Character Profile: Chapel the Evergreen

First off, Chapel the Evergreen may not actually be this man's name, as Wolfwood is almost called "Chapel" a few times (with the people always getting cut off before they can finish saying it), implying that Wolfwood's name is actually Chapel. But it could also be the case that Wolfwood just took Chapel's name to get into the Gung-Ho Guns. In the manga, this character doesn't even exist (though there is a nameless character that does look like him), and Wolfwood is a Gung-Ho Gun of the name of Wolfwood the Chapel.

Chapel is a rather soft spoken man who claims to be a priest in a church. Unfortunately for those he runs into, that church happens to be the church of the Gung-Ho Guns.

Chapel does not appear until rather late in the series, though there is mention of him earlier when all of the Gung-ho guns make their appearance, all but Chapel. He also makes quick appearance in a flashback right before we see him in person. His story is very intertwined with that of Wolfwood. When Wolfwood was a child, he had enough of his abusive guardian and shot him, only to afterwards get taken under the wing of Chapel and raised from that point on as a priest, but more importantly, as an assassin.

Chapel is rather tall, though not overly so. He always wears a high crown derby hat, a black dress coat, and black pants with billowed out knees. He also wears a strange set of goggles with no straps over his eyes, like tanning goggles, only painted white with red tinted lenses. He also always has a ripe green apple that he uses to express his ideology. He has a large cross just like Wolfwood's, only while Wolfwood's is a multi-use cross gun, Chapel's only has one use, the ability to split down the middle and convert into two 50 cal. machine guns. As much as we consider Wolfwood skilled, his talents are less then on par with Chapel.

Chapel has a ideology that he holds dear. "As mortals, not only are we fragile, but we also have a time limit. The worst thing any of us can do is hesitate. Every time you do so, you lose precious time. One must be able to act and make choices without a moment's hesitation."

He finally meets with Wolfwood again later in the series to inform him that Knives wants him to kill Vash in order to insure the protection of the children in his orphanage. But when Wolfwood refuses, he has a showdown with his old teacher.

Side Notes: It is never known exactly where Chapel gets those apples, which must be hard to find in such a inhospitable planet. When Chapel is done with his mission, having failed, he returns to the Gung-ho Gun's home base to confront Legato, attempting to kill him but unable to get a shot off before he is rendered useless by Legato's powers. He ends up face to face with Knives, and has to answer to his strange philosophy on humans, ending with his death and Knives simply commenting "Garbage, only useful for consuming resources."

Chapel is the master of the church. He trained Wolfwood and employed him as an assassin. Wolfwood's training is finished once he manages to take the green apple from Chapel, but he never managed to do this.

Chapel fights with what first appears to be the same type of cross as Wolfwood, but instead, his splits in two to become twin machine guns.

He was to attack together with Caine the Longshot and Wolfwood, but just before the fight, he informs Nicholas that he, too, is a Gung-ho gun. Vash takes care of Caine while Wolfwood fights with Chapel instead of obeying him.

After an uneven fight, Wolfwood manages to win, and takes the apple, his symbol of office, from him. His life is spared only to find that Legato takes control over his arm and shoots Wolfwood in the back.

When seeking revenge on Legato for this, Chapel is killed by Knives.