ჴ Luceti Application
Mun
Name: Alsenei
Livejournal Username: alsenei
E-mail: isshokara [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN: alsenei
Current Characters at Luceti: Tear Grants (seleniahymn), Kaori Iwanoki (seiriald)
Character
Name: Eyes Rutherford
Fandom: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (manga-verse)
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: Once he's out of the hospital, post-Festival Arc
Wing Color: Ivory
History: WARNING. This app will contain spoilers for nearly all of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning.
Many years ago, there was born a man to a Japanese couple whom everyone believed would someday lead human society into a golden era of peace and prosperity. As a child he displayed vast amounts of intelligence, physical prowess and charisma that were beyond that of the average human, enchanting everyone he met and drawing them into good favor as he excelled at anything his mind was placed to. He was like an angel, and he believed that he was given power so that he would one day help humanity to prosper, for it seemed that whatever this man wanted, it was willed into being, as thought he were protected by the divine. The name of this man was Mizushiro Yaiba. However, when he turned 20, Yaiba received an oracle that finally explained why he was born with inexplicable power:
With this power, he would destroy humanity, just as the homo sapiens sapiens destroyed the Neanderthals before them. Since he had grown up learning how to act in society prior to receiving the oracle, Yaiba knew how to hide himself so he could continue to use his influence as he wished, all without being suspected of the many murders he was beginning to commit.
Using his influence, Yaiba set into motion a plan to mass-produce his children as test tube babies, using the in vitro techniques of the day. Many were for the project, for if Yaiba alone could do so much good for society, how wonderful would it be if at least ten of his children inherited his great traits? An ideal world would be within their grasp, using Yaiba's bloodstrain. Thus the project was set into motion regardless of all ethics protests against it, with many women applying for the honor of carrying one of Yaiba's children. The project was therefore called the "Blade Children Project," for Yaiba could mean 'blade.'
In the end, eighty children were born and sent to live with their biological mothers, being carefully watched and monitored to see if any would show the gifts that their father held. All eighty of the children did, without one single exception. They would woo people with their talents and intelligence in the same manner their father did when he was young, prior to when he received his oracle. The knowledge that there was not a single exception began to frighten several members of the society, for they had begun to notice that Yaiba had always seemed to look at others in a hostile and distasteful way, sometimes outright stating that he hated other humans when asked. They began to fear what his true intentions were, and whether they had just had a hand in creating the ones who would destroy the human race, just as humans did to the Neanderthals. They began to question what to do with the eighty children, whether they should be killed or allowed to live, especially with a second and third wave of Blade Children being planned.
”My will is to wipe out mankind. My blood will pass along that will. When mature, the Blade Children will bring about the annihilation of man. There is no escape.”
”I’m bored, so I’m making my task a little more challenging.”
This single declaration by Yaiba, told to those who opposed him with a smile when the idea of killing the children began to form ground was enough to hasten the division. After all, Yaiba was intentionally making the sport of human genocide more fun for himself by telling them his plan to eliminate them in the same manner as a long-dormant virus, a cancer or the Trojan Horse of legend. He was absolute, and had nothing to fear.
Thus the society began to split into three factions:
- The Hunters who felt alarmed by by the project and by Yaiba’s very existence, and thus were focused on purging the Earth of him and his children as quickly as possible. They were the ones who looked toward the future.
- The Watchers, who insisted that the experiment was not done yet, thus opting to watch over and continue observing Yaiba and the children. They were the ones who found the project and the idea of eugenics hard to believe.
- The Savers, who supported Yaiba in everything he did and promoted the second and third phases of the project. They believed Yaiba’s threat to be nothing but a false rumour.
The second and third waves of the project were put on hold as the society feuded amongst themselves, with Yaiba being entertained by the chaos the whole time. However, the eighty Blade Children with their seventh right rib missing were suddenly placed in danger when the Hunters began to seek them out and kill them before their invincible wits and talent fully developed. Despite being so young, they were smart enough to figure out what was going on and what their situation was, witnessing many of the brutal deaths and narrowly escaping escalating attempts on their lives. More than twenty Blade Children have been killed, but not a single person was able to kill Yaiba, not even when attempting to shoot him at point-blank range. Nothing worked against him.
Right when the second phase of the Blade Children project was about to begin and the Hunters were driven into corners, a lone twenty year old Japanese man appeared. And he killed Yaiba, just like that. The seventh rib Yaiba had been missing at birth was used to create the one who would be his opposing force and the one to eliminate him, Kiyotaka Narumi, one as god-like and invincible as Yaiba himself. It was assumed that afterward Yaiba’s descendants would be killed and humanity would be saved. But Kiyotaka could not kill the children, and instead provided them with a new hope that they could, perhaps, be saved. This hope comes in the form of his younger brother, Ayumu Narumi, who had the same god-like powers as Kiyotaka, but was always in his shadow. Due to this hope, nearly everyone was willing to put off the decision of total annihilation, with some even switching sides.
Regardless, the now six-year-old children were still hunted, and for some their ‘switch,’ the order which would fully awaken the murderous intent they inherited from Yaiba, would be flipped due to the stress and other outside factors. Since they did not yet have fully matured minds, bodies or the skills with which to hide in society and stay in control just as their father did, they would become pure monsters.
Thus the children are forced to battle to survive with the false hope that when the time comes, Ayumu Narumi would save them.
Eyes Rutherford, a quarter-English young man is but one of the surviving subjects of the Blade Children Project, the youngest of all eighty born. And just like his blood kin, his seventh rib was surgically removed from his right side, the mark that he is one descended from Mizushiro Yaiba. Like his father before him he exhibits wonderful intelligence, charisma and physical genius, with all of them exhibiting themselves from an early age. But Eyes proved to be much more talented than the other children, which also meant that he noticed death a lot more sooner as the circumstances of his birth coincided with the happenings of the world around him. His earliest memory, at the tender age of three, is of watching a row of ants walk by. One by one he would pick them up and crush them for an unknown number of hours. Afterwards it began to escalate to larger insects such as butterflies and grasshoppers, killing them for the sheer love and pleasure of it. This came to include strangling the family husky with piano wire once he was five years old. Fearful of her son’s behavior, his mother began to force him to start playing the piano to keep him occupied and attempt to quell his bloodlust. Not long afterward his destiny as a Blade Child was revealed upon the death of his father, Mizushiro Yaiba. Eyes would be hunted down as he attempted to calm his killing urges playing the piano, being exposed to the bloodshed and watching his friends die.
While all the other Blade Children were technically his older brothers and sisters, there was only one whom he addressed as such: Kanon Hilbert, the half-German son of his mother’s best friend, Evangeline Hilbert. He would be the one who would teach Eyes how to fight and survive, among many other things as he took on the role of ‘big brother’ and ‘best friend’ to the younger, therefore becoming the person closest to him.
When he was seven years old, Eyes suffered from the tragedy of his mother’s unexpected death in a car accident. While he and Kanon visited her grave, Kanon told him that it was okay to cry, commenting that in all the years he had known Eyes, he had never once seen him cry, declaring it sad when Eyes was such a kind person. Eyes responded that tears would not change anything, that it would be better for him to become a demon who shed neither blood nor tears, so long as Kanon was beside him to cry in his place. It was not long after that Kiyotaka Narumi would present the Blade Children with a ray of hope: his younger brother, Ayumu. Eyes clung to the small hope, only to have it proven to be false just as he had suspected, for just as Kiyotaka had had an opposite in Yaiba, so did Ayumu: Mizushiro Hizumi, the younger brother of Yaiba and the one who would crush their hope. Despite this, Eyes kept the secret from the other Blade Children so that they could continue to have that small hope in Ayumu.
Once he was fourteen, Eyes made his musical debut and quickly rose as a celebrated pianist, second only to the god Kiyotaka Narumi himself. But despite being a celebrity, he still lived the cursed life of a Blade Child. It wasn’t until he was seventeen when the bonds of reasoning began to come together. He traveled to Japan, and upon arrival he immediately demanded, on live television, that the brother of Kiyotaka Narumi be brought to him. Once they met he was disappointed to see how pathetic the person who was their ‘hope’ was, and decided that he would test him with no regards to his life using a mind puzzle and a timed bomb. Ayumu was able to diffuse the bomb with the help of his companion, Hiyono Yuizaki, forcing Eyes to eventually accept him as a possible hope for his brethren, especially when he proved himself time and time again against the tests of the other Blade Children.
However, there was one threat that Eyes had his mind occupied with. His brother and best friend, Kanon, sided with the Hunters to kill off the remaining Blade Children. Despite all of his efforts, Eyes failed to persuade him to change his mind, his brother calling him shortly before his arrival in Japan as a Hunter. Eyes was offered to join him, but once again refused to turn his back on his fellows and told Kanon that he would be the one to stop him from destroying them. He did, however, go to the airport to meet Kanon, and it is there that he is stabbed in the heart by his friend, right after being told that he is too soft for his own good. Yet despite the mortal injury, Eyes does not die, instead falling into a coma for several days, a fact that deeply shakes Kanon and his resolve. Regardless, Kanon still went on to carry out his ‘festival,’ a plan to take Tsukiomi High School, where most of the Blade Children had been relocated, and gather his blood kin in order to slaughter them all at once, killing himself in the end.
When he awakes after the festival has started, Eyes strikes a deal with the wife of Kiyotaka Narumi, Madoka, to take him to the school. There he encounters Kirie Tsuchiya, a Watcher with whom he is in regular contact with and who acts as a medium between the BlaChi and the remaining society Yaiba led. On Kanon’s request she gives Eyes a phone so that he may talk to Kanon, who once again offers him to join him so that they can be together once more. Once again Eyes refuses, and in that phone call he gives Kanon his theory about why his switch was pressed, saying that it was because he had met Hizumi. He tells his brother that even though they are doomed to a cursed existence, he will continue to hope as he begins to cry for the first time, bidding goodbye to his brother. From inside the school as a hostage, Ayumu summons forth Eyes by playing the third of Franz Liszt’s Poetic and Religious Harmonies, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude - The Blessing of God in Solitude, a song that has deep meaning to a person like Eyes. Therefore Eyes goes to him to fulfill his role in stopping Kanon’s madness without killing him, and succeeds.
While the Blade Children and the Narumi family are recovering in the hospital, Eyes takes it upon himself to explain everything he knew to little Narumi - about the Blade Children Project, about the fight between the “Devil” Mizushiro Yaiba and “God”, Kiyotaka Narumi, as well as Ayumu’s role in the upcoming fight between himself and his own counterpart, Hizumi, and of how Kiyotaka claimed that Ayumu has the power to save the Blade Children of their curse. It would not be long before Hizumi himself appeared, and to everyone’s surprise as he explains in his first visit with Kanon, becomes great friends with Ayumu. It is something that Eyes does not know what to make out of, especially with the logic Kiyotaka had given them up until that point.
Personality:
"This guy’s like a swan. Even though he paddles like crazy beneath the water... he never lets on..."
On the outside, Eyes appears to be cold, haughty and unapproachable, something that is partly the result of achieving celebrity status. He might even come off as a rather cold person with his neutral, almost unchanging expression, intimidating aura and sharp blue eyes incapable of shedding tears. If there is someone standing in the way of his goal he will not hesitate to kill them ruthlessly, for inside his mind he has inherited the deadly calculating skills, intelligence and charisma as his father, making him out to be a perfect successor to the Yaiba bloodstrain. Best of all, no one suspects him of any of this, allowing him to do the deeds from the shadows freely despite his high profile in the spotlight.
If only that were all there was to him.
Beneath that carefully built exterior is a young man begging and clinging to hope, desperate to save his friends from the frightening fate set out for them by their father. Eyes is a person who is actively working against time and the threads of fate, seeking out a means so that he and the others can stay themselves, rather than forget who they are and become avatars of Yaiba. The safety and well-being of the other Blade Children will always be his top priority, and for the Blade Children closest to him, their happiness. One example is his relationship with Rio, whom despite being younger than her he treats her as a big brother would his kid sister, visiting her often when she's hospitalized and bringing her expensive net-patterned melons. He also tolerates and is patient with Kousuke, despite how aggressive and hostile the other can become with him. Ryouko, too, is important to him regardless of how much she hates him and his expressionless face. Each and every one of them is important to Eyes, most of all his childhood friend and brother, Kanon. Around him, Eyes is not afraid to give a hint of a smile or warm up, it can be said that Kanon is the one most capable of eliciting the most emotion from Eyes. The lengths he goes to keep the others alive has been called almost 'cowardly' by Ayumu, who noted Eyes' determination to save the others and his deep hope kept him from killing the other Blade Children and himself to save them from losing themselves for what might be in vain.
Yet regardless of how soft he may seem, Eyes is not afraid to be ruthless if the end results fit to his purposes, as shown when he actively tests Ayumu when they first meet, trying to prove and discover whether Kiyotaka's brother really was capable of saving the Blade Children. Even when Ayumu does prove himself and awakens as a God of Salvation, Eyes is reluctant to accept it, since he had believed Ayumu to be incompetent and incapable of saving the BlaChi, showing that it takes a lot to prove to Eyes that someone is worthy of his trust. But once he does accept Ayumu, he begins to believe in him unconditionally, displaying his deep sense of hope.
While he is capable of standing on his own, he comes to rely on Kanon heavily, acting as his second-in-command until Kanon betrays their group and turns toward the side of the Hunters. Despite these scarring actions, Eyes steps up and becomes the unofficial leader of the group, using his connections and resources to execute his plans alongside the others. He fits the role so flawlessly that you would find it hard to believe that he truly is the youngest of the Blade Children. Whatever the situation is, he tries his damn hardest to see to it that the goal is fulfilled, such as when he foresaw that Ryouko would challenge him to a ball game in order for her to give him her help, thus practicing for it in secret despite the risk of losing his ability to play piano, which is something he holds very dear to him. When she pointed this out to him, he told her that her help 'was worth that much to me,' showing that inside, he's really not a bad person despite how hateful he really is with his mechanizations.
Unlike his anime counterpart, Eyes holds a rather dark sense of humor, displayed early on when he is asked by a reporter how he began to play the piano. While Eyes tells him the truth, he then tells the reporter that he is joking. Cynical and sarcastic tend to be his way to go about things the few times he is in a joking mood, though sometimes he is humorous without meaning to be, usually after a blunt and deadpan remark. The few times he becomes visibly annoyed is when he is compared to Ayumu in regards to how despite their seemingly uncaring attitudes, they really do care and are doing their best for everybody at the cost of their own happiness.
Strengths:
Physical: Eyes is more agile and slightly more quick than the average Blade Child, thus making him a level faster than a member of the generation of humans before him. He is proficient with firearms, having received some basic training under the tutelage of Evangeline Hilbert, and afterward from Kanon. He does well with large or standing targets, and also good with using small knives as weapons, though his preferred weapon is piano wire. Like all other Blade Children he knows how to kill, and do it well, but he manages to restrain himself due to his determination to avoid his destiny. Best of all, he knows how to fight out of situations and get out alive. As a master pianist, the best only after Kiyotaka Narumi himself, he is fast and nimble with his fingers, and is thoroughly ambidextrous with both hands. He's also fairly attractive in his world. :|a
Mental: When it comes to stressing situations, Eyes is the best person to handle the tasks without blinking an eye - and he probably won't, since he his mind is so clear of distractions that would deter him from his goal. His mind is always on how to come out with as many Blade Children alive as possible, and to eliminate any enemies that get in the way. He works as the strategist for his fellow Blade Children, often being the one to give common as their unofficial leader once Kanon leaves the group. He also has an aura about him that, when initiated, puts his opponents at disease. As Ryouko put it, he catches his enemies with that aura, and once they are wide-eyed in his grasp he snipes them down, showing the same charisma and ability to turn the variable of the situation in his favor as his father did.
He inherited a share of Yaiba's intelligence, and is gifted with it in his own right. His training as a pianist has put him in a mode of thinking so that while his body is carrying out one action, his mind is already gearing for the next several steps ahead of the ongoing situation. Also, he is outright stubborn and strong of mind, proven by the fact that he refused to die when he was stabbed by Kanon, instead going into a coma for several days as his body recovered. He also chooses his words very careful when he does speak.
Emotional: As evidenced by the fact that his face is almost always in a neutral position, Eyes is very good at controlling his emotions, to the point that any large display of emotion from him can be seen as jarring and outrageous. It was developed as a means to deal with his destiny as a Blade Child, for he knew that if he allowed his emotions to control him he would never be able to survive as his friends continued to die and be taken away from him, nor would he be of any use in helping his friends who survived. Despite this method he has adopted, Eyes is truly a gentle, kind person who values the lives of the other Blade Children regardless of whether he talks to them regularly or not. If he believes in something or trusts someone, he does it with all his heart and being and is willing to forgive a person for their wrongdoing, even if it isn't obvious given his usual demeanor. Eyes will not give up hope that his remaining brothers and sisters can be saved from their fate.
Weaknesses:
Physical: As fast as he is, Eyes actually has a fairly fragile body in comparison to his fellows, and even to some people who aren't Blade Children. He also has difficulty with moving targets, as evidenced by the make toward the end of Vol. #. An ailment he shares with the other Blade Children is a missing seventh rib on his right side, which was removed at birth to prove his bloodline to the great Yaiba. Once it was removed the cut was stitched up in a way so that it would deliberately cause the Children chronic, stabbing pains so that they would not forget their destiny and help to usher in the madness once their 'switch' is pressed. Eyes is by no means an exception, and he is seen suffering from this old wound far more often than his comrades, only expressing the pain outwardly if he is alone. In addition to this, there is the stab wound to the heart he received when he met up with Kanon barely two weeks ago. While he tries to not let it slow him down, it was grave enough that he had to be hospitalized again shortly after Festival, and it proves to be an Achilles’ heel later on when Ayumu deliberately punches him in that area to knock him out and escape his care.
As a pianist and as a Blade Child, his fingers are very important to him. If he were to lose them, it is likely that he would lose nearly everything of meaning to him.
Mental: Eyes seems to sometimes think little of others, looking down on them because he thinks them to be stupid or just plain dull.
Emotional: Eyes is too soft, kind and perhaps trusting, it is precisely because of this that he ends up being stabbed and placed in a coma whilst he fights to live. His friends, while being his greatest support, are also his downfall. He himself proves this when he tells Kanon that if he were to be the one to kill him, his 'switch' would be flipped and he would go mad with anger and grief. He has also forced away his emotions to the point that he almost never feels them excessively, or to the point that a normal person would, in his journey to become 'a demon who sheds no tears.' Only once does he ever cry, when he turns away from helping Kanon to eliminate the other Blade Children in Festival and bids his brother goodbye. Not even when Kanon is killed later on in the manga does he cry, though he does punch a computer monitor in quiet anger when asked by Kirie if he had nothing to say about the situation, proving that if he hadn't learned to shut away his emotions so well by then that he would have become a very violent person, perhaps even had his 'switch' pressed.
In addition, he sometimes carries a 'higher-than-thou' attitude, scoffing at Ayumu often and belittling him for his inferior ability in comparison to him and his brethren, sometimes to the point of arrogance. He's so sure of himself that later on it leads to him being caught off guard and tied to Ayumu's kitchen table. He also hates to be compared to Ayumu, these incidents being the few times he outwardly expresses his annoyance.
1. What is your biggest flaw?
I'd rather not share something as dangerous as this. [Though he knows full well what it is, Kanon had proven it to him not so long ago. He was too soft and trusting for his own good, but he doesn't regret this flaw in the slightest.]
2. Do you care about other people, or would you rather not deal with them?
To be direct, most others outside of us Blade Children are simply humans who are to be dealt with appropriately. I'd rather not involve those who have no need to be.
3. How do you think you perform in a crisis?
Calm, as would be expected no matter what turn the crisis at hand takes. The others look to me to lead them, so I must fulfill their expectations of that.
4. What do you like most about yourself?
… What is your goal with this question? Even if I were to chose a trait, I'd say that it would hardly matter unless it benefits God's plan, don't you agree? [In truth, he wasn't sure of what he liked about himself. It was hard to determine when all your life you've lived with the knowledge that you are to become an avatar of the Devil, and thus had your outlook shaped by that truth.]
5. Who or what has influenced most of your life decisions?
Kanon and the fate that awaits us if Narumi Junior does not succeed. I don't need to be told of how much different our lives would be had we not been born.
6. If the sky could be any colour, what colour would you like it to be?
…………….… Red. [Perhaps because it was so similar to blood or simply because it was pleasing to his eyes, he had always been fond of that colour.]
Third Person:
Thin, pale fingers glided over the ivory and ebony keys of the piano, pressing down upon them with a strong yet gentle force that would coax sweet, clear sound from them. He wasn’t attempting to play any piece in particular, simply allowing for his hands to move of their own accord, though perhaps it would be best if he put more thought into what he was playing. After all, if he were not careful those urges would begin to rise again, which would be the last thing he would want to experience so strongly in such a stressful situation.
Closing his eyes he mulled over the time he had spent here thus far, in this unfamiliar land of which he had never heard of. He allowed for the chatter of the diners to fade away from his mind until all he was left with were his thoughts and the sound of the piano at which he sat. How absurd it was that so soon after the incident with Kanon and his festival, he would find himself spirited away, and so soon after Narumi junior had come to meet Hizumi. It truly was an ill time to disappear. What would the others do, in his absence? While he had no doubts about their ability to take care of themselves, he couldn’t help but worry in that quiet, unsuspecting way he always did. The change could hardly be any good for his recovering health.
Releasing a long, slow and heavy breath he draws his hands away from the keys, pulling the cover over them gingerly as he stands up from the bench and looks at the people in the restaurant around him, all trapped here alongside him. He knew not what to think of them, nor whether they would make for good allies during his stay here. And if he stayed here as long as some claimed they had, what would happen? After all, he was quickly approaching twenty, the exact age his father had received his oracle to destroy humanity.
With this though weighing on his mind he made his way to the door and walked out, ignoring the people about him who were ignorant of his curse. Like always, he could only hope that the same would not be asked of him.
Name: Alsenei
Livejournal Username: alsenei
E-mail: isshokara [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN: alsenei
Current Characters at Luceti: Tear Grants (seleniahymn), Kaori Iwanoki (seiriald)
Character
Name: Eyes Rutherford
Fandom: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (manga-verse)
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: Once he's out of the hospital, post-Festival Arc
Wing Color: Ivory
History: WARNING. This app will contain spoilers for nearly all of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning.
Many years ago, there was born a man to a Japanese couple whom everyone believed would someday lead human society into a golden era of peace and prosperity. As a child he displayed vast amounts of intelligence, physical prowess and charisma that were beyond that of the average human, enchanting everyone he met and drawing them into good favor as he excelled at anything his mind was placed to. He was like an angel, and he believed that he was given power so that he would one day help humanity to prosper, for it seemed that whatever this man wanted, it was willed into being, as thought he were protected by the divine. The name of this man was Mizushiro Yaiba. However, when he turned 20, Yaiba received an oracle that finally explained why he was born with inexplicable power:
With this power, he would destroy humanity, just as the homo sapiens sapiens destroyed the Neanderthals before them. Since he had grown up learning how to act in society prior to receiving the oracle, Yaiba knew how to hide himself so he could continue to use his influence as he wished, all without being suspected of the many murders he was beginning to commit.
Using his influence, Yaiba set into motion a plan to mass-produce his children as test tube babies, using the in vitro techniques of the day. Many were for the project, for if Yaiba alone could do so much good for society, how wonderful would it be if at least ten of his children inherited his great traits? An ideal world would be within their grasp, using Yaiba's bloodstrain. Thus the project was set into motion regardless of all ethics protests against it, with many women applying for the honor of carrying one of Yaiba's children. The project was therefore called the "Blade Children Project," for Yaiba could mean 'blade.'
In the end, eighty children were born and sent to live with their biological mothers, being carefully watched and monitored to see if any would show the gifts that their father held. All eighty of the children did, without one single exception. They would woo people with their talents and intelligence in the same manner their father did when he was young, prior to when he received his oracle. The knowledge that there was not a single exception began to frighten several members of the society, for they had begun to notice that Yaiba had always seemed to look at others in a hostile and distasteful way, sometimes outright stating that he hated other humans when asked. They began to fear what his true intentions were, and whether they had just had a hand in creating the ones who would destroy the human race, just as humans did to the Neanderthals. They began to question what to do with the eighty children, whether they should be killed or allowed to live, especially with a second and third wave of Blade Children being planned.
”My will is to wipe out mankind. My blood will pass along that will. When mature, the Blade Children will bring about the annihilation of man. There is no escape.”
”I’m bored, so I’m making my task a little more challenging.”
This single declaration by Yaiba, told to those who opposed him with a smile when the idea of killing the children began to form ground was enough to hasten the division. After all, Yaiba was intentionally making the sport of human genocide more fun for himself by telling them his plan to eliminate them in the same manner as a long-dormant virus, a cancer or the Trojan Horse of legend. He was absolute, and had nothing to fear.
Thus the society began to split into three factions:
- The Hunters who felt alarmed by by the project and by Yaiba’s very existence, and thus were focused on purging the Earth of him and his children as quickly as possible. They were the ones who looked toward the future.
- The Watchers, who insisted that the experiment was not done yet, thus opting to watch over and continue observing Yaiba and the children. They were the ones who found the project and the idea of eugenics hard to believe.
- The Savers, who supported Yaiba in everything he did and promoted the second and third phases of the project. They believed Yaiba’s threat to be nothing but a false rumour.
The second and third waves of the project were put on hold as the society feuded amongst themselves, with Yaiba being entertained by the chaos the whole time. However, the eighty Blade Children with their seventh right rib missing were suddenly placed in danger when the Hunters began to seek them out and kill them before their invincible wits and talent fully developed. Despite being so young, they were smart enough to figure out what was going on and what their situation was, witnessing many of the brutal deaths and narrowly escaping escalating attempts on their lives. More than twenty Blade Children have been killed, but not a single person was able to kill Yaiba, not even when attempting to shoot him at point-blank range. Nothing worked against him.
Right when the second phase of the Blade Children project was about to begin and the Hunters were driven into corners, a lone twenty year old Japanese man appeared. And he killed Yaiba, just like that. The seventh rib Yaiba had been missing at birth was used to create the one who would be his opposing force and the one to eliminate him, Kiyotaka Narumi, one as god-like and invincible as Yaiba himself. It was assumed that afterward Yaiba’s descendants would be killed and humanity would be saved. But Kiyotaka could not kill the children, and instead provided them with a new hope that they could, perhaps, be saved. This hope comes in the form of his younger brother, Ayumu Narumi, who had the same god-like powers as Kiyotaka, but was always in his shadow. Due to this hope, nearly everyone was willing to put off the decision of total annihilation, with some even switching sides.
Regardless, the now six-year-old children were still hunted, and for some their ‘switch,’ the order which would fully awaken the murderous intent they inherited from Yaiba, would be flipped due to the stress and other outside factors. Since they did not yet have fully matured minds, bodies or the skills with which to hide in society and stay in control just as their father did, they would become pure monsters.
Thus the children are forced to battle to survive with the false hope that when the time comes, Ayumu Narumi would save them.
Eyes Rutherford, a quarter-English young man is but one of the surviving subjects of the Blade Children Project, the youngest of all eighty born. And just like his blood kin, his seventh rib was surgically removed from his right side, the mark that he is one descended from Mizushiro Yaiba. Like his father before him he exhibits wonderful intelligence, charisma and physical genius, with all of them exhibiting themselves from an early age. But Eyes proved to be much more talented than the other children, which also meant that he noticed death a lot more sooner as the circumstances of his birth coincided with the happenings of the world around him. His earliest memory, at the tender age of three, is of watching a row of ants walk by. One by one he would pick them up and crush them for an unknown number of hours. Afterwards it began to escalate to larger insects such as butterflies and grasshoppers, killing them for the sheer love and pleasure of it. This came to include strangling the family husky with piano wire once he was five years old. Fearful of her son’s behavior, his mother began to force him to start playing the piano to keep him occupied and attempt to quell his bloodlust. Not long afterward his destiny as a Blade Child was revealed upon the death of his father, Mizushiro Yaiba. Eyes would be hunted down as he attempted to calm his killing urges playing the piano, being exposed to the bloodshed and watching his friends die.
While all the other Blade Children were technically his older brothers and sisters, there was only one whom he addressed as such: Kanon Hilbert, the half-German son of his mother’s best friend, Evangeline Hilbert. He would be the one who would teach Eyes how to fight and survive, among many other things as he took on the role of ‘big brother’ and ‘best friend’ to the younger, therefore becoming the person closest to him.
When he was seven years old, Eyes suffered from the tragedy of his mother’s unexpected death in a car accident. While he and Kanon visited her grave, Kanon told him that it was okay to cry, commenting that in all the years he had known Eyes, he had never once seen him cry, declaring it sad when Eyes was such a kind person. Eyes responded that tears would not change anything, that it would be better for him to become a demon who shed neither blood nor tears, so long as Kanon was beside him to cry in his place. It was not long after that Kiyotaka Narumi would present the Blade Children with a ray of hope: his younger brother, Ayumu. Eyes clung to the small hope, only to have it proven to be false just as he had suspected, for just as Kiyotaka had had an opposite in Yaiba, so did Ayumu: Mizushiro Hizumi, the younger brother of Yaiba and the one who would crush their hope. Despite this, Eyes kept the secret from the other Blade Children so that they could continue to have that small hope in Ayumu.
Once he was fourteen, Eyes made his musical debut and quickly rose as a celebrated pianist, second only to the god Kiyotaka Narumi himself. But despite being a celebrity, he still lived the cursed life of a Blade Child. It wasn’t until he was seventeen when the bonds of reasoning began to come together. He traveled to Japan, and upon arrival he immediately demanded, on live television, that the brother of Kiyotaka Narumi be brought to him. Once they met he was disappointed to see how pathetic the person who was their ‘hope’ was, and decided that he would test him with no regards to his life using a mind puzzle and a timed bomb. Ayumu was able to diffuse the bomb with the help of his companion, Hiyono Yuizaki, forcing Eyes to eventually accept him as a possible hope for his brethren, especially when he proved himself time and time again against the tests of the other Blade Children.
However, there was one threat that Eyes had his mind occupied with. His brother and best friend, Kanon, sided with the Hunters to kill off the remaining Blade Children. Despite all of his efforts, Eyes failed to persuade him to change his mind, his brother calling him shortly before his arrival in Japan as a Hunter. Eyes was offered to join him, but once again refused to turn his back on his fellows and told Kanon that he would be the one to stop him from destroying them. He did, however, go to the airport to meet Kanon, and it is there that he is stabbed in the heart by his friend, right after being told that he is too soft for his own good. Yet despite the mortal injury, Eyes does not die, instead falling into a coma for several days, a fact that deeply shakes Kanon and his resolve. Regardless, Kanon still went on to carry out his ‘festival,’ a plan to take Tsukiomi High School, where most of the Blade Children had been relocated, and gather his blood kin in order to slaughter them all at once, killing himself in the end.
When he awakes after the festival has started, Eyes strikes a deal with the wife of Kiyotaka Narumi, Madoka, to take him to the school. There he encounters Kirie Tsuchiya, a Watcher with whom he is in regular contact with and who acts as a medium between the BlaChi and the remaining society Yaiba led. On Kanon’s request she gives Eyes a phone so that he may talk to Kanon, who once again offers him to join him so that they can be together once more. Once again Eyes refuses, and in that phone call he gives Kanon his theory about why his switch was pressed, saying that it was because he had met Hizumi. He tells his brother that even though they are doomed to a cursed existence, he will continue to hope as he begins to cry for the first time, bidding goodbye to his brother. From inside the school as a hostage, Ayumu summons forth Eyes by playing the third of Franz Liszt’s Poetic and Religious Harmonies, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude - The Blessing of God in Solitude, a song that has deep meaning to a person like Eyes. Therefore Eyes goes to him to fulfill his role in stopping Kanon’s madness without killing him, and succeeds.
While the Blade Children and the Narumi family are recovering in the hospital, Eyes takes it upon himself to explain everything he knew to little Narumi - about the Blade Children Project, about the fight between the “Devil” Mizushiro Yaiba and “God”, Kiyotaka Narumi, as well as Ayumu’s role in the upcoming fight between himself and his own counterpart, Hizumi, and of how Kiyotaka claimed that Ayumu has the power to save the Blade Children of their curse. It would not be long before Hizumi himself appeared, and to everyone’s surprise as he explains in his first visit with Kanon, becomes great friends with Ayumu. It is something that Eyes does not know what to make out of, especially with the logic Kiyotaka had given them up until that point.
Personality:
"This guy’s like a swan. Even though he paddles like crazy beneath the water... he never lets on..."
On the outside, Eyes appears to be cold, haughty and unapproachable, something that is partly the result of achieving celebrity status. He might even come off as a rather cold person with his neutral, almost unchanging expression, intimidating aura and sharp blue eyes incapable of shedding tears. If there is someone standing in the way of his goal he will not hesitate to kill them ruthlessly, for inside his mind he has inherited the deadly calculating skills, intelligence and charisma as his father, making him out to be a perfect successor to the Yaiba bloodstrain. Best of all, no one suspects him of any of this, allowing him to do the deeds from the shadows freely despite his high profile in the spotlight.
If only that were all there was to him.
Beneath that carefully built exterior is a young man begging and clinging to hope, desperate to save his friends from the frightening fate set out for them by their father. Eyes is a person who is actively working against time and the threads of fate, seeking out a means so that he and the others can stay themselves, rather than forget who they are and become avatars of Yaiba. The safety and well-being of the other Blade Children will always be his top priority, and for the Blade Children closest to him, their happiness. One example is his relationship with Rio, whom despite being younger than her he treats her as a big brother would his kid sister, visiting her often when she's hospitalized and bringing her expensive net-patterned melons. He also tolerates and is patient with Kousuke, despite how aggressive and hostile the other can become with him. Ryouko, too, is important to him regardless of how much she hates him and his expressionless face. Each and every one of them is important to Eyes, most of all his childhood friend and brother, Kanon. Around him, Eyes is not afraid to give a hint of a smile or warm up, it can be said that Kanon is the one most capable of eliciting the most emotion from Eyes. The lengths he goes to keep the others alive has been called almost 'cowardly' by Ayumu, who noted Eyes' determination to save the others and his deep hope kept him from killing the other Blade Children and himself to save them from losing themselves for what might be in vain.
Yet regardless of how soft he may seem, Eyes is not afraid to be ruthless if the end results fit to his purposes, as shown when he actively tests Ayumu when they first meet, trying to prove and discover whether Kiyotaka's brother really was capable of saving the Blade Children. Even when Ayumu does prove himself and awakens as a God of Salvation, Eyes is reluctant to accept it, since he had believed Ayumu to be incompetent and incapable of saving the BlaChi, showing that it takes a lot to prove to Eyes that someone is worthy of his trust. But once he does accept Ayumu, he begins to believe in him unconditionally, displaying his deep sense of hope.
While he is capable of standing on his own, he comes to rely on Kanon heavily, acting as his second-in-command until Kanon betrays their group and turns toward the side of the Hunters. Despite these scarring actions, Eyes steps up and becomes the unofficial leader of the group, using his connections and resources to execute his plans alongside the others. He fits the role so flawlessly that you would find it hard to believe that he truly is the youngest of the Blade Children. Whatever the situation is, he tries his damn hardest to see to it that the goal is fulfilled, such as when he foresaw that Ryouko would challenge him to a ball game in order for her to give him her help, thus practicing for it in secret despite the risk of losing his ability to play piano, which is something he holds very dear to him. When she pointed this out to him, he told her that her help 'was worth that much to me,' showing that inside, he's really not a bad person despite how hateful he really is with his mechanizations.
Unlike his anime counterpart, Eyes holds a rather dark sense of humor, displayed early on when he is asked by a reporter how he began to play the piano. While Eyes tells him the truth, he then tells the reporter that he is joking. Cynical and sarcastic tend to be his way to go about things the few times he is in a joking mood, though sometimes he is humorous without meaning to be, usually after a blunt and deadpan remark. The few times he becomes visibly annoyed is when he is compared to Ayumu in regards to how despite their seemingly uncaring attitudes, they really do care and are doing their best for everybody at the cost of their own happiness.
Strengths:
Physical: Eyes is more agile and slightly more quick than the average Blade Child, thus making him a level faster than a member of the generation of humans before him. He is proficient with firearms, having received some basic training under the tutelage of Evangeline Hilbert, and afterward from Kanon. He does well with large or standing targets, and also good with using small knives as weapons, though his preferred weapon is piano wire. Like all other Blade Children he knows how to kill, and do it well, but he manages to restrain himself due to his determination to avoid his destiny. Best of all, he knows how to fight out of situations and get out alive. As a master pianist, the best only after Kiyotaka Narumi himself, he is fast and nimble with his fingers, and is thoroughly ambidextrous with both hands. He's also fairly attractive in his world. :|a
Mental: When it comes to stressing situations, Eyes is the best person to handle the tasks without blinking an eye - and he probably won't, since he his mind is so clear of distractions that would deter him from his goal. His mind is always on how to come out with as many Blade Children alive as possible, and to eliminate any enemies that get in the way. He works as the strategist for his fellow Blade Children, often being the one to give common as their unofficial leader once Kanon leaves the group. He also has an aura about him that, when initiated, puts his opponents at disease. As Ryouko put it, he catches his enemies with that aura, and once they are wide-eyed in his grasp he snipes them down, showing the same charisma and ability to turn the variable of the situation in his favor as his father did.
He inherited a share of Yaiba's intelligence, and is gifted with it in his own right. His training as a pianist has put him in a mode of thinking so that while his body is carrying out one action, his mind is already gearing for the next several steps ahead of the ongoing situation. Also, he is outright stubborn and strong of mind, proven by the fact that he refused to die when he was stabbed by Kanon, instead going into a coma for several days as his body recovered. He also chooses his words very careful when he does speak.
Emotional: As evidenced by the fact that his face is almost always in a neutral position, Eyes is very good at controlling his emotions, to the point that any large display of emotion from him can be seen as jarring and outrageous. It was developed as a means to deal with his destiny as a Blade Child, for he knew that if he allowed his emotions to control him he would never be able to survive as his friends continued to die and be taken away from him, nor would he be of any use in helping his friends who survived. Despite this method he has adopted, Eyes is truly a gentle, kind person who values the lives of the other Blade Children regardless of whether he talks to them regularly or not. If he believes in something or trusts someone, he does it with all his heart and being and is willing to forgive a person for their wrongdoing, even if it isn't obvious given his usual demeanor. Eyes will not give up hope that his remaining brothers and sisters can be saved from their fate.
Weaknesses:
Physical: As fast as he is, Eyes actually has a fairly fragile body in comparison to his fellows, and even to some people who aren't Blade Children. He also has difficulty with moving targets, as evidenced by the make toward the end of Vol. #. An ailment he shares with the other Blade Children is a missing seventh rib on his right side, which was removed at birth to prove his bloodline to the great Yaiba. Once it was removed the cut was stitched up in a way so that it would deliberately cause the Children chronic, stabbing pains so that they would not forget their destiny and help to usher in the madness once their 'switch' is pressed. Eyes is by no means an exception, and he is seen suffering from this old wound far more often than his comrades, only expressing the pain outwardly if he is alone. In addition to this, there is the stab wound to the heart he received when he met up with Kanon barely two weeks ago. While he tries to not let it slow him down, it was grave enough that he had to be hospitalized again shortly after Festival, and it proves to be an Achilles’ heel later on when Ayumu deliberately punches him in that area to knock him out and escape his care.
As a pianist and as a Blade Child, his fingers are very important to him. If he were to lose them, it is likely that he would lose nearly everything of meaning to him.
Mental: Eyes seems to sometimes think little of others, looking down on them because he thinks them to be stupid or just plain dull.
Emotional: Eyes is too soft, kind and perhaps trusting, it is precisely because of this that he ends up being stabbed and placed in a coma whilst he fights to live. His friends, while being his greatest support, are also his downfall. He himself proves this when he tells Kanon that if he were to be the one to kill him, his 'switch' would be flipped and he would go mad with anger and grief. He has also forced away his emotions to the point that he almost never feels them excessively, or to the point that a normal person would, in his journey to become 'a demon who sheds no tears.' Only once does he ever cry, when he turns away from helping Kanon to eliminate the other Blade Children in Festival and bids his brother goodbye. Not even when Kanon is killed later on in the manga does he cry, though he does punch a computer monitor in quiet anger when asked by Kirie if he had nothing to say about the situation, proving that if he hadn't learned to shut away his emotions so well by then that he would have become a very violent person, perhaps even had his 'switch' pressed.
In addition, he sometimes carries a 'higher-than-thou' attitude, scoffing at Ayumu often and belittling him for his inferior ability in comparison to him and his brethren, sometimes to the point of arrogance. He's so sure of himself that later on it leads to him being caught off guard and tied to Ayumu's kitchen table. He also hates to be compared to Ayumu, these incidents being the few times he outwardly expresses his annoyance.
1. What is your biggest flaw?
I'd rather not share something as dangerous as this. [Though he knows full well what it is, Kanon had proven it to him not so long ago. He was too soft and trusting for his own good, but he doesn't regret this flaw in the slightest.]
2. Do you care about other people, or would you rather not deal with them?
To be direct, most others outside of us Blade Children are simply humans who are to be dealt with appropriately. I'd rather not involve those who have no need to be.
3. How do you think you perform in a crisis?
Calm, as would be expected no matter what turn the crisis at hand takes. The others look to me to lead them, so I must fulfill their expectations of that.
4. What do you like most about yourself?
… What is your goal with this question? Even if I were to chose a trait, I'd say that it would hardly matter unless it benefits God's plan, don't you agree? [In truth, he wasn't sure of what he liked about himself. It was hard to determine when all your life you've lived with the knowledge that you are to become an avatar of the Devil, and thus had your outlook shaped by that truth.]
5. Who or what has influenced most of your life decisions?
Kanon and the fate that awaits us if Narumi Junior does not succeed. I don't need to be told of how much different our lives would be had we not been born.
6. If the sky could be any colour, what colour would you like it to be?
…………….… Red. [Perhaps because it was so similar to blood or simply because it was pleasing to his eyes, he had always been fond of that colour.]
Third Person:
Thin, pale fingers glided over the ivory and ebony keys of the piano, pressing down upon them with a strong yet gentle force that would coax sweet, clear sound from them. He wasn’t attempting to play any piece in particular, simply allowing for his hands to move of their own accord, though perhaps it would be best if he put more thought into what he was playing. After all, if he were not careful those urges would begin to rise again, which would be the last thing he would want to experience so strongly in such a stressful situation.
Closing his eyes he mulled over the time he had spent here thus far, in this unfamiliar land of which he had never heard of. He allowed for the chatter of the diners to fade away from his mind until all he was left with were his thoughts and the sound of the piano at which he sat. How absurd it was that so soon after the incident with Kanon and his festival, he would find himself spirited away, and so soon after Narumi junior had come to meet Hizumi. It truly was an ill time to disappear. What would the others do, in his absence? While he had no doubts about their ability to take care of themselves, he couldn’t help but worry in that quiet, unsuspecting way he always did. The change could hardly be any good for his recovering health.
Releasing a long, slow and heavy breath he draws his hands away from the keys, pulling the cover over them gingerly as he stands up from the bench and looks at the people in the restaurant around him, all trapped here alongside him. He knew not what to think of them, nor whether they would make for good allies during his stay here. And if he stayed here as long as some claimed they had, what would happen? After all, he was quickly approaching twenty, the exact age his father had received his oracle to destroy humanity.
With this though weighing on his mind he made his way to the door and walked out, ignoring the people about him who were ignorant of his curse. Like always, he could only hope that the same would not be asked of him.