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Araya
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–Araya, Canto IX: The Unsevering | ||
Araya (Hangul: 아라야) is the daughter of Ryōshū, who was raised inside the House of Spiders, being the one moment of peace in her mother's life. She is a major character in Canto IX: The Unsevering.
Appearance
In her youth, Araya had dark hair with blunt bangs, with two long side bangs reaching her shoulders. Her hair features three distinct blue strands, one on each side bang, and one on her straight bangs. She has large, black eyes, and wears a dark blue kimono featuring a pattern of golden bows in sets of large and small patterning it. Her obi is a darker blue hue than the rest of her kimono. She wears short loafers on her feet.
When first found by her mother, she wore a plain white hospital gown, and carried a pillow.
In her teenage years, Araya wears her hair split above her left eye, with her blunt bangs reaching her eyebrows. She wears a school uniform composed of a white blouse beneath a dark skirt, suspended by a vest. At her neckline, she wears a neat, blue, bow. She wears white socks up to her calves, and black loafers.
As a young adult, Araya's hair is similar to her teenage years, though longer. She wears a plain, tan, long coat overtop a black turtleneck and jeans. Overtop her left arm, she carries a guitar case, with several stickers decorating the front of it. Notably, her eyes are red like Ryōshū's from this age forward.
In her adult years, Araya's hair is cropped in length closest to her teenage years, reaching just beneath her neck. She wears a blue velvet suit, with matching trousers. On her left thigh, she wears three garters fastened by silver buckles, with a similar belt worn around her waist. Beneath her suit jacket, she wears a black button down shirt, with a blue tie fastened by a silver triangle ornament. Her hands are covered by a pair of black gloves. On her feet, she wears thick dark boots. During her confrontation with Ryōshū, she is shown in a slightly aged version of this design, with wrinkles on her face.
In combat, she wields the sword of the former Dihui Star, being an ornamented, white, ōdachi with blue wrappings across its sheathe. It has a similarly blue tassel hanging from its grip.
During the majority of Canto IX, Araya has taken the appearance of the Dihui Star, who died years prior at the hands of Ryōshū.
Personality
As a child, Araya was a sunny girl, frequently smiling with a cheery attitude, even while surrounded by the Nursefathers, or the air of violence that surrounds them. Though she primarily lived in the House of Spiders, rarely ever shown outside of Ryōshū and her's shared room, she managed to spend plenty of time outside the house, enjoying her time in school while socializing with peers, always making sure to teach her mother the slang of her age. Even with the air of misery that haunted the House of Spiders, she became a light for Ryōshū, who sought a better world for her to live in.
After her time inside the vault Ryōshū had used to hide the girl, Araya became jaded and depressed, believing herself to have been forgotten by the mother she waited for so dearly. Though the time in the vault was merely two years, she became entangled in the flow of time, experiencing all ages of her life at once at varying intervals. With the loss of her youth compounded alongside the feeling of being forgotten, she became embittered, willing to ally herself with the House of Spiders while taking the role of the Pinky Nursefather as an attempt to reunite with her mother.
Even despite her distaste for the perceived treatment from her mother, she felt a great deal of nostalgia for her mother, still finding herself yearning for her love. When first seeing her mother again, she found herself wishing to be recognized again despite her disguise, a pang of disappointment as this reality failed to manifest.
Story
Prior to Limbus Company
Commissioned by the Thumb, Araya was a project aiming to develop a set of humans created through the cloning and replication of Yoshihide, creating younger versions of the woman able to wield the Arayashiki Relic like she was. While it's left unknown if any other clones were produced, Araya remained the sole survivor after the establishment was destroyed by Rien, sent on the procession of a Prescript which involved the deaths of all but Araya. Leaving behind just the girl, Yoshihide discovered the child when she was meant to assassinate somebody there. Immediately, Araya recognized her as her "mommy", remembering photos of the young woman she had been shown. Left without any alternative options, and feeling a connection to the girl, Yoshihide hid her in her backpack, taking her back to the House of Spiders to raise. While she planned for the girl to be a secret, Valencina, who was walked past while the woman returned to her room instantly noticed her. Wasting no time, she reminded Yoshihide that the Nursefathers will be ambivalent towards Araya until they have any reason not to, at which point they will feel no remorse killing her. Understanding this, Yoshihide remained steadfast on the idea of raising the girl. In the web of the spiders, she could only live so much of a normal life, something Yoshihide capitalized on by letting the girl travel to school and learn as much as she could of the outside world. A particular piece of ordinary life she became so fond of was her ordinary randoseru, becoming a treasured item to her.
Araya was raised in the House of Spiders by Yoshihide, who cared greatly for Araya: she allowed her to refer to her whichever way she preferred, with Araya deciding to call her "mommy", and she taught Araya how to read and write. When Araya asked how to write Yohishide's name, she misread the character as "Ryōshū", which she thought was easier and prettier to say, unlike a "weird" name like Saru. Being taught her own name, Araya went on to exchange her own meanings of slang used by children her age, primarily the acronyms that would go on to inspire Ryōshū's SANGRIA.
At some point in her youth, Araya realized her mother's memory gradually became frayed from the use of Arayashiki, though she did not know the reason why. This grew a divide between the two, as Ryōshū failed to recollect more and more of their time together.
As time progressed, with moments such as Araya meeting Lei Heng or the Nursefathers threatening her sparking the realization, Ryōshū worried the girl would become too glaring a weakness: as her love for the girl grew, so did the fact that losing her would hurt more. Knowing neither of them would rest while living in the House of Spiders, she began to develop a plan to topple the House of Spiders and free herself and her daughter from the clutch of their web.
Before making her escape, Ryōshū found a small safe that made use of the T Corp. Singularity, making it so that up to five years could pass in the outside world without any time passing inside. Ryōshū placed Araya inside and hid the safe somewhere in the House, before starting to cut her way through the Nursefathers. As the made use of her sword, her memories were sliced away, and she soon could no longer remember Araya's face and the time they'd spent together. Still, she held on to the knowledge of the hiding spot and of her purpose to return for Araya, eventually joining Limbus Company for the prospect of reuniting with Araya within two years, and properly changing her name to "Ryōshū", as Araya would call her.
While Araya hid in the vault, she experienced an intense difference in time than what Ryōshū intended for her to as a byproduct of Ryōshū and her daughter's abilities to feel time flow differently. Because of this, the time spent 'entangled' Araya in the entire span of her being. When she eventually left the vault, Rien greeted the girl as she now saw her entire life flood into her mind, simultaneously a young child, the old woman she was destined to grow into, and everything in between. Due to the byproduct of believing herself to have been abandoned by Ryōshū, as well as the sudden shock of becoming a version of herself that was now permanently disoriented and lost, Araya grew resentful of her mother, hoping she could reunite and somehow regain those lost years while also worrying about her seemingly purposeful abandonment. Seeing the vulnerable girl, Rien offered her the position of the Pinky's Nursefather, left open after the death of Dihui Star at Ryōshū's hands. Thinking this will be how she can return to her mother, she took up this offer. At some point in her past, she took Ren under her tutelage ― if the man knew the woman was not the Pinky Nursefather or not is left unclear.
With a continued use of Arayashiki during her escape from the House of Spiders, the memories of Araya became weaker and weaker. Soon enough, they were frayed too thin to be realized.
Canto IX: The Unsevering
During the raid upon the Limbus Company HQ, Araya, under the identity of Shiomi Yoru, was present in the assault, accompanied by her apprentice Ren and the Ring Nursefather's apprentice Albina. Aiming to steal the Golden Boughs held in the LCE labs, her first encounter with Ryōshū spurred Ren to claim that his master was genuinely happy to see her again, while the Nursefather gradually made her way to the containment area of the Boughs. When Araya reunited with Ryōshū here, the latter's severed memories had caused her to forget that she killed the original Dihui Star by plunging her sword through her heart after severing her tongue; this caused her to overlook the inconsistency brought by Shiomi's thus-impossible return and not recognize Araya as a result, much to the latter's dismay. Ren and Albina then fought the group of Sinners under her orders, which ultimately ended in failure and infighting, though gave Araya enough time to seize the Boughs and retreat.
Through the abilities of Dante, the group was able to track the feeling of the Golden Boughs. Utilizing the feeling, as well as the assistance of the disguised Sora, to locate the elevator with Araya in front of it. Here, the apprentice quickly dropped her disguise, beginning a confrontation only ended via a sudden appearance of the newly appointed Color Fixer Vespa. Though this allowed the Sinners to survive the onslaught of the Index's apprentice, this left them already-battered and still left to confront the "Pinky Nursefather". With the assistance of Sinner Identities summoned through a newly manifested ability of Dante, the battle against Araya began, though ended with the Nursefather barely harmed and the Sinners left exhausted. In her goading against Araya, still believing it to be the woman she had already killed, Ryōshū was caught off-guard as her Nursefather revealed that she retained her ability to speak even without her tongue, using the capabilities to remind Ryōshū of how much she hated the woman for binding her to a lax life of inaction. While the two discuss their hatred for one another, Ryōshū is reminded of the brief glimpses of her past which remained intact, though modified, failing to remember her killing of the real Shiomi Yoru. Suddenly, Araya reminded Ryōshū of her daughter's hiding place, making note that the Nursefathers not only knew it, but have also opened it, leaving Ryōshū in shock. Entering the headquarter's elevator, Araya made her departure whilst reminding Ryōshū that the discussion of lies and truths mean nothing for those within the world they live in.
Within the House of Spiders, Araya first sends the Pinky apprentice to discuss the matters of Ryōshū's claim to the Golden Boughs or her daughter, sending the message that his master doesn't care for greedy people. With Ryōshū's denial to appease the concept of one over the other, Araya revealed herself, beginning combat against her mother, Outis, and Meursault. While the group battles, Ryōshū picks up on her "master" using a technique similar to Iaidō, which she recalls the woman not caring for, considering it pointless to ever sheathe a sword after unsheathing it. Explaining the sudden memories of a past life, a byproduct of the entanglement the woman experienced, Araya highlighted these visions catching her off-guard, with nothing but the ability to wait until they cease being her answer. In the next moment, as Ryōshū recalls her dear daughter, a new memory emerges in Araya's mind, allowing Ryōshū the chance to pierce the woman's chest, aiming to finally kill her for good. Damaged, Araya retreats to the rooftop of the House of Spiders.
At the rooftop, faced with her mother and her companions, Araya mentions her contempt for the House of Spiders, and the horrors that surrounded the life she lost to it. Knowing her mother no longer truly remembers her, she is momentarily sent to the form of her adult self, claiming that Araya "is waiting for no one". Finally, she begins a battle to the death against her mother. Flooded by her memories of her mother, the threads which bound the two together thrashing, Ryōshū managed to land a deathly blow against the girl. In that moment, with the blow struck, Ryōshū recognized the reality of the situation: the dying woman was the daughter she chased after so desperately.
While she fell, Araya grasped at Dante's leg. Ren and Sora attempted to battle Ryōshū, who entered her state of Muga, which she used to erase the apprentices when they lost. Rien celebrated this development, while a single thread of Araya remained, who spoke to Dante.
Despite everything, Araya remained intertwined to Ryōshū, and that the thread that she thought she was cutting was only being split into gradually thinner pieces. Reaching out to Dante in hopes they could allow her to reach her mother before the thread was cut too thin and she would scatter into dust, Dante then manifested a new Golden Bough Resonance in the form of a chain which Araya used to reach out to the berserk Ryōshū once more.
After coming into contact with her and expressing gratitude for Ryoshu's determination in keeping this thread intertwining them together, she embraced her mother. Through the manifestation of the girl's E.G.O, Ryōshū was able to finally sheathe her ōdachi, now bound by the ability and a myriad of thick threads. In turn, this caused Ryoshu to forget everything about Araya's existence. However, her consciousness is implied to remain within the sword as the E.G.O, Renketsuen. Faust infers that this single thread of connection may be sufficient in the future for the two to reunite once more, sometime in the distant future.
Despite her ultimate demise, the Golden Boughs were found within the House of Spiders, kept in a pouch of Araya's beloved randoseru.
Gallery
Trivia
- Araya is based on Yoshihide's unnamed daughter from the short story Hell Screen, by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
- Each of Araya's
Afterimage Entanglement Afterimage EntanglementAfterimages are Entangled
Effect Stage changes with the progress of combat pattern status effect icons directly reference elements that contributed to the creation of the painting in Hell Screen.
Fourfold Afterimage Entanglement Fourfold Afterimage EntanglementStage 4 Afterimage Entanglement
- Min & Max Speed -2 for this unit
- On Hit, activate the following effects:
· Inflict 1 Poison
· Inflict 2 Bleed
· Inflict 1 Bind next turn
· Inflict 2 Burn references Yoshihide's apprentice bound in chains, who was then attacked by a snake.
Threefold Afterimage Entanglement Threefold Afterimage EntanglementStage 3 Afterimage Entanglement
- On Hit, activate the following effects:
· Inflict 2 Bleed
· Inflict 1 Bind next turn
· Inflict 2 Burn references the owl set upon another apprentice.
Twofold Afterimage Entanglement Twofold Afterimage EntanglementStage 2 Afterimage Entanglement
- On Hit, activate the following effects:
· Inflict 1 Bind next turn
· Inflict 2 Burn references Yoshihide's dreams of demons in hell.
Onefold Afterimage Entanglement Onefold Afterimage EntanglementStage 1 Afterimage Entanglement
- On Hit, activate the following effects:
· Inflict 2 Burn references the burning carriage with Yoshihide's daughter inside.
- Araya's name is derived from arayashiki, the eighth of the Eight Consciousnesses of Mahayana Buddhism, as well as the name of Ryōshū's sword.
- The arayashiki is the culmination of all seven other consciousnesses, composed in the "storehouse-consciousness". The other consciousnesses are attributed to the five senses, the mind, and the cognition of oneself, personified in Araya's character where she is shown learning lessons of the world from her mother.
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