Characters / Fifteen Strangers Round Two

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The 15 Strangers

Karma Akabane

The Jovian

Made it to the survivor pool.

Goro Akechi

The Coffee

The culprit of Week 2/Case 2.

Wake Archus

The Feeling

The victim of Week 1/Case 1.

Ursula Callistis

The Bad Luck

Made it to the survivor pool.

Joey Claire

The Impossible

Made it to the survivor pool.

• Animate Inanimate Object: Her power is to animate a single object to move around and assist her - identical to Shiki's power in The World Ends with You and, just like Shiki, used on a Mr. Mew doll, thanks to Joey's love of animals both plush and living.
• Dance Battler: Acrobatic pirouettes galore in the final battle, as expected.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Only by about 20 years relative to the setting of the Mall, but she does freak out in the best way when she discovers how fast the "'net" is in 2017. Also, Hamster Dance.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The only Titled she genuinely doesn't get along with most of the time is Britt, but she ends up making a Pact with him for the final boss fight regardless.

Dio

The Bodacious

The culprit of Week 1/Case 1.

• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Towards "old men", demonstrating Irrational Hatred to the point that it is one of just two dislikes on his profile. He's practically more vitriolic towards Ren, who is barely 40 and never did anything wrong the entire time in the mall, than towards their captors themselves.
• Driven by Envy: As early as Week 2, Dio had independently decided to make a few attempts at training his psychic powers and organizing meetings, but his efforts kick into overdrive Week 3 onwards, when he starts consciously comparing himself with Akechi.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The attributes of his Impossibly Tacky Clothes are detailed below. Combined with Dio being the first culprit, you get this trope, which definitely serves its narrative purpose as an extension from the dysfunctional elements of his personality.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: By over fifty years relative to the setting of the mall, leading him to take such unusual actions as try to play compact discs without removing them from their packages.
• Ignored Epiphany: When he first regains his memories, he's shocked that his actions in the mall were a Senseless Sacrifice, and he's also very critical of certain people. He keeps coming this close to concluding that he might be not so different, going about things the wrong way in general... and then Dio just goes home after the game, returning to the exact same career and lifestyle. The possibility is left open for a Double Subversion of Heel Realization after he learns that even his comrades won't entirely agree with him about what happened out there in the multiverse.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: He splurges on other outfits in the mall, but these garments all retain the ridiculous themes of his canon default get-up. For example, he still wears a top hat. His clothes scream "who let him dress himself?" so loudly that Helena, who had forsaken the "shallow" fashion world, has no qualms about befriending someone whose profile says he likes "fashion".
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: An example of the Anti-Villain variation where this behavior is one of the few bright points in an otherwise sour personality. He sneaks out at night to avoid attention as he feeds the apparently unsupervised cats in the cat cafe, and he's one of the two people who undertakes the mission to return three of those cats who wandered out of the cafe and got lost in the mall.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He seemed to believe that he would "save humanity" by committing the first murder, getting the other thirteen strangers executed, and escaping to complete his "mission". However, he accepts this "mission" with no critical thought whatsoever, implying that his real concern is the pursuit of glory and the avoidance of punishment for disobeying orders, and his approach is merciless. Instead of coming off superheroic, Dio's demeanor towards the other strangers is almost completely callous, sometimes even sadistic. He may not have been motivated by money, but his actions were still the epitome of greedy, as the Life Coach summarizes.
• Real Men Eat Meat: He expresses great enthusiasm about the steak available for purchase in the mall, and he shared multiple such meals with Britt as a masculine bonding activity.
• The Resenter: Towards the second culprit. Akechi hailed from an affluent metropolis and actively decided as a young adult to enter the life of crime that would rapidly consume and coerce him. In the mall he was admired as a leader of the group, forging friendships and even a romantic relationship. Many of the strangers forgave Akechi to some extent for murdering two people, and three went so far as to risk their lives protecting him from execution. Dio expected since his birth to continue a lineage of crime, and he was expressly forbidden from forming interpersonal connections of any kind, a principle that he carried into the mall, leading the strangers to lament his death by execution a lot less. Though Akechi had endured many difficulties, he still was resented for seeming to squander several significant privileges that Dio had been denied his whole life.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Dio believes that the gamerunners are serious about enforcing punishments fatally and selecting motives that will provoke at least some murderous stranger, so emotional attachments will only make the inevitable deaths more awkward. This is practically Death by Genre Savviness, because he was strictly speaking right that someone was going to murder eventually, but nothing directly said that Dio had to be the one who committed that murder and put himself at risk of getting executed. He's also just straight up wrong about believing that forensic evidence would be insufficient in accordance with his previous experience. There was at least a slim chance for things to go differently, but his character was deliberately written into the game to depict these ramifications of his ruthless personality, making this an Enforced Trope.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Lampshade Hanging as Dio tells Helena about some events from his canon.
  Dio: The Myrmidons make the prophesied revelations a reality by cleansing the current corrupted world to usher in the great change. Basically what any unenlightened person would call terrorism.

Torri Feiiji

The Bliss

One of the victims of Week 2/Case 2.

Yuuri Katsuki

The Future

One of the victims of Week 2/Case 2.

• Make Sure He's Dead: After the culprit throws Yuuri over a second floor railing, he comes downstairs to check that Yuuri is dead. When it's obvious the poor guy is still alive and suffering, the culprit gives him a merciful, quick end by slitting his throat.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Despite not remembering his canon relationship with Victor (and even freaking out over the sight of his ring), Yuuri never shows romantic or sexual interest in any of the other Strangers.
• Slashed Throat: How the culprit of Week 2 finishes him off. The fact that both carotids were severed with a precise cut shows that the killer knew exactly what he was doing.

Akira Kurusu

The Nagging

Made it to the survivor pool.

Leonhardt/"Loewe"

The Winds

Punished during the final week.

Croix Meridies

The Chance

Made it to the survivor pool.

Shuuichi "Kurama" Minamino

The Unknown

The culprit of Week 3/Case 3.

Britt Reid

The Needed

Made it to the survivor pool.

Ren Sanzashi

The Doorframe

The victim of Week 3/Case 3.

• Extra-ore-dinary: His team specializes in Steel-type Pokemon.
• Happily Married: Though he doesn't remember his wife at first.
• Must Have Nicotine: Is a fairly regular cigarette smoker. Kurama knows this and poisons his cigarettes during week 3.
• Really Gets Around: Tells Akechi that he used to be this when he was younger, though he doesn't exactly fit the description now.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Guilty of this, along with Britt and Helena.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: Has to go through pretty extensive lengths to avoid bothering the other Strangers with his habit, given the enclosed setting. It also proves to be his undoing in case 3.
• Team Dad: The oldest of the human Strangers, and acts like this towards the younger captives.

Helena St. Tessero

The Nasty

Punished during Week 3.

NPCs

Coco Atarashi

The Life Coach

• Valley Girl
• Like Is, Like, a Comma
• Absurd Phobia: When Akira invites her to the cat cafe, LC admits that she's a little scared of cats - despite the other Masterminds' mania for putting them everywhere, and her best friend in the Mall literally being a giant robot cat. Though the latter is slightly justified when you see that Nyaf-ya can project a less "scary" humanoid form.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: She's genuinely kind to everyone and enjoys fulfilling the role of Life Coach, but despite lamenting their suffering she doesn't seem to have any other qualms over their presence in a murder game, even going so far as to use the word "fair" to describe it. After all, she'll still see them as Players in the Reaper's Game.
• The Determinator: According to one of the clue documents, "She'll do anything to ensure the Noise boom doesn't claim more worlds." This is why she is in full support of the killing game, even willing to mislead people to execution vote her until Croix stepped in.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: During the second culprit's breakdown, he clings to hope that a loved one would be saved because he'd asked LC if one person could survive the mass execution, and, misunderstanding his intentions, she'd answered in the affirmative. But rather than a culprit getting to choose whoever they wanted to spare, she just meant that the Fabricator would naturally be spared as it's a perk of their role.
• Eastern Zodiac: The ears on her hoodie are described as 'mouse ears', to slot her as the Rat in the Eastern Zodiac theme the Reapers in canon have going on. Her phobia of cats is a play on cats and mice in general.
• Recruitment by Rescue: Coco was originally from the universe of The World Ends With You: Live Remix, a social game set in an alternate universe of TWEWY that was discontinued in 2014. As a nod to that, it turns out her reality/version of Shibuya had been destroyed by the Ringleader Noise, and an Angel (implied to be Sanae Hanekoma) had evacuated her to the world of the main game. This fostered her interest in and loyalty to the Angels, which eventually lead to her becoming the Life Coach for the killing game. Because of this, LC claims that rather than receiving compensation for her help, she is instead repaying a debt.

Nephilix/"Nyaf-ya"

The Executioner

• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Both figuratively and literally.
• The Cutie: Even aside from her inherited traits, her self-image is also adorable.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Inherited from her kind-of mother.
• Power Armor: A slightly terrifying (and cat-based) robot version here.
• Pungeon Master: All the cat puns!!
• Punny Name: Her real name is based on the fact that she is, in essence, a female nephilim: the "child" of an angel (The Law of Cycles) and a devil (Seven, due to his baptismal name of Luciel).
• Shown Their Work: A very stealthy version, but in regards to her nickname, the "-ya" part is actually a Korean honorific to denote a child, indicating that she is the youngest individual in the hierarchy of the Game's runners - and that someone among them, likely her creator, is Korean.
• Soul Jar: Hers is a hologram-emitting, computer chip-esque version of the ones found in the Madoka universe.

Japhet

The Game Master

The Law of Cycles/"Kana"

The Conductor

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: In her case, she takes the form of Madoka Kaname as it's who created her to begin with.
• All-Loving Hero: She does her best to improve everyone's lives during the duration of the game. This even those who were culprits, who she believes can improve themselves.
• Damaged Soul: The Law of Cycles is post-Rebellion, and so she lacks the presence of Madoka Kaname save for a faint connection spanning the universes.
• Dream-Crushing Handicap: Implied. In her life story flashback, it's implied that being separated from Madoka literally caused her to lose her hands - the very thing that allowed the Law of Cycles to carry out Madoka's wish.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Revealed in her memories and in her journal entries. She wonders if Homura actually hated her existence, and struggles to reconcile her own feelings about what happened to her. Nevertheless, she still supported Homura handling their home universe for as long as it works, and hopes to reconcile one day.
• Meaningful Name: The name she uses in the Mall is in fact referring to an important part of a bigger name. Just as Madoka Kaname herself is an important part of something bigger.
• Memetic Mutation: A phenomenon that happened after her presence in-game was revealed was the constant uttering of it in tones of awe or perhaps horror. This lead to the KANAME MADOKA counter being established in chat.
• Morality Pet: Yotsuyu's diary implies that she and Seven are becoming this to her.
• Recruitment by Rescue: The Angels essentially did this for her, making her the only character of the four Masterminds who didn't have to die to gain their power and position.

[[Final Fantasy XIV Yotsuyu Sashihai]

The Composer

• Took a Level in Badass: Yotsuyu has a massive amount of power from becoming a Composer, and can rain down gun beams and stop time. She also uses Dragon Couture pins as well as her noise boss form, Picave Cantus.

707 aka. Luciel Choi

The Producer

• Empowered Badass Normal: 707 was already a trained secret agent, but now he's ascended to become an Angel, which comes with a godlike amount of power. He uses the Darklit Planets pin set when fighting Players on their level, but he also has a noise boss form. Seven implies that he has many more "faces" than that, but he may or may not be exaggerating thanks to his personality.
• Morality Pet: Yotsuyu's diary implies that he and Kana are becoming this to her.
• Smart People Build Robots: Though he comes off like a Genius Ditz, he's the Executioner's creator, and his robot lab is one of the areas that could be explored in the final trial.
• Trademark Favorite Food: His bedroom is disgustingly littered full of wrappers and bottles of his favorite snacks, Honey Buddha Chips and Ph.D. Pepper, especially the latter - the masterminds even have a literal fountain of the aforementioned soda in their conference room. He also rained down Ph.D. Pepper Vending Machines as one of his attacks. The chips were available as a gacha prize.

Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu & Sanae Hanekoma

The Composer & Producer of Shibuya

Individuals appearing only in flashback, but still important to Round 2.

• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Joshua outright admits this, since he only left Sho alive was because he was always fun to watch.
• Gilded Cage: Ultimately how Mr. H was punished for his actions during the Shibuya Reaper's Game. He can still help out as he normally would have due to there being no one else who can replace him at the moment. However, he's still branded a criminal, and if he so much as sneezes wrong he'll have no third chance. Like in canon, he's fine with this compromise.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero

Sho Minamimoto

The Greater-Scope Villain

• The Dreaded: Especially since Taboo Noise is much stronger than the usual, Noise in general gets stronger when left unchecked, and it's been a decade since he started reality-hopping...