Rachel

Rachel is a fiend hunter from the Holy Vigoor Empire who debuted in the 2004 title, Ninja Gaiden, though made her Dead or Alive debut in the 2013 title, Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate.

Cursed by her demonic fiend heritage, Rachel's goal in life is to hunt down and destroy all demons in existence. She met Ryu Hayabusa while on a crusade to slay her own twin sister, whose fiend blood had corrupted her human side. With Hayabusa's aid, she was able to accomplish her heart breaking goal and the two have been close friends ever since.

Early life
Since birth, Rachel and her twin sister Alma have been afflicted with a blood curse that turns humans into fiends. By the events of Ninja Gaiden, the curse has consumed Alma. Believing there is no cure for their condition, Rachel sought out Alma through much of Ninja Gaiden in order to kill her to redeem her soul.

Appearance

 * See also: Rachel's costumes

Rachel is a tall statuesque woman with pale skin, platinum blonde hair, crystal blue eyes and a curvaceous and buxom figure. She has a number of different styles in Ninja Gaiden, but she primarily wears her hair pulled in a loose updo style ponytail, with some hair wrapped around the remaining hair that falls loosely, her hair is center parted and she has sidelocks that frame her face.

In Last Round, she is able to wear her waist length hair loose, and in her football outfit given to her in Ultimate as DLC, she can wear a short layered haircut but only in her secondary hair option that has her wear a football helmet. She is usually seen wearing a skin-tight black leather combat suit cut in ways that reveal her skin.

She wears alot of revealing outfits in-game, including a revealing nurse dress, short-shorts and a crop top that exposes her tattoos, and a more modest blue business jacket and skirt.

Personality
Rachel is a battle hardened warrior who is determined to hunt down and kill all demons. Though she feels the need to put on a tough face when dealing with people, she is a kind and caring soul whose only wish is to help people. Her cursed lineage has caused her to become a Fiend Hunter, but she truly fights to protect others.

In combat, Rachel is very aggressive and confident in her abilities, telling her opponent she'll make sure they'll regret fighting her. During combat she talks down to her opponent, calling them pathetic, weak, or even yelling for them to die during certain throws. Her confidence is also reflected in her posture and movements, as she will often place one hand on her hip, indicating a relaxed and unfazed attitude. She can be quite patronising towards her human foes, whom she (justifiably) views as weaker than her part-fiend self. In her taunts she shrugs as she asks if they're tired already or remarks that they're "just a human after all..." She will also express disdain for her opponent's strength during certain hi-counter holds.

After a fight she seems somewhat more respectful as she comments "Not too bad", although it's unclear whether she's referring to her opponent's abilities or her own performance. She may also say they're pretty good "for a human" although she clearly doesn't expect too much from humans, with the exception perhaps of the highly trained "super ninja" Ryu Hayabusa (Who, like Rachel, is not exactly entirely human).

Etymology
Rachel (רחל) is Hebrew in origin, and means "ewe", which is a term used to describe an adult female sheep.

Ryu Hayabusa
Hayabusa and Rachel's relationship was initially complicated due to Rachel's coldness towards Hayabusa, while Hayabusa didn't like Rachel when she was testing him during the Dark Dragon Blade Incident in Ninja Gaiden. Despite their differences and ideals, the two have come to mutual terms, forming a working relationship as well as a close friendship, and slay the evil Fiends together whenever they meet, with Rachel slowly beginning to trust Hayabusa over time because of him rescuing her from enemy capture multiple times while she was on a crusade to slay her own twin sister, who had become evil due to the fiend blood in her veins. Her respect and admiration for Hayabusa can be seen in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate when she says he's like having the strength of a hundred others.

Ayane
Rachel seems to share a working partnership with Ayane since they first met, though they dont share a win tag pose Rachel calls Ayane's name during the fight.

Momiji
Although they have highly contrasting personalities, Rachel and Momiji seem to have a mutual respect for each other, perhaps united by their common aim to protect the innocent. They form working partnerships very often and help each other out on their missions. They have a full tag alliance and seem perfectly in synch with one another, proclaiming "Evil, begone!" together in unison for their tag intro. After a match, Momiji declares that the match goes to them and Rachel voices her approval as they both gaze at each other with respect and admiration for one another.

Gameplay

 * See also: Rachel's command lists

Rachel's fighting style is an improved version of SPARTAN-458's: she utilizes brawler style attacks, but Rachel doesn't seem to use any formal martial art or style. She has a high damage output, and her throws do very good damage. She can also throw the opponent while they're in the air, causing them to bounce and allowing her to perform longer air combos. Her combos are damaging, but they are short, and relatively easy to hold and counter; her speed is also below average, making her easy to predict, as she lacks many moves, and her combo starters lack many follow up attacks that can confuse the opponents.Still, a lot of her moves are safe on block. She is also a heavy weight character, allowing less juggle options to be performed on her. She also has a special sidestep that can follow up with a launcher or a tracking low kick, and she also has a light ground attack that can force the opponent up while they are on the ground that gives Rachel a slight frame advantage.

Her holds can help her win in extremely tense matches, and since most of them involve hitting the opponent away, they do downright horrific damage when her opponent is near a wall. She is recommended for all skill levels, due to her simplistic combos, high damage output and wide range of safe moves. She overall is a fairly balanced character, with her speed and lack of move mix-ups being her only major disadvantages.

Stats
The following are Rachel's official stats as listed in the games.

Dead or Alive series

 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade (playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (playable, 2015)

Ninja Gaiden series
Rachel made her debut as an NPC in Ninja Gaiden (2004) before becoming a playable character in Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Musou Orochi 2: Special
Rachel, along with Seimei Abe, appear in the Japan only Musou Orochi 2 Special, the PSP port of Warriors Orochi 3. She later appeared in the world wide WiiU port of the game, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper, with series newcomer Momiji and Shennong. Her special stage is New York merged with Jiang Dong.

Dead Fantasy
Rachel appears in the fan-made CG series Dead Fantasy created by Monty Oum and her main opponent is Rinoa Heartilly from Final Fantasy VIII.

Rachel debuts in Dead Fantasy II as she decides to aid the Dead or Alive girls as they are being overpowered due to the effects of Tifa's Haste. When Rinoa and Kairi arrive to join Yuna, Rikku and Tifa, she along with Kasumi, Ayane and Hitomi faces off against the group. The fight ends when Rinoa creates a portal to transport herself and Rachel to another place that leads on to their fight in Dead Fantasy VII.

In one of the teasers for Dead Fantasy VII Rachel is shown chained up, similar to in Ninja Gaiden, when she was going to be sacrificed to her sister, Alma. With Monty Oum's untimely death, the future of the series is unknown.

Fighting quotes

 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate
 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

Music themes
The following are the music themes used for Rachel throughout the series.

Gallery

 * See: Rachel gallery

Trivia

 * Rachel's fighting stance is similar to Sarah Bryant's stance.
 * Since SPARTAN-458 couldn't be included in Dead or Alive 5, Rachel was given a similar fighting style.
 * Even though she was added to Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, it is unknown if she participated in the tournament or not. However, her official Last Round website bio implies that she did indeed participate as it mentioned that she loves DOA fights since it allows her to utilize her innate fighting abilities for means other than fiend-hunting.
 * Her light ground attack involves her grinding her heel into the back, crotch, stomach, or leg of the opponent; Strangely when it connects sometimes, it does damage despite her heel not physically touching the victim's body.
 * Rachel's 2013 Halloween DLC costume from Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is a reference to her twin sister Alma.
 * Prior to her formal debut in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, a woman in a red dress was seen interacting with Maria who bore a similar appearance to Rachel in Christie's flashback in Dead or Alive 4.
 * The woman can also be seen in Christie's ending for the same game. Itagaki himself confirmed that she was indeed Rachel, and admitted that he added her presence as a joke.
 * Rachel's 2014 Halloween DLC costume from Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate was originally designed for Kasumi.
 * One of Rachel's win quotes (Night has lifted, dawn has come) originated from Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.
 * Rachel is often compared to Nina Williams from the Tekken series as both women are blondes with ponytails and similar bangs, and wear heavy makeup.
 * Also Rachel's Yurlungur move looks similar to Nina's signature move Twisted Mind, and both moves are performed while the enemy is on the ground.