YMMV / Under Night In-Birth

• Adorkable:
  • Orie's interactions with Hyde and Vatista in arcade mode and her behavior in Chronicle mode are very awkward and cute. Chronicle mode shows that she gets very nervous about interacting other people at the schools she infiltrates, to the point of nearly blowing her cover due to being clumsy and saying too much.
  • Vatista is so detached from humanity that most people that speak with her find her to be a total Cloudcuckoolander, and Orie realizes that there's something inhuman about her just by hearing her speak. She tries her best to mingle with the cast anyway, and as detailed on this page, the fans love her for it.
  • Wagner has shades of this in Chronicle Mode, where she's living student life and trying to overcome her lack of social skill.
  • Londrekia has his moments. When he encounters Phonon and Nanase in his Arcade story, he spends a few moments trying to compose himself so he can talk to them, and he audibly stammers when he first speaks up.
• Awesome Art: The in-game splash arts are well drawn and breathe a lot of life into the characters depicting them. There are also Visual Effects of Awesome, as mentioned below.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Mika is a heavy fanbase divider, especially if you compare her popularity in Japan to the western fanbase. Some may like her for being a cute and funny comic relief in the story, as well for being a prominent source of memes in the fandom. On the other hand, there are people who say she's completely insufferable. Her inclusion as a DLC character in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle over the likes of Seth or Hilda hasn't helped her case in the least. ^note Though she did get better eventually after she debuted in BBTAG for other reasons than most. That, and eventually both Seth and Hilda are now part of the BBTAG roster, ironically both as DLC characters.
  • Orie. Her characterization as a relatively normal girl compared to the rest of the oddball cast is either seen as a breath of fresh air that makes her more endearing, or leaves her underdeveloped and rather bland compared to the rest of the cast. There's also a camp that thinks her relationship with Hyde violates Show, Don't Tell too much to really get behind.
  • Byakuya is another prevalent example. On one hand, people like him because of his fun and rewarding gameplay, his Leitmotif, and how he went from a small blip on the story radar to being one of the more fleshed out characters in the story, having a well-written and genuinely tragic backstory that ties him into a much greater arc. However, he has quite a large group of detractors, who dislike him because he's annoying to fight against, his constant, mocking laughter, or they find his borderline incestual obsession with his sister too disturbing for them to truly sympathize with him.
• Broken Base: Chronicle Mode, the visual novel prequel to the main story, tends to get varying opinions. A lot of fans usually bring up how it drags out its over ten-hour length by being incessantly wordy and poorly written in parts, as well as finding it straight up boring. However, some argue that despite its flaws, there are some genuinely enjoyable moments in the story that help to flesh out the cast and see shine of them in a new light, with the chapters for Byakuya, Carmine, Mika, Merkava, and Gordeau being particularly memorable, as well as having some really good exclusive music tracks. One of Chronicle Mode's more praised points is that it introduces a whole slew of side-characters, with many of them quickly becoming popular, due to their fun and interesting personalities and designs, as well as having high chances of joining the playable roster in future updates/installments. This was further cemented when previous-Chronicle Mode character and Ensemble Dark Horse Londrekia eventually became Promoted to Playable in Exe:Late[cl-r].
• Crack Ship: Merkava/Vatista are paired together in a lot of art despite their interactions in their arcade ladders being less than friendly. This was because both of them lacked a real birthday and the developers had them share Christmas Day as their pseudo birthdays.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: A Lot of people have been using Phonon ever since the release of Exe: Late[st]. Earlier versions of Exe: Late involved the trinity of Gordeau, Waldstein and Merkava. This occurred with Akatsuki and Seth as they rose into prominence in the arcade release of [st].
• Draco in Leather Pants: Carmine is a pretty common character to be romanticized. While it's true that he has low self-esteem and lives a pretty low-class life, he's still a violent Jerkass that enjoys hurting people physically and psychologically.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • There are more than a few fans disappointed that Londrekia was Demoted to Extra in Exe:Late[st], and demands for him to be made playable in future installments were high. A lot of it came from him being rather relaxed and well-dressed in a game where most of the males look like punks, and showing surprising civility with Merkava. The fandom rejoiced after he was made playable in Exe:Late [cl-r], and he became even more popular thanks to his unique playstyle as well as his Leitmotif, which is regarded by many as being the best theme in the game.
  • Roger, Gordeau's deceased friend, has become incredibly popular among fans and a few even want him playable. However, Word of God has stated that the chances of him coming back are very slim. Gordeau's Arcade ending in Sys:Celes brings him back to life, but it's unclear if this is canon or not.
  • Uzuki is incredibly popular in Japan, and even has her fair share of fans on the western front. She was the winner of a poll at EVO Japan 2020 to decide who would be the next playable character in the game, and was even recognized by French-Bread with an illustration to commemorate Valentine's Day. She would later be added as the first Season Pass DLC character for Sys:Celes, much to the joy of the fanbase.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Super Smash Bros. Melee after being announced as a main title at EVO 2019, while Melee wasn't. Several Melee fans who are unaware of what UNIB is dismiss it as a generic "weeb fighter" and complain about the inclusion of an "unknown" game along with that of the yet-to-be-released Samurai Shodown. UNIB fans were more likely to mock Melee fans for thinking that EVO really needs it.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Carmine is affectionately referred to as "Mine-Chan" by the Japanese fanbase. Ascended with BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle where Teddie refers to him as such.
  • Due to his admittedly handsome appearance as well as his powers, Londrekia has been given the risqué title of "Ice-Twink".
• Fanon:
  • While the late arrival of a story mode leaves many questions about the world and the cast unanswered, Hyde is commonly portrayed as a Supreme Chef that's frequently shown serving food to the other characters.
  • With the endless stream of fan material showing Vatista living with Hyde, fans seem to generally accept Vatista's arcade story as the canon route.
  • Hyde canonically has only Linne and Waldstein as consistent companions. Fanart, however, regularly adds in Vatista and Seth to form a proper Five-Man Band. Alternatively, fan art tends to depict just Hyde, Linne, and Seth in a Two Guys and a Girl dynamic.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Hyde and Hilda, especially due to a certain moment in Hyde's chronicle mode in which Hilda invites Hyde to her room, but Hyde loses his common sense. Likewise, Hilda likes to tease Hyde and considers him very cute.
  • Londrekia and Wagner's rivalry has undertones of this, as both are excited to go at it in battle in Londrekia's arcade mode. Their VS theme is even called "Incompatible Relation".
  • Wagner once again, but with Gordeau. A broken man who nearly chooses Revenge, he instead opts to not kill Wagner but instead let out all his emotions during a fight against her, a gesture she welcomes.
• Fountain of Memes: Gordeau, courtesy of him calling his attack names in hammy Engrish. Just to list some examples, we have MORTARU SURAIDO, TAABULENCE, and the infamous GURIMU RIIPAAH! Mika is also this to a lesser extent.
• High-Tier Scrappy
  • Exe:Late era:
    • Gordeau, due to reaching damn near Game-Breaker status via the reach on his scythe-based attacks and how simple he is to use overall. He got nerfed in Late[st].
    • Waldstein is a Grappler character that is generally held to be the second-best character in the game due to his physical-attacking range being one of the largest of any fighting game despite the careful need to use his tools well in neutral.
    • Merkava is usually part of the trinity of the best characters in the game, alongside Gordeau and Waldstein, due to his ability easily set up pressure and has a variety of moves to cover various angles; his darkhorse status protects him from fan backlash a bit though. He was reworked slightly in [st], which gave him a few bad matchups but he's still very strong.
  • Exe:Late [st] era:
    • Phonon was introduced in Late[st] where she's used very frequently due to her long range and solid hit-confirms, and is also stated to have the range of Gordeau and the combo potential of Eltnum. It's commonly said that she made Gordeau irrelevant because she does the same things he does but better.
    • Seth's increase in health and easier combo routes have rocketed him to the upper tiers where his high consistent damage, unblockable setups, extreme mobility, and a command grab have made him very commonly played. The only thing holding him back is the need to work around his combo proration, his lackluster blockstring-frame data/range on his normals and his very heavy execution. But putting time into him will often promise more reward than risk.
    • Vatista is Difficult, but Awesome taken to its (il)logical extreme. She's so precise that you're pretty much required to use a fight stick to be able to pull off some of her most advanced combos, and her learning curve is insane, dissuading players from giving her a chance. Players who are patient enough to figure out all her unique tricks, however, will find that she's a Master of All with unmatched zoning power, extreme combo potential, and a decent health bar with loads of defensive options. Really, the only major drawback to Vatista as a whole is how difficult it is to master her, but those that do can turn her into the invincible In-Birth exterminator she is in the story proper.
    • Yuzuriha has many of the same Difficult, but Awesome problems listed under Vatista's entry, except instead of charge moves she has commands and is expected to play at blazing fast speed, where her primary gimmick is her three-way-delayable-sword-draw move whose stance gives her many other options for various tools and tricks on hand. The payoff of being able to play her well is enormous, but good luck not getting carpal tunnel in the process; even then her biggest weakness is that her frame data alone on block and/or whiff akin to her exact archetype of character tends to lead to bad decisions by any Yuzuriha player to screw themselves over with a big punish window.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During Eltnum's Arcade story, she asks Vatista if she's ever tag-teamed with Len, stating that she was someone people would classify as a "mecha." Four years later, Vatista does indeed get the opportunity to team up with another white-haired red-eyed mecha.
  • Both of Linne's weapons are named "Nanashi" and "Mumei". Both names would later be the full name of an owl-themed Virtual YouTuber representing civilization.
  • In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Teddie remarks that there's something empathetic about Merkava and that the two might actually make a good pair. Come Sys:Celes and Merkava's good ending in Arcade mode, where he, much like Teddie, awakens as a human, albeit completely bare naked, and remarking the first thing he should do is find some clothing.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Tsukuyomi is dead, and the girl posing as her is actually named Strix. Thanks to Byakuya having been out for years now, pretty much everyone knows "Tsukuyomi" isn't actually his sister.
  • The Insulator is actually Vatista's seventh wing. Official art depicting Vatista carrying the Insulator makes this fact less and less of a secret.
• Jerkass Woobie: Carmine is pretty Ax-Crazy on the surface, but he's an easy character to feel bad for once you get the full story behind him. His monologues in Chronicle mode suggest that he has extremely low self-esteem, and has a hard time conversing with other people. Every other character in the game seems to have at least one friend, but the closest Carmine had to one is Roger, who wound up dead without Carmine even likely knowing. The Q&As also state that he mostly lives off of reheatable corner store food since he lives alone. He seems to only get any satisfaction out of fighting other people, as he feels that's one of the only things he's good at. In a way, he's not so different from Hyde, but lacks the social and housekeeping skills that make him so well-liked. He ultimately comes off as a depressed teen with no friends or family that can't excel at or express himself in any way except beating up on people weaker than him. But to be fair, he's never tried to make any friends or has ever gotten the feel the need to.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: People can't seem to agree on who to ship Hyde with. Leading the pack are Vatista and Orie, with smaller camps for Linne and Yuzuriha, and a different can of worms concerning Seth, Carmine, and Hilda.
• LGBT Fanbase: Thanks to Gordeau and Chaos, who are a very popular Yaoi pairing within the overall UNI community due to their "close" relationship and the fact they very much resemble a popular gay couple dynamic with Gordeau being rugged and buff compared to Chaos who is skinny and nerdy, the series has steadily been gaining traction with the LGBT+ community much like its now-fellow anime fighting game contemporaries from Arc System Works.
• Love to Hate: Nanase's character is essentially one giant joke about how annoying a Tsundere of her caliber would actually be to the people around her, and given the fandom's reception to her, it hit its mark perfectly.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Exe:Late era:
    • Chaos is often on the low-end of the spectrum, due to how little he has in the way of reversals, fast anti-airs, and being unable to command Azhi Dahaka while under pressure himself. Not so much anymore in [st].
    • Akatsuki, due to his hindered physical range on his normals which prevent him from playing a decent footsies game compared to everyone else. This was before most of his buffs in Exe: Late[st], as in that version he now resides on the opposite side of the tier list; that, and his home game series' parry mechanic carried straight from there allows him to invalidate a lot of offense thrown at him when utilized just right.
  • Exe:Late [st] era:
    • Enkidu was considered the weakest character in [st], or at least the least advantageous one, with his most optimal damage coming from his Havoc-based combo routes, his lack of a meterless reversal, a wonky counter, and lack of options in closing the gap with his opponents. Not to mention a majority of his attacks are very unsafe on block, especially without any resources to cancel with. Much like Akatsuki and Chaos were buffed after their stints in the low-tier, He's been given buffs that have considerably strengthened him as of [cl-r].
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Nobody wears panties. This video is a bit of proof. Apparently intentional as the development team worked under a "No Visible Pantyshot" philosophy. ^note However, there are some color palettes that when combined with certain pantyshot angles that ironically enough, do show actual pantyshots.
  • GURIMU REEPAH!!^Explanation During the days of UNIEL, Gordeau was infamously top-tier due to his incredibly long range, vicious damage potential and a particularly spammable Spin Attack. This attack is notably memorable due to Gordeau's hamminess and Engrish when yelling out the name of said attack.
  • "Who the hell is Roger?!" ^Explanation  Back when the story was being fleshed out, Roger didn't have an official name yet, and was given the placeholder name of "Bob". Fans weren't particularly fond of this change and refuse to call him Roger.
    • "Bob moved to Tekken."
  • Fashion model Vatista.^Explanation As part of the sea of fan art resident Ensemble Dark Horse Vatista gets, fans seem to love dressing her up in various outfits and costumes way more than the other characters. French Bread themselves are not immune to this, as they also seem to love putting Vatista in a Sexy Santa Dress for Christmas. All of this is oddly appropriate, as she's been called a doll in the story proper, while also having her "birthday" be on Christmas.
  • "Buy UNIst/UNIclr."^Explanation  It is without question that the game is beyond popular with those who know of it, and every time there is a sale on for the game, chances are that there will be comments worded similarly to this. It became even popular when the comments in support of it drew about the ire of former Skull Girls lead programmer and creator, Mike Zaimont.
  • Nanase's theme in grand finals.^Explanation Nanase's theme, "Gallant Girl -Sora Yori Nagare, Hashiru Kaze-" is widely considered by many to be the worst theme in the game due to the synths that kick in after the piano intro finishes. While the song itself isn't considered outright terrible, it is considered hilariously upbeat and cheery for a fighting game song. Thus, it turns high-stakes situations and intense matches outright comical due to just how unfitting it is. The community jokingly requests that it be played in every tournament grand final for that reason.
    • Honk!^Explanation An utterly bizarre remix of Gallant Girl consisting of nothing but bike horns quickly became popular amongst the fanbase. It's still debated if it's just as intolerable as the actual thing, or even more so.
  • B Tatsu/CHESTO!^Explanation Akatsuki's B version Tekkoukyaku has reached the status of Gordeau's Grim Reaper as a signature move. Ascended because of BBTAG, thanks to Akatsuki's English VA, Kaiji Tang.
  • Eltnum JAV/The cursed relic.^{Explanation (Slightly NSFW)} A slip of the tongue regarding Eltnum's j.BAC caused one player to instead say JAV (Japanese Adult Video). Almost the the entire fanbase proceeded to go on a wild goose chase to see if such a thing actually exists. It was semi-acknowledged during EVO 2019 when a player using a Guitar Hero controller suddenly pulled out a DVD case featuring an Eltnum cosplay on the front cover and showed it to the camera, and by extension the commentator who created the meme, and then fully acknowledged when Kamone Serizawa, the director of UNI, was depicted in an photo posing with it.
  • :Mikabonk: ^Explanation An animated emote from the unofficial Discord server featuring Mika banging on a bongo (Which in turn is based on a gif featuring Kanon from BanG Dream!) quickly became popular in the fanbase.
  • XD^Explanation Mika makes this face a lot. It's almost her permanent facial expression.
  • "Enkidu is a new character added in UNIclr."^Explanation Enkidu was often seen as the weakest character in UNIst by many player communities before UNIclr buffed him to a more viable level, AKA 'playable'.
  • "Hilda is 19."^Explanation A common misconception thrown about by fans regarding Hilda's age, either because they genuinely don't know or to poke fun of the fact that most of the cast is comprised of middle-high school students. For clarification, Hilda is stated by Word of God to be a few years older than Yuzuriha, who is said to be a few years older than Hyde, who is a second-year high school student.
  • "I'm not a potato."^Explanation A popular out of context line said by Orie.
    • "I'm a potato."^Explanation A further mutation of the line, usually accompanied by an image of Orie with Mika's XD face.
  • "Londrekia is the love-child of Jin Kisaragi and Weiss Schnee!" ^Explanation Ever since Londrekia has been released, fans have already started labeling him as the son of Jin and Weiss due in fact because he's also An Ice Person with the combined looks of both characters. The fact that he was released after the run of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (hilariously, Under Night In-Birth is also one of the main representives of this massive crossover game) where Jin X Weiss is heavily shipped by a LOT of fans added more fuel to the fire as it basically supports the idea that somehow, Jin and Weiss are now officially married after the events of Cross Tag Battle, and later had a child (Londrekia).
  • Dave Vatista^Explanation People have noted that Vatista's name is one letter off of that of the wrestler/actor. It also helps that the "B" and "V" letters are next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard.
  • Sad M&M Hyde^Explanation A meme image originally associated with Granblue Fantasy Versus to poke fun at the radio silence regarding the game and its barely functional netcode ended up being slapped onto UNI when GBVS got added to the rollback pile with its upcoming Rising update. The original image is often seen edited to give the "M&M" Hyde's hair to hammer the point further home. This meme effectively died out with the reveal that Sys:Celes will have rollback netcode implemented.
  • Kamone's vision / Confia^Explanation A submutation of the "Daisuke's vision" meme commonly associated with fellow ArcSys title Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, though the meme initially started making traction through Melty Blood: Type Lumina. Much like the meme it spawned from, it is commonly used to jokingly justify seemingly absurd gameplay or balance decisions. The meme is also associated with this◊ image of Kamone's V-Tuber avatar.
  • Gordeau didn't pay the rent on time / The Divorce Song ^Explanation  A common joke on comment sections for uploads of "Cross Thought" involves Chaos and Gordeau fighting over a minor disagreement, mostly Gordeau not paying the rent on time. Eventually the joke escalated into the two of them being a couple in the throes of a messy divorce, especially since the two are an extremely popular pairing among fujoshi.
  • Let Raito cook ^Explanation  The soundtrack of the game, composed by Raito, has become very popular among fighting game fans. When it was discovered in Under Night In-Birth II that Raito had remastered and rearranged the songs by adding completely new sections to what was already there, the fanbase went nuts and applied the "Let him cook" memes to the soundtrack. Later became ascended when Raito himself acknowledged the memes, promising to "cook" more tunes for the future.
• Moe: There's no small amount of these characters in this game.
  • Vatista's appearance, mannerisms, and habits all endear her to the fans as an exceedingly adorable Robot Girl. This is to the point that Cross Tag changed her Luck stat to a Kawaii stat (with 10 stars to boot!)
  • Orie is very sweet most of the time, especially when she's off the clock as Licht Kreis's executor. Like Vatista, she also had her Luck stat replaced with a Kawaii stat.
  • Yuzuriha has such an upbeat and friendly demeanor that it's hard not to be charmed by it.
  • Mika takes this to levels that make her a Base-Breaking Character in the process, especially in the West.
  • Hell, even Hyde has his moments. He doesn't dress very properly and doesn't restrain his speech much, but like Yuzuriha, he's so outgoing and generous that it's easy to see where he gets his Chick Magnet status from.
  • Reflecta is quickly shaping up to be this. A Shrinking Violet flavor of Vatista? Adorable.
• Moral Event Horizon: Hilda can and will cross this under the right circumstances. If it isn't in Chaos's Arcade story, where she leaves her friend and comrade Gordeau to bleed out right in front of her, then it's in her own Arcade, where after going around the Hollow Night killing off several members of the (mostly teenage) cast just to kill time, she steals the Insulator from Hyde and murders him and Linne with it.
• One True Pairing: Gordeau/Chaos is by far the most popular male/male pairing in the entire series, particularly among the LGBT Fanbase and Yaoi Fangirl crowd.
• Sacred Cow: Spending 5 years in obscurity despite critical acclaim has given the game quite a devout fanbase. Any criticisms towards it that are deemed unjust will be struck down with extreme prejudice. The fanbase's adoration of the game and its pace being a middle ground between traditional 2D fighters like Street Fighter and faster-paced anime titles like Guilty Gear helps make it approachable regardless of wherever one comes from, and when it was announced to take a main stage spot for EVO 2019, other fanbases (save for a few examples of Fandom Rivalry) were nothing but congratulatory to the scene for their devotion. Riffing on its Capcom Sequel Stagnation and netcode, however, is considered fair game.
• The Scrappy: Nanase is commonly hated for being an Ungrateful Bastard towards Hyde, while looking and acting like a stereotypical Tsundere in a game otherwise clean of anime cliches. People also tend to find her voice annoying. The saving grace of this is that most of the other characters in-universe (including her own friends) think she's annoying too. It's highly possible this reaction was completely intentional by the writers, see Deconstructed Character Archetype under Nanase's entry.
  • Her theme song is like if a Leitmotif could be a Memetic Loser, as it's often considered to be one of the worst in the game by the fanbase. Raito must've recognized this though, because the Sys:Celes remix of Nanase's theme greatly improved on it and it's often regarded as one of the best remixes in the sequel.
    YouTube comment: "It's like this song went through an anime training arc and came back with powers to rival the gods."
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Hyde has no less than five girls who are implied to have feelings for him, so this was inevitable. Namely, whether you think he's better with Linne, Orie, Yuzuriha, Vatista, Nanase or even Strix. However, Strix is a very niche pick, and most of the fandom doesn't take Nanase seriously, which leaves Linne, Orie, Yuzuriha, and Vatista as the four major options. Vatista used to be the undisputed favorite when the series only had an Arcade mode for it's story content and people loved her and Hyde's interactions. However, with the advent of "Exe:Late[st]" bringing Chronicle Mode and fleshing out Hyde's relationships with the other girls besides Vatista, each camp now has enough evidence to argue each girl's case.
  • To a lesser extent, Linne is divided between those that ship her with Hyde, and those that ship her with Seth.
• Vanilla Protagonist: While Hyde is well-liked by the fanbase for his quirks, Linne's often forgotten about in favor of the more colorful cast that's supposed to play second-fiddle to her. Apparently, Linne's restrained looks and personality was made with this intention, she was never meant to be all that colorful in her appearance and mannerisms.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: This game is visually stunning. The stage backgrounds are beautifully modelled and blend together well, and the sprites are as stellar as always, with Waldstein's massive model being especially impressive.
• The Woobie
  • Linne was forcefully given the ability to transfer her soul into a new body upon death, and has robbed countless girls of their lives against her will. She has spent the many centuries she has been "alive" for roaming Japan to search for a way to die for good, with no companionship but Kuu and Waldstein.
  • Gordeau lost one of his closest friends, Roger, to the corruption of the Hollow Night, and watched him be brutally put down by Wagner. The fact that he was the one who invited Roger on the outing that would result in his death in the first place has done nothing to soothe his pain. He ends up leaving Amnesia, not because he thought they were corrupt or because he blamed them for Roger's death, but simply out of depression.
  • Merkava has been forced to assume the form of a terrifying monster, of which he only has so much control over, and whenever he grows hungry for EXS, he loses himself to his predatory instincts and slaughters whatever In-Births he comes across. He has virtually no companionship, and despite not actually being that bad of a guy, the entire world is out to end his life simply for what he is.
  • Byakuya's sister Tsukuyomi died in an accident mere minutes after he last saw her, and he came into the city to look for her only to find her body. He was so heartbroken by her passing that he went completely nuts and deluded himself into thinking that Strix is a re-incarnation of Tsukuyomi. Beneath all the stoic sadism is a depressed boy that can't get over his sister's death.
  • Strix ends up losing two of her dearest friends over a freak accident involving the Abyss. Ogre ends up losing his life to a Void and gets eaten, while her best friend, Zohar, goes completely mad from Phlebotinum Overload and almost kills her in a fit of rage. Strix ends up so guilt ridden by the turn of events that she goes on a possibly lethal quest to find and reconcile with Zohar, who may already be a full-on Void at this point. The only thing actually protecting her at this point is Byakuya, a person who has shown himself to be just as unstable as her friend was and has proven that he can indeed kill her there and then if he wants to.

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