Justin Law

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"O God who dost abide in the city of death, hear our prayers. Let thy holy name be righteousness. Hear me, O Lord...make me a servant of thy holy peace...I shall be a pillar of righteousness...a blade of faith...in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." — (Chapter 26)

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Justin Law (ジャスティン＝ロウ, Jasutin Rō) was the seventeen-year-old Death Scythe, previously in charge of Death Weapon Meister Academy's Europe division. Justin's weapon form is a Weapon guillotine, which prompts his Death Scythe nickname, "The Executioner". Justin used to be seen as devout in his services to Death; however, following the fight on Lost Island, Justin changed his alliance to Asura, succumbing to Madness due in part to interactions with The Clown. Justin also was briefly part of Noah's group when he was searching for Asura's hiding place.

Background

At the age of thirteen, Justin became the youngest person in history to achieve the level of Death Scythe. Many at the Academy view him as a living legend, as not only did he reach the level of Death Scythe at such a young age, he also did so individually, without the assistance of a Meister. Justin was then assigned to be the main Death scythe in charge of the Shibusen European division.

Personality

Justin's personality can be described as zealous. When he was introduced in the series, he also appeared intensely polite: he was seen smiling numerous times in the series and addresses his peers and even enemies with suffixes. Justin seemed not to look down openly on anyone, nor would he chastises them. Yet Justin was prepared to kill when he given orders from the Shinigami, including when those orders concerned protecting Shibusen students.

One of Justin's most notable characteristics was his devout faith, first to Shinigami, then Asura. Before he was influenced by madness, Justin prayed to Shinigami, giving thanks for all aspects of his life. His faith influenced his attire and manner of speech while part of Shibusen, as he wore crosses and spoken with largely religious terms. Like many members of the academy, Justin's attire includes some skull-themed elements, such as those skulls decorated on his earphones before he defected from Shibusen. Following his professed allegiance to Asura, Justin persisted with this manner of almost religious devotion to the Kishin, to whom he prayed before committing murder.

After killing Justin during their battle on The Moon, Franken Stein reasons that Justin fell to madness because he was "so solitary that the order crushed [Justin]," who "could never imagine what lay beyond and beneath the structure of order." Stein concludes that even if Order fell apart, the world still would not be what Justin wanted.

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Justin's earphones annoy those around him

Justin is also easily identified by his earphones, which he is never seen without. As he almost always is playing music loudly on those earphones, his presence is often heard before seen. The volume is so high that those earphones prevent Justin from hearing when people speak to him. Therefore, Justin has learned to read lips, but because some members of the Shibusen such as Shinigami and Tezca Tlipoca wear masks, he does not know what they are saying. His earphones are so loud that Tezca, who spoke to Justin on several occasions, never realized that Justin could not actually hear him. Therefore, Justin usually depends on someone else repeating what was just said, such as Spirit Albarn repeating Shinigami's words, or The Clown using its mental connection with Justin to repeat what Tezca said. Another drawback to Justin's loud earphones is that he tends to speak loudly to hear himself over those earphones. Some people such as Giriko are annoyed by Justin's loud music, and also when they finally realize he is capable of reading lips, leading these people to think that Justin is ignoring them.

Justin was later revealed to have been a spy for Noah, defecting to his gang and demonstrating his true faith in Asura. After this change of heart, Justin even went as far as murdering Joe "B.J." Buttataki simply to create a rift between Shibusen and Stein, while also preventing B.J. from discovering his real intentions. From this point onward, Justin has demonstrated that he has developed a sadistic side, taking off his earphones for the first time in the series just to hear the rhythmic sound of Gopher beating Noah's captive and the son of Justin's previous god, Death the Kid. When confronted by Stein and Marie Mjölnir with accusations of killing Joe, Justin casually admits as such with a smile on his face, claiming he did so in the name of the Kishin so to kill someone like Joe with such powerful Soul Perception, then confirming to Stein that he will kill Maka Albarn next.

After his allegiance to the Kishin is revealed, Justin speaks and behaves with more misogyny. When Marie first confronted him in the desert outside of Death City for his murder of Joe, Justin insulted her by claiming her power as a fellow Death Scythe still was not enough because she was a woman. As he spends more time under the influence of the Kishin's madness, Justin seems to have lost more and more of his original personality; when confronted by Sid, Marie, and Stein at Noah's base he raves manically to the sky as he fights them, shouting nonsense words. Later, when in the Ukraine to investigate Crona's presence there, he appears far more disturbed and sadistic than ever before; demonstrated by the many distorted faces he makes and his violent nature which seems to be growing in ferocity. Also ever since abandoning his following of Shinigami for the Kishin he has chosen to pray to moon, where his god resides which is in a way similar to how the ancient Greeks prayed to the Greek Gods.

In the anime, Justin behaves much differently than he does in the manga after the Brew Arc: whereas in the manga Justin defects to Noah and Asura to fight the DWMA, in the anime, he stays loyal to the Shinigami throughout the series.

Relationships

Main Article: Justin Law/Relationships

Appearance

• Justin's initial appearance in the anime
• Justin's soul
• Justin, with Madness Fusion

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Justin has short, loosely styled blonde hair, light-blue eyes, and wears priest-like attire that makes him somewhat resemble a monk. He first wears a white shawl that encompasses all around the upper part of his body from his neck to elbow length. He then wears a Deacon's cross with Death's mask on it over the shawl and has visible headphones (also with Death's mask on them) that emerge from the shawl and into his ears. Under the shawl is a black, ecclesiastical robe. The sleeves of the robe have white crosses on them which expand when Justin partially transforms and his guillotine blade emerges from the cross. The front of the robe also has a portion made of grey fabric that almost makes the robe look like a double-breasted overcoat. This section of the robe has six visible black buttons on it that are symmetrically separated on opposite sides of the grey part to the robe. These buttons also have a cross design. Justin finally wears a pair of black pants, loafers, and a white Zucchetto for a hat.

After Justin falls to Madness, he undergoes an alignment change which lightly affects his wardrobe. He still appears in his priestly attire and Zucchetto; however, the Death worship vanishes, and is altered to a Kishin worship theme. The Deacon's cross with Death's mask design on it changes to a Kishin three-eye pendant instead, in addition to the same Kishin eyes being featured on Justin's sleeves (instead of the white crosses) and earphones (again, instead of Death's mask).

After Justin's battle against Death Scythe Tezca Tlipoca, the left half of Justin's neck, shoulder, mouth, and left eye have been severely burned by Tezca's Solar Ray. The result is a disturbing and massive scar around all these areas. The unique quality to the scar is that it makes Justin appear almost as if he were on fire, as not only does the burned skin appear to come loose and flag-like off Justin, but the scar seems to also remain at a constant flux, as if moving along with the wind current. The scar, having burned Justin's left side to his mouth, shows that most of Justin's left lip is missing because the skin has burned off. This leaves a good portion of his teeth constantly exposed and visible. Because of this, Justin constantly looks as if he has an insane expression on the left side of his face in addition to a fluorescent left eye appearing within his flame-like, burned skin.

When Justin uses Madness Fusion to combine with his Clown, his appearance changes dramatically. First, he wears what appears as a medieval helmet with a shape similar to that of a Fool in the Middle Ages, this of which covers his entire face with the exception of his mouth. In this form, Justin partially transforms to a greater extent. He loses everything from his white shawl down, and is given the ability to fly. His torso and lower body is replaced by a guillotine, including the blade, the blade's wooden support beams, and the neck shackle guard. Justin's arms are the only part to his actual body that remains present after the shawl, and even these appear disturbingly long. Finally, Justin's hands are replaced by guillotine blades that are held on by an infinitely extending chain.

After his final battle against Tezca Tlipoca, this headgear is also damaged by Tezca's Solar Ray. As expected, the left side to the helmet is burned off and the scarred portion of Justin's face can be seen. However, in this form, Justin's scar looks dramatically different in addition to Justin's face. First, the scar sometimes appears to grow much larger, sometimes even resembling three Kishin Eyes in its shape and form. Secondly, Justin's face appears pitch black along with most of the rest of the scar, and his eye glows. His expression is also beastly fierce and demented, often appearing like he is a different person all together, taking a disturbingly demon-like appearance. There have been some images released that were illustrated and painted by the author of the Soul Eater series that show the current Justin in color. Although it is unknown if Justin looks any different when he is not fused with his Clown from what has been shown, the illustrations do offer what he looks like when he is combined with his Clown. In these images, Justin's scar appears like a mixture of blue and black flames, with his left eye noticeably glowing a bright red.

Trivia

• Justin's attack, "Law Abiding Silver Gun", is a reference to B. Ichi, another manga by Soul Eater creator Atsushi Ōkubo. In B. Ichi, the character Yohei Nanami uses a gun called the 'Law Abiding Silver Gun,' a gun that is shaped like a dog's head.
• In the anime, the song Justin listens to is always the same. It is titled "Step Up."