Characters / A Doll's Heart

Automata

Mechanical dolls, created in the likeness of humans. They form the main focus of the story.

Shared tropes

• Androids Are People, Too: Mostly. They still do turn heads, however, and the Head really would like to see them gone. After all, they were people once.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Yesod points out that they have this. As they're never drawn without clothing, not even on references, we have to go along with this, but seeing that they are dolls, it's easy to do so. The closest comes is Malkuth's outfit in chapter 6 conspicuously showing a lack of a navel.
• Bloodless Carnage: Anytime something bad happens to them, there's nothing written about blood...because they have no blood. Furthermore, this also means that they can't get red in the face or blush.
  • When Binah threatens Malkuth with a knife to her throat, it's pointed out that it would 'merely wound her badly'.
• Brought Down to Normal: In chapter 11, all of them sans Malkuth and Gebura are equipped with chips that jam the influence of Carmen, at the cost of inhibiting their natural strength and abilities.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All of them have a color associated with them.
• Comfort Food: Even though they don't need it, their 'favorite' is noted among their traits along their wish (something carried over from the original anime's lore). Among them, Malkuth's (strawberry montblanc) and Hod's (shortbread with vanilla), dishes that are both sweet, hint to their kind and amicable nature, Netzach and Tiphereth's being a generic term exhibit their more apathic disposition, Chesed's (coffee) showcasing him being an easygoing, philosophical character, Gebura's (pocky) painting the image of someone standing outside with pocky as a replacement cigarette, and Binah's and Hokma's (both tea) add to their diplomacy. Angela's favorite remains unknown which fits the mystery surrounding her character. Yesod is a special case as his one is unknown initially, as one would expect from such a stern person, but it is like that because his favorite food is actually memories of other people.
• Creepy Doll: Subverted as a whole. Apparently, none of them invoke Uncanny Valley. Gebura, who has her joints visible, could be seen as a slight example. Played completely straight when she is brainwashed, however.
• Custom-Built Host: All of them are robotic dolls made to contain a specific human soul. Angela, the first of them, was intended to be one but never ended up containing any soul. This is a notable difference since the original series never had existential questions, i.e whether automata have a soul, explored, where in this case, they are explicitly confirmed to trap human souls.
• Darker and Edgier: When compared to the automata from the anime. From the outside, it's not at all visible, but these brightly-dressed robotic dolls are mechanical prisons made to trap a human soul (two, in Tiphereth's case), originally designed to serve in L Corp.
• Deadly Euphemism: 'Breaking'. It's more like a Heroic RRoD-caused coma than that it would imply. Turns out, its real meaning is the near equivalent of a Fate Worse than Death when they 'die' - eternal sleep, without the ability to go to any kind of afterlife at all.
• Death by Despair: What happens if any of them 'break'. They enter a state wherein they are still alive physically and their own will is still there (strong enough to uphold an E.G.O), but their bodies shut off and their soul no longer powers it.
• Eating Machine: They can eat and drink anything a human can without any difficulty.
• Fate Worse than Death: Automata cannot die by old age or injury. When they break, they sleep forever as a Death by Despair, unable to escape their body or go to any kind of afterlife.
• Gendered Outfit: Slightly. All girls have lace on their obi, and all guys have connected sleeves while the girls mostly have them disconnected, Miku-style. Exceptions to the latter are Binah, possibly Angela, and Tiphereth, who somehow bears all of the aforementioned traits (Gebura has no sleeves at all). It turns out that Tiphereth's outfit is actually an example of a Multi-Gendered Outfit, especially when considering the outfits Enoch and Lisa wore as automata.
• Misapplied Phlebotinum: These are all highly realistic, durable creations that all have a special ability to boot...who are running a cafe, out of all things. Subverted in that they were originally created for an entirely different job, and that these characteristics were invaluable for that.
• The Needless: To an extent. It's hinted at when Enoch points out that he has no need for an abundant meal since he's a doll, making it likely that they don't need as much food as humans do. After all, they are not 'powered' by it (their human souls do that job already).
• Replacement Goldfish: For their human selves that died.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: They were made to resemble humans as much as possible for some reason, and it succeeded to a large extent. Needless to say, the Head only barely tolerates their existence. Furthermore, they can feel and think just as any other human can... because they have human souls.
• Sealed Person in a Can: Their true nature is that they are human souls trapped in a robotic body.
• Security Blanket: All of them have one in the form of their gem. Normally, it is inlaid in their obi. It functions as an ID card and tracker of their lifeforce and mental constitution. Should this be ripped away from them, it will immediately cease to track their lifeforce (i.e the owner cannot be located anymore) until it's returned to them. Considering the important uses of it, it's very well possible the automata are programmed to treat this like their Security Blanket to protect it.
• Unwilling Robotization: What happened to all of them except for Angela. They were humans that died, only to be brought back, stuck in a robotic body and forced to serve L Corp.

Ground floor

A cafe that is publicly accessable.

• Foil: Two pairs of them.
  • Malkuth and Yesod. They both have their good intentions the most pronounced and provide assistance to the rest of the team. Malkuth has no memories, while Yesod was made to contain all kinds of data and information and still has them. Malkuth's tasks are typically minor and relate more to the maintenance of the building (her first job ended up being cleaning), while Yesod manages the entire ground floor and his tasks are geared towards leading the staff, as is shown in chapter 4.
  • Netzach and Hod. Both of them are secondary characters who have their role more centered around the preparation of dishes. Netzach makes drinks, while Hod makes all kinds of food. They don't talk as much, but Netzach doesn't because he's just lazy and Hod doesn't because she's an Elective Mute. Hod is a hard worker, while Netzach is The Slacker. Incidentally, they both ask the same question to Yesod in chapter 4.
• Mythology Gag: This floor is composed of the Asiyah characters, which is the lower layer.

Malkuth

"I'm not sure if you'll allow me to know who I am, but...do you know who I am? Because I don't."

Kingdom

^{Click to see her chapter 6 appearance.}

Height: 163 cm

Favorite: Strawberry Montblanc

Role: Cleaner/waitress/helper in the kitchen (occasionally)

Color: Citrine/Russet/Olive/Black

Wish: 'I want the will to stand up straight.'

Ability: Cogito overload

An automata who had underwent Laser-Guided Amnesia and now works on the ground floor, trying to find out her past. She is energetic and positive, but rather stubborn. She is the only character who appears in every chapter, as well as the only automata without memories of L Corp. She is the main protagonist of the story.

• Adaptation Personality Change: This Malkuth is noticably more naive than the original.
• A Day in the Limelight: The first chapter is basically all about her and features her visual reference at the end.
• Blessed with Suck: Her ability is 'Cogito overload', meaning that she contains all Cogito left and can use it to control Abnormalities given it's their source. However, she is completely unaware of it until Ayin is awoken, who proceeds to use this ability. She never actually makes use of it by her way of her own free will.
• Break the Cutie: In quick succession at the end. She got broken hard by the fact that she essentially served as a vessel for Ayin, the exact same person who left her to die a very painful death as Elijah. Angela states that she has fallen into a suicidal depression and that she is going to sleep forever.
• Character Development: She gets better at singing over time. While 'never ender' was a fairly simple song, 'Dareka no Shinzou ni Nareta nara' is by YurryCanon, who is known for their fast songs. Yet, she sings it with ease.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Citrine, olive, russet and black. Yeah.
• Confusion Fu: Makes use of this against the puppets during chapter 8, by cutting the light and then using fireworks.
  Malkuth: There we go. The element of surprise!
• Custom-Built Host: For Elijah, an L Corp employee who died a very painful death after ingesting Cogito.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: The first day working at the cafe, she somehow manages to mess up while trying to help everyone, no matter if it's in the bar or in the kitchen. She ends up cleaning the square in front of the cafe instead.
• Deadpan Snarker: A little bit. It shows up as early as chapter 4:
  Malkuth: But why'd you want me for this? And not someone who... I don't know, someone whose mind isn't wiped clean of memories?'
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it in chapter 12.
• The Determinator: She tries to help everyone, and even though most of it ends up being Unwanted Assistance (especially in the beginning), 'giving up' is not in her dictionary. This is both her greatest strength and her biggest flaw. Malkuth has a tendency to push forward in the face of problems and she often encourages the others to not give up (like in chapter 6), but this leads to her being very stubborn at times.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Her last words are 'Yesod...I...love you'. This moment was stored inside her gem.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted, believe it or not. While Gebura might not remember that Malkuth sent her to her doom, Binah on the other hand is a different story. While she and Angela ended up being victorious, she still holds her rebellion attempt against her. And so, their first real confrontation already consists of Malkuth being nailed to the wall by a Fairy that renders her immobile.
  • Angela on the other hand has a much more vague reaction, but says that it is in the past and all that matters is how said past is remembered in the present.
• Eldritch Location: It is highly hinted that the new Inochi no Ki, which is Malkuth's own E.G.O, is this, mostly in that Angela points out that it won't get destroyed like the previous Inochi no Ki.
• Genki Girl: Malkuth has a cheerful, energetic, and lovable personality, and she's often the character to come up with new ideas.
• Ghost Memory: She subconsciously contains Ayin's memories, as well as his soul.
• The Heart: Quickly becomes this for the lower floor staff, and gradually for the others, too. Yesod laments that the place 'doesn't feel the same' without her roaming its halls.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: No, Yesod is not on Malkuth's mind in that way.
  Binah: He's still on your mind, isn't he.
  Malkuth: N-no! Not in that way! He's a total jerk, especially now!
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Non-lethal example. When Gebura cuts Yesod in half, Malkuth loses it and lets Ayin take partial control of her to end it all.
• Innocently Insensitive: She doesn't remember a thing, and the people around her (including herself) all have a Dark and Troubled Past, so this is bound to happen. The first notable moment pops up in chapter 4:
  Malkuth: I saw something on your arm. It looked like you've got scratches from a cat. Are you a cat lover?
  • She also gladly recommends going to the Musicians of Bremen syndicate in order to learn a thing or two from them, not knowing that they're murderous musicians trying to replicate the Pianist's music that killed thousands. After this, Chesed and Yesod forbid her going along with the former to get clothes, as they both know that the 'address' Chesed is going to belongs to the Carnival.
• Irony: Elijah died to Cogito overload. Malkuth's body is secretly full with the stuff.
• It Was with You All Along: She, or more accurately, the entity hidden within her subconscious is none other than Ayin (or as the other automata call him, 'Master'), their creator.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The most important difference from her and canon Malkuth. For some reason, she woke up lacking any memory. In contrast to many examples of this, however, Malkuth's memories weren't just erased, they were eaten by Yesod, who explicitly confirms that she is never getting them back as they're permanently gone.
  • This also leads to her having no issues with following Angela's orders, despite the fact that she hated Angela in the past.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Shades of this. She's the overenthusiastic Genki Girl full of ideas, and Yesod can't help but accept them begrudgingly (To wit, the visit to the Musicians of Bremen, the subsequent performance in chapter 6 was her idea, and at the search for Angela, it was Malkuth who dragged Yesod along for the entire thing). Malkuth also wears the most colorful outfit of the whole cast bar none, which is reflective of her namesake sphere's colors (it's usually represented with these four colors or a full rainbow).
• Memory Gambit: She allowed Yesod to eat all her memories to ensure that everyone would survive.
• Mythology Gag: Uses a ducky pen when taking orders.
• Nominal Importance: Having woken up without knowing a name, Malkuth is attached to the name Angela said she has. It doesn't take long for her to realize that Yesod somehow wiped that bit temporarily as punishment for not telling them that she left to go visit Hana.
• Only Known By Her Nickname: Malkuth is known as Malkuth because...that's the only name she remembers having. She woke up without remembering one, until Angela gave her this name. Odds are, her real name is Elijah.
• Plucky Girl: Malkuth is a determined optimist who is up to all the challenges she has to face in order to get to know "the big world".
• Prophet Eyes: When Ayin is partially controlling her.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In Kabbalah, 'Malkuth' is the lowest Sephirah on the tree and represents the root of the tree. It encompasses the physical world around us and acts as the starting point of the journey, as well as the communication between the Sephirah. Despite being the lowest, it is connected to the highest Sephirah, Kether, symbolized as 'Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether'.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The energetic girl to Yesod's savvy guy.
• Say My Name: 'Yesod!'
  • 'Ayin!' Doubles as a Skyward Scream.
• Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: Not only does her subconscious hold Ayin's soul, she also contains all Cogito, at least the amount that L Corp used. She doesn't know of it until the very last part of the story.
• Sharing a Body: Secretly. Angela locked Ayin's soul within Malkuth's subconscious, and it's not apparent that this happened until Carmen uses the Trigger Phrase. If Malkuth's conversations with Ayin are any indication, she doesn't enjoy this very much.
• Ship Tease: With Yesod. In boatloads.
  • Right off the bat in chapter 1, she thinks he's pretty.
  • In chapter 4, it's revealed that she sacrificed her memories explicitly with the reason that it's to save Yesod from certain death. Judging by her gratuitous use of ellipses in the chapter, she's very nervous when facing him.
  • Chapter 8 has her taking Yesod along to Quercus Village. She also vehemently says that He Is Not My Boyfriend when Binah teases her about it. It's also where they have the Suggestive Collision described below, and they also have a scene in the natural springs. It's not seen, but she's very clearly trying not to look at his body too much.
• Suggestive Collision: While it is obviously not seen, she accidentally fell this way with Yesod. It's enough to form an awkward silence between them when they get up for a while.
• Sympathy for the Devil: She knows enough pity to not let Ayin (who let her die rather painfully in the past to boot) suffer the same fate as her when she goes dormant forever, but lets him live seperate from her as an automata, in order for him to set things right.
• This Is Gonna Suck: In chapter 5, she is saddled up with introducing Binah to the cafe. This is her reaction, especially as she sees the others accept it without a word.
• Trigger Phrase: 'Keter is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Keter.' It unlocks Ayin's soul and causes him to start waking up.
• Tomato in the Mirror: She was indirectly responsible for the fact that Gebura is in stasis.
• Unwanted Assistance: She wants to be useful so bad, that she tries helping wherever she can. Even if it's an issue that shouldn't involve her (like Gebura being broken, which only indirectly involves her), she won't stop until it has reached a solution. It usually ends up being this, although she is making progress.
  • Come chapter 8, she has outgrown this to the point that Yesod trusts her with a major part of the plan to retrieve Angela.

Yesod

"You may be an automata like us, but that doesn't guarantee anything."

Foundation

^{Click to see his chapter 6 appearance.}

^{Click to see his appearance after the events of the story.}

Height: 171 cm

Favorite: Unknown (Memories of others)

Role: Ground Floor and counter manager/waiter/cleaner

Color: Purple

Wish: 'I want the rationality to maintain discretion.'

Ability: Lunar Inclination

A strict, secretive automata who manages the day-to-day business on the ground floor. In reality a memory vampire who dies if he doesn't regularly eat memories.

• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 4.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Purple.
• Custom-Built Host: For Gabriel, an L Corp employee who started to Self-Harm after Elijah's death, eventually dying by Clawing at Own Throat.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The story shows that if he hasn't eaten memories for a while, he'll grow more irritable, if throwing stuff at Netzach is any indicator, and his body will be in disarray and low on energy until he eats again. During this bit, Netzach comments how it's been four weeks since he last ate. He is also, by virtue of his namesake, associated with the moon.
• Emotion Eater: He needs to eat memories of others, otherwise he'll die. He also ate all of Malkuth's memories in the past, but she wanted him to in order to ensure survival of both of them.
• Exposition Fairy: Explains a number of details of this world to Malkuth. However, see Unreliable Expositor below.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: As a result of Gebura's Great Split, Horizontal. Netzach points out that Angela has to put him back literally.
• He Knows Too Much: The reason he has to eat memories. Back in L Corp, there was no shortage of employees who are in contact with the results of deep, dark secrets. Erasing memories is an efficient way to keep those with too much information at bay, while also not needing to hire new employees for that reason all the time. Unfortunately, this bit still consists even though L Corp has shut down.
• Hellish Pupils: As a part of his body breaking down before the moment he has to eat, his pupils slowly slit into cat pupils.
• Horror Hunger: Heavily implied. The tail end of chapter 4 consists of a short dialogue set in the past. In it, someone wakes up after dying, seemingly having been granted life again. Before long, he feels an overwhelming thirst, but cannot determine what for. He is then told that he needs to eat memories to survive.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When Malkuth says that Hod cannot talk anymore, he immediately asks how she knows that there was a time that Hod was able to talk.
• Lunacy: He wears a silver tiara adorned with a moon charm. Said charm seems to play parts in his memory vampirism, as it is noted that, after eating Eileen's memories, it glows healthily. Furthermore, the notes say that the charm is actually part of his body, and it is just disguised cleverly but unremovable. As turns out, his ability activates roughly once in four weeks (lining up with the lunar cycles) and the real name of it is 'Lunar Inclination'.
  • It can also work as additional Ship Tease: the moon's entire role revolves around the earth, after all...
• Manly Tears: At the tail end of the story. Note that this chapter is the first time he cries.
• Married to the Job: More or less. He's such a busybody that even the slightest suggestion of him possibly being open to a romantic relation is promptly shut down by him (most of these suggestions being about Malkuth). Also helps that they're not human.
• Meaningful Appearance: One of the key items of the sphere of Yesod is the veil. It gives him a slightly otherworldly appearance compared to the others, as his sphere is associated with the astral plane.
  • At the end, aside from wearing Malkuth's gem as a Tragic Keepsake, he no longer wears gloves. It's unknown whether this shows that he's more relaxed or if this means that he has intensified his Self-Harm (as chapter 4 has him explicitly remove the gloves before doing it). Jury's still out on this one.
• Mythology Gag: Him being somewhat of an Unreliable Expositor is a callback to his role in Lobotomy Corporation, where he outright admitted to making certain things up and deleting information more than he was actually managing it.
• Nervous Wreck: Yesod often tends to be somewhat more tightly wound than the other characters, often getting upset or worked up over minor things and having to be reminded by the others to calm down, especially when it's 'that time'. When he calls Angela and can't get in contact with the Hana delegation that accompanied her, he ends up getting so worked up over it that Netzach and Hod both just let him leave the cafe and help them already. When Angela disappears, Malkuth has to drag him along in order to make an end to his inner conflict.
• Not So Above It All: For all intents and purposes, he seems to like the entire invitation of Malkuth more than he lets on. While he shot it down immediately, Malkuth still finds him singing the song in question when he's cleaning the office. He also claimed to hate over-the-top happy songs, yet just 'happened to have heard "never ender" before', to the point of recognizing its intro.
• Omniscient Database: He was essentially made to be one (although Angela is implied to know more). According to him, he still has full data about their previous job in L Corp.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In Kabbalah, Yesod represents the Dream Land that lies directly above Malkuth. It is the world of illusion, the subconscious, dreams, the astral plane...and memories. It is also the 'Moon' to Malkuth's 'Earth'.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Explored in his own chapter, chapter 4. As Gabriel died, his soul went into Yesod's body, and curiously enough, said body is implied to be scarred just as heavily - in fact, it is pointed out that most of his wounds were sort of patched up. Still, if the light falls just 'right', you can see that he has self-inflicted scratch marks on his neck and throat, and, in chapter 6, also on his arms ^note  They are drawn in with faint pencil lines after the coloring is done. It's also apparent that while he has significantly cut down the Self-Harm, certain situations still trigger it.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The savvy guy to Malkuth's energetic girl.
• Self-Harm: He still scratches his own (artificial) skin when he's stressed and/or hasn't eaten any memories in a while, although he doesn't bleed anymore and it's on a way lower basis than he used to.
• Ship Tease: He seems to go a little more out of his way for Malkuth.
  • In chapter 4, he goes against his own nature to save her.
  • In chapter 6, he specifically forbids her from going along with Chesed, because he knows that he's going to the Backstreets.
  • In chapter 8, Malkuth takes him along to search for Angela in Quercus Village. The normally rather stoic Yesod gets flustered all the same after having a Suggestive Collision with Malkuth as well. At the end of the chapter, he says that Malkuth is really something else.
  • In chapter 10, he vehemently denies that Malkuth avoiding him has anything to do with his mood.
  It's her. It still is.
• The Stoic: He is a serious one and rarely expresses anything but calmness.
• Suggestive Collision: While it is obviously not seen, he tried to catch Malkuth from falling and ended up this way. It's enough to form an awkward silence between them when they get up for a while.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  Netzach: And Malkuth has been avoiding you.
  Yesod: That has absolutely nothing to do with it.
• Swiper, No Swiping!: A heroic version. The way he deals with Malkuth leaves the building without her having asked permission to or even informing anyone. Yesod simply tells her not to do it anymore. It works. However, him eating a memory of hers might've helped with that. Also goes when Malkuth ends up burning Hod's new menu item - it's not seen, but Malkuth says that 'Yesod really chewed [her] out for this one' and she stops experimenting with dishes from then on. Apparently, it's his default way of dealing with pesky people (aside from eating their memories, but he can't always do it), likely because he doesn't intend on making it a bigger deal than it is.
  • Even in chapter 11, when facing a Brainwashed and Crazy Gebura, he simply yells at her to stop. It doesn't work. This time, him doing it is justified as he was Brought Down to Normal and he didn't want to eat Gebura's memories even if he could.
• Taking the Bullet: For Malkuth, by distracting Gebura from her. As a result, he gets cut in half.
• Tragic Keepsake: Wears Malkuth's gem as a necklace after she breaks. Apparently, it still contains the last moments of her life as we've seen it - a Dying Declaration of Love.
• Tranquil Fury: He remains very calm as he threatens Nemo.
  Yesod: And if you do not sell this gem to me, I will personally rip out all your memories from your childhood until now. Trust me, it's the opposite of pretty. And no, there is no way of ever getting them back, I will eat all of it.
• Unreliable Expositor: There are some things he is certainly not telling Malkuth, and even though he eventually spills the beans about his past in L Corp, he's withholding that the cause of his insanity was Elijah (read: past Malkuth)'s death, as well as refusing to tell her of his memory vampirism. This also sets him apart from Hod, who had shown Malkuth the truth about her mutism in the chapter before his one by her telepathy, and Tiphereth, who told her past to Malkuth outright.
  • This is subverted by the time of chapter 8, as he finally tells Malkuth about the latter.
• Unusual Euphemism: They call his secret the 'once in four weeks thing'.
• You Are in Command Now: Twice. In chapter 4, Angela goes to the Church of Gears base and leaves Yesod to manage the cafe, and in chapter 7, she leaves him in charge so she can set out to find Master.

Hod

"Netzach...right. You...worried about her."

Splendour

^{Click to see her chapter 6 appearance.}

Height: 166 cm

Favorite: Shortbread with vanilla

Role: Chef (mainly patissier)

Color: Orange

Wish: 'I hope I can be a better person.'

Ability: Innate capability

An automata who is responsible for most of the food preparation on the ground floor.

• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 3 is hers.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Netzach even comments on it once she gets her voice back. The notes say it to be VY1v4 as in here.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In the final fight, she's one of the only ones who actively takes part without any weapon at all (the other one is Gebura, who had been forced to fight with merely her strengthened body), and uses her Instant Expert ability to copy the enemy's moves.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Downplayed. She eats burnt food should she need to, and according to her, it still tastes fine.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Orange. It's a little more apparent in her costume during chapter 6.
• Custom-Built Host: For Michelle, an L Corp employee who ratted out the Corporation and was Driven to Suicide afterwards.
• Cute Mute: Due to trauma. She has developed a kind of telepathy, although it is only effective on other automata, and she also communicates via written notes and sign language. She breaks this at the end of chapter 3.
• Exposition Beam: Hits Malkuth with it a few times in chapter 3, because it's too traumatic to talk about. Apparently, she developed telepathy to other automata somewhere after losing her voice. After getting it back, she only uses her telepathy once, in chapter 9.
• Instant Expert: Her ability. She can copy anything truthfully after having learned it. This apparently extends to seeing enemy's fighting moves.
• Meaningful Appearance: One of the key items of the sphere of Hod is the apron.
• Meido: She basically dresses like this in chapter 6.
• My Greatest Failure: Slowly unraveled in chapter 3. She got attached to four employees who were her 'students' in L Corp. When she went through her Meltdown, she ended up killing them through lowering their stats. While they made it out afterwards (thanks to TimeTrack), they are killed anyway during an Office Raid.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In Kabbalah, Hod is the rational, intelligence-based counterpart to Netzach. It is associated with work, knowledge and learning.
• Sensei-chan: Was apparently this kind of person back in L Corp. She was in charge of the Training Team, tasked with teaching agents about Abnormalities.
• The Smart Guy: It's not immediately visible, but Hod is this. It's mostly because her way of speaking is You No Take Candle.
• Supreme Chef: Her omelettes are rather scrumptious and sell like hotcakes. It's because she can parse any kind of information and reproduce it rather easy thanks to her built-in capability.
• Sweet Baker: A nice and kind girl whose specialty is patisserie.
• You No Take Candle: As a result of her verbal systems needing time to run optimally after they are reactivated in chapter 3. This has no impact on singing however. Her normal speech is ridden with broken grammar and ellipses, but at least she can talk again.
  Hod: Oh, you...not annoying at all.

Netzach

"Right now when everyone wants omelettes...so bothersome..."

Eternity

^{Click to see his chapter 6 appearance.}

^{Click to see him with his hair down SPOILERS.}

Height: 175 cm

Favorite: Doesn't really care about the food, just about the alcohol

Role: Bartender

Color: Green

Wish: 'I wish I had the fearlessness to keep on living.'

Ability: Healing

The bartender. Also, an automata who often slacks on the job.

• The Alcoholic: Doesn't hold back when serving guests drinks, and is implied to often keep some for himself as well.
• Apathetic Clerk: Netzach doesn't care too much about the cafe itself. In his eyes, he simply went from one job he didn't want to do, to another job he doesn't want to do. However, after the cafe is burnt down by Qlipha and the Crying Children, he comments that he didn't meant it that way.
• The Bartender: His job. While it isn't prominently seen, his laidback attitude is said to help with this.
• Bilingual Bonus: His costume in chapter 6 features the Hebrew word 'נֵצַח'. ^note  'Netzach'
• The Cameo: His reference appears in chapter 8, which was posted on his birthday.
• Cheated Angle: His ponytail is always swept to the left (the viewer's right side), no matter which way he faces. Downplayed in that he's always drawn facing to the right (the viewer's left) anyways... until the very end, where he lets his hair down.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Green.
• Custom-Built Host: For Giovanni, who was misled by being promised Carmen's survival and was 'medicated' to death.
• Dissonant Serenity: His reaction when Yesod throws stuff at him out of seemingly nowhere? Dodge the projectile and pick up the bottle that wasn't so lucky.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: In chapter 6, he only wears a glove on one hand.
• Important Haircut: His hairstyle, especially the ponytail swept to the left, is highly reminiscent of Carmen.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: His costume in chapter 6 only has one sleeve long enough to go over his shoulder and lets the rest of his chest all the way out. He still has the same girdle as in his normal outfit, but that wouldn't hold it up entirely.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Not usually. But when he finally does so, it's because his hairtie is really his Magic Staff, Haniel.
• Magic Staff: It turns out that his hairtie can be transformed into one named 'Haniel'. It also resembles a Buddhist monk staff.
• Meaningful Appearance: One of the key items of the sphere of Netzach is the girdle. His in particular is also shaped like the middle part of an infinity symbol.
• Mr. Fanservice: Not usually; his clothing covers him up fairly well in fact. But in chapter 6, he wears a rather revealing outfit, to the point that Yesod points out that they have Barbie Doll Anatomy and Hod is clearly trying to hide her reaction.
• Named Weapons: Apparently, his staff is named 'Haniel' ^note  meaning 'God is my grace' .
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In Kabbalah, Netzach is the emotional counterpart to Hod. It is associated with victory, feelings and overcoming weaknesses.
• The Slacker: A typical one, although it also significantly eases up the tension among guests. Yesod outright calls him a slacker in chapter 3. According to notes, he was supposed to have an easygoing personality that would help with the treating of wounded agents, as he was the head of the Security Department, but ended up being this instead.

Second floor

A room that is only able to be rented by people in order to eat here. Meetings and parties are held on the second floor. Song performances are also given on this floor's stage, which is normally used for holding speeches and audits.

• Foil: Surprisingly, also two of them.
  • Chesed and Gebura. Both of them have Named Weapons meant to deal with Abnormalities more directly, but while Chesed knocks them out via hypnosis, Gebura's sword is clearly meant to cut them down immediately. Chesed is an incredibly active person when seen from a management perspective, and is implied to even being able to navigate the higher brow people with ease. Gebura can't do anything because she's in stasis, and her mind is 'poor' as there's very few memories and traces of personality left. Gebura's outfit is very basic, while Chesed's is easily the most elaborate of the characters. Meanwhile, both of their weapons' seem to have a detrimental effect on them, with Gebura being in stasis due to her overexertion, and Chesed suffering a Power-Strain Blackout after using Zadkiel.
  • Tiphereth among themselves. This was already present during the first game, but as they share a body now, it's a little less apparent.
• Mythology Gag: This floor is composed of the Briah characters, which is the middle layer.

Tiphereth

"I was always the sour one. Still am, gotta admit."

"I bet Lisa would like this too, if she was awake right now."

^{Click here to see her past self}

Beauty

Height: 159 cm

Favorite: Anything not too overly sweet or sticky

Role: Waitress/waiter/helper in the kitchen (sometimes on the ground floor)

Color: Yellow

Wish: 'I am expecting the meaning of existence.'

Ability: Levitation

An automata who works as a waitress. While she primarily works at the second floor, she'll help out at the ground floor if it's busy there. In reality an automata controlled by two minds, who switch control accordingly to their energy.

• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 2.
• Alternate Identity Amnesia: Zig-zagged. On one hand, Enoch already knows about their quest for eggs when he wakes up, but when Tiphereth switches back in after Enoch is tired, she wonders as to why they're 'still' in District 12. She soon catches up however. Going off this, they seem like they can internally tell eachother about the current situation before truly falling asleep.
• The Berserker: In chapter 7, she is high on Serum R when fighting the Puppeteer and the Blood-Red Night. She almost attacks Binah as well before the latter calms her down with Serum K.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Yellow.
• Custom-Built Host: For both Lisa and Enoch, children from the Backstreets.
• Expy: An inhuman yet humanoid being containing two minds of different sex that switch control of the body; one taking over whenever the other is tired. Basically, they're Caliborn and Calliope, although their disposition is switched.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her entire outfit is this. This reflects her Sharing a Body.
• Foreshadowing: Her story and character contains a lot of elements that are crucial to Malkuth and Angela.
  • Them Sharing a Body is the exact same as Malkuth has with Ayin.
  • Enoch being a Replacement Goldfish to the Puppeteer echoes Angela being intended as one to Ayin. As a bonus, they both rebel against this man.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Color puns aside. Tiphereth is very aloof and not the most personable, but she does care about the cafe and its fate, as well as her coworkers. She just works rather hard on both floors, so that whenever she's approached there's a big chance she's currently busy doing something or at least with her mind on work.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude/Dude Looks Like a Lady: With the way she wears her short hair, she looks the most masculine out of the female characters. Enoch has the opposite, because he is still in the same body.
• Meaningful Appearance: One of the key items of the sphere of Tiphereth is the rosary or lamen, which is represented as a necklace here. It seems like it also allows them to access their abilities.
• Mercy Kill: Lisa granted Enoch's wish to die by letting their bodies merge, and she describes it as this to Malkuth. While his soul is still there for a yet unexplained reason, he can at least go dormant should his energy be low.
• Multi-Gendered Outfit: The left (right on the image) half of Tiphereth's outfit falls in line with the girls, having lace around the obi and a detached sleeve. The right (left on the image) half falls more in line with the outfits that the guys wear. The outfit has also been described by the artist/writer as being fractured, but whole. It's not until chapter 2 that an explanation for this is given: Tiphereth's outfit is essentially a mash of the outfits the two of them wore back in L Corp, and reflects the both of them being alive in the body that's wearing the outfit.
• Pronoun Trouble: Because there are two minds of opposite sex inside Tiphereth's body, this is bound to happen. Aside from voice, there is no way to tell who is currently controlling it, so everyone usually resorts to they/them pronouns to be safe. The writing will distinct between Tiphereth (whom Enoch calls 'Lisa'), who has she/her pronouns, and Enoch, who uses he/him. In addition, the two use we/us when talking about both of them.
• Rainbow Speak: When high on Serum R. Also briefly when Binah injects her with Serum K.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In Kabbalah, Tiphereth is the middle sphere that holds the tree together, and serves to make the others their best selves. Of note is that this sphere embodies both masculinity and feminity as a result.
• Replacement Goldfish: The man in chapter 7 (really the Puppeteer) seems to see Enoch as one for his late son.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mild version when Malkuth asks Yesod about the scars on his arm. She immediately dives into the kitchen without a word to escape from the awkward situation.
• Sharing a Body: Both Lisa and Enoch are inside Tiphereth's body. They used to be apart, but Lisa proposed their bodies to be merged. As a result, they will alternately control the body. It is impossible to tell who it is except by their voice.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: While they're not siblings, this loosely applies to them. Lisa is the self-admitted sour, hard-working girl, while Enoch is much more impulsive and easygoing, carrying Malkuth along with him in the air even without asking her whether it's okay to do so. This is a slight mirror of their Lobotomy Corporation beta designs having a Yin-Yang motif.
• Split Personality: A variation. It may look like Tiphereth has this, but in reality Lisa and Enoch really are two different people who have led their own lives. Their spirits are just both inside the same body at Lisa's request, making it seem like Tiphereth has a dissociative disorder.
• Stronger Than They Look: They look like an average teen, but they're strong enough to carry Malkuth through the air by themselves.

Gebura

"We better get to work if we're having people comin' over today."

Strength

^{Click to see her chapter 10 appearance.}

Height: 181 cm

Favorite: Pocky

Role: Security (bouncer)/waitress

Color: Red

Wish: 'I wish to have the courage to protect.'

Ability: Prowess

An automata who is currently out of order, but her home is the second floor.

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Khamael can make very large and clean cuts. This is exemplified when Gebura cleaves Yesod in half with just one slash.
• Action Girl: Allegedly. We never see any of it, not even after she wakes up in chapter 1. However, she finally takes up her weapon in chapter 10 once she is brainwashed to do so.
• Back for the Finale: She finally makes her return in chapter 10, the start of the finale. The reasons, though, are far from good.
• The Big Girl: Was created to fight, and Malkuth even calls her the strongest automata ever made. This is, after all, the Red Mist we are talking about. This is also what makes her such a huge threat when she is turned against the protagonists.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: In chapter 10. Combined with Red Eyes, Take Warning, too.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Well...for as much you can brainwash someone who's near Death of Personality.
• The Bouncer: What she would do if she were awake. She'd serve in charge of security, throwing out guests whom Netzach had given a glass too many.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red. Malkuth recognizes her by her red hair.
• Custom-Built Host: For Kali, a legendary Color who died in a fight with Garion.
• Death of Personality: Is very close to suffering this. There's very few left in her head of which she bases her personality upon once she wakes up. After fooling everyone for a day by acting like her perception of her past self's character, she confesses that it's too hard to deal with even though her body is fine. She proceeds to go back to Angela, because she is still broken.
  • This is likely how the Ensemble could take advantage of her and made her doing their bidding.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: It's not said outright, but Gebura was essentially put into a coma with possibly being braindead.
• Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed. It's the same thing for all it's worth, but there are some small yet significant changes. Her 'sleeves' are ripped, her obi lacks the lace and ribbon with the gem, and her collar is inversely folded like Angela's. In Gebura's case, it probably signifies that she is already dead inside.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Used to wield a large katana (almost qualifying as an odachi) named 'Khamael'.
• Meaningful Appearance: One of the key items of the sphere of Gebura is the sword. Hers is named 'Khamael' ^note  Meaning 'anger/wrath of God' .
• Neck Lift: To Chesed.
• Put on a Bus: Something caused her to overexert in the past, and got this trope as a result. At the end of chapter 1, after awaking briefly, she willingly goes back into stasis.
  • In chapter 10, she returns from this, but not as herself.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: In Kabbalah, Gebura is the sphere of divine punishment and strictness and the counterpart to Chesed. It is the enforcement of rules and facing the consequences of your actions.
• Robot Soldier: Technically. She was built to face breaching Abnormalities and suppress them violently, hence why she was equipped with a sturdy consitution and given a weapon. However, this led to a very logical conclusion in the form of her outer skin layer wearing away, leaving others to see her joints in their full form.
• She's Back: Temporarily in the first chapter, although her personality and memories aren't quite back.
• Shout-Out: Gebura naturally looks more robot-like than the others, wears an all-red outfit and when she returns, has black sclerae and red eyes to show that she's Brainwashed and Crazy. Gebura basically went Crocker tier. This resemblance is likely intentional, as she utters the line 'Cease reproduction' (i.e 'stop fucking around') and also this:
  Gebura: You're lucky you're Chesed.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: All the girls have detached sleeves, but she has none at all. It's likely to invoke this trope.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Is implied to have been this with Chesed.
• Weapon for Intimidation: What Khamael is now, more or less. Now that L Corp is gone, she uses it to intimidate unruly guests in the cafe once she wakes up. This is not to say that Khamael is useless as a genuine weapon though - quite the contrary.
• Worf Had the Flu: In the ending, she is only able to fight the Ensemble to a draw; her full strength is being restricted by the fact that Malkuth and Ayin had taken Khamael from her not so long before.

Chesed

"And hey, I see that you're an automata too, just like me. Good for us."

Lovingkindness

Height: 183 cm

Favorite: A good cup of coffee

Role: Second Floor Manager/Barista

Color: Blue

Wish: 'I want to be faithful and trustworthy.'

Ability: Abnormality hypnotism

The first automata Malkuth meets. He works at the second floor and seems to have sway over it, but his exact role is currently unknown.

• Amplifier Artifact: While it's never stated as to how exactly Zadkiel works, it can be inferred it's this, as it is used by Carmen to amplify the Pianist's melody. From this it can also be assumed that the hypnotic power is actually Chesed's own, and he just uses his scepter to amplify it.
• Chekhov's Gun: Zadkiel. Or more accurately, the gem in it. Carmen breaks the staff to steal the top half. She then uses it to amplify the Pianist's melody in order to control the Abnormalities and the Ensemble. Luckily, Ayin and Malkuth retrieve it and use it for good.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Blue.
• Custom-Built Host: For Daniel, a City elite roped into L Corp's business, who died after the Welfare team was annihilated through his choice.
• Exposition Fairy: He provides the first worldbuilding information, and informs that they are both automata as well.
• Forced Sleep: What he did to the Abnormality in chapter 1.
• Meaningful Appearance: One of the key items of the sphere of Chesed is the staff or scepter. His is named 'Zadkiel' ^note  Meaning 'God is my righteousness' .
• Modest Royalty: It is not immediately obvious that he used to be one of the richer people (in fact one of the elite) when he was still human and that he is implied to manage the second floor in the same way Yesod manages the ground floor. The only other signs of that detail is that he has quite an amount of connections, i.e finding an independant distributor of eggs relatively easy (after the City has almost ran dry of them) and Tiphereth also gives a Fixer catalogue to him as to provide for the second floor.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Sort of. He is noted to be dressed the fanciest out of everyone Malkuth has met. He's dressed in what's best described as a ridiculously pimped-out blue dress with a waist ribbon that's longer than Malkuth's.
• Power-Strain Blackout: Suffers this after putting the stray Abnormality to Forced Sleep in chapter 1.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Chesed is the kind and caring counterpart to Gebura. It is associated with generosity and equanimity.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Subverted. We don't see him outside of Inochi no Ki often, but as he isn't even fazed by visiting the Carnival, we can infer that he is more or less an Unfazed Everyman when it comes to the City's shadier places like the Backstreets.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: According to him, he often argued with Gebura, but ultimately misses her mostly for who she was. He spends a good half of chapter 10 worrying about her.
• Wrecked Weapon: In chapter 10, his staff gets broken in half. Oddly enough, when he finds it, the top half has been taken.

Upper floor

Also called the third floor. The management resides here, and Angela's atelier is also here. They have the least contact with the guests.

• Deliberately Monochrome: Binah and Hokma dress in black and grey, respectively. While Binah's clothing has hints of yellow owing to her Arbiter past, Hokma's outfit only consists of grey. This gives them a sense of authority. Angela also wears a black kimono underneath her coat.
• Foil: Ultimately, Hokma and Binah. Whereas Binah has a hard time coping with her currect artificial existence, Hokma is forced to behave like a robot in order not to go insane. Binah shows a rebellious streak in her introductory chapter, intending to leave the cafe forever, and Hokma shows an almost slave-like obedience to Angela and never leaves the cafe by himself ( before they're all forced to in chapter 10). Both of them were heavily impacted by Master, but for Binah it was simply her robotic body itself and for Hokma it was the things that were implemented in his.
• Mythology Gag: This floor is composed of the Atziluth characters, which is the upper layer.

Angela

"You can call me Angela, and I am the owner of this place. Pleased to meet you."

^{Click here to see her past self}

Knowledge

Height: 170 cm

Favorite: ???

Role: Director

"Color": Transparancy

Wish: 'I want to know.'

Ability: Unknown

The director of the cafe ^note  And likely the representative of Da'at in terms of names. She is an automata as well, and the very first one.

• Benevolent A.I.: She's really nice to the other automata, and even to Malkuth. It's possibly her way of making up for her Bad Boss behavior she was forced to adapt in the past.
• Bookcase Passage: Owns one. It leads down to the basement and is accessed by touching the 'Da'at' orb on the Tree of Life mini model in the bookcase in question.
• Custom-Built Host: Was intended to be one for Carmen.
• Custom Uniform: Her shoes are black instead of brown. Moreover, it's hard to see because it's black, but her collar is folded in the wrong way.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In-Universe. Angela, being the first automata ever made, wore business clothes instead of the modified kimonos her successors (the Sephiroth) ended up wearing, and her gem was also larger and prominently present in her chest. Her post-rebellion design is much more in line with her fellow automata.
• Exposition Beam: Held on to Ayin's memories somehow for some reason in the final chapter, and then gives them all back at once. He needs a moment to sit down first.
• Flawed Prototype: Very much so, even though it isn't obvious at first. Ayin had intended for her to be the only automata, a robotic creation that contained the soul of Carmen...except Angela doesn't. Convinced that he must've made an error (he technically didn't), he continued making automata like Angela, who all did end up serving their intended purpose. To say it spiralled out of control would be putting it lightly.
• High-Class Gloves: The only automata wearing them (other than Yesod, who has his own reasons) also happens to run the entire business. She gives them to Argalia too, likely as another part of Morphic Resonance as he had them too while alive.
• Mysterious Past: Of a sort. While it's implied that her past is more or less the same as is portrayed in Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina, how exactly she came to manage a cafe on the location of L Corp is unknown.
  • The bigger noodle is as to how District 12 has not fallen into chaos after L Corp fell, implying that Inochi no Ki is important to the District...somehow. The reason is that they are still in posession of the Cogito Singularity, as they still maintain the building by using PE-boxes.
• Mythology Gag: Her clothing, especially her coat, highly draws from her outfit in Library of Ruina.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Not Angela herself (to a certain height at least), but the automata created by her tend to look quite different from those that she didn't create. Probably the largest trend is that both Qlipha and Kether/Ayin show much more skin, in particular of their legs ^note  Qlipha's skirt barely goes past his knees, whereas Kether/Ayin's 'kimono' doesn't even try . Both of them also wear tiaras, which none of the others do ^note  not counting Yesod as his serves to camouflage the fact that the crescent moon charm is part of his body.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: A little different in that she represents a sphere she's not named after, Da'at. Da'at is a 'fake' Sephirah that represents the unity of all existing Sephiroth.
• Replacement Goldfish: Ayin (or 'Master') tried bringing Carmen back by attempting to stuff her soul into an AI body, a.k.a the first automata. He deemed the result a failure and steeled his resolve to make more automata to serve in the facility.
• Robot Girl: Angela is, in and out, 100% automata. She was given the full capability to think and feel like humans can because Ayin fully intended her to be a vessel for Carmen's soul. Unfortunately for him, Carmen's soul isn't a normal (transferrable) human soul, 'merely' leaving Angela with a copy of Carmen's memories.
• Robot Master: A curious case since, well, she is a robot herself. Chapter 6 has Enoch commenting on that Angela can create automata just as well as Master can, and that she is responsible for creating Tiphereth's fused body. Given that she regularly maintains the bodies of the other automata and that she could shut down the Church of Gears worshippers back in chapter 3, this doesn't come as a big surprise.
  • Even though it's nowhere stated as to how she became this, given that she was the first automata, who perceived things so much slower it'd be unbearable for anyone, she had probably seen Ayin create everyone else's bodies in this changed perception as well.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the situation in chapter 9 goes belly-up, Angela decides it's time to leave Quercus Village for good.
• The Stoic: At the beginning of chapter 8, her gem is removed from her so that she cannot be tracked by Hokma anymore. Even though it's revealed that the gem an automata carries is their Security Blanket, Angela reacts with a mere sarcastic comment on it happening instead of crying. It could be that she was faking that attitude, though.
• Supernatural Golden Eyes: She has golden eyes and is highly implied to not be just an automata, but the very first one ever created.
• Takes One to Kill One: Because she is an implied to be fully artificial automata (and one that regularly repairs other ones to boot), she figures out how to mess with the internal systems of the Church of Gears worshippers because, in her words, 'they are more robot than human'.
• The Dog Bites Back: After having gone through so much torture thanks to her creator, she steals the Seed of Light and lets it only burn for three days. In addition, however, she forbids him from fusing with the Light and leaves him as a Wandering Jew, only to lock him inside a body that's probably the worst for him to be in.
• Tranquil Fury: And how. It's to the point that one can only make out that she's very angry by way of some external clues and whatever she's saying. Due to this, it's also unknown whether she's genuinely still angry at Malkuth or not, because we see that moment from Malkuth's perspective. When she finally talks to Ayin again and returns his memories to him, she essentially gives him a Breaking Speech without even raising her voice.
• Trap Is the Only Option: There are hints that she is fully aware that the claim that Ayin has returned is fake. She still goes after it because anyone who claims this, must have the gall to challenge Angela personally.
• Uniformity Exception: Everyone has the collar of their kimono-like clothing fold left over right, which is the correct way. However, Angela has her collar folded right over left, which is admittedly hard to spot because she wears a black kimono. Considering that she is the only one who does not wear her clothing correctly, this is likely on purpose to differentiate her from the others visually - especially considering that there are people who wear it this way, who are usually dead. As turns out, Angela is the only automata not to posess a soul at all, because Ayin could not transfer Carmen's soul to her.
• "You!" Exclamation: In her normal manner to Carmen who has hijacked the body Angela made for Argalia.

Binah

"I hope I can be entertained at the very least."

Understanding

Height: 174 cm

Favorite: Any tea that isn't pungent or badly made

Role: Administrator/Tea server

"Color": Black

Wish: 'I wish to Face the Fear and break the Cycle.'

Ability: Fairy/Pillar

One of the two automata at the upper floor. In chapter 5, she has been repaired by Angela and has awoken. However, there may be some parts that are still damaged...

• The Ace: Malkuth finds out that she doesn't really have to introduce Binah to new concepts all that much. She proceeds to outdo her in order taking and delivery as well as the decantery. Binah is also a very competent fighter who doesn't even need to lay a finger on anyone to send them to a world of pain.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 5, in which she was also introduced.
• Character Development: In a very subtle manner. In her introductory chapter, she referred to Inochi no Ki as 'your cafe'. Come chapter 7, she already calls it by name, and in chapter 10, she finally refers it to as 'our cafe'.
  Chapter 5!Binah: [...] I just need to be far enough from your cafe.
  Chapter 7!Binah: Can you be honest and say to them that you prefer living here at Inochi no Ki?
  Chapter 10!Binah: [...] He has been asleep ever since Hana found him in the rubble of what was once our cafe.
• Cruel Mercy: In her view. Malkuth and Enoch brought her back to the cafe after she wanted to die, and Angela made the final repairs to her body. Although she does now realize that she is in fact an automata, it's going to be very hard for her to deal with her existence even though she's not suffering from agnosia anymore - and there is no guarantee that she won't try to off herself in the future.
• Custom-Built Host: For Garion, an Arbiter who died in a fight with Kali.
• Damage Over Time: Binah's main way of damaging people is by inflicting so-called Fairies on them that deal damage to them whenever they move and fades over time. This is the mechanic behind Fairy in Library of Ruina.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Related to the above, the story makes the Fairies that Binah uses function a lot like taser darts.
• Empty Eyes: The thing that Malkuth thinks stands out about her the most are her black, lightless eyes. This explicitly contrasts the original, where the protagonist admired their bright and beautiful eyes. Meanwhile, Binah's eyes are compared to black holes.
• Irony: She's the exact thing that the Head has forbidden, and that as a former Arbiter (in this universe, it even was the reason for her decommission).
• Mythology Gag: Her outfit is basically a reimagination of her Arbiter outfit, refitted with the obi and kimono elements to make it fit the AU.
• Playing with Syringes: She has serums and syringes with her that she has collected from the dead remnants of the Claws that stormed L Corp. However, she doesn't use them herself. What she does do is give Serum R to Enoch in chapter 7. After Tiphereth uses it, she uses an unnamed serum (likely Serum K from its looks and effect) to calm her down.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Binah is the feminine counterpart to Hokma that represents 'Yin' qualities.
• Static Stun Gun: The story integrates the mechanic of Fairies in the lore. The result is that they function much like taser darts but more realistic, as there are no outside visibilities of the effect or static shock; they merely paralyze their target in place as it causes even the slightest movement of the target to hurt.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Despite her decommission, she still wears the signature colors and hexagons of Arbiters. This is a minor plot point as Malkuth sees them and swears she's seen them somewhere before, only to later realize that Zena wore them too.
• Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed. Not counting Yesod, she is the most scowling and sour staff member of Inochi no Ki, but this is mostly in the first half of her introductory chapter, where she is still believing she is an Arbiter. Afterwards, she is mostly just depressed and trying to come to terms with her body, so much that Angela eventually assigns Hokma to watch over her so that she doesn't commit suicide one day.
• Tomato in the Mirror: After Binah woke up, she has received sustained damage that resulted in agnosia. Hence, she did not realize that she was an automata and thus decommissioned as she's the very thing the Head strives to prevent existing. By the end of chapter 5, she is only slowly starting to come to terms with her existence.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Tea. It's not directly visible, but she recommends a certain blend of tea to a guest with heartburn. This has a real-life scientific basis.
• Tranquil Fury: Binah spends quite an amount of her introductory chapter being angry (mainly at Malkuth). However, during these parts, she doesn't even do so much as raise her voice all that much.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Part of what made her want to die at the end of chapter 5. Because she is decommissioned, she isn't an Arbiter anymore. Not knowing as to what use she could be, she intentionally goes into the Backstreets.

Hokma

"Affirmative. Unit designated as [Hokma] is present."

Wisdom

Height: 170 cm

Favorite: Lemon tea

Role: Administrator

"Color": Gray

Wish: 'I wish to embrace the past and Build the Future.'

Ability: Unknown

One of the two automata at the upper floor. Introduced alongside Binah in chapter 5. He is tasked with keeping an eye on Binah on Angela's behalf, and make sure that she won't kill herself anytime soon.

• Early-Bird Cameo: He makes his appearance as early as chapter 1, albeit only through dialogue. That is, his past incarnation.
• Custom-Built Host: For Benjamin, a close colleague of Ayin who helped creating Angela.
• Empty Shell: He's heavily hinted to be this, aside from having the behavior down, and the things he says are often simple statements of things happening instead of anything that shows personality. Judging from what Angela says to Kether, the voices are intrusive to such an extent that he's genuinely struggling to keep his personality and even remain sane.
  Angela: [...] Remember what you did to poor Hokma - or should I say, Benjamin? You filled his body with timekeeping devices and their 'voices' are driving him mad if he doesn't behave exactly like the robotic shell you put him in. [...] .
• Hearing Voices: Says that this is the reason why he uses Robo Speak, as he can hear the voices of 'things' that a certain 'Master' put in his body, which he is trying to ignore. It is unknown what those 'things' are, but a guess can be made as to the identity of 'Master'.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Hokma is the masculine counterpart to Binah that represents 'Yang' qualities.
• Robo Speak: He consistently talks this way, but at the end of chapter 5 he tells Binah that he dislikes doing it and he simply has to because of the 'voice' of certain things that were implemented in his body. According to Binah and how his wish is worded, it wasn't always this way.
  • In addition, in the text, all names he mentions are also bracketed (including his own), hinting that they likely sound concatenated.
  Hokma: Result negative. Units designated as [Binah] and [Malkuth] were not found on this perimeter.
• Third-Person Person: Always refers to himself as 'this unit', and occasionally even 'it' (despite the fact that the story itself simply uses he/him pronouns).

Others

Master Unmarked spoilers

^{Click here to see him SPOILERS.}

Crown

^{Click here to see} Kether (MASSIVE SPOILERS)

A figure mentioned by Hokma. Is reported in District 12 at the tail end of chapter 6, after which Angela goes to investigate that claim. He's actually locked inside Malkuth's subconscious by Angela, who prevented him from fusing with the Light. At the end of the story, he is granted his own body and given the name 'Kether'.

• Barred from the Afterlife: Turns out, he couldn't become one with the Light due to Angela not letting him.
• The Beastmaster: Can manipulate the Cogito in Malkuth's body to control Abnormalities.
• Capital Letters Are Magic: When addressed by Netzach secretly, he does so as 'He'. Afterwards, it's shown that Master is always, always addressed with a capital letter...but Kether isn't.
• Cool Crown: Gains a simple, cute tiara upon becoming an automata, seemingly in reference to how 'Kether' means 'Crown'.
• Custom-Built Host: He's the one creating them (minus Qlipha), and it's eventually done to himself, too, in the form of Kether.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In the form of dialogue in chapter 1.
• He's Back!: If Hokma's detection of Ayin in the District is the real deal, then he got back into the City somehow from becoming one with the Light (as seems likely). Or not. The first claim of this was fake, but it turns out, he's really still there - just somewhere else.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Still wears it as a ghost, and it also returns when he's turned into an automata himself.
• Mad Scientist: Attempting to create impossibly-durable, powerful humanoid servants by stuffing human souls into robot bodies by way of science is not exactly something a sane scientist considers doing.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Subverted. Sure, he's a man in the body of a Robot Girl, but it's already occupied by Elijah, who doesn't like it one bit that she has to share. This part is what Angela even considers to be an extra punishment. Also helps that they have Barbie Doll Anatomy.
• Meaningful Appearance: A more literal example than the others. 'Kether' means 'Crown', represented as the tiara he wears as an automata.
• Meaningful Rename: Goes from Ayin to Kether upon becoming an automata. Not only does this fall entirely in the naming pattern of the others, it's also the implied name of the Architecture Team back in L Corp. It may also serve to help him leave his past self behind him.
• Mirror Character: The first moments he consciously experiences are near identical to Malkuth's at the start of the story, and his pose in the reference is nearly identical to hers as well (but slightly leaning towards one side). It is further reinforced by this◊, which mirrors the scene from Library of Ruina 's opening, with Malkuth with her eyes closed towards the dark, and Kether with his eyes open towards the light.
• Must Make Amends: This is the exact reason as to why he was turned into an automata himself. It was Malkuth's explicit request to do so for the sake of him setting things right.
  Angela: She wanted me to separate you from her and give you a body of your own, in order for you to personally fix things. Remember what you did to poor Hokma - or should I say, Benjamin? You filled his body with timekeeping devices and their 'voices' are driving him mad if he doesn't behave exactly like the robotic shell you put him in. Those kinds of things.
• No Name Given: Is only addressed by Hokma, but as Angela grows angry at the message of his potential return, she says the following, from which we can infer it can only be Ayin:
  Angela: That man. I will never forgive him!
  • It turns out that this is because of an enforced form of Insistent Terminology. According to Enoch, he programmed all automata to address him with 'Master'. If they attempt to utter his real name, their bodies will automatically default to saying 'Master' instead. Does This Remind Youof Anything is in full effect here. Eventually, this is subverted by Malkuth herself and circumvented when he becomes an automata and is granted a Meaningful Rename anyway.
• Post Humous Character: He became one with the Light a long time ago. Or, that is what Angela wants the other automata to believe. In fact, Angela forbade him from doing so, and got rid of his body, leaving him as a wandering ghost. After Malkuth lost her memories, Angela locked him inside her subconscious.
• Prophet Eyes: Because he's a ghost. He also has this effect on Malkuth once they properly start 'cooperating'.
• Regained Memories Sequence:
  Then, it all comes back. How he met Carmen. How he lost her. How he tried to bring her back. How so many people died, only for him to trap them in a mechanical prison. How his plan was foiled and how he awaited the very same fate.

  'Do you remember now?' Angela asks coldly.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Kether is the uppermost sphere on the tree that represents the holiest of things, and the contact between man and deity. It is the destination of the journey. Despite being the highest, it is connected to the lowest Sephirah, Malkuth, symbolized as 'Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether'.
• Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: In one of the automata he created himself, no less.
• Shoot the Dog: Mostly to Angela.
  • He created her to serve as a vessel for Carmen's soul, so he specifically equipped her with the full capability to think, understand and feel like a human can. Upon her awakening, he immediately turned his back towards her, deeming her a failure, and instead went on to perfect the craft of making creations like Angela instead of apologizing at all or explaining his behavior.
  • Afterwards, he converted Elijah (whom he left to die very painfully even though he could have interfered very easily), Garion (an Arbiter from the Head), Lisa and Enoch (literal children), Gabriel (who died of insanity as a result of Elijah's death), Kali (a very respected figure), Daniel (who died in guilt over his choices that annihilated the Welfare Team), Giovanni (whom he lured into a false sense of security with a fake promise and then 'medicated' him to death), Michelle (who performed suicide after ratting out the old L Corp) and last but not least, his working partner Benjamin into automata just like Angela. This way, he trapped their souls forever in order to serve L Corp as durable, powerful department heads who don't bleed and can't physically die - enforced by the abilities or weapons he gave them.
  • A special mention should go to Benjamin and Gabriel, however. Ayin wanted to prevent another incident like when Michelle ratted L Corp out, so he forced Gabriel (now Yesod) to periodically eat memories on the threat of 'breaking'. He also filled the new body of Benjamin (now Hokma) with timekeeping devices and other technology for no apparent reason. From what Binah infers, Hokma didn't always behave and talk like a robot, implying that the voices he hears have gotten worse over time.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Neither of them like the presence of the other and the fact that they're forced into Sharing a Body, but by the time Malkuth is aware of it, she's in such deep trouble that Ayin is truly the only real backup she has (as all other automata have been Brought Down to Normal and she had sent Gebura away with the wounded). She also points this out:
  Malkuth: It's not like I have a choice...! Honest to goodness can't believe that you of all people are the only thing I have left to guide me!
  • This is also the most positive way one can view the thing between him and Angela after the latter has revived him as an automata. Angela very explicitly points out that she did it to honor Malkuth's last wish and that it's thanks to her that he's given a new chance. Their conversation ends with the note that they both have a long, arduous road to go.
• Trigger Phrase: 'Keter is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Keter'. When uttered to Malkuth, it'll undo the lock and he'll start waking up.
• The Unfettered: Chapter 9 reveals that after blatantly breaking the Head's AI Ethics Law by creating Angela, he fully intended to keep breaking it by continuing to make more automata. And in the end, he sure did break it like there's no tomorrow.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When he turns into an automata, the clothing that he wears leaves nothing to the imagination as you can see on the image. Despite this, the temporary amnesiac Ayin/Kether doesn't bat an eye at it and neither do the others (or pretend not to at least).
• Walking Spoiler: He's only referred to in chapter 5, but he doesn't play a role until much later. His current whereabouts are shrouded in spoilers, and his new form as an automata named Kether is the most massive spoiler of the story.
• Wandering Jew: He has nothing to return to, yet is banned from entering the Light as intended. Currently, he's stuck in Malkuth's body, without any way to get out or any other place to stay in. He's finally relieved from this fate as he's granted his own body in the end.
• We Can Rebuild Him: He tried to do this to Carmen as he attempted to transfer her soul into an artificial body. After deeming the result a failure, he kept honing this ability by doing this exact thing to several of his employees and to Garion, as those succeeded as intended.

Argalia Unmarked spoilers

^{Click here to see his new body}

Husk

The Blue Reverberation. He ended up wounded somehow, and Angela reluctantly makes a new body for him. In chapter 9, he becomes a temporary employee in Inochi no Ki under the name of Qlipha.

• Always a Bigger Fish: His body gets hijacked by Carmen, the Man Behind the Man.
• And I Must Scream: If Carmen is right, then there is still something left of Argalia inside the body that she took over. It seems to be true, as Carmen continues to pose as 'Qlipha' by using his voice.
• Armor-Piercing Question: To Malkuth.
  Malkuth: And I'm sure your memories will resurface that way!
  Qlipha: Have yours?
• Big Bad: The leader of the Ensemble that has been targeting Inochi no Ki for some reason.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sneaks into Inochi no Ki under a neutral pretense, and even becomes an employee for some time. Then, he violently burns down the building with assistance from the Crying Children.
• Custom-Built Host: Qlipha is one for Argalia, who suffered major, unexplained injuries.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Related to Morphic Resonance. Due to Color Fixers basically being legends and him having laid low in his past life (at least for some time), there are few people who actually recognize him.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Whoever is the cause of his severe injuries, we know that they managed to take on a Color Fixer and emerge victorious.
• Dwindling Party: The Ensemble he leads keeps getting runins with the staff of Inochi no Ki, and either get their memory wiped (Tanya, Eileen) or are dealt with in another way (Elena, Jae-Heon), in such a manner that it's a major setback. While it doesn't make them leave, it does make them think twice, and in Eileen and Tanya's cases, it is unknown what Argalia will do with them as they are left in the same state as the one Malkuth woke up in.
• Emergency Transformation: After getting lethally wounded, the rest of the remaining Ensemble ^note  Only Tanya is shown, but we can infer that it is in the best interests of the entire Ensemble to do so set out to find someone who can create a new body for him. After forcing Angela to do this, his new body is created in chapter 8. At the end of that chapter, a barely alive Argalia wakes up and asks to finally inhibit his new body.
• Grand Theft Me: Surprisingly, on the receiving end of this. While it's unseen exactly how it happened, Carmen hijacked his body and temporarily poses as him using his voice. According to her, there is still a bit of Argalia left in it.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Not entirely. He's implied to still have all his memories, but the Warp train employees not being that experienced in putting automata back into place has messed around with his internal system quite a bit. He does act this part, however.
• Light Is Not Good: Has white hair, is dressed in bright blue and gold and even wears a small crown. Is also the Big Bad who eventually sends the Crying Children to burn the cafe down.
• Meaningful Rename: 'Qlipha' means 'husk' or 'shell', implying that his body is merely a shell for his soul. 'Qlipha' is also the singular form of 'Qliphoth', which was a term back in Lobotomy Corporation that denoted how far Abnormalities were on their way to a breach. It denotes evil spirits or obstacles that are closely related to the Sephirah. Together, Angela basically named him 'a husk that is an obstacle'.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Qlipha are obstacles that prevent the Sephirah from becoming their ideal state.
• Morphic Resonance: His new body looks incredibly like his human self, as he still retains his blue eyes, white hair, gloves and general palette. Given that the others took it upon themselves to find someone who could make said body, it is likely that they still wanted him to look like his old self.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Due to being made by Angela instead of 'Master', he looks vastly different than all other automata. His clothing is more Magical Girl-like instead of the kimono-based attire that the Inochi no Ki employees have, and his gem is inside the little tiara he wears and not inside a ribbon. Furthermore, his design also shows blatant Fanservice, by favor of his midriff showing and having a rather short skirt ^note  While not as visible in the image, it actually reaches just below the knees, and just barely .
• Not Quite Dead: He is introduced as heavily wounded, but he still manages to wake up and eventually inhibit a new body.
• Reused Character Design: The design of his automata form is actually the exact same as that of a now former Original Character of the creator, which referenced Argalia heavily. After a falling out of love, the design was refitted for the story.
  • It should be noted, however, that the Original Character had a brother◊ who took after Angelica, whose design is not refitted. However, it is likely that if it were to be Angelica who was turned instead, that design would be reused.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Related to Non-Standard Character Design above. He's the only antagonist to get a proper design as of yet to boot.
• Trauma Conga Line: This universe really has it for Argalia. After getting lethally wound, he spends some time on the verge of death before getting to inhabit a robotic doll body. Then less-than-competent Warp train employees mess with his internal system, heavily affecting his communication. He manages to burn down Inochi no Ki with help from the Crying Children, but is caught unconscious and promptly sent off to Hana. There, Carmen hijacks his body but still not entirely and his hands get cut off by Malkuth and Ayin. In the end, he's locked up underground without it being known if his soul is still in there or not.
• Voices Are Not Mental: Carmen effortlessly uses Argalia's voice to pose as him. Angela recognizes her from the moment she hijacks his body anyway.
• We Can Rebuild Him: According to Tanya, this is what the Ensemble decided once he got banged up a little too bad. Given that full-body replacements are common in the City, it's a little hard to blame them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown whether Carmen gave Argalia his body back, or if he passed on. Angela says that 'the body Carmen used is locked underground', suggesting the latter, but given that there was enough of Argalia left that Carmen could believably pose as him at the time she hijacked him, it cannot be ruled out that the body is not empty.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Is notably the only automata who has white hair, and also notably the only one who is inhabited by an evil soul from the get-go.

Spoiler character

Carmen

^{Click here to see her}

Knowledge

A woman who killed herself years ago. Ayin tried to revive her by attempting to stuff her soul into an artificial body.

• Ambiguously Human: Angela says that Carmen's soul 'isn't that of an ordinary human' and that it's why Angela only ended up with a copy of her memories instead of her soul like intended.
• Body Horror: Her hands get cut off by Ayin and Malkuth using Khamael, to prevent her from using the half of Zadkiel.
• Brown Note: Makes use of the Pianist's melody to torment District 12.
• Grand Theft Me: She takes over Argalia's new body somewhere in the middle of chapter 10. While the exact reason is unknown, she says that she 'won't rely on anyone anymore' to achieve her goals, implying that she is doing so in order to get a more direct grip on the situation.
• Man Behind the Man: Arguably, she is the entire reason why the automata even exist, as well as the one who has orchestrated everything that the Ensemble has been doing.
• Post Humous Character: By the time of the story, she's dead. However, her death has proven to make things worse for just about everyone.