Tomoe Enjou

"Ah, I wish this spiral was a paradox..."

- Tomoe Enjou

Tomoe Enjou is a hero from Kara no Kyoukai. He is a protagonist in the fifth chapter.

Background
His earliest and happiest memories was when his father gave a spare house key to Tomoe when he was younger and told him to protect his family. This happiness was short-lived as his father would later cause the death of someone in a drunk driving accident.

This incident caused his family's downfall and hatred from others. This resulted in his father to lose his job and struggle to find work, leading him to have drinking problems. His mother was forced to work full time in the super market to support the family as well. Tomoe also becomes frequently bullied at school, which forced him to quit the track and field team at his school. His family had to move several times due to harassment as rumours keep appearing about his father's incident until they moved into the Ogawa apartment complex.

Unbeknownst to the Enjou family, the Ogawa Apartment Complex had been designed by Souren Araya to cause people to go into depression leading them to become insane thus driving them to their deaths. One day, Tomoe came back from work. Ignoring his mother as she tries to greet him, he goes and sleeps in his room. Due to being fed up with their situation, his mother killed his father while he was drinking and she eventually kills Tomoe in his sleep. His mother committed suicide afterwards. Souren Araya surgically removed his brain from his body for his experiments. The experiment involved controlling the brain that was still functioning and implant their the thought processes into the replica puppets that Cornelius Alba provided. He created the Apartment Complex to create a cyclical loop in which the puppet residents repeat their last day before death as a means to discover an access to the Spiral of Origin.

The continuous loop slowly caused each of the new Tomoe puppets to have dreams recollecting the original Tomoe's memory of his death. In October 1998, one of the puppets was able to escape from the loop by killing his mother and running away. Before leaving the spiral complex, Araya supposedly implanted an unconscious imprinting in this puppet to have an interest in Shiki Ryougi.

Personality
Tomoe is a head-strong individual that had grown disillusioned by his experiences. He had originally loved sport, as he was particularly fond of sprinting, but complications surrounding his family drastically changed his outlook on life. His family's reputation led him to being bullied at school. Due to this, Tomoe had grown to become more apathetic towards his loved ones, simply carrying out his daily routine with nary a care in the world surrounding him. After supposedly murdering his parents, Tomoe recognizes his guilty actions, going so far as even anticipating his cruel punishment. His interactions with Shiki demonstrates his tendency to adhere to societal norms, initially finding Shiki's habits to be rather odd.

Due to his father giving him a spare key in his childhood, he has developed an attachment for keys and locks; developing a principle under the notion of being protective of one's home. He has stated that he despises the notion of romance and love based on his bad experience with his past girlfriend. Tomoe would go on to become close friends with Shiki Ryougi, being able to talk about himself and his experiences to her unlike any other person he has ever met. It is hinted that his attachment to Shiki is caused by Tomoe's ability to relate to Shiki's continued impression of her SHIKI personality. He cares about this deep friendship enough that when he admitted his love for her, he disliked the idea of ruining such a relationship by simply labelling it under the notion of "love". While he claims that he is willing enough to die for Shiki, this lowered sense of self-worth is prompted by his feeling of hopelessness, due to having already "killed" his parents.

While initially brash in his reactions towards Mikiya, he grows to respect him. He later understands Shiki's attachment to him, remarking that people like Shiki and himself truly need someone like Mikiya to keep them sane.

Tomoe's personality relates to his Origin "worthlessness". He doesn't value himself and intially he was willingly to die for Shiki sake. Upon remembering his past memories with his family, he empathizes with his family and their situation. Finally gaining self-respect, Tomoe finds his resolve to fight for himself and his love for his family. When Araya reveals the true nature of the current Tomoe Enjou's identity and the supposed fabrication of his attachment for Shiki, Tomoe strives to believe that his feelings are true. In his final moments, he expresses his empathy for his family's situation as well as sympathizing their deaths caused by Araya, until finally remarking the legitimacy of his existence.