Characters / Slow Damage - Main Characters

Slow Damage Character Index
Main Characters | Supporting Characters (The Takasato-gumi)

This page is for tropes related to the main characters of Slow Damage.

Note: If the name of the character's voice actor is enclosed in quotation marks (e.g. "Name of voice actor"), it means that the name is only a pseudonym, and the voice actor's true identity remains undisclosed.

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In General

General Tropes

• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Rei, Taku, and Towa, respectively. Rei may be the fighter of the three, but he serves as the Beauty as he's also the most openly empathetic and stands in the middle in terms of disposition. Taku is the Brains, since he's the doctor and is also sensible and somewhat world-weary. Towa is the Brawn because while he's very perceptive of other people, he also has the desire to seek pleasure in the form of extreme violence.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The trope applies for Rei, Towa and Taku, respectively. They are also the first three characters of the main cast that are introduced right at the start of the game, since it doesn't take until much much later for Madarame and Fujieda to officially show up.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Leukine: Towa is aloof towards most things and only shows strong emotion towards pain and violence.
  • Phlegmatic: Taku is a reliable and sensitive man who looks out for other people.
  • Sanguine: Rei is extroverted, friendly and expressive, as well as the most openly compassionate.
  • Choleric: Madarame is an unpredictable rebel who plays by his own rules and loves a good fight.
  • Melancholic: Fujieda is serious, professional and always focuses on the task at hand. Even people in-game have described him as having an uptight demeanor.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: This trope is prevalent between Towa and any of his love interests. Whoever is the Red Oni and the Blue Oni depends on both the relationship and the circumstances the pair are currently in.
  • The eccentric and violence-loving Towa is the Red Oni in contrast to Taku, whose grounded and sensible personality makes him the Blue Oni. But once Taku's problems start to invite more and more danger to both himself and Towa, Taku starts to become the Red Oni when his emotional state becomes more turbulent and unstable. Consequently, Towa's cold and logical personality turns him into the Blue Oni as he helps think of how to get both himself and Taku out of their messy situation.
  • Rei, like Taku, expresses both exasperation and worry for Towa's life choices, and his expressive personality makes him the Red Oni as Towa's calm and stoic demeanor causes him to fit the role of the Blue Oni this time around. Even when Rei's deep-seated issues begin to surface after he's encumbered with his father's debt, their roles are never reversed.
  • Reflecting the colors of their auras and in turn, their relationship dynamic, Towa is the Red Oni to Madarame's Blue Oni. Madarame never loses his cool even once and always maintains his dominance in any situation. By contrast, Towa is unable to keep his emotions in check whenever Madarame is involved and as they rekindle their relationship in the most unconventional way, Towa starts to become more like his Hot-Blooded self in the past.
  • Where temperament is concerned, Towa's uninhibited nature automatically makes him the Red Oni to Fujieda's serious and straight-laced Blue Oni. The more they learn about each other, however, they start seeing themselves in the other and Towa realizes that there's more to Fujieda than his image as a cold and unfeeling professional. As the plot unfolds in the latter's route, their roles as the Red and Blue Oni would switch every now and then until the finale, where they fall somewhere in between with each other.

The Protagonist

Towa

Towa

Voiced by: Yuki Ono ^note  Credited as Santa Hīragi

Age: 26
Birthday: March 7
Height: 175 cm
Blood Type: A

"When or where I die doesn't concern me."

The main protagonist of Slow Damage. He lives in his own studio on the third floor of Murase Clinic and currently works as a receptionist there. In his free time, he likes hanging out in the bar Roost. He has the unique ability to see the auras of other human beings.

He is also known as the artist euphoria, and is able to grant the wishes of the person he paints. He does not paint just anyone, however, and will only paint when overcome with both inspiration and interest.

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• Affluent Ascetic: Towa resides on the third floor of Taku's clinic, and the place doesn't have much utilities besides the basic necessary appliances as well as all of his painting supplies. After Ryuujirou Takasato's death, the man's will dictated that a lot of inheritance money was left for Towa. But when inquired about it, Towa refuses to take even a single yen and has no complaints about his current living arrangements.
• The Alcoholic: Towa drinks alcohol more than he does water and never goes through the day without at least a single bottle's worth of booze.
• All Gays are Promiscuous: Towa is only interested in men and sleeps around with one on a regular basis, though not to the extent that he immediately propositions every man he encounters, jokingly or otherwise. The final route eventually reveals that his promiscuity is connected to a severe case of childhood trauma, and he gets over this trope once he gets together with any of his love interests. While still sexually active, he's nevertheless in a content and committed relationship, something that he unconsciously avoided having for years.
• Amnesiac Hero: Towa has little to no recollection of his past, though it's not until the final route that the reason behind his memory loss is explained.
• Animal Motifs: More than one character has likened Towa to a cat, or more specifically, a stray cat. Depending on who says it, the comparison is made either in a teasing or a demeaning way.
• Antagonistic Offspring: While Towa technically qualifies for the trope, he's far from the sinister kind. When he was still a child, he followed every one of his mother's orders regardless of how he felt about it because he would get harshly punished otherwise, and his upbringing had never let him realize that he could disobey Maya. However, the seeds of rebellion were planted when he was befriended by Mei, who soon encouraged him to run away. Although that attempt failed and he never saw her again afterwards, he soon realized that his mother had something to do with Mei's disappearance, to which he then finally stood up to Maya. It resulted in a scuffle where Towa pushed her down the stairs in an act of self-defense, and she died some time after the fall. But even with the deep-seated trauma Towa was left with in spite of the amnesia he suffered from the incident, Maya's plans for him were still far from over. Once he learns exactly what those plans are in the Golden Ending, he staunchly refuses to take part in it.
• Artists Are Attractive: Towa's paintings have plenty of fans, with countless people asking if they could also be his model, establishing that he has a solid reputation as an artist. Not even the scars all over his body can detract people from the fact that he's still a looker, with those same scars causing him to be regarded as a Blemished Beauty in-universe.
• Aura Vision: Towa has the ability to see people's auras except for his own, and the way said ability is described hints that Towa might have something akin to real-life synesthesia. He's able to use this ability to tell if someone's being honest or not with him, and to read and manipulate people.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Towa possesses a sharp eye and can easily figure out some things faster than others, such as when he's able to deduce that Ikuina is the one who's been sending flowers to the clinic, and that Mizuno is the culprit behind the ambush-assaults occurring in Shinkoumi.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: With Rei, Madarame or Fujieda, Towa starts to have feelings for them on the basis of a Commonality Connection. But if Taku's route is chosen, Towa's growing affection for him blossoms from the reflection on how Taku would always look out for his well-being both then and now.
• Beneath the Mask: Even though he's not aware of it, his love for pain and violence and sex is a defense mechanism formed from all the times he's been raped and tortured against his will in the past, with his experiences causing him to seek out a similar treatment from others and finding some pleasure in it as a means of reclaiming autonomy and to keep himself numb to any horror and misery he would potentially feel otherwise, whether he remembers his childhood or not.
• Blemished Beauty: Towa is a dead ringer for his mother, who is described by many to be incredibly beautiful. The difference is that he has a lot of scars that extend from his face down to his legs, and they're eye-catching in both an alarming and alluring way to many people.
• Blood Knight: In his teenage years, while still masochistic, Towa also had just as much fun in beating the hell out of anyone who provoked him enough. This side of him gradually went away after the incident that cost him his right eye, though said side can come back in full throttle in Madarame's route.
• Break the Cutie: His bleak outlook on life? His disregard for his own health and safety? The way he Really Gets Around? His addiction to alcohol and cigarettes? All of that points to a victim of some of the worst forms of child sexual abuse.
• Broken Bird: To sum up: the reason Towa is so detached, has an unhealthy love for pain and is eerily indifferent about his own welfare is because he had been through several kinds of abuse that would make the ordeals of many other abused children seem tame by comparison. Even though Towa has forgotten all about his childhood, the psychological damage his past had inflicted on him run so deep that not even amnesia can help him start on a completely clean slate.
• Brutal Honesty: While Towa isn't necessarily what one would call sharp-tongued, he isn't one to sugarcoat his words either, and will say things as they are.
• But Not Too Bi: Played with. While it's confirmed in Taku's route that Towa tried to date women before, he eventually found them to be too much work to go out with; never mind the fact that most women generally make him feel uncomfortable. Likewise, Towa's flings are strictly with men, he's more predisposed to choosing male over female models for his paintings, and he ultimately ends up with a man in any of the Euphoria endings.
• Byronic Hero: Putting aside the fact that he's packed with all kinds of physical and mental trauma, Towa prefers to mind his own business and isn't what anyone would call honorable, empathetic or virtuous, but he still has a heart and some scruples, and won't hesitate to protect the people he cares for.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: In the event that he recalls his childhood and, consequently, Maya, the tone he uses whenever he speaks of her changes entirely. He refuses to regard her as a maternal figure worthy of any filial respect, and in the few instances he addresses her as "[his] mother", he means it in the loosest sense possible. Otherwise, he always refers to her by either her stage name or by the term "that woman" ^note In Japanese, what Towa says is ano on'na (あの女), which is a rather blunt and rude term when referring to another woman, and depending on the context, can even translate to "that bitch"., and both are said in a cold and hostile tone.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: When talking about his injuries, old or new, Towa would speak as if it's no more than one of the most mundane topics of the day. In Fujieda's route, Towa talks in the same nonchalant tone when he informs Taku and Rei that he tried to kill himself.
• Casual Kink: In all of the Euphoria endings, Towa no longer seeks the extremes of sexual violence as he once did, although he still feels aroused whenever his scars are touched and the extent to which he still indulges in a bit of pain during sex varies from love interest to love interest. ^note From mildest to roughest: Taku, Fujieda, Rei and Madarame.
• Character Development: In Fujieda's route, Towa becomes more spirited as he slowly begins to heal from his trauma and finds love with Fujieda. Even the other characters observe that while Towa is still stoic for the most part, he's no longer as gloomy and detached as he used to be, and is more open about his concern for others.
• The Charmer: Towa can convince someone to do his bidding by saying the right words, even adding a flirtatious tone in said words if necessary.
• Chekhov's Skill: During Towa's time in the Takasato-gumi, he was taught how to pick locks in case he had to infiltrate a debtor's house. Though the skill never actually came to use for that specific purpose, it does end up coming in handy for other reasons. Being a member of a yakuza organization also meant that Towa learned how to use a gun, which serves him well on one instance in both Taku and Madarame's routes, respectively.
• Color Motifs: Towa is often associated with the color red. Red symbolizes impulse and desire, violence and danger and struggle and survival, all of which are associated with him. In particular, the color represents Towa's love of painting, his willingness to sleep with anyone who catches his interest, his sadomasochism that lets him to constantly seek out pain and him finally coming to terms with the demons of his past and avoid repeating the actions of his abusive mother.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Downplayed. Towa no longer feels inclined to engage in a fistfight like he would before. But when he does, he gets excited in more ways than one at both punching someone and being punched back in turn; though he doesn't take any pleasure in completely one-sided beatings from people who engage in violence not for pleasure but to exercise their strength over others.
• Compelling Voice: Played with. He can actually see hints of what people desire when he looks at them and uses that to his advantage to wrap the people he's targeting around his finger. He even muses that he's quite the scammer because of this ability.
• Cope by Creating: Towa has a compulsion to paint other people's desires, and when he finds the right target and is able to give them what they want, he's then taken over by the desire to capture the exact moment when that happens in a painting. This has something to do with the kind of childhood he had, which causes him to essentially reenact what his mother would have others do to him, albeit with certain differences.
• Covered with Scars: He has several kinds of cuts adorning his face, wrists, chest and back. Some of them are even self-inflicted.
• The Cynic: Towa is apathetic, borderline nihilistic and doesn't hold any illusions about how screwed up either he or the city he lives in is, and his disposition is anything but a sunny one.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Towa went through a lot during his childhood, which is still putting it mildly. He had an unstable psychopath of a mother who forced him to serve her customers, all of whom would brutally torture or rape him. Every time, his mother would always attempt to comfort him with the words "it's okay", which soon turned into his Trauma Button. He then befriended someone who tried to help him escape... only for that person to get killed on Maya's orders. Then finally, when he rebelled against his mother for the first time and refused to let her continue her madness, she was utterly enraged and attempted to kill him. In the ensuing fight, Towa pushed Maya off of him, only for her to fall downstairs, resulting in her death. The resulting shock from the experience hit Towa so hard that he ended up forgetting about the whole thing.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Towa's default attire consists of mostly the color black, and both his attitude and his lifestyle make it obvious that he's not someone with morals or a strong sense of compassion, let alone a positive outlook on life. Even then, he proves to have a Hidden Heart of Gold when the time calls for it.
• Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Downplayed. Towa can walk out during the day just fine, but he's not used to having the sunlight in his room, as he reacts with complete discomfort when Fujieda opens the windows to let in some fresh air.
• Deadpan Snarker: Towa can be sardonic at times, and he tends to deliver his witty remarks with either a blank face or a small smirk, all while talking in the same impassive tone he always uses.
• Death Glare: One of his facial sprites shows his eyes sporting an insanely fierce look when his anger goes past simple annoyance or irritation.
• Deceptive Legacy: In the true route, when Towa asks Sakaki what his mother was like, Sakaki says she was a kind woman who loved Towa dearly, and that Towa loved her in return. Despite not being able to remember anything about her, Towa feels both uncertain and uneasy about Sakaki's claims. It then turns out that while Maya didn't exactly hate him, she still put him through several kinds of hell and is the reason that he's so miserable and broken. And in contrast to loving her, Towa feels nothing but hatred for her.
• Defrosting Ice King:
  • The epilogue of Taku's route (which is covered in the After Story drama CD) has both Rei and Arimura remark on how Towa has become a lot more well-adjusted compared to before, especially after Taku was released from prison. And whenever the two are alone, Towa shows a softer side towards Taku and occasionally asks for his affection— neither of which he would have ever done in the past.
  • Towa's edges visibly soften after getting together with Fujieda in the latter's route, and it's noticeable enough for Rei and a few other characters to point it out. The trope applies even more once he fully gets closure with his past. While he's still not the most expressive person, he's also not as aloof as he was before, is more open with his emotions, and outwardly shows his concern for others.
• Delicate and Sickly: Towa's constitution and physical condition aren't all that great, and his harmful lifestyle doesn't help with that. Taku confirms that Towa would always get sick since he was still a child, and the environment that Towa grew up in had a lot to do with it.
• Delinquent Hair: It's hard to notice at first, but the tips of Towa's hair have a rusted-gold highlight color to it. It's revealed in Madarame's route that Towa used to dye his hair blonde in the past, and will dye his hair blonde again in Madarame's Euphoria ending.
• Dissonant Serenity: Towa often remains tranquil and expressionless even in situations where one would expect him to have a bit of a reaction. However, the narration makes it clear that he is feeling some emotion, even if he isn't able to express it outwardly.
• Distressed Dude: Putting aside the instances where he willingly engages in an Interplay of Sex and Violence with someone else, the number of times that Towa gets in situations where his life is endangered still can't be counted with only two hands.
• Does Not Like Spam: Towa isn't a fan of boiled sweet beans.
• Doing It for the Art: An in-universe example, albeit a zigzagged one. Towa never paints for personal profit and will only feel the urge to create a portrait in very select conditions, but he never expresses any passion about painting or art itself. The Golden Ending reveals that he once truly loved painting, but things became complicated after the trauma from his mother's abuse made him focus his hobby specifically on capturing another person's desire on the canvas.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": In the past, every time Towa would think about his real name, his mind would immediately attempt to make him forget because of the trauma linked to his identity as Haruto Sakuragi. In fact, being called by his real name makes Towa literally sick.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: While he doesn't protest (at least, not too much) the treatments Taku would administer to him when he gets too sick or injured, Towa doesn't like accepting help from others. For example, if he gets dragged into a beatdown in the middle of the street, he won't let anyone call an ambulance for him, nor will he accept any one of their offers to help walk him back home.
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Befitting his often-tired demeanor, Towa almost always has his eyes half-closed.
• Eccentric Artist: Towa's main hobby is painting, and even has his own studio. However, he only paints people, mainly because people have desires that Towa can perceive through their auras. He also does not paint often, only picking up the brush when driven by an urge to do it, and he only gets motivated to paint under very specific conditions.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He has black hair and pale skin, which on their own is an indicator of his cool and stoic nature. But combine that with the scars marring his skin and his abnormal love for pain— and anyone can tell that there's just something off about Towa even before the narrative explains why that's the case.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Downplayed. Towa isn't someone who's shy with words, but he's not the kind of person anyone would expect to ever say "I love you". True enough, he never says those three words with any of his love interests after they get together. That being said, his actions make it clear that he soon comes to reciprocate their feelings, and he does get to show his affection for his lover in other ways.
• Empty Eyes: His sprites in Taku's Madness ending show his eyes looking completely blank and unfocused. This is due to his growing addiction to the drugs Taku would give him, causing his sanity and cognition to go haywire.
• Empty Shell: The narrative introduces Towa early on as someone who's both emotionally and physically numb and distant, with pain and violence being the only things that make him feel remotely alive.
• Even the Guys Want Him: His promiscuity aside, many men have found themselves falling for Towa's charms, whether they actively intend to sleep with him or not, and whether they were interested in the same sex or not. He's also more popular around men than he is with women, which ties in with Towa's preferred choice of partner.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Towa neither hates nor likes kids in particular, but he feels uncomfortable at the thought of children being sexually abused or being sold into sexual slavery, especially since — even though he doesn't remember it — his subconscious knows all too well how horrifying of an experience it is.
  • While Towa prefers to stay uninvolved in other people's troubles, even he holds some level of disdain for Rei's father. He even takes the initiative to deck the man in the face simply because he's enraged at how much of a shitty person and parent the other man is.
  • Towa has countless justifiable reasons to hate Maya and refuse to acknowledge her as family. Nevertheless, he's still left horrified when he remembers that he caused her death. This, even though it was she who attacked him first, and he only shoved her down the staircase in self-defense.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Some of the scars on Towa's body aren't simply for decoration or due to his love for pain— they are intrinsically tied to his past. It's soon revealed that most of his scars were inflicted by Maya's clients, who were allowed to do whatever they wished with him. The player also gets to find out who's responsible for the incisions on Towa's chest, shoulder blades, and collarbone, namely Ikuina, Asakura, and Megumu Kirihara, respectively. Though the former two do not remember Towa as the boy they were coerced into scarring, nor does Mizuno recognize Towa as the boy his brother mutilated in a video he watched.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Towa's ability to see a person's emotional state in physical form, as well as his knowledge of both human behavior and social interaction, allows him to easily perceive the personality and interests of those who he interacts with. The narration does note at one point that he wasn't always so good at reading other people and he had to learn to get better over the years.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • Towa grows out his hair in Taku's route and his hair loses its bleached edges, symbolizing how Towa has become less inclined to violence as well and has also changed for the better after receiving genuine and gentle affection from another person.
  • In Madarame's route, Towa dyes his hair blonde the same way he once did in the past. This signifies how he has turned back into more Hot-Blooded, headstrong and destructive self.
• Expository Pronoun: The trope is used to ominous effect for Towa in Fujieda's Madness ending, where Maya's influence won over and Towa ends up "becoming" her to the point that he starts to imitate her physical and verbal mannerisms. When Fujieda sees Towa again, he realizes that something is definitely not right with Towa when he refers to himself with the feminine "watashi" instead of the more masculine "ore".
• Fashion-Based Relationship Cue: In the epilogue of all Euphoria endings, Towa undergoes a change of attire, which also reflects the nature of his relationship with each of his love interests.
• Forgets to Eat: Towa ingests mostly coffee and alcohol. If he ever eats food, he only eats a very small amount, to which Rei and Taku occasionally press him to eat some more. When Towa becomes consumed with the desire to paint, he will completely neglect to eat, let alone drink, anything.
• Former Teen Rebel: Towa was a lot more Hot-Blooded and belligerent during his time in the Takasato-gumi. While he was not the type to pick fights, he could easily be provoked into exchanging fists, and he also used to enjoy doling out pain as much as he did receiving it.
• Fragile Speedster: He's nowhere near the likes of Rei or Madarame in terms of fighting skill, but Towa can still land a hit just as well as he can take one. Though even with his high pain threshold, his low stamina and overall poor physical condition makes him highly susceptible to getting knocked out after he gets roughed up enough.
• Freak Out: The more Towa digs deeper into his past, the more emotionally unstable he becomes, and it gets bad enough that he often suffers spontaneous outbursts of unhinged emotion. It reaches its peak when he finally recovers his memories of both Maya and Mei, and he begins screaming almost nonstop as the memories come flooding back to his mind.
• Functional Addict: Towa's main source of sustenance is both nicotine and alcohol, and he completely neglects his health when he gets into the zone once he starts working on a painting. Nonetheless, provided he's not too mentally stressed, he's able to do his job as a receptionist just fine, even if he isn't the most punctual worker around.
• The Gadfly: Towa has a mischievous side to him, and there are times when he's in the mood to rattle someone either out of curiosity or purely for the kicks.
• Given Name Reveal: His real name is Haruto Sakuragi, though he would rather not have anything to do with that name. Any time he tries to remember his real name, his mind would immediately repress the memory, causing him to forget. Even after he comes to terms his trauma in the Golden Ending, the fourth After Story drama CD shows that he'd still prefer to not be associated with his old identity.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He frequently smokes to the point that Rei nags him for pulling out a cigarette while they're in the middle of eating a meal, and Taku even remarks that Towa is quite the heavy smoker. In all of the Euphoria endings, Towa cuts back on the habit, though he still smokes from time to time.
• Hates Their Parent: After Towa remembers his past and what Maya was really like, every time he thinks of her or speaks of her, it is with a measure of dread but mostly of contempt. His confrontation with Sakaki even has him outright state that he despises her, and for a very good reason.
• Hating on Monday: Towa isn't too fond of the month of December and even feels more ill than usual during said month, although he doesn't know why. It's revealed in the true route that December is the month Maya died, and anything related to that event is something his mind is actively trying to forget.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Downplayed. Towa doesn't despise women, per se, but he generally feels uncomfortable in their presence and can't feel relaxed around them like he does with men. Though there are still a few women who he can have a civil interaction with, such as Lisa and the elderly candy shop owner.
• Hemo Erotic: Rough treatment aside, another easy way to get Towa into the mood during sex is to cut him and make him bleed. It's only in Madarame's endings (both good and bad) that he retains this specific type of lust, as he gets aroused whenever he tastes or smells blood.
• Heroic Bastard: Zigzagged between this and Bastard Bastard. There's no mention of Ryuujirou Takasato having any legitimate children, as both Towa and Kaga are a result of the Ryuujirou's relationship with his mistresses than his legal wife (if the man even had any). Besides that, Towa doesn't have what anyone would call a squeaky-clean history, what with the countless number of men he had slept with and his modus operandi when he prepares for a painting. Not to mention, there was a time when Towa was outwardly violent and temperamental. Though when it comes down to it, he's still an apple who doesn't appear ripe on the surface but has nevertheless managed to fall very far from the rotten and withered tree. He's even disgusted and disturbed at the idea of being the same kind of person his psychopath of a mother was.
• Heroic BSoD: After Towa recovers his memories, he undergoes a near-complete breakdown and spends a few hours in a state of listless depression, then goes on a self-destructive rampage where he lets himself get beaten up and violated before he then attempts to burn himself alive.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Towa's demeanor makes him come across as someone who could care less if the world burns around him, and he's not exactly the most moralistic person in the Wretched Hive that is Shinkoumi. But when push comes to shove, Towa still feels compassion, can feel fear at the possibility of losing the people he cares about, and will take action to protect them.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: His hair covers the right side of his eye, which is also covered with a patch. This emphasizes not just the fact that he's emotionally closed off from almost everything and everyone, but also how he's not able to properly perceive the world around him, partly from his half-missing eyesight and partly from his synesthesia.
• Hollywood Atheist: Downplayed. Towa isn't into religion, but he also isn't against it either, and comes off more as agnostic. He even remarks that whether his prayers are sincere or not, if God exists, he's bound to hear it anyway.
• House Husband: After Towa and Fujieda get together, Towa is the one who looks after the house and takes care of the cooking, cleaning and laundry whenever Fujieda is out for work.
• I Am Not My Father: Maya's last wish was to have Towa groomed into another version of her. But in the Golden Ending, Towa refuses to let this happen, resolving that he is own person and not a copy of his mother.
• I Am Not Pretty: Towa rarely, if at all, comments on his own appearance. The one time he does is when Fujieda comments on how bad he looks due to the recent injuries he sustained, to which Towa misunderstands Fujieda's words and casually replies that he's always looked like a mess. In the After Story drama CD, he's visibly embarrassed when Fujieda tells him that he's beautiful.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Downplayed in Rei's route. After seeing Rei fight his opponent in a Moneymatch, Towa finds himself feeling lust at the sight of Rei's passion for fighting, which reminds him of his own love for violence.
• The Insomniac: He sleeps and wakes at very irregular hours, and he's only able to get any sleep thanks to some hypnotics prescribed to him by Taku. Even then, he always has trouble waking up on time before his shift at the clinic starts.
• Interrupted Suicide: After Towa tells Fujieda about his past and what happened to Mei, Towa falls into a state of depression. Believing that Mei's death isn't worth his own life, he attempts to end it all by burning himself in his room. Had Fujieda not arrived in time, Towa would have already kicked the bucket.
• It Only Works Once: Part of how Towa operates as euphoria is that if he finds an art model that he's interested in and successfully gets them to express and achieve what they desire the most, he will then proceed to paint them. However, he can do so with that model only the one time. After the deed is done, he completely loses interest in them afterwards and will ignore their requests for a second painting.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He oftentimes acts harsh with Taku in the latter's route. But more often than not, his curt behavior isn't uncalled for, especially when he reminds Taku that whether he likes it or not, his troubles ended up getting Towa involved. Likewise, he calls Taku out for being irresolute yet again in the After Story drama CD and doesn't downplay his words when he points out how Taku's been vacillating in many matters; thus inadvertently making things worse. However harsh Towa's words were, they're also what helps Taku properly reflect and resolve to be more decisive for good.
• Lack of Empathy: Zigzagged. By Towa's own admission, he's apathetic to everything and everyone around him and doesn't have much in the way of emotion. There are even a few times where he gets called out for his tendency to remain stone-faced even in a situation where someone else's physical or emotional well-being is compromised. However, Towa can feel compassion, even if he's not the most expressive about it.
• Laugh of Love: After he ends up with any of his love interests, he occasionally gives a soft chuckle or giggle to show his affection for them. The trope isn't as pronounced with Madarame, given their punch-and-kiss dynamic.
• Like Parent, Unlike Child: Zigzagged. Towa may have inherited his mother's looks, and he's skilled in the art of persuasion due to what she taught him, but deep down, they are not the same. Maya manipulated and murdered with no remorse, found herself incapable of expressing a healthy and normal kind of love until the very end and died lonely and unfulfilled. On the other hand, Towa would never resort to murder even with his propensity for violence, is capable of feeling empathy and can learn to genuinely love and be loved by someone, with all of his good endings having him find that particular someone, thus ensuring that he will never be alone or abandoned.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Zigzagged. Many have brought up the fact that Towa is one of the illegitimate children of the Takasato-gumi's leader, but that's all there is to it, and Towa isn't even chosen to be the deceased leader's heir. At most, Sakaki only mentions some monetary inheritance. What plays a much bigger role in the plot is Towa's relation not to his father, but to his mother, and all the omens that come with it.
• Living Lie Detector: Towa's ability to see the auras, or the "Smoke", of other people allows him to perceive how they're really feeling and whether they're being honest with him or not.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Towa grew up in a mansion where his mother also ran her business, which happened to be an extremely lucrative one. However, the kind of environment Towa was raised in didn't allow him to have any friends or even just a group of people he could feel at ease with. The one time he managed to make a friend, said friend was also tragically taken away from him.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: In Taku's good ending, Towa grows out his hair, and he looks absolutely lovely with it. This is a result of him being so focused on his paintings that he never bothered to cut his hair during the one year he waited for Taku to be released from prison, though he doesn't mind his new hairstyle and leaves it as it is.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: In this case, Towa is not the instigator of the trope. Rather, he's on the receiving end of the trope... almost all the time. He'll gladly sleep with any man who is willing to take him, but during sex, most of his partners usually tend to chase their own pleasure without much regard for what Towa himself is feeling during the act. While Towa's masochistic has him care for the pain more than anything else, there are still occasions where he expresses dissatisfaction at how some partners fail to give him an orgasm. Therefore, when he has sex with any of his love interests, all of whom seek to make Towa feel good with them, Towa finds the more pleasurable sensations to be titillating but also disconcerting.
• Made of Iron: Zigzagged. His exposure to being cut and mauled multiple times has left him with an extremely high pain threshold. However, he's not the most physically active person around and this, combined with his tendency to eat as little food as possible, makes it easier than usual for him to get exhausted.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Because of Towa's proclivity for pain, his reactions amount to no more than a flinch or a weak grunt or gasp whenever he gets punched, kicked, cut, or stabbed. The only time he ever exclaims is when his arm gets brutally snapped in Taku's route.
• Mark of Shame: Subverted. Even after remembering Maya and how he got some of the scars on his body, Towa still chooses to see his scars as his own marks and not his mother's.
• Master Actor: Tying in with his ability to manipulate and charm people, Towa can put up a convincing façade if he needs to.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Towa's name is derived from the phrase "daredemo towazu", which essentially means that he'll hook up with anyone no matter who they may be.
  • Towa's artist name is euphoria. "Euphoria" means the experience or effect of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. This can explain his personality, as he only reacts strongly to things that he finds interesting.
• Men Can't Keep House: His room is cluttered and messy, with the smell of oil paints always permeating the room. Taku even points out that he needs to clean up Towa's apartment on a weekly basis.
• Misery Builds Character: Deconstructed. Almost everything about why Towa's personality and proclivities are the way they are has something to do with the abuse that he suffered in his childhood, resulting in his masochism and his tendency to indulge himself in many kinds of destructive and violent vices as a coping mechanism as well as a means of both self-pleasure and self-castigation. When Towa remembers his past in full in the Golden Ending, he briefly falls into despair but soon resolves to live on and refuses to conform to what Maya wanted for him, and both Fujieda and Taku commend him for overcoming his trauma.
• The Misophonic: Inverted. Towa isn't one for talking and he's not fond of being in loud spaces, but he hates it even more if there is no noise whatsoever filling the room. His aversion to complete silence is strongly implied to have something to do with his traumatic childhood.
• Mr. Fanservice: It comes with the territory of being a Nitro+CHiRAL protagonist, but there's a lot of official artwork that feature Towa in provocative or sexually explicit poses.
• Must Have Nicotine: He smokes a lot, to the point he pretty much says that if he could, he'd live off of just cigarettes.
  Towa: Cigarettes are my food and water.
  Taku: No, you still need actual food and water. Or else you'll kick the bucket early.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After he remembers his past, he's devastated to realize that he has been repeating his mother's actions of having others enact their twisted desires on him, even though that is precisely the same experience that left him with all sorts of trauma.
  • Even though he detests Maya for everything she had done to him, the memory of him pushing his mother down to her death is still horrifying enough for his mind to repress it. When he recalls that incident, his first reaction is to scream in terror.
• Never Gets Drunk: Downplayed. Towa's drinking habits means he has a very high alcohol tolerance. That being said, he still can get intoxicated to the extent that he starts having difficulty walking or thinking straight.
• Nightmare Fetishist: With what he does as euphoria, it comes with the territory that he finds himself just as captivated and intrigued as his models are with regards to their truest desires, no matter how morbid and twisted that desire may be, especially if pain and blood is involved.
• Not a Morning Person: Even when considering the fact that his job at the clinic has him stay awake until early morning, his insomnia makes waking up early or at least on time a difficult task for him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Towa's indifferent personality makes him come across as the kind of person who wouldn't really care what happens around him. However, Towa uses his apathetic demeanor to his advantage when he's plotting something while making people think that he's too disinterested to even do such a thing.
• Oblivious to Love: Despite how perceptive he is of people's thoughts and emotions, Towa fails to notice Taku and Rei's growing feelings for him in their respective routes until they outright spell it out to him.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: Towa prefers to sleep on the couch even though he already has a bed. This is mainly because the couch is closer to the door so he doesn't want to waste the effort of walking a few more steps to the bed. It's also implied that his childhood trauma also has something to do with his disinclination towards sleeping on the bed whenever possible.
• Only One Name: Towa is introduced without a family name. If he ever needs to use a surname, he uses Taku's last name as an alias. It's soon revealed in the true route that his legal name is Haruto Sakuragi, but Towa doesn't want to be involved with that identity ever again and chooses to continue going by his current name.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Although the time needed for Towa to complete a painting varies from model to model, he never actually struggles with finishing the painting. The moment this happens, both he and the others are highly alarmed.
  • Towa isn't the most enthusiastic, let alone the most punctual, about his job, but he still does his job nonetheless; hence it becomes very obvious that something's not right with him when he starts slipping up and becomes forgetful and unfocused during work hours.
  • Towa may love to hurt himself, but he never seeks to kill himself, and while he doesn't wish to die, he won't resist either if death comes knocking. Therefore, it says something about how much he's been put through the wringer when he decides to willingly end his own life.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Towa occasionally suffers from nightmares, which are hinted to be about memories that he had forgotten, although he never has a clear idea of what exactly he would be dreaming about. It is only in the final route that his dreams and what they signify become clearer and clearer, and each nightmare he gets becomes more horrifying than the last.
• Perpetual Frowner: Towa's not one to smile, especially on his more mundane days, and has a constant frown of aloof disinterest.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Even though Towa is in disbelief about it, the scars across his face and body are an indicator that there's something troubling him deep down, even though he can't figure out or recall what kind of baggage he's carrying. It's only in the true route that Towa (and the player) will realize how his physical and his mental scars are connected, and it all has something to do with his mother.
• Protectorate: Given his masochism, his artistic tendencies, and the fact that he neglects his own health and well-being, it's not a surprise that Taku and Rei worry about him practically all the time.
• The Quiet One: He's not one to speak much, even when around the people he's close to.
• Rage Breaking Point: When Towa was a child, he was helpless against the abuse his mother had put him through, and he could only do whatever she wanted. It took until Mei's death and learning the reason behind it for him to decide that enough was enough and confront Maya, refusing to follow her orders for another minute.
• Rape as Backstory: Towa was passed around by Maya to her clients. Since she was running what was essentially a Den of Iniquity, all of her customers were given free rein to violate him in all kinds of ways. This is the root cause behind his promiscuity and his unhealthy love for violence.
• Rape Leads to Insanity: Having been forced to "serve" Maya's clients, no matter their gender or age, eventually took a toll on Towa's mental state. The clincher was Maya's death, which caused his mind to suppress all memories of his childhood. While Towa doesn't go insane, per se, the trauma from his time as his mother's prisoner turned him from a quiet and gentle boy to an impassive adult who's both highly self-destructive and promiscuous. And if pushed too far, said trauma can break his mind permanently.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Towa has black hair with skin so pale that it's almost white in color.
• Really Gets Around: He regularly hooks up with strangers, and his name even comes from a phrase which describes how he would sleep with anyone who was interested in sex with him. This is soon revealed to be a result of the abuse he suffered when he was a child, since Maya would force him to serve as a Sex Slave to her customers.
• Real Men Cook: He's helpless with keeping his room organized and clean, so one wouldn't expect him to know his way around a kitchen. Though it turns out, he knows how to prepare his own meals if he needs to, as he proves to cook even better than Fujieda.
• Real Men Hate Affection: Deconstructed. Towa doesn't despise affection as much as he's just not accustomed to it. When he was a child, he was made to be a plaything for countless people with depraved interests, and the experience drilled into his subconscious that he's only worthy of being degraded and not treasured. As such, he panics whenever someone treats him with gentle affection instead of violent lust.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: Much like Taku, Towa is not one for sweets and the mere sight of a whole plateful of them is enough to give him heartburn; although he still can help himself to a sweet pastry once in a while.
• Rebellious Spirit: According to both Rei and Madarame, Towa used to be a lot spunkier and more defiant in his youth.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: When it comes to sex, specifically. Towa has had his fair share of either one-night stands or Friends with Benefits, but he's never had a serious relationship with anyone before, nor is he interested in having such a kind of partner. Naturally, that changes once he gets together with any of his love interests. And as long as Madarame's route isn't chosen, Towa's relationship with the other three also causes his masochistic tendencies to dwindle to a healthier or near-nonexistent level. Though no matter who he ends up with, Towa still proves to have quite the high sex drive, being eager to get in bed with his boyfriend as often as he can.
• Scars Are Forever: All the wounds that Towa had sustained from the various kinds of harm and torture he was forcefully subjected to in his childhood had left a permanent mark on his body, resulting in scars of various lengths and sizes on his skin, from his face all the way down to his legs.
• Self-Harm: Towa is a masochist, leading to a few scenes where he would cut himself as a means to bring himself pleasure. It's soon revealed that his masochism is tied to a subconscious need to punish himself as much as they are an attempt from him to gain back some autonomy after having others torment him in countless ways when he was still a child.
• Self-Made Orphan: Although it was entirely accidental, Towa nevertheless ended his mother's life.
• Sex Slave: Towa was forced to subject his body to endless mutilation and molestation when he was a child, as Maya ran a Den of Iniquity where people of import could get to enact their fetishes and desires on the people trapped there, with their favorite target being children. And Maya had no qualms about having her own son serve those customers in a similar capacity.
• Sins of Our Fathers: In Fujieda's route, it takes a while for their relationship to improve partly because Fujieda blames Towa for what happened to Mei. While Towa also feels responsible for what happened, the real culprit behind Mei's death is not him, but his mother. Fujieda admits later on that it was wrong of him to blame Towa for Maya's actions.
• Slasher Smile: He tends to sport a wide and unsettling grin during a "euphoric session" with his models, showing how he only gets truly excited in either the extreme highs of pain or the throes of someone else's deviant passions.
• Sleeping with the Boss: Since Towa is an employee at the clinic that Taku runs, should he end up with Taku, he technically would be engaging in a relationship with his superior.
• Smoky Voice: Towa's voice is not that deep or overly guttural, but it is somewhat husky and has a subtle gravel to it. This is only to be expected, given how long he's been smoking and how much he would smoke each day.
• The Social Expert: Towa is far from sociable. That being said, he is uncannily good at reading people and surmising their intentions and thoughts, partly due to his ability to see their auras.
• Son of a Whore: Toono hints at Towa being this trope by mockingly remarking that Towa's not that unlike his mother with how he would seduce other people and beguile them into doing what he wants. Toono isn't entirely wrong; Maya used to work at a nightclub, was able to attain power by becoming the mistress of the Takasato-gumi's leader, manipulated and deceived everyone around her, and even ran her own brothel.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: While Towa isn't surly, he finds himself to be incapable of feeling any strong emotion. He's indifferent about almost anything or anyone, and he only feels truly excited in the throes of violence and blood. As the final route would reveal, he wasn't always that way, but the trauma Maya had inflicted on him caused him to develop both his apathy and his masochism.
• Starving Artist: Played with. Towa's fairly popular as a painter, but his portraits come without charge and he earns his keep only from his job as a clinic receptionist. That aside, he's not interested in increasing his savings that he doesn't even hesitate to reject any cash offered to him, he's not inclined to eating more than the very bare minimum, and he doesn't have any prospects about his future.
• The Stoic: Towa is not very emotive and responds to most things with a detached and cold expression— something that other characters have even pointed out.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks exactly like his mother, albeit with shorter hair and a lot more scars on his body.
• Supporting Protagonist: Zigzagged. The common route and the bridging chapters that lead to Taku and Rei's routes give ample focus on Towa as much as it does the people who will soon become his models for his paintings. Once the game gets to the chapter focused mainly on the love interests, Towa begins to play the role of this trope more. While the events of the game are still told from his perspective, the conflict of the route is not really about him as much as it about is his love interest's and the development of their relationship with Towa. This trope is subverted in Fujieda's route, where Towa becomes the central focus of the plot.
• Survivor's Guilt: It's not apparent at first, but once his repressed memories come back to the surface, causing him to remember what became of Mei, he's left overwhelmed with guilt— an expression he thought he would never feel. More specifically, he feels guilt for the fact that Mei, an innocent young girl who just wanted to reunite with her brother and help out a friend, died an unjust and horrible death and yet he's still alive, having spent the next few years wasting his life in apathy and debauchery as a means to cope with the trauma he got from his mother's abuse. Because of this, he felt that, in contrast to his previous nonchalant stance about whether he dies or lives for another day, he no longer feels deserving of his life and even takes measures to end it. He even nearly succeeds in killing himself before Fujieda intervenes at the last moment and convinces Towa to continue living so that Mei's sacrifice won't be for nothing.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He stands at 175 cm, which makes him fairly tall. He also prefers to dress mostly in black, and is considered captivating enough for most men to find themselves attracted to him, willingly or otherwise.
• The Tease: Towa often takes the opportunity to rile up any of his love interests during or after sex, and can even get a bit smug with his ribbing.
• Terse Talker: He speaks as curtly as possible, and is not one for talking if he could help it.
• That Man Is Dead: Even without his memories, Towa is fine with his current name. In fact, remembering his previous identity as Haruto Sakuragi is enough to make Towa ill from sheer mental trauma alone, hence why he doesn't want to have anything to do with his old name.
• Too Broken to Break: Maya's abuse had left Towa completely desensitized to any other kind of cruel and dehumanizing treatment anyone else would subject him to. In fact, it's only his memories of Maya and what she had done to him that can rattle Towa and (potentially) destroy his mind past the point of repair.
• Too Kinky to Torture: He likes pain to the point that he gets turned on whenever he gets hurt. The more painful it is, the more pleasurable it is for him. This can either be taken to a higher level in the bad endings, or to a lower level in the good endings.
• Torture Is Ineffective: In the fourth After Story drama CD, Towa gets taken hostage by some men who have a grudge against Fujieda. Any attempt they make to break him by beating him does nothing, however, as he's both engaged in and been forced to endure far worse. Towa even stabs himself to distract his kidnappers and help Fujieda deal a surprise attack on them, and all the while, he barely reacts to the injury.
• Tough Love: In Taku's route, there are occasions where Towa will not hesitate to prod and provoke Taku, or even give him the cold shoulder if needed, to get the older man to quit hemming and hawing around and to be honest with himself.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Although Towa isn't one to eat in general, even he can't say no when he's offered some nuts to munch on. In one of the Explorations, he also mentions that he would drink black tea when he was still in middle school.
• Tragic Keepsake: Played with. The pocket watch that hangs on Towa's easel was originally his mother's, although Towa never realized this, nor is he even intending to keep anything in memory of her especially after he remembers just what kind of mother she was.
• Tranquil Fury: Downplayed. When he gets genuinely mad, he can let the other party know about it with a fist to the face. When he speaks while still in an angry mood, he doesn't raise his voice much, though his voice still sounds much colder and sharper.
• Trauma Button:
  • The word "daijoubu"^note translated along the lines of "it's okay" makes Towa feel uneasy, and this is reflected in the game screen flickering for a brief second every time someone says it. This is because his mother would always say that word to him in her twisted attempt to reassure him while he was forced to endure all kinds of torture from her clients. In the Golden Ending, he eventually overcomes this, even saying "I'm okay" both to trick Sakaki and to reaffirm to himself that he has finally relinquished Maya's hold on his psyche. The After Story drama CD even reinforces his recovery by showing that he no longer reacts negatively whenever the word is said in his presence.
  • The mere topic of Towa's real name has him feeling dizzy and out of breath, and actually hearing it shocks him into passing out. Fortunately, he gets over it after he's gained closure with his past. The drama CD proves this in the scene where he and Fujieda talk about what legal last name should Towa have, and Towa doesn't break out into a cold sweat when Fujieda mentions the surname "Sakuragi".
• Trauma Conga Line: His mother ran a Den of Iniquity and made him one of its "employees", forcing him to serve her customers, who were given free rein to do anything they want to him. Because of this, Towa was exposed to all kinds of obscenities and depravities, with the scars on his body becoming a symbol of what he experienced while in her care. Even on the days when he didn't have to entertain a client, he was either left on his own, or his mother would teach him over and over how to exploit and control other people. If there was any memories of his past that Towa can look back on without feeling unease, they were very few and far between.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: According to Sakaki, both Towa and his mother fell down the stairs, with the impact robbing Towa of his memories. This isn't a complete truth: it was only Maya who fell down... because Towa pushed her during an altercation. While it wasn't his intention to shove her down to her death, the incident still proved to be too much for his mind to take, resulting in all his memories being suppressed.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Towa has a unique case of synesthesia which allows him to see other people's auras, but it also causes him to see the world around him in colors different from their actual hues and shades. It's strongly hinted that this is a result of his childhood trauma, since it's only in the Golden Ending that his synesthesia goes away, symbolizing how he has begun to heal from past wounds.
• Troubled, but Cute: Towa is a bundle of many issues, but even he can prove to have an endearing side, especially when he lets down his guard and he shows a bit of a bashful side during an affectionate moment with his chosen love interest. The trope is more pronounced in some of his moments with Taku and Fujieda after he gets together with either of them.
• Tsundere: If he ends up with Fujieda, Towa becomes this trope to a degree. While he's often the one who pokes fun at Fujieda due to how serious yet awkward the man can be, he's also taken aback just as often by the man's earnestness, and he becomes embarrassed and huffy whenever Fujieda gets a bit too affectionate with him.
• Turning Into Your Parent: When Towa learns of what happened to him when he was a child and what his mother truly was like, he's gutted at the fact that he ended up repeating his mother's degeneracy and is essentially becoming another her. It gets worse in the climax of the last route, where Sakaki reveals that Maya planned for Towa to succeed her, something she meant almost literally; hence Sakaki proceeds to enact Maya's plans on her behalf by mailing Towa relics of his past to spur him into recovering his memories, which Sakaki hopes will eventually cause Towa to become a second iteration of Maya.
• Uke: Just like every other Nitro+CHiRAL protagonist, Towa always bottoms whenever sex is involved. Though it's offhandedly mentioned that there were times Towa topped before, and he wasn't opposed to it if that was what his partner wanted, but he still preferred to be the bottom whenever possible.
• Unkempt Beauty: Even without taking his scars and the fact that he's also considered a Blemished Beauty into consideration, Towa still has an overall messy appearance and doesn't bother with grooming himself. Even then, his natural looks still seem to shine through, resulting in many being attracted to his unusual charm.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Towa was a lot more demure and innocent when he was still a child. The trope takes a more sinister edge, however, when it's revealed that while he was genuinely more innocent in his younger years, said years weren't kind to him, to say the least.
• Villainous Legacy: In the sense that Towa himself is the legacy that Maya wanted to cultivate through her teachings and abuse— all in the hopes that in case she was no longer around, her son would adapt her ways and become her successor to continue where she left off.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-inverted. Towa is no stranger to violence, but he still draws the line at outright murder, even if it's for the sake of self-defense. This is best shown in his horrified response to remembering how he brought about his mother's demise, even though it wasn't his intention. That being said, both Taku and Fujieda's routes prove that Towa will not regret taking a life, directly or indirectly, if it meant protecting his love interest.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: In spite of Towa's sexual experience, he's a stranger to feeling intimate with another person. As such, he feels overwhelmed whenever he has sex with any of his love interests and it isn't strictly for the physical pleasure of the act. Not to mention, whenever he does sleep with others, he tends to be given the rough and brutal treatment, so being treated gently and carefully during sex isn't something he's accustomed to and leaves him both confused and scared.
• Writer's Block:
  • A sign that Towa's already-frangible mental state is getting worse is when he struggles to finish painting Ikuina after their "euphoric session" in Fujieda's route. Even attempting to half-ass the painting in completion didn't work either, and his frustrations eventually boil over, causing him to have a breakdown and violently throw things around in his room.
  • In Fujieda's Euphoria ending, after Towa finishes his portrait of Fujieda, Towa no longer feels the desire to paint again. Though in the short story, he gradually starts taking up the brush once more, though he does it mostly as a hobby now and no longer continues his occupation as euphoria.
  • In the Euphoria endings of the other routes, Towa states that he no longer engages in his usual artistic tendencies, as confirmed in the After Story drama CDs.
• You're Not My Father: Considering what Maya had put him through, Towa only barely acknowledges the fact that she's still his mother by virtue of them sharing the same blood, but he otherwise abhors Maya with every fiber of his being. Even gaining a better understanding of her after reading her diary does nothing to change the fact that he still holds her in contempt for how she raised him, and this is after he had already conquered his trauma.

The Love Interests

Takuma Murase

Takuma Murase

Voiced by: Kanehira Yamamoto ^note  Credited as Jin Munakata

Age: 46
Birthday: September 22
Height: 177 cm
Blood Type: O

"I'm a doctor. I want to save as many lives as I can. But right now, dozens are dying out there while we're standing here. A human life can end so quickly... especially at the hands of another. Looking at it that way, it starts to feel like our deaths are predestined, and no amount of struggling can save us from it."

Nicknamed Taku by both Towa and Rei, he is Towa's long-time physician and friend, as well as current boss and guardian (of sorts). He currently works as a doctor who owns the private medical facility, Murase Clinic, which is located in District E in Shinkoumi.

---

• The Alcoholic: Formerly, at least. When Taku reached his lowest point while still in university due to certain personal issues, he often hit the bottle and it got to the point that he attended classes whilst inebriated and out of sorts.
• Anger Born of Worry: While he's not as much of a nag as Rei, Taku is still highly overprotective of Towa and often shows worry for his safety. He also becomes more outspoken about his concerns whenever the situation escalates to Towa getting badly hurt or nearly killed. Towa even recalls one time when Taku got infuriated upon seeing him close to death's door after a meeting with a potential art model went wrong.
• The Atoner:
  • It's all but explicitly stated that Taku is highly protective of Towa not just because of the trauma of losing a loved one once, but also out of guilt for not realizing sooner why and how Towa would always get hurt as a child and not being able to do anything about it until it was too late.
  • At the end of both his and Fujieda's routes, Taku turns himself in for manufacturing illegal drugs for the Takasato-gumi.
• Bad Liar: Zigzagged. He can keep a secret just fine as long as no one suspects him of anything. But if the part about him being a Secret-Keeper gets exposed or even hinted at, he's immediately backed into a corner and has trouble in either dodging the subject or talking his way out.
• Baritone of Strength: Downplayed. Taku speaks in a rough and low voice, but he's not inclined to violence and is the sole Non-Action Guy of the main cast. However, he's not afraid to fight back of he has to, and when he gets furious or his more sinister side manifests, his voice starts to sound much lower and raspier.
• Beneath Notice: In Fujieda's route, Taku unwittingly manages to stay out of Sakaki's radar even though he's actively trying to keep Towa's past hidden— something that directly goes against Sakaki's plans. Instead, it's Fujieda who ends up attracting the man's attention and subsequent ire.
• Benevolent Boss:
  • Besides the occasional exasperated remark about Towa not being on time for his shifts, Taku is nevertheless patient with the other's tendencies to sleep late and even lets him stay in the third floor of the clinic in exchange for lower wages. Towa, who never was that attached to money, doesn't find it a bad deal, with the narration even pointing out that he would have already been fired from any other job due to his habitual tardiness.
  • Even with his busy schedule and his own share of conflicts, Taku doesn't give his employees any trouble if their personal problems get in the way of their work and will even offer to help them in any way he can. He also doesn't hesitate to treat their injuries if they get hurt, with his treatments being completely free of charge.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • He's a trustworthy doctor who always looks out for the people he cares for. At the same time, his fears and insecurities have made way for an inner darkness that comes to the surface when he's provoked and frightened enough, making him the Yandere among Towa's potential love interests.
  • As a doctor, Taku is supposed to save lives, not take them. However, in the climax of his route, he implicitly makes it clear to Toono that the only reason the other man doesn't have a bullet in his skull is because Taku is tired of playing his games, never mind the fact that the mainland police also needed Toono alive. In any other situation, Taku wouldn't have had any second thoughts about shooting Toono dead.
• Big Eater: While not as pronounced as Rei's case, Towa observes that Taku has quite the appetite as he can still make room in his stomach for someone else's meal after finishing his own.
• Brainy Brunette: Taku's hair color is a combination of dark red and brown. And according to Toono, Taku was always at the top of his class even back in high school, and the extras reveal that Taku also got a high score on the university entrance examinations. While Taku confesses to having repeated a year in medical school, this is revealed to be a setback brought about by a personal tragedy affecting his behavior and consequently, his studies. This aside, Taku still managed to earn his degree and in time, his doctor's license as well.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Played with. Taku isn't a lightweight and can handle a bottle of liquor just fine, but in one of the first Explorations, he makes an apprehensive remark about joining a friend for a drink since said friend is a heavy drinker. And in his After Story drama CD, Towa comments on how Taku started walking a bit funny after a few glasses of whiskey, though Taku does lampshade that it may have something to do with how he hadn't drunk any alcohol during his year in prison.
• Chick Magnet: Taku has quite the number of female admirers, and in his drama CD, one of his patients even attempts to set him up with another woman, unaware that he is already taken by then.
• Color Motifs: Taku's smoke color is Orange. Orange represents warmth and calmness, action and aggression, as well doubt and deceit, all of which fit Taku as a character. He is more or less Towa's legal guardian as he cares for and looks after him, he's a compassionate doctor who loves his patients, he has a dark side that manifests when he's faced with the fear of losing someone he loves, is shown to know about Towa's past but intentionally keep Towa in the dark for his sake and harbors a few Dark Secrets of his own.
• Cool Old Guy: Zigzagged. His Establishing Character Moment makes it obvious he's grounded, hard-working, practical, affable and also the kind of person who unconditionally looks out for his friends, workmates and patients alike. Though his route eventually reveals that not everything is what it appears to be. While what the player knows about Taku's personality since his introduction is genuine, it also turns out that Taku isn't as stable as he seems, as both his past and his history with the Takasato-gumi has worn him out both mentally and emotionally.
• Cosmic Plaything: Throughout the story, Taku isn't having the easiest time, not simply because of the stress that comes with his job as a doctor, but also because of his debt to Toono. But it's only in Madarame's route that Taku's luck, or what's left of it, takes a deep nosedive. On top of his situation with Toono, he gets held hostage by Madarame, who then proceeds to kidnap Towa. When Towa returns home some days later, Madarame's vague words push Towa into confronting Taku about what he's been keeping from him. Even then, Taku doesn't get the chance to fully explain himself as Towa leaves and returns to Madarame out of a sense of isolation, to which Taku then loses Towa for good. While a quick mention of him in the Euphoria ending does confirm that he's alive, it's all but stated that Taku is still in a worse position at the end of the route than he was at the start.
• Covered with Scars: In his Madness ending, his back becomes marred with countless wounds as Towa would always claw and scratch at him whenever they have sex.
• Cowardly Lion: Played with. Taku isn't necessarily someone who's easy to scare, but one of his worst flaws is his tendency to hesitate and remain unsure of himself. And when it comes to fighting, Taku never trained himself in self-defense, unlike Towa's other love interests. Despite this, if someone puts Towa in mortal danger, Taku won't think twice about standing up to them, even when he knows that he can't win. This trope is best exemplified in the final route, where even after being given a beating by Madarame, Taku is all too ready to lunge at the man when his actions send Towa into a state of mental distress.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: After falling in love with Towa in his route, Taku later admits with gritted teeth that he cannot stand the thought of Towa with anyone else, even expressing that he's willing to kill Towa to make sure of that. Though he never really goes through with the threat, and the admission even amuses Towa, who comments that he would never expect someone like Taku to say such a thing.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: In his Madness ending, his eyes are described to have become hollow and sunken, which reflects the deterioration of his emotional and mental state after he chooses to give up on his morals.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His mother became a drug addict after his father abandoned them. When they fell into poverty, Taku worked tirelessly to pay for his mother's hospitalization bills. Toono lent him a helping hand and paid his way through medical school, although one day, his mother snuck out of the hospital and was found dead some time later. In his grief, Taku became a delinquent for some time before eventually getting his act together later on and becoming a doctor. However, as he had already incurred a huge debt to Toono by then, Taku is soon forced to manufacture illegal drugs for the other man, with his life on the line.
• Deadly Doctor: Taku becomes one in his Madness ending, as he decides to throw aside his goal of helping others and to focus only on protecting Towa, albeit in a very twisted way. With this decision, he completes making the psychedelics that Toono requested. But even after that, it's implied that Taku is still making and distributing said drugs as he administers one to Towa later on.
• Deadpan Snarker: Taku can make a quippy remark every once in a while, usually out of exasperation towards Towa's behavior and antics.
• Death Glare: Toono comments how Taku, when angered enough, can give quite the reproachful look that comes across as outright demonic. Likewise, in Fujieda's route, during a confrontation with Madarame, Taku is described to have been looking at the latter with eyes that make it clear he wants to bite the man's head off.
• Death Seeker:
  • While telling Towa about his past, Taku admits that after losing his mother just as he was about to start medical school, he fell into despair and at some point, felt the desire to "end everything", which all but explicitly confirms that there was a time when he was feeling suicidal.
  • In his route, Taku's reluctance to create a certain kind of drug for Toono forces the latter to take both him and Towa hostage. Despite this, he's still hesitant to finish the job. But after Towa gets terribly injured for "overextending his reach" in spite of being a prisoner, Taku resolves to cut the project short once he can find a way for Towa to escape, even though he knows that it will get him killed in the process.
• Declaration of Protection: Taku makes such statements twice in his route.
  • The first is halfway through the plot, where he tells Towa that while he can't blame the latter for suspecting what he's been up to, he had always looked out for him ever since he was a child, and he refuses to let anyone else harm Towa or take him away. Though the sudden shift in Taku's mood when he says it makes the moment come across more as disconcerting than anything else.
  • In his Euphoria ending, he makes a better and more heartwarming attempt at the trope when he tells Towa that no matter what happens, he always wants to stay by his side and watch over him.
• Dissonant Serenity: In Taku's more menacing moments, he becomes eerily calm and doesn't raise his voice even when he's saying unsettling things or is outright attacking someone. In his Madness ending, he never once loses his cool or shows strong shifts of emotion, being completely at ease even as he discards his morality and embraces his inner demons.
• Distressed Dude: He gets taken hostage in every route except for Rei's, with the culprit being either Toono (in his own route) or Madarame (in both his and Fujieda's routes).
• The Ditherer: Taku isn't indecisive... by default. But as soon as it involves his situation with Toono and his debt to the man, Taku is always left at a loss on what to do. He is undoubtedly against Toono's plan of creating harmful drugs and having them distributed around the city. At the same time, however, he knows that if it weren't for the money Toono had provided him, he would have never graduated medical school and become a doctor. Both arguments leave Taku at an impasse that wears on him in more ways than one.
• Does Not Like Spam: Besides the fact that he's not a fan of most sweet stuff, Taku also doesn't like the taste of fresh cream.
• Dressed to Heal: Taku is a doctor, after all, so it's only a given that he wears a lab coat and scrubs (the upper half at least), as well as a stethoscope and a surgical mask, during work hours. Though he's seen in casual clothing whenever he's off-duty.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Not at present, though Taku admits that he turned to both alcohol and cigarettes as a means of coping with his mother's death.
• The Dutiful Son: Taku made sure to study hard all while working part-time jobs in between to provide for him and his mother, as well as get into medical school one day. But he does admit to Towa that he also used his studies as a distraction to not have to deal with taking care of his mother all the time.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Taku began seeing Asakura in a more negative light due to the rumors about Asakura being a pedophile, and anything involving such a topic immediately makes Taku uneasy.
  • At one point, Taku remarks how to a child, their parents is their whole world, and it's revealed in his own route that a lot of his issues stem from his relationship with his mother, who he cared for despite how difficult it was as a result of her drug abuse. But even he can only react with pure disdain when he sees first-hand how despicably selfish Rei's father is, and dismisses the man as completely beyond help.
  • The primary reason that Taku is highly reluctant to help Toono makes the drugs he needs for his business is because of the addictive properties that are required for that drug. Never mind the fact that it goes against everything he strives to do as a doctor, he even says that if he completes the drug, he may as well be perpetuating the very tragedy that claimed his mother's life.
• Feeling Their Age: Lampshaded. Rei quips in one route that Taku isn't getting any younger, though there's no scene in the game where the trope takes effect, and any time where Taku is in a situation of distress has nothing to do with his age catching up to him. In fact, after the events of his route, he has since taken to training his muscles while he was in prison to avoid this trope from happening too soon.
• First Guy Wins: Taku is the first love interest introduced in the story. Likewise, he's also the one who Towa has known since the latter's childhood. Therefore, this trope applies if he is the one Towa ends up with.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Towa has been Taku's patient/charge for the longest time since he's the one who would always patch up Towa's wounds and is also responsible for prescribing his medicine. In his route, his concern and worry for Towa starts to make way for certain other feelings that he hadn't felt for Towa before.
• Foil:
  • To Sakaki. Both personally knew Maya and both treat Towa as if he was their own son. Toono also hints early on that both of them are keeping Towa's past a secret from the younger man. However, they have completely different reasons for doing so. Taku keeps quiet about the truth as he wishes to protect Towa from suffering a complete breakdown and doesn't want him to be chained down by the horrors of his past. On the other hand, Sakaki's reasons are more sinister: he wants Towa to recover his memories, but he will only do so under certain circumstances that would successfully groom Towa into becoming Maya's successor. Their motives, in turn, show how they truly regard Towa. Whether he's the chosen love interest or not, Taku always shows genuine concern for Towa's well-being, and while he does commit several questionable actions, they're always done with good intentions. Meanwhile, Sakaki seems to have nothing but altruistic intentions in watching out for Towa; in truth, however, he's up to absolutely no good and only sees the younger man as a vessel of sorts for Maya. It's even strongly implied that deep down, he resents Towa for killing her.
  • In contrast to Towa and the other three love interests, Taku is the only member of the main cast who had something close to a positive (albeit troubled) relationship with the parent he grew up with, in spite of his mother's complicated history with her drug addiction. Most of Taku's issues even stem from what he feels are his failures in doing more for her, in contrast to how the other four's respective problems originate from what their parents/family figure did to them.
• Forced into Evil: Taku's status as a debtor has him commit plenty of shady deeds for the Takasato-gumi, and this is before Toono invokes the large debt that Taku owes him to browbeat him into making deadly hallucinogens.
• Former Teen Rebel: Asakura claims that when Taku was still in medical school, he acted out and would often skip classes, drink, smoke, and possibly even do drugs, none of which one can imagine when looking at Taku now. This is no lie, and is revealed to be the result of him struggling with his grief after his mother's untimely death.
• Friend to All Children: He's mentioned to get along with patients of all ages, and in Asakura's story, Taku often expresses worry about Hayato, the child that Asakura is looking after. And in Taku's route, Towa starts to have dreams of when Taku showed him warmth and kindness during his childhood.
• Greater Need Than Mine: Towa describes Taku as the sort of person who shoulders everything on his own, and can opt to make the problems of the people he cares for most deeply (like Towa) his own problems. He's also generally more proactive in helping others with their issues, but visibly struggles when it comes to taking the actions needed to resolve his own issues, what with being crippled by both guilt and self-doubt.
• Grew a Spine: The core of Taku's Character Development has him realizing that he's only causing more problems for both him and everyone around him by vacillating and remaining unsure of himself. In his good ending, Taku gets over this issue enough to finally settle his conflict with Toono, but it takes until the After Story drama CD for him to fully overcome his flaw after some further prodding from Towa.
• He Knows Too Much: Subverted. Taku doesn't know everything about Maya and her business the same way Hasegawa did; though the simple fact that he knows about it (and Mei by extension) should have motivated Sakaki to use that as extra leverage against Taku, with the already-existing leverage being the man's debt to the Takasato-gumi. However, it's implied that Taku managed to find out what he knew without Sakaki ever catching wind of it, allowing his problems with the organization to be restricted solely to his debt to Toono.
• Hidden Depths: It's mentioned in the artbook that Taku plays billiards as a hobby.
• His Own Worst Enemy: The After Story drama CD shows that even after he had already atoned for his crimes by serving time in prison, Taku still has yet to get over his insecurities and his indecisiveness. However, when he's forced by Towa to confront himself over what he truly wants, he makes his resolve, and for good this time.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. While he's wary towards the Takasato-gumi as a whole and would prefer to not get involved with them as much as possible, the amount of mistrust Taku has towards Sakaki is nothing compared to that towards Toono. While Taku isn't given much reason to be warier of Sakaki in his route (since the latter doesn't trouble him or Towa there), what's revealed about the man in Fujieda's route proves that Taku should have suspected him at least a bit more. However, this is mostly because while Taku knows the general details about what Towa had gone through thanks to his mother, he didn't know enough specific details which would give him an inkling that Sakaki was also complicit in Maya's plans.
• Hospital Hottie: He is a doctor and a good-looking one at that, even when he's already nearing his fifties. He's also well-regarded by patients of all ages and genders for his friendly personality.
• Humble Goal: Taku is sincere when he says that he became a doctor to save others, not because of the prestige that comes with the occupation.
• If I Can't Have You…: When Taku admits to Towa that he's fallen for him, he also confesses that he'd rather kill Towa than give him the chance to sleep with anyone else. Towa even lampshades the trope when he remarks that he didn't expect Taku to be the possessive type.
• If It's You, It's Okay: It's strongly implied that Taku fooled around on top of indulging in cigarettes and alcohol when he had an emotional breakdown while still attending medical school. Despite this, he tells Towa that he has no experience with men, specifically. Although if Taku is the chosen love interest, Towa is the only man he makes an exception for.
• Important Haircut: He cuts his hair into a buzzcut in his good ending. This gives him a more mature look, showing how he's grown as a person and how everything that happened until then weathered him for both the worse and the better.
• Insecure Love Interest: One of Taku's biggest flaws is that he almost always has second thoughts about the actions that he takes. Even though he resolves to look after Towa and keep him safe, he always hesitates in how he should go about it and wavers at the thought of whether he's doing the right thing or not. In the After Story drama CD, Taku proves that he hasn't yet completely overcome said weakness, as he's still left with doubts about whether he should resume his job as a doctor and if he's still worthy of being Towa's partner after everything that had happened.
• In-Series Nickname: Both Towa and Rei call him "Taku", which is a shortened version of his full name, Takuma. Even the narration makes use of his nickname instead of his full name.
• It's All My Fault: He believes that his mother died because he wasn't there for her. This is also the reason for his overprotectiveness towards Towa, as he always fears what could happen to Towa if he's not there to look after him.
• Like a Son to Me: While he never says the trope word for word, when he confesses his feelings to Towa in his route, Taku expresses that until recently, he always believed that his love for Towa was purely platonic and familial in nature.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Some dialogue from his route hints that while Taku has been assigned as Towa's doctor since the latter's childhood, he had no idea about what was really going with his charge and why Towa would always get wounded or sick. One offhand remark strongly hints that he did harbor some suspicions, but it didn't take until after the accident that resulted in Maya's death and Towa's subsequent amnesia for Taku to finally know (some of) the gory details.
  Taku: When you were a kid, you were always getting hurt. And your immune system wasn't great, so you had a fever half the time. [...] So back then, I wondered if you had some family problems. There was a lot that happened after that... Not that you don't seem to remember any of it, though...
  Towa: Was it really that terrible?
  Taku: (grimly) Well... it was.
• Loved by All: Taku is well-liked by all of his patients. Even after the events of his route, where he's imprisoned after his connection to the Takasato-gumi is revealed, his reputation among his patients remains untarnished and they still look forward to him reopening his clinic, which is the opposite of what both Towa and Taku had expected.
• Love Father, Love Son: According to Toono, Taku was in love with Maya, but decided to settle for Towa because he's all that's left of her. However, Taku denies this and says that he had no feelings for her whatsoever.
• Love Makes You Crazy: In his Madness ending, Taku is overcome with despair over the fear that if he keeps worrying about how everyone around him will get hurt, then Towa will never be safe. Therefore, he decides to give up on his goal on saving lives and focus on protecting only Towa and ensuring that no one else will ever be able to harm him. This means isolating Towa from the outside world, which he now allows to be turned into a den of drug addicts and even aids Toono in doing so.
• Married to the Job: The events in the After Story drama CD imply that ever since Taku got his doctor's license, he's been so preoccupied with his work — alongside other matters — that he had never considered seeing someone for years... until he got together with Towa, and even that only happened due to unique circumstances that gave him the opportunity to tell Towa how he truly felt. Though the fact that no one ever mentioned at him ever having dated anyone in Shinkoumi, plus his relationship with Towa still not being made public, reaches to such a point that a patient of his eventually suggests setting him up with someone. Even the clinic staff (aside from Towa) can't help but express curiosity about the possibility of him having a secret love life.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Breaking down the kanji in his complete first name, Takuma (巧真), taku (巧) means "skillful", and ma (真) translates to "true" or "genuine". The former kanji can refer to how he's widely regarded for being a capable and reliable doctor, whereas the latter refers to his earnest and straightforward attitude. But the latter also serves as an Ironic Name when it's later revealed that besides keeping his debt to the Takasato-gumi a secret from others, he also knows the ugly truth about Towa's childhood but refuses to divulge it no matter what.
  • For his family name, mura (村) means "village", and se (瀬) can translate to either "shallows" or "rapids". When put together, it means "village of shallows" or "village of rapids", depending on the interpretation of the latter kanji. The former meaning can describe how Taku is down-to-earth and serves as the responsible and sensible adult who often makes sure that Towa doesn't go too far with his destructive habits. On the other hand, the latter meaning can allude to how he has a lot more on his plate than anyone realizes, evoking the image of one trapped in strong currents from all directions. And to further support this imagery, depending on the situation, Taku's ordeals can potentially stress him out to the point that he's one condemnation away from going completely insane.
• The Medic: He's a doctor and has worked in Shinkoumi Hospital for some time before opening his own clinic seven years prior to the starting events of the visual novel.
• Men Can't Keep House: Towa, Rei and Arimura observe that Taku's desk is always a bit of a mess, and Rei lampshades that Taku can't seem to keep his own things organized despite diligently cleaning up Towa's room on a set schedule. When Towa gets to visit Taku's apartment for the first time, he notices some cluttered books and messy dishes. This serves as a reflection of Taku's state of mind: he's far better at fixing other's messes than his own.
• Mirror Character: Although their circumstances aren't exactly the same, Taku's backstory still shares a few similarities with Rei's. Both were abandoned by one of their parents when they were still in their teenage years, and their conflicts are a result of their relationship with the other parent. However, Taku deeply cared for his mother and felt guilty that he failed to protect her and prevent her death, whereas Rei is completely at odds with his father, who disapproved of his sexuality, and the two kept their distance for years.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Not by his choice, but due to his debt with the Takasato-gumi, Taku is tasked not only with treating their injured, but also with falsifying medical documents and implanting webtags in debtors. It gets worse when Toono starts forcing him to manufacture illegal drugs and have them tested on unfortunate victims.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In his route, while patching up Towa's wounds from the latter's "session" with Asakura, Taku is overcome with the fear of not being able to save Towa the next time he gets into another life-threatening situation, causing him to impulsively place a webtag inside Towa while stitching up his wounds. However, he's completely horrified with himself immediately after. When he tells Towa about it, he doesn't hesitate to admit that regardless of his fears, there's no excuse for what he did and that he shouldn't be forgiven for his actions.
• My Greatest Failure: His mother's death has haunted him for a long time, as he believed that had he looked after her more closely, she would have still been alive.
• Mysterious Past: Downplayed. Unlike with Rei and Fujieda's parents, it's never really explained exactly why Taku's parents divorced. All the player knows is what happened after the divorce.
• Non-Action Guy: Taku is the only one in the main cast who's not much of a fighter, but he won't hesitate to get physical if he's pushed too far and he knows that fighting back is the only option he's left with.
• Office Romance: Besides the fact that he's been Towa's physician as well as his (unofficial) guardian for years, yet another personal boundary is broken should he become Towa's love interest, since he's also Towa's superior during the clinic's working hours.
• Older Than He Looks: Taku is already in his late forties, though it would be easy for anyone who didn't know any better to assume that he's only in his thirties. This is even lampshaded during an Interrogation, where Towa comments that Taku doesn't look his age.
• Only Sane Man: Taku is assigned this role in Rei's route, especially after the events involving Mizuno/Kirihara. He serves as the mediator in case a situation is about to blow up, gives Rei advice on the rare occasion that he can, and is the one who urges Towa to check on Rei and see how he's doing.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Rei starts to suspect that something is seriously wrong with Taku when he catches the latter snapping at a patient out of the blue, since Taku isn't known for having poor bedside manners.
  • When Taku has to help relieve Towa's drug-induced libido, he's so frazzled by what just happened that he asks Towa for a cigarette afterwards, only to remember that he had already kicked the habit when Towa reminds him about it.
  • Although Towa suspects that Taku has his own demons to battle with, he gets to see first-hand how said demons are taking a toll on the older man's mind when Taku, after realizing that Towa knows what he's been doing in secret, voices his concerns on what could happen next... then his focus drifts off and he starts muttering in a chillingly quiet voice that he won't let anyone lay a hand on Towa before suddenly holding his shoulders in a deathly tight grip. Recalling the event moments later is even unnerving enough to literally send chills up Towa's spine.
• Papa Wolf: Even in the routes where Taku isn't the selected love interest, Taku never fails to express his concern for Towa. Besides the events of his own route, another good example that shows his protective side is a scene in Fujieda's route, where even though he's already horribly bruised and beaten, he still can summon the energy to show a fiercer side when Madarame threatens Towa. But more often than not, Taku ends up getting a bit too overprotective, to the point that Towa can get annoyed by it even though he understands that Taku's vigilance is from a place of concern.
• Parental Abandonment: Taku's parents divorced when he was still in high school. Based on what he tells Towa in his route, it can be easily inferred that Taku and his father never got in touch even once after that.
• Parental Substitute: While Taku never explicitly states that he sees Towa as a son or anything of the sort, their relationship is still quasi-familial in nature, especially since he knew Towa since he was a child and helped watch over him after his mother died. But if Taku is the chosen love interest, their relationship goes beyond platonic, which leaves Taku conflicted for some time.
• Perma-Stubble: One of Taku's defining features is the stubble on his face. Instead of making him seem like a disheveled mess, however, it only adds to his "rugged but handsome" appeal that makes him popular with the ladies.
• Pining After Protagonist's Parent: Toono claims that Taku held a candle for Maya— a claim that Taku fiercely denies, though he's unable to say any more on the matter. While he's telling the truth and never held a torch for Maya, he does carry a torch for Towa. Then after the two sort out their feelings, Towa asks Taku if he really had feelings for Maya, but Taku denies it again, only saying that he used to admire her at most and he couldn't deny that she was beautiful, but besides that, he harbored no affections for her.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Even though he tends to get overbearing about the topic, Taku has good reason to warn Towa to not go out at night in his route, especially with the Takasato-gumi tailing him all around the city. When Towa refuses to listen to him, he ends up getting restrained and drugged by Toono as a threat to Taku.
  • Though both Towa and Eiji are surprised that Taku would do something as extreme as put a webtag in Towa to monitor his movements, Eiji surmises that Taku did it so that he'd know where to go in case Towa suddenly disappears or gets in danger— something that Taku also confirms later on, although he's not proud of what he did. Either way, it does help them both on one occasion where Taku manages to arrive just in time to save Towa from a potentially fatal gunshot from Toono, even though both of them end up getting abducted afterwards.
  • Taku believes that Towa is better off not knowing the truth about his past because he fears that Towa will not be able to handle it well, something that he knows is still putting it mildly. His worries do not come without reason, since Towa indeed suffers a massive Freak Out and subsequently breaks down after he remembers everything and would have killed himself if it weren't for Fujieda. Although Taku later admits that regardless of his intentions, it was wrong of him to keep Towa's past a secret.
  • When Taku learns of Fujieda's plans to meet with Hasegawa, he warns that the Takasato Group will do anything to keep all information surrounding Maya hidden, even if it means silencing those who have so much as slightly loose lips. True enough, Hasegawa gets shot at not long after, and Taku doesn't waste the opportunity to reiterate his warning to Fujieda about endangering other people in his investigation.
  • Zigzagged in this specific example. When Fujieda finds information about a nurse from Shinkoumi Hospital who may be able to give them more information about Maya, Taku is visibly reluctant to get in touch with said nurse, especially after what happened to Hasegawa after she told the main cast everything she knew about Maya and Euphoria. Even Fujieda acknowledges that Taku's concern is understandable, but after a moment, Taku concedes and offers to approach the nurse himself to arouse less suspicion. Thankfully, the nurse didn't know anything damning enough to get her in any trouble with the Takasato-gumi, but Taku still sternly advises Fujieda to keep quiet about the exchange so as to not risk getting her in danger.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: According to the character book, Taku dislikes candy and most other sweets, although he likes the honey toast served at Yanagawa Café, and isn't opposed to enjoying some traditional Japanese desserts such as amazake and mochi.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Despite his otherwise gruff demeanor and serious personality, he has a sensitive side and shows emotional vulnerability in certain moments. He's very good at housework as he's the one who takes care of Towa's laundry, even regularly cleans Towa's apartment, and he can also cook his own meals if need be.
• Recovered Addict: Taku used to smoke but had quit for some time, and is so accustomed to Towa smoking around him that he is no longer tempted to pick up the habit of taking a drag himself.
• Riches to Rags: In his route, Taku mentions that he and his mother encountered several money troubles after his parents divorced, and Toono confirmed that prior to said divorce, Taku was fairly well-off. While Taku seems to be more or less financially stable at present, he actually owes a huge amount of money to the Takasato-gumi.
• Secret-Keeper: It's revealed in his, Madarame and Fujieda's routes that Taku knows a lot more about the grimmer details of Towa's past than initially assumed, but he makes sure to never give even a hint to Towa about anything involving what his childhood was really like. However, Taku has sympathetic reasons for keeping Towa in the dark about his past, given just how much trauma Towa had suffered because of his mother.
• Shipper on Deck: Implied in Rei's route. Some time after Rei's final Moneymatch, Taku leaves Towa and Rei alone in the medical ward, remarking in a playful tone that they have much to talk about— hinting that Taku had taken notice of their Relationship Upgrade and is implicitly showing his support.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Taku has dark reddish-brown hair and hazel green eyes, and is one of the main characters of Slow Damage.
• Smoky Voice: Whenever Taku speaks, his voice always sounds rough and husky to some degree. There's also the fact that he used to smoke for a few years before quitting some time prior to the events of the visual novel.
• Spanner in the Works: By seeing to it that Towa doesn't remember what his past was really like, Taku ended up impeding Maya's plans for her son for years, even though neither he nor Towa ever realize it. And if Fujieda's route isn't taken, Taku's interference eventually culminates in her plans ultimately going nowhere.
• Stalker with a Crush: Played with. After Towa's "euphoric session" with Asakura, Taku puts a webtag in Towa to keep track of his whereabouts just in case he gets thrown into danger again. That being said, the act was done out of fear and paranoia, not out of obsession.
• Stronger Than They Look: Taku's not physically frail by any means, but he's not inclined to engaging in combat either, unlike Rei, Madarame or even Fujieda. But near the climax of his route, in spite of a bad gunshot injury on his chest, Towa is surprised at how much strength Taku shows when the older man pins him down in an attempt to kill him. Then in his Euphoria ending, even after getting yet another shot on his shoulder, Taku still manages to tackle Toono during a confrontation.
• Super Doc: A justified case; Taku has a doctor's license, specializes in four different medical fields (internal medicine, surgery, gastroenterology and dermatology), and also has a masters' degree in pharmaceutical science. All of these is what allows him to be more than qualified as Towa's sole physician in spite of the latter's many ailments, which would normally get him recommended to multiple doctors.
• Team Dad: He tries to keep Towa's behavior in check, helps in cleaning the latter's room as well as doing his laundry, is very overprotective and caring, and disapproves of Towa's more questionable hobbies.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Played with. Taku can use a phone just fine and occasionally engages in a group chat with both Towa and Rei, albeit mainly to inform them if there's any emergency, which indicates that he's the type of person who uses technology only when necessary and not as a pastime. It's also revealed that his experience with implanting webtags in debtors eventually had him learn how to track one himself, causing this trope to be fully subverted.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The artbook reveals that Taku likes horsemeat sashimi and tsukemono (Japanese pickled vegetables).
• Tragic Dropout: Almost. While Taku managed to graduate and earn his doctor's license, his mother's death took a huge toll on his emotional well-being, causing him to act out in all kinds of ways when he was still studying in university. This resulted in him having to repeat one year in medical school.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-inverted. Among the main cast, Taku takes the cake when it comes to the trope. He's already protective of Towa by default, often worrying about the latter's health and telling the younger man to watch himself. But in certain circumstances and with specific provocations, said protectiveness can make Taku resort to perturbing extremes to ensure Towa's safety, as shown best in his Madness ending.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Taku is willing to cross a line or two to prevent Towa from recovering his memories, such as burning any mail that contains relics of Towa's past. Towa is not happy when he finds out about this, but after he unveils enough truths about his childhood and learns that Taku is struggling with secrets of his own, Towa begins to understand that even if what Taku did wasn't objectively right, he genuinely did what he thought was in Towa's best interests.
• Workaholic: Taku is a doctor, so working long hours throughout the week is only to be expected. He also remarks often about how busy he can be, and this is even without taking into account the extra work he does for the Takasato-gumi.
• Yandere: Between all of Towa's love interests, Taku is the only one who openly shows a jealous streak that can manifest in disturbing ways if he gets distressed enough. In his route, there's an unnerving moment where he mutters to himself about keeping Towa somewhere where no one else can get to him, and later on, he attacks Towa with a scalpel in a misguided attempt to spare Towa from any further torment Toono may inflict on him. In his Madness ending, the trope is taken to its logical conclusion when Taku confines Towa in a basement and keeps him locked up out of the belief that it's the only way Towa will ever be safe.
  Taku: I'll never let anyone kill you... I'll never let anyone take you away. I won't let them take you from me... Never...

Rei Izumi

Voiced by: "Ichirou Tanaka"

Age: 25
Birthday: April 27
Height: 179 cm
Blood Type: A

"At the time, I figured it was no big deal. I thought I could accept that I just wasn't manly enough. But... apparently I was wrong about that, deep down inside. The sound of colliding bones, the sensation of punching into flesh... It was all so thrilling, I thought I was already going crazy, but I couldn't stop."

One of Towa's few friends, he works as a bartender at Roost and he mostly spends his nights in the bar with his friends. He is also a part-timer at Murase Clinic. Aside from those jobs, he also participates in Deathmatches and has gained a reputation as one of its stronger contestants.

---

• Agent Peacock: Rei is a Rose-Haired Sweetie and a youthful Pretty Boy who is In Touch with His Feminine Side. He also happens to be capable of completely trouncing someone's ass if he has to.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Downplayed. In his route, Rei reveals that he has had a crush on Towa ever since he first saw him in middle school. That being said, his crush will only blossom into a genuine affection if his route is taken. Otherwise, nothing comes out of it and is implied to eventually fizzle out as long as Rei isn't the chosen love interest. Case in point, Rei playfully suggests to Towa that Ikuina has a crush on him in the common route, and even openly acts as a Shipper on Deck for Towa and Fujieda in the latter's route.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Rei is introduced early on as an effeminate man, though it later turns out to be more complicated than that. When he was younger, he was bullied for being "girly" due to his androgynous looks; but at the same time, his mother would dote on him for the exact same thing. Then when he came out as gay to his father, his father told him that a man who likes another man really isn't a man at all. All of this made Rei wonder if he was a woman born in a man's body, which caused him to take on feminine mannerisms to adapt to that idea. But in the climax of his route, he resolves that he's a man through and through, and his true desires do not necessarily define his gender identity.
• Anger Born of Worry: Rei is the type of person who gets easily worked up on a friend's behalf, or if said friend can be careless either with himself or with others.
  • He frets often about Towa due to the latter's neglect for either his own well-being and often badgers Towa about doing less of smoking and drinking and more of eating.
  • In Taku's route, Rei often shows frustration about how Taku seems to be taking things too hard on himself. On one occasion, he even yells at Taku for uncharacteristically losing his cool towards a patient, and outright tells Towa that he's only mad at Taku because he's concerned for him.
• Appearance Angst: Rei's inner conflict centers around whether he's more of a man or a woman. This is also the reason he got into body modification: so that he can help others change their bodies to a form that they're most comfortable with. Yet interestingly, he never does any modifications on himself, which reflects the conflict he has over his own body.
• Baby Of The Bunch: Downplayed, since everyone in the main cast is already a full-fledged adult. Nonetheless, Rei is the youngest, being 25 and thus one year younger than Towa.
• Berserk Button: The very topic of bullying quickly angers and upsets Rei, especially since he personally experienced what it was like to be bullied when he was a child.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's very tolerant and a Nice Guy to almost everyone he meets. He's also a regular participant in Deathmatches, where he's one of the top fighters.
• Big Eater: Besides being a huge Sweet Tooth, Rei always feels a strong craving for red meat after fighting in Deathmatches.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: In spite of the fact that he's an Unexpected Virgin, the writers confirmed in a livestream that Rei is the most well-endowed of Towa's love interests, which is notable as the other three aren't lacking either where size is concerned.
• Blood Knight: Rei becomes more fired up than ever during a Deathmatch, and he admits that he loves the feeling of his fist breaking his opponent's bones. However, while Rei loves to fight, he draws the line at killing someone. This causes him to feel conflicted about himself whenever he participates in a Moneymatch, since he can't help but feel excited during the fight and yet would still feel horrible afterwards for the fate that awaits his defeated opponent.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Kicking other people's asses is one of Rei's main hobbies. That aside, however, the aspects of his personality that stand out the most are his friendly nature, the way he always expresses concern for his friends to the point of nagging them if he feels it to be necessary and his eagerness to help those in need whether he personally knows them or not.
• But Not Too Foreign: Rei is half-English (courtesy of his mother) and half-Japanese (courtesy of his father).
• Character Tics: Rei has a bad habit of biting down on his nails whenever he gets stressed.
• Color Motif: His smoke color is yellow. Yellow represents friendliness and optimism but can also represent anxiety. Anyone who meets Rei for the first time can easily tell that he is cordial and cheerful, is more than ready to lend his support to both friend and stranger, and is the kind of person who prefers to look on the bright side of things. However his sensitive nature can make him prone to worrying for others and his deep-seated problems cause him to fret and to wallow in his doubts more often than he would like.
• Cool Bike: Rei owns a large and black motorcycle which he uses as his main mode of transportation. He's often seen using it in his route, with Towa occasionally tagging along.
• Crazy-Prepared: Even though Rei is a virgin and isn't up for the idea of having casual sex with just anyone, he still keeps some lube and condoms in his drawer, just in case. Towa even teases him for it.
• Curtains Match the Window: Rei has pink hair and eyes, although his eye color is of a darker shade of pink than his hair.
• Daddy Issues: Rei's father gambled away most of his family's savings, causing Rei's mother to leave them both. On top of this, Rei was at odds with his father, who disapproved of his son's sexuality— which led to Rei leaving his home in his high school years and keeping his distance from his father ever since. But then years later, Rei suddenly finds himself saddled with a large debt due to his father's gambling addiction. Their blood relation is the only reason Rei is even burdened with this issue, even though both father and son had been estranged for years.
• Does Not Like Spam: According to the artbook, Rei is not a fan of shellfish, onions, leeks and shiitake mushrooms.
• Drama Queen: Downplayed. Rei is the most expressive of the main cast, and he occasionally acts dramatic either for the fun of it or when he gets really upset or exasperated. Though overall, he's fairly level-headed and the trope never comes into play whenever he's dead serious about something.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: His long, pink hair, his fair looks, and his well-sculpted face make him appear delicate and feminine. In his route, he even explains that when he was a child, his mom would often gush about how cute he looked. However, this also made him a frequent target for bullying during elementary school.
• Dude Magnet: Rei's good looks have made him popular among women.
• Expository Pronoun: Rei refers to himself with the pronoun "atashi", a variation of "watashi". Both are gender-neutral pronouns, although they're used more often by women. This reflects Rei's effeminate side, but at the end of his route, he switches to using more masculine pronouns after resolving his identity crisis.
• Groin Attack: A few years ago, while struggling with his identity, Rei attempted to resolve the matter by cutting off his manhood, although he ultimately couldn't go through with it. The experience had left Rei with a noticeable scar down there.
• Hates Being Alone: In his route, Rei admits to Towa during an Interrogation that he's often afraid others will leave him once he fails to continue being someone that they can rely on. With the right choices, Towa can assure Rei that no matter what, there are people who will always be there for him, come hell or high water.
• Hates Their Parent: Rei openly states that he despises his father and wishes that the man would just go die in a ditch somewhere.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Rei is the only one among the main cast who's confirmed to be ambidextrous. According to the artbook, he writes with his right hand and eats with his left hand.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Rei has a solid reputation as a body modification artist, and his skill in the field ranges from tattoos to all kinds of body implants.
  • He's fairly knowledgeable in the flower language, as shown when he's able to figure out the meaning behind the gerberas and geraniums delivered to the clinic.
• High-School Sweethearts: Played with. While Rei knew Towa since middle school, they never interacted at the time and Towa didn't even realize that he and Rei attended the same school when they were teenagers. Nevertheless, the topic comes up a few times in Rei's route and near the end, Rei admits that he had found Towa attractive since he first saw him.
• House Husband: The fact that he's skilled at cooking and also diligently does his own housekeeping automatically assigns him this trope, especially in the route where he ends up with Towa since he's the one who cooks their meals.
• Important Haircut: In his good ending, Rei cuts his long hair and changes it into a manly short cut, which reflects his decision to identify as a man.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Rei's most prominent trait is how almost everything about him is feminine in nature. His route reveals that this is no simple quirk, and is a result of how he was verbally mocked in the past for either looking girly or for not being manly enough, which made him embody an effete persona because the disdainful treatment he got from others caused him to believe that he really was born with the wrong gender.
• Letting Her Hair Down: A gender-inverted case. Rei normally ties his hair up in a high ponytail, but he does away with it in his route whenever he fights in Moneymatches. This can represent how he's going beyond all out since he's literally fighting with his life on the line in contrast to when he would only let off some steam in a normal Deathmatch.
• Light Is Good: Rei's Smoke has the brightest color among the main cast, and he also has the lightest hair color. In spite of the troubles that he secretly harbors, he's still one of the more moral characters in the story, and his status as the Rose-Haired Sweetie is never shown to be nothing more than a false front at any point.
• Lightning Bruiser: When Towa watches Rei in a fight, he observes that Rei moves fast and hits hard, proving why he's one of the more skilled Deathmatch fighters.
• Like Parent, Unlike Child: Everyone who has met Rei's father at least once is in agreement that Rei has absolutely nothing in common with such a selfish and spineless deadbeat.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Although Rei knew Towa since middle school, he's the only one who has no involvement, direct or indirect, with Towa regarding his experiences with either the Takasato-gumi or his mother, Maya. While his storyline has plenty of thematic parallels to Towa's history, it has almost no explicit connection to Towa's past whatsoever. This is even reflected in Towa's painting of Rei, as Rei is the only one whose portrait doesn't have a shade of red, which is Maya's Color Motif. Even in the true route, he's the only one in the main cast who shows confusion about what's going on, and anything he knows amounts to only bits and pieces that he'd either hear or observe in some scenes.
• Luminescent Blush: He's the only love interest whose sprite is ever shown blushing, and when he gets really flustered, his whole face becomes as pink as (or even pinker than) his hair.
• Mama Bear: Lampshaded by Towa, who likens the way Rei would badger him about his well-being to that of a mother's own nagging.
• Mirror Character: Rei's past, whilst not exactly the same as Taku's, is similar to the other man's in certain aspects. Both were abandoned by one of their parents when they were still teenagers, and their conflicts are a result of their relationship with the other parent. However, Taku deeply cared for his mother and felt guilty that he failed to protect her and prevent her death, whereas Rei is completely at odds with his father, who disapproved of his sexuality, and the two kept their distance for years.
• Morality Pet: Downplayed. Among all of Towa's love interests, Rei is the one that Towa is a bit less aloof to. While he does get exasperated with Rei's nagging, he never rejects the other's kindness and is willing to tag along with him on occasion. Towa also doesn't protest much to being a shoulder to lean on when Rei, of all people, needs support. Even when Towa is in a horrible mood, he never snaps outright at Rei, they're never seen having a heated argument with each other. If one is to even compare Towa's interactions with Taku and Rei in their respective routes, they'll notice that it takes a lot less time for Towa to defrost towards Rei than he does with Taku, even though Towa has known the latter for much longer.
• Nice Guy: Rei is friendly to everyone and always looks out for the people he cares for.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Downplayed. Rei is fascinated with grisly designs and talks gleefully about setting up ghoulish decorations for Christmas, and he's also a huge fan of Towa's paintings, all of which portray someone's dark and deep-seated desire.
• Oblivious to Love: Rei doesn't seem to be aware of Arimura's crush on him, with the liner notes even stating that nothing will ever happen between them.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While Rei does get irritated on occasion, it's not always that he becomes absolutely infuriated about something— or in this case, someone, with said someone being his father. Anything about the man legitimately pisses Rei off; and while Rei would normally never wish death on anyone, he makes an exception for his deadbeat dad.
• Parental Abandonment: Although Rei had a good relationship with his mother, said mother still left him with his good-for-nothing father after the divorce. Rei admits that he has mixed feelings towards her because of this.
• Past Experience Nightmare: In his route, after getting kidnapped and beaten up by the Assault Party, Rei often starts to have restless nights where he would thrash and cry in his sleep. This is because the experience reminds him of the time when he was bullied and he had no idea how to defend himself, which caused him to feel completely helpless and afraid.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Besides the fact that Rei literally has pink hair, his speech, mannerisms, and wardrobe style are all more feminine than masculine. On top of this, he's also skilled in both housework and cooking.
• Relative Button: Inverted. Rei becomes angry at the mere mention or sight of his father and he makes it transparently clear that if he could have it his way, he'd never see the man again and wouldn't care less if the man suddenly dropped dead one day.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Rei has pink hair and a mood-maker caring personality.
• Sad Clown: Rei is chatty and often tries his best to make jokes or lighten the mood with all kinds of banter. In his route, however, it's hinted that his chatty side is part of his attempt to both distract himself from his personal issues and to never feel lonely.
• School Bullying Is Harmless: Subverted. Rei had a difficult childhood partly because his classmates would harass him for how girly he looked. This experience inspired him to learn how to fight so that he could better defend himself.
• Secret-Keeper: In Fujieda's route, Rei was informed about Taku's debt with the Takasato-gumi shortly after learning of his own father's debt, but he feigned ignorance about it until Towa questioned his presence at the Deathmatch Area with Madarame.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Even though Rei has been on distant terms with his father for at least a decade, the simple fact that they're father and son causes him to be saddled with his father's debt of 300 million yen. Rei himself laments that their blood relation left him having to deal with a problem that wasn't even his fault in the first place.
• Stalker with a Crush: In his route, Rei confesses to Towa that he's harbored a huge crush on Towa when he first saw him during middle school, and would often follow him around even when they ended up in different high schools. Part of the reason he and Towa got to actually know each other was because Rei reached out to Towa after the latter started making his name as an artist.
• Stepford Smiler: Rei tends to shoulder his problems on his own and won't confide in anyone about it so as to not burden them, and always hides his pain with a smile.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He's mentioned to take mostly after his mother where looks are concerned. His father's scrawny and sickly appearance gives further credence to this fact, though the artbook does mention that one physical trait Rei inherited from his father is the lowered shape of his eyelids.
• Supreme Chef: Rei likes cooking and usually brings his homemade food to Towa and Taku.
• Sweet Tooth: Rei absolutely loves sweets and can stuff himself full with all kinds of pastries whenever he can. Taku often treats him to desserts whenever they hang out, and one of Rei's first conversations with Towa in-game has him talking about how there's a tiramisu liquor and wonders if there are other dessert-flavored liquors out there.
• Team Mom: Rei tends to act like a mother hen to Towa, what with him feeding Towa, stopping him from smoking in their presence and trying to look out for his health.
• Took a Level in Badass: Rei is already an accomplished Deathmatch fighter, but in his route, his participation in Moneymatches causes him to become more proficient than ever in both dodging and hitting.
• Trademark Favorite Food: His love for sweets aside, Rei's favorite food also includes meat, tomatoes and pudding.
• Unexpected Virgin: In his route, it's revealed that Rei has never slept with anyone before. Considering most of the main characters — including Towa himself — already has plenty of sexual experience and even skill, this comes across as surprising to both Towa and the player.
• The Worf Effect: Rei is established early on to be one of the better Deathmatch fighters, and when he's forced to fight in Moneymatches — he proves to be formidable enough to win fight after fight, and even get the upper hand against another undefeated contestant. In Fujieda's route, however, when he's ordered by the Takasato-gumi to fight Madarame, both Towa and the player see that Rei isn't faring so well as he appears all battered and bloody and has difficulty just getting on his feet, with Madarame not even having a single scratch. This doesn't paint Rei as weak, however, and only further proves that Madarame is an utter beast in the battlefield that not even someone of Rei's caliber has a chance against him.

Kei Madarame

Voiced by: Jun Kasama ^note  Credited as Subaru Ichinose

Age: 39
Birthday: December 4
Height: 186 cm
Blood Type: O

"I despise being chained to the past. The past and the future don't matter. The only time that matters is the moment we're living in right now. Only an idiot would get hung up on old grudges."

A former member of the Takasato-gumi who was said to have suddenly gone rogue and was presumed to be deceased, even though his corpse was never discovered. He's rumored to have recently returned from the dead to exact vengeance on the Takasato-gumi and haunts the Deathmatch Area.

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• Animal Lover: He loves animals, especially cats. In his route, a CG of him with Towa in the years of past features him gently caressing a cat.
• Badass Longcoat: Madarame wears a black longcoat that allows him to conceal his identity whenever he goes into more public venues, like the Deathmatch Area. It also helps accentuate his imposing presence.
• Baritone of Strength: He has a low bass voice that always reverberates with a sense of authority, emphasizing how he's always in control of the situation.
• The Big Guy: He's the tallest of the main cast, standing at an impressive 186 cm. His mere presence gives Towa a sense of unease, and he's very capable of beating up a group of people with his fists alone.
• Blood Knight: Madarame is established early on to be quite the violent person. He enjoys both fighting and the thrill of a fight, and isn't one to say no to a good challenge.
• Blue Is Calm: Blue is Madarame's Color Motif, and he never loses his temper, let alone show much change of emotion.
• Brutal Honesty: Madarame never minces his words and says things as they are.
• Color Motif: Madarame's color is dark blue. Blue is associated with tranquility, masculinity, freedom and stability. Madarame has a stoic and unflappable nature as nothing fazes him and who follows his own desires and interests. He also the most traditionally masculine of Towa's lovers. Finally, he has nothing to hide as opposed to Towa's other love interests.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Anyone who tries to fight against Madarame ends up getting their asses handed to them with a single punch, and they don't even get the chance to land at least one solid hit on him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The third After Story drama CD reveals that Madarame hailed from a family of mercenaries, and that even at a young age, he was repeatedly subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture at his grandfather's orders in the hopes that it would turn him into a peerless and powerful fighter. When he was 15, Madarame eventually had enough and killed his entire family before running away.
• Deadpan Snarker: There are a few times Madarame will make a sardonic comment without changing his tone of voice.
• Demoted to Extra: In contrast to Taku and Rei, who still get to play an important role in Fujieda's route, Madarame appears in only one scene, and his presence doesn't have much of an impact on the overall plot besides the part where he points Towa to the mansion where Maya ran her business.
• Domestic Abuser: His route is unarguably the most violent and tough-as-nails. Case in point, he kidnaps Towa, beats him up if he fights back, and often pulls him into a Forceful Kiss; although he eases up on the harsh treatment in his good ending. In the After Story drama CD, they still engage in some violence as foreplay, but by then, it's completely consensual.
• The Dreaded: Whether anyone thinks he's dead or alive, everyone who speaks of him does so with a measure of fear and caution in their voices, given what they've either heard about him or actually know about him. Even Towa knows Madarame isn't someone anyone should mess with.
• Faking the Dead: He was presumed to be dead, but in reality, he is still alive.
• Feet-First Introduction: When the game gets to Madarame's official first appearance, which only happens in his route, the screen shows his feet and legs first before panning up to reveal his face.
• The Ghost: Madarame is mentioned a few times in both Taku and Rei's routes; although he never actually shows up in either route. In-universe, many other characters refer to him as a ghost as well since as far as everyone knows, he's supposed to be dead. Madarame even wryly lampshades the trope when he and Towa meet face to face for the first time in years, commenting that Towa looks like he's just seen a ghost.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Even when confronting men who are armed to the teeth, Madarame prefers to fight with nothing but his bare hands... and still manages to come out on top.
• Hemo Erotic: Madarame isn't opposed to drawing some blood during sex and even gets aroused by the smell and taste of it— something that he outright tells Towa. After they properly rekindle their relationship, he and Towa indulge in making each other bruise and bleed from time to time.
• Hypocrite:
  • Although Madarame isn't wrong about how Taku has been keeping secrets from Towa, his accusation falls flat when the player remembers that Madarame himself knows the same secrets that Taku knows, yet he also chooses not to tell Towa anything, regardless of his motives for keeping silent.
  • Both the narration and Madarame himself make it clear more than once that he's not the kind of man who lets the past chain him down as he would rather focus on the here and now. That being said, Madarame only wants Towa the way he used to be in the past and will never accept Towa the way he is at present, which contradicts his core character.
• Iconic Item: His red windproof lighter, which Towa gave to him when they were younger. When Towa is given the same lighter years later, it immediately alerts him to the possibility that Madarame may not be dead after all.
• It Amused Me: Downplayed. Madarame does whatever he wants whenever he feels like it, with not much reason to his actions other than the simple fact that it entertained him. He even plots to assassinate both Toono and Sakaki not to consolidate power and take over the Takasato-gumi, but simply because he wants to; although it's strongly hinted that he also wanted to avenge Kaga's death.
• Jerkass: Madarame is highly amoral and loves to take care of most matters with violence. Likewise, anything Madarame does, he does purely for his own amusement and benefit. He's not one to care about other's predicaments, especially when they don't pique his interest or serve his agenda.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Even though he's the pot calling the kettle black, he's not exactly wrong when he warns Towa that Taku has been keeping secrets from him and doesn't plan to come clean to him about it anytime soon.
• Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. In the final route, Madarame's appearance lasts for no longer than five minutes maximum, but his actions in that short time leave the other four main characters, especially Taku and Rei, greatly inconvenienced and/or injured. He never really gets any comeuppance for it; but then again, the narrative shows that in return, he doesn't get what he wants either, whether it's getting Towa to mentally regress into his younger self again, or the opportunity to kill anyone in the Takasato-gumi. But even with both of his plans being thwarted, he just decides to hightail it out of Shinkoumi and is none the worse for wear, being no more than an afterthought to everyone else afterwards.
• Lightning Bruiser: Madarame is strong enough to take on an entire group of thugs (armed or not) with nothing but his own two fists. And despite his large and tall stature, he's a lot swifter in his movements than anyone would first expect of him.
• Loving a Shadow: Madarame will only be interested in Towa if he sees in Towa the spark that's reminiscent of his younger and spunkier self. His violent treatment of Towa is even done with the purpose of riling Towa up and bringing out his more rebellious side. In contrast, if Madarame believes that Towa has changed too much, he immediately loses all interest and doesn't bother with Towa any longer.
• Manipulative Bastard: In his route, Madarame subjects Towa to multiple beatings before abruptly letting Towa go, but not without telling him first that Taku is keeping secrets from him. With Towa having already begun to subconsciously crave for more of the other man's violent treatment and already feeling alienated back at his old home, it only ends with him returning to Madarame and leaving Taku and Rei behind for good. Given Madarame's remark of "I knew you would come back eventually", it's strongly implied that he had predicted exactly what would happen after Towa left.
• Mirror Character: Madarame has some similarities with Maya, of all people. Both harbor genuine love (or in Maya's case, as genuine as can be) for Towa, even if that love is twisted and not of the orthodox kind, and express said love by subjecting Towa to violence, directly (in Madarame's case) or indirectly (in Maya's case). Both also see him as the only one who can sate their loneliness and/or boredom out of the belief that he is the only one who is like them, but it is also because of this belief that they use their violent treatment to ensure that Towa fits the image that they are convinced is the best version of him and will not accept him as any other kind of person. As a result, they end up being at odds with the people who try to help and heal Towa, with Madarame targeting Taku and Maya going after Mei, respectively. One key difference, however, is that Madarame has enough restraint to simply back off and leave if he thinks that Towa has changed too much for his liking, whereas Maya responded to a single act of defiance from Towa by immediately resorting to filicide.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Rumor has it that Madarame is the one who killed Kaga, another high-ranking member of the Takasato-gumi as well as Madarame's own senior. If his route is taken, Toono is revealed to be the true culprit, with Madarame being framed for the murder.
• Mysterious Past: Besides the part where he used to be a member of the Takasato-gumi, not much else is known about Madarame and it's obvious that there's a lot more history between him and Kaga than the few details that are revealed in the game. True enough, it isn't until the After Story drama CD that the audience finally knows of Madarame's origins.
• Never Found the Body: Although Madarame was said to be dead by the Takasato-gumi, Sakaki admits to Towa that they never actually saw his corpse but declared him dead anyways in an attempt to deescalate tension.
• Not So Stoic: A very subtle example. When Towa asks Madarame what he thought of Kaga, Madarame gives his answer in a completely calm manner. However, Towa notices that his aura slightly wavered (which almost never happens) while he talks about Kaga.
• Old Flame Fizzle: He and Towa used to be in a relationship, and in his route, they return to being lovers again in the climax.
• One-Man Army: Madarame can knock out an entire crowd of armed men with his bare fists alone, and this is no exaggeration. More than one character has even commented about how Madarame is said to be ridiculously strong that he may even have the strength of ten men— which isn't an exaggeration, either.
• Out of Focus: Among Towa's four potential love interests, Madarame has the least overall screen time, even less than Fujieda. This makes sense for his role in the narrative: Madarame's lone wolf nature makes it that his goal doesn't coincide with that of the others', and whether he and Towa will cross paths or not in the other routes depends on whether Madarame is still interested in going after Towa by that point. As such, they never encounter each other in Taku and Rei's routes because he decided to not tail Towa anymore, and he's only mentioned a few times at most in those routes. Likewise, in his brief appearance in Fujieda's route, Madarame decides that Towa is no longer worth his time and makes his leave.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Downplayed. Madarame is no heroic character, and his goals are borne mostly from his own whims, but it's hard not to side with him when he opts to have both Toono and Sakaki killed in the climax of his route. By then, the player already knows how much of a piece of work Toono is, but once they also learn of what kind of man Sakaki really is in Fujieda's route, it becomes completely apparent that both men more than deserve to get shot dead.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Madarame could care less about anyone, though Kaga was one such exception. For instance, he and Kaga shared an Odd Friendship of mutual vitriol and respect, and Madarame even says that Kaga's death didn't have to happen.
  • Madarame is certainly no saint, but the fact that he has a soft spot for animals proves that he's not completely heartless either.
  • While Madarame is not the kind of person who would casually say such a thing nor is there a situation in his route that would call for him to say it, it's still notable that he never says the word "daijoubu" even once in Towa's presence. Given that they've known each other for a long time, it's possible that Madarame may have noticed how Towa doesn't react well to that word, since he's also managed to pick up on Towa's dislike of complete silence.
• Psychic Block Defense: Of a sort. Although Towa can see Madarame's aura, he has a hard time getting a good read on the man's thoughts and intentions, something that has always been the case since years ago. His good ending reveals that this is because he's been trying too hard to look deep into Madarame when the latter wears his entire being on his sleeve; thus Towa has been perceiving Madarame through the wrong angle the entire time.
• Psycho for Hire: Back when he was still with the Takasato-gumi, Madarame was this trope in a nutshell. He's no more than hired muscle for the organization and has no loyalty to it. Likewise, the Takasato-gumi viewed him as a potential threat because of how capricious he was and how he doesn't follow anyone's orders, but they also opted to not do away with him because he never had any ambitions and because he was that strong, the latter of which was still of some value to them.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Averted, or at least as far as Madarame claims when he says that he's not after the Takasato-gumi out of a desire for vengeance. However, there are small but discernible hints throughout his route that he is nevertheless affected to some degree by Kaga's death, as shown in how he targets mainly Toono (who killed Kaga) and Sakaki (who wanted Toono to prove his loyalty by killing Kaga).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Fujieda's route, Madarame still kidnaps Taku and holds him hostage as bait for Towa. But unlike in his own route, he abandons the plan shortly after Towa arrives since it doesn't take long for him to see that Towa has changed too much from how Madarame envisioned him to be, causing him to quickly lose interest before leaving the scene.
• Secret Character: His route can only be unlocked after the player has completed Taku's Euphoria ending.
• Secret-Keeper: Madarame knows that Taku has been concealing information from Towa, which hints that Madarame also knows just what Taku is hiding from Towa. In Fujieda's route, Madarame is the one who points Towa to where Maya's establishment is, further implying that he knows more about Towa's childhood than he lets on. However, he never reveals anything to Towa in his own route, either because he's of the opinion that the past no longer matters or because he intends to use his secrecy to drive a wedge between Towa and Taku's relationship.
• Self-Made Orphan: It's revealed in the After Story drama CD that Madarame murdered his entire family.
• Sole Survivor: In both his and Fujieda's routes, Madarame is the only one of the five main members of the Takasato-gumi to keep his life intact.
• Stalker with a Crush: In his route, Madarame tells Towa that he had been keeping an eye on him ever since he returned to Shinkoumi— which partly explains why he can determine if the way Towa is now is still to his tastes or not depending on what he observes after the outcome of Towa's "euphoric session" with either Ikuina or the unnamed "vampire".
• Static Character: He's the only love interest to not get any Character Development from the beginning to the end of his route. This ties in to the kind of man Madarame is: everything about him is on the surface since he has nothing to hide and has no burden that he needs to resolve. While his After Story drama CD does provide more details about his past, he remains the same maverick he always has been since Towa first knew him.
• The Stoic: He never loses control of his emotions and is always in a collected mood, showing no more than a frown or a sneer at best.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's the tallest of the main cast, is featured mostly in dark clothing, and is quite the looker with an impressive physique.
• Tattooed Crook: He used to be a member of the Takasato-gumi, and he has multiple tattoos covering his torso, back and arms.
• Token Evil Teammate: The other main characters aren't lacking when it comes to having a checkered past and deep-seated issues, but their flaws still come with reason and when the chips are down, they choose to do right by others. Madarame, by contrast, is the way he is just because, with no other explanation behind it. The fact that he has no mental burdens also means he isn't tied down by moral or ethical scruples. The After Story drama CD eventually gives him a backstory, though it only cements him even more as the trope given how he came out from his Dark and Troubled Past as a dangerously mercurial and amoral man.
• Trademark Favorite Food: According to the artbook, Madarame loves beer and spicy food.
• Villain Protagonist: Downplayed. While he's not an outright villain and has a score to settle with people who are far worse than him, Madarame is still anything but a good guy and is the most morally dubious character among the main cast. He's also the only one who actively seeks to make trouble for the other main characters, and in the final route, there's one scene where Towa and the other three directly come into conflict with Madarame.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Although Madarame's own route explains why he never showed his face to Towa in both Taku and Rei's routes, it's never confirmed what became of him in the end of the latter two routes, where Toono and Sakaki don't get assassinated and the Takasato-gumi doesn't end up collapsing. One safe guess is that Madarame decided to just leave Shinkoumi afterwards.
• Wild Card: The Takasato-gumi thought of Madarame as an unpredictable time bomb as he followed no one else's rules but his own and he does whatever he wants whenever he feels like it. While this would normally make him a liability, his sheer strength and fighting skill made him useful to keep around.
• Yandere: Zigzagged. On one hand, he appears to fit the trope to a tee by using underhanded means to capture Towa and keeping him chained like a wild animal for him to beat into submission, and he even warns Towa at one point that he'll hunt him down if he even manages to get away. There's also his fixation on Towa, or at least what Towa used to be like in the past. But on the other, Madarame's wayward nature makes him unable to fully qualify for the trope as he doesn't have enough drive to fully commit to his fixation, with one little change of circumstances being more than enough to make him lose interest and move on to other things— as is the case with his actions in Fujieda's route. In said route, while he initially takes the first steps to lure out Towa, he's quick to cut and run when he observes that there's almost nothing left of the Towa he once knew or wanted.

Ryou Fujieda — Warning: Walking Spoiler

Voiced by: Masaaki Mizunaka ^note  Credited as Shou Miyabi

Age: 28
Birthday: June 25
Height: 182 cm
Blood Type: A

"As I imagine, you've started to realize... The deeper we dig into this, the more you'll discover things you never knew before. You may be faced with painful truths that will destroy your understanding of the world around you... You do get that, right?"

An enigmatic figure who works as a lawyer in his own law firm, "Fujieda Law Office". He also works as a legal advisor for the Takasato-gumi.

Warning: Due to the simple fact that nothing much is revealed about him until the player gets to his route, which is only unlocked after all the other routes have been completed, be warned before reading further that all spoilers in his folder are unmarked.

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• Adrenaline Makeover: In his route, once he takes off his glasses, unslicks his hair and does away with the suit for a more casual outfit, he goes from a serious-looking lawyer to an attractive hunk◊.
• Ambiguously Bi: Played with. Fujieda previously worked as an escort and was mentioned to sleep with both men and women. However, he only worked in that profession for the money, so his actual sexuality is never confirmed. But given that he is one of Towa's prospective love interests, it can at least be confirmed that he is not opposed to a relationship with a man.
• Amoral Attorney: Played with. He easily evokes the image of one, as he's a lawyer who works for the Takasato-gumi. Even before he worked for them, he had garnered a reputation for taking on criminal cases that no other lawyer would accept. However, he reveals that he intentionally gained that kind of infamy because he needed to find a way to get close to the syndicate, since he (correctly) suspects that his sister was sold to somewhere in Shinkoumi, which the Takasato-gumi reigns over. At the end of his route, he subverts this trope altogether as uses his authority as a lawyer to aid those affected by the aftermath of the Takasato-gumi's collapse, and he also volunteers to help exonerate Taku in court.
• The Atoner: After the entire conflict with Sakaki is settled, as a way to make up for his previous association with the Takasato-gumi, Fujieda uses his status as a lawyer to provide support to everyone affected by the drastic changes Shinkoumi is undergoing after the organization falls apart and the mainland forces take over.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Fujieda is quick to notice even the smallest of details and detect if something is adding up or not.
• Backstory Horror: All the scars on his body are proof of the kind of abuse he suffered from his parents, and he's not proud of his scars either as it serves as a constant reminder of a past that he would rather put behind him for good.
• Badass Bookworm: Fujieda is a well-educated lawyer, but he can also handle himself in a fight if he has to.
• Baritone of Strength: Fujieda speaks in a deep and masculine voice. Although he's not one to immediately engage in a fight, his voice makes it palpable that he's no weakling either.
• Big Brother Instinct: He gave up going to high school in order to earn money so that he and Mei can escape from their hellish life with their family. After he found out that his little sister was sold by their mother, he ran away from home and went through all kinds of shitty obstacles just to find her. When he finds out that Mei had been dead all this time, he blames Towa for what happened due to the latter's association with Maya and tries to strangle Towa to death, only stopping himself halfway because he believes that death will be an easy way out for Towa.
• Blind Without 'Em: Downplayed; Fujieda wears glasses to correct his astigmatism, but he doesn't have much trouble managing himself even without the glasses on.
• Brutal Honesty: Fujieda can be tactful if needed, but more often than not he tends to cut to the chase in his conversations.
• Casual Kink:
  • Even though he's not into pain like Towa is, while he never really goes overboard with the rough play, he readily gives as much as he receives when it comes to biting and scratching during sex with Towa.
  • Hinted at in the After Story drama CD, where he and Towa realize mid-coitus that they're at risk of getting overheard by a family in the neighboring hotel room, though this doesn't deter Fujieda.
• Clark Kent Outfit: His suit gives the impression that he has a lean physique; although his body is actually quite muscled and well-toned.
• Color Motif: Both white and red.
  • White is associated with sterility and perfection, which matches Towa's first impression of Fujieda: someone who is pristine and untouchable, and enigmatic yet someone no one would ever expect to have any ominous secrets. It also symbolizes detachment, much like how Fujieda would put up a cold and impassive front as part of his guise as an Amoral Attorney. White is described as a somber color, reflecting how he is far more conflicted and damaged than he first appears to be, particularly due to his long (and ultimately) futile search for his sister.
  • Red is associated with anger, something that Fujieda has harbored for years and is also part of what kept him driven to live. Consequently, it represents self-preservation, much like how much Fujieda steeled himself through every trial and tribulation whilst climbing his way up from the dregs. Red is also known as the color of love, something that he and Towa find with each other over time as they realize that they are more alike than they thought they ever would be when they first met.
• The Comically Serious: Fujieda's austere demeanor lends to a few chuckle-worthy moments in his route, due to his tendency to say the most unexpected things with a completely straight face, especially since he fails to realize what may be odd about what he said.
• Cool Big Bro: Fujieda cared deeply for Mei and always made sure to protect her whenever their mother would hurt them. Mei, in turn, highly looked up to Fujieda and never lost hope that he would come find and rescue her, even if that tragically never became a reality.
• Covered with Scars: His mother's abuse resulted in several ghastly marks across his torso and back. If the player looks closer, they can also see some nasty gashes at the middle to the lower side of his back. From what he says to Towa, it's strongly hinted that he's as badly scarred as he is because he took the brunt of his mother's abuse in order to protect Mei.
• Crazy-Prepared: He always looks over his shoulder and prepares for the worst case scenario. For example, he purchased multiple residences so that in case one of them gets compromised, he has another place where he can stay and hide for the time being. And whenever he records his investigations, he ciphers his writings to make it impossible for anyone else to understand them.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Fujieda and Mei suffered through a lot no thanks to their Abusive Parents. It even got worse after their parents' divorce since their mother would beat them much harder after that. Fujieda worked all kinds of jobs to earn enough money to move out with his sister... only to find out that his mother sold Mei off while he was working. In response, he ran away from home to search for her, but he eventually used up all his savings whilst on the streets. He was soon rescued by a woman who owned a host club, after which he started working there as a prostitute to gain money fast while studying to become a lawyer to better his chances at finding his sister.
• Death Seeker: Hinted at, especially in the opening narration of his route. For years, Fujieda had endured and lived on solely to find out what happened to Mei, and he knew that once he got his answers, there would be nothing left waiting for him, something that he had accepted for the longest time.
• Defrosting Ice King: At first, he treats Towa with cold disdain, and even almost kills him at one point. But after finding out that Towa is also a victim of abuse just like him, Fujieda stops the mean act and tells him about his past, and treats him more kindly afterwards.
• Determinator: Fujieda had gone through hell and climbed his way up from the gutters all so he could find Mei and find out what happened to her. Towa even notes that based on what Fujieda had told him about his past, the man had been struggling for years.
• Does Not Like Spam: According to the artbook, Fujieda dislikes all spicy ethnic food.
• Dreadful Musician: If the art for the official merchandise is any indication, Fujieda tries (and completely fails) to get a decent note out of a saxophone.
• Everyone Has Standards: Fujieda is completely aghast when he learns what Maya had done to Towa.
• Fan Disservice: Zigzagged. On one hand, it's not difficult to admire his well-built and toned physique. However, the scars all over his torso and back are also an extremely grisly sight, especially after the player learns how Fujieda got them.
• Foil: In contrast to Towa's other prospective love interests, Fujieda is the only one who Towa never subjects to an Interrogation. The only one time Fujieda gets remotely involved in one is when Towa interrogates himself as he struggles to tell the truth about Mei. The fact that Towa never gets to interrogate Fujieda symbolizes how the latter is able to resolve his issues on his own, and the fact that he's able to do so allows him to become Towa's pillar of support rather than have it be the other way around.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Fujieda speaks in a formal and dignified manner, even during his more casual conversations, which helps fit his initial image of a dutiful lawyer.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: After learning that Mei is truly gone, Fujieda snaps at Towa and blames him for what happened, except that his grief caused him to fail to consider that Towa was only a child at the time and thus would have no way of being complicit in his mother's crimes. He does realize his mistake later on and admits to it when he talks Towa out of killing himself.
• Gentleman Snarker: Fujieda is capable of making remarkably snide comments all while maintaining a formal and poised stance.
• Given Name Reveal: His real name is Minato Yuzuki, although he had long since cast that name aside.
• Green Around the Gills: While he doesn't get motion sickness on either a car or a boat, Fujieda doesn't do well on roller coaster rides as he feels lightheaded and ill afterwards.
• Hates Being Touched: Unlike Towa, who gets excited whenever his own scars are touched, Fujieda always flinches when Towa attempts to touch his scars, since he sees them as a Mark of Shame.
• Hates Their Parent: Fujieda has nothing good to say about either of his parents, who brought nothing but pain and suffering to him and his sister. It goes to the extent that he would rather not have anything to do with his real name simply because it's a reminder of his connection to them.
• He Knows Too Much: Attempted, at least. What Fujieda had been looking into just so happened to be connected to what Towa is also attempting to discover, which earns Fujieda a target on his back from the Takasato-gumi. Said target becomes painted with bolder and bigger colors after Sakaki realizes that Fujieda is none other than Mei's older brother.
• Heroic BSoD: He goes through an emotional breakdown twice when he finally gets to the bottom of what happened to Mei she got sold off by their mother.
  • After Hasegawa confirms that Mei is dead, Fujieda is overcome with shock and becomes completely devoid of emotion for some time before suddenly lashing out at Towa in the park, venting all his rage and grief on the other man. He regains his bearings afterwards, but the news has still left him deeply affected.
  • When Towa, who was with Mei until her last moments, told him of what exactly happened when they were held captive in Euphoria, Fujieda falls silent and listlessly walks away. Like before, he eventually gets better; but for good this time, especially after reflecting on himself and everything that had happened.
• High-Class Call Girl: Gender-inverted. Fujieda used to work in a host club as one of the escorts, and his customers were wealthy enough to help him pay his tuition fees while he was in law school.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Fujieda used to be a prostitute, but only so he could make ends meet. Nonetheless, besides the fact that he's long put that profession behind him, Fujieda is a genuinely good and kind man, even though his cold and stoic front may make him appear the opposite of that.
• Innocently Insensitive: Fujieda has occasionally proven to have a difficult time reading the room, which can lead him to act in an awfully tactless manner.
  • Even though he and Towa are well aware that Towa is unlikely to react well once he recovers his memories, it doesn't occur to him that Towa may need a moment to recollect himself every time he comes across yet another shocking revelation about his past, which Taku calls him out on at one point.
  • It doesn't stop there; when Towa finally remembers everything about both his mother and Mei, Fujieda is so shocked that he walks away without another word, leaving Towa to deal with his trauma on his own, which soon leads to Towa nearly killing himself. Fujieda does acknowledge offscreen that he needs to talk to Towa about everything that happened, though Towa had ignored all the notifications on his phone, which spurred Fujieda to pay him a visit, allowing him to arrive in time to stop Towa from going through with his suicide attempt.
• I Will Find You: His main goal is to find his younger sister and learn what happened to her after their mother sold her off.
• Last Guy Wins: He's the very last person who can be romanced since the player is required to complete all the other endings first in order to unlock Fujieda's route.
• Lethal Chef: Fujieda is skilled in plenty of things, but cooking is definitely not one of them, as he fails to cook something as simple as scrambled eggs.
• Living Emotional Crutch: It's only because of Fujieda that Towa didn't go through with committing suicide after he learned enough details about his own past. It's also noteworthy that while Towa acts as an emotional anchor to Taku and Rei (and to Madarame, in a way) in their routes, it's the other way around with Fujieda in his own route.
• Love at First Punch: Towa and Fujieda's official first meeting has Towa viciously and mindlessly attacking Fujieda out of the blue... and they still end up together. By the time of their Relationship Upgrade, they even lampshade how things were completely different between now and when they first met each other.
  Towa: You know, it's funny. Not that long ago, we were punching each other.
  Fujieda: We didn't know better. Neither of us is to blame.
• Mark of Shame: In contrast to Towa with his own scars, Fujieda isn't very proud of the scars on his body. This is justified, as the scars remind him of the abuse he endured from his no-good parents.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Once he gets certain proof that Mei is dead and knows precisely why that's the case, he decides to change his goal from finding her to protecting Towa, who Mei died trying to save. One reason is because Towa is the only other person besides him who knew Mei and remembered her fondly. Another reason is because he sees himself in Towa because of their similar ordeals.
• Neat Freak: Downplayed. Hopeless Fujieda may be in the kitchen, he's at least very diligent about his housework. Towa even observes that everything in all of his apartments is always organized and spotless.
• No Social Skills: Downplayed. While he's a very articulate man, he has a better time talking about business more than the weather. His serious demeanor also makes him unexpectedly upfront about certain topics at the most unexpected of times, often making him come across as awkward. To add, the short story from the artbook shows that even with his experience in sex, Fujieda is completely innocent where dating is concerned since he fails to catch Towa's playful joke at his suggestion that they (both of whom are two grown men) should go to an amusement park together, feeling that there wouldn't be anything strange about it.
• Not So Above It All: The epilogue of his route shows that even he has a playful side, which is shown in the scene where he initiates a splash fight with Towa during their walk on the ocean.
• Not So Stoic:
  • While Towa gets to see brief glimpses of the kind of person Fujieda really is like beneath his image of a Consummate Professional, it takes a while longer for his cold and indifferent façade to break and show just how much emotions he's bottled up over the years, all of which culminate in an Anguished Outburst after he gets the confirmation that his sister is long dead and gone.
  • In his route, the player gets to see the normally levelheaded Fujieda show anger and distress, but the rage he exhibits when he learns that Sakaki was the one who killed Mei is on a whole other level.
• Older Than They Look: Zigzagged. His lawyer get-up has Towa initially assume that Fujieda is of a more mature age, though his natural appearance has him look more youthful and a lot closer to his actual age, and he's only two years older than Towa.
• Old Shame: Fujieda understandably doesn't like to look back on his time as a host since he only needed the money from the job to find Mei.
• Out-of-Character Alert: After Fujieda learns about what happened to Mei, his reaction is to snap at Towa before violating him in an attempt to inflict mental and physical pain on the man. While Towa isn't bothered from the experience, he's nevertheless perplexed that someone as straight-laced as Fujieda would be capable of doing such a thing, but he later learns that Fujieda used to be a prostitute.
• Parental Issues: While it's made apparent that his mother mistreated him far more than his father ever did, Fujieda holds both parents in contempt for how he and his sister had to suffer, and whenever he speaks about his childhood, he always refers to them both as a unit and never singles out his mother when talking about either how horrible they were or how much he despises them.
• Photographic Memory: The After Story drama CD reveals that Fujieda has nearly impeccable memory when it comes to the cases he took up, since he's able to remember the cases he was involved with even from years ago.
• Plain Palate: Downplayed; the artbook mentions that Fujieda is not a fan of ethnic spices.
• Psychic Block Defense: Upon their second meeting, Towa is perplexed when he sees Fujieda's aura, since it is completely devoid of color and always stays static, unlike everyone else's. Towa eventually figures out that this is because Fujieda puts on an "armor" when he interacts with other people. Once his emotions — and thus his true self — begin to surface, the color of Fujieda's aura changes from white to red.
• Rags to Riches: After Fujieda ran away from home, he used up all of his savings trying to find Mei and would have died on the streets had the owner of a host club not taken him in. After working for years as an escort while studying to get a law degree, he was eventually able to accumulate enough wealth to pay for at least three different apartments, with one shown in the game being particularly high-end.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: He is the most fair-skinned out of Towa's potential love interests, and is also the only one of the four with black hair, allowing him to qualify for the trope.
• Relative Button: For years, his drive had been to find out what happened to his sister. When he finally learns of her ultimate fate, the knowledge is enough to send him into both despair and rage. Then when he finds out who directly took Mei's life, Fujieda is nothing short of livid.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Fujieda admits that besides searching for Mei's whereabouts, in the event that Mei is already dead, Fujieda would then make it his mission to find the person responsible and make them pay for Mei's life with their own.
• Safety in Indifference: When around others, Fujieda is able to put up a frigid and unfeeling façade, one that's flawless enough to even deceive Towa's Aura Vision. This is because Fujieda had dealt with many kinds of difficulties for years, forcing him to learn to harden himself and suppress his vulnerabilities in order to get through each and every painful experience without having his resolve and his will crumble.
• Secret Character: The visual novel's opening sequence makes it clear from the start that Fujieda is one of Towa's love interests; although his route is only unlocked once the player has completed everyone else's endings.
• Sex God: After their second time together (since the first time happened under far more upsetting and nonconsensual circumstances), upon being asked about his... performance, Towa can't help but honestly comment that Fujieda's skills in bed are impressive.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He's a very successful lawyer with his own firm, and his glasses help accentuate his professional and accomplished image.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: At first, he seems like a completely cold Consummate Professional and any semblance of emotion he does show amount to no more than either apathetic indifference or snide condescension. Though this is nothing more than a mask to hide someone who has been through hell for a long, long time and is willing to persevere all hardships thrown his way for the sake of finding closure with the one relative he treasures.
• So What Do We Do Now?: The opening narration of Fujieda's route has him state that once he finds out where Mei disappeared to and what became of her since then, he will have no purpose left. He then finds out that his efforts to find her are all for naught, since she had already been dead for years, and this leaves him despondent... albeit only for a short while, since he comes to terms with the fact that he can't do anything about what had already happened. He also knows that Mei would still want him to live on, and at the very least, he finally managed to find closure from knowing the circumstances behind Mei's disappearance. With this, he decides that his new goal in life is to look after Towa, who Mei died trying to protect, and who he also sees himself in.
• Spanner in the Works: Just like Mei did in the past, Fujieda's presence ends up waylaying Sakaki's (and by extension, Maya's) plans for Towa. Sakaki even rages about how both brother and sister won't stop interfering with Maya's schemes.
• The Stoic: Fujieda keeps a complete rein on his emotions and is cold and professional in both his actions and words. However, this turns out to be only part of his front, since his true self — while still serious and composed — has him become a bit more expressive and not as stern as before.
• Stoic Spectacles: Fujieda wears glasses to help with his astigmatism, and he's not the most emotive person around.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: When he's first introduced, he comes across as unfeeling and the kind of person who cares only about his job and his goals, and nothing else. Once his layers unravel, he starts to show a warmer and humane side to the people around him, especially Towa, who he grows to be a bit more vulnerable towards.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Fujieda is second to Madarame in terms of height, is often shown wearing black clothes whether he's in his professional or his casual get-up, and has a face that's both masculine and fair in equal measure, complete with a muscular body that Towa makes sure to take note of.
• That Man Is Dead: Ryou Fujieda is only his business name, but he prefers to have others call him that as he would rather not be associated with his real name, which reminds him of his relation to his Abusive Parents.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Fujieda has a preference for all kinds of Japanese food.
• Tsundere: Downplayed. After they enter a relationship, Fujieda's earnest personality makes him susceptible to getting embarrassed whenever Towa manages to catch him off-guard; although between the two of them, Towa qualifies for the trope more.
• The Unapologetic: Zigzagged. Fujieda makes it clear to Towa that he doesn't plan to apologize for raping the latter, though this is isn't due to lack of regrets and is more of him knowing that he has no excuses for what he had done. However, he does give an (indirect) apology later on by admitting that Towa was no more than a victim of Maya's abuse, and just because he's her son doesn't mean he should be held culpable for her crimes. And in the After Story drama CD, he's a lot more upfront about the fact that he has greatly wronged not only Towa, but many others as well in his attempts to find Mei.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: His goal is not only to find Mei, but to also get revenge on the people responsible for her suffering and death. When he learned that the culprit was already long dead, he's left frustrated and downcast. However, he also admits that his hatred had long died out since too much time had already passed, and he knew that Mei wouldn't want him to be consumed with revenge.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-inverted. Fujieda doesn't employ violence as a first resort, but both the climax of his route and the After Story drama CD demonstrate that he won't hesitate to get physical if Towa's life is in danger.
• Walking Spoiler: Out of all four of Towa's love interests, Fujieda is the most mysterious character since the player is given no opportunity to know practically anything about him until after his route becomes accessible, and there's an extremely good reason for this. Besides the requirement of completing the other three's routes before Fujieda's route becomes playable, accessing his route also unlocks an entirely new chapter which can cause future events to differ greatly from the common route. It's also only through his route that the player finds out about Towa's past, which is linked to Fujieda's own past.

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