Elle Ragu

Elle Ragu is the 59th Sevalle of Kuruda, a warrior kingdom with a history stretching back over 2,000 years. Though she is not the only female Sevalle in history – a title roughly equivalent to a "high warrior", as an ordinary warrior is known as a Valle – she does hold the distinction of being the youngest female ever to be awarded the title of Sevalle, at age 14, 3 years prior to the start of the series. Her fighting nickname, "Shadow Skill", is also the name of her martial arts style, which Elle is a master of.

Kuruda-style Kōsappō (交殺法, lit. "combining kill methods", translated by ADV as "Annihilation techniques") has two general divisions: Hyōgi (炯技, "open skills" or "bright skills"), which emphasize punches and throws, and Eigi (影技, "shadow skills"), which focus on kicks and the user's footwork.

In the Shadow Skill OAV, it was revealed that the Kuruda style arose centuries ago from the combat skills developed by slaves, who were often forced to fight for their lives in gladiatorial arenas. Open skills were developed by the male gladiators, focusing on their upper body strength, while Shadow skills were created by the women. Targets of scorn and rape, women's hands were often bound or otherwise denied them the use of, and so they were forced to learn to utilize their legs and smaller, lither bodies to their fullest extents in order to survive. For this reason, Shadow skills gained a more fearsome yet respected reputation than its counterpart.

The color of Elle's hair is considered to be somewhat in question. In the OAV, her hair was shown as being two colors, blonde on top, but with the hair of her braid and the back of her head a different color (bright red in the movie, a darker shade of blonde in the OAV). In the anime, her hair was a uniform orange color, and can be interpreted as being either a redhead or a strawberry-blonde.

Elle continues to train in the Shadow Skill style, along with her adopted younger brother, Gau Ban. Gau's parents and village had been killed by bandits; when Elle met him when he was 10, he had been spending the last year training himself and fighting against those same bandits to avenge his parents. Elle decides to take the boy in, although both of them later admitted to somewhat selfish reasons for originally doing so. Gau had wanted to use Elle in order to become strong, and Elle had wanted to see how strong a person who was raised by her can become.