For this character's current identity, see Spica.
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Rui Arneb (ルイ・アルネブ) is a Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, representing the Satiation aspect of Gluttony. First introduced in Arc 5, she later served as one of the main antagonists of Arc 6, alongside her brothers, Lye and Roy.
After a chance encounter with Natsuki Subaru, she learned of Return by Death and attempted to steal his existence. However, Subaru managed to defeat her and eject the clone of her that was attached to him, leaving said clone to confront her original self in the Corridor of Memories. While it is unknown what became of them in their clash, a new version of Rui with a dramatically different personality appeared at the end of the arc, eventually becoming Spica.
Appearance
In contrast to her brothers, Rui has large blue eyes, light skin, and extremely long blonde hair that can cover the floor like a golden sea. However, as is the case with Lye and Roy, she has fang-shaped teeth which help her smile look to be one more reminiscent of a menacing smirk. She normally wears an elegant white dress that nearly looks transparent. It comes with a jabot that has two small red lines along the leftmost side. She is physically in her mid-teens, although her exact age is unknown.
Rui's debut in Arc 5 featured her in her brother Lye's black cloak. It was tied just below her neck and it had uneven tears along the lower portion. As Rui's physical self had been trapped within the Corridor of Memories until Arc 6's climax, she occasionally took over the bodies of her brothers in order to experience the outside world.
Personality
Subaru describes her as a girl that'd look good with a smile, yet he describes her "smile" as a smirk, and gave off the feeling that she made light on the lives of many people. She is also described to be evil intent in the shape of a child. Rui doesn't care much about what she eats, putting more emphasis on who she wants to eat, befitting of her role as Satiation. Also, the three speak in a collective manner using us and we instead of first or third person.
Being the youngest sibling, Rui initially gave off the impression of being respectful and loving towards her brothers, but later reveals that she found them idiotic for blindly eating lives for her just because she was unable to exit the Corridor of Memories. Rui believed that life was unfair in a manner similar to that of a conveyor belt, without having the ability to choose the family, environment, and future to be born into. Because of these beliefs, Rui developed a goal of searching for, devouring, and becoming someone else all in the name of happiness, which would have allowed her to live with her head held high in a life she considers "ideal".
In her desire to achieve a happy life for herself, Rui was very shrewd, claiming that Subaru helped his friends out of pity and that he did it all for his own gratification as part of her plan to get him to reject the existence of the ‘Natsuki Subaru’ and start thinking of himself as a separate individual from the original him. When she experienced Return by Death, the Rui that had entered Subaru as a Witch Factor became traumatized and got into a fight with the Rui within the Corridor of Memories, who retained her original personality. The end result of this confrontation was that Rui lost her original mind, regressing into an infant-like state.
History
Since her birth, Rui was confined in the Corridor of Memories. Despite being the younger sister of Lye Batenkaitos and Roy Alphard, they were unaware of her existence. Due to her confinement, she only found satisfaction in the occasional "meals" that she was able to receive from her brothers which came from the effects of the Authority of Gluttony. Later, she found a way to temporarily escape by controlling the bodies of her brothers, which made them aware of her existence. She later gained access to Eclipse after her brothers discovered it and used it to devour people in her search for happiness.
Abilities
Authority of Gluttony (暴食の権能 Bōshoku no Ken'nō): Rui is able to use the Authority of Gluttony.
- Gluttony (暴食 Bōshoku): Rui can eat the name and memories of an opponent. To eat a name, she touches them with her left hand, then licks the palm of the same hand. Things such as experience, talent, and the likes and dislikes of human relationships serve as food for her, allowing her to take advantage of any abilities or memories her opponents had. However, if she eats a fake name, she becomes plagued with severe nausea. Similarly, attempting to devour the name and memories of someone with a soul too large and powerful puts Rui at the risk being taken over by said spirit, as seen when her brother devoured the name of Reid Astrea. Even after killing Rui, the names and memories of the forgotten will not return to their original owners. Though the reason is unknown, she can share the names and memories of those that have been eaten by her authority with her brothers and vice versa, though her brothers cannot share memories and names with each other. This is seen after she devoured Subaru’s name and memories, and shortly thereafter, both Lye and Roy seemed to be making references or have knowledge privy only to Subaru.
- Those that have had their names eaten have their existences erased from the world, destroying any human relationships along with negating any contracts with spirits.
- Those that have their memories eaten become amnesic and any characteristics they may have had are reset, effectively making them into a different person.
- Those that have both their name and memories eaten simply become a shell, and although they live, they no longer eat, excrete waste, or age, putting them in suspended animation.
- She cannot eat the same person twice until that individual gains enough new memories to establish a different sense of self from their old one.
- Eclipse (蝕): Eclipse is considered to be the trump card of Gluttony. It is divided into two types; Solar Eclipse (日食 Nisshoku) and Lunar Eclipse (月食 Gesshoku).
- Lunar Eclipse allows the holder to use their victims' memories and harvest their skills and knowledge. Lye, for example, used Lunar Eclipse to greatly boost his physical strength and perform numerous martial art techniques, including the Palm of the Fist King and Leaper techniques. It is worth noting that by eating a person's name and using Lunar Eclipse, Rui does not gain her victims' Divine Protections or spiritual arts.
- Solar Eclipse allows the holder to harvest their victims' name and transform their appearance accordingly. Rui, for example, transformed into Neiji Lockhart and numerous other victims she and her two brothers had eaten throughout the years, using her sibling's body. Both Lye and Roy dislike having Solar Eclipse used on them. According to them, Solar Eclipse made them feel as if their selves were being damaged, making it unendurable. Unlike Lye and Roy, Rui tends to primarily use Solar Eclipse as she doesn't share the same fear as her two brothers.
Master Class Fighter: Through the accumulation of souls eaten with her Authority, Rui gains any abilities her victims once had such as martial art techniques and magic by using Lunar Eclipse. In turn, this grants her extraordinary combat strength.
- Leaper (跳躍者): This technique allows Rui to use a short-range teleportation in quick succession, essentially allowing her to "leap" behind her opponents or avoid extremely precise and quick attacks. She is also capable of utilizing it vertically, making it appear as if she's flying. This ability originally belonged to Dorkell.
- Carnivorous Beast (肉食獣): In the web novel, Rui displays the aforementioned ability which allows her to strengthen her body which gives her two advantages: She can withstand powerful attacks, and she can strengthen her limbs to deliver devastating blows. With this ability, she was able take a hit from Emilia's ice spear and came out unscathed. She was also able to deliver a retaliatory punch that was said to be as devastating as getting hit by a car. This ability originally belonged to Beli Hainelga.
Witchbeast Control: Because Rui, Lye, and Roy each possess the Witch Factor of Gluttony which was previously in Daphne's possession, they can direct witchbeasts to attack certain areas. This was why the White Whale's attacks were coordinated with those of the Witch Cult. Despite her ability to control the White Whale and the Great Rabbit, even if Rui had help from her older brothers, they wouldn't be capable of controlling the Black Serpent, according to the author.
- Creation: Rui stated she and her brothers can create life with the usage of her Witch Factor of Gluttony, just like how Daphne created the witchbeasts four centuries ago. However, Rui has also stated she and her brothers had no reason to do so, hence they never followed through the idea.[1]
Splitting: Similarly to the Great Rabbit, Rui can split and create a copy of herself whenever she separates her Witch Factor of Gluttony into multiple pieces. With a copy, Rui can attach her existence as a Witch Factor to someone else. In Arc 6, she used this ability to attach a copy of herself to Subaru, which allowed her to forcibly trap his memories up to that point within the Corridor of Memories. Rui can split and create at least two copies of herself, but it is not known if there are limitations in the amount of copies that she can create.
Body Takeover: Rui has also shown the ability to take over the bodies of others who carry the Witch Factor of Gluttony. She has used this to take control of her brothers at times and utilize their bodies to interact with the world, and at times, to help them escape from their enemies. This technique bared its fangs in Arc 6, when Rui split herself and her Witch Factor and placed it in Subaru, subsequently taking over his body while trying to mentally attack him. Although she did not control Subaru for the full duration of his amnesiac state, she did possess him for up to a few minutes on several occasions. She carved words into his arm, wrote words on the walls of the Pleiades Watchtower, and even murdered others to further her plan of separating his identity from the original "Natsuki Subaru" by instilling distrust and paranoia in him.
Trivia
- Like the other Sin Archbishops (with the exception of Stride Vollachia), Rui received her namesake from a celestial body. "Arneb" was a former name for Alpha Leporis, the brightest star in the Lepus constellation. The word was derived from the Arabic term أرنب (arnab), which translates to "Hare".
- In a Q&A, the author stated that if Daphne and a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony were to fight, it would most likely end in a draw. It is unknown if this answer was stating that a fight with Rui and her siblings would end in a draw against the Witch of Gluttony if they fought her all at once, nor is it known if the resulting draw would only come from a match with one of them.
- In Arc 6, Rui has her own named chapter in both the web novel and the light novel.
References
- ↑ "You know the Three Great Witch Beasts? It’s said that those, are monsters created by the owner of our Witch Factor long before us. We too, can do something similar. We didn’t do that because there wasn’t really any meaning in doing so… but, you see." Arc 6, Chapter 75
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