Garter Kikuchi is a character who appears in the second season of The Eminence in Shadow. He is a middle-aged, somewhat short man of unremarkable physical stature. His most distinguishing visual features, as shown in the anime adaptation, include gray hair, black eyes, and notable sideburns.

Garter serves as the president of the Garter Corporation and is initially presented as the head of the Major Corporate Alliance, a consortium of businesses united by their shared animosity toward the rapidly expanding Mitsugoshi Company. However, this apparent leadership role is largely a facade. In reality, Garter is a pusillanimous and incompetent figure who acts as a subordinate to his own employee, a beastkin warrior named Gettan. After hiring Gettan to help destroy Mitsugoshi, the dynamic between them reversed. Garter effectively handed over control of his company and became a mere figurehead who obediently executes Gettan's orders and provides reports on the Alliance's activities.

Throughout the conflict with Mitsugoshi, Garter's primary motivation is fear of the company's economic dominance and a desire to preserve his own business interests. He feels immense pressure as Mitsugoshi's innovative products and the introduction of banknotes threaten to monopolize the Midgar Kingdom's economy. His actions are driven by this anxiety, leading him to join the Alliance, which uses mercenaries to disrupt competitors' supply lines and attempts to introduce its own competing paper currency.

Garter's role in the story is that of an unwitting pawn in a larger scheme. While he believes the Alliance is waging a standard economic war, Gettan is secretly a member of the Cult of Diablos, using the Alliance's resources to destabilize Mitsugoshi as a mission to earn a seat among the Knights of Rounds. Under Gettan's direction, Garter oversees a series of failed operations against Mitsugoshi, from attacks on carriages to a night raid on their headquarters. All these efforts end in complete failure, as Mitsugoshi's employees are secretly well-trained members of Shadow Garden. The relationship between Garter and Gettan is one of complete subservience, with Garter constantly reporting failures and receiving harsh reprimands in return.

As the conflict escalates, Garter becomes increasingly distressed, especially when a plan involving counterfeit money backfires, leading to a credit crisis for the Alliance. He tries to advise Gettan, but his concerns are ignored. When rumors of the crisis spread, a massive run on the Alliance's banks begins, with people demanding to exchange their banknotes for gold coins. Realizing the Alliance's reserves are insufficient and that Gettan has disappeared, Garter attempts to flee at night along with other company presidents. They are intercepted by the Knight Order and arrested for fraud, as the public discovers the amount of gold in their vaults is far less than the value of the bills in circulation. Following the subsequent collapse and disbandment of the Major Corporate Alliance, the Mitsugoshi Company purchases all of its remaining assets.

In terms of abilities, Garter is notable not for any combat prowess or strategic genius, but for the authority he wielded as the head of his corporation. This influence grew when he became the figurehead of the Major Corporate Alliance, only to be lost entirely after the Alliance's collapse. His development in the second season is a downward arc from a seemingly powerful corporate leader to a revealed fraud and incompetent subordinate. His attempts to find a mysterious figure named John Smith, who is sabotaging the Alliance's plans, prove futile, and he is ultimately left to face the consequences of his failed conspiracy, culminating in his arrest and financial ruin.