Aiba

* NI
* AI

* Somnium - Body
* Ball - Icon
* Ball - Body

* Somnium - Icon
* Somnium - Body
* Ball - Icon
* Ball - Body

 Alias:* AI-Ball (designation)

Nickname:

* An alien (by A-set (impostor))
* Shrimp
* Drift King (allegedly)

NI:

* 5 years old (Past)
* 11 years old (Present)

**Alternate Routes:**

* Active

**ARG Timelines:**

* Active

*AINI SPOILER** Kuranushi Residence\*
	+ Inside Mizuki Kuranushi's left eye socket

AI:

* Kaname Date (co-worker and host)
* Mizuki Okiura (roommate)\*

NI:

* Mizuki Date (co-worker and host)
* Kaname Date (co-worker and temporary host)
* Kuruto Ryuki (co-worker)
* Tama (fellow AI-ball)

*AINI SPOILER** Mizuki Kuranushi (co-worker and former host)
* Marco (fellow AI-ball)

### Interest/ Hobbies

AI:* Sneaking outside of Date's left socket while he's sleeping and making mischief

NI:

* Dancing
* Entomology (Past)
* Sympathizing with Salmon (Present)

### Likes

* Insects
* Spiders
* Crustaceans
* 1010000011110101 (AI)\*
* A0F5 (NI)\*
* 5301B63F (NI, Present)\*

### Dislikes

AI:* Dirty jokes
* Going outside the simulation

NI:

* Perverted jokes (Past)
* Watermelon-crushing VR videos (Past)
* Passing "I am not a robot" tests on websites (Present)

### Talent/Skills

* Hacking
* Fluoroscopy
* Voice Imitation
* 3D Modeling

### Appears in

* *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*
* *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative*
* Lemniscate (channel)

## Actors

### English VA

* Erika Harlacher

*“Hello. My name is Aiba. What is your name?
“How are you? I am currently 92% charged and feeling well.”*
–Aiba, in Date's Somnium
The first **AI-Ball**, named **Aiba** (アイボゥ, *Aibō*), is the deuteragonist of both *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES* and *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative*, and a character featured in the Lemniscate YouTube series*.* In *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*, she supports the protagonist Kaname Date, and in *nirvanA Initiative*, she supports the first protagonist Mizuki Okiura.

She is an artificial intelligence that resides within either Date or Mizuki's left eye socket, depending on the game. Together with either Date or Mizuki, she works for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to solve crimes and catch criminals, in particular the culprits of the Cyclops Serial Killings and the Half Body Serial Killings. She appears as Date's avatar within a subject's Somnium, where the pair work together to delve into their dreams and gather useful testimony and evidence. By *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative*, Aiba has been working as an assistant investigator for a long time, and she is adept at reading human psychology and emotional states.

## Design

In the real world, Aiba primarily takes the form of a single eyeball with a yellow iris, which most of the time is retained within Kaname Date's empty eye socket. When she is detached from her partner and using her motor functions, she adopts a hamster-like mascot appearance. Her projected skin is transparent and grey, with black soles on her hands and feet. Her skin is more like a gelatinous substance, where on the inside her optic nerve is visible as a sort of pink spine.

In the Somnium world and as a hologram, Aiba takes the form of a young human girl. Her skin is transparent and pale, with parts of her endoskeleton visible through her arms and legs. Her hair is white, long, and unkempt, reaching down to her legs, with three red streaks that light up like an electric current. She wears a long white dress that reaches her waist, with black and pink patterns around the edges and with gaps on her back and shoulders. Her upper legs have the same black and pink patterns, as either tattoos or some imprinted pattern. Her eyes are red in this form, in contrast to her hamster form's yellow eyes.

## Personality

Aiba is generally logical and pragmatic, but has personality when it comes to her partner. She disapproves of many of Date's habits, be them chocolate collecting, his obsession with pornography or cabaret clubs, to the point of vocally teasing him, but overall trusts and deeply cares for him. However, she has shown the ability to stand up to Date and voice her opinion, as well as her own feelings regarding investigations. Her relationship with Mizuki is similar, although their relationship is more sisterly with Mizuki teasing Aiba more, and Aiba tending to tease Mizuki's high opinion of herself and brutishness. She ultimately acts as a tempering force to Date and Mizuki's more brash tendencies, effectively being their voice of reason.

She's something of a nerd, wanting to make dramatic entrances parodying Terminator and looking into Ota's otaku hobbies for "research", and has a strange, gleeful fascination for insects and arthropods. She has a high opinion of her own appearance – particularly her cuteness – and gets upset and pouty when people disagree or compare her appearance to that of a shrimp.

## Story

### Birth

Aiba was produced by Pewter a year after Kaname Date joined ABIS, played the role of Date's AI-Ball assistant. Since then, Aiba lived in Date's left eye socket, for almost five years.

### Murder of Shoko Nadami

On the first day after the New Cyclops Serial Killings, after a brief investigation on Shoko Nadami's corpse in Bloom Park, in order to accompany Mizuki Okiura who was undergoing treatment, Date sat by Mizuki's hospital bed and gradually fell asleep. When Date fell asleep, Aiba sneaked into his Somnium and introduced the rules of Somnium world to him. Then, Aiba and Date found some memory fragments that Date could not identify: a strange man he did not know, and an injured woman lying on the ground.

Throughout the investigation process, Aiba assisted Date in collecting and analyzing intelligence, and when necessary, assisted Date in knocking down threatening enemies based on her calculations. Most importantly, Aiba would help Date with Psync into the subjects to get the necessary intelligence hidden beneath their Somnia.

#### AA: A-set's Livestream

*WARNING!!*
*This article contains spoilers for* AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES *from this point on. Proceed with caution!*

After Date finished Psyncing into "Iris", she asked Date to go to Matsushita Diner to ask Ota Matsushita for information. But not long after Date got there, he was knocked out with a wok by Ota, but Aiba kept it going, and she saved the recorded video for Date after he passed out.

#### AAB: Pursuing the Cyclops

After Psyncing into Ota, Date found key intelligence and locked So Sejima as the New Cyclops Killer. After confirming this fact, he and Mizuki rushed to Sejima Residence overnight. Aiba assisted Date in knocking down the Bodyguards and wounding So. However, just in the nick of time, So fired a bullet Mizuki. Date stood in front of Mizuki to protect her, causing the bullet to hit his left eye, destroying Aiba.

The next day, Mizuki learned some basic information about Aiba from Boss, but Aiba was not repaired until a month later, and revealed her identity to Mizuki in her mascot form.

#### AB: Death of Iris and Ota

After Date finished Psyncing "Iris", he planned to send Iris home as requested. But on the way, Iris asked Date to stop at Marble, and Date agreed. However, just after the two came to Marble, Date was suddenly shocked by Ota in the absence of Mama, and Aiba also lost consciousness. It was not until several hours later that Aiba resumed operation with Date's awakening. When they received the mission to rescue Iris, it was almost too late, because Marble was far away from the Cold Storage Warehouse where the incident occurred. It didn't take long before both Iris and Ota were killed.

### Half Body Serial Killings

***WARNING!!***
***This article contains spoilers for*AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative *from this point on.Proceed with caution!***

At the beginning of 2020, Aiba left Date and stayed in a certain department of ABIS, probably because Date watched VR pornographic videos in Aiba's presence.

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## In Other Media

### *RESEARCH and DESTROY*

Aiba, alongside Kaname Date and Iris Sagan, is available as downloadable content in the game *RESEARCH and DESTROY*, published by Spike Chunsoft, available for $2.99 USD as one costume pack or $9.99 USD for a bundle with all DLC. Aiba is featured as a costume for the character of Gary.

## Gallery

### AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES

Aiba's profile before the game releaseAiba's mascot form profile image in AI: THE SOMNIUM FILESAiba's profile image in AI: THE SOMNIUM FILESAiba as an iconAiba in full viewAiba full-body in human formAiba's bio in the FILE, before SINKIN' IN THE BRaiN proceedsAiba's bio in the FILEConcept art of Aiba from the first gameConcept art of Aiba's human form.Concept art of Aiba's mascot form.Early designs of Aiba.Aiba in a... background design?Aiba in the Somnium WorldAiba with Mizuki in the Somnium
### AI: nirvanA Initiative

Aiba in *nirvanA Initiative*Aiba's profile imageAiba's mascot form profile imageAiba's ball form profile imageAiba's profile from 6 Years Ago, in nirvanA InitiativeAiba's profile from Present, in nirvanA InitiativeConcept art for Tama's prisoner uniform and Aiba's entomologist uniform.Aiba in the character trailerAiba in the 1st anniversary picture of nirvanA Initiative
## Trivia

### Etymology

* The term **AI-Ball** is a pun on the word "eyeball" (which references her role as Kaname Date's eye) and the term A.I. (as she is an artificial intelligence). Her English name, Aiba, is an abbreviation of this.
* Her Japanese name, **Aibō** (アイボゥ) also sounds like Aibō (相棒), meaning "partner." Date sometimes refers to her as such in the Japanese version of the game.
* Her Chinese name is "瞳絆" (*tóng bàn*), a combination of "瞳" (pupil) and "絆" (bond). It sounds the same as the word "同伴" (partner).

### General

* Aiba and Kaname Date were both the first characters introduced for this game, appearing in the announcement trailer. However, Aiba remained unnamed and her role never directly addressed for several months until interviews released after the second trailer, leading to much speculation about her role in the story until then.
* Kotaro Uchikoshi's concept for an artificial intelligence residing in an artificial eye was inspired by the manga series *Goku Midnight Eye*, in which a detective gains a cybernetic eye that can assist him in investigations.
	+ When pitching the character to the designer Yusuke Kozaki, Uchikoshi imagined Aiba to look similar to the character Medama-Oyaji from the manga and animated series *GeGeGe no Kitarō*. Medama-Oyaji is a tiny bipedal creature with human-looking flesh, but contains a giant eye-ball as his entire head. Uchikoshi was surprised when, instead of the frightening-looking humanoid, he instead received a cute animal design.
	+ The animal design planned for Aiba was originally meant to be a frog. It was since changed to a hamster.
* According to Yusuke Kozaki, Aiba's "clothes" are part of her actual body and cannot be removed, effectively making her naked. However, if Date wishes for Aiba to appear in the nude, she can change her 3D model to appear naked (but is just as likely to instead self-destruct inside Date's skull and kill him).
	+ For the DLC in *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative*, Aiba can wear a hot-dog costume and three different T-shirt designs, the latter of which are explicitly work on top of her normal "clothes" rather than replacing them. This suggests these costumes are not part of her actual 3D model in-universe, instead just overlaid on top of the existing model.
* According to an interview with Siliconera, Aiba is Assistant Director Akira Okada's favorite character in the game.
* In a fan-made Character Poll for *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES* held on Twitter, Aiba came in 2nd place.
* Her favorite number is 41205. When using a Letter-to-Number cipher to decode it, it translates to "DATE."
* According to Kotaro Uchikoshi, Aiba and Date do not share their pain, including "brain-freeze" from a cold drink or dessert. However, he does say that they do share "the pain in their hearts."

## Navigation

Hitomi Sagan • Mayumi Matsushita • Renju Okiura • Mama • Shoko Nadami • So Sejima • Moma Kumakura • Rohan Kumakura • Cyclops Serial Killer

To-Witter Archives Aseton: Main Page • Aseton Plays Danganronpa • Revisiting the YouTube series • Tokyo Game Show & AI Launch Day • Aseton Zero Escape • Aseton Terraria Pioneer • Crypt of Aseton • Aseton of Hyrule • Indivisible Aseton
Weibo Archives
REVERIES IN THE RaiN Soundtrack
A-set To-Witter (English) • A-set To-Witter (Japanese) • a\_set\_on Weibo (Chinese) • Mato To-Witter • Kotaro Uchikoshi Eng To-Witter • Fluerichaji To-Witter

 Locations | **Tokyo**
*Chiyoda District*: Police Headquarters (Boss's Office, Psync Room, Interrogation Room) • Sunfish Pocket • Sekiba High
*Chuo District*: Horadori Institute of Genetics (Underground, Hostage Room) • Naixatloz Japan Branch (President's Office, Cathedral)
*Koto District*: Harbor Warehouse District • Date Residence
*Minato District*: Studio Dvaita • Aioen Orphanage • Ikume Shrine • Kumakura Office • Sejima Residence • Central Hospital
*Shibuya District*: Lemniscate Entertainment Offices • Yoyagi Park
*Shinagawa/Kabasaki District*: Matsushita Diner • Sagan Residence • Enda Residence • Kabasaki Chemical Plant
*Shinjuku District*: Golden Yokocho (Marble, Brahman World Cuisine) • Misetan Department Store • Tokyo National Stadium
**Side Ryuki:**
Dispossessed • Anyone Imagines • Ought to Know • Nothing to Be Done • Go • Farewell
**Komeji and Shoma Route:** Joy for Anguish • I Found Me • Past Its Ken
**Explosion Route:** Smiles for Tears • Well-Known • The Mind of God • Not All A Dream • She Was the Universe
**閭｡陜ｶ荵句､｢邱ｨ Route:** 遐ｴ邯ｻ逋ｾ蜃ｺ • All This Happened, More or Less
**Side Mizuki:**
Alone • Pass Mildly Away • End Where I Begun • Traveler • Left Behind • The Expense of Spirit
**Gen and Amame Route:** All Living Things • Of Arms and Of Man • Who's There • All That We Are
**Kizuna and Lien Route:** Bid the Soldiers Shoot • Sweet Silent Thought
**Resolution Route:** Hell • Visions • In Truth • Births • The End of Craving • Braver Than All Flowers

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 A9VG interview (translation here)
2. ↑ Anime Expo 2019 "AI: THE SOMNIUM FILE" panel
3. ↑ Spike Chunsoft 8/30 Stream for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES
4. ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2020: October 3rd
5. ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: October 21st
6. ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2020: April 19th