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Characters / Their Namesakes

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Warning: Given the nature of the work, all character deaths will be uncensored, but how they died will remain spoiler tagged.

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Trial 2 Subjects

    Satomi Ton 
The focal character of Their Namesakes. A presumably young man who is just one of the 'authors' in the Library. Starting off full of curiosity and affection for the people he's stuck with, the dominos of tragedy soon get to him.

  • Afraid of Needles: He freaks out when he wakes up to find an IV in his arm.
  • Break the Cutie: Lord almighty. He wakes up with no memories, gets sick immediately afterwards. That very night, the nice girl who helped him with his IV is found dead in her room. He makes things worse by trying to help, and the very next day another person ends up dead. It's ok because at least he's fond of the Cool Old Guy and makes friends with Akutagawa, right? Akutagawa poisons Natsume by feeding him human flesh, shattering Ton's trust in his new-found friend and traumatizing him to the point that he has severe trouble eating. He makes a new friend in Chuuya and he still has his brother... his brother who rapes him. Then he's dead the next morning. Not even 10 minutes later he witnesses a suicide. Friends? They die or kill someone else. By the end, Ton is merely an Empty Shell who only makes it out alive by sheer luck and the will of others.
  • Body Motifs: His legs, growing weaker, more strained as the Trauma Congaline wears on him but he still has to move through the Library. Reaches a point that he has to be physically dragged along the floor or even carried.
  • Color Motif: A deep blue, as it is the colour of his walls, colour of his clothes, and of a book he finds later. Lampshaded as well.
    "Deep blue seemed to be his colour, and he couldn’t fathom why."
    — Chapter 9
  • Connected All Along: Subverted with Chuuya. He does have several dreams about an unnamed girl that looks suspiciously like his close friend, which makes him think that there was some truth to them. However, as he later learns, their age gap made such a school friendship impossible.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Somehow... even after all he's been through, he has a last bit of hope which he loses upon seeing Chuuya's corpse.
    Ton: You promised… You promised you wouldn’t die, so how could you?
  • Empty Eyes: Noticed by Chuuya after the deaths really start to ramp up, but he doesn't see it for himself until he finally sees his reflection.
  • The Faceless: Until the Great Escape, neither Ton nor the reader knows what he looks like.
  • Fell Asleep Crying: After the death of his Best Friend, Ton falls asleep in her room, waking up to tears on the pillow.
  • Guilt Complex: Following Ton's Nightmare Sequence, he starts to blame more and more events on himself, even to the point of irrationality (Like Akutagawa's suicide and Hei breaking his neck).
  • Hallucinations: Implied. He saw Akutagawa in the conservatory on the second floor, had a quick word with him, then left. Hei, however, didn't see anyone in the conservatory.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Trusted Takeo a little too quickly, even when the other man got a bit handsy. Takeo exploits this, drugging and raping him.
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: Nearly froze to death when he escaped from the Library.
  • I'm Not Hungry: Justified, as food only reminds him of Natsume's horrible death. He can't bring himself to eat anything unless he's fed by someone he trusts.
  • Inner Monologue: Has many of these throughout the fic, usually in a bout of confusion or blaming himsef.
  • Interrupted Suicide: After walking in on Akutagawa's suicide, Ton tries to follow suit with a scalpel to the neck but is interrupted by Mokichi, being kicked in the stomach and the weapon being seized.
  • Lie Back and Think of England: Has no choice when Takeo tells him something horrible might happen to him should Ton refuse his sexual advances.
  • Meaningful Rename: Shouzou, in the epilogue.
  • Past Experience Nightmare: The same night that Natsume dies and Takeo rapes him. Involves the two of them taunting him and nearly causes an Identity Breakdown.
  • Pensieve Flashback: While he has visibly seen Hei's flashbacks numerous times before (and commented on it), he is physically in Haruo's flashback as he watches Niimi die in his arms.
  • Prone to Vomiting: Ton throws up often, even when there's nothing in his stomach. This started after Natsume's death, but continued on to nearly every time he's stressed.
  • Sanity Slippage: Justified and exaggerated, given the amount trauma experienced in only four days. Hallucinations of Akutagawa, heightened paranoia, and his Empty Eyes being noticed by Chuuya.
  • Security Cling: Hugs onto Takeo regularly our of fear before his trust in him is shattered.
  • Shear Menace: Subverted. When Chuuya gives him a pair of scissors, he assumes she wants him to kill someone with them. Turns out she just wanted him to cut her hair.
  • The Speechless: Loses his will to talk after enough events occur, but still writes on people's palms to communicate. Physically enforced later, as his lungs get so weak he physically can't speak.
  • Suicide Watch: Enforced by Mokichi. After Ton attempts to kill himself following Akutagawa's death, Mokichi insisted someone be with him at all times.
  • Terrible Ticking: Downplayed. He hears a strange beep at several points, but is unsure what's causing it until it's almost too late.
    That beep, that damned beep!
    He heard it before Touson died, he heard it somewhere else… and now here. Ton opened his mouth to ask- no demand to know what it was!
    — Chapter 56
  • Tragic Dream: Twice, both taking place in a high school with a girl that looks almost exactly like Chuuya. They have normal conversations, have a normal friendship, but when Ton wakes up, he's back in a locked library with dead bodies.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Ton witnesses the violent deaths of the only people he knows, is physically and sexually harmed, is drugged, betrayed, and stabbed in the hand in a relatively short amount of time.
  • Unreliable Narrator: While he's not expressly the narrator, he is the focal character and the reader reads what he sees, what he thinks. Given his Sanity Slippage and Guilt Complex, not everything he sees and thinks is true.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: Subverted. While Ton believes that his dreams killed Takeo and Akutagawa, their deaths were in fact by other means.

    Tanizaki Jun'Ichirou 
One of the other 'authors' in the library. A mature woman with long, silver hair and kind gold eyes. While she does show a tenderness to those like her who have suffered in the Library, she won't tolerate those who she believes are trying to hurt them, even if they're both subjects in this experiment.
  • Amnesiac Lover: To Haruo. Before the experiment, the two of them were not just lovers but married, and she will never get those memories back.
  • Distracted by My Own Sexy: Downplayed, as she checks her reflection in a water glass and notes that she's been doing this often, but not so often that she's neglected her duties. However, this is justified as she's spent all of her remembered life unable to see her reflection.
  • Eye Scream: Stabbed in the eye by Kiyo after he kills Mokichi, believing that the real Saitou Mokichi died after Takahama Kyoshi.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Jun'Ichirou is a very masculine name, but she remedies this later.
  • If We Survive This: She suggests to Ton that when things settle down and people stop rapidly dying, they can hold a funeral for those that they've lost.
  • Impaled Palm: Downplayed, as Haruo digs the blade from a pair of scissors into her palm, but not out the other side. How else was he going to dig out her poisoning implant, though?
  • Insult of Endearment: She calls Ton a 'freaky little boy' once when she tells him her theories on how people are dying, once when they're about to escape, and once in the epilogue, almost making him laugh.
  • It's Personal: The people running the experiment took her memories, whatever life she had beforehand, and killed everyone she personally knew save for Ton. She decides that revenge is the only way to go about it.
  • Kimono Is Traditional: Forced into one, as it's the only thing in her wardrobe. The real author was known for being traditional, so the namesake's style reflects that.
  • Long Hair Is Feminine: Tanizaki from the source material has long, silver hair, and in Their Namesakes he is a woman.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: ... averted. While both the real author and the character in the source material are noted perverts, the woman named after them is just not that interested in sex. She even tries to understand her eponym's tastes by investigating the bathrooms.
    Tanizaki: I don’t need to go. I was reading in one of his works that he had a… how do you say it, fascination with these sorts of places, so I’m just here to investigate.
  • Meaningful Rename: To Naomi in the epilogue to shed the author name forced on her. However, she did choose the name Naomi based on one of Tanizaki's works.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The whole story, she's been a relatively calm, warm woman, caring for those cast aside by the others. However, when she's alone with Ton, silently communicating with him via palm writing, she gets unusually worked up in her belief that Touson is the one killing them. She does apologize for her behavior once her nail cuts his palm.
  • Standing Between the Enemies: An Establishing Character Moment for Tanizaki, as she stands between Touson and Akutagawa, her arms out, telling them to calm down before proposing a solution to their argument.

    Satou Haruo 
Warning: Given the amount of spoilers for this character, everything will be unmarked. Read at your own risk.

A tall, strong man with tanned brown hair and green eyes. When he's not acting as Touson's right hand man, he's dealing with people frequently dying as well as taking orders from his boss on what to do next.Or at the very least, he tries to make things run smoothly.

  • Convenient Terminal Illness: More like convenient poisoning. When Haruo's implant goes off after he brutally murders Kiyo, he decides that this is the time to tell Tanizaki and Ton what's really going on and to dig out their implants with the same scissors he killed Kiyo with, freeing them from being poisoned.
  • Curious Qualms of Conscience: He was only supposed to cook food for the people kept in the library, but when he hears a little girl crying, begging for a hug because of all she's seen, Haruo can't help but go out and give her a hug.
  • Gentle Giant: The strongest and tallest of the people in this experiment, and generally the one expected to carry people or knock down doors if need be. Despite this, he's a considerate man, using his strength to allow Ton to sleep in his deceased friend's room after her death.
  • Identity Amnesia: Averted. While everyone else can't remember who they were before waking up in the Library, Haruo remembers everything. He still has a poisoning implant in his hand, though.
  • I Have Your Wife: After he screwed up the first trial, his employers decided to put him in the next one to make sure things run smoothly. To make sure he cooperates, they put his wife in the trial as well.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He feels responsible both for Niimi's death at his hands (his superiors activating her implant because he decided to give her a hug) and for every death in the Library as it was his job to make them believe they were authors, and thus not need to be killed.
  • In the Hood: While working in the kitchen during the first trial, he sports a black hood that he sheds before he gives Niimi a hug to show that he's a human, just like she is.
  • The Mole: Justified, as he has no choice. He's working for the experimenters, but his task is to ease the other subjects into clinging to their author identities. It's a shame Kitamura had to reason from her medical skills that she used to be a nurse.
  • Number Two: While living in the Library, he often went along with Touson's plans, as he was their self assigned leader. Often being asked to break down locked doors or to carry people, Haruo was usually seen with him, right until he met his end.
  • The Reveal: He brutally killed Kiyo for stabbing Tanizaki's eye out and trying to kill her, and his implant activated because of it. He's going to die, so he digs out their implants and then reveals to the two remaining survivors that he was working with the experimenters after he botched the last trial, and that Tanizaki was his wife who they added in to make him cooperate.
  • Sadistic Choice: The possible outcomes of the second trial don't look good for him. Either he plays along, doing his job, and his wife is forever lost as Tanizaki Jun'Ichirou, or he tells her what's going on, and her implant is activated, causing her horrific death. If he tries to take a Third Option and work to remove her implant, his own will activate, killing him.
  • Withholding Their Name: Satou Haruo isn't actually his name, he took it for the experiment. He knows his real name and Tanizaki's real name, but he doesn't tell her either.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: Once his implant goes off, there's nothing he can do to avoid his death. He just has to protect the last two survivors from succumbing to the same fate.

    Takahama Kyoshi 
The initially reasonable man in the Library who often berated others when their expectations of others were too high. As more secrets are revealed and beliefs are formed, Kyoshi's stability lends its way to senseless bickering and a need to get out of the Library by any means necessary.

    Saitou Mokichi 
The Medic in the Library, though he isn't the best at his job. Despite this and events getting progressively worse, he still maintains his kindness towards his fellow authors, and works to figure out what's been killing them.
  • The Alleged Expert: Mokichi suggests he be the doctor when Kitamura is found dead, citing that the real life Saitou Mokichi was a doctor, but this doesn't translate into his actual skills. He's unable to do much during the others' deaths.
  • Berserk Button: Mokichi is usually a calm, slightly nervous young man, but he will get angry and physical if someone tries to commit suicide in his presence.
  • The Coroner: Under Touson's orders, Mokichi collects blood samples from each dead body to test them for poison in order to see which ones were truly poisoned and which were killed by other means.
  • Killed Offscreen: Kyoshi approaches the surviving members, bloodstained and holding a pair of scissors, saying that he killed Mokichi.
  • Labcoat of Science and Medicine: He dons a white labcoat after taking the role of The Medic.
  • Nice Guy: Despite Touson's orders to gather blood samples, Mokichi treats his dead friends just as well as his living ones. Even later in the story, Mokichi still comforts Ton, which makes him determined to save the doctor's life.
  • Only Sane Man: Despite people dying left and right, as well as Mokichi's coroner work, he manages to keep his sanity intact up until his death, comforting Ton and continuing his work without any outbursts or breakdowns.

    Shimazaki Touson 
The leader of the people stuck in the Library, albeit self-appointed. Punctual even when it's not feasible, Touson tries to create order in an environment where nothing makes sense and sanity spills as easily as blood. Due to his sometimes harsh methods and need for control, some others don't take too kindly to him.

  • Anguished Outburst: Upon witnessing Hei kill Chuuya, Touson gets uncharacteristically angry and starts physically assaulting him. Still sure that something Hei said made Kitamura kill herself, he verbally berated Hei well past the point that he was unconscious.
    Touson: You were alone with Toukoku too before she committed suicide… What did you say to her, you motherfucker?! How many more are you going to kill?!'''
    — Chapter 39
  • Dragged by the Collar: When Ton hadn't eaten in a while, Touson chases him down to make sure he eats. When he finally catches him, he uses his whole body to drag Ton back towards the dining hall.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Touson has a theory to test out. In the dining hall, there are heavily curtained passageways with counters in front of them where trays of food show up... Meaning people have to be on the other side. Given that his eponym died next, he tests it out, getting himself killed in the process.
  • The Leader: Self-appointed. From his first appearance in chapter 2, Touson took charge, getting information from people and trying to keep everyone organized. People mention his supposed leadership at times, and it even makes Tanizaki suspicious of him.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He taunts Hei, using his need to be useful against him to make him climb up the atrium balconies up onto the higher floor. When Hei falls, dying in the process, Touson has an immediate moment of regret.
    “I…” Touson faltered. “I may have fucked up.”
    — Chapter 48
  • Not Enough to Bury: Despite Haruo, Tanizaki, and Ton's best efforts, they only managed to save Touson's dismembered leg.
  • Profane Last Words: “F-Fuck… I can do this… I’ll find us an exit.”
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Touson has been shown to be aloof to people, namely those who question his leadership or disobey his orders, but he had a soft spot for Kitamura, never insulting or chastising her. Later on, he partially started to warm up to others, looking out for their health.
  • Tear-Apart Tug-of-War: Exaggerated. When Touson finally dies halfway through the passageway into the kitchen, Haruo, Ton and Tanizaki try to pull him back into the dining room so he can rest in peace in the only place he's ever known. Someone on the other side, however, cuts off Touson's leg, pulling the rest of his body to the other side.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Taking on a leadership role and doing everything in your ability to make sure as many people survive as possible isn't easy, especially when you're the second youngest one there at only 17.

    Kawahigashi Hekigotou 
The most agile in the Library, Hekigotou (or Hei) quickly makes a name for himself as he's able to climb the Library atriums up to the higher floors before the staircase was found. Known for his dyed blue hair, slightly provocative outfit, laid back attitude, and flashbacks, Hei makes a positive impact on his fellow prisoners until his need to be useful overshadows reason.
  • Call-Back: Hei really hurt his right hand in Chapter 4 punching a window that wouldn't break. In Chapter 37, Tanizaki's asking him about it, but he assures her that it's fine, he just can't keep a good grip with it. He later loses his grip on the balcony, falling to his death.
  • Flashback: Has several of these throughout the story, but Ton can see them and even comments on it.
    Ton: Aren’t we going to get a flashback? I liked the last one.
    Hei: O-Oh… really? I guess I can do that.
    — Chapter 28
  • Flower Motifs: Camellias, as seen in his room. A reference to his and Kiyo's Dress Code from the source material.
  • In-Series Nickname: Hei, which he insists he be called because Kawahigashi or Hekigotou is just too long a name to call someone.
  • Legacy Seeker: After Touson insults the deceased Doppo, saying he was useless to them so he shouldn't be mourned, Hei becomes more and more obsessed with being useful so he'll be missed and respected when he dies. This leads to him breaking the staircase, as he wants to be relied upon to get to the higher floors.
  • Le Parkour: Implied, as Hei's limber movements as he jumps from balcony to balcony and scales the wall up to the window seem to be second nature to him, and they had to come from somewhere.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: He severely hurt his hand, most likely even broke it. He doesn't scream or even wince, he just comments on it.
    Hei: I think I might have broken a bone!
    —Chapter 4
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He broke the stairwell out of a need to be useful, what he didn't expect was Chuuya to still be up there. She falls, breaking her spine, but she's still alive. Hei does what he has to do, breaking down in tears afterwards.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When he breaks up with Kiyo, he tells him why he's fed up with him.
    Hei: No! I’ve been here for you enough. ‘It’s ok Kiyo’ this and ‘you’re not as bad as the things you’ve read’ that… and what have you done for me? Called me a whore, made fun of me for things completely out of my control, and… and! If I die without a purpose… If I die without a purpose, it will haunt you until your well deserved death, I assure you th-slap
    —Chapter 27

    Nakahara Chuuya 
The smallest person kept in the Library, Chuuya is a tiny force to be reckoned with. As the one who first noticed the pattern of people's deaths, she is the one most often fretting about the order and who's next. While initially a hot-blooded jerk, she ends up being Ton's closest friend.

  • Ambiguous Gender Identity: Chuuya and Ton call her a man. The text and other characters refer to her as a girl. Chuuya never argued being called a girl. The poet she's named after was a man, so does she call herself a man because she believes she's him or for other reasons?
  • Cannot Keep a Secret: She immediately tells Touson about the stairway to the second floor despite promising earlier to keep it a secret.
  • The Confidant: She is the only person Ton has ever told about Shiga's journal, even letting her look at it. Despite her being bad at keeping secrets, she doesn't tell a single soul about it up until her death.
  • Faux Action Girl: She tells Ton that the poet Nakahara Chuuya got into a lot of fights, so she could probably kick ass as well, but we never see her doing anything of the sort. Justified, as being named after someone doesn't mean you can do the same things as them.
  • Girl Friday: Besides being Ton's friend, Chuuya was also Touson's assistant. Checking the authors death dates constantly to keep an eye on the Order, cleaning Ton when he was soaked in blood, and pouring over books, Touson even laments her death later, saying that she was good to him.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Downplayed, as while she isn't the nicest, she ends up being Ton's closest friend and ally, and her hair is a pale blonde.
  • Hats Off to the Dead: When she believes that Ton was killed, she takes her hat off, holding it to her chest to pay respects.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Chuuya tells Ton that there has to be a reason she was given the name Nakahara Chuuya, as there's no one in the Library connected to her eponym, unlike Ton having Takeo and a few others. Ton offers to be her friend, which ends up leading to the healthiest platonic relationship he has.
  • Intimate Haircut: Chuuya tells Ton about the secret staircase, even bringing him up to the second floor... just so she could ask him to give her a haircut. Makes sense, as there are no mirrors in the Library. While the haircut doesn't have any sexual tension, it is an important bonding experience for the two.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Ton's calmest around Chuuya once his trust in Takeo is broken. He'll eat if she asks him to eat and even after her death, he eats because she knows he would want him to. Even when talking is difficult, he tries when it's with her.
  • Mind Your Step: There are no steps, not anymore. Hei destroyed them with a sledgehammer. She doesn't realize this in time, though, and in a hurry to get Shiga's journal to Ton, she falls off the second floor, breaking her spine on the rubble below. She's still alive, however, so Hei puts her out of her misery.
  • The Not-Love Interest: She and Ton have had two showers together, trust each other unlike anyone else, and Ton has even slept in her bed. And yet, Ton never shows romantic or sexual interest in her, and she doesn't to him besides saying he looks somewhat cute.
  • Shower of Awkward: Subverted, as while Ton does walk in on her showering naked and averts his eyes, she moves aside so he can get under the water and shower too. The two of them then have a normal conversation even as Chuuya washes Ton's back.
  • Sickening "Crunch!": The first indication we get that something happened. It was loud enough that people all over the Library could hear it.
  • Signature Headgear: One of her defining features, as it was for the poet of the same name, is a black hat with a muted red band. It's also the first identifier when her body is found, as the hat is laying in a pool of blood.

    Akutagawa Ryuunosuke 
A tired, older man, Akutagawa's more annoyed than horrified at their situation. An early friend to Ton and Natsume's biggest fan before things go horribly wrong, Akutagawa's time in the Library is short-lived but his actions made an impact on the others and Ton's psyche.

  • Accidental Murder: Sure, he had no qualms with cannibalism, but how was he supposed to know that Doppo's flesh was poisoned and would kill Natsume?
  • Becoming the Mask: The quickest and most severe case of this, Akutagawa forms relationships based on what he read about the real author, became a fan of Natsume, picks up smoking, and eventually tries to go the same way as the man, all in four days.
  • Driven to Suicide: People in the Library are dropping like flies, he accidentally killed his beloved idol, Akutagawa can't take it anymore. He goes to Mokichi and asks for sleeping pills because he can't sleep. Mokichi, aware of how this ended in real life note , refuses. So, he takes a scalpel to his own throat, killing himself in front of Mokichi.
  • The Knights Who Say "Squee!": A huge fan of Natsume Souseki, though less for anything he's done, and more the real author's obsession with the novelist. Doesn't stop him from doing everything he can to make sure Natsume is fed and comfortable... even with unforeseen consequences.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Long is an understatement, his hair goes down all the way to his ass, and he's quite attractive.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: Subverted, as everyone figures that Natsume's food was poisoned, but Akutagawa didn't put the poison, or even know it was there.
  • Prelude to Suicide: He becomes more withdrawn, not going up to the second floor with everyone to investigate. Most notably, however, are his final request to Mokichi and then, when he's refused, his final words.
    Akutagawa: I’m quite disappointed, Mokichi-sensei. You’re a terrible doctor… Won’t even give me relief.
    —Chapter 31
  • The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Akutagawa serves Natsume food when the old man gets hungry. They did miss a meal or two, after all. They didn't find out until later that the meat was actually Doppo's cooked, poisoned flesh.

    Arishima Takeo 
A man named after Satomi Ton's biological older brother, so Ton considers him a brother as well. An albino who is very caring and affectionate towards the main character, but has some ulterior motives.

  • Cool Big Bro: Ton idolizes Takeo for most of his time at the Library. Wanting to explore with him, allowing Takeo to feed him, trying to get hugs from him, he even affectionately calls him Takeo-nii. However, this trope is subverted as Beneath the Mask, he's willing to use drugs and threaten his own death to get what he wants out of Ton.
  • Implied Rape: While we never actually see it happening, it's said that Takeo's hands 'touched him elsewhere' after he drugged Ton, kissed him, and stripped him. The next morning, Ton's lower half felt incredibly sore, moist, and unpleasant as well, so assumptions about what happened can be made.
  • Not Blood Siblings: While the real authors were biologically brothers, Takeo reasons that there's no proof that he and Ton are related themselves, so it should be fine for them to sleep together... but there was still no consent involved.
  • Out with a Bang: Subverted, as while it's easy to assume that the actual act is what killed him, it was Takeo insisting that they weren't brothers.
  • Scarpia Ultimatum: Takeo plays with Ton's belief that they're dying in order of the real authors by revealing that Arishima Takeo is next. Either Ton can play along and take what's going to be done to him, or the Order will be proven true. Ton, unable to handle yet another death, complies. He still wakes up to Takeo being dead, though.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: Being albino, Takeo has colourless white hair, and ends up doing something heinous.

    Natsume Souseki 
The oldest in the Library, Natsume is an affable middle-aged man who the others feel somewhat protective of. With a name like Natsume Souseki, Akutagawa takes to him very well and even Ton feels at ease around him.

  • Cool Old Guy: He's the oldest there, and respected by everyone. He offers calming words and a headpat to Ton, assuring him that this is a lot for a boy his age, but it will be alright.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: It's the only sign the characters have that Natsume's health isn't the best before he finally dies. In his final moments, he's violently coughing up blood as the others panic, trying to figure out what's going on.
  • Obsessed with Food: The first thing he does when he wakes up and leaves the infirmary is searches for food. He brings up food often, most notably when he skipped a meal due to not knowing the time.
  • Sweet Tooth: He ate his dessert before even seeing if there was anyone else in the library, asked for seconds of it later, and tells Ton that when they get out, they should get some ice cream.

    Kunikida Doppo 
Easy to overlook despite his bright pink hair, Doppo doesn't have a lot going for him while he's alive. Even when he's gone, he's brushed off as being useless, but his death leads to bigger, more dangerous events.

  • Intrepid Reporter: Averted, as while Doppo mentions his room had newspaper clippings on the wall and the real author was known for journalism, the man in the Library doesn't go for any major scoops or mysteries.
  • Kill It with Fire: Doppo is found set ablaze in the lounge, Tanizaki having to put out the fire. He was already dead by the time he was ignited.
  • Only Friend: Tanizaki, the one who he first explored the Library with. She was the one he spent the most time with and the only one who didn't either ignore him or deem him useless. In his memory, Tanizaki gets incredibly angry at people who completely disregarded him.
  • Poisonous Person: Severely downplayed, as while he doesn't have Elemental Powers, he was poisoned to death and the poison lingered in his meat, second hand killing Natsume.
  • Shrinking Violet: He rarely spoke up to the others while still alive, and was described as shy by Akutagawa.
  • Smarter Than You Look: He had a suspicion something was off about Kitamura's death, and he wasn't too far off.
    Doppo: I can’t remember if I’ve even seen a dead body before, but… was this really a suicide?
    — Chapter 7
  • Redheads Are Uncool: Pink hair, Shrinking Violet... Doppo is ignored or looked down on by most of the others in the Library.

    Kitamura Toukoku 
The first person Ton meets in the Library, only seconds after he wakes up, Kitamura was a memorable figure in his life. A kind woman who, from her first moments awake, made sure that no one else got themselves hurt, she was a well liked figure who even Touson was incredibly fond of.

  • Drop Dead Gorgeous: When everyone crowds around her dead body, naked from broken glass tearing her gown to shreds, Doppo briefly cops a feel before Touson slaps his hand away.
  • Establishing Character Moment: The first one we see in the entire story. Ton is about to rip his IV out of his arm when Kitamura stops him, safely removing it herself and bandaging his arm before she tells him she doesn't really know his name. She then stays behind until everyone has woken up, showing her kind, community-serving nature.
  • Fingertip Drug Analysis: Kitamura reports later that the fluid in their IV bags was a saline solution, admitting she knows this because she tasted it. Lampshaded by Haruo, who reacts in confusion and shock that she would taste something without knowing what it was first.
    Haruo: Hold on- you tasted it? Without knowing what was in it? Couldn’t you have… read the bag label? It could have been poisonous or something else entirely.
    — Chapter 3
  • Hanging Around: She is found dead in her room, hanging from a noose.
  • Hime Cut: Her hair had straight across bangs, medium length sidelocks, and was longer down her back. She was also one of the more well behaved people in the Library, most likely because she didn't last long enough to lose her mind.
  • The Medic: Before Mokichi, there was Kitamura. A much more qualified medic because she actually knew what she was doing, Kitamura helped everyone with their IVs and treated Hei's broken hand.
  • Never Suicide: While for a good part of the story, her death is seen as a cut and dry suicide, she was in fact poisoned, as revealed by Mokichi's bloodtest. Haruo put her in a noose so the others wouldn't know they were being poisoned yet.
  • Surprisingly Sudden Death: Up until her death, everyone's focus was on finding a way to escape. There was no hint of the story having death in it until the end of chapter 5, Touson, Haruo and Ton finding her in a noose.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Gone far too soon, it was impossible to know what she was really like or what she would have wanted. When Touson suggests they use her deceased body as a test dummy for possible exits, Kyoshi lashes out at the disrespect. Touson insists it's what she would have wanted, to which Kiyo exclaims that there's no way they could have known that, as they knew her for half a day.

Trial 1 Subjects

General

  • Posthumous Character: Every character in the first trial has died by the time the main story started, and we know about them through flashback or Shiga's journal.

    Shiga Naoya 
A man Ton only knows through his journal, he's the narrator of what is known about the first trial. His second journal is found on a bookshelf on the second floor, only because he lost his first one, and Chuuya dies trying to recover said first journal.

  • The Alcoholic: In a good portion of his entries, Shiga expresses a desire to drink wine from the wine cellar, usually to drown out the bloody horrors going on.
    Shiga: Signing off now, so I can get properly drunk and hopefully pass out before something else happens, Shiga Naoya.
    — Chapter 26
  • Apocalyptic Log: Shiga and a group of others are stuck in this library just like Ton's group. Shiga records how Riichi rises to power and ends up murdering several of the other prisoners before they all end up getting killed.
  • The Faceless: While we see a drawing of Riichi and Niimi in flashback, Shiga's face is never seen or described. Justified, as he's the narrator and none of them know what they themselves look like.
  • Friend to All Children: Well... one child. He often writes about spending time with Niimi and hating her suffering.
  • Secret Diary: His whole existence is a set of two diaries Ton finds, but they provide him both immense relief and loneliness, given the real life Shiga Naoya and Satomi Ton were close.
  • That Was the Last Entry: Day eight of Shiga's journal describes some... horrifying events, and the last words of it are Shiga worrying that Riichi's going to kill him any day now, and how he hates being alive. The rest of the book is blank.

    Yokomitsu Riichi 
The main, antagonist of the first trial (besides the one who put them there), Riichi is a religious tyrant, making up arbitrary rules for worshiping the 'gods' that put them there. Deeming himself the only one that can truly understand their lords, Riichi severely punishes anyone who disobeys him or breaks any of the rules set, usually resulting in a horrible death.

  • The Caligula: He rules the members of the first trial with an iron fist... but they can't ever know what time it is. Nor can any of them know what they look like- that would go against the will of their gods, of course! Riichi is moody and horribly violent, killing off others in the trial for anything from drawing a portrait to just existing.
  • Clocks of Control: Riichi is an over-controlling tyrant who hides all the clocks in the entire building so that his subjects will have to rely on him for any sort of schedule.
  • Flaying Alive: Due to Riichi's rather... severe beliefs, when Takamura tries to show him a portrait of himself, Riichi treats it as the highest offense and skins his face clean off.
  • The Fundamentalist: Riichi treats his beliefs in the experimenters being gods as the whole truth and nothing but, and will severely punish anyone who says or acts differently.
  • Hiding Behind Your Bangs: In the portrait that Takamura drew, which Ton found kept safe in Shiga's journal, the scheming, powerful Riichi had long, dark hair with his bangs covering one of his eyes.
  • Make an Example of Them: No one takes him or his fervent beliefs seriously... until he tortures and kills Hori in front of everyone else on day four.

    Niimi Nankichi 
A young girl, no older than 10. The only one from the first trial actually seen, although via flashback. A sweet child who, in trying to get a hug, dooms all the people she'd ever known.

  • Genuine Human Hide: After her friend Takamura has his face skinned for drawing a portrait of Riichi (her idea), Riichi forces her to wear the skin as a mask.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: If Niimi never asked for a hug, Haruo would have never left the kitchen to hug her, everyone's implants would have never been activated, and trial 2 would have never started with Haruo put in to be a mole and his wife put in to make sure he stays in line.
  • Prone to Tears: She cries... a lot. Justified, as she's fairly young and is put through hellish scenarios.
  • Troubled Child: She ends up as one by the time of her death, as she's gone through everything from witnessing a public execution to being forced to wear her dead friend's face as a skin mask.

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