Date A Live

**Date A Live** (デート・ア・ライブ, , *Dēto A Raibu*) is a currently ongoing Japanese light novel series written by Kōshi Tachibana and illustrated by Tsunako that is published by Fujimi Shobo under their Fujumi Fantasia Bunko label since March 2011. Currently, a total of 13 light novels have been released.

The light novel series has been adapted into a animated television series, two games, and three mangas. But the first manga series was cancelled, due to its illustrator, Ringo, having some health problems. A movie version of Date a Live will be released in summer of 2015.

## Introduction

Thirty years ago a strange phenomenon called a "spacequake" devastated the center of Eurasia, claiming the lives of at least 150 million people. Since then, smaller spacequakes plague the world on an irregular basis.

Shido Itsuka, a seemingly ordinary high school boy comes across a mysterious girl at the ground zero of a spacequake and learns from his sister Kotori she is one of the "Spirits" who are the real cause of the spacequakes that occur when they manifest themselves in the world.

He also learns that Kotori is the commander of the airship *Fraxinus*, crewed by the organization *Ratatoskr*, and is recruited to make use of his mysterious ability to seal the Spirits' powers, thus stopping them from being a threat to mankind. However, there is a catch: to seal a Spirit, he must make her fall in love with him and kiss her.

## Characters

**Main characters**

See also: Characters

Shido Itsuka (五河 士道 *Itsuka Shidō*)

The protagonist of the story, he possesses a strange power that allows him to seal the powers of a Spirit in his body with a kiss; however, the seal will only work if the Spirit holds enough trust or affection toward him to allow it. Although considering trust and affection is a two-way street he probably needs to have a certain amount of affection too, or at least genuinely want to help the spirit from the bottom of his heart which he usually does even before seeking out a spirit. This ability to seal and contain 99% of a spirit's power might have been given to him by Phantom soon after it turned Kotori into the spirit Efreet. After sealing a Spirit's powers, there will be an invisible link connecting him and the Spirit, through which a portion of the sealed power will flow back to the Spirit if said Spirit's mental state becomes unstable, and back to Shido once the Spirit's mental state re-stabilizes. So the more angry/distraught/unhappy a spirit is the more power she takes back temporarily while conversely the happier/content/joyful a spirit the more her power level doesn't rise from the minimum level of 1%. He also has the ability to recover from severe injuries which would normally be fatal. This ability is revealed in volume 4 to be due to his having sealed Kotori's power five years prior to the start of the story, and him using her healing ability each time he gets injured. Although this only works on severe or life threatening injuries, minor injuries like scratches and bruises that would heal naturally will heal at a normal human level unless a severe injury triggers the healing flames. Later in volume 5, he discovers he can also use the powers of the Spirits (other than Efreet's) that he has sealed but he can only use the powers in a limited fashion for a short time as even doing one strong attack drained his energy to the point where he almost passed out.
Abandoned by his birth mother, he lives with his foster sister Kotori. He has blue hair and brown eyes, and is in his second year in Raizen High School, class 2-4. He was in despair for a time after being abandoned and subsequently adopted, which made him sensitive to similar feelings from others and wanting to bring them out of it, fueling his desire to save the Spirits. He meets his real sister Mana Takamiya later in volume 3.

Tohka Yatogami (夜刀神 十香 *Yatogami Tōka*)

The first Spirit saved by Shido. She transfers into his class at the end of the first volume. Shido named her for the date of their first meeting, the 10th (though one kanji is different, the tenth day of a month is pronounced as Tohka). Reine later added the Yatogami surname for her. She has long dark purple hair and purple eyes. She is ignorant of the ways of the world, but nevertheless has a normal sense of embarrassment. She seems to have strong feelings for Shido, which she is shown to be unable to understand when she gets jealous after seeing Shido accidentally kiss Yoshino. However on learning that Yoshino is a Spirit like herself she decides to support Shido in his cause to save the other Spirits such as Kurumi, even actively participating in battles at times.
Her Angel is Sandalphon, which takes the form of a broadsword, usually with a throne that doubles as the scabbard, although at times it seems as though she can do just as much damage with or without it, using her hands to project dark energy spheres or bolts in order to slice through inanimate objects with ease. Her Astral Dress, Adonai Melek, consists of a purple ballgown. At full power she shatters the throne (volume 1) and combines the pieces with the sword turning the blade into Halvanhelev (the Last Sword) lengthening the blade several meters long, dramatically increasing her powers and can be charged to unleash an ultimate blow. Fortunately, the one time she used Halvanhelev charged up Shido was able to stop and seal her before the energy was unleashed. Her AST and Ratatoskr codename is Princess.

Origami Tobiichi (鳶一 折紙 *Tobiichi Origami*)

A highly intelligent classmate of Shido who is athletic, "beautiful", and the most famous person in Shido's school. She is often described as doll-like in appearance. She has short white hair and blue-grey eyes. She is the only human "girlfriend" of Shido, and out of all the other girls who like him, she is the most aggressive in her pursuit of him showing no bounds in her attempts to learn more about him, get closer to him, or even on trying to get more intimate with him. If not obsessive it borderlines as she does some weird things such as knowing Shido's exact measurements, and dressed up as a maid when he visited her after overhearing he likes maids. Her dating preparations include an energy drink where one drop will increase his energy a hundredfold, chloroform for emergencies, and a pair of handcuffs with masking tape in case she needs to use them. She knew Shido from when they were children living in the same apartment building and him doing something that had a profound impact on her.
Her hatred of Spirits stems from a Spirit who killed her parents five years prior when it blasted her parents after they managed to escape their burning home. Due to this, she joined the AST, in which she holds the rank of Master Sergeant, in an attempt to find the Spirit responsible for the fire codenamed "Efreet" and kill her, as she believed that "Efreet" was the culprit. However "Efreet" who turns out to be Kotori was not the Spirit responsible. She reluctantly believes Shido when he tells her that while Kotori unintentionally started the fire, she did not kill Origami's parents and that there was another spirit there (later named Phantom). Although whether Phantom killed her parents, or another spirit was there and was the one who killed Origami's parents is unknown. However, considering Phantom went to great lengths concealing its identity such as not having a clear image or voice whenever meeting anybody in addition to wiping Shido's and Kotori's memories 5 years ago its unlikely that it was the girl Origami saw mocking her parents death. This singular aim of revenge has enough drive within her to overcome her calm, calculating, and composed personality for her to go to the extent of disregarding orders and hysteria, getting her into trouble on more than one occasion. Notably, she was about to be discharged from the AST in volume 5 until Westcott intervened, after which her punishment was reduced to two months of not being allowed to use Realizers.

Kotori Itsuka (五河 琴里 *Itsuka Kotori*)

Shido's foster sister who was a human that gained the power of a Spirit five years prior to the start of the main story and thus, saved by Shido at that time. There is no record of how she obtained her Spirit powers, and she herself cannot remember; she does not know why both Shido's and her own memories are vague or missing at that crucial point, though she suspects someone may have tried to erase those memories. However, she isn't able to handle her Spirit powers for long before she loses control and is overcome by a powerful need to destroy and kill. When her Spirit powers overwhelm her, she retains almost no memories of any events that transpire during that time. She temporarily takes back her powers from Shido to save him from Kurumi with her power being sealed by Shido once more later on. The reason another sealing was needed was because she took all 100% of her power back breaking the Spirit Link between them that would cause her powers to return to Shido when she calmed down. During this state Shido has none of Efreet's powers and thus is completely and mortally human which will stay dead when killed. At the second sealing, she and Shido both regain their lost memories of the first sealing: an entity called "Phantom" granted her her Spirit powers when she was left alone at home and crying (with which she destroyed everything around her and nearly killed Shido), told her to kiss Shido if she wanted him to live (which was how Kotori knew about the method to seal a Spirit's powers, and also the ability to heal from serious injuries that Shido got from her), and afterwards stripped them of their memories of its existence, as well as Shido's memories of the entire incident. This memory also disproves Origami's belief that Kotori was the one who killed her parents, and that it was another Spirit that did it. Considering how Phantom went to great lengths to conceal its existence it seems likely that a third spirit was present and the one who Origami saw murdering her parents. Especially since Phantom never shows itself with a definable appearance or voice while the figure Origami saw was definitely a girl who apparently wanted to be seen.
She has red hair, often in twin ponytails, and her eyes are red. She is almost always shown with a Chupa Chups lollipop in her mouth. She displays two very different characters, bordering on split personality. When she wears white ribbons in her hair, she is completely relaxed and peaceful and shows an immature, spoiled character that's always clinging to her brother. When on the Fraxinus or dealing with major situations, she switches to black ribbons taking on an arrogant, superior attitude to everyone including Shido, but nevertheless still cares deeply for him as shown on many occasions. This difference in character is revealed in volume 4 to be due to Shido giving her black ribbons as a present for her ninth birthday after sealing her powers, and telling her to be strong as long as she wears them. However she is extremely weak to horror-related things, and reacts strongly to them regardless of character.
Her Angel is Camael, a halberd with a flame edge that is capable of changing shape to a cannon that extends to her right elbow. The cannon takes a little time to charge up and absorb Kotori's flames and has a devastating attack that blew a hole clean through Kurumi's angel and almost killed Kurumi. Kotori with her powers has the ability to recover from severe injuries, which Shido is able to use unconsciously while her powers are sealed inside him. Its represented by healing flames coming out of the wounds. How much of this effect remains when her powers are sealed is unknown. Her Astral Dress, Elohim Gibor (meaning "God Hero" in Hebrew and as par with anime-naming, does not mean a thing), is a kimono which mainly consists of the colors pink and cream. In her Spirit form she also has horns growing on her head, with her black ribbons tied on them. Her AST and Ratatoskr codename is Efreet.

Yoshino (四糸乃 *Yoshino*)

The Second Spirit saved by Shido. She has the appearance of a young girl around Kotori's age, with long blue hair and matching eyes. She has a very shy personality, depending on her puppet in her left hand, Yoshinon, most of the time for communication. She is a very docile Spirit, and does not attack the AST when they attack her, not even summoning her Angel, reasoning that if she does not like being hurt, they would also not like it. However when she loses [Yoshinon] she will be at a loss, and when attacked will summon her Angel, but only to defend herself.
Her Angel is Zadkiel, a giant rabbit puppet that she summons and controls with her right hand. It is capable of breathing out freezing air that freezes the AST members along with their territory. Other than her Angel, she is also capable of manipulating the three states of water, but is usually seen manipulating ice, however there is a tiny amount of Spirit Energy in each drop of the rain that appears whenever she manifests herself in this world. Her Astral Dress, El, consists of a green rabbit suit and a white petticoat. Her AST codename is Hermit.
Yoshinon (よしのん **Yoshinon**)
A split personality that was born out of Yoshino's wish to not be alone and not to have her powers hurt others. It is Yoshino's ideal self, as well as her friend. Unlike Yoshino, it speaks out with confidence and is prone to offending others. It acts as Yoshino's pillar of support, allowing her to keep calm enough to not attack others. It usually does the speaking for Yoshino, appearing to speak through ventriloquism by her doing, but their thoughts are independent of each other, and she has no control over what it says. Yoshinon's personality only comes out while Yoshino is wearing the puppet and both personalities consider the puppet to be Yoshinon. Yoshino is always the human shaped spirit Yoshino, Yoshinon is always the puppet so there are never any cases where Yoshinon takes over Yoshino's body, other than the arm holding the puppet, and Yoshino never becomes the puppet.

Kurumi Tokisaki (時崎 狂三 *Tokisaki Kurumi*)

The third Spirit that appears in the series, and the most brutal. Her Astral Dress, Elohim, is made out of crimson and black frills, giving her the appearance of a Gothic Lolita. While in her Astral Dress, she wears her black hair in twin ponytails, with the hair on her left side longer than her right. While not in her Astral Dress, her hair is tied up slightly differently, with both sides being of the same length except for the fringe covering her left eye, showing only her red right eye. Her left eye is an inorganic clock face, representing her remaining time (essentially measuring how much life she has left.) Although she is prone to killing people without a second thought, she has so far only killed humans who are doing bad things such as surrounding and hassling her when she wanted to be left alone. She cares for animals a lot, such as when she killed four guys who were shooting a kitten with air guns by making them the targets for her guns. She transfers into Shido's class in volume 3 and even announces that she is a Spirit. She is attracted to Shido from the very start, gaining the ire of Tohka and Origami. She is very aggressive in her actions, causing Shido to be bewildered during his mission on making her fall in love with him. However she reveals to Shido that she transferred to Raizen High School in order to eat him, or specifically the power that he has within him, to gain a large amount of life. She has a history with Mana, as Mana has been repeatedly killing Kurumi, but fails due to the fact that Kurumi keeps reappearing through the use of her clones. She manages to easily defeat the combined forces of Tohka, Origami and Mana at the end of volume 3, but was defeated at the beginning of volume 4 by Kotori. She managed to flee after Shido got in between them to stop Kotori from killing her. In the volume's epilogue she is seen regaining her time using her shadow powers to absorb the life of people within a building just enough to knock them out for a bit, but without killing them to 'avoid attracting attention'. She seems to have taken a liking to Shido as she appears in several side stories forcing him to do something with her for fun, but without trying to 'eat' or kill him. Such as going on a date or having him comment on several cosplay outfits she tries on for him.
Her Angel is Zafkiel, which takes the form of a massive clock face with a musket and a flintlock pistol taking the place of the minute and hour hands of the clock, and which allows her to control time. She is able to summon her past selves to fight or take her place as they are essentially Kurumi herself. This not only allows her to cheat death by summoning herself from before her death, but also makes it more difficult for Shido to reach her; such as when Shido was able to persuade Kurumi on top of the school but was interrupted when another self (original) killed her (clone) for showing weakness, circumventing any emotional persuasions the same way as physical injuries. Although which memories are kept and which die with the one killed is unknown along with how Kurumi uses her clones to evade death. One possibility is that when the current Kurumi dies the clone created from the most recent time becomes the dominant Kurumi or when about to be 'killed' again the original somehow switches places with a clone in her 'shadow'. Although all clones have the same memories as her up to the moment in time they were copied from, but whether they build on those memories by watching from her 'shadow' where she stores all her clones when not in use or some other method hasn't been shown yet, but they almost always obey the original. The only know exception is the clone created from the moment on the school roof who ran off to have a date with Shidou before being pulled back into the shadow and 'dying'. From within the shadow they can reach out their arms and grab people to hold them or to drag them into the shadow which somehow ends up with the person seeming to have exploded when the area is shown later. Can come out of the shadow and use the same clothes and guns as the original but not the powers of the Angel directly.
### **Spirit**

Spirits are extraterrestrial beings from a different dimension whose arrival is usually preceded by a spacial quake. These spacial quakes are usually involuntary, but they can also cause spacial quakes voluntarily, as Kurumi, Kotori and Miku have shown. Each Spirit has a numerical kanji in their name. They also each possess an Astral Dress as well as an Angel, which are respectively named after the Divine Names of the Sephirot of the Kabbalistic Tree of life corresponding to the numerical kanji in their names, and the archangels governing the corresponding Sephirot. Each Spirit has a unique ability, and each displays different levels of knowledge about Earth. When Tohka transforms, her new Angel is named after the Qliphoth corresponding to her Sephira.
It is later revealed that the source of a Spirit's power is a gem known as a Sephira Crystal. When a human is exposed to a crystal, they receive whatever power the crystal stores inside. Giving a Sephira Crystal to Kotori and Miku is how Phantom turned them into Spirits.
### **Angels**

The absolute shield that protects the Spirits; the form, the shape and even its function all reflect on the Spirits itself. Angels can take many forms, from monsters, instruments to swords, all of which seem to display some special power. Acts as both a medium and amplifier for the Spirit's powers. Usually used in its default form by their Spirits, but can be altered into various forms for various reasons. For example, Gabriel is a huge organ but Miku was able to summon it as one pipe to amplify her powers while still being able to move around freely. Kotori's Camael can change from a mostly melee style Axe into a long range cannon that charges up and shoots her power in one catastrophic blast. Tohka combined her throne with Sandalphon to create her ultimate and most powerful sword, Halvanhelev.
### **Astral Dresses**

Astral Dress, or raiment, is the Spirits' armor created by their power. Provides high powered protection against physical attacks so conventional weapons can't pierce or damage it. Against attacks from DEM weaponry or other Spirits it does provide significant protection, but can be damaged or pierced through. Whether the protection is limited to the areas covered is unknown but likely able to protect exposed features (like the face) as most of AST's combat protocol seems to be blasting the Spirits with full force anywhere can hit rather than to specifically aim for exposed areas. The form of the Astral Dress, so far, either can't be altered or none of the Spirits has tried to alter it. While the Astral Dress and (before being sealed) any clothes Spirits wear are made of Reiryoku, only the Astral Dress itself provides protection. As noted by Tohka, in the first Volume of the Light Novels when she almost got sniped, not only were the clothes she was wearing not considered her Astral Dress, but is extremely inferior for providing protection (if any.)
### **Identified Spirits**

Yamai (八舞 *Yamai*)

Similar in age to Shido, Kaguya and Yuzuru are identical twins, even being described as "clones" since they both split from the same Yamai Spirit, with the reason for the split as well as the original Yamai's personality both being unknown. Although they are two different, independent individuals, strictly speaking they are still one Spirit, Yamai. They both have long orange hair and mercury colored eyes. They are well known to people who know about Spirits as well as the general population due to causing a major atmospheric change when they duel while having a significant amount of witnesses. However the spacequakes they cause have few to no casualties due to them manifesting high up in the sky. Their constant duels stem from both of them arguing about who is the real Yamai. Both of them have dueled in various fashions, with 25 wins apiece and 49 draws after 99 matches. On seeing Shido they agreed their 100th and final match to be who can seduce him first, with the winner being the real Yamai, and the loser disappearing.
Their Angel is Raphael, whose true form is a bow and arrow weapon, El Kanaph, which has a high penetration capability, and is formed by combining their weapons. They both possess the power to control air currents. Their Astral Dresses, Elohim Tzabaoth, are visually masochistic, being covered in a dark colored coat with various parts of their bodies being covered by straps, Kaguya's being purple and Yuzuru's being blue. Both also have locks which possess torn off chains protruding from them, Kaguya's being on her neck, right hand, and right leg, and Yuzuru's being on her neck, left hand, and left leg. Their AST codename is Berserk.

Yamai Kaguya (八舞 耶倶矢 *Yamai Kaguya*)

Her personality is outgoing and very highly spoken of herself to the point that she doesn't always think statements through. The resulting effects from her outspokenness can make her seem childish or immature. She has her long orange colored hair braided up. Her main weapon is El Re'em, a lance.

Yamai Yuzuru (八舞 夕弦 *Yamai Yuzuru*)

Personality-wise, she speaks in a distinctive manner in an almost robotic structure with her intent of the statement stated beforehand in a one word sentence. She is reserved however she will not hesitate to point out the flaws within Kaguya's arguments. She looks identical to Kaguya, albeit being slightly more well-endowed than her twin. Other differences include her hair being braided into three portions and her expression appears listless. Her main weapon is El Nahash, a pendulum.

Miku Izayoi (誘宵 美九 *Izayoi Miku*)

A Spirit that first appears in volume 6 of the series. She is introduced as a student of Rindōji Girls' Academy who first manifested in this world in March, and transferred to Rindōji in April. She also works as a very famous and popular idol singer. She is shown to have a strong distaste of men, to the extent that merely talking to them will lower her impressions of them. Shido had to cross-dress just to get close to her and seal her powers, a plan that eventually failed when she found out. She is shown to not care about human life, such as when she revealed that she intentionally caused a spacequake to get rid of the crowd of people blocking her way just to get to the stage to sing, simply because she wanted to sing. She has violet hair and eyes, and she is always seen with a yellow flower-shaped hair clip in her hair. Her Astral Dress, Shaddai El Chai, adds a yellow crescent moon to the hair clip, as well as a number of white flowers in her hair. The Astral Dress itself consists of a mainly yellow dress with some blue parts as well as white frills.
Her Angel is Gabriel, which takes the form of an organ complete with speakers, through which she can transmit and strongly amplify her voice, and by extension her sound-based powers, of which she has demonstrated three so far: March, which enhances the listeners' physical strength, Rondo, which generates sound pressure in the form of a wall and is her primary form of defense and attack, and Solo, which brainwashes her listeners to cause them to be devoted to her, but can be blocked out by a pair of earplugs. A devoted follower will refer to Miku as Onee-sama (Formal Japanese for big sister) and think or do things they normally wouldn't do, even if unasked, to help her out no matter how insane the action. Such as what Kotori and crew were about to do as punishment to all the people, especially Shido, who had hurt Miku before being interrupted. Her AST codename is Diva.

Natsumi (七罪 *Natsumi*)

A spirit who first appears in Volume 8. Her initial appearance is a healthy young adult, but near the end of the volume, her true form is a sickly little girl. In both of these forms, she has emerald colored hair and eyes. She acts hostile towards Shido after believing that he saw her true form which he did not actually see. This is because the AST's dust which cancels out her magic also blinded him so by the time he could see again she was already back in her adult form. As the beginning of her revenge she disguises as Shido in his school to try and ruin his life, but she was found out by the real Shido, as well as Tohka and Origami who saw through her disguise. Having her perfect disguise seen through infuriates her even further and keeps telling herself over and over that it's impossible for her perfect disguise to be seen through. She later threatens Shido in which he has to find out who she was disguising as in one of the twelve photos of people he knows or else those twelve will disappear. After Shido finds out who she was disguising as, Haniel, for some reason, has its mirror break which releases the people who were already captured. Natsumi, who was in a nervous state, had also reverted into her true form in front of Shido and his friends who were captured. Most likely this was because Shido 'won' the game which shattered Haniel's mirror breaking all the spells it was maintaining, such as the one imprisoning the others and the other one making Natsumi look like a voluptuous young adult. As Natsumi felt embarrassed from having her true form seen, she transforms back into her adult form and transforms Shido and the others into children. She then flies off on Haniel.
Her Angel is Haniel, which takes the form of a broomstick. Its ability can transform the target into any form Natsumi wants. This can be people, objects, whatever she desires. Such as turning some of the AST members into cute animals during their battle. The Angel has a gem on the tip that can turn into a mirror which can entrap anyone inside. Her AST code name is Witch.

Phantom (ファントム)

An unknown entity that gave Kotori, Miku, and Origami their spirit powers. This was done by offering them a gem that dissolved into their hands infusing them with the power of a spirit. It's unknown whether only some or all Spirits were humans given powers or were always Spirits in the first place. Her motives so far, other than creating more Spirits, is unknown. How she creates the crystals or selects girls to turn into Spirits is unknown also. Whenever meeting someone Phantom always hides her identity by turning her appearance and voice into a 'mosaic,' so while people know she's there and can 'hear' her voice in their minds, nobody can discern or remember what Phantom looked or sounded like (even on camera) so her whole identity, including gender, is hidden. How or why the gems gives certain powers or influences the receiver is unknown so only theories exist on why Kotori experiences increasingly destructive impulses when she uses her powers, extreme attacking and healing, versus what Miku experiences, who doesn't have destructive impulses when using her powers, whose powers are more of control and boosting with minimal offense and defense. This entity is also the one who told Kurumi about the information that Shido holds the powers equivalent to three Spirits within him. Phantom is revealed to be a long-haired girl and has a similar speech pattern to Reine.

Ratatoskr

**Ratatoskr** ((ラタトスク機関, , *Ratatosuku Kikan*) is an organization created for the purpose of resolving the issues of Spirits and the spacequakes through peaceful means. It has also been stated that the organization was created for Shido's sake as he has the means to peacefully seal a spirit's powers. Ratatoskr's command center is located upon the airship Fraxinus. The headquarters for Ratatoskr is at an undisclosed location which houses all of the records for Ratatoskr as well as being the location for high-ranking members of Ratatoskr and the Rounds to operate from.

Reine Murasame (村雨 令音 *Murasame Reine*)

Head analyst onboard *Fraxinus*, she is a non-certified medic who can perform simple first aid tasks. On the second day of the semester, she transfers into Shido's school as his assistant homeroom teacher. She is soft spoken, often speaking in a nonchalant manner who seems to have a physically weak stature and always seems to be tired. She even claims to have not slept for thirty years.

Kyouhei Kannazuki (神無月 恭平 *Kannazuki Kyōhei*)

Vice-commander under Kotori of Ratatoskr crewing the airship Fraxinus, a ship located 15,000 meters above Tengu City. He shows masochistic qualities when receiving any type of physical punishment from Kotori. He displays psychological foresight in his defense of Fraxinus which appears to be an ability known by Kotori to the point that she is dismissive of a physical attack upon Fraxinus because of his presence. He is also the former captain of the AST, when Ryouko had just joined. He kept the AST in line with unusual punishments whenever they stepped out of line; first timers had to cosplay for a day, second timers had to step on him on top of having to cosplay, and so on. However he was well-respected due to his skills with the Realizers. He left the AST to "find a suitable master to serve", and joined Ratatoskr, but left a wish to be reinstated in case he wanted to return.

**Kawagoe** (川越), **"Bad Marriage"**

Married and divorced five times, he's been given the title "Master of Love". One of several male assistants to Shido by giving a vote on the appropriate course of action Shido should take when acting.

**Mikimoto**(幹本), **"Boss"**

An incubus during the nighttime. One of several male assistants to Shido on board the Fraxinus. His introductory phrase, Mahal kita is Filipino for I love you.

**Hinako Shiizaki**(椎崎 雛子 *Shiizaki Hinako*), **"The Nail Knocker"**

Described as "bringing pain to every rival of her love" and "the woman who lives at 2am", she is introduced with a voodoo doll. One of several female assistants to Shido onboard the Fraxinus.

**Nakatsugawa**(中津川), **"The Dimension Breaker"**

The man with a hundred waifus. One of several male assistants to Shido on board the Fraxinus.

**Minowa**(箕輪), **"Deep Love"**

A woman who's sincere and earnest devotion was feared by the law. One of several female assistants to Shido on board the Fraxinus.

**Elliott Baldwin Woodman**(エリオット・ボールドウィン・ウッドマン *Eriotto Bōrudowin Uddoman*)

An old man of higher than 50 years of age who is Ratatoskr's Machinery's founder as well as Kotori's benefactor. He is described as good natured and is the chairman of the Rounds. He seems blind since as all of the books within his library are written in Braille, yet after meeting Tohka in person he said "She really looked happy" rather than she sounded or she seemed happy. He receives respect from Kotori to the point that she wears her military uniform properly without her signature Chupa Chups lollipops. Seemingly, he possesses authority over Kotori to the point in that being suggestive of appropriate action to take should the worse case happen after Shido manifested an Angel, Kotori replied that she would kill Shido. His secretary is Karen Nora Mathers, Ellen Mathers' (aka Adeptus 1 of DEM) older sister.
### **AST (Anti-Spirit Team)**

The Anti-Spirit Team is a special unit within the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (Japan's army) that is designed to suppress and ultimately eliminate the threat posed by Spirits. They utilize Combat Realizer units (CR Units) layered on top of combat wiring suits to enhance normal human capabilities while providing offensive and defensive combat capabilities. The CR Units are based upon equipment that utilizes technology recovered by humans after the original spacequake that have been described as "magic through science". The CR Units of the AST have an operating area otherwise known as the operator's "personal territory" that can be expanded or contracted at the will of the operator, thus leading to a decrease or an increase in the territory's effective capability. In this personal territory, the impossible can occur thus leading to the description of "magic through science".

Ryouko Kusakabe (日下部 燎子 *Kusakabe Ryōko*)

Captain of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force (JGSDF) Anti-Spirit Team (AST) who leads the young girls of the AST while being 27 herself.

Mana Takamiya (崇宮 真那 *Takamiya Mana*)

A temporary Second Lieutenant of the AST, she works for the DEM Industries based out of England as a Wizard. Revealed to be the real sister of Shido, she does not have any memories from that time but possesses just a picture which was her only proof that she had a brother. Like Shido, she has blue hair and brown eyes, with her blue hair tied in a ponytail. Due to the procedure she underwent to strengthen her fighting power, she has less than 10 years to live, but was kept from knowing this truth about her body. After being defeated by Kurumi, she is hospitalized but is taken away by Ratatoskr in volume 5 whereupon she learns of this truth and defects to Ratatoskr in volume 6.

Mikie Okamine (岡峰 美紀恵 *Okamine Mikie*)

Holding the rank of Private, she is described as having brown eyes and hair, with her hair tied in pigtails. She is in Origami's and Shido's year but she skipped a grade, making her one year younger. Her age being close to Origami's leads her to have a strange attraction to Origami. Her dedication to Origami is shown by the fact that she was willing to resign from the AST when she thought Origami was going to have a disciplinary discharge.

Mildred F. Fujimura (ミルドレッド・F・藤村*Mirudoreddo F. Fujimura*)

Holding the rank of Sergeant First Class, she is described as a girl with blue eyes and blonde hair who wears glasses. She often goes by the nickname "Mily". Her age is close to Origami's thus leading her to have a strange attraction to Origami. She is a mechanic who occasionally gets delusional about others for her own personal fantasy.

## Species

* Human
* Spirit: Spirits are extraterrestrial beings from a different dimension who's arrival is usually preceded by a spacequake. Each Spirit possesses an Astral Dress as well as an Angel however their abilities are unique. Each Spirit displays different levels of knowledge about Earth.

## Locations

* Fraxinus: One of the airships of the organization known as <Ratatoskr>.
* Raizen High School: The school where Shido attends.

## Organizations

* Ratatoskr
* Deus.Ex.Machina Industries (DEM)
* Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF)

## Trivia

* According to the Light Novel Volume 1 Commentary Edition, the title "Date A Live" comes from the concept of "fail the date, will you be alive? Or dead?" and is also a play on word with "Dead Or Alive".