Adelheid Bernstein

Alias
Adel (アーデル) (nickname)
Style
Composite Combat Technique That Masters All Combat Arts
Profile
Birthday
February 15
Birthplace
Implied to originate from Germany
Gender
Male
Height
183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight
74 kg (163 lb)
Blood Type
O

Nationality
German (implied)
Race
Human

OTHERS
Kyo Kusanagi: The legitimate heir of the Kusanagi clan, one of the three clans that sealed the legendary Orochi 1800 years prior; the leader of Team Japan; and the current keeper of the Kusanagi Sword, one of the Three Sacred Treasures. Adelheid recognizes him as the man who defeated his father,[d] but as mentioned above, he never liked him to begin with, so he has no desire for revenge. Adel appears to value Kyo's power and reputation, as seen in one of his win quotes in KOF XI, where he comes to understand how Rugal was defeated.

Ash Crimson: In The King of Fighters 2003, Adelheid recognizes Ash's power and skills based on his unique dialogue. However, in XIII, when Ash appears aboard SKY-NOAH, Adelheid approaches him with aggression spurred on by his sister's bizarre behavior and his knowledge of Those From The Distant Land's actions in the previous tournaments. Ash does not reciprocate Adel's aggression and instead gives him advice on figuring out Those From The Distant Land's plans, which Adel heeds.

Due to his personality, Adelheid's relationships with people are usually straightforward, and he tends to keep his emotions to himself.

FAMILY
Rose Bernstein: Adelheid's younger sister. Although she has a sibling complex and always follows him around, her personality is similar to her father's. As mentioned before, she also seems to look down on her brother and disrespects him (perhaps without realizing it). When he snapped back at her for the first time in KOF XI, she lost her temper.

ALLIES
Heidern: Rugal's victim and mortal enemy. Before the 2003 tournament, the two met by chance and had a friendly conversation without knowing each other's identities. Although they were friends with a large age gap, their positions forced them to become enemies, and in the events leading up to KOF XI, Heidern declared them as such. However, in KOF XIII, when Adelheid realized the purpose of Rose's brainwashing through Ash's hints, he contacted Heidern and asked for his cooperation.

Athleticism

Adelheid is particularly noted for possessing an innate talent for fighting, so much so that even Magaki, a member of Those From The Distant Land known for his sarcastic, nasty, and especially spiteful behavior towards humans, highly values his abilities and praises him quite frankly. While still relatively young and lacking experience, his talent as a fighter is no less than his father's, showing impressive progress for his age. Adelheid fights using a self-taught composite combat technique that masters all combat arts, and his talent is further shown by Adelheid's ability to mimic Rugal's techniques nearly perfectly and even chain them together with greater speed and efficiency.

As a mid-boss in KOF XI, Adelheid demonstrates incredible durability in being able to take Super Special and Leader Super Special Moves head on with minimal damage. He has also performed impressive feats of strength, such as forcefully turning someone multiple times bigger than himself around and punching them to the ground, or easily drag them across an arena. His strength extends to his legs, as he can kick opponents into the air with minimal effort, slide across the ground, kick with such force that he can create projectiles made of wind, and leap through the air easily and gracefully. Adel also demonstrates incredible flexibility, able to swing his leg upward to his face.

Adelheid is the only son of Rugal Bernstein, one of the deadliest men of the modern era. According to Adelheid, Rugal, who wanted a daughter, had a name prepared in advance, but despite siring a son instead, he still gave him the name he had picked out. Because of this, Adelheid was often mistaken for a sister and thus developed a complex about the name. Nonetheless, he stuck with it despite causing social misunderstandings.[4] Growing up, Adelheid displayed exceptional raw, innate talent, fitting his father's mold quite admirably. He went on to master many fighting disciplines at a very young age, even learning the same hybrid style presumably on his own. Adapting Rugal's diverse fighting style to his own strengths, Adelheid became a new face as far as the public was concerned, but one that seemed poised to make an impression.

When Rugal was killed during the 1995 King of Fighters tournament against Team Japan, Adelheid and Rose inherited his tremendous fortune, the former ceasing all criminal activities. Unfortunately, Adelheid never enjoyed a normal, happy childhood due to his father's career and absence, and was forced to care for Rose nearly alone. At some point, also learned of the all-powerful Orochi and the Eight Excellent Masses.

Adelheid is an aristocratic young man who, despite sharing several traits with his father Rugal, is a polite, sensible, calm, self-disciplined young man and an honorable fighter who exhibits good sportsmanship. This is demonstrated when he is defeated at the end The King of Fighters 2003. When referring to himself, he generally uses the pronoun watashi (私), but sometimes switches to ore (俺). His winning lines and the ending of XI show a side of him that is polite and always respectful to his opponents. There is also a side of him that is hard on himself, thinking that even if he is a winner now, he might lose someday. His politeness is also complimented by his humble nature, which upsets Rose, who does not like how her brother tries to see things from a commoner's point of view. A studious and cool-headed man, Adelheid doesn't always match his father's perspective, and while deviation from the ideal is not a positive experience in the Bernstein household, Adelheid also shares his father's stubborn will. While he does not like his father, he loves and dotes on his younger sister but is troubled by her arrogance and hot temper, which are very similar to their father's, and sometimes has doubts about her sincerity. Even so, upon realizing something is wrong with her in KOF XIII, he cooperated with one of his father's victims, Heidern, to get to the bottom of Those From The Distant Land's plot, and at the then-strange behavior of his sister. He does not exhibit his father's evil ways, even going as far as rebuking his ambitions, and has assisted those Rugal has wronged on many occasions, namely Heidern. He also has developed a complex about his feminine name, being noticeably embarrassed by it when introducing himself to Heidern for the first time.

Appearance; Adelheid is established as a tall, handsome young man, standing at 183 cm (6 ft 0 in), with an extremely muscular, well-proportioned physique and a gentleman’s poise. He has silver hair, deep scarlet-colored eyes, and pale, albino-like skin, with his general appearance being reminiscent of that of a nobleman. Additionally, he wears ruby-colored earrings shaped like small rounded rectangles, and while his facial features are generally neutral, he is often depicted with a somewhat androgynous face, complemented by slightly long, dark pink-colored fingernails and purple lips, the latter detail being particularly prominent in his in-game sprite, though they are colored dark red. He is almost always seen wearing a combat uniform with a dark grayish-green color scheme. This uniform consists of a sleeveless turtleneck, wide-legged pants tucked into his combat boots and secured by two thin green belts and a gold belt, and long fingerless gloves adorned with gold studs on the back and knuckles. Additionally, his gloves feature two gold stripes and an emblem with a golden symbol made to resemble an "R" on a dark background framed by a gold border. He also sports black suspenders secured by gold clips attached to his belt, which wrap around his back and are hoisted parallel to each other, just like the front. Two gold chains are clipped onto his belt loops, which hang down at his sides.