Characters / AI: The Somnium Files - Protagonists

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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The playable cast of the AI: The Somnium Files games.

Protagonists

In General

AI-Balls

A type of Artificial Intelligence that is stored in a prosthetic eyeball (hence their name). AI-Balls act as partners for the agents of ABIS, a classified agency that investigates high-profile crimes. They provide their partners with a wide variety of utilities and enhancements for both investigation and combat.

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• A Form You Are Comfortable With: During Somniums and when projecting themselves in Augmented Reality, they take on a human form which Aiba claims is based on user preference, when she said her physique is based on an amalgamation of what she thinks Date would like, he tries to rebuke this notion however.
• Augmented Reality: Ai-Balls can project their humanoid form as a hologram in the real world, one that only their partner can see thanks to their physical form inhabiting their eyesocket.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: AI in general seem to be really bad at telling jokes. Every time Aiba attempts a joke, she receives an unamused response from her partner. And Tama's sense of humor is so bad that she laughs at the most explicitly unfunny jokes, like Komeji's. This trait makes sense given they are basically a machine after all.
  "I was merely joking, as you call it."
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each AI-Ball has a unique color that manifests as their partner's iris hue. Aiba is yellow, Tama is red, and Marco is blue.
• Cyclops: Their physical forms are comprised of the prosthetic eye and a gelatinous body that forms around it, evoking the appearance of a cyclops.
• Destroy the Evidence: They all have a self-destruct function in the event that they get captured for the intention of exploiting their AI and their abilities to hack about 99.9% of computers on Earth.
• Electronic Eyes: Natch. When "in use" the only thing that outwardly gives an AI-Ball's artificiality away is its mismatched color.
• Electronic Telepathy: They can commune with their users in this manner. nirvanA Initiative reveals that Psyncers can directly communicate with each other as well via the hookups in their eye sockets.
• Hufflepuff House: According to Date, including him, there are 6 Psyncers working at ABIS with presumably their own AI-Ball partners, but we never see any of them until nirvanA Initiative where Tama and her partner Ryuki appear alongside Mizuki Kuranushi and the newest AI-Ball Marco.
• Living Lie Detector: Their thermal imaging ability, on top of allowing them to detect the temperature of objects, can also detect the subtle change in body temperature that a person experiences when telling a lie. However, this is not guaranteed to work on very experienced liars such as politicians or a sociopath like Saito.
• Mark of the Supernatural: An AI's humanoid appearance has a lot of design cues that mark them as someone that couldn't possibly exist as a real human; they have naturally white hair with red streaks, glowing red eyes, a machine-like inflection, and transparent hands that reveal a skeletal rig underneath.
• Mystical White Hair: Something they have in their humanoid form, further emphasizing that they're an artificial entity.
• The Needless: A lot of humor is derived from AI doing actions related to human preservation only to remember that they don't even need to do that because they're AI.
  • Aiba has a Freak Out when making a phone call for Date, with him telling her to take some deep breaths to calm down. The irony doesn't set in for them until a few seconds later.
• Night-Vision Goggles: AI-Balls have a night vision mode, allowing their partner to see in the dark.
• Photographic Memory: They can save frames of whatever their partner looks at to be used later when they're going over an investigation. This is displayed as a HUD element layered over the rest of the game moment.
• Punny Name: AI-Ball, like "eyeball", because they inhabit their partners' eyeball. It makes a little more sense phonetically in Japanese ("Ai" being pronounced like "Eye").
• Robot Buddy: They're capable of leaving their partner's eye socket and producing a gelatinous form to move around, but take on a humanoid form inside a person's Somnium.
• Sleep-Mode Size: Their physical forms can appear as either an eyeball in their partner's socket or a chibi-mascot form that can move around and interact with the physical world.
• Super-Senses: AI-Balls can magnify eyesight and grant special vision modes such as night vision, thermal vision, and x-ray vision.
• X-Ray Vision: One of their many abilities. They can see through objects, and inside people's bodies, though it doesn't actually allow them to see people naked (sorry, Date).

Introduced in the first game

Kaname Date

See his page for more info

Aiba

Aiba

Voiced by: Akari Kitou (Japanese), Erika Harlacher (English)

^{Click here to see her physical form}

"How are you? I am currently 92% charged and feeling well.”

The artificial intelligence that resides inside of Date's artificial left eye. Aiba is a powerful asset during Date's investigations, granting him abilities such as X-ray and infrared vision as well as serving as a wireless communicator, database, hacking tool, and more. During Psyncing sessions she takes on the form of a young woman to directly explore and interact with the subject's Somnium.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Her tenure as a Supreme Chef inflates her ego just a smidge.
  Aiba: "Hm. You dare challenge me to a battle of culinary prowess? Pathetic."
  Mizuki: "Yes... I've created a monster... A cooking monster!"
• Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time that Erika Harlacher plays a white-haired female protagonist who works as an ultimate detective while minding the protagonist.
• Agent Scully: On the plot branches where Date starts to delve into more conspiratorial or supernatural thinking, Aiba remains a constant voice of skepticism. She is usually right about this, as proven when Date saving Iris in the final Somnium of her route does absolutely nothing to prevent her dying in reality. However, alternate universes do seem to be real to some extent.
• Animal Motifs: Date and Mizuki both compare her human look to a shrimp, what with her coloration and transparent body. She herself doesn't appreciate the comparison. Her gelatine construct is hamster-shaped along with her "hacking" graphic depicting her running on a hamster wheel.
  Date: "Why do you look like a fluorescent shrimp?!"
  Aiba: What are you talking about?! I-I must look so cute that you've lost your mind."
• Art Evolution: in the second game, her jelly body is rendered to look more translucent compared to the first game. She also benefits greatly from the upgrades to character expressiveness, with her hamster mode having a wider range of emotes it can perform thanks to more intricate facial rigging.
• Art Shift: In Iris's Somnium, which is a total Minecraft parody, Aiba transforms into a blocky game avatar, complete with the game's Limited Animation.
  "I went with a simpler look today. I figured this world couldn't handle my full resolution."
• Awesomeness by Analysis: During action sequences, Aiba can near-instantly analyze every possibility to find a way for Date to come out victorious against insurmountable odds. Most of these somehow involve porno mags, real or fake. She can even predict when and where lightning will strike, how pieces of shrapnel will ricochet, and how other people will act, among other things.
• Benevolent A.I.: Although she and Date often have their disagreements, Aiba is overall a trustworthy partner who helps out a lot in their police duties.
• Berserk Button: She has a limit with Date's antics and it's VR videos of girls smashing watermelons which breaks them up just before the events of nirvanA Initiative. It's even listed in her bio as one of her dislikes.
• Big Eater: Played With. She's not actually eating food in Somnium should she choose to, but she has zero hesitations in eating whatever Date suggests of her- no matter how disgusting it may look. An particular example is when she thinks she'll try a bit of "soup" (which Date speculates is gak), and she instead downs the whole thing with no actual complaints. Borders on Extreme Omnivore at times.
• Bilingual Bonus: In her Appendix profile, on of the things she likes is listed as "1010000011110101". Translated to decimal it reads "41205", which is later revealed to stand for "Date".
• Blood Knight: Not the most pronounced example, but Aiba in Somnium does really enjoy causing destruction, and won't hesitate to hit things or people without even knowing if it would help the situation.
  '''That's sounds awfully violent. I'll try it."
• Butt-Monkey: Inspecting Somniums tends to expose her to a lot of slapstick such as snorting a flower up her nose, hurting her foot on rocks, falling down several ominous portals...
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Any time she finds booze in a Somnium, expect her to get tipsy very quick.
• Chekhov's Gun: She frequently mentions "medication" when Date chooses sillier options, but refuses to elaborate when pressed. She is talking about Oxytocin she's giving him to compensate for his brain disorder, which undoubtedly helps keep him sane.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: A platonic variety. She gets surly whenever Boss, Iris, or the receptionist acts flirty with Date, and Aiba will never pass up the chance to insult Date's favorite cabert girl, Reika. She swears she's not jealous, though. Aiba herself makes no passes or hints at romantic interest in Date however.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She is mostly this during Somnium sessions, by saying and doing rather odd things in there. Justified due to the Psync system only sensing part of Aiba with Date’s consciousness instead of her entirety.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: She finds herself having to tone down Mizuki's wildly youthful imagination, often being quick to shut down her outlandish deductions.
  Mizuki (being shot at): "Ah, so she's jealous huh? I bet that's it! Why else would another girl target me?"
  Aiba: "You can't think of any other reason?"
  Mizuki: "Well, sure but... I'm really cute, y'know? That's why other girls don't like me so much."
  Aiba: "I am fairly certain that has more to do with your personality..."
• Commonality Connection: Played for Laughs; if there's anything that makes her and Mizuki close, it's their mutual vitriol towards Date. The two will always dream up of excuses to kick his ass on the spot (not that it's hard to do).
  Mizuki: "Aiba, permission to shoot [Date]?"
  Aiba: "Granted."
• Deadpan Snarker: She can certainly be snarky when she wants to. Apparently her personality was designed that way by Pewter, much to Date's annoyance.
  Date (after Aiba surprisingly popped out of Date's eye socket) : Why did you come out?
  Aiba: I haven't been getting a lot of exercise lately.
• Deuteragonist: While her partner, either Date or Mizuki, acts as The Hero and POV character, Aiba herself is still an incredibly prominent and impactful character in the games' plots. Uniquely she's the only AI that's shared across multiple users, Date, Mizuki, and Bibi.
• Disney Death: In the Resolution route, Aiba self-destructs to defeat Saito after her backup data had been deleted, causing her to be effectively killed off. However, it turns out that her data had secretly been uploaded to cloud servers, and after several months ABIS had managed to piece it back together, bringing her back to life.
• Don't Explain the Joke: She has a bad habit of having to explain jokes when they don't land. AI after all are not very equipped for humor.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: In the Resolution Route, Saito hitting Date with a tazer shorted-out Aiba's body so she can't use her hamster form to escape Saito in his real body nor simply take him down with an electrical shock like in the Annihilation Route, forcing her to resort using the Self-Destruct Mechanism.
• Drives Like Crazy: Averted in the real Aiba, who can drive perfectly fine for Date. Her Somnium counterpart meanwhile drives like a madwoman when using a forklift and causes it to both spin out of control and go over a cliff within seconds. Lampshaded by Date and denied by Aiba.
• Easy Amnesia: Aiba's body and un-uploaded data have been destroyed on certain occasions, resulting in a lapse of memory occurring. Particularly there's the explosion at the cathedral which resulted in Date's disappearance. He only barely managed to keep her body intact enough to have Ryuki escort her out. She lost a lot of data regarding the HB investigations, including all of the time spent with Mizuki Kuranushi, hence why the timeline of events gets jumbled.
• Eat the Bomb: In nirvanA Initiative during the very first Somnium.
  Aiba (holding a bomb): "It's armed! Mizuki, what do we do?!"
  Mizuki: "Wh-what what what?!"
  (Select the "Eat it" prompt)
  Mizuki: "I know! Eat it! Put it in your belly!"
  Aiba (cheerfully): "Thanks for the food!"
  (Eats bomb and explodes)
  Mizuki: "You actually ate it..."
  Aiba: "'Eat it'... Are you stupid?"
  Mizuki: "You are..."
• Everyone Has Standards: While a borderline Blood Knight in Somnia, she absolutely refuses to hit Mizuki if Date suggests it, chewing him out for even thinking to say such a thing.
• Exact Words: When exploring the Cold Storage Warehouse, Aiba states there are no "living" organisms detected. What she and Date find instead is "Iris"'s frozen corpse.
• Fangirl:
  • Of insects, frequently squeeing at the sight of them.
    Aiba: "Date, look. Ants! Look at them go! Yay!
    Date: "We need to have a discussion about your obsession with insects."
  • She gets excited at the idea of meeting Hideo Kojima when Date mentions the name.
• Friendly Rivalry: In the second game, she and Mizuki often argue over which of them is the cutest. Somehow Boss, the Masked Woman, and Pewter get involved too.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Exploring Ryuki's Somnium has her interact with various copies of him that are consumed by guilt. Many of her options are to cheer him up or try to force some sense into them, even quoting the trope word for word.
• Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: Her physical form resembles a hamster, one with a big eyeball for a face at least.
• Heli-Critter: nirvanA Initiative gives her physical form a little propellor she can pop out the top of her head to fly. While at first it's just used for the Virtual Reality Investigation segments, where Tama can straight-up float, it later comes up in the real world during the big fight scene in the ending, as a means for her to get from Mizuki to Date.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the Resolution route, Aiba uses her self-destruct command to take out Saito. However, as her data storage is being destroyed, the act renders her dead and she gives her life to save Date and the others. Until the epilogue that is.
• Hidden Depths: In Lien's Somnium, Aiba admits that she likes dancing because it's something that everyone can do together, hence why she does it so often at the start of Somnia.
• Hypocritical Humor: She sometimes takes jabs at Mizuki for being flat-chested at 18 years old, despite not being very endowed herself, something for which Mizuki calls her out.
• Interface with a Familiar Face: Aiba shaped her Somnium appearance based on Date's personal physical preferences, wanting to have a form that appeases him and to give him proper accompaniment during solo investigations. Her general form notably resembles that of a younger Boss, particularly sharing a similar face and hairstyle.
• Internal Reveal: Her existence is generally kept a secret, but she is comfortable to be formally introduced to Mizuki. She does so by the end of her route and at the end of the Resolution Route, Ota, Iris, Moma and presumably Hitomi learn about her.
• Intoxication Ensues: One Somnium interaction has her investigate a glass of wine, with one of the options being to sip from it. Instead, she grabs the bottle next to it and chugs it, getting tipsy as a result.
  Date: "Why is an AI getting drunk?..."
  Drunk Aiba: "*cries* Why do I have to listen to Date diss me all the time...? Wahhh!"
• Machine Monotone: Her speech has traces of this, talking in a flat and analytical tone with occasional bursts of emotion, befitting her machine logic.
• Made of Iron: In Somnia, Aiba can't be killed or destroyed, but she is still susceptible to pain and force. She can even take being shot in the head with stride, only just "passing out from the shock".
• Mascot: Of the Somnium Files series, being a major character through the games, the player's avatar through the Somnium levels, and a character frequently used in marketing.
• Mondegreen Gag: When Date investigates a locker; it works a little better in Japanese than English:
  Aiba: "Searching: Classic, alternative, progressive..."
  Date: "That's 'rock'."
• Ms. Exposition: She takes it upon herself to explain the fundamentals of Somnia to Date at the beginning of the game. She's also always there to elaborate on concepts the game throws at you like brain hemispheres and the Mandela Effect.
  "I can answer all of your questions."
• My Master, Right or Wrong:
  • Even if Date is taking an action or making a decision she personally disagrees with, she'll tell him as such, but will choose to stick by him and support him regardless like when he succumbs to hysteria and starts to believe Iris about Naix. The only exceptions seem to be for particularly extreme actions in Somnium, like hitting Mizuki, or for when his womanizing or perverted antics go a little too far.
  • Applies to Mizuki as well, arguably moreso. When she's ordered to shoot herself in Ryuki's Somnium, she does so without reservation. Even Mizuki can't help but be a little unsettled with how calm she is when doing so.
• Nice Girl: Tsundere tendencies aside, she's a very nice person who attempts to keep Date focused when he seems to be a bit too ridiculous for his own good.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Outside of Psyncing she is usually calm, rational, and snarky...until she spots an insect and becomes as giddy as a small child.
  • When disguising herself as Shoko to try and find out who called her phone, she claims she won't panic as she's an A.I., only to panic when someone does pick up.
  • During the Dance Party Ending, while Iris does her musical number, Aiba tries to keep a calm, professional facade... until Date realizes she's happily bopping her foot to the rhythm. Right after this, she starts to dance and sing too.
  • An optional conversation with Aiba can have her confess that she's not exactly sure how the continuity of The Ring works.
  • In Lien's Somnium, she happily dances again, even though it's not required at any point.
• Not So Stoic: At one point, she is tasked with performing an impersonation over the phone. When asked if she's nervous, she claims that, as an AI, she's not prone to "nervous breakdowns and mistakes" like Date. She then makes the call, only to become a nervous wreck when the call is actually answered.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When psyncing in Iris' Somnium as she's dying, Aiba will get straight to business, which is the only time she'll skip out on her usual shenanigans.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Her tiny "hamster" form is strong enough to lift and throw a fire extinguisher halfway down a street, which is many times her own size.
• Platonic Life-Partners: She and Date share a tight, unwavering bond, both on a professional and personal level. And there's no romantic connotation to it. After all, Date has a Love Interest already and Aiba's an AI which would make physical intimacy impossible.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Aiba is generally the one to make a Shout-Out, usually in Somnia where she has direct control of her body language and can act out the reference. She references The Terminator, Street Fighter, Akira Kurosawa, ''Rocky, etc.
• Proud Beauty: While Date and Mizuki claim she looks more like a shrimp, Aiba is pretty confident in how cute she looks. She also feels this way about her hamster-like form.
  Date: "You know, you are kinda cute like that."
  Aiba: "Aren't I? I receive that compliment quite frequently."
  Date: "Your attitude isn't, though"
  Aiba: "So am I cute or not cute?"
  Date: "I was joking..."
  Aiba: "I don't understand your joke. Can you explain what's funny about it?"
• Pungeon Master: Just like Date, she's a fan of puns, through she's a bit more critical of his own puns.
• Punny Name:
  • She is an A.I. ball, but when AI is pronounced as a single word, it makes her name phonetically identical to "eyeball".
  • In the Japanese version, she is called "Aibou" (アイボゥ), which means "partner". Phonetically, it almost sounds the same as how one would pronounce "eyeball".
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In the Iris and Resolution routes, Aiba is very against the idea that saving "Iris" in Somnium would save her in the real world, stating that Somnium cannot affect anything but dreams like that. And in Iris's route, she's right; psyncing with Iris does nothing more than give Date false hope. However, critical events and game routes are entirely dependent on what choices are made in Somnium, due to different information being shown to the Psyncers, resulting in their making different actions based on which information they see. Therefore, in a roundabout way, this does technically mean actions in Somnium can affect the real world.
• Rage Breaking Point: In nirvanA Initiative, after all of the troubles they dealt with together, it takes Date watching VR porn with her inside his eyesocket to cause her to snap and break up with him.
• Robo Speak: Downplayed as her diction is mostly human-like, but she sometimes uses stiff wording such as "Unknown" instead of "I don't know" and "Understood". She also uses "Does not compute" in a sarcastic sense.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Aiba will have a hard time not making some sarcastic remark to Date no matter what he happens to be doing, but nonetheless sticks through him through thick and thin, never once abandoning him.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Aiba informs Date early on in the Resolution route about a self-destruct module she possesses that he can activate in emergency scenarios; the module is locked behind a mandatory code that they decide on. Date is forced to activate it in the true ending, resulting in Aiba blowing up to kill Saito. She notes it's a standard function of other AI-Balls like herself due to how powerful they are with being able to hack about 99.9% of computers in existence and they have to destroy themselves in order to prevent this being exploited by foreign enemies.
• Shaking the Rump: Aiba dances like this at the beginning of PSYNCIN’ IN THE REFRaiN, adding that her silly entrances are "of the utmost importance" when Date asks how necessary it is.
• Shipper on Deck: Aiba notices early on that Date feels a more sincere attraction to Hitomi than his usual hypersexual ways, and will happily tease him about it.
  "Date likes Hitomiiii~!"
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: An AI partner with a playfully sarcastic and deadpan attitude towards her human other. She'll often quip whenever her partner makes a questionable decision and react smarmily to their attempts at humor. Bonus points to her gelatinous hamster form that she takes when outside her partner's eye socket.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Subverted, When a horse whinnies to her, she acts like she understood it, only to clarify she did not.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Justified when she's in Somnium, she's in dreams, something that doesn't run on logic, so her Somnium form regularly fluctuates from being superhuman to as weak as a kitten.
• Supreme Chef: Played for Laughs: She trains to become a master chef in Gen's Somnium in order to challenge him to a cooking competition. Her creations all get progressively more ridiculous and over-the-top like seasoning a steak midair or making cake that's taller than the sky. Safe to say that it gets to her head a bit.
• Taking the Bullet: Non-fatal example. When So shoots Date on Mizuki's route, Aiba inadvertently saves him due to him being shot in the eye that she resides in. As all of her data is stored remotely, she's eventually restored. She treats it as this trope, but Date reminds her it was just a coincidence.
• Three Laws-Compliant: She frequently threatens to self-destruct in Date's eye socket, but eventually admits that she cannot do so without an outside command because self-preservation is part of her programming thanks to the Three Laws.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Justified. Aiba is noticeably sillier and more eccentric during Somnium sessions, which is Lampshaded by Date. However, this is explained in-universe by how the Psync system works, which only sends a part of Aiba with Date's consciousness instead of her entirety.
• Tsundere: She clearly cares about Date in spite of his constant jabs at him, but when any of her attempts at trying to get his affection are mentioned, she immediately denies them.
• Undying Loyalty: Aiba stays with Date out of genuine loyalty, not because she's programmed that way. After Saito gets his body back she still helps Date even though her programming means she should theoretically obey Saito.
• Virtual Sidekick: Date's prosthetic eye houses Aiba. In addition to performing standard AI tasks, she acts as Date's more rational partner, and the two frequently bounce ideas off one another during investigations. While she does have a physical body that can act independently when needed, it rarely sees use since she's much more useful (and less conspicuous) in eyeball form.
• Visual Pun: Her physical form is a gelatinous blob shaped like a hamster which is also teddy bear-like in appearance, which can make her a literal 'water bear' (tardigrade).
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Aiba and Date cannot go a single conversation without snarking at one another at least once, and they are quick to call each other out on their flaws, but it's quite evident that the two care very deeply for each other, no matter how much they may get on the other's nerves.
  • She's got a bit of this with Mizuki as well; the two of their energetic attitudes are constantly bouncing off each other for childish banter, and each is really insistent that they're cuter than the other.
    Aiba: "Hm? Am I that mesmerizing? Hm, I suppose you just cannot help yourself. I am the cutest thing in the world."
    Mizuki: "I'm cuter!"
    Aiba: "Is something wrong with your eyes?"
• Voice Changeling: Is able to perfectly imitate people's voices, including (at least) Date's and Shoko's. If you picked the balloon cage in Mizuki's Somnium, the last mental block will be opened by having Aiba use the loudspeaker to speak some comforting words to her in Shoko's voice.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After her apparent demise during the final battle with Saito, the true ending reveals that the Wadjet System was uploading traces of Aiba's data into cloud storages around the world, which is how she is remade into her former glory.
• What the Hell, Hero?: While it was necessary to help her, she and Ota call out Date for his harsh treatment in talking down Iris's Naix delusions, pointing out that he could stand to be gentler.
• Wild Card Excuse: "Because I'm an AI." Date points out she uses that one a bit too often.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Zig-Zagged between her—a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence with a coolheaded and sarcastic attitude—and her partner Date—a distractable and childish Bunny-Ears Lawyer with a massive porn addiction. The two will snark, insult, and make terrible puns at each other to no end, Aiba's cold computer logic balancing out Date's impulsiveness and immaturity. While it's usually Date as the wise guy and Aiba as the straight man (not a man though), the two can switch the dynamic up depending on context (i.e. Aiba making terrible jokes and squeeing like a fangirl at insects, Date being laser focused on public safety and showing his detective chops).
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She remembers the exact conversation that took place when Renju gave Date custody over Mizuki, and assures Date that despite his doubts over his parenting ability, him taking care of Mizuki was the right choice in light of Renju's incredibly difficult position in life (divorced, running a few companies, attempting to aid Hitomi and Iris, hiding a dead body for years).
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: If Date chooses to believe Iris's delusions, leading to the Iris Route ending, Aiba will repeatedly express doubt and disbelief at his choices. She tragically ends up proven right when Iris dies from her brain tumor at the end of the route.

Mizuki Okiura / Mizuki Date

See her page for more info

Introduced in nirvanA Initiative

Kuruto Ryuki

Special Agent Kuruto Ryuki

Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese), Stephen Fu (English)

One of the two main protagonists and POV of half of the game, Ryuki is a rookie investigator employed by ABIS (Advanced Brain Investigation Squad). Both of his parents and his brother having passed away, Ryuki struggles to maintain mental clarity, but his strong sense of justice helps him persevere and focus on the case.

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• Ambiguously Bi: Ryuki has what can only be described as intense feelings of love and admiration towards Date, with several characters such as Tama and Mizuki outright asking him if he's in love with him. Date has played a pivotal role in Ryuki's life, helping deal with the stresses of working at ABIS and helping somewhat fill the void left in him after his brother's death. Additionally, during a pivotal moment in the story after he believes Date was killed in the cathedral, he outright states that he loves Date. He also pulls Mizuki aside at one point to ask her what Date thinks of him. He also seems to deeply cherish Tama as well, putting everyone's lives at risk after Tearer holds her hostage, and followings his demands to the letter in addition to his frequent bondage sessions with Tama. Outside of the above two, Ryuki is also somewhat aroused by when Tama is relaxing on Boss's cleavage. Topping it all off, Ryuki is not immune to Ritsuko either, he can be made to go completely ga-ga over her, exactly like Date could choose to previously in the first game.
• Angsty Surviving Twin: Ryuki will mention later on in the game that it was his twin brother that had a lot of determination towards being rid of evil doers and seeking justice, while Ryuki wasn't as passionate about the whole idea. When Ryuki's twin attempted to stop a robbery in progress and got run over for his efforts while Ryuki just stood and watched, that caused Ryuki to adopt his brother's beliefs, joining ABIS to be a dedicated seeker of justice.
• Bait-and-Switch: A lot of promotional material suggests that Ryuki is somehow related to Date: Having a deep connection to Date, his hairstyle having a passing resemblance to Falco's, and him explicitly having a missing brother. But it's clear in-game that there is no relation between the two; Ryuki's brother was his twin who died.
• Blood Knight: It's an even more downplayed case than Aiba, as Ryuki will not try to fight if he can avoid it, but when he does, he can show he's enjoy himself with a rather wide smirk, as shown with the Shoma/Andes route.
• Broken Ace: Ryuki was a prodigy who skipped two years of college and graduated at the top of his class before joining ABIS, but suffered from almost debilitating mental illness. After failing to catch the Serial Killer in the past, his mental issues worsened and turned him into an alcoholic Drowning Their Sorrows in the present. Taken further in the Divergence Route where Ryuki is praised by everyone as the hero who managed to catch Tearer red-handed for the murders of Jin and Chikara and is second in-command at ABIS. However, he was only able to do so after being cursed with the knowledge of the events that would happen, including the fact that he and everyone around him are fictional characters living in a video game and is depressed as a result.
• Cassandra Truth: In the Divergence Route, due to Tama getting damaged and needing to reboot after the Nil Number is stated, she's unable to witness Tokiko reach Moksha; when Ryuki relays the details to her later, she's impressed that he was able to solve the case so quickly, but can't believe that the "alternate timeline" he keeps referring to is more than just another of his delusions.
• Casual Kink: Possibly. He fully admits to being tied up by Tama (or wanting to be tied up by her) a few times, but it's never mentioned if he's excited by it. At one point he states Tama did a bondage session with him instead of resting, which seems to be an acceptable substitute in his eyes.
• Catchphrase: He's fond of saying, "It's alright now! Because I am here, Half Might!", imitating All Might. It generally disturbs people rather than reassures them and is treated as an early clue that something is...off about Ryuki.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Strictly a normal human being as per introduced in nirvanA Initiative, yet he can dodge bullets after they left the barrel, even with Tama's augmented sight assistance a normal person would never be able to react in time. The only way that could be somewhat "realistic" was if Tama assisted Ryuki before the trigger was pulled, a well tuned athlete reaction could potentially be able to dodge before anyone pulled the trigger if they had an AI-Ball.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Ryuki ultimately zigzags the trope, as he's mostly calm and collected, but there are often bursts of energy or comments that he spouts that can be extremely jarring to just about everyone. But this is because he has contracted TC-PERGE, not because Ryuki is normally like this. He has developed a resistance to it, and eventually purges it from his body, at which point he no longer displays this trope at all.
• Collector of the Strange: For whatever reason, his hobby is to collect Konvertibilna Marka (the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina). He tricks Lien into taking a coin (which hardly reaches 64 yen, which is less than a dollar) if Ryuki loses on purpose to guess where he's hiding a 500 yen coin, since Ryuki never said how much he'd give to him.
  Tama: Why the hell are you even carrying around coins from Bosnia and Herzegovina?!
  Ryuki: It never "Herz" to be prepared!
  Tama: How long have you been sitting on that one...?
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He's very different from Date, having a more serious state of shaky mental health compared to Date's perverted antics and occasional Cloud Cuckoo Lander moments as well as being a devoted seeker of justice and despiser of evil as opposed to Date who was simply a professional, albeit distractible officer.
• Cool Car: He has a limousine inherited from his parents which has a very luxurious passenger space and was modified so Tama can drive it.
• Covert Pervert: In contrast to Date, Ryuki is firmly this, he's mostly not thinking about sexual things unless Tama herself brings it up, and gets embarrassed when someone accuses him of being perverted. However, there will be the occasional comment showing he does have risque thoughts and desires, but only openly says them on occasion when it's only him and Tama. The only time he outright says anything leery is when he blurts out about wanting to shove his face in Boss' chest while in a sleep-deprived haze.
• Cowboy Cop: Tama worries about his mental health and asks him to take breaks from the investigation, and Pewter begs him to not cause problems for him and Boss while reluctantly letting him psync with Tokiko without Boss's permission. In Mizuki's route, she sees Ryuki continuing his personal investigation while he's supposed to be on mental health leave and clearly dissociating from reality, and Aiba warns Mizuki to play along with Ryuki's delusions to keep him stable.
• Cultural Translation: Curiously a case where a Japanese work is replaced by another Japanese work. Ryuki sometimes doing a slightly altered All-Might impression as "Half-Might" is done so for Western audiences to potentially get the reference more easily, in the Japanese script Ryuki makes references to one of Japan's most popular children's show ever made, Anpanman.
• Death Seeker: Exploring his first Somnium shows him briefly contemplating shooting himself dead, implying that he's attempted suicide at some point, a symptom of his deteriorating mental health.
  "Damn it! Damn it! It's no use... Me dying...isn't gonna fix anything!"
• Decoy Protagonist: Despite getting the majority of the focus at the beginning and playing through his side first, the story mostly focuses on the two Mizukis, with him playing only a small role in the final battle, partly due to his Disney Death. However, the Divergence Route unlocked post-game hinges entirely on him, and that is undoubtedly the happiest end in the game, even if it is implicitly bizarre since it outright confirmed Naixatloz's beliefs.
• Despair Event Horizon: After the Time Skip, Ryuki's already shaky mental health has completely collapsed due to Date's disappearance, a completely dead case, and the injury that lost Mizuki one of her eyes, blaming himself and drinking himself to delirious oblivion. His initial Sync is an attempt to break him out of an especially bad bender. Subverted once he wakes up: discovering there's been a break causes him to seize onto it as his chance at inner peace and become Mizuki's partner.
• Disney Death: In the Resolution route, he takes a bullet for Date and is presumed dead, with Date shouting out his name and everyone giving forlorn reactions when he's mentioned in the Epilogue a week later. Naturally, he's fine and is the surprise Boss prepared for the Mizukis.
• Dodge the Bullet: Early on, he sprints across the room to take out a shooter while dodging each individual handgun round fired at him in Bullet Time.
• Drinking on Duty: An early indication of his alcohol use disorder is that you can spot a glass of liqour during the scenes in his limo, which is basically a minibar, even though Ryuki is investigating. It's a good thing Tama drives.
• Drowning My Sorrows: When Mizuki reopens the Half Body Serial Killings investigation and seeks Ryuki for his notes, she finds him at Brahman with a 0.32% alcohol level, and learns from his Somnium soon after that he's been trying to forget all of the grief involved with the HB case.
• Easily Forgiven: He temporarily partnered up with a deranged murderer because Tama was in their grasp. While Ryuki didn't do anything too serious under Tearer's command, he still heavily endangered Bibi and Date. That is an easy ticket for a police officer to be completely disgraced and barred from the force, yet all Ryuki really suffers is Boss's wrath and the looming threat of being demoted. Ryuki gets the same slap on the wrist Date did for his corrupt cop days as Falco.
• Eye Scream: It's mentioned that he willingly had his left eye surgically removed to house an AI-Ball when signing up as an ABIS agent.
• Failure Hero: Ryuki's constant failures while investigating the HB case eventually start eating away at his psyche as the game goes on. In order, he shoots at an unarmed civilian in a fit of paranoia, fails to protect Komeji while accompanying him to find Jin's body, gets extorted by Uru into attacking Bibi, and then fails to apprehend Uru again, leading to Kizuna and Mizuki being permanently disfigured, and Date seemingly dying. In the present day, he's too drunk and delirious to even give Mizuki a proper testimony about his past investigation, fails to catch Amame when he encounters her in the basement of Naixatloz, and is nearly killed during the final battle to prevent Tearer's forces from unleashing TC-Perge on the city. It's no surprise that when Mizuki first encounters him in the present timeline, he's been reduced to a drunken, miserable wreck.
• Fanboy: Depending on whether it's Japanese or English, he's either a fan of Anpanman or My Hero Academia, quoting the respective heroes of each franchise.
• Foil: To his co-star Mizuki; Ryuki is soft-spoken, easy to fluster, and prone to keeping his snark internal. Mizuki meanwhile is brash, cocky, and has a very abrasive attitude when provoked.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: The game begins with Ryuki having one of his dissociative episodes while on Komeji's show, and the figure replacing the quiz show host suddenly starts talking to the player directly in order to quiz them on the previous game and avert Late Arrival Spoilers. Should the Gainax Ending be reached, he's left with the knowledge that his world truly is just a simulation.
• Freak Out: Something isn't quite right with Ryuki. After experiencing certain triggers, he'll go into a sort of mental breakdown where the world around him starts to distort and he'll start apparently speaking endless gibberish before mentally shutting down for a few hours. After the alternate version of his psync that becomes available after completing his side of the story, you get to see such a breakdown from Mizuki's point of view, and it's honestly a bit terrifying to see him babbling like an absolute lunatic before suddenly passing out.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: In the Divergence Route, although him stopping Tearer right after Chikara's death prevented nearly all of the future tragedies happening to everyone and they're genuinely happy, Ryuki has become extremely depressed since he was able to do this after the Frayer gave him knowledge about everything that would happen in the future, including the part where he and everyone around him are just fictional characters living in a game.
• Gun Fu: Every playable character shows this to some extent, but it's noted as one of his special skills alongside parkour.
• Hero-Worshipper: Ryuki has a deeply-rooted admiration for Date, harkening back to when he started at ABIS and Date was there to help support him, even through Ryuki's worst mistakes.
• It's All My Fault: The first Somnium of the game is Mizuki investigating the root of Ryuki's grief, and learns that he blames himself for not being able to properly protect other people from an explosion at a cathedral.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Ryuki is quickly revealed to have some mental problems, in particular a tendency to have hallucinations and suffer chains of glossalia (muttering nonsense words) when exposed to triggers. While he's normally quite functional, Tama is just as much there to serve as a nurse when he has an episode as his partner. In Side Mizuki, he's also developed a bad depression due to Survivor's Guilt.
• Mentally Unwell, Special Senses: Considering what happens in the Divergence Route, his first-person sensory experiences of his own dissociative episodes might be more than just symbolic. Maybe. In this case, his brain short-circuiting actually causes his right eye to temporarily see the simulated world without its usual varnish — though he's basically insensate during this time, so he never processes or remembers any of it.
• Mistaken for Romance: Mizuki immediately assumes Date and Ryuki's "special relationship" means the two have sex together. Date is quick to refute that, saying their relationship is "physical" not "sexual" (not that it sounds any better).
• Mood-Swinger: He can go from calm to happy to angry in about the blink of an eye.
• Nice Guy: Compared to the other two heroes, Ryuki is easily the most polite and soft-spoken of the trio. He avoids a lot of the belligerence that Date and Mizuki express and is motivated by a strong sense of compassion as an ABIS agent.
• Not So Above It All: While much more reserved than Date in what makes him tick, and adamantly refusing any of Tama's recurring teasing that Ryuki is flirting while on the job; not even Ryuki is immune to Ritsuko's biggest "traits", thus the same gag ending of leaving absolutely everything behind to elope with her is also available to him, where Ryuki will drop his usual demeanor, proceeding to act almost the same as Date in impulsively taking Ritsuko with him to Atama, cutting ties with everyone.
• Older Than They Look: Even when he's 29 in Side Mizuki, he still looks like a high-schooler.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Under duress of Tearer holding Tama hostage, he shoots Bibi with a stun bullet which worsens her heart condition, earning her undying enmity.
• Precision F-Strike: During a Wink Psync with Ryuki and Tearer, Ryuki gives an exceptionally defiant "Fuck you!" when Tearer explains his reasoning for calling Ryuki to the cathedral.
• Red Herring: The game goes out of its way to paint him as suspiciously as possible:
  • The Nirvana videos trigger Ryuki in a manner reminiscent of a Manchurian Agent, especially during the Explosion Ending where Tearer expresses confusion that he won't shoot Date. In reality, Ryuki's mental episodes put him in a harmless daze and Tearer expects him to shoot Date because he's holding Tama hostage with the threat of a complete data wipe.
  • His mental state looks terrible in Side Mizuki, which starts off with triggering a mental episode within Ryuki's Somnium that ends with him laughing hysterically and fainting when Mizuki tries interogating him afterwards and gets worse from there. Among other things, he shows intense guilt and obssession with the HB case, Aiba frequently tells Mizuki to not contradict his delusions to avoid upsetting him, he's present at the practice site for TC-PERGE's launch in a daze, and he ends up shooting at a civilian, which combined with his motive for joining ABIS (making sure criminals receive justice for the sake of his deceased twin brother), makes him look like an increasingly unstable Knight Templar. With the true timeline revealed however, it's apparent he's still stable enough to be functional as half his chapters are in the present; the incident with nearly shooting the civilian takes place in the past and Boss calls it a mistake from Ryuki being too rash in the investigation rather than blame his mental state.
  • In the present, he's a potential suspect for the case as he's one of the few people to know about and potentially use Shoma's robot, the Masked Woman warns against trusting him, and in the final scene before the Resolution route lock, he shoots Mizuki with a stun bullet and follows Tearer's demands due to him holding Tama hostage. The truth is that last scene is him shooting Bibi 6 years ago which is the reason for her current grudge, and Tearer is dead in the present with no reason for Ryuki to listen to any posthumous orders.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The end of the Divergence Route has Tama refer to the "original" events of the game as Ryuki's delusion of an "alternate timeline", the knowledge of which he was granted and used in order to ensure a happy ending for as many people as possible.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: In a Call-Back to the first game, one of Ryuki's possible reactions to seeing Tama's digital form for the first time (in-game) is to let out a high-pitched wail of fear.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The goal of the post-endgame Divergence Route should you, The Frayer, grant Ryuki the foreknowledge of the entire HB Murder Cases at the time he first met Tokiko. With his newfound knowledge Ryuki solves the case in a flash, apprehending Tearer right away, resulting in a string of tragedies being prevented, to note: Komeji isn't killed by Tearer, as Ryuki charges him with hiding a corpse, Gen and Amame aren't taken in for assisting as they are shielded by Komeji taking the heat alone, Kizuna never becomes paraplegic since she is never kidnapped by Tearer, and thus Ryuki never develops any PTSD from the incident in the cathedral, Amame doesn't pursue revenge since Komeji didn't die. In the end 6 years later Ryuki has ascended to being second-in-command of ABIS, everyone who Ryuki ended up saving catch up with him to tell how they are going, including Komeji who served his time already; Tama pretty much spells it out that this is the ultimate Happy End, with the sole exception of Tokiko's mysterious disappearance six years ago (and Tokiko's own questionable and cryptic claim that their universe won't last much longer).
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: When Mizuki confronts Ryuki at the start of their game, he's in a serious state of PTSD caused by the events of the HB Serial Killings. You find out as the game progresses that he blames himself for Date's supposed death and for letting himself be manipulated by Tearer to hurt Mizuki K.
• Shipper on Deck: After discovering Shoma's crush on Mizuki, Ryuki actively encourages interaction between those two.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • In the Komeji/Shoma route, he takes a bullet to the shoulder for Shoma which leaves him vulnerable to the Naix scientists and setting up a Big Damn Heroes moment from Date.
  • In the Resolution route, he takes a bullet for Date and undergoes a Disney Death.
• The Team Normal: While Date has his porn-induced super reflexes and Mizuki has her Super-Strength which also extends to Bibi, Ryuki gets by without anything special inherent to him.
• Vetinari Job Security: Is still with ABIS after the timeskip despite Boss threatening to demote him unless he caught Tearer within a few days, which he ultimately fails at. It's likely that with Date presumed dead and Bibi's heart condition worsening, ABIS couldn't afford to lose him as well.

Tama

Tama

Voiced by: Ai Kakuma (Japanese), Anairis Quiñones (English)

^{Click here to see her physical form}

"Mm-hm. I'll give you hands-on assistance for the investigation."

An AI-ball resting inside the left eye of Ryuki, who acts as his investigative partner and his conduit to interact with other peoples' Somniums. Although these functions are identical to Aiba's, Tama's personality is more stern in comparison, ready and willing to literally whip Ryuki into shape if need be.

---

• Actor Allusion: The My Hero Academia references in the English dub compliment her English VA since she also voices Pro Hero Mirko in the English dub.
• Ambiguously Bi: Tama will make it no question she sees some attraction in guys, but she'd quite happy nuzzling herself between Boss's boobs, openly complementing the feel, and will compliment Amame's femurs upon X-Raying her in much the same manner as Date did with her hip bones. In the Tama's Room section of the game, she can admit that she likes a bit of chubbiness on guys and girls.
• Ambiguously Brown: Tama is noticeably darker than the rest of the the cast, and is described as having tan skin. Even her English actor is Black. Though as a holographic projection of an AI, she's not any particular race to begin with.
• Annoying Laugh: She loves bad jokes, letting out howling high-pitched laughter in response. Ryuki, usually the only one who actually hears it, mentions that her laugh hurts him.
• Berserk Button: She is very quickly angered by a number of things, but in particular being given orders, disrespecting comedians, and not being LGBTQ+-inclusive really set her off.
• Big Little Sister: Tama is technically six years younger than Aiba, but looks the part of a fully-grown woman compared to Aiba's petite, teen-like physique. Then again, it's easy for AI to change up their looks.
• Brains and Bondage: A highly-advanced AI in the form of a dominatrix. She even uses bondage on Ryuki as a form of self care for him.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Much like Date, she's unapologetically perverted and constantly making sex jokes at any opportunity. And just like Date, she has no intention to act on anything unless she's given permission, like when Ryuki wants her to tie him up.
• Cleavage Window: Part of her Ms. Fanservice appeal.
• Damsel in Distress: Her AI-Ball is captured by Tearer who threatens Ryuki that he will destroy her if he doesn't do what he says, since Tearer has the knowledge to reverse-engineer the Wadjet System and can destroy her on both ends. He later repairs the physical body and hands it back to Ryuki, but informs him of a self-destruct program he left in her which he will trigger if needed. It's later removed.
• Deuteragonist: Of Ryuki's side, being with him at all times and providing valuable data and character balance to him.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: She plays the appearance straight, clad in very archetypical dominatrix attire. But personality-wise, she subverts the villainous connotations of the archetype; she seems overbearing and aggressive, but is also very sweet and caring towards others.
• Easily Impressed: Seemingly any joke will drive her to hysterics, regardless of if it's even mildly funny or even particularly makes sense.
• Extreme Omnisexual: She is a Chivalrous Pervert, but Tama makes frequent perverted comments. After making a Sextra Credit joke, Ryuki points out that it could be a female teacher - and Tama immediately shoots back she could get into that.
• Fair Cop: Invoked as the partner of Ryuki. Her domimatrix cap is also directly riffing on police attire.
• Fangirl: Of comedians, she's the only person in-game who finds Andes Komeji's jokes funny, and one of the ways to piss her off is disrespecting them.
• Foil: Tama serves as one to Aiba.
  • Both of them are the AI partners to different protagonists but have personalities and skillsets that befit different roles. Aiba's flat tone, analytical nature and skepticism paint her as a more logical individual, whereas Tama's expressiveness, mood-swings and tender side paint her as more of an empath. This can be contextualized by the needs of their partners; Aiba's logic and cool head balance out Date and Mizuki's impulsiveness and childishness, whereas Tama's emotion-driven specailities help support the unstable Ryuki.
  • While Aiba puts up a more dignified and snarky front compared to Tama's more aggressive and domineering personality, Tama is much more open about her concern and care for her "master" Ryuki compared to Aiba who would prefer to hide the feelings behind insults. Additionally, while Aiba almost always starts Somniums in rather wacky ways regardless of what Mizuki (or Date previously) thinks, Tama would only do such things after encouragement/goading from Ryuki.
  • Amusingly, Tama hates insects as opposed to Aiba's giddy fangirling.
  • Aiba has no qualms when it comes to spontaneously dancing; Tama is much more reserved about it and shouts that '[she] isn't Aiba, [she] can't dance!'.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Tama is normally nice and understanding, though she can get furious in an instant should something piss her off, like not listening to what she says.
• Hellbent For Leather: Her black outfit is rendered to look like leather, complimenting her BDSM image.
• Hypocritical Humor: She often gets on Ryuki's case for being too loud... by loudly yelling at him to shut up.
  "SHUUUT! UUUP!!!"
• Informed Attribute: In addition to being his partner, Tama is supposed to be Ryuki's nurse and keeping his health in check. While she does try to keep him focused on his job, she seems to do little to nothing to help him mentally and often bends to his stubbornness.
  • It's mentioned a few times that she ties up Ryuki for bondage, but how she does that as a three inch tall jelly-robot is never shown or stated.
• Mondegreen Gag:
  Ryuki: "Tama, show me the news."
  […]
  Tama: (Loads up historical erotic art)
  Ryuki: "I said 'news' not 'nudes'!"
  Tama: (Giggles)
• Ms. Fanservice: Tama is this compared to Aiba. She's taller, bustier than Aiba and Dressed Like a Dominatrix. Even her physical form in the real world is that of a curvy chibi version of herself instead of Aiba's gerbil-like shape. God knows which ABIS member had a hand in designing her (Probably Date).
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike Aiba, Tama has no ability (or opportunities) to shock anyone to defend herself or incapacitate others.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After discovering Chikara's body, she seems extra quiet and concerned for Ryuki who's insistent on recreating the scene for investigation. It turns out to be a Subversion on her part; Ryuki is the one acting out of character instead. This is because at this point in the true timeline, Ryuki is suffering from an enormous guilt complex and a drinking problem.
• Performance Anxiety: As brash and outgoing as she is normally, she is clearly uncomfortable any time in a Somnium that Ryuki puts her in a position of having to put on some kind of performance.
• Prima Donna Director: When recreating a crime scene for their investigation, Tama will roleplay as a hilariously overbearing director that orders Ryuki around and cusses him out like he's a thrid-rate actor.
  Tama: "Now that I'm in the director's chair, I'm not going to tolerate shoddy acting, so keep that in mind."
  [...]
  Ryuki: "I have no idea what you're talking about..."
  Tama: "Shut you stupid mouth, you third-rate, bit-part actor! Are you too much of a moron to figure this out without the director having to tell you everything!?"
  Ryuki: "But..."
  Tama: "Just zip it and play the culprit! If we're doing this, we're going for the Macademy Award!"
  
  Tama: "...You're supposed to play the part of the culprit."
  Ryuki: "But what's the point of-?"
  Tama: "Don't talk back to the director!!! Don't make me throw a fuckin' ashtray at you!"
• Proud Beauty: Much like Aiba, Tama is very confident about her appearance. In particular Tama emphasizes her superiority in sexy looks, while Aiba claims she is the cutest.
• Tsundere: Tama bounces constantly between abrasive and domineering to sweet and caring at the drop of a hat. Contextually, her harsher side is more for moments of levity, usually just her playing foil to the more submissive Ryuki. When the situation calls for it though, she'll drop her abrasiveness altogether to support Ryuki; it shows the most whenever Ryuki is experiencing one of his freak outs or a Heroic BSoD.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ryuki. All the AI-balls are devoted to their partners, but Tama stands out as being very protective of Ryuki, to the point where she actively hides information from ABIS for his sake.
• Whip of Dominance: She can be very stern, overbearing, and bossy, and her Somnium / holographic form plays with this by giving her a military BDSM-inspired outfit to make her look both like a Drill Sergeant Nasty and a Dominatrix, and the look is completed by the fact she also wields a riding crop so she can "whip Ryuki's ass him into shape". She frequently teases or bosses Ryuki around, and is made clear she knows a lot about bondage and S&M.

Masked Woman (HEAVY SPOILERS)

Mizuki "Bibi" Kuranushi

Voiced by: Tomoyo Kurosawa (Japanese), Corina Boettger (English)

^{Her true face}

Initially regarded as the Masked Woman that attempts to kill Mizuki early in her side of the story, it turns out that the connection between the two is far more personal that Mizuki could have known - namely, she is another Mizuki, an older clone of the project that created the Mizuki we know, and unknown to Ryuki or her "sister", a third investigator on the case - but one with an agenda of her own.

---

• The Ageless: Maybe? She offhandedly mentions that her physical abilities are a side effect of eternal youth and life, but it's unclear as to whether she meant across all of Horadori's experiments or specifically her own modifications.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: An example that players weren't even aware of in their first playthrough as all of the segments where Mizuki investigates the deaths of Chikara and Komeji were actually segments where the players played as her.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Subverted, she's Boss' adopted daughter and acting against the investigation in the Present timeline, but as it turns out she's trying to solve it on her own.
• Batter Up!: She wields a baseball bat in one of the fight scenes against Naix.
• Beta Test Baddie: The Masked Woman/Bibi is initially set up as a baddie, shooting at Mizuki with a sniper rifle, and it's later revealed that she's a literal beta test of the same genetic modifications that were used on Mizuki. However, the "baddie" part is subverted when it's revealed that she only shot at Mizuki (with rubber bullets) to try to scare her away from the case. Otherwise, she was just trying to solve the case on her own to keep Mizuki from as much danger as possible.
• Big Damn Heroes: She comes to Shoma and Komeji's rescue in their route then saves Mizuki a couple times in others.
• Big Sister Instinct: Her primary drive is to protect Mizuki, who she considers to be like a younger sister, at all costs. Even that one time she shot at Mizuki (with rubber bullets), she was only trying to make Mizuki drop her investigation to keep her safe.
• Blatant Lies: Bibi doesn't even try to come up with convincing lies when people want answers from her, she usually just says something outlandish if she's not snarking at them.
• Chekhov's Gunman: You know how Boss mentions having a daughter a few times throughout the second game? That's who Bibi is, or rather "Mizuki Kuranushi".
• Clones Are People, Too: Once revealed, absolutely nobody treats Bibi or Mizuki like they are any less people for being cloned Designer Babies. Flavor text points out that, outside of ABIS, everyone else just assumes Bibi is Mizuki's twin sister.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • She just so happened to wear the same clothes present-day Mizuki wears in the past.
  • She also just so happened to completely avoid bumping into Mizuki in the past, though slightly justified, as she made sure to look after Mizuki from afar without her noticing.
• Compressed Hair: When she takes off her hood she's revealed to have been somehow hiding a large, voluminous ponytail under there.
• Cool Big Sis: To Mizuki Date - while she's technically just an older clone, she considers Mizuki her younger sister, and was acting antagonistic to try and protect her. Bibi was also this to Kizuna when they were growing up, which is where her "Big Sis" nickname for Mizuki comes from despite her being several years younger.
• Cool Bike: Just like Mizuki, she has her own rocket-powered blue scooter that can catch up to a rocket mid-flight.
• Cool Mask: Or at least, it would be. If she wasn't wearing it upside down for reasons never explained, though knowing her personality, it was probably just to mess with people.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Or Window in this case as Marco is the same shade of blue as her hair.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's just as aggressively snarky as her sister, though she often also uses her snark to deflect questioning or changing the subject.
• Designer Babies: An older product of the same project that made Mizuki Okiura, and has the same Super-Strength.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Played for Laughs: she preps Aiba to face Gen in a cooking competition, Gordon Ramsay-style, complete with making the poor AI cry.
  Mizuki (watching Aiba's knife work): "You call yourself an AI and that's all you can do?! Do it again!"
  Aiba (crying): "Yes, chef! Sorry, chef!"
• Dub Name Change: Quite the easiest and fitting change, she is affectionately called "Bibi" by Mizuki as it was her way of calling Big (Big) Sister as an infant; in the Japanese script Mizuki calls her "Nene" as in Nee-chan, again Big Sister.
• Evil Twin: Justified, as a clone made from the same genetic template as Mizuki, Bibi is effectively an identical twin who was born years earlier than she was, and circumstances make her antagonist to Mizuki, at least initially. In reality she wasn't evil at all, she was just trying to push Mizuki away from the case to keep her safe.
• Eye Scream: She was born with a blind eye, which she was perfectly willing to lose so she could house Aiba and later Marco.
• Flawed Prototype: The original Mizuki/Bibi/the Masked Woman is a Super-Soldier like the more familiar Mizuki, but has a heart condition that is liable to kill her due to glitches in the cloning process.
• Former Teen Rebel: In her teenage years she used to go by the alias of Quartz, acting as a thief who stole from corrupt individuals, and frequently worked with Lien and the Kumakura Family under Moma. Her 24-year-old self hates it when either of her former coworkers calls her that.
• The Gadfly: It's something she probably picked up from her adoptive mother, but Bibi really likes saying things to provoke emotional reactions from other people. Unlike Shizue, what she says isn't sexually charged, but it can still leave others exasperated or surprised.
• Glass Cannon: Same as Mizuki in this regard, she can bring in the pain to her foes with her superhuman strength but can’t take much punishment herself, in fact she is actually a little worse than Mizuki due her heart condition, which places a time limit on how long Bibi can act, and a well placed electroshock on her chest will easily stop her.
• Good All Along: It turns out that despite attacking Mizuki at the start of the game, she only did so to prevent Mizuki from getting involved with the HB case, and is fully willing to take down Tearer.
• Handicapped Badass: Born blind in one eye and with a heart condition, it doesn't stop her from kicking ass constantly, even if she does occasionally need help.
• Happily Adopted: While she does imply that she's had to work through some tension regarding their relationship, she does seem to genuinely love Boss as a mother. She even calls her "Mama" which the latter finds embarrassing.
• Hero Antagonist: In the Present events, where she attacks Mizuki a couple times to try and protect her, while attempting to solve the case on her own.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Boss's profile says she's a surrogate mother to Mizuki, it just doesn't say which Mizuki.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: The younger Mizuki was shot in the leg in the previous game, and while she's fine, she has a scar Bibi doesn't have.
• In-Series Nickname: Mizuki used to call her "Bibi" (nee-nee in Japanese) when the former was a toddler. Once her identity is revealed, Aiba registers her as such, which carries over to the game interface.
  • She is also called Quartz, her old codename from her thieving days, by both Lien and Moma. Nowadays she hates it.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite Bibi and Mizuki having very different upbringings, they share a lot of similarities, including a similar taste in fashion at the same age, same way of fighting, a fondness for Adorabbit, and even the same method of transportation.
• In the Hood: Even after being unmasked she only lowers her hood in the Lien/Kizuna ending and in the epilogue.
• Jerkass to One: She's snarky to about everyone, but she offers No Sympathy to Ryuki, it makes sense seeing how he shot her and made her heart condition worse.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Much like her "sister," beneath her abrasive personality is an empathetic woman with a strong sense of right and wrong.
• Just Like Robin Hood: During her days working as a thief with Lien, they would steal money from corrupt people and she would donate what she took to fellow orphans. Though it is mentioned that they both earned Moma a good amount of money as well, earning them a place on his good side.
• Mysterious Protector: Before she's unmasked, she's secretive, shows up at times to help Ryuki and Mizuki, and makes excuses for why she's there.
• Noodle Incident: Strangely, Bibi can have an optional conversation with Aiba about Iris being a M(asochist) with a hidden bit of being a S(adist). While it might make sense for Mizuki Date to make such a claim, the fact that Bibi had seemingly no connections to Iris or the Cyclops Killings what so ever makes it a mystery as to why she'd say such a thing.
• Ninja: Shizue explicitly refers to her as this a couple times, and seeing how she shows up mysteriously and suddenly to kick ass multiple times, it's a fitting description.
• Not So Above It All: When she talks to Gen in the past, she discovers through Aiba that Gen's body is heating up (because he's lying), but her first thought is that she's making him horny.
• Older Than They Look: She's actually 24 when Mizuki meets her in the present, but looks no more different than she did at 18, she's the same height, the biggest difference being a change in hair style.
• One-Steve Limit: Double subverted. Two characters are named Mizuki, but it turns out that has very deep reasons behind it, and after she joins with the younger Mizuki, she takes up the nickname Bibi.
• Pipe Pain: She later formally uses an Evolver Pipe like Mizuki.
• Pistol-Whipping: In the Komeji/Shoma route, she takes one of the defeated Naix scientists' laser guns and uses it like a club, or rather, like a pipe.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: She is barefoot all the time, even in the snowy winter. When she is asked about her lack of shoes, she says lab rats don't wear shoes.
• Remember the New Guy?: Not her, but the idea that Boss has an adopted daughter was never brought up before in the first game, which she lampshades by saying nobody ever asked. She apparently was known by Pewter due to working with her frequently, and Ryuki, by virtue of accidentally bumping into her and Boss while they were shopping.
• Samus Is a Girl: Downplayed. During Mizuki's first scene, before she discovers the missing half of Jin Furue, she is attacked by a Cold Sniper in an identity-concealing white suit. When Aiba scans the figure, she quickly detects she's a woman, although nothing else about her identity is shown. This masked sniper turns out to be Bibi.
• Shared Family Quirks: Part of how her true identity is hidden is that she's just as snarky and occasionally hostile as her sister.
• Significant Name Overlap: She shares a name with Mizuki Date, which helps obscure the fact that Side Mizuki is split between them.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Justified. After being shot by Ryuki, he has earned a permanent spot on her shit list and she is extremely harsh on him at all times.
• Smash Sisters: She and the younger Mizuki aid each other through multiple combat encounters and have a really tight synergy, which makes sense given their styles are similar.
• The Stoic: Zigzagged, but she manages her emotions a lot more logically and less vocally than her sister does, at least post Time Skip. When she's told her previously thought incurable disease can be cured, she displays Dull Surprise at best.
• Super-Soldier: Just like our Mizuki, though unlike her, Bibi is aware of her origins and has actual armed combat ability.
• Taking the Bullet: Her Somnium reveals that during her time at Horadori Labs, she once saved a child from being experimented upon with a drill press by throwing herself on top to shield the child. Said child, represented in the Somnium by a stuffed rabbit, is later revealed via the children's lab codenames to have been the younger Mizuki, who would have been three years old at the time, if not younger.
• Throwing Off the Disability: At the end, Riichi reveals that for all the evil deeds Horadori Research did under Chikara, their legitimate and benevolent research included a cure for her heart condition which she's welcome to take anytime.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: She used to be not unlike Mizuki Date, who was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but events six years ago turned her to be much more aloof and uncooperative with others. She grows out of this later, but not without a lot of pushback before her identity is revealed.
• Tritagonist: About half of Mizuki Date's screen time is actually Mizuki Kuranushi's, and she's a good focal point for Mizuki Date's route as well.
• Two Aliases, One Character: Kizuna regularly talks about her Big Sis while Lien occasionally refers to his old friend Quartz. They're both her.
• Tyke Bomb: She theorizes that Boss adopted her because of her super strength and taught her to fight in order to raise her into an ABIS agent. She doesn't really seem to resent Boss for it, and Boss also seems to care a great deal for her despite some grumbling about her rebelliousness.
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice is just the slightest bit deeper than Mizuki Date's, which checks out, as she's a few years older than her sister/clone.
• Walking Spoiler: It is impossible to talk about Bibi's true identity without revealing that Mizuki Okiura is a clone, that Bibi is her identically named older sister and prototype, that she is Boss' adopted daughter, and that half the time you were playing Mizuki you were actually playing Bibi when her AI Ball was Aiba.
• Your Days Are Numbered: She has a heart condition that already made her weak and require occasional visits to the hospital, but after Ryuki shot her, she's informed by the nurse that she's not expected to live much longer after the six year time skip. However, by the end of the game Bibi and Mizuki are informed new breakthroughs at the Horadori Institute may have found a way to save her life, part of the reason for why Riichi kept funding the institute despite the terrible things Chikara has done.

Marco (HEAVY SPOILERS)

The blue AI-ball used by Mizuki Kuranushi in the present.

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• Gender-Inclusive Writing: In the Japanese version, gendered language is not used when referring to Marco. The English translation uses "he/him" pronouns, but Uchikoshi has stated on Twitter that Marco is meant to be non-binary in all versions.
• The Ghost: We never do get to see Marco's holographic body physically outside the blue eye look nor as a gelatine construct outside of concept art.
• Shrinking Violet: According to Bibi, Marco is very shy.
• The Voiceless: Marco does not say anything at any point in Nirvana Initiative.
• Walking Spoiler: The Masked Woman's identity is itself a massive spoiler, and the same can be said about her AI-Ball, who is not identified until long after the revelation that she's a clone of Mizuki.