Characters / AI: The Somnium Files

AI: The Somnium Files | Main Index
Protagonists: Kaname Date | Mizuki Date
AI: The Somnium Files (Iris Sagan) | AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative

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Characters introduced in AI: The Somnium Files.

Protagonists

• Kaname Date
• Mizuki Okiura/Date
• Aiba and nirvanA Initiative protagonists

The Sagans (UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST GAME)

A-set / Iris Sagan

See her page for more info

Hitomi Sagan

Hitomi Sagan

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Dorah Fine (English)

Iris's mother and Mizuki's teacher. She seems to have a connection with Date, as she appears unconscious in one of Date's dreams at the start of the game.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: She would've been nineteen when Iris was born.
• All for Nothing: Hitomi's attempts to save Iris from her brain cancer rather tragically become this after every route save the Resolution Route, in all of which she dies.
• Blackmail: She tries to use Manaka's corpse to coerce So into giving up enough money for Iris's surgery. It successfully rattles him; unfortunately Date discovers the body before Hitomi can hide it again.
• Broken Tears: In the Annihilation route; she completely breaks down and cries into Date's chest after the murder of her daughter, begging him to find the killer for Iris.
• Cool Teacher: Is one to Mizuki; She's the one to cure Mizuki's aphonia in the Resolution and Iris Routes. She also used to be one to Ota too, when he was in elementary school.
• Declaration of Protection: She promised in front of Manaka's corpse that she'd protect Iris with her life.
  "Don't worry about the baby. I'll protect her. No matter what."
• Demoted to Extra: In the first game, Hitomi's actions shape a lot of how the story plays out, having a personal resentment towards the Big Bad, being Date's Love Interest from a past identity, and her daughter being used as a plot token by several characters. By comparison, she has a fraction of that screentime in nirvanA Initiative, only interacting with the heroes a few times for non-pivotal scenes and staying out of the action.
• Friend to All Children: She's a teacher for a living and is very caring and attentive to her students. She looks after Mizuki after the latter is finished recounting her testimony to the police and, in the Anhilation route, is devastated when she learns Ota was killed besides Iris.
• Good Parents: A very good and caring mom to her adopted daughter Iris.
• Love Interest: She and Date have a bit of Ship Tease throughout the game, but what really cements her in this role is the reveal that Date is Falco, her lover who went through several body swaps and had his original body landed in jail. By the end of the game, Date does show interest in rekindling their relationship, but not until he cleans himself up a bit.
• Nice Girl: She's a very patient, understanding person, and is the one of the two unambiguously Good Parents in the game.
• Mama Bear: She's willing to blackmail a congressman in order to save her daughter's life. She also tags along with Date to rescue Iris from Saito, putting herself in mortal danger fro the time.
• Maybe Ever After: The ending of The Somnium Files has her interested in restarting her relationship with Falco, now Date, but he feels uncomfortable about it due to lingering guilt about shooting her years earlier by accident. By the end of nirvanA Initiative, they aren't explicitly together, but they are seen cuddling rather shamelessly in front of their respective daughters (and Bibi).
• Morality Pet: For Falco/Date; he tried to leave the life of a killer to be with her, only for a string of events to occur that meant he could probably never see her again, the only comfort being that she'd be out of harm's way from his work.
• Not So Above It All: For all her maturity, she still finds some of Date's perverted antics when he was Yagyu as hilarious and nirvanA Initiative shows her having no problem engaging in petplay with Date in front of others. Granted, this may be due to the long absence beforehand, but she clearly is enjoying herself as much as Date is.
• Out of Focus: As central as she is to the first game, in the sequel she has greatly reduced prominence, only appearing in three scenes.
• Revenge: She wanted to avenge Manaka's death, but this eventually subsided as Iris grew older. By the time she ends up taking action against So, it's not revenge as a motivator as much as it is saving Iris.
• Ship Tease: With Date, especially after he's back in his original body and regains his memories.
• Single-Target Sexuality: She's Date-sexual, given that she's never stated to have dated anyone but Falco before or after he entered her life, and she's quite eager to pick up where they left off when he returns. He disappears for six more years in nirvanA Initiative, and just like before she's quick to make up for lost time when his memories return.
• Situational Hand Switch: Date notices that Hitomi is left-handed when she picks up a teacup. When he asks her about this, she and Iris explain that she used to be right-handed until she lost the use of her right arm.
• Taking the Bullet: The nerves in her right shoulder were destroyed, rendering that arm unusable, due to her jumping in front of a bullet intended for her then-love interest. More context is added to the scene as the game goes along, revealing that Rohan Kumakura and Boss broke into her house and attempted to kill Falco...except Falco and Rohan had swapped bodies, and Rohan was planning to use Falco's body to carry out the hit that he ordered on Hitomi and Iris. Hitomi had no idea what was going on, and thus took a bullet intended for her would-be killer.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: At the end of the game, Hitomi is granted closure for almost all of the traumatic events that have occurred throughout the game: the killer of her best friends is taken down, the man who covered up said killing has his career irreparably damaged, her daughter is able to receive life-saving treatment for a brain tumor, and she finally reunites with the love of her life. All in all, a pretty sweet deal.
• Trauma Button: On the routes where Date saves Iris in time before she's sawed in half, Hitomi mentions during a hospital visit how she kept being reminded of when Manaka died, Iris's predicament triggering the same dread she felt when Manaka went missing. This also doubles as a clue to the reveal of Manaka being Iris's birth mother.
• Trauma Conga Line: Where to begin? First, she loses her best friend after pleading her not to do something risky. Then she has to discover her best friend's corpse and see it being desecrated by a mob boss and his men, then she has to take care of a baby mostly by herself with the fear that if the true parentage comes out, it would endanger both their lives. Just when things seem to be finally going her way by way of a kind and dedicated boyfriend, she ends up being shot and losing all use of her right arm and her boyfriend ends up being arrested. Then she finds out that her adopted daughter has a brain tumor that leaves her with about a year to live, and the only hope of saving her is an operation Hitomi cannot hope to afford. And then her other best friend Renju is killed. This is followed by the fact that her daughter then gets kidnapped- she's forced to bring Date to a location, only to get kidnapped herself and nearly die. Even WORSE in the Annihilation route, she has to experience losing Iris, and then gets kidnapped and blown up. This lady desperately needs a break.
• True Companions: Was this with Manaka and Renju. Manaka's murder lead to Hitomi and Renju caring for her daughter and keeping her body hidden for years so they could use it to blackmail So Sejima for covering up her death. And besides Date, Hitomi is one of the few people Renju entrusted care of Mizuki to, even moving school districts so Mizuki could attend Hitomi's class.
• Unexplained Recovery: Rare non-death example. Her right arm is able to move again at the Dance Party Ending that happens at one of the endings despite her arm getting shot. However, in nirvanA Initiative, a similar ending has her arm remain limp, suggesting that the earlier case was erroneous.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her plan to blackmail So Sejima with Manaka's corpse accidentally causes Date to temporarily go crazy thinking that he can change reality by interacting with Somniums, which may lead to him buying into Iris' tumor-addled delusions about a global conspiracy that leads to her death in the end while forgetting about the current serial killer case.

Police Force

Boss

Boss / Shizue Kuranushi

Voiced by: Yuko Kaida (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English)

The head of ABIS and thus Date's, well, boss. Boss is a woman with a playful, flirtatious personality yet she can also be very forceful and stern when the situation calls for it. She likes to maintain a festive atmosphere around ABIS's offices.

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• Benevolent Boss: She consistently tries to support Date and keep a close eye on his wellbeing, frequently checking in on him throughout the case and offering friendly advice. In nirvanA Initiative, this extends to Ryuki, Mizuki and Bibi as well, even trying to give Ryuki a fair chance after he mistakenly shoots her adopted daughter.
• Big Good: As the leader of ABIS and the heroes' direct superior; Boss has a lot of connections and influence that she can use to benefit ABIS and their allies.
• Blackmail: Exaggerated. She seems to have blackmail whenever she needs to reveal her hand. And she's not above using it to get what she needs.
  • Early in the game, she blackmails the medical director of the hospital Mizuki is staying at in order to get her released.
    Boss: "I got permission from the hospital. Apparently the hospital director has been 'poking' a few of the nurses. So I asked him about that and all the sudden, he seemed very open to the idea."
    Date: "That's not permission, that's blackmail."
    Boss: "Eh, same thing."
  • In the Resolution route, it's also revealed that six years ago, she blackmailed So Sejima into allowing Date to continue existing in Saito's body and lying to the public that Saito was overseas. In the ending, she also pulls some strings with HQ to pay for Iris' surgery.
  • In nirvanA Initiative, she pulled strings to ensure Pewter could continue running the tech department of ABIS instead of doing his full sentence in prison. And then there's the "Skills" section of her character bio. It's also one of her attacks as a Kusemon in Iris' Somnium, which kills So in one hit.
    Skills: Finding Weaknesses and Exploiting Them to Ensure Total Obedience.
• Broken Pedestal: Each game has a route where the protagonist turns against Boss.
  • In Mizuki's route in the first game, Date becomes disillusioned with both her and ABIS as a whole when So blackmails them into taking him off the case even though it's obvious at that point that So was the culprit, and rushes off to bring him in his own way. On the ride to the Sejima Estate, Date tells Mizuki that he refuses to work for an organization that lets criminals go free to preserve their own public image. Though given that he's still working there in the epilogue and may have even received a promotion, they most likely aired out their grievances afterwards especially since the source of their main conflicts pitting them against each other is now dead.
  • In the sequel's Gen and Amame route, the discovery that Gen was hiding a dead body in his freezer causes her to go full Knight Templar on the cast. She arrests Lien and puts a warrant out for both Mizuki and Gen, sending out an armed police squad that corners them, Date, and Amame. If the route continued after Gen's death, it's doubtful that any of the protagonists would have held any loyalty towards her afterwards.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Not as bad as Date, but she's a bit too laid back for her position, she's pretty open about her past sexual encounters and risque thoughts, and happens to have knock out gas as her weapon of choice. One good look at her bizarre and incongruous office decor tells you all you need to know. However, she's very efficient and effective overall.
• Casual Kink: She frequently jokes about sexually charged things that put her in control (such as having Ryuki or Date lick her boots), and says she goes to host clubs because she likes being served by the men there. It's a bit more exaggerated in nirvanA Initiative during Iris's Somnium, where not only does Tama have to bend to Shizue's demands and call her master, but she can also step on her enemies.
• Cathartic Scream: She steps away from a phone call with Date briefly to scream into the void, the stress from #89 being loose getting to her.
  Date: "What was that about?"
  Boss: "That was a cry from deep within my heart, Date."
• Closet Geek: She apparently used to be a flag girl for RC car racing, and can tell the exact build and specs of an RC she keeps in her office. She also keeps a lot of manga and games in her shelves alongside case files, and is obsessed with a local boy band.
• Companion Cube: Her "childhood friend" Mario; the police mannequin in her messy office. Weirdly, he talks back.
• Cop Hater: Amusingly, she's revealed as this in nirvanA Initiative, where she'll half-jokingly says she dislikes cops and won't mind if they're targeted by the Big Bad. Even the first game hints at this with how jaded she becomes with her superiors who, depending in Mizuki's route, are paid by So to halt her investigation.
• Disproportionate Retribution: A subversion of this trope happens in nirvanA Initiative. Initially, players were to led to believe in Ryuki Chapter Three, Boss was chewing Ryuki out, and telling him that she would fire him if he can't figure the HB case in under three days all because Ryuki ends up failling to capture a suspect. However, once the true timeline of the game gets revealed, we eventually learn that Boss was actually doing that not because Ryuki didn't capture a suspect, but because Ryuki shot an innocent citizen.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Bibi calls her "Mama" which flusters Boss whenever they're in front of their co-workers.
  Boss: "I told you not to call me that!"
  Bibi: "Who cares? They already know."
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Her real name is Shizue Kuranushi, though everyone still calls her boss.
• Friends with Benefits: Zig-Zagged. Some of her and Date's remarks imply that the two have gotten frisky together, but it's unclear if they're just joking.
• The Gadfly: She loves making people react with outrageous comments, and will occasionally tease Date in front of anyone else who happens to be there. She'll even mess with Pewter a bit when she can. In nirvanA Initiative this extends to both Mizuki and Ryuki.
• Given Name Reveal: Her real name is learned in Mizuki's route at the hospital where Date is comatose.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Played a bit for Black Comedy: her office is several floors below ground level away from the rest of the precinct. She apparently talks to a police mannequin in her office to keep herself company.
  Boss: "Have you met my partner? This is my childhood friend, Mario. He's a good listener; I tell him all my stories when I get lonely.
  Date's thoughts: This was the moment I started to worry about Boss's mental health.
• Good All Along: A lot of the events of the first game, prior to the Golden Ending, frame her like she's not as benevolent as she seems. The times you do see her commit something heinous are because Saito is controlling her body. And #89's Somnium, which shows her arriving at Hitomi's house with Rohan, is actually her aiding Falco to stop his Rohan-controlled body.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • While usually pretty easygoing and willing to give her subordinates a lot of agency, Boss will put her foot down if she feels the stakes are high enough to warrant it, showing a somewhat colder and more unbending side to her.
  • Her constant use of blackmail to keep her superiors in line shows she's not above putting people in tight spots.
  • In the second game, Gen/Amame's route has her call in the SAT, Special Assault Team, to apprehend the pair when a corpse is found in Gen's freezer. And to make sure Mizuki wouldn't interfere, she orders the unit to stop her too if she resists. This is the route that ends in Gen dying in a hail of gunfire protecting Amame.
• Hellbent For Leather: In case you weren't sure that she's not a woman to mess with.
• Hypocrite: When Ryuji accidentally shoots a civilian in an act of paranoia, Boss tears into him for his impulsiveness and "shoot first, ask questions later" decision-making. Then in the Gen/Amame Route, she causes a (mostly) innocent witness's death because she decided said witness having a dead body in their freezer was sufficient reason to sick the SAT on him, and she did so without letting Mizuki finish investigating Brahman or interrogating Gen on the matter.
• Jerkass Ball: Shizue picks it up in the Gen/Amame route after Mizuki tells her the former was hiding a dead body. She calls a squad famous for their brutality to arrest Gen, Lien, and Mizuki, despite normally being more reasonable then that.
• Killed Offscreen: In Ota's route, she's killed by Saito after he swaps bodies with her. You find out about her death (and witness it via video) in the Annihilation route.
• Knockout Gas: Knockout gas is something she almost always has on hand, which she uses a couple of times.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: She's constantly making double entendres, to the point that she can make the act of playing darts sound sexual. She's even more perverted than Date- who frequently makes complaints about how sexual her language can be over the most mundane of things.
• Mama Bear: Downplayed, but she's notably extremely harsh with Ryuki after he shoots her adopted daughter, and remains so.
• Ms. Fanservice: A beautiful woman dressed to show off her legs and ample cleavage, and occasionally has some playful dominatrix-like banter.
• Must Have Caffeine: by her own admission, she "can't live without coffee"
  Boss: "I love it smooth and dark."
  Date's thoughts: I'm always amused by Boss's ability to make anything sound dirty. I wonder if she does it on purpose.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Almost all of the problems that happen in the story can be linked back to Boss' suggestion to Yagyu to swap bodies with Rohan, which almost immediately goes wrong after her plan goes off.
  • In the sequel, she unintentionally dooms the world in the Gen/Amame Route by sending the SAT after Gen, which results in him dying, and Date, Mizuki, and Amame presumably all being arrested. Considering the Resolution Route where Naixatloz was planning to cause a worldwide pandemic and all four figures mentioned before are crucial in preventing it...
• Non-Action Guy: By all means, Shizue is a competent ABIS Agent and probably can kick some serious ass, but in both Somnium Files and its sequel, she has yet to be part of the action herself, instead managing ABIS as best as she can.
• Noodle Incident: She and Date apparently spent a night on a long table where they got salmon roe and seaweed salad all over each other. They didn't make love, but Pewter claims that throwing food all over each other sounds even more kinky than if they did.
• Odd Friendship: The confident, sly, shamelessly sexual Shizue gets along pretty well with the more reserved, somewhat easily rattled Pewter. They even go get drinks together.
• Old Friend: She and Hayato Yagyu were friends from way back in their academy days. She was naturally the first person he confided in when he was assigned to kill Hitomi.
• Older Than They Look: Looks about as the same age as Date, but she is in her 40s.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: While it is possible to find out her real name in-game, those who work for her only call her "Boss", and Date doesn't even know her name at the start.
• Poor Communication Kills: By not telling anyone about her plan to swap Rohan and Yagyu's bodies outside of Pewter and Yagyu, she enables Rohan to escape in the latter's body by using his identity as a detective. This results in Hitomi's near death and permanent injury.
• Pungeon Master: Just like Date and Aiba, she loves her puns, she is just waiting for any opportunity to make a pun, or a dirty joke of some kind.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though she does sometimes draw the line to keep Date from poking his nose into sensitive matters, she is generally supportive toward her subordinates.
• Red Herring:
  • In the routes where Date and Iris are ambushed by mercenaries, Date briefly suspects that Boss tipped them off, since she was one of the only people that knew where they were going (but later it turns out that it was Pewter who set up the ambush, since he was the contact that Date was going to meet, and was tipped off by Mama).
  • Also, in the Annihilation route, a video of her killing So Sejima is found just before the route locks up. It transpires that's not really Boss, but Saito in her body.
  • Also again, a little earlier in the Annihilation route, Date sees her in #89's Somnium, bursting into Hitomi's house alongside Rohan Kumakura. In reality, she was there as The Cavalry.
• Secret-Keeper: She's one of two people that knows the full extent of Date's story, along with Pewter.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: She's got a similar sense of humor to Iris of all people. Iris is the only to like Boss's jack-o-lantern joke, and the two get hyped over throwing darts together.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • She chides Date when he goes past the Somnium time limit to get as much info as he can from Ota. Sure enough, he passes out from the after effects.
  • Along the Golden Ending path, she gets pissed when she finds out #89 escaped on Date and Pewter's watch.
  • In nirvanA Initiative, she is royally pissed to learn that Ryuki fired at an unarmed civilian and doesn't hold back when reprimanding him.
• You Never Asked: How she explains in the sequel that she has a daughter.

Pewter

Pewter / Futa Amanoma

Voiced by: Hiroki Goto (Japanese), Sean Chiplock (English)

ABIS's resident scientist who is responsible for inventing and operating the Psync machine used to access subjects' Somnia. He also invented Date's AI partner Aiba, and later, Ryuki's partner Tama.

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• Butt-Monkey: Occasionally falls into this when with Boss and Date. For example, they even tease that he can fix the Psync machine in eight hours when he claims it was a twelve hour job, and then they shorten it to six.
• Camp Gay: A downplayed example. He lacks the lisp and overtly feminine body language, but he also has a very flamboyant sense of fashion, is a fan of BL novels and manga, and is rather fanciful with his descriptions of how Psyncing and brain function.
• Character Catchphrase: "Remember, you only have six minutes in Somnium." He repeats this about as often as possible, so much that other characters get annoyed at him for it. In ''nirvanA Initiative" Date reveals he's always wanted to say it.
• Covert Pervert: Not nearly as explicit as Date or Boss, but Pewter will make the occasional innuendo and will admit when something sounds sexually charged. He even shamelessly checks out Date a couple of times.
• Demoted to Extra: While he has some plot relevance in the original game due to his relationship with Renju, he's basically irrelevant in nirvanA Initiative. He only appears to act as Mission Control for the Somnium segments, and he has zero involvement with the main plot.
• Easily Forgiven: Both Shizue and Date get over the fact Pewter betrayed them for Renju. While Date is initially still upset at him for causing (what he believed to be) Aiba's death, he seems to get over it a few months afterwards, probably because Pewter revives Aiba, making her alive and well in the end.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He invented both the Psync machine and the AI-Balls.
• Heel Realization: In the true ending, after defeating Saito Sejima, Pewter gives himself up and decides to serve his time for his involvement with Saito. He tells Date that Kagami is his handler and it's through his permission that they are able to talk to each other.
• Karma Houdini: Double subverted. He turns himself in after Saito is killed, losing his job and ending up in prison for his crimes, not that he was a bad person himself, just manipulated. Only to then in nirvanA Initiative be out of prison within a couple of months and back to working at ABIS like nothing happened.
• Kick the Dog: After failing to apprehend Date, Pewter attempts to erase Aiba from the cloud and cuts off her connection to the internet to hinder Date. Had it not been for the Wadjet System protecting Aiba, her death would have been final.
• Locked Out of the Loop: While he helps Renju in a couple of the routes, he's being manipulated and has no idea what Renju (actually Saito) wants with Iris.
• Love Makes You Evil: On the routes where Renju isn'tfound murdered, Saito uses Pewter's status as Renju's lover to get Pewter to betray the police for him and Rohan. Tragically inverted on the Annihilation Route where Pewter still betrays ABIS, but out of heartbreak from Renju's death and in the sense of leaking information to Date while still being loyal to him.
• Meaningful Name: He's ABIS's computer expert, so his nickname is...Pewter.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike Boss or Date, he's not meant for fieldwork, he's simply the technological expert. Both times he tries to take a stand against Date, he's pretty quickly foiled.
• Not So Above It All: He attempts a Wolf Whistle at Date in an optional dialogue, like Boss can. Though unlike Boss, when called out on checking him out, Pewter fesses up pretty quickly. In nirvanA Initiative, he admits to looking at Date's crotch casually.
• Odd Friendship: The confident, sly, shamelessly sexual Shizue gets along pretty well with the more reserved, somewhat easily rattled Pewter. They even go get drinks together.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He is an expert with computers and neurology and in one branch he also handles processing DNA samples.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: His attitude seems a tad odd after #89 escapes, his dialogue feeling awkward and stilted. After all, he helped the prisoner escape in the first place.
• Sarcastic Confession: If you ask him who he thinks the killer is after Mizuki's Somnium, he jokes that maybe Date himself is the killer. Date isn't the killer, but as it happens, Date is in the killer's original body.
• Secret-Keeper: He's one of two people that knows the full extent of Date's story, along with Boss.
• Second Love: To Renju, getting together after him and Shoko divorced.
• The Smart Guy: Invented all of the sci-fi machinery that Date uses.
• Stronger Than They Look: If the tie-in videos to nirvanA Initiative are anything to go by, he's strong enough to instantly and effortlessly beat Ryuki in an arm-wrestling match.
• Vetinari Job Security: Despite being an accomplice to a convict's escape, he only did three months of jailtime and went right back to ABIS like nothing happened thanks to Boss strongarming her superiors to maintain Pewter's job. He's just that necessary for ABIS to operate since he invented the AI-Balls and the Psync machine while maintaining them properly.
• Yaoi Fanboy: His file cabinets are packed with BL novels and manga.

Kagami

Araya Kagami

Voiced by: Brad Venable (English, AI: The Somnium Files), Austin Lee Matthews (English, nirvanA Initiative)

"I told you, it's Kagami!!"

A forensic investigator with Tokyo MPD that Date always encounters working the crime scene...and can never remember his name.

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• Butt-Monkey: Every time you meet with him, Date never remembers his name, and when he finally does, Kagami gets emotional, prompting Date to call him a weirdo.
• The Faceless: Courtesy of his hat and surgeon's mask. The in-game appendix claims that he's quite cute without it.
• Forgettable Character: No one can remember the poor guy's name for very long.
• Gratuitous Spanish: During the second game's epilogue, in the middle of one of his habitual "what's your name?" breakdowns, he says a couple lines in Spanish, ending with "Me gustan las tetas grandes" (I like big boobs)
• Here We Go Again!: Its possible in nirvanA Initiative for Mizuki and Ryuki to completely forget his name too.
  "Mmhm! Here it comes! I knew this would happen!"
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Contemplates in nirvanA Initiative whether the joke is getting old yet but decides if it's what the people want...
• Odd Friendship: Name shenanigans aside, he and Date seem to get along well.
• Sanity Slippage: He's a lot more on-edge and worked up about how no one can remember his name in the sequel. This eventually extends to even him forgetting it.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The one time Date finally remembers his name during Mizuki's route he immediately forgets it again and refers to him as "Kaniza" for the remainder of the route.
• Token Wholesome: The only member of ABIS that doesn't make sexually oriented comments or jokes.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: If the "Kaniza" joke isn't encountered, Date finally remembers his name in the Resolution Route, causing the man to get emotional.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Is very onboard with Ryuki's idea of giving him a nickname to make him easier to remember. Naturally the nickname is Kagami.

The Okiuras

Renju Okiura

Renju Okiura

Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Chris Hackney (English)

Mizuki's father and the president of the Lemniscate entertainment company as well as the owner of the Sunfish Pocket Maid Cafe. An acquaintance of Date's, he starts out as the lead suspect in his ex-wife Shoko Nadami's murder, but the circumstances surrounding the case and his role in it quickly turn out to be much more complicated.

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• Ambiguously Bi: There's a few revelations considering his sexuality. Mainly, it's revealed that Renju was dating Pewter for at least a year before his untimely death, confirming his attraction to men. However, it's left up in the air if he likes women at all, as Mizuki was revealed to be the result of an adoption with Shoko. The strongest case would be either his sympathy for Shoko is some lingering fondness or the fact that Ritsuko is a secretary at Lemniscate despite being bad at her job, though they're nothing particularly definitive.
• Asshole Victim: Not to quite the same extent as his wife (he at least does have people who care about him who aren't directly related to him), but most of his characterization focuses on him being a terrible parent and a shady businessman. That being said, a much kinder side of him is shown in Mizuki's Route and the Resolution Route where it is shown what he is willing to do for those he cares about. Overall, this trope gets subverted the more that's learned about him.
• Berserk Button: Mama tells a story about how Renju got very pissed at Date for spilling beer on his watch. It becomes very justified when it's revealed the watch was an anniversary gift from Pewter.
• Best Friend:
  • He is this to Date for five years before the game starts. The two are incredibly close and constant drinking buddies, with Renju opening up how his Dark and Troubled Past, being able trust Mizuki in Date's care when he and Shoko are horrible parents, and Date grows worried about him when he seems to vanish without a given reason. Whenever he finds Renju's corpse, he's actually devastated, but continues to do his job.
  • He was this to Hitomi and Manaka as well. He and Hitomi did everything they could to protect Manaka's daughter and make sure Manaka could have justice for what happened. And Renju did his best to support Hitomi and her adoptive daughter Iris.
• Blatant Lies: By virtue of hindsight, Renju telling Mizuki that her superhuman abilities came from her grandfather whose genetic traits skipped a generation, is a very bold lie that sounds ridiculous to anyone who hears it. Granted, it might of been obvious by Mizuki claiming that same grandfather was raised by dolphins.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He recounts his past to Date, saying in his youth he got mixed up with the Kumakuras, initially working fraud schemes for the game (like Shoko), until he befriended higher ups and they brought him on jobs as the gang members convinced wealthy elderly people to adopt yakuza members, only to kill them for inheritance. He's haunted by this, even though he never killed anyone himself. It gets to the point he bemoans how dangerous the yakuza is to both Date and Hitomi years apart.
• Dead All Along: While he's at first the prime suspect for Shoko's murder, in the left-branching routes after Mizuki's Somnium, his is the next corpse found after her's. And even in the right-branching routes where it seems he survived, this is actually Saito. Renju's personality was murdered in Shoko's body shortly before the game began.
• Foil: To Shoko in regards to parenting Mizuki. While Shoko was an Abusive Parent yet spent more time with Mizuki, Renju is hinted to care for Mizuki's well-being but was otherwise forced, or chooses to, prioritize his business over raising her. Also, whereas Shoko is in denial over her abusive behavior and blames Mizuki for not meeting her standards of "normal", Renju has enough self-awareness of his and Shoko's poor parenting abilities to put Mizuki in Date's care.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Subverted. Unlike Shoko, who no one seems to particularly bothered by the passing of beyond her daughter, Renju has Date, Mama, Hitomi who mourn his passing, and in Pewter's case, it drives him to do more to catch his lover's killer.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Despite being one of the more virtuous characters despite his shortcomings, the public statement regarding the whole murder incident in the Resolution Route has him deemed Shoko's murderer, which is technically true since Saito was in his body when he was stabbing Shoko to death.
• Hidden Depths: He wrote Invincible Rainbow Arrow for Iris to perform, showing he does know how to produce music.
• Irony: He's stated to be a rather poor father to his daughter because he prioritizes work over his daughter's well being. As it turns out, part of his work is making sure his childhood friend and her adoptive daughter are stable, even going out of his way to ensure Iris can pursue careers that she enjoys.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While not an outright cruel person, Renju is clearly not a good father to Mizuki. However, he does put her into Date's care knowing he'd be a much better parental figure for her, especially after his and Shoko's divorce. He's also still good friends with his old classmate Hitomi, who has fond memories of their time together in high school. He's also helping her in raising Iris after their friend Manaka's murder, trying to keep them both safe from the Kumakura gang, and later supported Iris' dream of becoming an idol. Additionally, given Pewter's devotion to protecting him and Renju yelling at Date over spilling beer on the gold watch Pewter gave him as an anniversary gift, the two of them must've had a genuinely loving relationship.
• Killed Off for Real: Renju in mind and body is dead by the end of the game, killed by Saito and puppetted around for his personal means.
• Lost Lenore: He's revealed to be this to Pewter, who's spurned into doing everything he can to bring the killer to justice in the Anhilation route.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Mizuki's admitted to the hospital after finding her mother's corpse, Boss notes that Renju hasn't even attempted to check on his daughter, which Date and Boss note is extremely unlike him, even if he is an neglectful parent. This is because it's actually Saito in Renju's body at this point, who doesn't give a damn about Mizuki.
• Parental Neglect: Emotionally neglectful as he put running his company above raising his daughter and threw up his hands and refused to take a stand and intervene when his wife became physically abusive. When Date hears of this he tells Renju to his face that he thinks he and Shoko are terrible parents. Though, unlike his ex-wife, he does possess enough self awareness to realize that he's no good at raising a child and entrusts Date with Mizuki. It also doesn't help that he was also trying to help support Iris.
• Parents as People: He truly loves his daughter, but is unwilling to take a stand against Shoko or take a break from his many responsibilities to have more of a role in Mizuki's life. He seems to know he's a shitty parent, which is why he asked Date to take care of her.
• Posthumous Character: While his body is physically alive at some points, his mind, in Shoko's body, was actually killed shortly before the game began. As such, every flashback to Renju counts as this.
• Red Herring: The Resolution route especially paints him as a very likely suspect for the Cyclops killings. He's apparently responsible for arranging #89's escape and manipulating Pewter. And the armed mercenaries that target Iris were hired by him. There's almost no way to alleviate suspicon from him because he's never actually seen in person outside of flashbacks, making it hard to judge whether or not he's the culprit. All suspicion on him is absolved when it's revealed that Saito took over his body, killing Renju for good in the process.
• Straight Gay: He apparently was into men, finding love in Pewter after he divorced Shoko. And it is commented a few times that he hired his receptionist for her looks rather than her ability to do her job. But unlike Pewter's downplayed Camp Gay, Renju never gives any hints he's attracted to men.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Shoko is not the worst character in the game, but she has all of one sympathetic quality which is rejected. Nonetheless, Renju seems to pity her situation, acknowledging she could never be a mother because she never got love from her own mother.
• Workaholic: Flashbacks of Renju show him as someone who dug heavily into his work running a company, giving him almost no time for family. A lot of this is inferred to be due to mounting stress in other areas of his life, such as the trauma and guilt of working with the Kumakuras and having to hide the corpse of his best friend for over a decade.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Seeing how it's Renju in Shoko's body that gets killed a few hours before the start of the game, there's no saving him, even after it's revealed he's a much better person (though still a poor parent) than first perceived.

Shoko Nadami

Shoko Nadami

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi (Japanese), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (English)

Mizuki's mother and Renju's ex-wife. The plot is triggered by the discovery of her body tied to a merry-go-round at the abandoned Bloom Park, stabbed to death with her left eye gouged out pre-mortem.

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• Abusive Parents: Her own mother was apparently incredibly neglectful and distant, not giving Shoko the validation and care she needed as a child. Hence she has no frame of reference for what a competent parent looks like. She often found no way to deal with Mizuki's behavior other than hitting her and being very verbally abusive towards her. Date calls her out on this during a flashback.
• Asshole Victim: An absolutely horrible mother who also ran an investment fraud operation with help from the local yakuza? It's easy to see why so few people actually mourn her passing.
• Dead All Along: She actually died a year before the story began after being swapped into another body.
• Driven to Suicide: How she actually died a year before the game's events. Saito swapped her personality into Rohan Kumakura's body using the prototype Psync Machine in the Kabasaki Chemical Plant. Upon waking up and seeing herself in the mirror, she freaks out, not understanding the situation, and jumps off the rooftop of the plant building. The rest of the world reports this officially as Rohan's suicide.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A weirdly downplayed case of it is retroactively given to her in nirvanA Initiative upon the reveal that Mizuki was adopted by the Okiuras. It causes Mizuki to reflect upon the time Shoko berated Mizuki and wishing she was never born, and it makes her question whether Shoko stopped herself short of going as far to say that she's adopted, implying that it might've been one step too far even by her standards. From a certain point of view this can be seen as a subverted example however, as it can also read as Shoko wishing that an orphaned kid they personally chose had never been brought into this world.
• Flat Character: Unlike Mizuki or Renju, there's really not much to Shoko beyond being an abusive mother who can't own up to her mistakes. Even under the "Skills" section of her bio, it just says "Lying" and "Cheating". Comparatively, Renju's lists that he enjoys writing music.
• Freudian Excuse: According to Renju, Shoko's own mother never showed her any form of maternal affection, so she didn't know how to love her own daughter. Date tells both Renju and Shoko that it's still not acceptable in any capacity.
• Hate Sink: Unlike Renju, who is gradually revealed to have redeeming qualities, the more one discovers about Shoko, the more awful she seems. It's no surprise that the only one torn up about her death is Mizuki.
• Never My Fault: Refused to take any responsibility for abusing her daughter, instead blaming it all on Mizuki for being "abnormal", and for making her look like the bad guy.
• Only Friend: While "friend" may have been stretching it, Date is the only person beyond Mizuki to care about Shoko's passing and occasionally went out drinking with her.
• Out of Focus: Shoko only gets one flashback with Date, which only paints her as an even worse parent than previously believed- unlike Renju, who gets many flashbacks fleshing him out considerably.
• Posthumous Character: The game starts with her death. It turns out that this is only her body; her personality died in Rohan Kumakura's body a year beforehand.
• Sanity Slippage: Being forcibly swapped into Rohan's body drove her to fear and despair, and she ended up committing suicide in a state of panic.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Mizuki got her facial features and turquoise hair from her; that is, untill the second game Retooled her daughter into not being biologically related, now being adopted at the age of 3 instead.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Shoko justifies her abuse of Mizuki this way. She had trouble thinking of other ways to discipline her, so physical violence was the last resort she had to get her under control.

Matsushita Diner

Ota Matsushita

Ota Matsushita

Voiced by: Natsumi Fujiwara (Japanese), Zach Aguilar (English)

An aspiring light novel writer and big-time fan of Iris who's often found hanging around either the Lemniscate lobby or the Sunfish Pocket Maid Cafe. His infatuation with Iris, whom he calls "Tesa", has led him to declare that he's her thrall and protector, causing Date to take almost an immediate dislike to him. He claims to be a light novel writer but hasn't actually published anything.

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• Apology Gift: Ota gave Mayumi her floral-patterned kitchen knife for Mother’s Day to apologize for his bratty behavior. The memory of this is so important to Mayumi that it acts as the turning point in her Somnium, reassuring her that she is loved and cared for by her family.
• Badass Driver: He's very adept at driving Moma's armoured ATV, to the point where he's the one guy Moma trusts the most to drive it in nirvanA Initiative as part of Ryuki's army.
• Bad Liar: To the point Date doesn't even need his thermal vision.
• Berserk Button: Insulting his mother has definitively become this for him as of nirvanA Iniative. When the taxi cab driver calls her an "old hag" twice, Ota snaps at him both times.
• Bothering by the Book: He has an uncanny knowledge of law and the police system, which aggravates Date immediately.
• Butt-Monkey: He gets even less respect than Date due to his obsession with A-Set and his relatively aimless career path. Played for Horror in one route where he gets killed by Saito after getting in his way one time too many.
• Casanova Wannabe: Despite his attempts wooing Iris, he has no problem splurging money at Sunfish Pocket so Amame and the other girls there will cater to his desires as well, and even expresses attraction to Aiba in the game's epilogue. Iris quite clearly only sees him as a friend, and Amame as well is upfront about how she likes taking advantage of people like Ota. His chances with Aiba are even worse.
• The Cavalry: One-third of the first game's rendition of the trope, along with Mizuki and Moma.
• Character Development: While he still takes his fandom for Iris to often creepy levels, by the time of the sequel he's developed much more of a work ethic, singlehandedly not only starting his family's diner back up but making it quite successful.
• Cowardly Lion: While at first he abandons Mizuki in Bloom Park after finding Shoko's body, later on he shows himself capable of acting during life or death situations such as driving an armored vehicle through a bunch of armed mercenaries in Iris's route and saving Iris and injuring the New Cyclops Killer during his and Mizuki's ending (though the injury was mostly an accident). He also attacks Date on several different routes just to protect Iris, even if that meant getting in trouble with the MPD.
• Dirty Coward: He abandoned Mizuki, a 12-year old girl, at the scene of a murder due to the discovery of the corpse frightening him, then when Date shows up to question him, he acts uncooperative to try to cover up what he did. Date is not amused, and Ota himself feels horrible once he finds out that the corpse was Mizuki's own mother.
• Drink-Based Characterization: He's shown to order a cream soda^note Actually a root beer float. while at Sunfish Pocket, which Date thinks is appropriate for Ota.
• Friendly Rivalry: In the second game where Ota has responsibly taken over his family’s restaurant, he butts heads with Gen Ishiyagane due their differences in cooking philosophies; while Ota is a good cook in his own right, managing the restaurant to be quite popular, he doesn’t think anything of fancy cuisine, thinking that as long as customers are satisfied with his simple dishes then everything is fine; Gen strongly disapproves of such mindset, believing a chef should strive to offer customers with dishes beyond expectations, thus he thinks Ota is inferior to his late father whom Gen actually respects. That said Ota and Gen aren’t enemies, they have mutual friends after all.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: During the Annihilation route, he ends up getting sawed in half by the ice-cutting machine.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: In the Annihilation Route, he gets manipulated into helping Saito and gets killed for his trouble. The official view of the police is that he was a deranged stalker who killed Shoko and Renju since he couldn't be with Iris, then killed himself in a one-sided Suicide Pact thinking that he and Iris could be together in the afterlife.
• Hidden Depths:
  • According to Mizuki, Ota is the kind of otaku with social skills. During Iris' route, he even pulls Date aside to chastise him for not paying enough attention to Mizuki since she's still traumatized over Shouko's death. He's also shown at various points to have some skills at coding (with his automated accounts), cooking, and detailed knowledge of criminal law.
  • He's actually a pretty good cook. In nirvanA Initiative, he revitalizes his parents' restaurant single handedly and turns it into a rather popular spot.
• It's All About Me: In true Manchild fashion, Ota spends most of the game not understanding the negative effects his actions have on others. He never appreciated how much his parents gave up so he could do what he wanted until it was far too late, acts clingy towards Iris, and was initially uncooperative with Date when he was investigating a murder because he didn't want to admit that he abandoned Mizuki at the scene. His character arc revolves around him realizing how selfish he's been and vow to set things right.
• It's All My Fault: On his route, he blames himself for Mayumi's dementia and Takero's death from overwork, especially the former as he initially thought it was some kind of sick joke Mayumi was playing on him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's very uncooperative with Date and can be very harsh on his own mother, but he also legitimately cares about his friends, and grows out his more negative tendencies as the story continues.
• Jerkass Realization: Realizes that he ran out on Mizuki, leaving her alone with her mother's body. He also realizes in his own route and the Resolution ending that his skewed priorities and terrible career decisions have placed an enormous financial burden on his family.
  "I'm such a piece of shit..."
• Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: He is thoroughly disappointed that Aiba's virtual form isn't real.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He's manipulated by Saito-in-Iris's-body into knocking out Date to help him/her escape police custody. He then gets shanked by the Serial Killer he unknowingly helped and only lives because the guy he previously assaulted arrives just in time. It's hard to say he didn't bring it upon himself to at least some degree, though he certainly doesn't deserve what happens to him if Date doesn't get there in time in the Annihilation route.
• Lethal Chef: Very downplayed as while he's a rather competent chef otherwise, his omelette gives Iris stomach cramps. He inverts this in nirvanA Initiative where he's managed to reopen the Matsushita Diner and made it a popular spot.
• Loony Fan: Of A-set. To the point where he'll defend her on To-Witter from... sockpuppet accounts that he also controls.
• Manchild:
  • Ota is a 25-year-old otaku who spends all his time and money on his e-girl best friend or maid cafes rather than looking for a job or even helping out with his parents' diner, which he justifies by saying he's working on his writing (although he lacks the confidence to actually publish anything even though he dropped out of college to do so). It's revealed in his route that his mother made him a Spoiled Brat, and his parents overworked themselves to support him after their diner was forced to shut down. His father suddenly died of a heart attack while his mother developed dementia that went untreated. At the end of his route and the Golden Ending, Ota Took a Level in Kindness after realizing what a burden he was and started working three jobs to afford treatment for his mother while still working on his writing on the side.
  • In the sequel it is shown Ota has chosen to succeed the family businesses, spearheading the restaurant by being a competent manager and cook himself, while he hasn't given up his unhealthy fanboyism and constant expenses at the Mermaid Cafe, he has definitely grown as a person where these frivolities can at least be excused as a side hobby.
• Momma's Boy: While their relationship has become slightly strained in the present due to his poor life choices and her dementia, Ota still cares deeply for his mother, enough to cover for her when he thinks she might be involved in the New Cyclops Serial Killings, and is reduced to a sobbing wreck when he thinks Date arrested her. In both his own ending and the true ending, he vows to work harder solely to ease the burden off of his mother and let her rest easy, and by the sequel, he's made good on that promise, even making Matsushita Diner genuinely successful in the process. He'll also angrily tell you off if you speak about her in a tone he doesn't like, such as calling her an "old hag".
• Noodle Incident: According to Aiba, he's a person of interest to the police which was how she was able to quickly connect him to the anonymous phone call, but it's never stated why he was registered as such since this was before the New Cyclops Killings.
• Older Than They Look: He's 24 years old, but you'd be forgiven for thinking he's much younger given his height and somewhat cartoony appearance. Sometimes other characters call him a kid, to which he responds that he's far older than they think. Brought up more strongly in the second game where Ota is 30 years old (after 6 years) looking more childish than ever, in which the game files and characters themselves spell how young he looks for someone at that age.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Normally Ota is willing to talk whenever Date is threatening to reveal his sockpuppeting to Iris. The exception is when Date's trying to figure out what Iris was texting Ota about while she was in police detention. Then when it turns out he's hiding another secret, Ota is so deadset on keeping silent that it turns out he's hiding a weapon in his hospital bed.
• Out of Focus: While he was a very important character in the original game, with a whole ending path dedicated to him, he receives considerably less screentime in the sequel, with most of his screentime being focused on catching up with what he'd been up to in the intervening time.
• Otaku: Ota's definitely this, from his anime and video game references, to buying Tesa figures, to even wearing a Tokusatsu belt on his outfit. Of course it can be easily read that it's his way of coping with his father's death and his mother's dementia.
• Sock Puppet: He has made several accounts on To-Witter to bash A-Set so he can defend her and get into her good graces. In nirvanA Initiative he's still puppeteering 6 years later, but seemly has turned all the accounts into being only about praising A-Set by then.
• Spanner in the Works: On the left-hand story path, Ota ends up intercepting Saito and unintentionally screwing with his plans three separate times; the reason why Saito's schemes fall apart on Ota and Mizuki's routes comes down to Saito's improvisation failing when control of the situation is given to Ota, via Date calling him to ask about the NILE message between him and "Iris". Ota wasn't on Saito's hit-list at all, the sole reason he's killed on the Annihilation route is because of Saito being fed up with him.
• Spoiled Brat: Mayumi and Takero spoiled him greatly as a kid. He continues to be spoiled as an adult, where he's allowed to do whatever he wants, though Mayumi heavily disapproves of his infatuation with Iris.
• Taking the Heat: When he thinks his mother must have have been at the scene of Iris's kidnapping, he tries to direct all suspicion away from her, afraid that she'll be implicated for possible conspiracy. Ironically, Mayumi tries to take the heat off of Ota.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Compared to Date, Mizuki and Moma who are experienced fighters, Ota has very little combat experience and his strongest asset is being able to drive Moma's ATV. Without it, the most he can do is untie Iris in the Resolution Route.
  Date: And what about Ota?
  Aiba: Perhaps he can be used as a shield?
• Took a Level in Kindness: He becomes much more hardworking and attentive to his mother in both his route and the Resolution routes.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ota was an extremely Spoiled Brat who wasn't thankful for his parents' spoiling of him, and didn't think much of when they had to take multiple jobs to keep themselves from going bankrupt after the diner stopped getting customers due to the chemical plant explosion. When his mother was afflicted with dementia, he couldn't tell that she wasn't teasing him for his failures until it was too late, but he never apologized for it because she'd probably forget about it. To drive the point home, Uchikoshi has stated that the reason he's managed to buy so much A-set merch is because he's leeching off from the huge amount of college money that his parents raised for him. However, he comes to realize his ungratefulness in his own route and implied in the Golden Ending by getting jobs delivering newspapers and working as a janitor.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In his and Mizuki's routes, he saves Iris's life and Date thinks he has a chance with her. But from other routes you know that it is really So Sejima in her body by that point, and Iris was already dead. And in the Golden Ending, Iris heavily implies she has no interest in Ota that way both to him and his mother separately.

Mayumi Matsushita

Mayumi Matsushita

Voiced by: Toshiko Sawada (Japanese), Philece Sampler (English)

Ota's kindly yet scatterbrained mother who runs the Matsushita Diner located near Bloom Park. She has a noted sense of dislike for Iris, believing her to be a witch who's enchanted Ota into spending all of his time and money on her.

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• Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: The Chubby Mama to Takero's Skinny Papa.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Is completely absent from the sequel, even with the diner now open, and only receives small mentions in lines of dialogue from Ota and the taxi driver.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: In the Annihilation route, she blames Date for Ota's death.
• Foreshadowing: Her dementia is hinted at the very first time Date talks to her; if he asks her about the rain, she'll repeat the question with a confused look on her face, and the very next time the two meet, she's already forgotten who he is.
• The Ghost: Mentioned a few times in nirvanA Initiative, but never actually seen.
• Good Parents: Overprotective and a bit judgmental, she's a very caring, patient and well meaning parent to Ota.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Not quite a senior citizen at 54 years old, but she's around the same height as her son.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Played for Drama. She suffers from dementia, she's unable to remember her diner closed down years ago, or even more heartbreakingly, her own husband's death.
• Taking the Heat: On Ota's route, she attempts to confess to being the Cyclops Killer in order to protect Ota from suspicion. Date is quickly able to poke holes in her testimony, however.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While she is generally sweet, she finally apologizes to Iris in the true ending and seems to have grown a liking to her once she gets to know Iris.
• Witch with a Capital "B": This is Mayumi’s favorite insult towards Iris. She leans in to the magical implication, accusing Iris of enchanting Ota to use him for her own ends.

Takero Matsushita

Takero Matsushita

Voiced by: David Lodge (English)

Ota's father and co-owner of the diner. He never seems to be around whenever Date visits...

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• Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: The Skinny Papa to Mayumi's Chubby Mama.
• Dead All Along: It's eventually revealed that he died years before the events of the game, of a heart attack.
• Gonk: While Ota and Mayumi stand out by virtue of being rather heavyset, Takero stands out because he's tall and thin with beady eyes.
• Good Parents: Despite his appearance, he's still a good father to Ota and a good husband to Mayumi.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Even with the entire Matsushita family designed more cartoonish than the rest of the cast, Takero still stands out, what with his Black Bead Eyes and lanky build, he looks like he belongs more in a work such as Tintin than the game.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He chews out Ota for snapping at Mayumi over her buying the wrong brand of chocolate.

Sejima House

So Sejima (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

So Sejima

Voiced by: Naomi Kusumi (Japanese), John DeMita (English)

A local congressman. So Sejima is a man who values his wealth and status above all else and is above no amount of coercion to bury anything that threatens them. Most notably he has ties to the criminal underworld via the Kumakura Family.

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• Age-Gap Romance: He fathered Iris with Manaka while she was still in high school. However, Hitomi and Renju greatly dispute that he truly reciprocated her feelings.
• Big Fancy House: So lives alone (aside from his bodyguards) in a massive manor complete with a sprawling garden. It’s mentioned in-game that it was originally a castle owned by a samurai. The fact that he used to live with a wife and son has implications on the large amount of unused space.
• Body Snatcher: In Mizuki's and Ota's routes he ends up in Iris's body. Also counts as Familial Body Snatcher, but not by his choice.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he dies in Mizuki's Route, Ota's Route, and the Annihilation Route. In Mizuki's route it's Date that kills him; in the others, it's Saito in Boss's body doing this before cutting him up into pieces. Except both times, it is not actually him; in Ota's and the Annihilation Route it is Boss's personality in his body, whereas in Mizuki's Route it is Saito's personality inside his body.
• Bothering by the Book: Not to the extent that Ota does it, but he does this to Date on occasion. Given he's a politician, it's at least justified.
• Dirty Old Man: Manaka, his mistress, was young enough to be his daughter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may not have wanted to continue his relationship with Manaka, but flashbacks show that So clearly didn't want Saito to kill her. He was apparently going to pay for her and their illegitimate child to move overseas to another country.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: In Ota's route and the Annihilation route, he ends up dismembered and stuffed into an ornamental jar. Or rather, his body is. In the Annihilation route he is cut in half while in Iris's body.
• Hate at First Sight: Even before Date questions or begins investigating him seriously, So is noted to particularly hate Date and treat him with disdain. Likely explained by the reveal that Date is actually in his son's body. Seeing his own son's body be occupied by another personality and being forced to accept and not acknowledge it would probably upset any parent.
• Hate Sink: So is very notable in that the more you know about him, the more despicable he becomes. There's only one good thing that could be said about him, that he was going to take care of Manaka and their illegitimate child Iris financially (if in secret in another country), and even that is admittedly somewhat selfish.
• Hidden Depths: In his Somnium, Manaka's murder is played on loop and is impossible to interfere with, suggesting that So at least subconsciously has been unable to let go of what happened to her. Whether it means he genuinely misses Manaka or feels guilt from failing to prevent her death is left up in the air, but the fact that he's so fixated on what happened is noteworthy for someone who otherwise was presented as completely unempathetic.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Date pulls So into questioning for being at the scene of a frozen corpse. So denies any wrongdoing the whole time but then he accidentally drops a major clue, that the corpse was stabbed to death. It'd be impossible for him to know the cause of death if he had no involvement with the corpse. This all leads directly to his Somnium.
• It's All My Fault: In the true ending, he blames himself for how Saito turned out.
• Jerkass Has a Point: So treats others with disdain and has been covering for Saito, the Cyclops Killer. Still, as much as Date would want to, So brings up that under Penal Code article 105 relatives of a criminal are pardoned for protecting them, and the statute of limitations for hiding the body he has own involment with has already expired. Furthermore, he's not obliged to cooperate with the police while in his mansion without a warrant.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed in the Resolution ending. So's political career is ruined, his bodyguards have all quit, and the media has gotten word of his and his son's connections to Manaka's murder and the Cyclops Killings, completely destroying his public reputation. However, he walks away free from arrest or legal consequences due to Japanese law explicitly stating that covering up the crime of a relative is in of itself not a crime. Even then, the statute of limitations for hiding the body of a missing person is only three years. He tells Date that he intends to use his wealth to retire and move to another country, where he'll live comfortably for the rest of his life, but the latter tells him, "You can run, but you can't hide," as there are some people who will follow him to the ends of the earth to see him dead for his misdeeds. By the time of nirvanA Initiative, So is still alive and well, and he spends time in his mansion every once in a while. However, he does show some paranoia. He flees the city (and potentially the country) whenever the slightest hint of trouble could lead back to him.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his constant sneering and self-important nature, his profile says he's a fan of Kusemon Go.
• Not Worth Killing: In nirvanA Initiative, he has a run-in with Tearer, who says he's trash that isn't worth killing.
• Parental Neglect:
  • By all accounts, So Sejima was not very attentive to Saito, and no mention of counselling, therapy or treatment was ever given to that son of his, given how Date managed to live peacefully in Saito's defective brain thanks to support from Aiba.
  • Although shockingly, it seems as of the sequel he's taking steps to rectify his behavior. He keeps up with Iris' videos and streams, invites her to his manor, and is even willing to offer her help and support with whatever she needs should she want it, although he avoids involving himself too deeply with her. Iris, not knowing that he's her biological father, is a bit confused by all of this, but appreciates it regardless.
• Really Gets Around: Between Saito, Iris, and Uru, he's fathered children with at least three women.
• Red Herring:
  • In his Somnium, you're led to believe that he's the nondescript blue figure stabbing Iris to death. In reality, not only is that not him, it wasn't even Iris being stabbed; the only reason she appeared in it was due to her looking similar to Manaka.
  • In Mizuki's route, After So shoots Date in the eye, he muses how ironic it is for Date to be killed by his own father. This paints Date's true identity as So's son, Saito. The truth is a bit more complicated than that.
  • More generally, the narrative almost always makes him out to look more guilty than he really is, and frequently sets him up as the Big Bad. In reality, his only plot-relevant misdeed when not a victim of a Body Snatcher is covering up his son's first murder, which, as he notes, isn't even a crime in Japan when it's done to protect a relative.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: As a congressman, he has a lot of important people in his pocket, including the higher-ups in the police department. Ironically, it's implied he's the congressman Boss strongarmed into fudging Date's police exam results so he could pass.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: In nirvanA Initiative, he ends up doing this twice. The first time is near the end of Ryuki's storyline after his only scene, when after meeting with Tearer and having ABIS show up right after, he decides he wants nothing to do with it and flees. He returns during the timeskip, but ends up having to flee again in the ending when the Half Body Serial Killer turns out to be another son of his.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In nirvanA Initiative, he only appears in a single scene and the Somnium immediately following. He still manages to be important in that once again, he's the father of the Big Bad.

Bodyguards

Bodyguards

Guards working for So Sejima.

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• All Men Are Perverts: One of them falls for a fake porno mag distraction in a joke conversation.
• Ascended Extra: One of them, Mamoru, returns in nirvanA Initiative with minor plot significance as Tokiko's secretary / bodyguard.
• Drowning My Sorrows: One of the guards, later identified as Mamoru Bodai, can be found at Marble at the end of the Resolution Route.
• High-Voltage Death: In the Mizuki Route, Date and Aiba manage to fry all of them in So's pond by using an Improvised Lightning Rod to hit it with lightning while all of the guards are wading through it to get to Date.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Subverted. The bodyguards all look the same because they're all wearing face masks to hide their identity and they're all around the same height to also hide their identity.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: You might as well forget the fact that they're armed during the QTEs.
• Latex Perfection: Their identical appearance is given the explanation that they're wearing masks.
• No Name Given: None of the bodyguards are given names, not even in the Persons section of the File menu, until the sequel where the one who punched So and quit is given the name Mamoru Bodai, thus making him the only exception so far.
• Not So Stoic: Date can attempt to distract one of them by saying things like "Look! A grandma!" and none of them work until he tries "Look! A porno mag at your feet!"
• Punny Name: For the only named guard. "Mamoru" literally means "to protect", while "Bodai" sounds like "bodyguard".

Kumakura Family

Moma Kumakura

Moma Kumakura

Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Kaiji Tang (English)

The current head of the Kumakura yakuza family after his older brother Rohan stepped down six years ago.

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• Animal Motifs: His name means "fierce horse".
• Benevolent Boss: He may pretend to be more violent than he really is around outsiders, but for yakuza standards, Moma is plenty reasonable — when Chinpei leaves the family in nirvanA Initiative, he does so on good terms, no ritualistic finger-amputating required. Looking around the Kumakura Office also reveals that Moma is quite interested in promoting healthy activities for himself and his boys, from beatboxing workshops to flower-viewing picnics.
• Big Damn Heroes: Mizuki, Ota, and Moma show up to save Date and Aiba on two different occasions. First in Iris's route when she's kidnapped by mercenaries, then again in the Golden Ending where he personally fends off Saito from killing Date.
• Butt-Monkey: He has his moments in both games, but more so in nirvanA Initiative. In the first game he gets blackmailed by Date, gets shot, and is tricked into motorboating Chinpei while in the second his computer gets hacked, he gets stuck wearing a voice-changing lock choker and nearly chokes to death, Lien's efforts to take it off are hampered by how bad his breath smells, Mizuki manipulates him into giving her one of the golden balls from his dragon statues, and he gets tricked into motorboating Chinpei again.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Rohan's Cain. On top of being a brutal Torture Technician and Bad Boss whose management of the Kumakuras screwed over most of the cast, Rohan made a deal with Saito to murder innocent women just so both could satisfy their twisted desires. In contrast, Moma is a fairly reasonable guy who wants to run the Kumakuras as a legitimate business and will jump at the chance to save others.
• The Cavalry: One-third of the first game's rendition of the trope, along with Ota and Mizuki.
• Character Development: Over the course of the first game, he goes from being a stereotypical foul-mouthed yakuza member to being an enthusiastic and kind ally to Date and Iris.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He swears to do anything for Iris, but on three separate occasions he asks Date to ask her for something. The first time is just a handshake, which isn't so bad, but the second time he asks to see her panties (which Date duly asks and gets slapped for), and the third time he wants Marshmallow Hell. He ends up getting it... from an unconscious, male yakuza underling instead.
• Cool Car: He has an armoured ATV he bought from the army for purely defensive reasons. He brings it out in the Iris Route to save her and in the Golden Ending of nirvanA Initiative as part of Ryuki's army, both times he trusts Ota to drive it for him.
• Dirty Old Man: He's a man in his 40s crushing on Iris, who is 18. nirvanA Initiative makes this escalate into full-on marriage delusions.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted in a surprisingly realistic way. Moma realizes that Rohan was a rather horrible person — "a real piece of shit", in his own words —, but he can't bring himself to hate him, on account of being his brother. So, instead of forgiving or resenting him, he chooses to forget about him entirely.
• Foil: To Rohan, in almost every conceivable way. Their designs are meant to be complimentary, from facial features to colour palettes; giving Rohan a white suit and Moma a black suit is also a play on their personalities and how they want to present themselves, given that the former puts on a Faux Affably Evil act and the latter is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Even their own names play into their duality: Moma is named after a prey animal (horse), while Rohan is named after a predator (wolf).
• Flanderization: Despite acting as Ryuki and Mizuki's information broker, just like he did for Date in the first game, his appearances in nirvanA Initiative are mostly reduced to the recurring character joke of him being obsessed with Iris. It goes from "looking into his mind will reveal that all he thinks about is Iris" to "very nearly asphyxiates to death after wearing a choker that granted him her voice, which he used to act out his fantasies of her".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being a lecherous mob boss who's got temper issues and no problem with murder, Moma is actually a huge A-set fan, genuinely attempts to run the Kumakuras in a clean manner, and acts as part of The Cavalry in the Iris and Resolution routes, as well as in the nirvanA Initiative finale.
• Knowledge Broker: His position in the Tokyo underworld gives him access to a fair share of secrets. He leans more into this role in nirvanA Initiative than in the original game.
• Out of Focus: On the Mizuki, Ota, and Annihilation routes, he fades into the background almost immediately after his introduction scene, which is jarring given how big of a role he plays in other routes. He appears once more on Mizuki's route, but never again on the other two.
• Punny Name: From "moumaku", retina.
• Red Baron: Calls himself "the War Horse" while introducing himself to Date... which is actually what the kanji in his name mean. Both the Iris and Resolution Routes do have credence to him being capable in battle with a rifle, both times he saves Date just in time.
• Redeeming Replacement: Since he took over leading the Kumakuras from his brother Rohan, Moma is horrified by how brutal Rohan was by his willingness to brutally torture anyone, order hits on others including children and being one half of the Original Cyclops Killers. Since then, he's been having the Kumakuras do good deeds for the community and helps the heroes whenever he can.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In the first game, when Date and Iris almost succeed in robbing him, Moma says "you guys make a good team. Like siblings" in response. The body Date is inhabiting is, indeed, that of Iris' older half-brother.
• Unmanly Secret: Moma is secretly a huge A-set fan, but has to hide it since being an idol fanboy isn't exactly good for a badass yakuza's image. In the Golden Ending, he finally reveals his love for A-set to his gang, and forces them to watch her videos until they're just as obsessed as he is.

Rohan Kumakura

Rohan Kumakura

Voiced by: Daisuke Egawa (Japanese), Kyle Hebert (English)

The previous head of the Kumakura yakuza family. He handed control of the family to his younger brother Moma after having some sort of mental breakdown and being institutionalized six years ago. One year prior he committed suicide by jumping off of a building.

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• Animal Motifs: His name means "wolf-like".
• Bad Boss: Unlike his pacifistic younger brother, Rohan controls through fear, as exemplified by the beginning of his working relationship with Falco. His business model was so violence-driven that, once he rose to the chairman spot, Moma had to, in his words, "re-structure the whole operation [and] cut a lot of people off".
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Moma's Abel.
• The Dragon: To Saito Sejima.
• Driven to Suicide: Jumped off a building before the game started. This was actually Shoko Nadami, having been a subject of Grand Theft Me from Saito Sejima in Rohan's body.
• Fat Bastard: A sadistic crime boss who was quite hefty.
• Faux Affably Evil: From what is told in flashbacks, Rohan seemed civil enough back when he was alive, in spite of his reputation as a sadist and in the present, he acts jokingly during his interrogation with Date while in #89's body. However, he was still helping Saito Sejima with the Original Cyclops Killings just for his own morbid desire for women's eyes. He also had no qualms killing both Hitomi and Iris, even when the latter was just 12 years old.
• Killed Off for Real: He's dead in both body and mind by the end of the Resolution Route, as in addition to his original body being dead by Shoko committing suicide, during the Resolution Route, Saito in Renju's body helps him escape Fuchu Prison, but brings him to the Kabasaki Chemical Plant, then switches bodies with him, sending his consciousness into Renju's dying body, which expires soon after the swap from internal injuries, ultimately leading to the death of Rohan's consciousness with it.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Women's eyes, specifically their right eyes. His desire to possess them lead to the Original Cyclops Killings, and it's speculated by Moma and Aiba that his fascination with them was driven by a cognitive disorder developed after suffering a savage beating to the left side of his head decades ago.
• Pet the Dog: In a twisted way. When Hayato/Falco asked to leave crime behind, Rohan agreed to allow it because he'd done good work for them. His only condition was that he finish one last job for him — unfortunately, he asked him to kill Hitomi and Iris. Unlike the normal 'one last job' seen in media, it's implied Rohan wasn't aware of Falco's connection to the two at the time.
• Posthumous Character: Subverted. The one who committed suicide a year ago was Shoko while in Rohan's body. Rohan has actually been imprisoned while inside Inmate #89's body.
• Punny Name: From "ouhan", macula.
• Torture Technician: Torture is listed as one of his "skills" on his profile and Moma relates a story of him skinning a guy with a vegetable peeler.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Saito (in Renju) helps break Rohan (in #89) out of custody, Saito forces a body swap using the prototype Psync machine, landing Rohan in Renju's body - which was moments away from expiring from internal injuries.

Chinpei Wagai

Chinpei Wagai

Voiced by: Kyle Hebert (English)

The first of Moma's two yakuza lackeys.

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• Animal Lover: Trains dogs as a hobby — and seems to be very good at it, as his profile states he's won a contest before. His jacket also has a pit-bull logo.
• Ascended Extra: In the first game he's just an irrelevant lackey, but in nirvanA Initiative he gets some notable early game plot significance.
• Hidden Depths: In nirvanA Initiative, he reveals that he has a film degree (originally to direct porn), and is able to leave the Kumakura Family in order to direct Komeji's online quiz show and earn honest money to be with his pregnant girlfriend.
• No Name Given: Is only referred to as "Yakuza A" in-game in the first game; his actual name can only be found in the File section. Averted in nirvanA Initiative, where he is referred to by name from the start.
• Punny Name: From "chinpira", slang for low-ranking goons within the yakuza, and presumably "shar pei", a dog breed that looks a fair bit like him.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Is awarded a bigger role in the beginning of nirvanA Initiative, but quickly gets shafted after he shoots at Ryuki in the middle of Sunfish Pocket, which lands him in prison for six years.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In nirvanA Initiative, Tearer bribes him in order to set up half of Jin Furue's body to fall during Komeji's show, which leads to the entire Half-Body Serial Killing investigation.

Dokuta Yogano

Dokuta Yogano

Voiced by: Brad Venable (English)

The second of Moma's two yakuza lackeys.

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• Back-Alley Doctor: Serves as this for the Kumakura Family. Given Renju's connection to the Kumakuras, he probably helped with Iris' birth certificate.
• Beta Couple:
  • Him and Hanayo; during the true ending, she mentions that she'll be changing her last name to "Yogano" the following month.
  • In nirvanA Initiative, they get a divorce. Nothing of it is explained in-game, but Uchikoshi answered a fan's inquiry about it on a Twitter thread.
• BFG: He attempts to kill Date with a minigun in one of the routes.
• Dub Name Change: Dokuta Yamino to Dokuta Yogano.
• No Name Given: Is only referred to as "Yakuza B" in-game in the first game; his actual name can only be found in the File section and is used in nirvanA Initiative.
• Punny Name: "Dokuta" sounds like "Doctor". His Japanese family name of Yamino phonetically means "from the underworld", which makes his full name a pun on "mob doctor".
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • In the original game, Dokuta is heavily implied to be the mob doctor who helped Renju and Hitomi in various occasions, including forging a birth certificate for Iris and treating Falco's wounds after he was found at the shrine.
  • He has even less presence in nirvanA Initiative than in the original, but his TC-PERGE-addled ravings to Mizuki lead her to find the location of the test launch of the Nirvana Initiative.

Marble

Mama

Mama / Osamu Oishi

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)

The owner of the bar Marble, and also an informant that occasionally helps Date with his investigations.

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• Alliterative Name: The name given in her profile, Osamu Oishi.
• Ambiguous Gender: Her profile lists "Gender neutral" under "Sex", though the game uses female pronouns for her. nirvanA Initiative suggests via flavor text that she may have had bottom surgery, a gender-affirming procedure many transgender women choose to undergo.
• Ascended Extra: In the first game, her primary roles are giving information that's often not very relevant and her bar serving as a place for other characters to meet up. In nirvanA Initiative she's consulted more often, with generally much more reliable info, and she is the one who explains that the timeline is not as it seems.
• Big Beautiful Woman: In a game full of heavily promiscuous characters (maybe "caricature" is a better word), Mama's is particularly brazen about her sex life, implying a lot of people are turned on by her.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In nirvanA Initiative, At first it looks as if she's talking to Mizuki after Date dragged her out of the battle the player just witnessed, until she starts talking about the plot itself and she's really talking directly to the Frayer - IE the player - to explain that the game's narrative has been presented out of order. It's implied by her confused reaction afterwards that she was being possessed by the external force giving the heroes hints through her.
• Character Tic: She's almost always seen cleaning a bonito fish, a few characters may lampshade it, including Mama. In nirvanA Initiative, she instead polishes her two milky crystal fortune orbs.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Speculates that the construction delays on the stadium are a cover for some kind of device, which she guesses is a time portal. It's actually the location of the rocket containing TC-PERGE.
• Everyone Has Standards: She refuses to give alcohol to anyone driving, such as Mizuki Kuranushi/Bibi in nirvanA Initiative despite being of drinking age since she clearly saw them arrive on a motorbike.
• Fortune Teller: Takes up this profession in nirvanA Initiative.
• Insult Backfire: She was called a "piece of fucking shit" online, which she eventually stuck to and named a dish called "Pizza Fish and Chips" after it.
• Knowledge Broker: The primary reason Date comes to her bar so often.
• Nice Girl: Well, feminine presenting gender neutral at least. Mama is warm and kind to just about anyone who visits her, even if she can get a bit overboard with her innuendos.
• Running Gag:
  • Every time Date goes to Marble, he has the option to refer to her fridge as a "family member" or Mama herself, and each time she gets defensive as she reminds him of the truth.
  • She has a tendency to tell jokes using the word "tap" when you examine the tap and to describe innocuous videos in ways that make them sound perverted when examining the TV.
  • In nirvanA Initiative, she frequently describes her crystal balls as "big milky balls".
• The Tease: Constantly makes innuendos and occasionally flirts with Date, who respectfully turns her own.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first game, Mama was truthfully out of her depth, as any information she had as a broker was not often something that would help Date in his case. In nirvanA Initiative, she's better known as a fortune teller instead, and is able to become a lot more productive in providing information for Ryuki and Mizuki.
• Virgin Vision: Her listed "skill" is having the uncanny ability to tell when someone is a virgin. Such as Iris. It becomes a Chekhov's Gag when Aiba analyzes the dead body that looks like Iris and points out that she had recently given birth.
• Voice of the Legion: She's prone to doing this when she tells fortunes.

Sunfish Pocket

Amame Doi (SPOILERS FOR NIRVANA INITIATIVE)

Amame Doi (née Enda)

Voiced by: Risa Kubota (Japanese), Faye Mata (English)

nirvanA Initiative

^{Amame in her work outfit}

A mermaid... maid working at Sunfish Pocket. She is a classmate of Iris and particularly close with her, Kizuna, Mizuki, and Gen.

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• A-Team Firing: Desperate to save Gen from the SAT in their route, Amame steals Mizuki's Evolver, which is loaded with flash rounds, and opens fire. It completely misses and detonates in the air several feet above the squad instead, and the officers accosting them open fire on her in retaliation. Cue Gen performing a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Affectionate Nickname: She's often called "Mame" for short by her closest friends.
• Anti-Villain: Is revealed to be the person behind the half of Jin Furue's body Mizuki discovers at the beginning of nirvanA Initiative. The finale reveals, however, that the body is actually that of Tearer, the game's main villain, who she killed after he mocked her about how he killed her dad, and her story from there is about the awful guilt she feels for the rest of Side Mizuki. Despite killing Tearer, she's sentenced to jailtime, despite most the city hailing her as a hero. The main reason she even hides the body is because the leader of Naix, Tokiko Shigure, blackmailed her about it as part of her own Thanatos Gambit, and not because she herself wanted to.
• Art Evolution: Unlike every other character returning from the first game, Amame has a completely new model in nirvanA Initiative.
• Ascended Extra: In the first game, her only role was to give Date information about Iris and Renju, and was considered insignificant enough to simply be referred to as "Mermaid" in the dialogue box and case file. In the second she's a major character who manages to kill the Big Bad and has the last Somnium in the game.
• Bad Job, Worse Uniform: Despite being cheerful and professional when she's on-shift, she admits to Ryuki that she actually thinks Sunfish Pocket's mer-maid cafe aesthetic is quite gaudy. She gets paid quite well for it though, so she puts the seashells on for Shoma and Komeji's sake.
• Beast and Beauty: Has this dynamic with Gen, filling the Beauty role.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Courtesy of Faye Mata. Gen's dying wish being for her to sing to him one last time is a surefire indicator.
• Beneath the Mask: In the first game where you only see her when she's on-shift, she has a loopy personality and plays up the undersea theme of Sunfish Pocket for all it's worth. In the second game, you meet her when she's off work and see that while she still has an energetic side, she's actually rather intelligent and serious in private.
• Best Friend: To Iris. Of all the friends she has Amame is probably the closest to her. She cares enough about Iris' well-being that she chose to support her over her father after both witnessed Jin Furue's corpse, a decision that pained her for years.
• Big "NO!": Let an anguished one out upon discovering Komeji's body.
• Break the Cutie: nirvanA Initiative is not kind to her. She witnesses the right half of her father's corpse being transported by his killer and threatened by said killer into silence. Six year later, she kills said murderer only to be blackmailed by his mentor as well, and even after all that, she has to serve time in prison. And on a separate route, after going through all of that, she has to live with watching Gen die.
• Breakout Character: Amame was originally a minor NPC in the first game, so minor that the only reason you even knew her name was because it was listed in her profile. Despite this, her shameless greed and friendship with Iris led to her becoming popular with the playerbase, ultimately netting her a greatly expanded role in the sequel.
• Broken Ace: On the surface, Amame's a kind young lady that gets top marks in school despite her job taking up a lot of her time, is an expert at customer service, dances on par with Iris and Kizuna, sings as beautifully as she looks, and is greatly liked by almost everyone that knows her. Underneath all that, she's endured a lot of trauma from her father's death, and that trauma sent her down a dark path when Tearer came out of hiding to face her again.
• Brutal Honesty: She's very open about how the Sunfish Pocket's ranking system and expensive services are just a way to get more money from the customers. She even describes the job to Ryuki as "gaudy" and that she just needs a stable job to support her family.
• Characterization Marches On: Depicted as a Cloudcuckoolander in the first game, then the second indicates that this is mostly a work persona and proceeds to show what she's actually like.
• Comfort the Dying: As Gen lays dying at the end of their route, Amame complies with his final request to sing her song to him, though she's clearly fighting through tears to do so.
• Conflicting Loyalty: A major part of her internal struggle, having been forced to choose between her parents and between supporting her friends and family and wondering how things may have played out differently if she had made other choices.
• Cool Big Sis: As much flak as he gives their dad, Shoma has nothing but good things to say about her. Part of the reason she took her job at Sunfish Pocket was so that she could buy things for Shoma that Komeji couldn't afford to.
• Cosplay Café: She works at a mermaid-themed maid cafe.
• Daddy's Girl: Despite choosing to live with her Mom after their divorce, she adored her father Komeji and took her job at Sunfish Pocket in order to help ease his financial burden. She was even more devastated by his death than Shoma was, and she ended up killing his murderer the next time she saw him.
• The Dog Bites Back: Tearer, a serial killer and would-be destroyer of the world, meets his end at the hands of a random girl he threatened once.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: That inconsequential maid cafe waitress from the first game turns out to be the one responsible for the body Mizuki discovers in the sequel.
• Dork in a Sweater: She primarily wears a light-blue sweater when she's off work, signifying her more soft-spoken nature compared to Iris or Kizuna. That said, she's far from harmless.
• Drink-Based Characterization: She can be found with an oolong tea at Brahman, which is fitting for the most reserved and practical of Iris's friends. It's also been known to provide better sleep quality and reduce stress and anxiety, which Amame really needs once you learn what she's been up to for the past few days and what she has to do later that evening.
• Dude Magnet: Pretty much by necessity, given that she works in a maid cafe. Beyond that, Date abuses Aiba's X-Ray function to check out her hip bones, Ota is willing to pay an additional fee to have her spoonfeed him his omelet rice, Gen is in love with her, and Tearer mentions in his diary that he has a fixation with her as well, though the nature of that fixation is as questionable as his sanity. In addition, one of her listed skills in the sequel is "Receiving Lavish Gifts", which further suggests that a lot of her customers are smitten with her.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Possibly, depending on which path of the first game you play first. If you do the left path first, you can spot her picture on the wall before she appears in person on the right path.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: She's missing the pink streak in her bangs in the first game.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Tama is quite interested in getting inside her femurs. In other words, jumping her bones.
• Fanservice with a Smile: She works at a maid cafe with an undersea theme, which constitutes bright rainbow colors and seashells on the chest to imitate a Seashell Bra. Amame even admits in the sequel that Sunfish Pocket's aesthetic is quite gaudy. Oddly, Date isn't too into her or the other waitresses, claiming that they're a bit too young for his tastes. Doesn't stop him from ogling her hip bones when he X-Rays her however.
• Final Boss: She has the last Somnium you explore in the second game, and the key to the mystery.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: A non-lethal example. Despite being her closest friends, Iris and Kizuna have nothing to say about Amame's arrest. (At least in-game they don’t.)
• Freudian Excuse: The reason she's so eager to take her customers' money is because her father is deep in debt with both banks and loan sharks, and she wants to help him with his financial crisis as well as look after her little brother Shoma.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Partly due to Kizuna's sudden debut in the sequel, she and Amame barely interact despite allegedly being best friends, with Kizuna mostly interacting with Lien and Amame with Gen.
• The Gadfly: Her penchant for mischief doesn't end when there aren't any sea-king treasuries to drain.
  Amame: Oh, come to think of it, you were on the quiz show last night, weren't you? Your name... started with an "R", I think...
  Ryuki: Yeah.
  Amame: Mr. Rerorerorerotaro, was it?
  Ryuki: It's Ryuki!!
  Amame: I see, Mr. Ryukirerotaro...
• Genki Girl: Puts on this facade whenever she’s at work, or even hanging out with her friends. The second game shows she’s not always like this though.
• Hartman Hips: Date is impressed with what he sees when he examines her skeleton with X-Ray.
  Date: The Mermaid at Sunfish Pocket has fantastic hips. I'm just saying, that's a really nice pelvis.
• Heroic BSoD: She is very distant and depressed post-timeskip in nirvanA Initiative due to her My God, What Have I Done? reaction to killing Uru, though she does snap out of it somewhat after her crimes are discovered.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Attempts to do this in she and Gen's ending when they, along with Mizuki and Date, are surrounded by armed police to buy everyone else time to escape. Much to her displeasure Gen has the same idea.
• High-Heel Power: She wears a pair of high-heeled loafers in her civilian outfit, another indicator of her feminity compared to her friends. Tearer also learns the hard way that you do not want to push this girl too far. It's implied that she can't run in them very well, given that Ryuki was able to catch up to her pretty quickly when chasing her in the Naix Cathedral.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • When Date points out that the tridents at Sunfish Pocket are a measuring stick for how much money you've spent there, Amame tells him that that's not a nice way of putting it, only to add her own brutally honest take on the concept.
    Date: So it basically measures how much money you've spent on these girls.
    Amame: Well that doesn't sound very nice. It's more like... a way to exploit their vanity. To separate our customers from their money as much as possible.
    Date: That sounds even worse.
  • When Ryuki asks her about Jin in the sequel, she's quite critical of his character, telling him that Jin had a sharp tongue and was prone to starting drama on To-Witter. Tama notes that Amame's pretty blunt herself.
• Informed Attribute: She claims to be a dancer like Iris and Kizuna, but unlike them, she's only ever shown singing instead, Dance Party Ending notwithstanding.
• Innocence Lost: Amame's character arc in the second game revolves around her trauma over Komeji's death transforming her from a perky waitress to a remorseful killer.
• It's All My Fault:
  • While she hates Tearer for killing her father and permanently injuring Kizuna and Mizuki, she ultimately believes that if she was around to support Komeji more, he might not've been put into a position to get killed to begin with.
  • Also places the blame squarely on herself for moving half a corpse into Gen's freezer once it's uncovered and they get targeted by the SAT, deflecting any blame off of Gen.
• Lost Voice Plot: The basis of her first Somnium. Ryuki needs her to testify about her encounter with Tearer in Studio Dvaita, but she's unable to speak due to her recent Trauma Conga Line. Thus, Ryuki chooses to Psync with her to extract the information needed directly from her brain.
• Loved by All: Everybody likes Mame — Her friends, her otherwise dysfunctional family, her customers, even the Serial Killer that murdered her father. That last one didn't turn out well for either of them... In the post-game, it's revealed that nobody agrees with her being punished for killing Tearer and that most of Tokyo think she's a hero for it.
• Manipulative Bitch: Her profile lists her as being highly skilled at manipulating her customers into spending large sums of money. The sequel reveals that she acts like this because her family really needs the money.
• Marathon Boss: She has the honor of having the most mental locks in both games, having a whopping total of 13 when Ryuki and Mizuki attempt to get the truth from her. It just goes to show just how ridiculously determined she is to keep her secrets.
• Meaningful Name: It's probably just a coincidence due to her full name being an anagram, but "Amame" is Spanish for "love me." Given where she works and Aiba comparing her to a siren, that would be exactly what she wants her customers to do.
• Ms. Fanservice: It's in her job description to be a fairly subdued case, given the main reason the demographic for maid cafes visit them. That said, she's not above flaunting her sex appeal off-shift as well, considering she playfully accuses Ryuki of imagining her in a leotard when she mentions being in Iris's dance club. Date and Tama do find her quite erotic... but actually because of her skeleton, rather than anything conventionally attractive.
• Mythical Motifs: Mermaids, obviously. She wears a seashell pin and fake nails styled after the ocean even when off-shift, and her name is an anagram for "maameido", the Japanese spelling for mermaid.
• Nice Girl: Exploitation of her customers and killing of Tearer aside, Amame is just as bubbly and outgoing as Iris and Kizuna... at least before the time-skip. She was one of the only people to see Gen's face that didn't react with immediate fear or disgust, and lied about her age so she could work extra hours out of a desire to support her brother and father despite her mother's divorce. Even after the time-skip where she's more introverted and depressed, she never takes her frustrations out on anybody, and even feels somewhat guilty about killing Tearer.
• Nightmare Fetishist: She mentions exploring haunted locations with Iris in their freetime, hinting at a similar interst in the occult. And in the sequel you get the two of them exchanging supernatural theories on Jin's body appearing out of nowhere.
• Nom de Mom: While it's never directly stated, the fact that her last name is different from Komeji's and Shoma's suggests that "Doi" is her mother's maiden name, which she adopted for herself after her parents divorced. Despite what this trope normally entails, she's still on good terms with her father.
• Not So Above It All: While she has a calm demeanour most of the time, she acts like a Cloudcuckoolander at work, and even generally has an energetic and enthusiastic side when she’s hanging out with her friends.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She acts like a Cloudcuckoolander while on shift to make herself more appealing to her customers.
• Only in It for the Money: She's quite open about the fact that draining the wallets of her patrons is her primary motivation for working at a maid cafe.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She's uncharacteristically rude to Ryuki when he runs into her at Brahman, and reacts with shock when he asks Gen about Tokiko and the Nirvana Initiative. Tama notices both of these and realizes that something's off about her.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Waited specifically until Uru woke up to use the slicer on him, specifically so he'd know the same pain and fear her father idd.
• Perpetual Smiler: In the first game, as part of her customer service persona. The sequel gives her a much broader range of expressions.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Gen, to the point of sharing a route with him in the second game. He feels a deep connection to her since she's one of the only people that didn't react with fear or disgust when she saw his face. Sadly, Gen wanted more, but sensed that Amame wasn't interested in him in that way.
• Proud Beauty: Or in her own words...
  "I'm a super hyper cutie miracle beauty!"
• Punny Name: It is an anagram of maameido, the Japanese spelling of the word mermaid, and she works at a mermaid-themed maid cafe. It also roughly sounds like "a mermaid".
• Put on a Prison Bus: The second game ends with her being arrested for killing Tearer, though it's suggested that given the circumstances behind her actions since she killed a Serial Killer who was planning a global genocide, she has a fair chance at a lighter sentence.
• Really 17 Years Old: She's actually 18, but claims to be two years older so she can work night shifts. She's quite desperate to support her family.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Iris's red, fittingly enough. While she also has her bubbly moments and is a fan of the occult as well, she's noted to be the more blunt and practical of the two.
• Retcon: In the first game it's stated that Iris befriended her through work. In the second game, this is changed to them being classmates instead.
• Revenge: Deconstructed. She kills Uru for killing her father six years ago, but by doing so she causes her life to go in a downwards spiral. She's blackmailed, forced to endure stressful situations and lie to her loved ones, and ultimately didn't get any satisfaction or peace of mind from the act. Instead all she did was make her life worse, even if it did help stop Tearer's plans.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: Amame learned this too little too late when she got her revenge on Tearer. Aiba spells it out to her in her second Somnium that even though the cult leader had it coming, the way she killed him was absolutely not justice.
• Revision: Said to be 20 in the first game but is in high school (18) at the start of nirvanA Initiative, which is given a brief explanation that she lied when applying for work at Sunfish Pocket. Later in the story, it is revealed that she wanted to make more money to support her father and brother, so she lied about her age to be able to do night shifts.
• Shared Family Quirks: She has a talent for trivia, which turns out to be Foreshadowing that she is actually Komeji's daughter.
• Shown Their Work: She has fake nails in her civilian attire, but they're absent from her mermaid uniform. The food service industry is very strict about how nails should be kept and fake nails are not allowed, since they're harder to keep clean and run the risk of breaking off and falling into food.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She's noted to be rather difficult to approach in Mizuki's side of the second game. This turns out to be because she's wracked with guilt over killing Uru.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: Her talent at using her looks and her honeyed words to goad her customers into splurging leads to Aiba comparing her to a siren, and urging Date not to get drawn in by her song.
• Spanner in the Works: Tearer might have been able to see his plans come to fruition, as no one was even aware of what he was doing in the present... but he made the mistake of inviting a semi-random witness of one of his killings to his hideout and gloating about how the victim of said killing was her own father, apparently unwilling to believe that this delicate, emotionally-compromised woman could possibly be a threat to him. She was.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Handwaves her depression over killing Uru and being blackmailed by Tokiko by claiming she lost 50,000 yen at pachinko. Tama had made the exact same guess that that was the reason she was down in the dumps.
• Sympathetic Murderer: While she killed Uru, it's hard to blame her as Uru was a murderous Diabolical Mastermind who killed her father, and even afterwards she felt horrified. According to Ota, there are quite a number of people who see her as a hero, including himself. In addition, Shoma says that the lawyers are trying their best using the circumstances to reduce her sentence.
• Trauma Conga Line: It all begins when her father Komeji calls her to his house to help him dispose of the left half of Jin's body that he stole in a plan he devised while drunk, to her obvious horror. She agrees to help, but chooses to dispose of it by bringing it to Gen's and having him lock it in his freezer. Then her father is murdered, with her personally discovering his bisected corpse after his killer threatens her at gunpoint. Six years later, Uru finds her and summons her to his hideout, where he brags about killing Komeji. Amame snaps and kills him with his own slicer, but she's caught in the act by Tokiko, who blackmails her into setting up his body somewhere where it can be discovered before forcing her to assist in her own Thanatos Gambit, leaving her with three bisected bodies that she's had to personally handle. She's eventually found out, and even though the majority of the public sides with her on the matter and think she's a hero, the police consider murdering a Serial Killer still murder, and she has to face prison time for her actions.
• True Blue Femininity: Dresses in blue with blue hair, and is the most outwardly feminine of her social circle.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: You'd never know by just looking at her that her father is the short, cube-headed Andes Komeji - given how her brother Shoma also looks normal, it's not implausible in retrospect.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: She killed Uru to avenge her father, but it just made her even more miserable. Tokiko blackmailing her into setting up her suicide didn't help matters.
• Walking Spoiler: She's a vastly more significant (and spoiler-heavy) character in the second game compared to the first, being the older sister of Shoma and the killer of Tearer.
• Water Is Womanly: Heavily associated with the ocean, and has a gentler personality when not around Iris.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Her father stumbled upon the left half of Jin's corpse while drunk, and decided to take it to blackmail Tearer for money. The next day he sobers up, realizes the mistake he just made, and calls Amame to his house to help him dispose of it. Amame agrees to help, but not before berating her father for possibly thinking blackmailing a Serial Killer was a good idea.
  "Oh my god, you're so stupid, you know that!? You're like the stupidest bottom-feeding dad ever!"
• Workaholic: On top of school, she also has dance club and her job at Sunfish Pocket, which she lied about her age in order to work more hours than she's legally allowed to. At one point she states that she usually gets home at 11 each night.
• Wrench Whack: Inside her Somnium, Ryuki and Tama discover a wrench during the "spot the differences" game, but can't discern the significance of it. Mizuki finds the answer for them on her side of the game — It's the murder weapon Amame used to knock Tearer out and drag him to his slicer.
• You Didn't Ask:
  • Not long after Date's first visit to Sunfish Pocket Renju, whom he was searching for, drops by and asks Amame for Iris's whereabouts. When Amame brings this up the next time Date visits, he asks her why she didn't inform him immediately. Amame's reply is this trope, plus the fact that Date didn't think to leave his contact info just in case Renju visited after he left.
  • She never even considered the fact that Andes Komeji was her divorced father and Shoma her younger brother as any sort of secret. She just didn't consider it worth mentioning to either Mizuki or Ryuki until the subject was brought up.
• You Killed My Father: She kills Tearer, her father's murderer, after he gloats about Komeji's death being part of his master plan.

Lemniscate

Ritsuko Enshu

Ritsuko Enshu

Lemniscate's receptionist.

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• Ambiguous Situation: She calls herself a Repetilian which is supposedly a shapeshifting race of Lizard Folk, neither Aiba nor Date disputes this claim as impossible- leaving it up in the air if Reptilians actually exist.
• Dumb Blonde: Hair of gold and not terribly bright.
• Everyone Has Standards: nirvanA Initiative gave her some in the epilogue. Despite being a shameless flirt and willing to just ditch her job to go to Atami with people she barely knows, she's not willing to let Moma motorboat her chest. Her solution is telling Moma to close his eyes and switching herself with Chinpei.
• Fanservice Extra: A receptionist with giant boobs who's never seen outside of Lemniscate, barring a single phone call to Date, and the ending.
• Has a Type: Guys that like New Guinea fruit bats and yellow-spotted neck turtles.
• Innocently Insensitive: She says that she feels lucky that her boss died, which wouldn't be so bad if Mizuki, her boss' daughter, wasn't standing in the same room as her.
• Living Prop: She only frequently appears at Lemniscate in the background. (Though you can interact and get an ending with her) other than a phone call to Date and the ending and only really speaks frequently if you talk to her.
• Lizard Folk: Mentions that she is a reptilian. She means vegetarian.
• Nice Girl: She's always friendly and helpful whenever shown.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Played for Laughs in both games where Date and Ryuki can run off to Atami with her, immediately ending the plot then and there.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She seems to be not quite as naive as she acts, judging by being able to trick Moma into getting puff-puff from Chinpei, with the implication that she does this regularly.
• Older Than They Look: She's 36 but, like Boss, she looks like she's in her mid-to late 20s.
• Sexy Secretary: The receptionist at Lemniscate who has giant boobs, and a Running Gag of Date flirting with her whenever he sees her.
• Stronger Than They Look: You wouldn't think to look at her that she'd be able to knock out Chinpei in one hit.
• Valley Girl: Talks like one in the localization. In Japanese, she speaks in a very casual register that would be considered outrageous if used on the job by an actual corporate receptionist in Japan.

Takushi Ibarado

Takushi Ibarado

A taxi driver that frequently works with Lemniscate, who appears in Ota's route in the first game as well as in nirvanA Initiative.

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• Character Tics: He always speaks in a British-esque vernacular and uses "Moi" when referring to himself. In the Japanese version, he speaks with a dialect from the late 1800s.
• Chubby Chaser: In the Golden Ending section of Nirvana Initiative, he eagerly reveals that Ota's mother is applying for a job as a mermaid in Sunfish Pocket and can't wait to see her large assets in action, much to Ota's horror.
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: He runs pyramid schemes as a hobby.
• Gonk: He looks like a racist caricature from a World War II era American propaganda poster.
• Hopeless with Tech: In nirvanA Initiative, he admits he's horrible with technology in general and has trouble running card payments in his taxi, which got Iris and Kizuna stuck for a while trying to pay the fare for getting to Studio Dvaita, but he recalled Amame running in before them which gives Ryuki a major clue later.
• Nominal Importance: He's there to explain how Mayumi was able to go from place to place, as well as deliver stuff to other characters.
• Punny Name: A taxi driver whose first name sounds like "taxi" and last name is an anagram of "doraiba" (driver).
• Small Role, Big Impact: In nirvanA Initiative, he's the one who provides the information that makes Ryuki realize that Amame met with Tearer which ultimately winds up being crucial in both determining she murdered him and in preventing the Nirvana Initiative.
• Weirdness Magnet: In both games, he winds up being involved with incidents where tragedy takes place, resulting in his presence being a red flag for players meaning that something bad is going to be revealed save for his sole appearance in the Resolution Route, where he didn't interact with Mayumi and the tragedies of the left side of the flowchart didn't happen.

Fuchu Prison

Inmate # 89 (HEAVY SPOILERS)

Inmate #89

Voiced by: Tarusuke Shingaki (Japanese), D.C. Douglas (English)

A nameless inmate serving a life sentence for multiple murder counts. He claims to know the true identity of the New Cyclops Killer.

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• Cassandra Truth: Told Hitomi the whole truth about being body swapped and how he was Rohan trapped in Falco's body- she thought "Falco" was trying to distance himself from her, and brushed it off.
• Exact Words: Says he's one of the two original Cyclops Killers. He never says which one he is. Turns out he's Rohan Kumakura inhabiting Falco's body. He also delivers the backstory of Falco ("Let's call him F") in third person, because that's not him either.
• Killed Off for Real: There are a few routes where #89 is alive and well, but the Golden Ending (and therefore the canon route) dictates that he is betrayed and killed by Saito.
• Mr. Exposition: Serves as this on the Annihilation Route, where he delivers Falco's backstory in an interrogation. In the other routes, he breaks out before Date can hear the story.
• No Name Given: Claims to have forgotten it.
• Pet the Dog: For all his many faults, he never once to actually claimed to be Falco when Hitomi came to visit him. In fact, he told her the truth about what happened. Which is astonishing considering he tried to kill her, and could have used Hitomi's and Yagyu's relationship to help himself like how Saito used Pewter.
• Plea Bargain: #89 demands to be released in exchange for providing ABIS with information.
• The Scapegoat: In the end, #89 was written as the New Cyclops Killer who was responsible for most of the murders in the Resolution Route and committed suicide by blowing up his head in order to hide the whole body-swapping plot.
• Small Role, Big Impact: #89 is not in the story for more than about one scene, and that is his interrogation before he's out of the story. As it turns out, he's actually part of one of the biggest plot twists in the game.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He never raises his voice around anyone, maintaining a perfect calm even as he divulges in talk of killing.
• Third-Person Person: His story about the origins of Falco makes him look like he's talking about himself in the third person. This is subverted with the reveal that #89 is actually Rohan, and the story he's telling is actually about Date/Hayato.
• Villains Never Lie: Played With. He tells white lies (forgetting his name, claiming he was born in South Africa), but never actually lies about important information (Falco's backstory, knowing who the New Cyclops Killer is, telling the truth to Hitomi) though they're all brushed off soon enough.
• Walking Spoiler: He's Rohan Kumakura in Kaname Date (or rather, Hayato Yagyu)'s original body.

Serial Killers

All of these characters are Walking Spoilers. Spoilers are unmarked in these folders.

Original Cyclops Killer

Rohan Kumakura & Saito Sejima

A term used to refer to the perpetrator of the "Original Cyclops Killings" six years ago, in order to differentiate them from the New Cyclops Killer. In truth, there is no single "Original Cyclops Killer": the murders were the result of collaboration between Saito Sejima (who could only feel pleasure from killing) and Rohan Kumakura (who was obsessed with collecting women's eyes).

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• Collective Identity: The original Cyclops killings were actually a collaboration between Rohan Kumakura and Saito Sejima. The latter did the killing while the former removed the eyes.
• Eye Scream: All of the victims were missing their right eye, hence the name.
• Kick the Dog: All their victims went out screaming, crying, and pleading for mercy, only to receive none and die in brutal fashions.
• Would Hit a Girl: Their victims were exclusively adult women, though this is due to Rohan's fascination with right eyes of beautiful women, rather than anything else.

New Cyclops Killer

Saito Sejima

Voiced by: Tarusuke Shingaki (Japanese), Greg Chun (English)

Congressman Sejima's son. One of the two Original Cyclops Killers, he was born unable to secrete the hormone oxytocin, making him incapable of feeling positive emotions except when killing. He actually spent five of the past six years in Rohan Kumakura's body, and the last one in Shoko Nadami's body as part of his plan to commit the New Cyclops Killings.

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• Addled Addict: A major motivator in getting his old body back is that Saito has become utterly addicted to that rush of killing people, and in other bodies he feels miserable due to the guilt that's inflicted upon him instead. As such, he's become hungry to get that oxytocin once he resumes killing in his old body.
• And I Must Scream: In addition to losing his memories, Saito wasn't able to properly function while he was imprisoned being mentally fractured on top of losing his memories, essentially suffering a near Death of Personality for a year before both his memories and consciousness was able to resurface properly.
• Antagonistic Offspring: While So was willing to cover for Saito after the latter's first murder, its clear that Saito's increasingly monstrous actions were too much for his father to accept, and he shows little grief when Saito disappeared from his life. Saito himself has no problem killing his own father in various routes.
• Ax-Crazy: He only experiences any positive emotions through murder and is outright addicted to it.
• The Bad Guy Wins: While there are minor hitches along the way, he ultimately gets everything he wants in the Annihilation ending - he succeeds in getting his original body back, and in systematically destroying Date's life as well, killing almost everyone he loves. The only solace is that Aiba is able to prevent him from outright escaping by knocking him out, but it's still framed as nothing less than a truly hopeless and soul-crushing defeat for Date.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: He mentions that as a child, he first started by killing animals before he eventually grew bored and sought the bigger thrill of murdering other people. His first Somnium hints to this too, showing a kid's drawings of animals splattered in blood.
• Being Evil Sucks: He's horrified to discover that murder isn't fun without his oxytocin-deficient brain and is desperate to get it back. Not that it stops him in his murder spree, mind you.
• Big Bad: The only people intentionally murdered in the game are killed by Saito. He is both the New and Original Cyclops Killer.
• Body Surf: Prior to the game, he had swapped himself with Falco in Rohan Kumakura's body, then five years later swapped into Shoko Nadami, and just before the game starts, into Renju Okiura. If his plan is allowed to continue unobstructed, he swaps into Iris, So, Boss and then finally back into his old body. In the Resolution route, he swaps into Falco's body and then his old one.
• Boom, Headshot!: His fate at the end of Mizuki's route while in his father's body after mistakenly believing that he killed Date.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: In the Lemniscate Youtube series ARG, a handful of the episodes are actually hosted by him in Iris's body rather than Iris herself. One of the episodes he hosts is "Iris" introducing ABIS to the audience. While introducing Date, whose body is actually Saito's, he comments extensively on how attractive Date is.
• Cain and Abel: He's Iris's half brother on So's side, and Saito makes several attempts on her life, succeeding in some routes.
• Character Tics: He has a habit of contorting his fingers and it comes across when his true personality shows. He most prominently does this in his own body and Boss's body.
• Consummate Liar: Due to being The Sociopath, he can lie to Date's face without tripping off Aiba. He does this constantly as he's switching bodies.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Aiba's presence in Date's/his eye socket leads to his death in Mizuki's route and the Resolution route. Even at the end of the Annihilation route, where Saito's plan has gone otherwise off as intended and he's reclaimed his body and killed most of the main cast, his moment of triumph is unceremoniously cut off by Aiba shocking him unconscious, or blowing his head up.
  • He never once thought that Prototype Sync Machine would have an issue despite being a prototype and therefore prone to potential mistakes and failures. Further more, he never did a thorough enough reading to know that the body he would be transferred to would be numb while his original body would become reinvigorated.
  • He also didn't realize how much he had clung to that burst of Oxytocin that ran through his brain when he committed murder, as even if the switch was successful, it's likely he would have been unhappy in Rohan's body.
  • One major factor in his plan screwing up on the Resolution Route was Date flying in a panic and telling Iris to not trust anyone and to stay home, ruining Saito's plan to steal Iris' body and getting in a major car accident in the process, forcing him to break Prisoner #89 (Rohan Kumakura) out of custody since his Renju body is dying from sustained injuries from the accident and needs a healthy body to survive in, which ends up putting Date back in his original body in the end.
• Didn't Think This Through: This trope actually gets him more than once, due to him being focused more on his own desires and end-goals and not the consequences they would have or even if he'd be able to enjoy the results after.
  • The entire reason for his revenge plot is that he tried to steal Date's current body using the prototype Psync machine on an impulsive whim. Not only did it go wrong when it malfunctioned, ensuring they both lost their memories, Date was given a stimulant boost that allowed him to escape with the body while Saito was sedated and didn't wake up until after everyone had left, which helped result in his capture.
  • That impulsive desire to try swapping bodies backfired further on him as well, even after he regained his memories, since it meant that he couldn't get a dopamine rush after killing people due to others not sharing his unique brain chemistry. Instead, he feels miserable instead, potentially meaning his body instead feels guilt for killing people like it normally would. This is what truly inspired his revenge against Date, even though he was only in that situation because of his own actions: He can't adapt to being normal and has grown too dependent on the rush.
  • In both the Annihilation and Resolution routes, he ends up getting incapacitated and killed, respectively, because of Aiba's interference. It's far more blatant in the former route too as he swapped into Boss before swapping with Date again, meaning he had double the reason to know it's a bad idea to keep Aiba in his head but the Resolution route is no slouch either as the self-destruct function was brought up earlier in that branch, as well as the fact that it activating would be lethal to him.
    • Better yet, the entire reason Aiba was there was because he ripped out his eye before swapping with Date, with the added meaning that he likely intended to kill his initial body. Since Date was missing an eye and had a body with a defective brain, Aiba was made to help with both. And if he did intend to eliminate his old body, if he was successful, meaning that he never would have been able to feel that rush from killing people again. If anything, the malfunction was the best outcome for him, since it gave him the chance to get back into his own body.
• Dissonant Serenity: He's chillingly calm as he explains to Date the series of events that comprised of his murders.
• Enfant Terrible: He showed his murderous tendencies from a young age by killing small animals for fun. At twelve years, this escalated into his first human murder, Manaka Iwai. So notes this as the point of no return for Saito.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He fundamentally cannot understand deriving pleasure from anything other than murder. Even when he switches bodies with more functional brains, his instinct to murder is still there, but he cannot derive pleasure from it due to guilt. In fact, this is his entire motivation for doing what he does in the game: he wants to get his own body back because he doesn't want to understand good.
• Evil Genius: Not only was he able to work and modify the prototype Psync machine, he came up with the chemical plant explosion scheme in the first place which So agreed to follow and got away with billions of yen in profit from selling his land there prior while buying the now-worthless land at a marginal cost.
• Eye Scream: All of his victims have their eyes removed as a calling card. Originally it was the right eye that got removed because his accomplice was obsessed with right eyes, but this time it's the left eyes due to it being necessary for the prototype Psync Machine to work. He even removes his own eye for the process to work.
• Exact Words: In the Annihilation route, Hitomi has a bomb strapped to her and Saito tells Date that he'll give him her location if Date gives Saito his body back. Date agrees, and Saito gives Hitomi's location... and the bomb goes off anyway.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Many people comment on Date's handsome appearance, which becomes disturbing considering he's actually in the body of a dangerous psychopath, which is more apparent in flashbacks and in the Resolution Route when Saito is in his original body and is relishing in his oxytocin-free rampage.
• Faux Affably Evil: He can be very polite and patient with people, but it does nothing to hide the fact he's an unrepentant serial killer who takes sadistic glee in murdering others.
• Feels No Pain: It's often glossed over, but Saito seems to feel no pain or at least does not care whatsoever about feeling it: He pulls his eye out without concern or a grunt of pain, and he can function in Boss' wounded body and Renju's mortally wounded body far better than anyone else.
• Foil:
  • To his half-sister Iris: Both of them were children raised by single parents, developed crippling disabilities in their youths, and are both PerpetualSmilers to an extant. Iris however is a sweet, bubbly, and compassionate girl, while Saito is an psychotic, murderous, and needlessly cruel young man. Their relation to their respective parents is also opposite to the other; Hitomi was a devoted and loving mother to Iris who put her all into raising her right, while So was highly neglectful and grew fearful and spiteful towards Saito as the latter grew more violent. Iris therefore loves Hitomi, while Saito was willing to murder So in cold blood. Hitomi also was willing to resort to blackmail in a desperate attempt to treat Iris's brain tumor, while So let Saito's brain disorder go untreated for years, resulting in Saito turning to murder to cope with his chemical imbalance.
  • To Mizuki: both of them were heavily neglected, if not outright abused, by their parents, and thus grew up with a lot of pent up resentment. Mizuki however was still able to find both adults and friends her age that loved her and gave her the validation she needed. Whereas Saito was incapable of feeling validated by love, and thus grew up to become a monstrous Serial Killer. Their relation to Date is also completely different: Mizuki looks to Date as the only family she has left after the death of her parents, and though they have struggles, they still mutually love and care for each other. Saito meanwhile is Date's most personal and hated enemy who antagonizes him mercilessly through the game by hurting his loved ones. Naturally, Mizuki and Saito end up combatting each other in the game's climax.
• For the Evulz: After leaving his body, he no longer has the brain defect that makes it so he only feels happiness when killing. This pisses him off, since he enjoyed being evil, and now the rush doesn't hit.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He murdered Manaka because he was jealous of how much attention his father was giving her.
• Hated by All: Absolutely no one, not even his own father, has anything nice to say about Saito. He's a monster through and through, and attempts to destroy almost every major character's life throughout the game. His death at the end comes with a massive sigh of relief from all parties.
• Hate Sink: The more you find out about Saito and everything that he did the more it becomes clear how much of a monster he is, and unlike Spike Chunsoft’s other villains he has neither comedic value nor redeeming qualities.
• High on Homicide: Due to his inability to properly secrete oxytocin, he can only feel positive emotions via the adrenaline rush he gets while killing.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In both the Annihilation and Resolution routes. He returns to his old body... which has Aiba still implanted in his eye. She either shocks him unconscious or self-destructs to blow his head up.
• I Have Your Wife: He takes Hitomi hostage in both the Annihilation and Resolution endings in order to manipulate Date. Annihilation ends with him blowing her up in bomb-strapped chair, while Resolution has Date save her by taking Saito out for good.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Saito swallows the eyes of his victims after killing them in order to dispose of them.
• Humiliation Conga: Suffers this in the right-side of the timeline after Date panics over a misunderstanding and warns Iris to stay home and never talk to anyone else a mere few minutes before Saito did, resulting in him landing in a major car accident and is unable to harm his first would-be victim Iris like he successfully did in the left-side because his Renju body was literally dying and she simply ran away, is forced to break #89 (Rohan in Date's original body) out of custody to steal his body to survive and manages to reclaim his original body while planning to execute Hitomi and Iris in front of Date, only to suffer a beatdown by Mizuki and gets his head blown up by Aiba. In the end, his plan to crush Date completely failed in this timeline and Saito never got the endorphin rush from murder like he wanted.
• It Amused Me: His main motivation for causing a lot of murders in the present is to piss Date off before killing him, on top of the his brain disorder motivating him.
• It's Personal:
  • His reason for committing the New Cyclops Killings and displaying their bodies the way he did? Calling Mizuki to her mother's corpse? Streaming Iris' murder? All just to get revenge Date for taking his body. He even admits it himself.
  • So and Manaka's murders are also personal, the latter for "stealing" his father from him and the former for going after her.
• Jack the Ripoff: Saito previously targeted women and took their right eyes. When killings with a similar MO occur but with the left eye this time, the cast believe it to be the work of a copycat. This ultimately ended up being subverted, as it was the same killer both times. He never cared about eyes, the first time around it was his accomplice who took them due to being a brain-damaged Nightmare Fetishist. The second time he needed to remove the left eyes for his Grand Theft Me plot, and ate them to get rid of the evidence.
• Jerkass: He's very unpleasant and rude, though he can pretend to have manners if he has to.
• Karmic Death: His final moments are him threatening to blow Hitomi's head off in front of her daughter and her lover. So naturally, what better way to off him than to have Aiba blow his head up.
• Knight of Cerebus: Any time he appears or is even mentioned, the game takes a very dark turn. Especially in the Annihilation Route where he succeeds in killing Iris, Ota, So, Boss, and Hitomi.
• Lack of Empathy: Saito's oxytocin deficiency makes him completely incapable of feeling or reciprocating love, giving him no way to truly empathize with anyone. This lends pretty well to killing without remorse.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In both the Mizuki and Resolution Routes, he never gets to actually demonstrate his gleeful "fireworks" analogy when he's about to execute someone beloved to Date in front of him, both times getting killed himself in the same way, with Date headshotting him while using So's body and Aiba obliterating his head.
• Leitmotif: Two pieces appropriately titled "Atrocious Insanity."
• Made of Iron: He inexplicably manages to shrug off Mizuki bashing him in the head repeatedly with a pipe. In contrast, muscular bodyguards and professional mercenary soldiers are knocked out by a single hit.
• Master Actor: It's really hard to tell he's not the original inhabitant of a body he takes over. Part of it is being a Consummate Liar, but another trait is simply being able to get in-character long enough to find his next body.
• Meaningful Name: It's a Stealth Pun on 'parasite', 'sight', 'psycho', the name of the Egyptian god of disorder and violence Seth ^note  with those two linking him to Iris and a reference to the mythical cyclops ^note  the first kanji in his name means 'rhino', as the cyclops had one horn on its forehead , all in one, as confirmed by Uchikoshi on Twitter.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Thoroughly explained. Saito's hypothalamus is unable to properly produce oxytocin, a hormone that encourages trust, empathy, and social bonding (among other things); it's the reason that being social feels good to most people. Because of this, Saito is incapable of forming positive relationships with others or feeling happy because of social bonds, so he substitutes the thrill of murder. When he swaps into a body that does produce oxytocin properly, he's shocked to learn that one side-effect of proper oxytocin production is that hurting others doesn't feel good, and he becomes desperate to return to his original body because it didn't instinctively empathize with his victims.
• Murder by Inaction: In the right-side routes, he winds up in a car accident and subsequently abuses Renju's body to the point it's doomed to expire, so he breaks #89 (Rohan in Date's original body) out of custody to steal his body, resulting in Rohan dying in Renju's body from natural causes.
• Near-Villain Victory: In both the Annihilation and Resolution routes, he explicitly achieves his goal of retaking his original body back from Date, and almost manages to kill him too. He is only thwarted both times due to still having Aiba in his original body's head, poised to shock and incapacitate him, or self-destruct and kill him.
• Never My Fault: He wants revenge against Date for stealing his body, even though Saito was the one who stole Date's body, only to regret it when he realized that Date wasn't a sociopath. Saito's hell is entirely of his own making.
• Never the Obvious Suspect: Played With. Date actually manages to be completely correct when he assumes Renju, Iris, and then So are all deeply involved with the case at hand and possibly having killed the previous victims. The only reason he doesn't actually arrest them is due to being one step behind Saito, who manages to explain away most evidence against him in the body of Iris and So. Date's usually not convinced, but has to let them go. The only thing he didn't account for was it wasn't those individuals, but someone inhabiting their bodies for the murders.
• Opportunistic Bastard: While his plan was in shambles due to Date and he was close to death due to getting in a car accident in Renju's body, he was able to salvage his plan after Pewter called Renju and told him about #89 coming to ABIS, to which he quickly formulated his plan to spring him, switch bodies, and then use the body to get Iris' trust and kidnap her, allowing him to lure Date to the abandoned factory and get his body back.
• Patricide: Saito murders his father So in various routes and steals his body. The Annihilation route includes a very visceral mutilation of So's corpse.
• Sadist: Aside from the fact that his brain gives him a dopamine rush from murder, much of his plan is designed to cause Date as much pain as possible. And many of his methods of murder are rather extreme. Once he gets his body back in the Resolution route, he only waits to kill Date because he wants to murder Iris and Hitomi in front of him.
• Self-Harm: He has no issue removing his own eyeball from its socket.
• Serial Killer: Obviously. He's behind the New AND Old Cyclops Killings, though his victims vary in number depending on the route, he's killed five before the game begins, and can up that number to twelve in the Annihilation route^note The five original women, Shoko, Renju, Iris, Ota, So, Shizue and Hitomi.
• Slasher Smile: Is really good at making evil expressions, no matter whose body he's in.
• Spotting the Thread: He figures out near-instantly that "Rohan" (Hayato) asking him weirdly-worded questions is an impostor and beats the information out of him about the Psync Machine and its capabilities.
• The Sociopath: Is utterly incapable of feeling any kind of positivity outside of homicide and when he gets to a brain that is actually normal, he hates it.
• Start of Darkness: Not that he was a good person to begin with, but killing Manaka started him down a much, much darker path.
• Villain Ball: He has no less than four opportunities where he could have shot Date, Iris, or Hitomi, and instead chose to talk and draw things out. This results in him getting screwed over three times, and dying the fourth.
• Voices Are Not Mental: Saito, whose modus operandi involves swapping bodies with his victims, takes on the voice of whatever body he's currently inhabiting.
• Walking Spoiler: There's not a lot that can be said about Saito without mentioning that he's the Big Bad, or that Kaname Date is currently occupying his body.
• Wham Line: Day 5: Tuesday "ihAI" of the Annihilation route, Date finally gets an interrogation with the killer, Saito in Boss' body. During the interrogation, Saito utters the reason why they've done all of the killings:
  "You stole my body! You took it from me six years ago! That's why I want revenge!"
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: His eyes are like this combined with his Slasher Smile when he gets gleefully excited.
• Would Hit a Girl: Apart from all of his original murder victims being women, he begins the main plot by killing Shoko Nadami. Then, depending on the route, he can proceed to kill Iris, steal Boss's body, take Hitomi hostage, and shoot Mizuki in the leg.
• Would Hurt a Child: Saito shoots the young Mizuki in the leg when she charges him, and would have killed her if Date didn't get in the way.
• Your Head Asplode: In the Resolution route, thanks to Aiba self-destructing in his eye socket.

Falco

See his page for more info. Once again, beware of massive spoilers.

Others

Manaka Iwai (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Manaka Iwai

Voiced by: Faye Mata (English)

Hitomi's best friend from high school and Iris's real mother. Eighteen years ago she was So Sejima's mistress and secretly bore his child - Iris. She was murdered shortly afterward by Saito and her body was recovered in secret and stored inside a cold storage warehouse by Renju and Hitomi where it lay hidden until making an unexpected reappearance during the investigation into the New Cyclops Serial Killer.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Because she was killed when she was nineteen and her body preserved immediately afterwards, she appears to be the same age as her teenage daughter in the present. Because of this, Mizuki and Date immediately assume that what they see is a murdered Iris when they each catch a glimpse of her body for the first time.
• Age-Gap Romance: She was still in high school when she entered a relationship with So Sejima, who would've at least have been middle-aged when they met. Hitomi and Renju, however, disagree with her that So cared about her enough to even consider what they had a romance.
• Best Friend: She was Hitomi's best friend back when she was alive, and her death causes Hitomi to blame herself for not being more convincing when it came to talking to So.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She's initially mentioned by Hitomi as a throwaway line, then only much later ends up actually figuring into the narrative.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Hitomi flat-out says that she'll never understand what Manaka could've possibly seen in So.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Like her Daughter, Manaka has crystal clear Blue Eyes. While it shows her kindness towards her friends, it's also a symbol of her naive belief that So Sejima is kind, as noted in No Accounting for Taste below.
• In the Back: How she died; Saito stabbed her in the back repeatedly.
• No Accounting for Taste: She honestly loved So Sejima with all her heart, yet throughout the entire game, So never does anything remotely admirable and there's no indication of what he liked about Manaka, if anything at all. It makes one wonder how a seemly good natured girl like Manaka could ever fall for So to the point where she would ignore her best friends repeatedly begging her to steer clear of him.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Her murder acts as the ultimate origin point for a great deal of events and motivations that otherwise would've not happened at all.
• Posthumous Character: She was murdered 18 years before the start of the game.
• Strong Family Resemblance: So strong that Date completely mistook her for Iris, which led to a large host of misunderstandings.
• Walking Spoiler: Iris' biological mother, and the true identity of the corpse Date sees in Mizuki's Somnium and in the cold storage warehouse.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She only appears briefly in flashbacks before getting killed.

Hanayo Nasu

Hanayo Nasu

A nurse that appears briefly on the routes on the right.

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• Beta Couple: She's engaged to Dokuta. They're divorced in the sequel.
• Dub Name Change: Kayo Nasu (later Kayo Yamino) to Hanayo Nasu (later Hanayo Yogano).
• Hidden Depths: Her profile lists her likes as candles, ropes and rodeos, while her husband's profiles list his likes as dominatrixes.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: She's apparently in an association of nurse actors (as in actors who happen to also be nurses, not people acting as nurses). During a scene in the true ending, she mentions that she's happy because she initially just had a bit part in her latest role, only saying a few lines near the beginning, but now she's getting a few lines at the end too. Fittingly enough, she only appears near the beginning of Iris' route and during the true ending.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Starts directly breaking the fourth wall at the end of nirvanA Initiative, but it's not clear if she's aware of the Frayer or if she's caught TC-PERGE.
• Punny Name: Her last name sounds like "nurse".
• Retcon: Her profile lists her as 24 in the first game but she's said to be in her late 30s in the second.

Mercenaries (Unmarked Spoilers!)

A group of masked assassins that assault Date and Iris on the right side of the flowchart. They're described as "international mafia" willing to fight for money and get paid to go against the heroes several times. They appear again in nirvanA Initiative.

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• Distracted by the Sexy: Date and Aiba manage to distract them in the middle of a firefight using a porno magazine and a bra and panties set. In nirvanA Initiative, while no porno mags appear during the fights against them, Kusemon Date in Iris' Somnium can defeat all three of the mercenaries with his "Treasure" attack where he throws a porno mag at the target's face, which in this case blows them up with 999 damage.
• Funny Foreigner: They speak native English, with their dialogue being taken straight from the English dub in every other language version of both games. In nirvanA Initiative, they also namedrop the American series "Bitch Avengers".
• Hired Guns:
  • They were hired by Saito in Renju's body using his bank account to kidnap Iris, but after they failed, he handed them off to Pewter since he already paid them by that point.
  • In nirvanA Initiative, they're hired by Tearer as extra muscle as well as Riichi Chieda for the express purpose of stopping Kizuna from being with Lien.
• Mistaken Identity: Iris deludes herself into thinking that they're agents of Naixalotz, but they're completely unaffiliated. Subverted in nirvanA Initiative when they're hired by the real Naixalotz.
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: They're completely at odds with the other factions and the entire setting, including the cartoonishly-armed Kumakura gang and So's bodyguards, being semi-professional masked mercenaries with realistic designs whose only humourous trait being their strange attraction to pornography and underwear. In nirvanA Initiative, they clash again with the futuristic masked Naixalotz soldiers and the Horadori scientists wearing space suits and laser guns despite all three working under Tearer.

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