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| “ | I want his power. I want to make him mine and become one with him. | „ |
| ~ Kurumi Tokisaki |
Kurumi Tokisaki is a major antagonist/protagonist character in the anime series Date A Live. She is the third spirit to be encountered in the series and is the most dangerous and lethal spirit. She is heavily obsessed with Shido and has the ability to manipulate time. Her codename is Nightmare.
Summary
Mana reported that Kurumi Tokisaki is the most dangerous Spirit known, who has personally killed over 10,000 people (not including spacequake victims).
Kurumi Tokisaki used unstated and unexplained methods to personally transfer into Shido Itsuka's high school and classroom so she can get closer to him. Her purposes and reasons in this transfer are simple; consume Shido Itsuka and his ability. She somehow knew about Shido and his ability and the fact that he knows about the existence of Spirits. During the time when Kurumi was a Raizen high school student, she almost succeeded in consuming Shido, however she was forced to retreat after being overwhelmed by Kotori's destructive power simply because she wasn't prepared to face her but later she claimed that she could defeat Kotori if she had more time.
Later it was revealed (at the end of Volume 4) that Kurumi was given the information about Shido by a mysterious being and what seemly like she was talking to herself (in which she wasn’t), she stated her true purpose/goal was for seeking Shido out, she revealed that her true goal was to use her 12th bullet to travel back in time 30 years ago and kill the First Spirit, but to do that, she needs a large amount of spirit mana which she doesn't have yet. That's why she wants to consume Shido who holds the spirit mana of 3 spirits within him for her to be able to use the 12th bullet.
She reappears during the beginning of Miku Truth and offers to help Shido rescue Tohka from the hands of DEM. It was later revealed that her real objective is to use Shido as a distraction for her to have a chance to search for the second Spirit, the only one who knows the whereabouts of the first Spirit.
Appearance
"A girl with astonishing beauty" as described by Shido. She appears to be elegant and also has very good manners. She is a girl with black hair in long twintails. Her right eye is red in color while her left eye is a gold, inorganic clock face. The clock's hands moving in the counter-clockwise direction, representing her life, covered by her bangs only revealed when transformed into a spirit. The Astral Dress she wears is made out of crimson and black frills, giving her the appearance of an elegant Gothic Lolita with uneven twintails. She also wears a pair of black pantyhose (transformed or not).
Personality
Kurumi can be described a person whose personality is hard to read, possessing a well-polished dislike of humanity that borders on mistrust, something she shared with many Spirits in their debut. She is a skilled actress, capable of putting on the façade of an innocent, curious young girl when she needs to, shown when she registered as a student at the Raizen High School, even speaking in a very polite manner. However, under that mask lies a psychotic woman, prone to fits of insane laughter that possesses no regard for human life, regarding them as a food source to restore her own time, and thus, a disposable commodity; however, there is some sort of twisted justice behind her methods, as she brutally murders would be rapists and animal abusers.
Digging further, however, shows that Kurumi possesses some degree of innocence that her psychotic behavior has not entirely ruined; she has a soft spot for small animals and other creatures, outright killing three humans not because she needed to replenish her time, but because they were trying to kill a kitten—in fact, this is the closest to a humanizing emotion that she has. She also appears to have some desire for a normal life, a chance at redemption, as Shido was able to speak with one of her many timelines and nearly convinced her before the true Kurumi put a stop to it.
Her ability to summon shadow clones of herself from other timelines adds even more complexity to her character. The clones are essentially herself, which means they have the same personality, but they also have free will to an extent, even if they share memories, goals, fears, and obsessions. In some non-canon stories, the clone Shido seduced shows some "independent" attitude, almost rebellious, and openly acts lovey-dovey with Shido, which causes troubles to the "main" Kurumi and even leads to confrontation with her. It's also hinted that the experiences a clone lives affect the the main one since, after helping Shido locate Tohka (so Kurumi could track the Second Spirit) and parting ways, Kurumi is shown talking to her clones and being happy because she received a pat on the head from Shido.
Indeed, Shido's kindness towards her has proven to be beneficial to both her and everyone around her—as indeed, they are no longer in constant danger; a major sign of her kindness is shown at the end of Volume 6, where she offers Shido help to rescue Tohka. Amusingly, she seems to really enjoy teasing Shido—aside from her heavily hinted feelings towards him, this is the reason why she hasn't devoured him yet, even when doing so would allow her to accomplish her goals near-instantly.
Powers and Abilities
Angel: Zafkiel
Weapon: Clock, Flintlock Pistol, Musket
Astral Dress: Elohim
Skills: [A gun with special bullets that can activate different effects depending on the bullet]
- First Bullet: Aleph (Accelerated Time, aka super speed power on target object or subject) Activated by pointing at 1 o'clock time on the clock.
- Second Bullet: Bet (Slows down time on target object or subject) Activated by pointing at 2 o'clock time on the clock.
- Fourth Bullet: Dalet (Rewind Time on target object or subject) Activated by pointing at 4 o'clock time on the clock.
- Seventh Bullet: Zayin (Temporarily Freeze Time on target object or subject) Activated by pointing at 7 o'clock time on the clock.
- Eight Bullet: Het (Creates a clone of the target object or subject) Activated by pointing at 8 o'clock time on the clock.
- Tenth Bullet: Yud (Peeks into the past of a target object or subject) Activated by pointing at 10 o'clock time on the clock.
- Eleventh Bullet: Yud Aleph
- Twelfth Bullet: Yud Bet (Travel through time at the cost of a spirit's power) Activated by pointing at 12 o'clock time on the clock.
Kurumi has the ability to manipulate the 4th dimension, mainly "Time;" but her main power is associated with controlling shadows. Shadow is her primary while Time is her secondary in terms of her usage. Combined with the power of "Time," she can create a clone with all her experiences, memories, abilities, etc. These clones are less powerful than Kurumi herself though as she mentioned in the last chapter of volume 3 and in the epilogue of volume 4.
Her "Angel" is powerful, but is also like a double-edged sword. Each time she uses its abilities, it consumes a bit of her Time (life). So, in order to get back her own time, she has the ability to consume other people's "Time" to refill hers. She has two intricately designed guns as weapons, which resemble the hands of a clock: the musket (long weapon) for the minute hand and the flintlock (short weapon) for the hour hand.
She also has the ability to call and dismiss spacequakes at will, as shown in the series while she confronts Shido on the school's rooftop.
To activate any power she needs, she first needs to call her Angel (regardless of whether or not the Angel has been summoned already), and to position her flintlock at the number of the bullet on the angel (as mentioned above). Next, she needs to shoot the bullet at the target with the gun. In case she needs it for herself, she will be required to shoot it at herself.
.Only the original Kurumi is capable of using her Spirit powers but her clones aren't to be taken lightly, as they can use her guns, summon the <City of Devouring Time> and can even summon Spacequakes.
Trivia
- She is the Spirit that Mana Takamiya killed multiple times in the past, though those that Mana killed were actually just clones created by her angel.
- Kurumi has "three" character in her name. It refers to third Sephira on Kabbalah's Tree of Life, "Understanding."
- Kurumi usually wears black colored clothes. She wears a black winter uniform when she goes to school and wears a black gothic dress when she goes out.
- Zafkiel's (Kurumi's angel) bullet names are originally from the Hebraic Alphabet. For example, Aleph, the first bullet (from 1 o'clock) represents the name of the first letter.
- Elohim means "God" in Hebrew.
- Zafkiel, her angel is an archangel. The angel is sometimes equated with Zophiel/Jophiel, but other times considered to be a different angel. Zaphkiel is "chief of the order of thrones," one of the 9 angels that rule Heaven and also one of the 7 archangels. Zafkiel is also associated with the planet Saturn.
- Her angel, Zafkiel's name means "beholder of God" or "The contemplation of God."
- In the anime, Kurumi might have appeared in episode 5 as a cameo (at exactly 2:45, the girl with the red umbrella).
- Kurumi is modeled after Noire from the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise.