Innu

Innu is a founding fighter of the Howlers and one of its few core combatants who remains fully human. First known as an underground Muay Thai fighter, he joins the group for money and opportunity, then stays because Gary Dem and the others repeatedly protect the people he regards as family. His failure to keep pace with increasingly powerful Altereds leads him into the Altered Hunters, where he develops Qi, an unexplained telekinetic ability, and a weapon-centered style capable of threatening werewolves without changing his species.

Biography

The underground fighter and the Howlers' wager

Innu enters Slough's underground circuit as “Innu the Warrior,” a muscular teenager willing to fight larger opponents for money and recognition. Against Spike, he refuses a contest of raw strength and instead uses the timing, knees, and elbows of his self-taught Muay Thai to dismantle the larger man's balance. He had been attending the fights as a loner in search of a gang worth joining, treating the circuit as a route out of the narrow future available to him. That ambition also makes him selective: he turns down recruiters he does not respect rather than attach himself to the first organization that offers cash. (Chapters 16–17)

Kai catches Innu's interest by staking money and a place in his gang on the inexperienced-looking Gary Dem. Innu agrees that if Gary wins, he will take Kai's payment and join. Watching Gary absorb a move and overcome a much more practiced fighter persuades Innu that Kai's confidence has substance, and he accepts the Howlers' black-and-gold clothes and burner phone after the wager is settled. The arrangement is initially transactional: Innu needs income, wants the protection and prospects of a serious gang, and considers fighting the one marketable skill he possesses. He nevertheless keeps the bargain exactly as made, establishing the personal integrity that later turns a paid association into loyalty. (Chapters 17–20 and 29)

School provides an immediate test of what membership means. Innu has transferred from the faction-ridden Eton High after rivals who could not beat him alone attacked with weapons; at Westbridge, he is angry at being hunted in groups but refuses to pretend that individual skill makes him invulnerable. He questions whether Gary, then the least accomplished fighter among them, can credibly lead a gang and worries that their small group will be crushed if it acquires a reputation it cannot defend. Kai answers that leadership rests on Gary's hunger to change his life rather than present technique. Innu does not surrender his skepticism, but training and fighting beside Gary, Kai, Austin, and Marie give him reasons to judge the group by its actions rather than its image. (Chapters 28–36 and 51–80)

Black Rock and loyalty earned in Slough

Innu's need for money is rooted in Black Rock Orphanage. He grew up there, regards its caretaker Suzan as his mother, and treats the younger Kevin as a brother and pupil. A later adoptive placement gives him little sense of family, because the adults are chiefly interested in the financial support attached to taking him in. He therefore fights underground and works for the Howlers to buy supplies for Black Rock, concealing his injured hands because Suzan would refuse money earned through violence. His gang identity and his care for the children are not separate ambitions: the danger is the price he believes he must pay to give them options he never had. (Chapters 173–174 and 251)

That private responsibility changes how he understands the Howlers. Gary and Blake intervene when Billy threatens the orphanage, and the group later answers Innu's call when the Grey Elephants abduct the children for experiments with Crazed Altered injections. Innu is forced to reveal the history he had kept from his teammates, yet Gary commits to the rescue before demanding an explanation. The attack devastates the old Black Rock community—Kevin is later described as its only surviving child—and demonstrates that Innu's strength alone cannot shield it from organized predators. It also gives him a reason more durable than pay to follow Gary: the Howlers treat his family as theirs when there is no profit in doing so. (Chapters 173–178, 279–283, and 575)

As the Howlers absorb territory, Innu becomes one of the young fighters who gives its core credibility. He helps enforce the takeover of Burnham, joins the war against the Grey Elephants and Underdogs, and learns to fight trained armed opponents rather than relying only on schoolyard dominance. His loyalty is not blind obedience. He continues to test plans, complain openly, and measure leaders by whether they protect their own. By the time Gary chooses to pursue the AFA and AFC, however, Innu supports the departure: the gang is stable enough to function without its Alpha for a time, and Gary has earned the right to pursue the dream that his sacrifices made possible. (Chapters 229–305 and 354–355)

Defeat in Notsburg and a human path to power

Kai gives Innu the beast axes formerly used by his father Damion after Innu loses a hard sparring match to Austin. The weapons immediately lend him energy and reduce his pain, offering a human fighter enough force to harm opponents his bare hands cannot. During the Notsburg campaign he uses them to protect Marie and strike the werewolf Midwak, but the apparent upgrade proves incomplete. Their bodily enhancement weakens with repeated drawing, a committed attack can empty Innu, and Midwak's overwhelming power leaves Marie close to death despite Innu's efforts. Returning home, he is less proud of the Howlers' victory than ashamed that his role as protector exceeded what he could actually do. (Chapters 468–470, 546–551, and 559–568)

The same period gives Innu the home he has been fighting to create. Suzan adopts Kevin, Kai funds a rebuilt Black Rock after persistent arguments from Innu, and Innu spends his own earnings on the project rather than adopting the lifestyle of a successful gangster. Moving into the same building as Suzan and Kevin makes him part of a household again, but it also sharpens his fear of losing it. He considers an Altered serum and Gary's bite, then rejects both: either transformation could change a body and fighting style he has spent years mastering, and neither guarantees a form suited to his axes. His question becomes not simply how to gain power, but how to remain himself while becoming strong enough to protect others. (Chapter 575)

Innu asks Blake for the methods by which human Hunters kill Altereds. Blake explains that genuine instruction requires membership, confronting Innu with the Hunters' hostility toward the transformed people who make up much of his gang. Innu joins as an apprentice without renouncing the Howlers. Under the five-star Hunter Ashen, he learns that the internal energy he has been unconsciously feeding into his axes is Qi; Ashen warns that careless overuse can exhaust normal reserves and then consume life energy. Ashen also reveals a small telekinetic ability whose origin even he cannot explain. Innu accepts both the moral risk of joining a hostile institution and the physical risk of training because remaining weak now feels like the greater betrayal. (Chapters 576–580)

His early progress comes from repetition rather than a sudden transformation. He learns to use smaller, controlled amounts of Qi, first lifts leaves with intense concentration, and eventually guides a thrown axe over roughly twenty metres. During the formal Hunter assessment he refuses standard anti-Altered arms in favor of his own axes, uses their energy together with Qi to kill a beast, and survives competition from more experienced candidates. The Hunters select him for a special year-long program. Austin objects that joining people who hunt Altereds makes Innu an enemy, while Kai accepts the potential intelligence and believes Innu's loyalty has already been tested. Innu chooses to disclose the offer instead of constructing a safer lie, and leaves Slough knowing that his advancement will separate him from the family it is meant to defend. (Chapters 638–665)

The Phoenix assault and divided obligations

Innu returns with Blake when the Phoenix Gang attacks Slough, answering the crisis before his Hunter service is complete. He finds Kevin transformed into a werewolf and initially apologizes that the city's danger forced his younger brother toward the very kind of change Innu avoided. Kevin, however, chose the power so that he could help, and Innu directs his anger at the circumstances rather than the Howlers. Fighting Greed, he shows what the year away has achieved: Qi strengthens his body and coats him against heat, telekinesis recalls and redirects his axes, and Muay Thai strikes fill the gaps between weapon attacks. With Kevin's assistance he defeats the stronger Altered and finally becomes the rescuer his brother had always imagined. (Chapters 842 and 899–900)

The victory also exposes the cost of his new level. Qi and beast-weapon energy tear the skin beneath his hand wraps, extended output leaves him collapsed, and the returning-axe surprise would be less effective against an enemy allowed time to understand it. Against the King Sin, Innu can breach a flame barrier but cannot wrench an axe from Sin's stronger grip; Sin melts the weapon completely and later strikes Innu out of the battle. Unlike his Altered allies, Innu cannot regenerate major damage in moments. Training has allowed a human to enter their battles, not erased the underlying difference in endurance or survivability. (Chapters 900–908)

After the city survives, the Hunters order Innu and Blake to the campaign against Ruin City. Innu wants to stay for the wounded Howlers and mourn Tyler, but recognizes that people depending on the Hunter force will die if he treats the organization only as a source of personal upgrades. He and Blake also bring Kai intelligence obtained through their rank, turning the divided affiliation into a benefit rather than concealing it. His promise to return leaves him serving two communities that distrust one another, held together less by ideology than by his insistence that he owes protection to both. (Chapter 928)

Ruin City and the Ironfang campaign

In Ruin City, Innu advances from apprentice to a field Hunter capable of operating with five-star veterans. He and Blake fight the Lupus group's Ironfangs, study their organization, and work under the veteran Roman. Watching Gary's victories from afar makes Innu wish he had been present, but he refuses to perform the current mission half-heartedly merely because the Howlers are succeeding without him; Roman's unit has already lost people, and further divided attention would cost more lives. After Sin destroyed one red axe, the Hunters award Innu a light black-and-white beast axe whose energy-return effect lets him sustain Qi longer when it lands. The replacement becomes part of his paired style without restoring the lost original. (Chapters 1157–1161)

Roman's squad is caught in a much larger werewolf force, and Roman sacrifices himself to let Innu and Blake continue. The survivors use thrown axes, Qi-enhanced movement, and disciplined retreats to carry the mission forward, but are later captured and weakened during the broader Ruin City conflict. Innu ultimately helps Gary and Midwak withdraw rather than insisting on an unwinnable confrontation, even knocking Blake unconscious when Blake's refusal to abandon his father threatens the group's escape. That choice is painful because Blake brought him into the Hunters and repeatedly saved him, yet it shows the practical lesson Innu has learned there: loyalty sometimes means preventing a friend from turning grief into another needless death. (Chapters 1160–1161 and 1276–1287)

When Innu eventually returns to the Howlers, he has missed battles that reshaped the gang but brings experience no other core member possesses. He reunites enthusiastically with Kevin and finds the Howlers living at a fortified manor. His absence no longer makes him an outsider; instead, the people he left become the students through whom his Hunter training strengthens the pack. The reunion shifts his role from the fighter worried about falling behind to a specialist whose knowledge can help transformed allies use their own bodies more efficiently. (Chapters 1331–1358)

Teaching Qi and fighting the old packs

Gary, Xin Clove, and Kevin ask Innu to teach them Qi. He admits that his explanation of the energy is practical rather than theoretical and that he does not know whether telekinesis can simply be taught. By placing his hands against a student's back, he helps them identify and move their own Qi; Xin and Kevin progress quickly, while Gary struggles to carry the flow through a partially transformed ear into the Lycantide Warhammer. Guiding several people exhausts Innu, but his improvised instruction lets werewolves reinforce selected limbs, attacks, and weapons instead of transforming indiscriminately. Innu, once dependent on supernatural teammates for survival, becomes responsible for refining their control. (Chapters 1358–1367)

That maturation is tested when Luzen pursues Innu and Austin during the fractured-pack conflict. Innu remains behind so Austin can escape and so an elite werewolf cannot reach the more vulnerable Howlers. A direct duel favors Luzen's strength, stamina, tracking, and spirit arrows, so Innu applies Qi only to the body parts engaged at each instant and refuses to confuse retreat with cowardice. He changes the battlefield instead: redirects a runaway car, drops signs and office equipment with telekinesis, enters a building to deny Luzen's preferred range, and triggers the fire alarm both to assault the werewolf's hearing and evacuate civilians. (Chapters 1417–1421)

Innu cannot overpower Luzen even with those advantages. Instead, he secretly sends an axe through the building's supports while drawing the werewolf from floor to floor, then collapses the structure around him. Telekinesis diverts enough rubble for Innu to escape, but the effort causes a nosebleed, nearly empties both his Qi and ability reserves, and leaves him uncertain whether Luzen has actually died. The fight is his clearest answer to the problem that began at Eton: when superior enemies coordinate weapons and physical advantages against him, technique alone is insufficient, but technique joined to preparation, restraint, and environmental control can still change the outcome. (Chapters 1420–1422)

During the later full-moon battle against the old packs, Innu fights continuously with Qi-guided axes and joins Apollo against the Iron-masked werewolf. He is still sensitive to having been passed over when Austin received an Altered serum, although experience has also made him grateful not to have been forced down that path. His human reserves cannot sustain endless werewolf engagements, and the masked fighter's disciplined sword-like counters nearly kill both allies. Innu nevertheless saves Apollo when the fight turns against him, while Apollo returns to pull the werewolf off Innu after he is pinned and wounded. Their survival depends on cooperation rather than Innu proving that humanity alone makes him superior. (Chapters 1494–1504)

The missing Alphas and the last war

Gary, Kai, and Lupus vanish after the old-pack battle, leaving Innu among the Howlers who remain in the present. He helps the survivors assess surrender terms, preserve the public appearance of strength, and consider whether Unzoku engineered the disappearance. When months pass without the Alphas' return, Innu supports Xin's acting leadership rather than waiting passively. He joins Austin, Marie, and Slit in investigating the altered werewolves connected to Unzoku, while the depleted Howlers conceal how exposed Slough has become. The crisis makes his earlier complaint about absent leaders concrete: this time he is one of the experienced members responsible for keeping the gang and city functioning without them. (Chapters 1516–1518 and 1722–1724)

After Gary and Kai return, Unzoku's Gluttons turn Slough into another war zone. Innu is assigned to the rear of a civilian evacuation with Austin and openly identifies himself as human when a frightened child assumes his weapons signify an Altered form. His thrown axe pins a Glutton but fails to stop its regeneration, and another creature's shifting limbs restrain him until Gary intervenes. The episode preserves the balance of his development: by this stage Innu is recognized as an exceptionally capable, adaptable Hunter, yet an evolving supernatural enemy can still invalidate the tactics that worked against an earlier one. (Chapters 1731 and 1788)

Innu joins the final assault on Tower Land as a mobile ranged fighter, riding atop a lead vehicle and telekinetically sweeping heavy axes through groups of Gluttons before catching and throwing again. He continues fighting when the Howlers are ordered to retreat and survives the devastation of Gary's last attack on Unzoku. The war ends without transforming Innu into the strongest member of the pack; it vindicates the path he selected by showing that his human methods remain useful at the highest level when integrated with the people he chose to protect. (Chapters 1824–1838)

When the criminal Howlers formally give way to a different future, Innu returns full-time to the work that motivated him before the gang existed: Black Rock Orphanage. Two years after the war, he remains close enough to Gary to stand as a groomsman at Gary and Xin's wedding, trading jokes with Austin and sharing the family's joy. His latest state joins the two halves of his life rather than choosing between them—an accomplished Hunter and veteran Howler whose lasting occupation is providing children the stable home he once lacked. (Chapters 1846–1849)

Appearance and personality

Innu is introduced as a Black teenager with short, spiky blond hair, a muscular build, and scars across his exposed shoulders. His underground-fighting clothes leave his arms free, and he habitually wraps his hands and forearms for Muay Thai; after severe fights, blood soaks through those wraps. As a Howler he wears the group's black-and-gold uniform and wolf mask, while Hunter missions add black patterned anti-Altered armor and a Hunter mask. His paired axes become the most recognizable part of his combat silhouette. (Chapters 16, 28–29, 546, 900–901, and 1158)

He is direct, competitive, and fond of ill-timed jokes, often relieving tense meetings by saying what more guarded members will not. He freely admits that planning and academic explanation are not his strengths, but this self-awareness does not make him careless about a promise: he honors Kai's original wager, tells the Howlers the truth about his Hunter obligation, and completes missions whose beneficiaries may never trust his gang. His early pride makes him measure worth through fighting and resent being overlooked, yet Hunter training teaches him to retreat, ration strength, and treat survival as a responsibility rather than an embarrassment. (Chapters 20, 36, 665, 1157, 1335, and 1417–1422)

Innu's defining attachment is to people without secure families. He spends his own earnings on Black Rock, argues for institutional funding, teaches Kevin to defend himself, and fears helplessness more than personal injury. That protective impulse can feed insecurity—Midwak's near-killing of Marie and Austin's Altered serum both make him question his place—but it ultimately produces discipline rather than bitterness. By the end, the fighter who once wanted a prestigious gang uses the status and strength he gained to run an orphanage. (Chapters 173–174, 469, 575, 899–900, 1494, and 1846)

Powers and abilities

Innu remains biologically human throughout the supplied story. His enhanced combat performance comes from trained Muay Thai, learned Qi, an unexplained telekinetic ability, and Hunter equipment made to confront Altereds. He has no transformation, supernatural regeneration, or werewolf stamina; injury, fatigue, and destruction of his weapons continue to limit him even after he becomes an elite combatant. (Chapters 575–580, 900–908, 1157–1161, and 1788)

Muay Thai and close combat

Innu teaches himself Muay Thai before joining the Howlers and makes knees and elbows the core of his fighting identity. He defeats larger underground opponents through footwork, timing, balance disruption, and compact attacks rather than matching their power. Later armed training does not replace that base: he treats his axes as extensions of the same rhythm, mixing throws and cuts with jumping knees, kicks, pivots, and clinch-range pressure. This allows him to keep attacking while one axe is in flight and makes him dangerous at ranges where an opponent expects a weapon user to be helpless. (Chapters 16–17, 469, 900, 1160, and 1418)

Experience against gangs, beasts, Altereds, and werewolves broadens his tactics. Hunter instruction emphasizes that a human has no natural advantage in those matchups, so Innu studies range, cover, escape paths, civilian safety, and the enemy's preferred senses. His collapse gambit against Luzen is the mature expression of that approach. Technique still cannot cancel every physical gap: prolonged locks drain him, silent arrows penetrate his armor, and stronger enemies can catch or deflect the axes. His latest fighting style therefore depends on rapidly changing between hand-to-hand pressure, weapon attacks, telekinetic control, and environmental traps. (Chapters 301, 900–908, 1160–1161, and 1417–1422)

Qi reinforcement and control

Innu first uses Qi unknowingly when he feeds his own internal energy into the red axes. Ashen identifies the phenomenon and teaches him to move the energy deliberately. Its first demonstrated level reinforces cells and physical actions from within, increasing strength, speed, durability, and the force of strikes; a more advanced application coats his body or weapons externally, allowing him to resist Greed's heat and drive energy through axe blades. He later favors localized activation—charging only the foot used to leap, the arms receiving a blow, or the weapon about to land—to avoid the waste of full-body reinforcement. (Chapters 578–580, 639, 656, 900, and 1417–1419)

Qi is finite. Drawing too much exhausts Innu, and Ashen warns that continuing beyond ordinary reserves can consume life energy. Heavy combat tears Innu's wrapped hands, while total depletion leaves a human body without the rapid healing that saves his Altered teammates. Certain beast weapons return energy when they strike or kill, allowing him to replenish part of the Qi spent on an attack, but misses receive nothing and a skilled opponent can deny the feedback by evading or catching the weapon. His replacement axe makes extended output more sustainable, not unlimited. (Chapters 579–580, 900–908, 1160, and 1419–1422)

After the Ruin City campaign, Innu can recognize and guide Qi in other people. Physical contact helps him direct a student's energy until they can reproduce the sensation, and he teaches werewolves to concentrate it in selected limbs or connect the flow to a beast weapon. Guiding others is tiring and his verbal theory remains imprecise, but Xin, Kevin, and eventually Gary demonstrate that the method works across transformed bodies. The corpus shows Innu using internal reinforcement and external coating; it does not establish that he masters Blake's more advanced projected attacks. (Chapters 1358–1367)

Telekinesis

Ashen exposes Innu to telekinesis after revealing that he can move light objects without touching them. The power appears spontaneously rather than through standard Hunter instruction, and Ashen does not know its biological or supernatural mechanism; he even warns Innu to keep it secret from people who might experiment on them. Innu describes its power source as a naturally recovering pool separate from ordinary stamina and Qi, possibly connected to mind or blood, but explicitly admits that this is speculation. His first exercises require closing his eyes and concentrating to lift leaves. (Chapters 579–580, 638–639, and 1358)

Training expands the ability from small lifts into precise weapon control. Innu bends an axe's flight across roughly twenty metres, recalls it to his hand, attacks targets again on the return path, and eventually sends spinning blades through several enemies in succession. Telekinesis works particularly well with his combat rhythm because it lets him fight empty-handed while a weapon circles behind an opponent. It does not make the axes unstoppable: Sin can hold one against the pull, and an axe that is melted or otherwise destroyed cannot be recovered. The effect also has to contend with mass and resistance rather than bypassing them. (Chapters 639, 900, 904, 1158–1161, and 1825)

By the Luzen fight, Innu can slightly redirect a moving car, accelerate signs, throw office equipment, damage structural supports at a distance, and manipulate falling rubble around his own body. Those larger or sustained actions drain the separate reserve and eventually cause a nosebleed and near-total exhaustion. He therefore alternates telekinetic expenditure with Qi rather than treating both as one pool. By the final war he can repeatedly guide and retrieve heavy axes against groups of Gluttons, demonstrating reliable battlefield mastery, but the corpus never explains why he and Ashen possess this ability or whether Innu can transmit it to a student. (Chapters 1417–1422 and 1825)

Hunter equipment and beast axes

Innu's anti-Altered equipment is not an innate power. The original Innu's Red Axes belonged to Damion and pass to Innu through Kai. Merely holding them can enhance his body, while deliberately drawing their stored energy improves strength and recovery; Innu can also charge their blades with Qi. Repeated drawing yields diminishing returns, however, and Sin proves that a sufficiently powerful opponent can catch and melt one. The black-and-white replacement awarded during Hunter service returns energy after wounding werewolves, enabling longer Qi use. Innu continues to fight with a mixed pair, although the article inventory groups the signature axe set under its established page. (Chapters 285, 469, 551, 575, 904, and 1158–1161)

The Hunters also provide patterned armor, masks, and other mission equipment built for combat with Altereds. The armor cushions impacts that would incapacitate an unprotected human and helps Innu operate inside hostile territory, but it is not invulnerable: Luzen's arrows pierce it, and elite opponents still injure him through or around the suit. The Howlers' Wolf Masks serve a different purpose, concealing identity during gang operations rather than supplying the Qi or telekinetic effects associated with his axes. (Chapters 546, 655, 900–901, 1158, and 1418)

Power progression

Relationships

• Gary Dem: Innu first doubts that Gary can lead, then stays because Gary repeatedly risks himself for the Howlers and protects Black Rock without bargaining. Their bond matures enough that Innu later teaches Gary Qi, fights in his final war, and stands as one of his groomsmen.
• Kai: Kai recruits Innu through a wager, equips him with Damion's axes, and funds the rebuilt orphanage after persistent pressure. Innu challenges Kai's plans and spending rather than submitting quietly, while Kai trusts him to enter the Hunters without abandoning the Howlers.
• Austin: Innu and Austin develop a competitive, brotherly rivalry founded on contrasting fighting styles. Austin's receipt of an Altered serum briefly makes Innu feel overlooked, but the two continue to protect one another and serve together through the last evacuation and wedding.
• Kevin: Kevin regards Innu as an older brother, teacher, and personal hero. Innu tries to keep him away from the violence that shaped his own life, then respects Kevin's decision to become strong enough to help and makes him his first Qi student.
• Suzan: Suzan is the closest thing Innu has to a mother. His early secrecy about underground fighting is driven by fear that she will reject blood-earned money; his postwar decision to work at Black Rock completes the responsibility they have shared for its children.
• Blake: Blake gives Innu access to the Altered Hunters and becomes his principal partner through training, the Phoenix battle, and Ruin City. Innu's willingness to knock Blake unconscious to save him during retreat shows a friendship strong enough to oppose Blake's self-destructive choice.
• Marie: Innu treats protecting Marie as one of his core duties. Her near-death against Midwak makes his lack of power intolerable to him and directly motivates the Hunter path that later lets him return as one of Slough's defenders.
• Apollo: Innu and Apollo fight the Iron-masked werewolf together during the old-pack war. Each prevents the other from being killed, establishing a partnership based on complementary intervention rather than either fighter's individual dominance.

Items

• Innu's Red Axes: Innu's signature beast weapons, inherited through Kai from Damion and later reduced to one original axe after Sin destroys its twin. Their energy enhancement, compatibility with Qi, and suitability for telekinetic throws shape his mature combat style.
• Howlers' Wolf Masks: The shared masks used by Innu and other Howlers to conceal their identities during gang operations.