Matthew McMahon

"We are soldiers. Whether people call it wartime or peacetime, we keep fighting for our country."

- Matthew McMahon in Chapter 49

Matthew McMahon (マシュー・マクマホン) is an individual affiliated with Garden and is also the Director of Policy at Berlint City Hall. He assists Yor Forger during her mission aboard the Princess Lorelei.

Appearance
Matthew is a tall, thin elderly man with a long face. He has narrow eyes and white hair that is parted down the middle.

He dons a black suit with reflective eyeglasses.

Personality
Matthew is a blunt individual. He maintains an air of professionalism, even when presented with the risk of death.

Similar to Yor, he remains relatively unfazed when fighting enemies. He has demonstrated mild exasperation with the latter for killing so messily, commenting on the effort it would take to clean up the scene.

History
Not much is known about Matthew, aside from his status as a member of the Garden. Given his title, he likely ranks above Yor.

Great Cruise Adventure Arc
Matthew calls for Yor to inform her that she has phone call from a special contact. After the call, Matthew escorts her to the Shopkeeper's garden where Yor is informed about her new task to protect the remaining survivors of the Gretcher Family. Throughout the Shopkeeper's briefing with Yor, Matthew stands silently behind Yor, only nodding in agreement when the Shopkeeper reassures Yor that Matthew has arranged an excuse for her to be away from her job and family.

At the port, Matthew, along with two other men, meet up with Yor. After the cruise ship sets sail, the group introduce themselves to Yor's clients, Olka Gretcher and Furseal Grey. Furseal expresses his uncertainty to Matthew about leaving Yor as the sole bodyguard, but Matthew reassures him that they will be safe as long as they remain in the cabin and they leave to do a sweep of the ship. Unbeknownst to him, Yor and Olka secretly sneak outside in disguise and their true identities are overheard by an informant working together with the hitmen.

At night, the group enjoy a fancy dinner at the ship's restaurant but Yor, Olka, and Furseal are too nervous to enjoy their meals. Matthew kicks Yor's chair, reminding her to relax. Afterward, he sends Yor together with Olka back to the cabin, while the others drink at the bar. On the way back from the bar, Matthew notices a suspicious man tailing them and excuses himself from the group by pretending he misplaced something. He silently approaches the man and quickly immobilizes him by breaking his limbs, interrogating him for information about the other hitmen. He soon discovers that all the hitmen have intel on the client and kills the hitman, dumping his body in the sea, before rushing back to their cabins with Furseal. Furseal admits to making a phone call to his parents shortly before the cruise, likely tipping off the assassins to their location. As they rush to the room, Matthew remarks that the enemy had no intention of waiting until the next day.

When Matthew and Furseal arrive at the room, it is already under attack by an assassin, disguised as a waiter. Using throwing darts he picked up from the bar, Matthew skillfully strikes the assassin's hands. The assassin focuses his attention on Matthew, but Yor hurls her weapon through the door and pins his head to the wall, killing him. Matthew then orders them to get the body into their room while making as little of a mess as possible.

After retrieving the corpse, Matthew informs the group that the itinerary got leaked and there are multiple enemies aboard the ship. He directs Yor to take the group to a vacant room in the second-class suite while he covers up the mess. Matthew forewarns her that the ship might return to port if there is a public incident and recommends she avoid fighting to prevent that. After giving the group domino masks to disguise themselves with, he tells them to get going as he makes a call to guest services to report the damaged door.

Afterward, Matthew goes to the new room where Yor and Olka's group are staying, knocking on their door. As soon as Yor opens the door to him, Matthew chastises her for forgetting their secret knock in the last room. He orders her to watch the door while the others rest up for tomorrow, while he will patrol the floor to reduce the enemy's numbers as much as possible. Furseal, whose real name is revealed to be Zeb, is baffled by how composed the assassins are and says that despite the war officially ending over a decade ago, war is still around. After a moment of silence, Matthew replies that as long as people are the way they are, the fighting will never stop and that he and Yor are soldiers fighting for their country. Before exiting, he glares at Yor, warning her not to drop her guard and to focus on the job, or everyone will die.

The next morning, Matthew informs Heymann and Vides that they will no longer be entertaining the Greys, saying they had a blowup the other night and are not in the mood to do anything. He assures the men that it is not their fault and tells them to take the day off to enjoy themselves. Matthew then gets to work by himself, standing by at a radio until the evening, when he receives a transmission and calls Olka's room. Yor answers the phone and informs the others that they got the all-ready signal from the ship at the rendezvous. While it will be in four hours, Yor tells the group to prepare and change into their disguises.

Yor and the group try to reach a storage room to wait for the rendezvous, but get forced to cross through the upper deck, where they get ambushed by assassins. Matthew catches up to them and kills the sniper watching from above. He then takes the sniper rifle and proceeds to shoot down three other assassins, along with a lock to a hatch cover for Olka and the group to hide. After Yor safely secures the hatch, she and Matthew take out as many assassins as they can. After seeing the bloody mess everywhere, Matthew comes down from the sniper's nest and tells Yor to keep things as bloodless as possible. Yor apologizes and says she did not have much choice, and Matthew agrees. While he acknowledges the talents of these assassins, he says they are hardly in the Garden's league and orders Yor not to leave any of them alive.

While the fireworks show plays in the background, Yor and Matthew face off against all sorts of assassins with varying gimmicks. Yor swiftly and mercilessly tears through each of them while Matthew follows close behind, cleaning up after her and disposing of the bodies. After Yor brutally beats down an assassin, she complains about jamming a finger, leaving the remaining assassins dumbfounded while Matthew cleans up the mess.

As Yor and Matthew clean up after killing almost all of the assassins, the Assassins' Leader speaks up and is astonished that Yor killed them all, calling her a heartless woman. Yor is nonchalant and proposes that the remaining assassins walk away, but the leader says it is out of the question, stating that they have been paid in advance. He adds that there is no way to walk away on the boat and that Matthew has no intention of letting them leave alive.

Matthew sees the leader as someone who sees war as another way to make quick money, saying that Ostania would be better off without people like that. In response, the leader calls Matthew an old soldier with old ideas and prolongs their conversation long enough to allow a Swordsman to attack Yor and Matthew from behind. Matthew ducks the slash a little slower than Yor, and before he can shoot back, he is struck in the chest by the sword sheath. Matthew gets knocked back to a wall, leaving him unconscious, while Yor fights the Swordsman herself.

Matthew eventually regains consciousness and, while injured, is just in time to shoot the Assassins' Leader and interrupt him before he can shoot at Yor. After Yor defeats the Swordsman, she goes to check Matthew's injuries, and the two later retrieve Olka and the others from the hatch. The group reaches the storage room, where Matthew prepares the inflatable boat for the rendezvous and gives Zeb further instructions. After Olka bids Yor a grateful farewell and leaves, Matthew and Yor watch for the signal from the retrieval ship. Matthew sees Yor getting sentimental and snaps her out of her daze, reminding her that they are simply foot soldiers. After a momentary pause, he relays to Yor that Loid and Anya Forger requested to meet her the next day. Yor is unsure, but Matthew assures her that he will be on the lookout for any other killers. He tells her to do as her family asks and to consider it a reward for completing her mission. Matthew then tosses Yor a handkerchief, telling her to put ice on her face so they will not notice the swelling. He also tells her to make sure they do not see her chest wound, to which an embarrassed Yor says they will not.

Abilities and Skills
Despite his appearance as a frail old man, Matthew is still an active member of the Garden, implying he is, even in his advanced age, a competent killer.

Enhanced Strength/Endurance: Matthew demonstrated his strength by effortlessly picking up and throwing the corpses of fully-grown adults off the cruise ship.

Enhanced Speed/Reflexes: Matthew displays great reflexes. In addition to blocking an attack using a broom, he was able to dodge a close-up sword strike just as fast as Yor. Additionally, he was able to dodge a stab from behind while cleaning up blood.

He was fast enough to be able to disappear from his vantage point and reappear behind Yor, with the latter noticing only after he spoke, though this may have been for comedic effect and not a true reflection of his speed.

Weapons: So far, Matthew has only been seen using firearms, including a Dragunov semi-automatic sniper rifle which he wields with great proficiency. He was able to kill three opponents in quick succession without a reaction from any of them. In close-quarters combat, he relies on a silenced pistol. On one occasion, he has used a broom to defend himself.

Cleaning: Matthew brought along a broom and bucket to clean up blood from Yor's fight.

Yor Forger
Matthew and Yor have a professional relationship since they both work for the Shopkeeper and they usually get to see each other when he calls them. Despite that, they both care about each other in times of danger, as on several occasions they both protected the other and cared for each other while fighting the assassins on the Princess Lorelei.

Chapter Appearances

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Trivia

 * Tatsuya Endo never imagined that Matthew would go on to play such a major role and gave him a generic old man design. After this proved otherwise, Endo regretted not having spent more time getting his design right.