Knuckle Bine

"You can never defeat me. Not in this lifetime."

- Knuckle, to Gon and Killua

Knuckle Bine (ナックル=バイン, Nakkuru Bain) is a Beast Hunter and Morel's apprentice.

Appearance
Knuckle is a man of average height and sports a black pompadour. He wears a white overcoat, that has multiple golden rings on it, and baggy white pants with black dress shoes. Underneath his coat he is shown to have a muscular and toned physique.

Personality
Despite appearing and acting like an aggressive gangster, Knuckle is actually very compassionate and easily moved to tears. Knuckle gets along well with animals and is compelled to protect the helpless, taking care of abandoned pets even in the midst of a genocide. Sympathetic to a fault, though he possesses strength, Knuckle does not have the qualities necessary to be an effective warrior. His soft heart also makes him gullible and an easy target for deception. Simultaneously, he often ends up saving the lives of those whom he wishes to help by sacrificing his own mission.

Chimera Ant arc
Knuckle is first introduced as one of the assassins sent by Netero to take down Gon and Killua in order to gain entrance into NGL. After meeting the boys, he indulges in training them every night for a month by allowing Gon to spar with him after doing his Ren training. At the end of the month, he and Shoot McMahon defeat the kids and enter NGL to assist in exterminating the Chimera Ants. He makes a promise to Gon, that he'll rescue Kite from the enemy. With the help of Morel he is able to do so.

Knuckle participates in the extermination of Chimera Ants throughout the Republic of East Gorteau as well. He and Shoot McMahon are sent to take out Menthuthuyoupi, one of the three feared royal guards.

Knuckle and Morel were later sent to deal with Cheetu, though they were unsuccessful in killing the ant, Knuckle was able to attach his A.P.R which will allow him to be tracked so he may be exterminated at a later date. Shoot accompanies him on his next assault on Cheetu only for the Chimera Ant Flutter (who was surveying the area) to inform Cheetu of the ambush for a last second change of course.



During the first stage of the assault on the palace of East Gorteau he and Meleoron (using God's Accomplice) hit Youpi with A.P.R so Gon and the others could pass. He then watches Shoot fighting Youpi. However, enraged at watching his friend being beaten to a near death state, he decides to battle Youpi himself. After fighting him for a short time, Knuckle goes to check on Shoot. Finding nothing but a puddle of blood, he believes it was Youpi's doing. Enraged further, he goes back to finish his battle.

After using a hit and run tactic against Youpi, with the help of Killua, Meleoron, Morel and his Deep Purple ability, they become close to bankrupting Youpi, until an exhausted Morel is caught and used as barter. He releases his A.P.R in exchange for Morels' life. Youpi stays true to his word. He then leaves to look for the King.

Knuckle then regroups with Killua, Ikalgo, Palm Siberia and Meleoron to discuss their next move. When they realize Meruem survived his battle with the chairman, Knuckle and Meleoron hide in the mass of hypnotized humans waiting to put their plan into action. After feeling the intensity of Meruem's En, Knuckle wants to leave and inform the Hunters Association of the current situation, only to be dealt with easily and knocked unconscious when encountered by the Ant King. Sometime after the events of East Gorteau, Knuckle is seen waiting with Knov for an update on Gon's condition.

13th Hunter Chairman Election arc
Being near to Gon, Knuckle along the others assists from the outside at Gon recover thanks to Alluka's powers feeling a strange and powerful aura. He then accompanies Gon when he goes to meet Leorio in the room where all the hunters were voting for the new chairman of the Hunters Association. He is seen visiting a healing Shoot in the hospital along with Ikalgo, Palm, and Meleoron looking at a pictures sent by Gon.

Abilities & Powers
Knuckle has demonstrated considerable physical combat skills, being able to fight enemies much stronger than him. He could have defeated Gon with only two blows if not for his kindness, which has often been said to be his greatest weakness. Due to his ability he has adapted a hit and away tactic together with Shoot against other Nen users, which consists in capturing or dealing the final blow after the target's Nen is sealed. Knuckle is very versatile, being able to successfully cooperate with various Hunters with completely different abilities and personalities. Despite being a good strategist, Knuckle is also hot-headed and very emotional, which can make him unable to stick to the plan. He claims to need four or five punches to get warmed up. He has high battle experience, which can lead him to predict the next move of his opponent just by looking at the flow of their aura. Moreover, he is very well-liked by animals, which, according to Ging and his son, is proof of being a good Hunter.

Enhanced strength: Gon stated that, although he had successfully blocked a punch from Knuckle with both his arms and Nen, he still felt its brunt in his whole body and understood that releasing Ken would result in him losing consciousness no matter where he was struck.



Enhanced speed and reactions: Knuckle has proven himself to be fairly quick, easily avoiding most of Gon's and Menthuthuyoupi's attacks and leaving several afterimages in his confrontation with the former. He also managed to move behind Gon's back in a split second. Furthermore, he grew accustomed to Cheetu's astounding speed and was able to dodge or intercept some of his blows.

Immense stamina: Knuckle is noted for his ability to run at full speed for an extremely long time, evading four police cars for a day and night when he had only just graduated from primary school. It is highly likely his endurance has increased after growing and learning Nen.

Proficient in hand-to-hand combat: With his exact degree of skill in martial artistry being unknown, Knuckle is adept at close quarter combat, as shown in his fights against Gon. He fights using mainly his fists, but can deliver powerful kicks as well. Because of his mastery, Gon had to keep Ken active because he was unable to tell where Knuckle would hit and parry all his blows. Killua acknowledged his utter superiority to Gon in bare-handed fighting.

Nen
Being a pro Hunter and the disciple of a Single Star Hunter, Knuckle is bound to have remarkable skills in Nen. His natural category is Emission.

Other Skills
Arithmetical Genius: Knuckle is also an arithmetical genius, being able to do very complicated calculations very fast and without errors.

Trivia
拿酷戮
 * Knuckle's name is a derivative of a commonly thrown baseball pitch known as the knuckleball; Shoot, Palm and Gyro are all similarly named.
 * The acronym for Knuckle's ability Individual Ren Suppressor (I.R.S.) is a parody of the Internal Revenue Service agency.
 * Knuckle bears a strong resemblance to Yu Yu Hakusho characters Kazuma Kuwabara and Yu Kaito.
 * Knuckle also bears a strong resemblance to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character Josuke Higashikata. His rapid punch that he dealt to Menthuthuyoupi is also similar to an attack made by Josuke's stand Crazy Diamond.
 * Knuckle's A.P.R. and I.R.S. are both voiced by voice actress Tomoko Kaneda.