Curtis Blackburn

Curtis Blackburn
kana	カーティス • ブラックバーン
romaji	Kaatisu Burakuban
Also known as	Whitehair, The Surge
Nationality	English-American
Family	Ayame Blackburn
Occupation	Assassin, Former member of the Seattle Self-Defense Department, Organ trafficker
Weapon	Duel Pistols
Battle Theme	Hageshi
First appearance	killer7 (2005)
Voiced by	Alastair Duncan

"Talk all you want, I won't need six bullets for you!"

—Curtis Blackburn

"Or four for you."

—Dan Smith

Curtis Blackburn is a character in killer7, and the main antagonist in Target03: Encounter.

Story

Dan and Curtis face off against each other in the Stuffed Animal Room

Back in the day, he worked along with Dan Smith as a member of the Seattle Self-Defense Department. Curtis is the man responsible for teaching Dan how to be a killer. For the past 15 years, Curtis was working sanctioned government jobs thanks to the U.S. Opposition Party. Years ago, Pedro Montana set up Dan Smith to look like Dan had betrayed Curtis Blackburn. Pedro then sent Curtis to kill Dan. Curtis and Pedro become involved in an organ trafficking operation where Curtis would round up only young girls while Pedro would take the boys. Pedro ends up betraying Curtis by taking more money and attempts to live a normal life with his family.

During Encounter, Curtis is in a limo reloading his gun. He then fires his gun at a prostitute who is in the limo with him. He stops right in front of the Immigration Building. As reaches to the top high. He enters a lobby, killing two people from the desk to the two people standing by the window. He then points his gun at a woman sitting down with a terrified look on her face. But later on she turns out to be Ayame Blackburn, another target of Encounter.

Curtis leaves Ayame to continue on with the organ trafficking operation while he deals with a personal matter. Curtis eventually finds Pedro and ruthlessly kills his family, hands Pedro his daughter's decapitated head and then shoots Pedro several times in the back of the head.

In Encounter Part 2, Dan Smith ends up finding Curtis' secret underground lab where he harvests organs, and appears to stuff the bodies of his victims as a 'hobby'. Here, Dan has an old fashioned gun draw with Curtis. Dan wins and Curtis is apparently stuffed. With Curtis, Ayame and Pedro now all dead, the illegal operation of organ trafficking drastically slows down the disappearance of children and the production of man-made Heaven Smiles.

Curtis shows up as a Remnant Psyche in Target04: Alter Ego, where he implies through his dialogue that he had been longing for death all along. He provides a few brief words of caution to the Smiths concerning their upcoming confrontation with The Handsome Men before ominously telling them that he'll see them in hell.

Appearance and Personality

Curtis is dressed at all times in a white-and-black body suit, split to the waist, with cuffs and leggings that end in a kind of zebra-stripe pattern. His hair is white, indicative of his advanced age, and he has a small, similarly white moustache.

Curtis is an extraordinarily dangerous individual to be around, and is utterly ruthless towards both colleagues and complete strangers alike, especially those who betray his trust. He has no qualms about killing innocent bystanders, as shown by the deaths of the Immigration Bureau receptionists, and is quite happy to murder people purely in order to act as a diversion (i.e. the prostitute in the limousine). Whilst he is heavily implied to be sexually attracted to young girls, as evidenced by Travis' statement that he lives alone with only girl orphans for company (such as Ayame), his repeated acts of violence towards women - such as when he rapes Pedro's wife Pamela, his decapitation of Pedro's daughter Mary, his callous treatment of the prostitute and, of course, the grisly taxidermy he performs on the orphaned girls once their organs have been sold - suggest that he is also highly misogynistic, and that inside he is a much more self-conflicted person than is initially obvious. In addition, Curtis is said to be a "neurotic" individual, as described by Iwazaru in Part 2 of Encounter. This neutoic behavior is proven in how his residence is equipped with several security systems. inside and out. This would also explain how many Heaven Smiles can be found roaming around his house, as they could be a part of his "security" system.

His dialogue during his brief reappearance in Alter Ego, as well as several of Travis' statements, imply that Curtis was nervous of having his crimes discovered, and had secretly wanted death for years, possibly out of guilt for his actions. His feeble assertion that all he wanted to do was to 'shed light on his life' and his mocking last words, 'life... wonderful indeed' give the impression of a man unable to find any meaning in life, desperately trying to fill the void with acts of destructive violence. Travis and Dan sum up his character best: he is simply a 'pitiful pervert' and a mere 'sick old man'. Even Harman describes Curtis as nothing more than a 'punk with a gun'.

Powers and Abilities

Curtis is an extremely skilled gunman, and wields a pair of pistols at all times. He is also highly unique in that he appears to be the only character besides the killer7 who can kill Heaven Smiles - although this is possibly due to his knowledge of them thanks to his involvement in their production. In his introduction Curtis appears to have the ability to 'fly' down corridors, and when meeting Dan seemingly levitates from lying down into a standing position.

Quotes

• "Do I look like a guy who wants to play Doubles?"
• "What was that? Do I sense regret? Just because you apologise, you think you'll be forgiven, just like that?"
• "Paul... he's such a sissy. He didn't even try to save his mother. What are you teaching your kids?"
• "Ask yourself, Pedro. How many children have you killed?"
• "Danny Boy. Look at you! You've changed considerably. Into a badass, if I may."
• "Oh my former pupil. So tenacious of life. Guess I'll have to kill you again."
• "I got rid of those Smiles. There's noone to disturb our game. It's just you... and me."
• "Doesn't hurt to have a hobby after retirement... what do you think?"
• "All I ever wanted was to shed light on my life..."
• "See you in hell."

hand in killer7

hand in killer7 provides a few more details on Curtis' life and background: his profile describes him as being 59 years old by the events of Encounter (although it also mentions that he was in his 'mid-teens' in 1959, which would contradict this information), and he is apparently descended from English ancestors (although ironically Alastair Duncan, his English voice actor, is Scottish). During his late teens Curtis became notorious in Seattle's criminal underworld for his Government-contracted jobs, and in 1973, following Harman Smith's defeat against Kun Lan in a chess game, was helped by Dan Smith to establish and reinforce his control in the region as part of Harman's forfeit. Kun Lan's prize for winning was to win control of the western US seaboard, and it is implied by this that Curtis acted as his representative in the area. At the same time, the young Christopher Mills became an informant for Curtis.

However, in 1975 Curtis killed Dan on a basketball court (mirroring the death of Pedro on a squash court); Garcian's retrieval of Dan's corpse subsequently gave him (or awakened) the ability to resurrect the dead. In 1987 Curtis and Pedro began carrying out organ trafficking by manipulating the workings of the Seattle Immigration Bureau.

PROTOTYPE OF "killer7"

Curtis is featured as one of the main characters in the brief 'PROTOTYPE OF "killer7"' comic included with hand in killer7. The comic is intended to show the original concept behind killer7, and has little bearing to the final version of events. Curtis is seen sitting in a church-like building with stained glass behind him, and is confronted by Dan. The two draw their guns on each other but Curtis seemingly kills Dan; however, Harman is then woken up by Samantha Sitbon and Garcian, and proceeds to shoot Curtis' legs off with his God-killer rifle, mortally wounding him. Dan is then seen standing nearby. Interestingly, Curtis' bodysuit is entirely black in the prototype. His dialogue implies that he has a connection with Kun Lan, and it is also suggested that he is somehow linked with the enigmatic Sundance Shot, who is also featured in the comic but who does not appear in the final version.