Battle 1

For related works titled Rusty Angel, see Rusty Angel (disambiguation).

Battle 1
Volume:	1
Chapter	1
Total pages	29
Released	1991
Story Arc	Intro Arc
Chapter Navigation
previous N/A	next Battle 2

Rusty Angel (錆びた天使, Sabita Tenshi^?), subtitled Reclamation by Viz Media, is the first chapter and the first issue of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita.

Cover

A damaged version of Alita with angel wings.

Summary

Daisuke Ido searches through the Tiphares dump heap at the center of the Scrapyard for any useful or salvageable parts. He unexpectedly finds the head and torso of a female cyborg, which he takes back to his clinic. Here he and Gonzu discover that the cyborg's brain is still intact and that it is estimated to be 200-300 years old. Ido revives the cyborg, who has forgotten her name. He decides to name her Alita after his cat who died a month before, despite Gonzu's objections that it was male.

Tiphares is pointed out by Ido to Alita when he later takes her strapped to his back to the dump heap in search of spare parts, with no luck. At night in the Scrapyard, a lone cyborg prostitute with elaborately decorated arms is killed. Ido later fits the arms to Alita, who still needs legs. That night he dresses in a black hat and trench coat and leaves with a wheeled case. Alita is soon up and running with a new pair of legs. When she comes across Gonzu's ramen shack, he warns her to be careful at night as there is a murderer about targeting women. Back at Ido's clinic, Alita notices that Ido's arm has been injured, but he brushes it off. When he leaves again that night, Alita, curious about his comings and goings at night, decides to follow him.

Alita finds Ido lying in wait for a woman. He prepares his rocket hammer and is about to attack her when Alita intervenes, grabbing the rocket hammer. Ido shakes her off but finds his target gone. The woman then attacks and Ido fends her off. She turns out to be a mutant who had gone berserk and the actual killer. When the mutant woman knocks the rocket hammer out of Ido's hands, Alita tackles her. When she jumps out of her grasp, Alita instinctively leaps above her and executes a somersault, driving her head into the wall and killing her. Ido recognizes this as a Panzer Kunst move.

The duo take the woman to Factory 33 where Ido receives a bounty from Deckman 12. He reveals to Alita the next morning that he is a hunter-warrior while he tunes her body.

Characters in Order of Appearance

• Alita (Debut)
• Deckman 12 (Debut)
• Daisuke Ido (Debut)
• Gonzu (Debut)
• Mutant woman (Debut)

Debut appearances

Locations

• Factory 33
• Daisuke Ido's Scrapyard clinic
• Scrapyard
• Tiphares

Martial arts

• Panzer Kunst

Occupations

• Cyberphysician

Weapons

• Rocket hammer

Trivia

• Rusty Angel is also the title of the first manga volume, the first OVA episode, and a song on the Gunnm: Image Album by Wada Kaoru.