison cell. Jeanne and Noin have a sweet moment. Then, Jeanne tells Noin that it isn't safe and to take the girl (maron) and leave. They do leave, and Maron and Noin have to spend the night together in the cold woods. Noin tells Maron the story of how he was possessed by a demon and all the events surrounding the death of Jeanne de Arc. Noin tells Maron to get in his cloak because it gets cold. She makes him promise that he won't try anything funny, then clings to him like a scared little child. It is then that he realizes that she really isn't like Jeanne.
The next day they make plans to mess around with the past. Maron goes to save Jeanne and tells Noin to go stop the demon that possesses him, so that everyone will live happily ever after. Maron finds out that Jeanne must die to save everyone who had been possessed, so Maron gets a new rosary and new powers from Jeanne to seal the demons. Jeanne then meets up with Noin, who is still a demon knight. She asks him if he failed his mission, and he explains that he had himself possessed so that he could see her again, even if that meant working for the devil and waiting 500 years. (awwwwww)
In the last appearance of Noin (not including the Silk special and wrap-up), a demon has taken over Miyako and she uses her powers to make Chiaki fall in love with her. Maron is crying about it and Noin takes the opportunity to make his move. He holds her and tries to kiss her, but she stops him saying that she's fine if Chiaki wants to be with Miyako but she doesn't want to forget the taste of his kiss. He does kiss her anyway. She punches him, and he just holds her supportively. He's later seen watching her in the bushes as a touch of comedy.
Okay, lots of Maron-Chiaki fans diss Noin. I don't see why. He adds interesting dimension to the relationship. He cares a lot about Jeanne. Everything that he does, he does out of deepest, sincere love of Jeanne. When she's upset, he gives her a shoulder to cry on. True he did bad things, but he did them to protect Maron. To all the Chiaki-Maron fans, let me remind you that if it weren't for Noin, Maron would be dead, and it wouldn't be at all Noin's fault. It would be Chiaki's fault for revealing the truth about Finn. *smiles at the valid point she made* Besides, he works for the Devil. It's hard not to obey when you get your orders directly from the guy who owns your soul and is the second strongest deity in the world. ^_~ I'm actually a fan of the Maron-Chiaki relationship (I prefer Noin with Silk ^_^). I just don't think they should put him down so much. He wasn't a particularly evil villian when you get right down to it. He had a warm heart and did it all for love.
