Ragna the Bloodedge

Ragna the Bloodedge, also known as the Grim Reaper, Man of the Blue, and Centralfiction, was an SS-class rebel, and Jin and Saya’s older brother. He is a young adult with white spiky hair and heterochromia: his left eye being green and his right being red, a side effect from assimilating the Blue Grimoire into his body. His clothing consists of a hybrid of modern, futuristic and old features. He wears a vibrant red sleeved jacket with two long thin tails hanging from the back. Under it is a black shirt with three red belts and also several belts covering his right arm. He wears a pair of black gloves with a red shell on the backs of the hands. His right arm is a black mechanical prosthetic made of the Blue Grimoire, after having lost his original arm when he was younger. The shell opens up to reveal the grimoire whenever he utilizes it. He wears a black hakama and steel-toed red boots. He also has a small black birthmark on the center of his chest. Ragna has a bright green stud earring on his left ear, not on the lobe of the ear but further up. When he was in his mid-teens, he had blond hair and green eyes. Because of the trauma he experienced, his hair turned white. After he is taken care of by Jūbei, he wears a traditional Japanese style sleeveless red turtle neck top, long black gloves that reach to his elbows, baggy black pants, and red shoes with high cuffs and steel toes. Ragna wth his haur wet. Ragna is sardonic, rude, and abrasive to anyone he comes across. He is also quick to anger, stubborn, and never misses a chance to use as much vulgar language as possible. In this regard, Ragna is similar to the stereotypical anime delinquent. This is caused mainly by Yūki Terumi practically destroying Ragna’s life, which has created a mass of hatred in him; stronger than that of any other individual. Ragna often becomes infuriated at first sight of Yūki Terumi, which he and/or Hazama often takes advantage of through taunting him. However, even in cases where he cannot win or is on the brink of death, Ragna possesses an undying will and persistence, refusing to give up even when he is clearly out matched, something many characters either hate or admire. Beneath his gruff exterior, however, Ragna does possess a softer, more compassionate side. He chooses to keep up his public front because of the path he chose – that of revenge, as well as accepting the fact that he’s still someone who’s committed crimes such as murder. He does genuinely care for certain people, such as Taokaka, Rachel, Noel, Jūbei and, to an extent, his brother, Jin. Ragna seems to disdain killing, refusing to kill Terumi after he defeated him in the end of Continuum Shift. Ragna spared Arakune’s life due to Litchi’s pleas, and in his Arcade Mode, he directly references his promise to Litchi to let him live after he defeats him. In the end of Chronophantasma, Ragna saved Nu-13 instead of killing her and he told Hakumen to not kill her. Also, despite Jin’s role in the destruction of his life, still cares for him as a brother. He also expressed anguish when Nu sacrificed her life to protect him, despite the past animosity he harbored for her and later declares he will “save” her due to prior events that shifted his beliefs. This side of his personality becomes more apparent as the story progresses, though he still keeps a rough exterior around others that don’t know about his soft side. Later on after the events of Chronophantasma, Ragna goes through more personal development which changes his opinions about the reasons he fights. He starts to rely on his own strength instead of the Blue Grimoire, as its power is to “steal” instead of “protect” as he finally understands the notion that the power from it was never truly his to activate so freely without fully realizing what it is. He declares that he will no longer fight to destroy and for revenge, and instead, decides to fight in order to protect his loved ones in spite of what he's lost in his life. This as aforementioned extends to Nu where he declares he’ll save her instead of destroying her. Furthermore, he then by proxy becomes more aware of how the world's possibilities and timelines revolve around himself within Centralfiction, as well as his own connection to the Master Unit. Thus, Ragna resolves to fight for the sake of migrating people's dreams and possibilities into a brand new world, and despite trying to take on the task alone, he learns to accept help from others in achieving this goal. In terms of comic relief, Ragna is often the straight-man of several situations that he himself cannot comprehend, mainly in several gag scenarios at his expense. As a youth, Ragna was confined in a lab along with his younger siblings Jin and Saya. However, they were eventually freed from the lab by Jūbei of the Six Heroes. They were then taken to a church and were watched over by the sister of one of the Six Heroes. At some point, Saya became very ill and Ragna decided to look after her, and in turn spending less time with his brother. Jin eventually grew jealous of Saya for being able to spend a lot of time with Ragna, and he began to hate her. Soon after Saya became sick, the church was burnt down by Jin and Yūki Terumi, who also cut off Ragna’s right arm and kidnapped Saya before leaving him for dead. At some point, Ragna was bitten by a vampire to save his life.[2] He was later found by Jūbei, the beastman who left him at the church, where he proceeded to train Ragna on how to control the power of his newly acquired Blue Grimoire which replaced his lost arm and repeatedly stated that although the item was a part of him now, the power was not his to command yet. For the next few years, Jūbei trained Ragna to control the power of the Blue, being periodically watched by Rachel, who requested Jūbei to take care of him. During the time, he met Taokaka as a child. When his training was at last complete, Ragna had finally come to the decision to depart on his journey. Ragna obtains the Jacket and sword. But before the three would part ways, Jūbei took Ragna to the burnt down church and handed Ragna two items once belonging to a hero named Bloodedge: his jacket and his large sword. Feeling the weight of the man that gave hope to the world and the Six Heroes, Ragna finally takes off, his training now complete. Ragna has a deep hatred for the World Void Information Control Organization, and travels from city to city destroying their bases; due to this, he has become a world-known rebel and has the biggest bounty on his head, according to Jin. Despite this, he seems to travel through cities by night without much fear of being detected or captured by the Control Organization or any vigilantes. Ragna finds Mai Distracted while training, Ragna turned his head, believing that someone was calling out for him. Unfortunately, Jūbei attacked while he had his guard down, knocking him over. He leisurely resumed the regime once ordered by the hero. Jūbei soon ordered Ragna to find the Pursuit Grimoire within the Military Academy; things did not go as planned when Mai Natsume dropped down from the upper levels in front of him, deterring him slightly from his mission. Ragna was alarmed when she asked if he was looking for the Blue Grimoire, but decided to help her through the maze of the lower levels to find the Blue figments that she was sensing – since he would lose sleep if he left a woman in such a place. The two of them eventually found the Pursuit Grimoire, but were attacked by the grimoire’s defenses. Effortlessly, Ragna began to dispatch each and every one of them, but more arose, leading him to try and activate the Blue Grimoire so he could get it over with. However, two of the defenses threw him down a dust shoot, landing him straight in front of the wrathful Jūbei, who relentlessly hounded him for having help in finding the grimoire. In the first timeline where Noel Vermillion did not exist, Ragna made his way deep into the bowels of Kagutsuchi’s Control Organization branch, eventually running into Relius Clover, who summoned the Detonator: Ignis to assist him. Despite the difficult fight for Ragna, he refused to use the power of the Blue Grimoire, disappointing Relius until he left out of boredom, saying it had been a waste of time. Ragna managed to make it down to the bottom of the branch, reaching the Kiln, he was, however, stopped by Jin Kisaragi and the two dueled until Ragna stood victorious – a victory short-lived as Tsubaki Yayoi rushed in and pathetically attempted to punch Ragna away, something he withstood and waved away, pushing her down to the ground since he had no idea of how to deal with her. This meeting between the three was interrupted as Nu-13 descended from the Kiln, leading to Jin questioning who she was until Ragna told him to shut up; Ragna soon went toe-to-toe with Nu herself, but the results ended in her favor. Before Nu went to finish off Tsubaki, Ragna stabbed the Murakumo midway through before finally succumbing to his wounds and fainting. Nu took the fallen Ragna and fell into the Kiln with him, merging to become the Black Beast which would plague the planet with death and destruction for a century. On New Year’s Eve, Ragna traveled to the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi to destroy the Control Organization base located there. Along the way, he has a brief confrontation with his younger brother, Jin, inside the headquarters. After the fight he makes his way down to an elevator shaft that leads him straight down to the headquarters basement. There, he meets Hakumen of the Six Heroes and a lengthy battle ensues. As Ragna is about to lose, he activates his Blue Grimoire to tap into the power of the Blue and is able to defeat Hakumen. arrives at the battle between Noel Vermillion and Nu-13. Right before her death blow, Ragna intervenes and saves Noel, but cannot defeat Nu, either. Noel then saves Ragna from being taken by Nu, who wanted to fuse and jump into the Kiln with him. Rachel then appears and tells Ragna that Noel is the new “eye”, who will inherit the “true” Blue, and that the world will change. She then departs to activate her Tsukuyomi Unit to protect Kagutsuchi from a powerful blast that came from the Event Weapon named Highlander: Takemikazuchi. Shortly after Rachel returns, Hazama appears before all three of them, and Ragna immediately recognizes him as Yūki Terumi, the one who cut his arm off and burned down the church. He and Rachel attack him, but Terumi merely rubs them off, stating that Ragna is too weak for him to fight and Rachel is the only one who can keep up with him. He then leaves the three of them. After the incident at the Sheol Gate, Ragna lets Noel travel with him for a short time, though he tells her to leave afterwards, upsetting Noel who tells him that the next time they meet they will be enemies. He is shortly thereafter attacked by the vigilante, Carl Clover, managing to beat the boy though he is dealt a nasty blow from Nirvana. He then wakes up in the Kaka tribe village, having fallen in there and spends the next few days recovering and becoming friendly with the Kaka tribe, including Taokaka. He leaves shortly thereafter and meets Platinum the Trinity before fighting Lambda-11 due to Kokonoe Mercury messing up the teleporting process. After fending her off, Ragna hears from Kokonoe not to fight Hazama as he cannot beat him. Hearing Noel’s name from Kokonoe prompts Ragna to find Rachel who tells him where to go, though reminding him that he must not fight Hazama. He then runs into Jin at the Control Organization branch, and Ragna manages to defeat him. There Jin also warns Ragna not to fight Hazama, saying Ragna cannot beat him. While traveling with Taokaka, Ragna temporarily separates with her and visits the Sister’s grave on the remains of the church. Rachel approaches him, and upon being asked about Kushinada’s Lynchpin, tells him that it is located in Ikaruga, and that the technique to activate the Lynchpin has been lost, but she doesn’t know all the details surrounding the Lynchpin. She tells him that the Lynchpin has the ability to sever the connection between the Boundary and the Kiln, stopping the flow of magic element, which could defeat the Emperor, and give Ragna the chance to defeat Yūki Terumi. Ragna asks Rachel how he can obtain it, but she tells him it is impossible for him. She tells him that Tenjō Amanohokosaka had sealed it, and to remove the seal, Noel’s power as the Successor of the Blue and the Eye of the Blue is required. Suddenly the Emperor appears with Phantom, who immobilizes Rachel with Gravity Seed. The Emperor asks Ragna to become hers, swear loyalty to her and serve her forever. She offers him Yūki Terumi’s head in exchange, but Ragna declines. Then, the Emperor switches to Saya’s voice and asks Ragna to come with her. Ragna attacks her in rage, but becomes subdued by Phantom until the two take their leave. Ragna is injured due to Phantom’s attack, so Rachel asks, the recently arrived, Torakaka to take him to the Kaka Hot Spring that is located in the old Kaka village. Rachel reveals that attacks by magic inflicts damage towards the soul, and that the Blue Grimoire remembers all the damages that Ragna takes, even bypassing dimensional interferences, and that it is the same case with damages occurred by an Event Weapon. She warns Ragna that if the Blue Grimoire’s assimilation continues, he will become damaged by injuries that happened within other dimensions. A while later, Ragna finds Tsubaki. Tsubaki attempts to arrest him, but fails as Ragna manages to overpower her. She blames Ragna for the changes in Noel, Makoto, and Jin, and declares that she will definitely kill him. Tsubaki pleads for him to kill her, but he declined because she is Noel’s friend. As Tsubaki keeps blaming him, Ragna decides to just destroy the Izayoi. Hakumen appears out of nowhere to protect Tsubaki and let her escape. Ragna tells Hakumen that Tsubaki is currently affected by the Mind Eater technique and that it isn’t something she can solve by herself. Hakumen tells Ragna that the one to toss aside the Sealed Armament: Izayoi should be Tsubaki, not Ragna, and the two begin to fight. After the fight between the two, Hazama appears to insult them, telling Phantom to get rid of the obstacles, and both Ragna and Hakumen are teleported. Ragna is teleported into the Grave Marker of Bases, and decides to face against Terumi, but he declares that his opponent is not him, while Nu-13 descends. Hazama requests that Ragna fight against Nu, the Sword of Izanami. Ragna tries to activate the Blue Grimoire, but he becomes unable to do so, because Terumi used the power of Takamagahara to create an Event Interference. Ragna becomes surprised as such level of Event Interference is impossible, but Terumi declares that the Emperor’s Event Interference power is above the Successor of the Blue. Terumi tells Ragna and Nu to continue fighting and killing, and that their distressing “song” will open the Nemesis Horizon. Time rewinds back to when Ragna was eating with Taokaka in the restaurant. Suddenly Ragna feels intense pain and injuries start appearing from his body. Taokaka becomes shocked by the sudden happening, and Bullet runs into the scene asking if Ragna was alright. Ragna asks her if her name was Bullet, then she takes caution as Ragna knew her name. Ragna remembers the words that Rachel told him before about Ragna receiving injuries from magic and Event Weapons. Ragna’s vision becomes blurry and he is unable to think straight, then faints. Ragna dreams about his time with the Sister when he was young, and wakes up to find out he was lying down on Celica Ayatsuki Mercury’s lap. He realizes that Celica was using magic to heal him, and stands up in panic. Celica happily comments that Ragna is the same as always, but Ragna tells her to not call his name so easily. Suddenly, Ragna’s right eye becomes blind and his right arm paralyzed. Celica asks Ragna if he is still hurt somewhere, but Ragna pushes her aside and runs away. Later Ragna walks on a rainy street, and notices that his right eye and arm had gone back to normal and suddenly bumps into a stranger. Ragna’s temper appears and he tries to attack the stranger, only to see that Rachel had teleported him away. Ragna tells Rachel to go away, which makes her disappear after she insults him due to his behavior. Ragna wonders why he is in an enraged mood, then meets Noel. Noel becomes surprised as Ragna was soaking wet in the rain, where she tries to dry him with something. Ragna suddenly grabs Noel painfully, saying that he had looked for her everywhere, and demands her to come with him. Noel pleads him to let her go but Ragna keeps on trying to bring her with him by force. Suddenly Kagura Mutsuki comes to Noel’s rescue by attacking Ragna. Kagura calls Noel “his woman” and asks Ragna what he was doing to her. Ragna becomes more enraged and tries to attack Kagura and fights with him, only for him to fall into Kagura’s pace. Kagura insults Ragna by calling him weak, which makes Ragna try to activate his BlazBlue, but then suddenly his arm and right eye becomes paralyzed again, due to Celica appearing. Kagura tells Ragna not to look away then knocks him unconscious. Ragna gets arrested and is thrown in jail. He asks why he is jailed, Kagura replies that it is because of Ragna’s past crimes, and tells him to be grateful that he wasn’t executed on the spot. Celica and Noel becomes surprised by his statement, which makes them ask Kagura to not execute him. Kagura tells them he was joking and that he still has a job for Ragna to do. However Ragna declines saying he will not do anything Kagura asks him to do. Kokonoe later reveals that the reason Ragna was imprisoned was because of the Emperor’s Event Interferences and that the underground where Ragna is has an anti-Event Interference device, and that Ragna should cool his head while he is imprisoned. Later, Kokonoe arrives to Ragna’s jail room, telling him to get out and follow her. Ragna asks if it’s alright for her to let him out of prison, then she shows him a rectangular object with a switch, and reveals that Ragna’s left arm has a bomb installed in it, which would kill him alone if activated. She tells him that if he wanders too far from Celica, the bomb would activate and explode. Because of Kokonoe’s threats, Ragna is forced to follow her. After the group heads to Kagura’s room, Kagura and Kokonoe reveal that they need Ragna to become bait for Azrael, as he is a threat. Hibiki Kohaku reveals that the news about Kagura having arrested Ragna had spread all around Ikaruga, and that there will be a tournament with Ragna’s bounty as a prize at the Colosseum, where Ragna will fight against the participants, which would attract Azrael to join in. Kagura tells Ragna that he will reward him with the Kushinada’s Lynchpin. Ragna abruptly asks Kagura if he truly has the Lynchpin, Kagura says that the key to activating the Lynchpin is already with them, and points to Celica. Kokonoe confirms that Celica is the key to activating the Kushinada’s Lynchpin. After hearing this, Ragna decides to go with Kagura and Kokonoe’s plan. Ragna then asks what their plan is. Kagura answers that their plan is to take down the Emperor and take over the World Void Information Control Organization. After Noel obtains control over her powers as Mu-12, it is shown that the room where she was sleeping was covered in a dimensional barrier, making the room inaccessible, which made Ragna, Celica, Kagura, Kokonoe, and Makoto unable to enter her room until Noel’s consciousness comes back to her. It’s shown that Noel was getting absorbed by Arakune, and due to her being unable to become free, she unconsciously calls out for Ragna, calling him “Brother”. Ragna senses this and is able to enter the room, then sees that the room has turned dark, full of spider webs, and that Arakune was there. Ragna tries to attack Arakune but Kagura attacks Arakune instead, forcing him to flee the area. Kokonoe reveals to Ragna and the others that it was her fault that Arakune had infiltrated the area, due to her relationship with him. Kokonoe reveals that her frailty was what had caused this, and that her frailty may take an ally’s life as the enemies they are facing should be considered like gods. Ragna tells Kokonoe that he doesn’t believe in gods. Ragna sees that Jin had come visiting to see what was going on, but then sees him take his leave. Celica comments that Jin isn’t being honest, but Ragna tells her that Jin was always that way. The next day comes, and everyone gathers at the Colosseum. Ragna acts like a true rebel and appears in the main stage with Kagura and Celica. Tsubaki congratulates Kagura for arresting Ragna, and insults Ragna, telling him that he is to be taken to the headquarters and be executed for his crimes, but that she has a mountain of things to ask him, so she will personally question him. Ragna sees that Azrael was not around, so he asks Kagura why Azrael was nowhere to be seen. However, after the preliminaries are over, he sees that Bullet had entered the tournament and that Azrael had finally made his appearance. During their battle, Ragna sees that Azrael was too overwhelming for Bullet as she was getting tortured by Azrael. Celica pleads for Kagura to stop Azrael from hurting Bullet any further, but due to Tager’s power output, the Coordinate Fixture for capturing Azrael was unstable, thus, Kagura could not enter yet. Ragna soon entered the stage himself to stop Azrael from hurting Bullet any further. After seeing this, Kokonoe tells Ragna to buy some time for her to stabilize Tager’s output. Ragna’s BlazBlue activates, but goes in a berserk-like state, but he manages to subdue it and deactivates the BlazBlue. Kagura becomes impressed at Ragna for being able to subdue the Blue Grimoire and Rachel also becomes impressed over Ragna’s growth. After seeing this, Azrael questions Ragna as to why he didn’t use his power and tries to kill him in disappointment. However, Kagura makes Ragna retreat, saying his turn is over. Ragna runs over to Celica, asking if she was alright. Celica asks Ragna how Kagura is doing and sees that Kagura was getting overwhelmed by Azrael, but then sees that Kagura was able to find out that Azrael could not attack first, and sees Kokonoe successfully capturing Azrael. After Jin, Noel, and Makoto succeeds in freeing Tsubaki from the Emperor’s control, Ragna goes with Celica to the underground where Kokonoe is. Ragna realizes that Celica was worn out from the day’s incidents and tells her to rest. Kokonoe picks Celica up and takes her with her. Ragna realizes that his right eye and arm went back to normal and wonders if it is because Celica had gone away from him. Ragna wonders what kind of answers he will find the next day about the Blue Grimoire, but suddenly, Hazama approaches him and tells him that he was unable to “observe” him, which forced him to come find Ragna himself, and attacks him as he wants to find out if Ragna was “real”. Ragna becomes overwhelmed by Terumi in the fight until TR-0009 Tager and Kokonoe interferes, then Ragna notices that his right eye and arm became paralyzed again. However he also sees that Terumi was in pain as well. Terumi, who was in extreme pain asks Kokonoe what she had done, and she reveals that due to all the observations done by the Emperor’s group, she had gone through extensive research on how to fight against them without getting observed, and that she had found out the answer. Terumi yells out to Phantom to teleport him out of the area in panic, and questions Kokonoe why Celica Ayatsuki Mercury was alive when he had killed her in the past. Celica then appears, who runs to Ragna to heal him. Terumi becomes surprised after seeing Celica’s appearance, and Kokonoe reveals that Celica is a Chronophantasma, someone who doesn’t exist. Ragna then sees Phantom appearing to teleport Terumi away from the area. The next day, Ragna, Noel, and Celica head down to the Ibukido’s Kiln, where Rachel was waiting. Ragna asks what he must do, where Rachel tells him that she will be sending him to a certain location. She tells him that there are people who doesn’t have the time to think about What or Who, and that Ragna has a duty to do in that world, and that after he returns, his future will be decided, from the future of his end. Ragna asks what he must do there, where Rachel tells him that it is for him to decide for who, and for what he will use his Blue Grimoire for. Rachel reveals to Ragna that he will have a time travel to the past through the Boundary. Rachel then uses her Tsukuyomi Unit to protect Ragna from the influences within the Boundary. Ragna then goes into the Kiln to begin his time travel back to the First Great Magic War era, 94 years back. Ragna reawakens within the Embryo, mostly stripped of his memories and searching for who he truly is. All that he has is his name, most of his old personality, and his fighting skills to aid him in recovering his memories. He was told to go to the Kiln where he encountered an illusion of Nu acting as if she was smelted for the first time, like in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Despite their confrontation, Ragna insisted that he will not kill Nu or destroy her, which led her to ask who he is. Ragna replied that it does not matter, and said that he will save her. After the battle, Ragna said that he probably came to this place to save her, and Nu asked what his desire was, but her voice then turned into Nine’s voice. Ragna saw a vision of his childhood at the church and after it ended, he found himself standing in the Purgatorium in front of Nine. She told Ragna that the only way to make his wish come true is to defeat Izanami with his own hands before the Doomsday arrives. After this encounter, Ragna started to get his memories back. Remembering what Nine said he went to Izanami, and after the battle she let him stab herself. Izanami said that Ragna cannot end anything by defeating her, and that she will show him his true enemy. As the Event Interference reverted their battle’s aftermath, Ragna saw the wielder of Amaterasu Unit, and felt like that woman is someone who knows him. Ragna realized that the Qualified again force their desires on her, that they want to deny the whole world because they do not like the results of their choices and just run away from the consequences. He thinks that this way nothing will change, and nothing will be saved, so Ragna decided to not let anyone, including God, fulfill their desires, even mentioning that he will devour their desires and become the enemy of the whole world. He encountered Naoto Kurogane, someone that people have been mistaking for Ragna. After their battle, Rachel teleported to Ragna, warning him to stay away from Naoto, but she did not explain to Ragna that Naoto’s existence overrides his own. Ragna went to the Kushinada’s Lynchpin to destroy it, but Lambda-11 teleported to him and they fought since she is one of the Qualified. After the fight she asked if Ragna wants to destroy her, and he replied that it is a bit different, but his answer is a “yes”. Ragna said that he will defeat all Qualified and end their desires, and that he can do it because he is not a Qualified. Lambda’s desire to meet Ragna was already fulfilled, so there is no need for her to be a Qualified, and she accepted to be destroyed by Ragna, but he said that he will only make her forget. Before he was able to explain what he meant, Ragna was teleported away by Relius, who said that he cannot allow that. It took him some time to get back, and when he returned, Nu was about to kill Mu, so Ragna jumped in and blocked Nu’s attack with his sword. Nu asked why he got in her way, and he explained that he will not let her take the Lynchpin, so he can save her, and for that, he also has to end her desire. Ragna is an extremely powerful individual, having been trained in combat, culinary skills and Magic Formula by Jūbei, wielding a Blue Grimoire and a rather unusual large sword called Aramasa, he is able to easily take down entire squads of the Control Organization by himself. Much of his fighting style involves somewhat crude-yet-controlled swings and strikes of brute force and simplistic martial form, ranging from wide sword swings to basic roundhouse-and-axe-kicks which implies a self-taught-yet-standard style. Much of his involves him getting into close range and trying to take his hits as far as possible as soon as he gains an offensive edge. Being the wielder of a Blue Grimoire, Ragna is able to manipulate darkness in the form of the various body parts of the Black Beast through his Drive, Soul Eater, which also absorbs the opponent’s life force to replenish his own. By utilizing an ability called Blood Cain, Ragna is able to use his Blue Grimoire to greatly enhance his physical abilities and strengthens his Drive, although it wears down his own life force during its duration even to the point of the Grimoire being able to nearly corrupt his entire person. Ragna is also capable of using a concealment Magic Formula to help hide him from both man and beast. He is 24 years old.