The characters of The Haunted Bookstore - Gateway To A Parallel Universe. Currently work in progress and needs some magic.
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Main Characters
Kaori Muramoto
Kaori Muramoto
- Bookworm: She is into books, as well as working within the only bookstore in the spirit realm.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Zigzagged. Kaori was born from Earth, the mortal realm, which takes place on the modern era. However, she was raised within the spirit realm, which is hundreds of years away from the present, by her adopted father Shinonome since she was three. But she has no problems getting used to both the conventions between two worlds with chronologically different eras.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: A zigzagged example. Kaori, who was raised for all of her life in the spirit realm, is adjusted to both the spirit realm's feudal Japan-era and her home realm's modern era, a byproduct of living in a Narnia Time world. She currently works at a bookstore within the spirit realm, a concept considered completely unheard of in this realm's time period.
- Separated from the Adults: In her childhood, Kaori was separated from her biological parents after wandering off away from them, leading to exploring the other world by herself and getting adopted by the oni Shinonome throughout her life.
- Triple Shifter: She works at a bookstore in the spirit realm as well as another job in the mortal realm.
Nyaa
Nyaa
- The Atoner: He regrets not being able to bring Kaori back to the human realm to reunite with her mother during her childhood, in a way that she would have had complete memories of her mother.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Nyaa is nice to Kaori and anyone he cares, but that is not often the case if his buttons are pushed, as such when he callously calls out Akiho for being a terrible mother to Kaori, when she gave her bank notes and her card to her embezzling uncle and aunt.
- Meaningful Name: His name is an onomatopoeia for a cat's meow. Granted that the name Kaori gave to him fits to a perfection.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: He has three tails on his back.
- Spanner in the Works: He's largely responsible for shaping most of Kaori's past and unwittingly instigating Akiho's regret of being unable to see her daughter again. It was due to his attachment to her during her childhood that made it impossible for him to bring her back to the mortal realm to reunite with her long-lost mother after she was separated from her parents.
- Talking Animal
- Token Non-Human: Of the main cast with two humans on his side (Suimei and Kaori), he is the only one who is an animal.
Suimei Shirai
Suimei Shirai
- Arch-Enemy: Naturally towards spirits, as he works as an exorcist. A part of Kaori's own goal is to make him realise that most spirits are not violent.
Spirit Realm
Shinonome
Shinonome
- The Alcoholic: He is into drinking, so much that Kaori even told him once that he only gets one bottle.
- Jerkass: His rather immature, jerkish personality as Kaori's adopted father is often a source of headache for her.
- Married to the Job: He is a novelist, serving both his hobby and his job, but there are times where he loses track of taking care of his own well-being.
- Parental Substitute: He is Kaori's adopted father in the spirit realm, who raised her since entering the dimension for the first time when she was a child.
Noname
Noname
- Berserk Button: Calling her "uncle" or "man" is never a good idea to begin with.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: She is strong on the outside, as she was able to grab both Ginme and Kinme with her one hand, while she was attempting to rub their wounds with an ointment made of mustard with her other hand.
- Horned Humanoid: She has a pair of bull horns jutting out of her forehead, which are smaller than an average human.
- Inconsistent Spelling: In the manga adaptation she is called Nanashi, which is the Japanese word for "No Name".
- Meaningful Name: Or rather her "name" is simply a portmanteau of "no" and "name", fitting that her actual identity is a mystery.
Ginme and Kinme
Ginme and Kinme
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. While both wear the same outfit and with having identical personalities to each other, the colours make the two distinct to each other. Ginme's clothing is coloured blue, while Kinme's clothing is coloured red.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: They have a fear of mustard in ointment form, when it comes to healing wounds, as shown in Volume 1 when Noname rubs it to their wounds. It resulted in them screaming in agonising pain that was so loud that it forced Suimei and Kaori to cover their ears.Ginme: Wait, not the mustard!Kinme: Nooo! That one hurts and always makes me cry!
Mortal Realm
Kaori's Mother (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Akiho Muramoto
Kaori's biological human mother.- Dead All Along: She is already dead in the story proper, as she is a flashback character who appears mostly in Volume 3's side story.
- Eat Me: Her final fate during the flashback when Nyaa ate her, though it was all done as part of the funeral service, as the spirit realm's interpretation of funerals for humans is vastly different from how human funerals are often done on Earth. This is to store all of her thoughts and memories to Nyaa, enough to store it indefinitely so that Kaori will still remember her even in passing.
- Fatal Flaw: She is prone to being too trusting on other people without even knowing their true nature. This came after she gave her "best friend" some of her money in the past. But Akiho goes into Cassandra Truth territory when she thought she would never pay her back, not knowing that she has been actually embezzled by her until it was all too late.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She gives her cash card and her bank book to her uncle and her aunt-in-law, as means for them to help Kaori out when she passes away. Except that they turn out to be ruthless embezzlers planning to steal all of it from her bank accounts for their purposes. It doesn't help the fact that both of them actually do not treat her well. Nyaa is far less pleased with this.
- My Greatest Failure: Her life has been mostly marred with mistakes she committed in the past, of which led to Kaori disappearing during her childhood. A part of her wish is to give Kaori a happy life in order to make it up for her failures. Fortunately for her, Nyaa finally made that wish a reality.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Gender inverted. Nyaa mournfully ate her in the past, but in return her entire memories and anything related to her lived with him, a fact initially unknown to Kaori herself.
- Struggling Single Mother: Deconstructed. After her husband's passing, Akiho was saddled with the burgeoning task of taking care of her daughter, while she was cash-strapped, burdening her further with the responsibility that she was clearly not prepared with. Then there's her uncle and aunt, owners of an inn who are both embezzlers attempting to steal whatever remaining life savings she has in her bank account and her cash card, under the guise of inheriting it for Kaori to have it in the future after her passing. What happened after Kaori disappeared from public view is her going through a path of self-deprecation of being a mother with little parental skills, though it was until she finally opened it all up to Nyaa.
- Walking Spoiler: Talking about her is difficult without spoiling anything about Kaori's past.
