Kuruto Ryuki (龍木 来斗, Ryūki Kurūto) is the second protagonist of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative.
Kuruto is ABIS's new Special Agent (Psyncer), and a rookie investigator with a strong sense of justice. However, he is not the hot-blooded type; he has a reserved and gentle nature. He is a well-educated young man. Unfortunately, both his parents and his brother have passed away... Fighting through his painful past, he aims to solve difficult cases with his partner, Tama, who is implanted in his left eye socket.
Design[]
Ryuki is a young man with somewhat unkempt black hair and two different eye colors—his right eye is gray, while his left is red thanks to his artificial eyeball Tama. Ryuki wears a black double-breasted jacket with the Metropolitan Police insignia on his left lapel. Underneath, he wears a long-sleeved, white collared shirt with the top button undone, golden cufflinks, a plain black tie, and a ribbed knit orange sweater with thumb holes in the sleeves. He also wears black slacks, and white shoes with orange bands around the bottom.
Personality[]
Ryuki acts like something of an honor-student. He is largely defined by his dedication and eagerness to prove himself to his superiors, particularly Boss and Date, and ties his self-worth on their approval, He is especially close to Date and the two share a close "physical" and emotional relationship according to Date, with Date acting as a major source of moral support for Ryuki. His strong sense of justice stems from a strong hatred of criminals, and he is shown to be extremely determined to do his job. When faced with failure, Ryuki tends to blame himself, and doesn't easily accept words of comfort when he's feeling down on himself.
Unlike Date and Mizuki, Ryuki is generally very polite, professional, and straight laced. He regularly acts as a straight man to the antics of others, especially to Tama when she teases or bosses Ryuki around. Ryuki is often the butt of Tama's dirty jokes and perverted taunts, which she makes deliberately to rile Ryuki up. Despite Ryuki's unperverted exterior, he does appear to share Date's affinity with being tied up, particularly by Tama - however, he strangely doesn't find the activity sexual and finds it relaxing and therapeutic instead. He is also not above having his own outbursts of silliness, and occasionally does Half-Might impressions to cheer himself up (although this tends to make the people around him confused and concerned for his well-being). During Somnia, he takes on a more commanding and confident persona and is shown to be a bit bossier with Tama, a reversal of their usual dynamic. Additionally, despite his politeness and low-key personality, Ryuki can be surprisingly persuasive, and is able to convince Tama to go along with his plans even when she does not fully agree. All in all, Ryuki is devoted to his loved ones and his job, and is willing to take drastic measures to ensure their safety and fulfilling his duty.
Another of Ryuki's defining traits is his difficulties with mental health. Although generally calm and collected, he is shown to suffer from survivor's guilt and PTSD. Although he tries to channel his grief into determination for his investigative work, he generally does not handle emotional stress well, and is prone to bouts of depression, obsession, deep self doubt, and self-blame. On several occasions, his obsession with doing his job has led him to act rashly and even subvert the law in ways that jeopardize his employment. His struggles initially stemmed from the traumatic loss of his twin brother in a traffic accident in pursuit of a criminal, and his dislike of stopped clocks, and his hatred of criminals originates from the same event. Additionally, as his symptoms appear to worsen as a result of more traumatic events that occurred during the events of the original Half Body Killing investigations (specifically his feelings of guilt over the apparent death of Date and especially his exposure to TC-Purge), he becomes prone to dissociation, memory lapses, hallucinations, derealization, and mania. He also suffers from cognitive dysfunction, according to Nurse Nasu, which manifests primarily during the latter half of the HB Case investigation, leading him to get time and place confused.
Ryuki also appears to be strangely susceptible to the videos tied to the HB-Case (though this was the case even before his exposure to TC-Purge). On almost every occasion, watching these videos trigger his dissociative episodes, alongside visual and auditory hallucinations, acute memory loss, and periods of catatonia or mania from minutes to hours. All this, in combination with his struggle to accept forgiveness from other people, lead him to spiral easily, and give him the appearance of being self-destructive and even dangerous. However, deep down he is merely a vulnerable person who deeply struggles with guilt and self-worth, and seeks atonement for his mistakes, but doesn't believe he is deserving of it. With the support of others, he is ultimately able to find the will to pull himself out his depression and start to recover.
In line with his strange susceptibility to Naix's and Tearer's videos, it is hinted that Ryuki may himself be susceptible to Naix's teachings of simulation theory, as he is prone to becoming fatalistic when dealing with existentialist concepts. On a few occasions, Ryuki even appears to be receptive to Tokiko's teachings, though he claims it was an act to keep Tokiko talking. In the Tokiko END route, he is ultimately pivotal to Tokiko's plan to subvert the simulation through paradox and escaping it. Whether it is due to his role as the player's surrogate, due to some innate sensitivity to the simulation on his part, or simply because he is mentally ill and vulnerable to indoctrination (due to his cognitive dysfunction and hallucinations naturally leaving him uncertain over his own sense of reality) is not clear.
Background[]
Kuruto Ryuki was born on October 18 to his parents as an older twin to his brother. Ryuki grew up both rich and highly educated until his parents were killed in a plane crash. He was living with his younger brother until his death when he was hit by a truck on February 13th and half of his body was utterly crushed.
By the age of 21, Ryuki graduated from college and inherited his brother's dream of becoming a police officer. By 23, he had already become an agent at ABIS under the tutelage of Kaname Date, whom Ryuki very much looked up to. An AI-Ball Tama was assigned as Ryuki's assistant and Ryuki underwent surgery to remove his original left eye. By the start of Nirvana Initiative's past section, he had been working at ABIS for 6 months.
Half Body Serial Killings: 6 Years Ago[]
On February 10, Ryuki was a contestant on a quiz show filmed at Studio Dvaita. However mid-show, the lights momentarily cut out and a corpse suddenly appeared on the floor in the middle of the stage, with its sudden appearance giving the illusion that the body appeared out of nowhere . This was the beginning of what ABIS called the Half Body Serial Killings. After attempting to investigate the apparent right-half Jin Furue, the body suddenly combusts in flames, with Ryuki's investigation later confirms it did so using the thermite inside the corpse.
On February 11, with information in Chikara Horadori's Somnium, Ryuki headed to Naixatloz Japan and questioned their president Tokiko Shigure over the discovery of Jin's body at the studio. Tokiko also asked Ryuki if he was the "frayer", before denying any connection Naix had to the QR video from the studio. That night, Ryuki re-investigated Studio Dvaita using Tama's Virtual Reality function, and discovers the truth that Jin's body appeared there. He then tried to investigate Chinpei Wagai, the program director of the day, but Ryuki was attacked by him right after questioning him in Sunfish Pocket. After subduing Chinpei, Ryuki learned from him that a person named Tearer asked him to lend the studio, and told him to come to Sekiba High to receive payment that night. Ryuki rushed to Sekiba High according to this clue, but found that the right half of Chikara's body was fixed on the wall of the classroom.
The next day, the MPD learned that Tearer had left three red-blue balloons, with notes inside them, hiding throughout the whole city. Ryuki confirmed Chikara's left half corpse found at Yoyagi Park that morning, and then came to Misetan Amusement Park after learning the balloons, where he mistook a staff member who was arranging ordinary balloons as a suspect and shot the staff. Afterwards, he was asked by the Boss to suspend him for review.
On February 13, Ryuki apologized to Boss and begged her to let him go back to work, and Boss gave him three days as a deadline to solve the case. During his investigation that day, he learned about Komeji's debt and rumors of a hidden room in the Horadori Institute of Genetics. He went to the Horadori Institute in the evening to check but found Komeji staying there with a hiding pistol. After subduing him, Ryuki took Komeji to Psync.
R2: Rescue Shoma[]
Ryuki learned from Komeji's Somnium that Komeji's son, Shoma Enda was associated with the Horadori Institute, but soon learned that Shoma had been kidnapped to the Harbor Warehouse District. Ryuki, Komeji and a group of helpers came to the Harbor Warehouse District, defeated the armed scientists there, rescued Shoma, and then they rested at Date's home. After a short break, Ryuki performed Psync with Shoma, and had a conversation with Shoma during the daytime on the 14th, and learned about his relationship with Horadori Institute, Naixatloz, and the first half of the name "Dahlia" that Tearer called themselves.
R1/M1: The Third Victim and Cathedral's Explosion[]
Ryuki learned from Komeji's Somnium that he used something to blackmail Tearer for money. That night, Ryuki learned that Tearer asked Komeji to come to Studio Dvaita. After Komeji entered there, Ryuki rushed in, but fell unconscious after watching the QR Video played in the house. A few hours later, Ryuki woke up to find Amame, Shoma, Iris and Kizuna here, next to the right half of Komeji's body in a body bag. Shoma rushed out after finding his father's body, and Ryuki followed him all the way to Misetan Amusement Park.
On the 14th, Ryuki received an anonymous message asking him to meet at the place they designated at 16:00 to learn about the clues of HB case. Ryuki arrived at the meeting place on time, which was a large underground structure called the Cathedral, only to find that the person there was Tearer. Ryuki tried to arrest them immediately, but was stunned by special EMP structures inside the walls, and Tama was severely damaged. Tearer threatened Ryuki to do things for them with Tama's safety, and Ryuki agreed. That night, Ryuki ambushed at Kabasaki Chemical Plant at Tearer's request, and knocked down the ABIS agent Mizuki Kuranushi who was tracking down here. Unexpectedly, Date broke in after a while, and the panicked Ryuki jumped out of the window, escaped immediately after seeing him.
The next day, Ryuki met Date and Mizuki at Ikume Shrine and discussed about the missing Kizuna. He searched the entire city for most of the day with no results, until Date called to tell him that he had found traces of "a man with an iron mask" in Sejima Residence. Ryuki realized that this was Tearer and immediately rushed to Sejima Residence. There he rescued and took unconscious Iris, trying to learn from her what she had overheard the conversation between So Sejima and Tearer. Due to the short-term memory loss of Iris, Ryuki performed Psync with her and learned Tearer's description of the "execution chamber". Ryuki led Date, Mizuki and others to the Cathedral, found the kidnapped Kizuna, and repelled a large number of Naix Members who tried to stop their actions. While everyone was trying to save Kizuna, Tearer appeared and threatened Ryuki to kill Date. Ryuki refused, and Tearer announced the second half of their name "Boat," and then detonated the bombs placed in the Cathedral. After the explosion, while the others retreated, Ryuki found Date buried under the rubble, but was unable to take him away. After taking Aiba entrusted to him by Date, he watched in despair as Date disappeared into yet another batch of collapsing rubble. Ryuki thought he betrayed Date and had since started to feel a great deal of guilt towards himself.
Half Body Serial Killings: Present[]
Following the discovery of the apparent left half of Jin Furue, Ryuki is found heavily intoxicated at Brahman by Mizuki. Unable to answer questions about the Half Body Serial Killings, Mizuki takes him back to ABIS to Psync with him. During the Psync, part of Ryuki's subconscious forces its way into Mizuki's mind alongside some part of Tama in what is referred to as a "Reverse Psync." Following the Psync, Ryuki remembers the events of six years prior. Following Dispossessed, he presumably relays this information to Mizuki in the Interrogation Room, though this is never depicted or referenced in any following chapters. In Alone, Ryuki is questioned by Mizuki about his knowledge of Tearer's supposed first name, which Ryuki should not know about. Just as Ryuki is about to explain, he experiences anomalous nerve firings in multiple parts of his brain, including his speech center, resulting in his eyes widening and his speech becoming completely nonsensical before he collapses onto the Interrogation Room table.
Due to his break down, Ryuki is carried to the medical office of ABIS, where he spent the night. The next morning, February 11th, he is released to go home to rest. He is next spotted later that day at Sekiba High, where he explains to Mizuki that he is helping with the "reinvestigation," before departing for Ikume Shrine to calm down. On February 12th, Ryuki is at Ikume Shrine, where Tama expresses concerns about his mental state. Despite her concerns, she and Ryuki explore the VR Sekiba High, specifically the scene in which Ryuki found Chikara's right half six years prior. Linking Naix to the first two murders, Ryuki to decides to return to the Naix Japan Branch. There, he sees Tokiko blackmailing someone in a Wink Psync, prompting him to bring her back to ABIS to Psync with her. The Psync fails to return any information on the person Tokiko is blackmailing, and Tokiko encourages Ryuki to meet her in her office at 10:00 PM that night for more information.
Going off the information that was in Tokiko's Somnium, Ryuki tracks down and questions both Shoma and Gen. Additionally, he encounters the Masked Woman at the Warehouse District, who expresses disdain for Ryuki. Upon arriving at Yoyagi Park to go over the information he and Tama gathered, the two of them choose to watch the newly released "Nirvana Trial" video, causing Ryuki to hallucinate and dissociate for several hours. When Ryuji regains his composure, he realizes it is close to his meeting time with Tokiko and rushes to her office. There, he and Mamoru find Tokiko's right half, leading to Ryuki's second VR investigation of the day: Tokiko's office. He finds the secret elevator hidden behind the waterfall, leading to the East Cathedral under the Naix Japan Branch building. When he finds a mysterious box there, he opens it, unwittingly infecting himself with TC PERGE. As such, Ryuki was unable to identify the suspicious figure in the Cathedral, who evaded his capture and caused him to fall into a set of boxes, damaging Tama and wiping her memory of the Cathedral in the process.
M2/M3: Unknown[]
As Ryuki does not appear, it is unclear what he did during this time. Presumably, he went up to the rooftop amusement park at Misetan the night of February 13th, though this is unconfirmed. Beyond this point, however, his actions become harder to track. While one reasonable inference would be that he continued investigating, the fact that he is not using the Psync machine the evening of February 14th indicates that he does not proceed in his investigation the way he does in other routes.
M1/R1: Stopping the Nirvana Initiative[]
Ryuki disappears for the duration of February 13th up until he is spotted in the rooftop amusement park at Misetan that night, though he reports having seen Date earlier in the day. He is overlaying his memories of the past and present, leading to him claiming to be on the rooftop to investigate "something bad" that will happen and being seen staring at the ferris wheel waiting for the number two car to come down (the latter being what he was doing at this time on February 13th six years in the past). He is subsequently knocked out by the Masked Woman in retaliation for his actions at the Kabasaki Chemical Plant in the past.
When Ryuki comes to, it is roughly midnight on February 14th, and he goes back to staring at the Ferris Wheel. Still confused about what year it is, he is shocked when Shoma is not on the number two car, leading to another wave of hallucinations. The next morning, at Ikume Shrine, Ryuki investigates the VR recreation of Studio Dvaita from when the right half of Komeji's body was found. This leads him to search for Amame, who had apparently seen Tearer bring in Komeji's body that night. After searching most of the day, he finds Amame working at Sunfish Pocket, albeit suffering from some form of aphonia. He decides to Psync with her, discovering three words: "Nirvana...Collected...Genocide..." Soon after, he is contacted by Aiba to request his support in locating the purportedly missing Kizuna. It can also be inferred that it was some time late on the 14th that Ryuki developed his resistance to and inability to spread TC PERGE.
On February 15th, Date contacts Ryuki to fill him in on some of what is happening, such as that Kizuna is okay and that he should start taking a special medicine to help with the TC PERGE symptoms. Date instructs Ryuki to go to the East Cathedral to see the hidden file and right half of Uru Somezuki, before going to the ruined West Cathedral via the secret passage connecting the two locations. Ryuki, seeing the ruins of the Cathedral, is plagued by flashbacks and guilt. When Date gives him a motivational speech and Bibi offers to consider forgiving him once the case is solved, he rejoins the investigation more concretely, regaining the confidence to share his findings with the others. It is his idea to go to the Enda Residence to find Amame, and he is tasked with supervising the thermite bombs Shoma created until a bomb squad can arrive while the others explore Amame's Somnium.
During the battle against Tearer's minions at the Stadium, Ryuki arrives late after he, Iris, Ota, Kizuna, Moma, Gen, Lien, Shoma, and Roboji get stopped by the riot police guarding the area. He is able to intervene just in time to rescue Mizuki from the invisible horde of enemies. However, later in the battle, Ryuki jumps between Date and a bullet, suffering a significant injury that knocks him unconscious. While he isn't shown to be fully recovered, he apparently regains the ability to walk about a week after the battle, and with some threats from Boss, agrees to jump out of an oversized gift box as a surprise for Bibi and Mizuki.
Ryuki Diverge Route[]
On February 11, Ryuki heads to Naix and questions Tokiko. Tokiko also asks Ryuki if he was the "frayer", which allows Ryuki to enter the "Nil Number" both Mizuki and Bibi received on February 22. However by doing so, the world began to "glitch", causing unexplainable things to occur around him. Mamoru is in a T-pose with half of his face not rendered, as well as Tokiko's right-half appearing on her desk as it was supposed to look like.
Tama is offline, and Ryuki hears Tokiko's voice asking him to meet her. He walks through the geometrical area and into the empty black area where he meets Tokiko covered in a blazing red aura. Tokiko began questioning Ryuki as to how it was possible he knew the number. Confirming this to be a "logical paradox", she explains that what Naix believed about the world was true, and that her motive for threatening Amame and committing suicide was all meant to lead the "frayer" to this moment. She offers the frayer an opportunity to tell Ryuki all the details about the case that they have learned before leaving and ascending to Moksha. Ryuki and Tama black out, and their actions are entirely controlled by the "frayer".
In the perspective of Ryuki and Tama, they awaken immediately after Tokiko's ascendence but find that six years have passed since. Tokiko has been classified as missing since. According to Date, Ryuki discovered Tearer's basement underground of Horadori and arrested Uru on the spot. This would ultimately result in Ryuki being promoted to second-in-command of ABIS. The explosion never occurred, Date never lost his memories again, Kizuna did not lose the use of her legs, and Amame had no reason to kill Uru because Komeji was alive in this timeline. However, in spite of the happy ending, Ryuki is left feeling a sense of unease over the apparent implications of what he's witnessed, and both Mizukis are left feeling a strange sense of déjà vu upon returning to the stadium.
Appearances[]
| AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Years Ago | Present | ||||
| Converge Ch 0: A Strange Tale (Past) Appears |
Converge Ch 0: A Strange Tale (Present) Appears |
||||
| Mizuki Ch 0: New Investigation Appears |
|||||
| Ryuki Ch 0: Dispossessed Appears |
Mizuki Ch 0: Alone Appears |
||||
| Ryuki Ch 1: Anyone Imagines Appears |
Mizuki Ch 1: Pass Mildly Away Appears |
||||
| Ryuki Ch 1: Nefarious Institute Appears |
Mizuki Ch 1: Nostalgic Idol Absent |
||||
| Ryuki Diverge: 遐ｴ邯ｻ逋ｾ蜃ｺ Appears |
Ryuki Ch 1: Ought to Know Appears |
Mizuki Ch 1: End Where I Begun Absent |
|||
| Mizuki Ch 2: Traveler Appears |
Ryuki Ch 2: Nothing to Be Done Appears |
||||
| Mizuki Ch 2: Necessary Intervention Absent |
Ryuki Ch 2: Naixatloz's Intentions Appears |
||||
| Mizuki Ch 2: Left Behind Absent |
Ryuki Ch 2: Go Appears |
||||
| Ryuki Ch 3: Farewell Appears |
Mizuki Ch 3: The Expense of Spirit Absent |
||||
| Ryuki Ch 3: Need Info Appears |
Mizuki Ch 3: Neurotic Inception Absent |
||||
| Ryuki Ch 3 R2: Joy for Anguish Appears |
Ryuki Ch 3 R1: Smiles for Tears Appears |
Mizuki Ch 3 M1: Hell Appears |
Mizuki Ch 3 M2: All Living Things Absent |
||
| Ryuki Ch 4 R2: I Found Me Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M1: Visions Appears |
Ryuki Ch 4 R1: Well-Known Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M2: Of Arms and Of Man Absent |
||
| Ryuki Ch 4 R2: Nested Insecurities Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M1: Nonentity Incognito Absent |
Ryuki Ch 4 R1: Nearly Interesting Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M2: Novel Ingress Absent |
||
| Ryuki Ch 4 R2: Past Its Ken Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M1: In Truth Absent |
Ryuki Ch 4 R1: The Mind of God Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M2: Who's There Absent |
Mizuki Ch 4 M3: Bid the Soldiers Shoot Absent | |
| Komeji and Shoma: END | Ryuki Ch 5 R1: Not All A Dream Appears |
Mizuki Ch 5 M1: Births Appears |
Mizuki Ch 5 M2: All That We Are Absent |
Mizuki Ch 5 M3: Sweet Silent Thought Absent | |
| Ryuki Ch 5 R1: Nemesis Identified Appears |
Mizuki Ch 5 M1: Nightmare Irreconcilable Mentioned |
Gen and Amame: END | Kizuna and Lien: END | ||
| Ryuki Ch 5 R1: She Was the Universe Appears |
Mizuki Ch 5 M1: The End of Craving Appears |
Ryuki Diverge: All This Happened, More or Less Appears | |||
| Explosion: END | Mizuki Epilogue: Braver Than All Flowers Appears |
閭｡陜ｶ荵句､｢邱ｨEND | |||
| Resolution: END | |||||
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
Etymology[]
- Ryuki (龍木) is derived from the Japanese spelling of Nāgārjuna (龍樹), the name of a Buddhist philosopher. The first kanji means "dragon" and the second means "wood" or "tree." Nāgārjuna was known, among many things, for his contributions to the two truths doctrine, which states that there are two truths to reality: the conventional truth of the material world, and the ultimate truth of the emptiness of everything.
- Ryuki is a play on "rookie."
- Kuruto is a play on "recruit," as well as 狂う人 (kurū hito), meaning "madman" or "crazy person."
General[]
- Some fans have noted that Ryuki bears a resemblance to the character Shinya Kogami from the anime series Psycho-Pass, who also works as a police officer at a special sci-fi division of the police.[1] However, series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi stated that it was simply a coincidence, and that Ryuki's personality is the complete opposite to Kogami.[2]
- Ryuki's impressions of Half-Might are an obvious nod to All-Might from My Hero Academia. In the original Japanese script, they were references to Anpanman, but was switched to something that English-speaking audiences might be more immediately familiar with.
[]
References[]
- ↑ Shinya Kogami on the Psycho-Pass Wiki.
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2022: January 26th