nagi kengamine; 1/10? man idklordsummerAugust 18 2010, 22:33:31 UTC
Name: BF Personal LJ: lordsummer Contact Info: AIM: blazing folly, email: ryn_mca@yahoo.com Other Characters Played: Currently pooka_prince, when_in_me, and diaf_askeladd. Preferred Housing: Empty house for now, I'm thinking.
Character Name: Nagi Kengamine Character Series: Deadman Wonderland Character Age: Mid-to-late-thirties. Background: Like all Deadman Wonderland characters, Nagi's life is a whirlwind of tragedy and suffering inflicted on a perfectly good person for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Fun times!
First, a quick background on the setting: ten years' prior to the series' opening, a massive earthquake devastated Tokyo, obliterating the city and heavily decimating Japan's stability and economy. In order to get the country back on its feet, a gigantic prison/theme park was constructed atop the ruins, meant to both combat the increasing rising crime rate after the earthquake and to stimulate the economy. This facility, a theme park operated by its own prisoners, was christened "Deadman Wonderland".
Unbeknownst to the general population, DW's true purpose was far more sinister (as if the initial premise wasn't sinister enough as is). The parts about combating crime and stimulating the economy were true, but also meant to mask the facility's real objective: to contain the "Deadmen", survivors of the Tokyo earthquake who, through some unknown means, had developed a sort of superpower. Known as "Branches of Sin", these powers allowed Deadmen to control and manipulate their own blood in unique ways. Protagonist Ganta Igarashi, for example, can fire his blood out of his hands like a gun. The existence of the Deadmen frightened the authorities of Japan, who ruled that it would be better to capture and hide them from the public.
Those who exhibited Branches of Sin were rounded up and sentenced to DW, regardless of whether or not they had actually committed any crime. Once there, they were assigned to "Sector G", a hidden area of the prison concealed from the public and even most of the prison staff. Like all death row prisoners, the Deadmen of Sector G were fitted with collars that constantly pumped a lethal poison into their bodies. The only way to survive the poison was to eat the antidote "candy" at least once every three days, and the only way to obtain the candy was to purchase it with Cast Points. How to earn Cast Points, you ask? Simple! COMPETE IN DEADLY LIFE-OR-DEATH GLADIATORIAL GAMES FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF THE PRISON'S ANONYMOUS INVESTORS. Welcome to Deadman Wonderland.
Deadmen, however, were forced to participate in an additional game. Known as the "Carnival Corpse", this game pitted two Deadmen against each other in the ring. The winner obtained Cast Points, while the loser would have a random body part removed as determined by a slot machine. Without anesthetic, of course. This practice, sadly, would prove to ruin Nagi Kengamine's life.
nagi kengamine; 2/10? man idklordsummerAugust 18 2010, 22:35:43 UTC
Not that it hadn't been ruined enough, of course. We don't really know anything about Nagi's life prior to his imprisonment in Sector G, but his status as a Deadman means he was involved somehow with the Tokyo Earthquake. He developed the Branch of Sin known as the "Owl's Eyeball", and became known as the Owl as a result. If he had any family or friends on the outside, he doesn't seem particularly concerned with them. Rather, Nagi developed a family within DW: he fell in love with a female Deadman, and the two conceived a child. Although they weren't exactly able to get married within the prison, Nagi proposed anyway, and for the first time since their arrival in the twisted nightmare of Deadman Wonderland, the two were happy.
THIS BEING DEADMAN WONDERLAND, of course, it was not to last. Because Fate hates Nagi Kengamine, he and his wife were pitted against each other for a Carnival Corpse. Panicking and not exactly thinking clearly, Nagi made a bad decision: he tried to appeal to Promoter Tamaki's mercy, hoping that the man would take pity on them and call off the fight. Unfortunately for Nagi, Tamaki is truly the greatest of Smug Snakes and refused, forcing them to fight. Nagi, seeing no other option, attempted to throw the fight, preferring to be maimed or killed rather than lose his newfound family.
He actually did a pretty convincing job of losing on purpose! But sadly, his earlier plea to Tamaki had aroused the man's suspicions. Nagi had his vocal cords removed, but after the process was complete, Tamaki declared that the Carnival Corpse did not allow for cheaters, and that Nagi's wife would undergo the loser's punishment as well. Fearing for her unborn child, she attempted to make a break for it, only to be cut down by Tamaki's right-hand-man: the self-proclaimed "super monk" Genkaku, a member of the Anti-Deadman Corps known as the "Undertakers". She was killed before Nagi's eyes; without his voice, he couldn't even scream as he held her corpse.
Yeah, it's that kind of series.
And here is where Nagi's memories began to get a bit blurry. After awakening later, he somehow managed to convince himself that although his wife was dead, his son had been born safely and delivered to the outside world, and that the only way to see him would be to bring down Tamaki and escape the prison. To that end, Nagi swore that he would not stop until Deadman Wonderland was exposed to the public, and that he would fight until the day he could see his child again.
nagi kengamine; 3/10? man idklordsummerAugust 18 2010, 22:38:15 UTC
After obtaining an artificial voicebox to speak with, Nagi soon began recruiting, starting with a stubborn young woman no one else was able to befriend: the Game Fowl, Karako Koshio. She soon became the second-in-command of the organization the two developed: "Scar Chain", a group of good-aligned Deadmen dedicated to breaking the "chains" of DW. (Karako also developed a rather large crush on him, although exactly how aware of this Nagi was is difficult to determine.) Although initially something of a rag-tag bunch of misfits, Scar Chain quickly came to command a considerable level of power within the prison, with many of its members able to hack into DW's systems and upset the authority. Nagi and his lieutenants began to develop a plan to reveal the truth of the prison to the world at large, and it's here that he enters the story proper.
A new arrival at the prison- the Woodpecker, Ganta Igarashi -was forced into a Carnival Corpse against the Hummingbird, Minatsuki Takami, and won. After the latter's brother broke into the ring and begged for her life, Ganta refused to finish her off despite the fact that she had deceived him and tried to kill him first. When the crowd booed and heckled him, Ganta flipped them off, calling them "dipshits" and proclaiming that he wasn't about to hurt a little girl for their amusement.
Impressed with the fourteen-year-old's courage and integrity, Nagi sought to recruit him into Scar Chain. While one of his agents rigged the Carnival Corpse punishment slot machine, Nagi and Karako went to meet with him. While Ganta was initially reluctant to trust them after being duped by Minatsuki, Nagi quickly earned the boy's thanks by revealing that he and his associates had hacked the slot machine so that Minatsuki's punishment for losing their match would be to lose... her hair. Ganta, who had been terrified of her getting hurt because of him, was immensely relieved, but he was even more overjoyed to find that there were other people in the prison who were sane human beings because that's how much his life sucks.
Then they all needed to be reminded what kind of series this was, as Genkaku emerged from the wall and threw a wounded and bruised Yoh down at their feet. Ganta immediately launched an assault on the Undertaker, only to have his attacks rebuffed somehow. Nagi and Karako steeled themselves to battle the monk, but were saved the effort by Ganta's friend Shiro, who leapt from the ceiling and trashed Genkaku's electric guitar, prompting the man to retreat in tears.
nagi kengamine; 4/10? man idklordsummerAugust 18 2010, 22:42:21 UTC
Nagi brought Ganta and Shiro back to Scar Chain's hideout, introducing them to Rokuro, his left-hand-man and tactical planner. When Ganta mentioned how Genkaku had nullified his attack, the members of Scar Chain were skeptical; Rokuro examined the security footage of the battle, revealing that Ganta's attack had simply missed, despite Ganta swearing up and down that the attack had connected and Genkaku had done something to nullify it. Ganta's frustration over the miscommunication and his skepticism in the face of the group's laid-back attitude led him to leave the group, prompting Nagi to follow him.
Before Nagi could find him again, Ganta was informed about his past, and upon reuniting Nagi explained that the group's joking, lenient attitude was their way of covering for their fears, and that each of them was dedicated to fighting for their own freedoms. Re-inspired, Ganta agreed to help out, and the next day their plan was underway.
Scar Chain had collected a data chip full of information about Deadman Wonderland's shady dealings, and they intended to present it to the government inspector who would be arriving that day. While Nagi and Rokuro distracted the guards, Karako and Ganta would lead a team to bring the chip to the inspector. Everything was going great, Nagi and Rokuro kicked some guard ass, and it looked like things would actually work out... until Nagi tried to access the elevator controls so that Karako and Ganta would be able to continue. Rokuro snidely informed him that the elevators wouldn't be coming, a little girl with a large backpack emerged from the shadows, and that's about where the whole plan went to hell.
Nagi immediately realized Rokuro was a traitor, but the realization came a biiiiit too late to be of use. He came under attack by the little girl, Hibana Daida, who revealed herself to be an Undertaker wielding a gigantic sword. All you really need to know about Hibana can be summed up here.
The sword nullified Nagi's Branch of Sin, and he realized that Ganta had been telling the truth: Rokuro had edited the footage of the boy's battle with Genkaku to mislead Scar Chain into thinking the Undertakers had no such power. Helpless against Hibana's assault, Nagi's arm was nearly severed by her sword, hanging on by a thread. Despite the crippling pain, Nagi calmly ripped off his own arm, proclaiming that if he hadn't been prepared for this level of pain, he wouldn't be embarking on this plan in the first place.
He then proceeded to throw his severed arm at Hibana, punch Rokuro in the face, and get the elevators working while his Branch of Sin orbs exploded around Hibana and he taunted her. It's possibly worth noting that Rokuro had calculated the chances of Nagi successfully doing this, coming up with an answer of 2%.
5/10? man idklordsummerAugust 18 2010, 22:43:50 UTC
Unfortunately, while his little Crowning Moment of Badass was enough to help out Ganta, it wasn't enough to save himself: having lost too much blood, he collapsed. Rokuro revealed the truth: that Tamaki had sent him to infiltrate Scar Chain and guarantee that their plan would fail. To that end, the "data chip" that Ganta was currently racing to bring to the inspector was, in fact, a bomb. This act of gloating would prove to backfire for Rokuro, however: using the radio transmitter in his teeth, Nagi radioed for help, trying to get the message out to anyone that the data chip was a bomb and that they needed to stop Ganta from delivering it. The message was picked up by Ganta's friend Shiro, who immediately ran off to stop him.
BLAH BLAH BLAH stuff happened, the data chip got blown up and there was some Shiro/Ganta drama, Scar Chain was forced to retreat to their base, but meanwhile! Nagi was captured by the Undertakers and tied up by Genkaku, who forced him to listen to his guitar playing in a sick attempt at wooing him. Genkaku, slightly obsessed with Nagi, wanted him to join the Undertakers, much to Nagi's confusion. Genkaku explained that the Undertakers only took in members who "had a few screws loose", and proceeded to inject Nagi with some sort of psychotropic drug. While Nagi shouted that he would never join up with the man who murdered his wife, Genkaku informed him that he was "the craziest guy I know", and that Nagi was "one of us"...
MEANWHILE back at Scar Chain HQ, Karako was just about to launch Operation Rescue Nagi when Rokuro showed up. Rather than continue misleading them to play traitor, Rokuro flipped the fuck out and demanded to know who had fucked up his plans to get all of Scar Chain blown up. A fuckload of Undertakers showed up, and Rokuro announced that he would be holding the members of Scar Chain hostage until Nagi's will broke and he joined up with the Undertakers. First up on the execution list was Ganta, but a Big Damn Heroes moment from Senji turned the tide. Scar Chain turned on their captors, and it looked like things were going well...
Not so well for Nagi, though. He was barely managing to retain consciousness after being pumped full of the drug, but he was still holding out, especially since Scar Chain was no longer in danger. Genkaku, however, had a trick up his sleeve: he began to explain what had really happened two years ago. The influence of the drug began to wear down the mental barriers that Nagi had erected after the incident, and he began to remember the truth he'd been hiding from everyone- including himself.
A week after the execution of his wife, Nagi had burst into the Undertakers' offices and slaughtered 22 men with his bare hands in some kind of berserk rage, tossing organs left and right. They had only just barely managed to contain him, and he had no memory of the incident afterward. Why? What had triggered the attack, and the subsequent memory loss?
Simple: the same reason the locket he wore around his neck was empty. The "son on the outside" that Nagi had been fighting so hard this whole time to see... did not exist, anymore. He'd somehow managed to convince himself that his son had been born safely, but the truth was that his wife had miscarried after she'd been killed. The baby was born prematurely after his wife’s punishment game, and Tamaki had claimed it to experiment on: the child of two Deadmen was a rare thing, after all.
When Nagi finally awoke after his wife's death, he was forcibly dragged by Tamaki’s thugs and made to witness his fetus "son" floating in a jar. He went berserk soon afterward, slaughtering Undertakers left and right before being taken down, and in the interim time had suffered an emotional breakdown that caused him to forget his memories of the incident. The "hope" he had been fighting for this whole time was nothing more than an illusion. The revelation brought back the madness in Nagi, and he flew into a rage once more, breaking free of his bonds and killing Genkaku's subordinates while the Undertaker watched with glee. After slaughtering them all, Nagi remained isolated in the Undertaker base, surrounding himself with corpses while the battle outside raged.
Following Rokuro's defeat, Karako had attempted to sneak into the Undertaker base to save Nagi, only for herself and Shiro to be captured thanks to the latter accidentally blowing her cover. Genkaku took both women hostage, threatening to have them both gang-raped unless the remaining members of Scar Chain came to rescue them. Without skipping a beat, Ganta and every single Scar Chain member launched a full-out assault on the Undertakers, saving the two girls and opening up an entrance into the interior of the base. Karako and some Scar Chain members rushed inside, hoping to find Nagi… and, unfortunately for them, they did.
While Ganta and Genkaku fought, Karako tentatively approached Nagi, noting with unease the various corpses all around him, as well as the fact that he wasn’t bound at all. Nagi quietly warned her not to come any closer, claiming that he was “finally sane”. When Karako attempted to rouse him by mentioning his child, Nagi revealed the empty locket, admitting that he finally knew it was empty, and telling her the truth about what had happened to his child.
After everything he’d endured, Nagi had finally lost his mind. Screaming that no one deserved to live after the death of his wife and child, and that he hated everyone who did, the mad Owl launched an attack on his own people. Weeping in grief and rage, he began to slaughter both Scar Chain and the Undertakers left and right, killing everyone he could see regardless of whether they were friend or enemy. In Nagi’s mind, there was no longer any distinction between the two.
When he attacked Shiro, however, Ganta stepped in, protecting her with his own body against Nagi’s assault. He continued trying to reason with Nagi, and his attempts started to strike gold when Nagi heard the sound of Karako’s necklace bell. Nagi claimed he had lost his hope with the death of his family, but Ganta insisted that he had a new hope now: Karako, and the freedom that they had worked so hard together to obtain. Ganta soon collapsed, realizing that he hadn’t eaten his antidote candy recently, and that he was dying of the poison in his collar.
Fortunately, however, Karako was back on her feet and slapped Nagi hard across the face, finally bringing the man back to his senses. When he whispered that he had murdered their own comrades, Karako’s response was to simply hug him while he wept. Then she shoved him and told him to man up, because they had shit to do and no time to be crying! Karako is rad. Nagi composed himself and smiled, and they were ready to-
-AND THAT’S WHEN GENKAKU STABBED KARAKO IN THE CHEST. For a moment there it was like things were almost going well for the protagonists! Can’t have that in this series. Ganta immediately launched a counter-attack on the monk, while Karako’s Branch of Sin allowed her to regenerate enough of the wound to mean that Genkaku had merely broken a rib. The monk cheerfully asked Nagi to finish the job, only for Nagi to turn on him, proclaiming that he wasn't a killer anymore, and that Ganta and Karako had saved him.
Genkaku didn’t exactly take it well, immediately opening fire on Nagi and blasting a hole the size of a cannonball through the man’s torso. Nagi’s life never stops sucking. Genkaku proceeded to unveil the Undertaker base’s true secret: the corpses and severed heads of every Deadman that ever tried to escape were kept within the walls and floor as a “shrine” to the monk’s twisted idea of salvation. Ganta, refusing to give up despite the pain and numbness of the poison coursing through his system, summoned the power to launch one final attack on Genkaku, firing a massive blast of blood at the monk. Fortunately for Genkaku, it was easy enough to sidestep...
...or at least it would have been, had Nagi not reached up and held him down. As he snarled that he would be the insane monk’s “guide to hell”, both Nagi and Genkaku were blown away by the attack, with the latter absorbing most of the damage and being killed on impact.
Nagi was still alive, but only barely, and no amount of regeneration was going to save him even if he could do it himself. Just before dying, he gave Ganta his antidote candy, saving the boy’s life. As Karako wept over him, Nagi died, his all-around shitty life having come to an uncharacteristically dignified close.
The sacrifices of Scar Chain weren’t in vain: Karako and several other members of the group were the first Deadmen to ever escape the prison, and while Tamaki was able to bounce back from the political backlash caused by their actions, the events that Nagi Kengamine had set in motion hold the potential to ultimately bring Deadman Wonderland down for good.
Personality: Perhaps the most depressing part about Nagi's incredibly depressing life is that all the terrible things he's endured couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Despite all the horror and death he's endured during his stay in Deadman Wonderland, Nagi remains an incredibly kind and compassionate person who, like Ganta after him, has managed to retain his honor and integrity even in a horrible fucked-up place like Deadman Wonderland.
Part of that is because unlike most of the other prisoners, as Nagi explains himself, he has something to fight for: the hope of seeing his child again and, after that, his friends in Scar Chain. Having experienced pain and loss himself, Nagi knows exactly how to empathize with those in pain or trouble: he's happy to rescue Minatsuki and spare Ganta the guilt of having put her in danger, and even jokes a little in order to raise the boy's spirits. His crooked smile and lackadaisical attitude may make him seem like he isn't taking things seriously, but make no mistake about it- Nagi is a confident and inspiring leader whose cheerful demeanor puts his friends and allies at ease. He fervently believes in the power of teamwork and group struggle, and most if not all of the members of Scar Chain were willing to give their lives for the hope that he offered them.
Despite being something of an authority figure himself, Nagi is pretty textbook Chaotic Good. Scar Chain's founding philosophies are a reflection of his own: that every man and woman should be allowed to pursue their own personal definition of "freedom" and live their lives however they wish to. While he's smart enough to know that people's desires often clash, and that there's a reason for having rules, Nagi pretty basically believes that people should be allowed to be who they want without interference. He's fairly reasonable and can tell the difference between a tyrant and a just leader, but Nagi has an instinctive distrust for authority and law; being thrown in prison for presumably no reason and forced to watch your wife's murder for the boss's entertainment kinda does that to you.
When he's not giving speeches about hope or leading assaults on terrible prisons, Nagi is a surprisingly simple guy. His title of "Owl" couldn't be more appropriate: he's a wise, mature, and almost fatherly man with a preference for quiet and calm places and hobbies. He wears sandals, keeps his hair messy, and generally just wants to live a happy life somewhere with a small family. That dream having been denied to him, he's willing to fight until he can obtain it, but war and death are less of a joy for him than a necessary evil.
The above description may make the man sound like a saint, but no man is perfect, and Nagi is no exception. His motives for the aforementioned Minatsuki rescue were not entirely altruistic: he was primarily attempting to convince Ganta to join Scar Chain, with the actual rescue itself being a happy bonus. Although it's rarely malicious, Nagi has become moderately skilled at manipulating people and pressing their buttons to get what he wants from them. He's not perfect at it, however, and his optimism and basic trust in people sometimes allows them to turn the tables and manipulate him. Rokuro was more-or-less easily able to infiltrate the group and nearly ruin them all from within; part of this was because Nagi was desperate and didn't exactly have time to screen everybody's loyalties, but part of it was also because he believes most people are basically decent and couldn't fathom why anyone, much less a trusted lieutenant, would want to betray the group.
He doesn't have much sympathy for Undertakers or any similarly evil people, no matter how tragic their backstory or reasons may be. Although he was more than happy to talk to Hibana and try to help her find her way when he thought she was just a lost little girl, he had no trouble whatsoever cutting her down after she attacked him. As he said himself, she was nothing but "a twisted little girl with a black, rotten heart", and therefore beyond saving. (Chopping off his arm might have had something to do with it also.) This kind of ruthlessness isn't something he's proud of, but it's a sacrifice he thinks he needs to make in order to achieve Scar Chain's dream.
Nagi's biggest weakness, however, is easily his mental instability. Nobody spends years in Deadman Wonderland without developing some kind of personality or mental disorder, but Nagi appears to be the sole exception... at first, anyway. His bright smile, compassionate nature, and inspiring leadership may make it seem like he's the sole sane inmate at DW, but the simple truth is that he's every bit as crazy and fucked-up as everyone else there, if not moreso- he's just convinced himself he isn't. He spent two years carrying around a locket of the "child waiting for him outside" that was, in fact, completely empty, and he simply didn't notice. Unlike the other long-time inmates, who wear their pain and hatred on their sleeve, Nagi bottled up all his hate and fear and sorrow and shoved them in a box somewhere waaaay back in the closet of his mind. This is, as anyone who's spent more than 5 minutes in a psychology course can tell you, the worst way to deal with negative emotions, and in the end it came back to bite Nagi. Hard.
The agony of seeing his beloved infant child in a test tube drove poor Nagi over the edge, turning the sweet and mild-mannered man into a psychopathic berserker who slaughtered 22 highly trained killers with his bare hands. The "Carnage Owl", as he was named by Genkaku, emerged once again when Nagi was forced to confront the truth about his child two years later, and once again he began to kill indiscriminately just for the sheer hell of it. While in this state, Nagi claims to be sane rather than insane; he insists that he's finally seen the truth of the world, which is that everybody in it deserves to die. While the first time he went berserk had him grinning madly and cackling while sowing death, the second time is rather telling of his mental state: rather than laughing as he kills his own men, Nagi is weeping.
10/10! THESE QUESTION MARKS WERE ENTIRELY SUPERFLUOUSlordsummerAugust 18 2010, 22:55:06 UTC
Even after all the pain he's endured, however, Nagi is ultimately not beyond redemption. Ganta and Karako managed to pull him back from the brink of madness shortly before his death, causing him to realize that even though he's lost so much, the dreams he spent so long fighting for aren't dead yet. There's a large part of him that's become a homicidal, raging maniac, but it hasn't won yet: despite everything, Nagi is still a basically good guy who just wants to win his own freedom, as well as that of his friends and underlings. (To use TV Tropesese, he's a Broken Pedestal that's trying to put himself back together.)
As I will be taking him post-canon, Nagi will be dealing with a whole host of mental issues! First and foremost being the truth about his child: while Ganta and Karako pulled him out of berserker mode, he still didn't exactly have a lot of time to ease into the truth before getting killed. He's stable enough now to accept what really happened without going crazy again, but the wound is far from healed: mentions of "family" will put him on edge, as will any drones in his household. He'll also be dealing with the events that happened immediately prior to arriving in Mayfield: to wit, killing several of his own men and then dying. Nagi will be feeling immense guilt over the former, as well as some measure of hopelessness and despair over the latter- what's the point of escaping Mayfield, after all, when he has no home to go back to?
It won't be long, however, before he concludes that even though he himself may be dead, he has a duty to the souls of the men he killed and to his own ideals to help everyone else in Mayfield escape. Even if he has nothing left, Nagi reasons, his fellow captives do, and helping them escape is a hell of a lot better than simply giving into despair.
Abilities: Nagi's Branch of Sin, the Owl's Eyeball, allows him to create spheres of his own blood that explode with massive force. He can either lob them like grenades or detonate them remotely, like mines.
Personal LJ: lordsummer
Contact Info: AIM: blazing folly, email: ryn_mca@yahoo.com
Other Characters Played: Currently pooka_prince, when_in_me, and diaf_askeladd.
Preferred Housing: Empty house for now, I'm thinking.
Character Name: Nagi Kengamine
Character Series: Deadman Wonderland
Character Age: Mid-to-late-thirties.
Background: Like all Deadman Wonderland characters, Nagi's life is a whirlwind of tragedy and suffering inflicted on a perfectly good person for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Fun times!
First, a quick background on the setting: ten years' prior to the series' opening, a massive earthquake devastated Tokyo, obliterating the city and heavily decimating Japan's stability and economy. In order to get the country back on its feet, a gigantic prison/theme park was constructed atop the ruins, meant to both combat the increasing rising crime rate after the earthquake and to stimulate the economy. This facility, a theme park operated by its own prisoners, was christened "Deadman Wonderland".
Unbeknownst to the general population, DW's true purpose was far more sinister (as if the initial premise wasn't sinister enough as is). The parts about combating crime and stimulating the economy were true, but also meant to mask the facility's real objective: to contain the "Deadmen", survivors of the Tokyo earthquake who, through some unknown means, had developed a sort of superpower. Known as "Branches of Sin", these powers allowed Deadmen to control and manipulate their own blood in unique ways. Protagonist Ganta Igarashi, for example, can fire his blood out of his hands like a gun. The existence of the Deadmen frightened the authorities of Japan, who ruled that it would be better to capture and hide them from the public.
Those who exhibited Branches of Sin were rounded up and sentenced to DW, regardless of whether or not they had actually committed any crime. Once there, they were assigned to "Sector G", a hidden area of the prison concealed from the public and even most of the prison staff. Like all death row prisoners, the Deadmen of Sector G were fitted with collars that constantly pumped a lethal poison into their bodies. The only way to survive the poison was to eat the antidote "candy" at least once every three days, and the only way to obtain the candy was to purchase it with Cast Points. How to earn Cast Points, you ask? Simple! COMPETE IN DEADLY LIFE-OR-DEATH GLADIATORIAL GAMES FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF THE PRISON'S ANONYMOUS INVESTORS. Welcome to Deadman Wonderland.
Deadmen, however, were forced to participate in an additional game. Known as the "Carnival Corpse", this game pitted two Deadmen against each other in the ring. The winner obtained Cast Points, while the loser would have a random body part removed as determined by a slot machine. Without anesthetic, of course. This practice, sadly, would prove to ruin Nagi Kengamine's life.
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THIS BEING DEADMAN WONDERLAND, of course, it was not to last. Because Fate hates Nagi Kengamine, he and his wife were pitted against each other for a Carnival Corpse. Panicking and not exactly thinking clearly, Nagi made a bad decision: he tried to appeal to Promoter Tamaki's mercy, hoping that the man would take pity on them and call off the fight. Unfortunately for Nagi, Tamaki is truly the greatest of Smug Snakes and refused, forcing them to fight. Nagi, seeing no other option, attempted to throw the fight, preferring to be maimed or killed rather than lose his newfound family.
He actually did a pretty convincing job of losing on purpose! But sadly, his earlier plea to Tamaki had aroused the man's suspicions. Nagi had his vocal cords removed, but after the process was complete, Tamaki declared that the Carnival Corpse did not allow for cheaters, and that Nagi's wife would undergo the loser's punishment as well. Fearing for her unborn child, she attempted to make a break for it, only to be cut down by Tamaki's right-hand-man: the self-proclaimed "super monk" Genkaku, a member of the Anti-Deadman Corps known as the "Undertakers". She was killed before Nagi's eyes; without his voice, he couldn't even scream as he held her corpse.
Yeah, it's that kind of series.
And here is where Nagi's memories began to get a bit blurry. After awakening later, he somehow managed to convince himself that although his wife was dead, his son had been born safely and delivered to the outside world, and that the only way to see him would be to bring down Tamaki and escape the prison. To that end, Nagi swore that he would not stop until Deadman Wonderland was exposed to the public, and that he would fight until the day he could see his child again.
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A new arrival at the prison- the Woodpecker, Ganta Igarashi -was forced into a Carnival Corpse against the Hummingbird, Minatsuki Takami, and won. After the latter's brother broke into the ring and begged for her life, Ganta refused to finish her off despite the fact that she had deceived him and tried to kill him first. When the crowd booed and heckled him, Ganta flipped them off, calling them "dipshits" and proclaiming that he wasn't about to hurt a little girl for their amusement.
Impressed with the fourteen-year-old's courage and integrity, Nagi sought to recruit him into Scar Chain. While one of his agents rigged the Carnival Corpse punishment slot machine, Nagi and Karako went to meet with him. While Ganta was initially reluctant to trust them after being duped by Minatsuki, Nagi quickly earned the boy's thanks by revealing that he and his associates had hacked the slot machine so that Minatsuki's punishment for losing their match would be to lose... her hair. Ganta, who had been terrified of her getting hurt because of him, was immensely relieved, but he was even more overjoyed to find that there were other people in the prison who were sane human beings because that's how much his life sucks.
Then they all needed to be reminded what kind of series this was, as Genkaku emerged from the wall and threw a wounded and bruised Yoh down at their feet. Ganta immediately launched an assault on the Undertaker, only to have his attacks rebuffed somehow. Nagi and Karako steeled themselves to battle the monk, but were saved the effort by Ganta's friend Shiro, who leapt from the ceiling and trashed Genkaku's electric guitar, prompting the man to retreat in tears.
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Before Nagi could find him again, Ganta was informed about his past, and upon reuniting Nagi explained that the group's joking, lenient attitude was their way of covering for their fears, and that each of them was dedicated to fighting for their own freedoms. Re-inspired, Ganta agreed to help out, and the next day their plan was underway.
Scar Chain had collected a data chip full of information about Deadman Wonderland's shady dealings, and they intended to present it to the government inspector who would be arriving that day. While Nagi and Rokuro distracted the guards, Karako and Ganta would lead a team to bring the chip to the inspector. Everything was going great, Nagi and Rokuro kicked some guard ass, and it looked like things would actually work out... until Nagi tried to access the elevator controls so that Karako and Ganta would be able to continue. Rokuro snidely informed him that the elevators wouldn't be coming, a little girl with a large backpack emerged from the shadows, and that's about where the whole plan went to hell.
Nagi immediately realized Rokuro was a traitor, but the realization came a biiiiit too late to be of use. He came under attack by the little girl, Hibana Daida, who revealed herself to be an Undertaker wielding a gigantic sword. All you really need to know about Hibana can be summed up here.
The sword nullified Nagi's Branch of Sin, and he realized that Ganta had been telling the truth: Rokuro had edited the footage of the boy's battle with Genkaku to mislead Scar Chain into thinking the Undertakers had no such power. Helpless against Hibana's assault, Nagi's arm was nearly severed by her sword, hanging on by a thread. Despite the crippling pain, Nagi calmly ripped off his own arm, proclaiming that if he hadn't been prepared for this level of pain, he wouldn't be embarking on this plan in the first place.
He then proceeded to throw his severed arm at Hibana, punch Rokuro in the face, and get the elevators working while his Branch of Sin orbs exploded around Hibana and he taunted her. It's possibly worth noting that Rokuro had calculated the chances of Nagi successfully doing this, coming up with an answer of 2%.
Nagi is awesome.
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BLAH BLAH BLAH stuff happened, the data chip got blown up and there was some Shiro/Ganta drama, Scar Chain was forced to retreat to their base, but meanwhile! Nagi was captured by the Undertakers and tied up by Genkaku, who forced him to listen to his guitar playing in a sick attempt at wooing him. Genkaku, slightly obsessed with Nagi, wanted him to join the Undertakers, much to Nagi's confusion. Genkaku explained that the Undertakers only took in members who "had a few screws loose", and proceeded to inject Nagi with some sort of psychotropic drug. While Nagi shouted that he would never join up with the man who murdered his wife, Genkaku informed him that he was "the craziest guy I know", and that Nagi was "one of us"...
MEANWHILE back at Scar Chain HQ, Karako was just about to launch Operation Rescue Nagi when Rokuro showed up. Rather than continue misleading them to play traitor, Rokuro flipped the fuck out and demanded to know who had fucked up his plans to get all of Scar Chain blown up. A fuckload of Undertakers showed up, and Rokuro announced that he would be holding the members of Scar Chain hostage until Nagi's will broke and he joined up with the Undertakers. First up on the execution list was Ganta, but a Big Damn Heroes moment from Senji turned the tide. Scar Chain turned on their captors, and it looked like things were going well...
Not so well for Nagi, though. He was barely managing to retain consciousness after being pumped full of the drug, but he was still holding out, especially since Scar Chain was no longer in danger. Genkaku, however, had a trick up his sleeve: he began to explain what had really happened two years ago. The influence of the drug began to wear down the mental barriers that Nagi had erected after the incident, and he began to remember the truth he'd been hiding from everyone- including himself.
A week after the execution of his wife, Nagi had burst into the Undertakers' offices and slaughtered 22 men with his bare hands in some kind of berserk rage, tossing organs left and right. They had only just barely managed to contain him, and he had no memory of the incident afterward. Why? What had triggered the attack, and the subsequent memory loss?
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When Nagi finally awoke after his wife's death, he was forcibly dragged by Tamaki’s thugs and made to witness his fetus "son" floating in a jar. He went berserk soon afterward, slaughtering Undertakers left and right before being taken down, and in the interim time had suffered an emotional breakdown that caused him to forget his memories of the incident. The "hope" he had been fighting for this whole time was nothing more than an illusion. The revelation brought back the madness in Nagi, and he flew into a rage once more, breaking free of his bonds and killing Genkaku's subordinates while the Undertaker watched with glee. After slaughtering them all, Nagi remained isolated in the Undertaker base, surrounding himself with corpses while the battle outside raged.
Following Rokuro's defeat, Karako had attempted to sneak into the Undertaker base to save Nagi, only for herself and Shiro to be captured thanks to the latter accidentally blowing her cover. Genkaku took both women hostage, threatening to have them both gang-raped unless the remaining members of Scar Chain came to rescue them. Without skipping a beat, Ganta and every single Scar Chain member launched a full-out assault on the Undertakers, saving the two girls and opening up an entrance into the interior of the base. Karako and some Scar Chain members rushed inside, hoping to find Nagi… and, unfortunately for them, they did.
While Ganta and Genkaku fought, Karako tentatively approached Nagi, noting with unease the various corpses all around him, as well as the fact that he wasn’t bound at all. Nagi quietly warned her not to come any closer, claiming that he was “finally sane”. When Karako attempted to rouse him by mentioning his child, Nagi revealed the empty locket, admitting that he finally knew it was empty, and telling her the truth about what had happened to his child.
After everything he’d endured, Nagi had finally lost his mind. Screaming that no one deserved to live after the death of his wife and child, and that he hated everyone who did, the mad Owl launched an attack on his own people. Weeping in grief and rage, he began to slaughter both Scar Chain and the Undertakers left and right, killing everyone he could see regardless of whether they were friend or enemy. In Nagi’s mind, there was no longer any distinction between the two.
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Fortunately, however, Karako was back on her feet and slapped Nagi hard across the face, finally bringing the man back to his senses. When he whispered that he had murdered their own comrades, Karako’s response was to simply hug him while he wept. Then she shoved him and told him to man up, because they had shit to do and no time to be crying! Karako is rad. Nagi composed himself and smiled, and they were ready to-
-AND THAT’S WHEN GENKAKU STABBED KARAKO IN THE CHEST. For a moment there it was like things were almost going well for the protagonists! Can’t have that in this series. Ganta immediately launched a counter-attack on the monk, while Karako’s Branch of Sin allowed her to regenerate enough of the wound to mean that Genkaku had merely broken a rib. The monk cheerfully asked Nagi to finish the job, only for Nagi to turn on him, proclaiming that he wasn't a killer anymore, and that Ganta and Karako had saved him.
Genkaku didn’t exactly take it well, immediately opening fire on Nagi and blasting a hole the size of a cannonball through the man’s torso. Nagi’s life never stops sucking. Genkaku proceeded to unveil the Undertaker base’s true secret: the corpses and severed heads of every Deadman that ever tried to escape were kept within the walls and floor as a “shrine” to the monk’s twisted idea of salvation. Ganta, refusing to give up despite the pain and numbness of the poison coursing through his system, summoned the power to launch one final attack on Genkaku, firing a massive blast of blood at the monk. Fortunately for Genkaku, it was easy enough to sidestep...
...or at least it would have been, had Nagi not reached up and held him down. As he snarled that he would be the insane monk’s “guide to hell”, both Nagi and Genkaku were blown away by the attack, with the latter absorbing most of the damage and being killed on impact.
Nagi was still alive, but only barely, and no amount of regeneration was going to save him even if he could do it himself. Just before dying, he gave Ganta his antidote candy, saving the boy’s life. As Karako wept over him, Nagi died, his all-around shitty life having come to an uncharacteristically dignified close.
The sacrifices of Scar Chain weren’t in vain: Karako and several other members of the group were the first Deadmen to ever escape the prison, and while Tamaki was able to bounce back from the political backlash caused by their actions, the events that Nagi Kengamine had set in motion hold the potential to ultimately bring Deadman Wonderland down for good.
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Part of that is because unlike most of the other prisoners, as Nagi explains himself, he has something to fight for: the hope of seeing his child again and, after that, his friends in Scar Chain. Having experienced pain and loss himself, Nagi knows exactly how to empathize with those in pain or trouble: he's happy to rescue Minatsuki and spare Ganta the guilt of having put her in danger, and even jokes a little in order to raise the boy's spirits. His crooked smile and lackadaisical attitude may make him seem like he isn't taking things seriously, but make no mistake about it- Nagi is a confident and inspiring leader whose cheerful demeanor puts his friends and allies at ease. He fervently believes in the power of teamwork and group struggle, and most if not all of the members of Scar Chain were willing to give their lives for the hope that he offered them.
Despite being something of an authority figure himself, Nagi is pretty textbook Chaotic Good. Scar Chain's founding philosophies are a reflection of his own: that every man and woman should be allowed to pursue their own personal definition of "freedom" and live their lives however they wish to. While he's smart enough to know that people's desires often clash, and that there's a reason for having rules, Nagi pretty basically believes that people should be allowed to be who they want without interference. He's fairly reasonable and can tell the difference between a tyrant and a just leader, but Nagi has an instinctive distrust for authority and law; being thrown in prison for presumably no reason and forced to watch your wife's murder for the boss's entertainment kinda does that to you.
When he's not giving speeches about hope or leading assaults on terrible prisons, Nagi is a surprisingly simple guy. His title of "Owl" couldn't be more appropriate: he's a wise, mature, and almost fatherly man with a preference for quiet and calm places and hobbies. He wears sandals, keeps his hair messy, and generally just wants to live a happy life somewhere with a small family. That dream having been denied to him, he's willing to fight until he can obtain it, but war and death are less of a joy for him than a necessary evil.
The above description may make the man sound like a saint, but no man is perfect, and Nagi is no exception. His motives for the aforementioned Minatsuki rescue were not entirely altruistic: he was primarily attempting to convince Ganta to join Scar Chain, with the actual rescue itself being a happy bonus. Although it's rarely malicious, Nagi has become moderately skilled at manipulating people and pressing their buttons to get what he wants from them. He's not perfect at it, however, and his optimism and basic trust in people sometimes allows them to turn the tables and manipulate him. Rokuro was more-or-less easily able to infiltrate the group and nearly ruin them all from within; part of this was because Nagi was desperate and didn't exactly have time to screen everybody's loyalties, but part of it was also because he believes most people are basically decent and couldn't fathom why anyone, much less a trusted lieutenant, would want to betray the group.
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Nagi's biggest weakness, however, is easily his mental instability. Nobody spends years in Deadman Wonderland without developing some kind of personality or mental disorder, but Nagi appears to be the sole exception... at first, anyway. His bright smile, compassionate nature, and inspiring leadership may make it seem like he's the sole sane inmate at DW, but the simple truth is that he's every bit as crazy and fucked-up as everyone else there, if not moreso- he's just convinced himself he isn't. He spent two years carrying around a locket of the "child waiting for him outside" that was, in fact, completely empty, and he simply didn't notice. Unlike the other long-time inmates, who wear their pain and hatred on their sleeve, Nagi bottled up all his hate and fear and sorrow and shoved them in a box somewhere waaaay back in the closet of his mind. This is, as anyone who's spent more than 5 minutes in a psychology course can tell you, the worst way to deal with negative emotions, and in the end it came back to bite Nagi. Hard.
The agony of seeing his beloved infant child in a test tube drove poor Nagi over the edge, turning the sweet and mild-mannered man into a psychopathic berserker who slaughtered 22 highly trained killers with his bare hands. The "Carnage Owl", as he was named by Genkaku, emerged once again when Nagi was forced to confront the truth about his child two years later, and once again he began to kill indiscriminately just for the sheer hell of it. While in this state, Nagi claims to be sane rather than insane; he insists that he's finally seen the truth of the world, which is that everybody in it deserves to die. While the first time he went berserk had him grinning madly and cackling while sowing death, the second time is rather telling of his mental state: rather than laughing as he kills his own men, Nagi is weeping.
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As I will be taking him post-canon, Nagi will be dealing with a whole host of mental issues! First and foremost being the truth about his child: while Ganta and Karako pulled him out of berserker mode, he still didn't exactly have a lot of time to ease into the truth before getting killed. He's stable enough now to accept what really happened without going crazy again, but the wound is far from healed: mentions of "family" will put him on edge, as will any drones in his household. He'll also be dealing with the events that happened immediately prior to arriving in Mayfield: to wit, killing several of his own men and then dying. Nagi will be feeling immense guilt over the former, as well as some measure of hopelessness and despair over the latter- what's the point of escaping Mayfield, after all, when he has no home to go back to?
It won't be long, however, before he concludes that even though he himself may be dead, he has a duty to the souls of the men he killed and to his own ideals to help everyone else in Mayfield escape. Even if he has nothing left, Nagi reasons, his fellow captives do, and helping them escape is a hell of a lot better than simply giving into despair.
Abilities: Nagi's Branch of Sin, the Owl's Eyeball, allows him to create spheres of his own blood that explode with massive force. He can either lob them like grenades or detonate them remotely, like mines.
Sample Entry: Over here!
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• Join mayfield_rpg, mayfield_logs, and optionally junefield
• Add your info to your canon post
• Update your friends list here, and comment to that post with your journal name.
And you're ready to go! Make sure to introduce yourself in the main comm and tell people where your character will be living!
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