Ria Iwamura

**Ria Iwamura** (岩村 莉愛 *Iwamura Ria)* is one of the main protagonists in Ousama Game series. She was the third-last survivor in the first King's Game.

## Appearance

Ria is a rather tall girl. She has light purple hair that is neck length. She has red colored eyes and unlike other students, she wears a turtle-neck grey-colored jacket with thigh-high dark grey socks and black school shoes. She was always carrying a book around with her.

## Personality

In the manga, Ria had always been quiet and cold, believing that emotions were of no importance to her and that winning meant everything. During the King's Game, Ria took an anti-hero stance to the situation, having intentionally caused Akira Oono's death in order to save Nobuaki, threatening to kill Chiemi and Naoya in order to acquire Nobuaki's syllables, and even accepting the fact that sacrifices were required in order to beat the game. Near the end of the story, Ria became somewhat more open and trusting, having placed her trust in Nobuaki and Chiemi to defeat the King once and for all.

In the anime, according to Yousuke, she used to be a typical girl, always smiling, laughing, and hanging out with friends. However, she eventually became quiet, cold, and friendless after her father began subjecting her to sexual torture. At first, she was selfishly trying to beat the King's Game by researching on her own, but when there were only three survivors, she becomes more open and hopeful, to the point of helping Nobuaki and Chiemi try to end the King's Game.

## History

In the manga, Ria was a gamer known by her screen name "Kamihate" or "End of God". She was described by Yousuke as being the "God of Gaming" and a master hacker who currently holds first place for many online gaming leaderboards. As Kamihate, she was both respected and feared by other gamers and law enforcement officials and the world due to her extreme skills in gaming and because law enforcement has been stumped for many years trying to find out her true identity.

 In the anime, Ria was emotionally, physically and sexually abused by her father, who she once admired greatly and who worked as a programmer, everyday prior to the King's Game, which led to her developing her cold personality. At some point in the past, Ria's torture came to an end when her father committed suicide for unknown reasons.

## Synopsis

### King's Game arc

Ria was mentioned when watching the events of the paper drawing order. After Akira drew the 99th paper in an attempt to kill Nobuaki, her, during this time, sent him a text message in Kana Ueda's name, claiming that she wanted to be with him in heaven, that she missed him, and that he was the only one she trusted. Believing the text to be real, Akira drew the 100th paper himself and was punished with cardiac arrest as a result, thereby saving Nobuaki's life.

Ria was formally introduced, during Nami Hirano's self-given order of touching the King. She approached Nami when it was her turn to be touched, but before being touched, Ria surprised everyone present by claiming that she was the King. After watching everyone's reactions to her claim, Ria proceeds to ask them exactly what they would do if it turned out she really *was* the King. She then challenges Nobuaki's pacifism by insisting that, in order to end the King's Game, the King himself would have to be killed, even if that meant killing another classmate. She explains that, no matter the solutions they come up with; locking the King away, convincing the police, or even convincing the King to stop the game (all of which are very unlikely to work), if the solution turns out to be the wrong one, the Game would just continue and more people would die. Therefore, the only way to permanently end the King's Game, would be to kill the King, and that this responsibility would be left onto Nobuaki. Nobuaki is left in disbelief, as he does not want to kill anyone.

    Meanwhile, Ria grabs Nami's hand and places it on her chest. When no obedience message is sent, Ria sarcastically says that she is not the King after all. When the rest of the students are being touched, Ria's words stay in Nobuaki's mind the whole time as he considers the possibility that he may have to kill the King in order to save everyone. At some point later, Ria, using Satomi Ishii's and Kana Ueda's names as pseudonyms, started to travel to deceased student's houses and collecting the single-character messages from their phones, before deleting them before Nobuaki has a chance to find them. Nobuaki later confronts Ria about this on the roof of their school. Ria then explains that she left behind "little hints" in an attempt to lure in anyone who noticed the unsent mails. When questioned about what the characters in the messages were and why she deleted them, Ria simply responds that she deleted them because she is the King. She then takes a seat on the railing of the small fence near the edge of the roof and apparently tries to provoke Nobuaki into pushing her off to her death, claiming once again that she is the King and that the only way to end the Game for good is to kill her, the King, asking him once again if he can do it. Nobuaki exclaims that her claim of being the King is impossible since no obedience message was sent when Nami touched her, to which Ria explains that Nami didn't actually touch her; Ria grabbed Nami's hand and made her touch her, meaning that Ria actually touched Nami and not the other way around, much to Nobuaki's frustration. Ria then takes a different tactic, giving Nobuaki a "King's order" claiming that if he doesn't kill her in the next 10 seconds, then another classmate will die.

As she begins counting down from 10, Nobuaki, in his mind, faces the reality that he may have to kill the King when the time comes. As Ria counts to 1, Nobuaki grabs her hand and pulls her back onto the roof, claiming that if she really does turn out to be the King, then he promises to kill her with his own hands, but not until conclusive evidence proving she is presents itself. Ria, calling him laughable and boring, proceeds to incapacitate Nobuaki by shocking him in the stomach with a stun gun. She threatens him, saying that if she really is the King, then this is quite possibly his last moment on Earth and that there is no way he can defeat the King as he is now.

Ria then reveals that she had been the one to save his life during the paper-drawing order, having used Kana's name in order to send the fake text to Akira Oono that led to the latter's death, thereby sparing Nobuaki's life. Upon hearing this, Nobuaki realizes that Ria is the "God of Gaming" and master hacker, End of God. When asked why she saved Nobuaki's life, Ria claims that it is because "it's more interesting that way. Games should be exciting, you know?" She then proceeds to explain that, despite the fact that he wants to, it's impossible to save everyone as the nature of the game itself makes it to where sacrifices must be made in order for others to live, using Naoya's and Kana's popularity contest as an example. Nobuaki then demands to know who she is and why she knows so much about the Game, to which Ria says that she simply wants to enjoy the game and that the only point of playing a game is to win. She goes on to explain the possibility that collecting all of the single-character syllables will provide the answer for taking down the King, which means that the more people that die, the higher the chances are of the survivors being able to defeat the King.

     Nobuaki rejects her idea, seeing it as cruel and heartless, once again trying to push the idea that if they work together, they can defeat the King, to which Ria coldly rebuffs that his idea hasn't succeeded in saving anyone yet. She goes on to say that she will do anything to defeat the King, even if that means she has to kill and questions him, asking him if he would still be willing to endanger everyone else's lives in his attempts to save them. Nobuaki once again makes it clear that he will always go for the option in which everyone can survive together, at which point Naoya appears on the roof and agrees with him. Ria, unfazed, begins leaving the roof, saying that, since this is a game, Nobuaki is free to play it however he wants, but insists that, in the end, Nobuaki's strategy will only make him lose and get killed and that Ria herself will win and survive. After Ria leaves, Naoya informs Nobuaki of the deaths of Shingo, Motoki, and Maki, whereupon they proceed to call their respective parents in order to obtain the single-character messages and delete them before Ria has a chance to get to them first.

Ria steals the cell phones belonging to Chiemi, Kaori, and Mami, leaving them with a memo to meet her by a bus stop at midnight and threatening to destroy their phones if they told anyone about their meeting. Nobuaki happens upon that same bus stop and, after hearing the situation from Chiemi, demands Ria to tell him why she stole their phones. Ria brings him off to the side and asks him who he thinks the King is. He brushes off her question and demands she answer his. Ria explains that she was able to narrow the identity of the King down to three people: the girls she brought with her. She stole their phones in order to examine them and ordered them to their meeting spot in order to gauge their reactions. Ria then pulls up the P.S. message on her phone stating that the King was actually in class and claims to have a clue that explains the contradiction between this message and Nami's order that claimed that no one in class was the King. With this clue, Ria believed that the King is most likely Chiemi. Enraged at hearing this, Nobuaki slaps her across the face and demands that she give him the phones. Claiming that she's already gotten what she wanted out of them, she complies, but not before telling him that giving their phones back at this moment probably isn't the smartest thing to do right now, given that the current order of not doing anything unnecessary (crying) is still in place. Ria then leaves, but not before claiming that, once again, no matter how hard he tries and hopes, it will be impossible for Nobuaki to save everyone and that it can't be helped if some of them end up dying, explaining that this is why she and him will never be able to cooperate with each other.

It is revealed that the information and research that Yousuke Ueda gathered and sent to Nobuaki was also sent to Kaori. Having previously taken her phone, Ria copied the information from Kaori's phone and deleted Yousuke's message. Using the information, Ria traveled to Yonaki Village, having arrived a little bit before Nobuaki did. Later on, after Kaori is punished for crying and dies, Ria confronts a still incapacitated Nobuaki coldly demanding that he tell her the single-character syllables that he collected stating that she still wants to take down the King and that Nobuaki obviously won't need them anymore as he is about to start crying, which will get him punished. When Nobuaki remains silent, Ria threatens to kill Naoya and Chiemi in order to get the syllables the hard way. Faced with the deaths of his best friend and girlfriend, Nobuaki gives in to Ria's demands and tells her the syllables. At that moment, Nobuaki begins to cry and apparently dies from cardiac arrest as punishment, with a punishment text being sent out to everyone. As Ria turns to leave, she says that she will never forget him and that she will think of him when she defeats the King.

Ria sends all of the remaining survivors a text, telling them to gather and meet with her at the park near the Sasakikubi Dam in order to discuss what to do about the current order, which was for a student to roll a die and name the same number of students to be killed. At 10 P.M., the meeting time, everyone arrives except for Ria and Masami (who is currently in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt). Soon after, Toshiyuki Abe and Chia begin to engage in a physical fight with each other, at which point, Ria makes her appearance along with, to everyone's shock, Nobuaki, who is revealed to be alive. Ria then reveals that she faked Nobuaki's death with a punishment message that she created herself and sent to everyone. She also tells everyone about what happened with Nobuaki in Yonaki Village, explaining that he did in fact cry, but only after midnight when the unnecessary action order had ended and that he had simply passed out from fear of dying.

Eventually, the current order is carried out and 7 of the remaining survivors, including Naoya, are killed as Ria watches from the sidelines. At this point, Ria, Nobuaki, and Chiemi are the only participants left alive in the game. After Naoya's death, Ria approaches his body and rummages through his pockets for his cell phone. Nobuaki, demands to know what she doing, to which Ria explains that the next order will come at midnight and that she must defeat the King before then. Ria, pulling out a laptop from her shirt and getting to work, began to explain the origins of the King's Game. She explains that the King's Game is actually a computer virus that kills its victims using the power of suggestion. According to Ria, 32 years ago, the villagers of Yonaki Village were killed by an unknown powerful force through hypnotism.

    A researcher began investigating this force, believing that they could harness it's power for good and, although the effects could be horrible if the experiment went out of control, continued researching anyway. Ria explains that this researcher, a woman named Natsuko Honda, eventually gave birth to a child: Chiemi Honda. In order to ensure her child's safety, Natsuko attempted to erase her experiment, but by then, the virus had already mutated into an independent virus and Natsuko was killed in the process of trying to destroy it. Ria explains that other people began working on the King's Game, deciding to use Chiemi's class as a test site. Ria then explains that she first suspected Chiemi of being the King because her phone had an unnaturally high data traffic, making it a likely chance that the origin of the virus came from Chiemi's phone, which then spread to the rest of the class.

Piecing together the single-character syllables collected over the course of the game, Ria reveals a message with the syllables reading: "You need to sacrifice 31 people's lives to revive Natsuko Honda". Ria explains that Natsuko's dream had always been to complete the ultimate weapon and that, for some reason, the virus believed that Natsuko could be revived and so it left behind the syllables which, according to Ria, are it's weak point, a bug in the system. Ria then reveals that she intends on taking advantage of this bug in order to delete and completely erase the King's Game virus using an antivirus that she created. Ria starts her antivirus and gets to work deleting the virus. Eventually, Ria apparently manages to delete the King's Game once and for all. However, soon after she finishes, Ria receives a message from the King on her screen, revealing that she has broken the rules and is to be punished with immolation. Ria realizes, with shock, that the so-called bug was a trap set by the King. She also realizes that the true purpose of the King's Game was actually to determine a King that would rule the world with the "ultimate weapon", therefore "reviving Natsuko Honda" actually meant finding a new King.

As Ria bursts into flames from her punishment, she calmly states to Nobuaki and Chiemi that it was always impossible to win the game without killing others and that, with every person rescued, victory moved further away and, by that same token, the winner would be the one who lost everything. In order to become the King, all 31 syllables were needed from the unsent texts. Ria then laments her loss, explaining that emotions had never mattered to her, neither in games nor in real life and that she was only ever interested in winning. She then reveals that she faked Nobuaki's punishment message in order to save his life, her intention being that if Nobuaki was thought to be dead, then he wouldn't be named as part of the rolling the dice order, thereby ensuring his safety, even if she ended up dying. Climbing on top of a nearby fence, Ria, still burning with flames, turns to Nobuaki and Chiemi and beseeches them to fulfill her final wish: defeating the King once and for all. Taking a step backward, Ria intentionally throws herself off of the fence and plummets into the large abyss below, dying from either the fall or the immolation, as Nobuaki and Chiemi watch in sadness.

Using the information that Ria left behind, Nobuaki and Chiemi were able to save themselves from the final order, although Chiemi still dies from her leg wound in the end.

## Relationships

*Main article: Ria Iwamura/Relationships*
## Trivia

* She was **Student #6**in the class roster for Nobuaki's old class.
* The information that Ria gave concerning the origin of the King's Game and of Natsuko Honda were almost entirely reconnected as the King's Game series went on, replaced with new info as presented in King's Game: Origin.

## References

1. ↑ Ousame Game: The Animation Episode 6