Kirie

A cheeky young mongrel, Kirie is a new recruit in the infamous Ceres gang Bison. He makes it his business to constantly be in-the-know, demanding a front row seat in the action around him. This brazen curiosity (or nosiness) eventually leads to his downfall, when he stumbles upon the secrets of Amoi and ends up paying the ultimate price.

## **Appearance**

Kirie was repeatedly described as beautiful, something to which his ultimate fate also attests. He had natural heterochromia (mismatched eye colour), which was considered rare and attractive, a fact that Kirie was well aware off and didn’t hesitate to use in his favour. In the novels, his mismatched eyes were gray and blue, and in the anime blue and amber.

He was slender with a lithe figure, and has grown in height considerably over the course of events, eventually, at almost 18 years of age, ending up around the same height as Riki.

He loved to show off any chance he got, and that extended to the way he dressed. Especially after striking it rich, he’d often wear very tacky clothes and flashy jewelry, to the point where he could be taken for somebody's garish boy toy. He had a very expensive taste and flaunted it for everyone to see like peacock feathers. He fit right in among the crowds of gaudily overdressed tourists in Midas.

## **Kirie in Bison**

Kirie joined Bison at Sid’s invitation a year after Riki disappeared from the slums. One big reason for that was that, although Bison was now more legend than reality, the name commanded considerable respect in the slums simply as a status symbol. In fact, they could call on so many favors that they could get by on the daily freebies alone if the inclination so struck them. For someone as ambitious as Kirie, who aims only for the best, joining Bison was the obvious choice.

Sid was the one who brought Kirie in, but it was Kirie who had wanted access to their hideout all along and planned out how to latch onto Sid. Though the gang was dissolved, the name of Bison lived on in legend and attracted the hangers-on: sweet-talkers, groveling ass-kissers, and those who got their asses kicked but never learned. They just kept coming but among them all, Kirie was the only one who made it stick.

> Quit calling me a kid! Three years between us don't make you a bunch of world-weary geezers!
>
>

He was three years younger than all of them, and despite his ambitions and effort, was considered the runt of the litter, destined to pick at their scraps. Kirie tried to change this by hooking up with the members, in which he was mostly successful. The only one he could never win over was Guy, and that bugged him to no end. The distance Guy put between them was a thorn in his side, and he understood that it was mainly because of Riki, Guy’s missing pairing partner. This was just one aspect of the shadow Riki cast over Kirie’s life.

> Perhaps they were all chasing the same shadow of Riki they'd caught sight of.
>
>

Kirie’s ambition, determination and spunk reminded the others of Riki, which was probably the only reason they bothered to keep him around. Kirie's banter and pushiness had become something of an accepted joke among the other members, and it was up to somebody to play the straight man, or deliver a cutting come back, and then they'd all laugh and be done with it. That was the customary pattern. Their indulging attitudes fed Kirie's already massive ego, which is why, when Riki returned and blatantly showed his disdain for him, everything changed.
The animosity shared by Riki and Kirie felt more like a blood feud than that of born enemies. Even back when Bison had swatted him aside as a precocious outsider, they'd never dissed him the way Riki did. Riki's behavior towards him felt like a hard slap in the face.

> Kirie never learns. He's about a century too young to go mouthing off to Riki.
>
>

In his absence, Riki’s legend only grew, and he overshadowed Kirie’s every attempt to establish himself as an equal member. Eager to get closer to him and find out why he was so special, as well as to get a share of the glory, Kirie approached him head on, with all the bluntness and force his immaturity at barely 17 could muster. In return, all he got was derision and contempt.

As a result of this, Kirie’s bitterness towards both Riki and the other members continued to grow, but he stood his ground, never backing down, no matter how often he clashed with Riki because of it. In fact, his willingness to do whatever it takes to come on top became only stronger and spurred him on into action. Disillusioned by Riki’s passivity and the overall state of Bison, he took things into his own hands in order to assert his place in the world.

His subsequent actions would cause a host of problems for Bison and ultimately his excommunication from the gang.

> The cost of using Kirie to numb that sense of loss was Jeeks.
>
>

### Relationship with the Members

#### Sid

Sid was Kirie’s sex friend, and the one who brought him into Bison. Sid seems to be most taken by him out of all the members.

Kirie used him to get into the gang, and even when he was in, he would try to get his vote through sexual manipulation, which would often work. On the flip-side, Sid hooked up with Kirie because the boy reminded him of Riki, something he would never dare admit.

#### Norris

Norris, who was the usual peacemaker of the group, took Kirie for what he was – an annoying brat for sure, but one he viewed with a certain dose of affection. He didn’t hesitate to put him in his place, but he did so in a friendly manner. It is implied that he had casual hook-ups with Kirie.

#### Luke

Never one to be taken for a fool, Luke kept his eye on Kirie and never fully embraced him, but also didn’t outwardly mind him. He was put off by Kirie’s loud mouth and constant showing off, and would counter it with sarcastic comments. But he also seemed to be the one most acutely aware of the fact that they all chose him because of his seeming resemblance to Riki. It is implied that he had casual hook-ups with Kirie.

#### Guy

Kirie decided to pursue a position among the Bison members because of their reputation and status in the slums. He was well aware that their former leader, Riki, was gone. But Bison still had his second-in-command, his pairing partner – Guy, and so Kirie assumed he must be as special and as striking as Riki. But when Kirie first got to know Guy, he found the lieutenant of the legendary Bison to be a normal, easy-going guy and he felt as if someone was pulling his leg. The gap between rumor and reality proved infuriating, and lead to him gravely undereste Guy to the point where he fancied himself able to knock him off his perch and take his position.

Guy proved to be a tougher nut to crack however, and despite Kirie’s numerous attempts, remained the only member he couldn’t seduce. Every attempt was firmly shut down, and that grated on his pride.

> And who the hell do you think he is? He's Riki's life partner. The guy you're hitting on could have his pick of the litter. He's the one who's gonna do the choosing. Not you.
>
>

But when Riki returned to the slums, Kirie learned for the first time why Guy was his lieutenant. Even though it wasn't spelled out in so many words, the two of them clearly communicated on a deep level. Kirie couldn’t really comprehend their connection and it caused in him the feelings of jealousy that were difficult to express. As Kirie’s conflicting feelings towards Riki grew, so did this jealousy.
For Guy’s part, despite all this, he seemed to take on a big brother role towards him. He would often worry about his well-being and it wasn’t rare that he stood in his defense, even against Riki.

> Yeah, he's a whiny brat, but when he's not around it never seems there's anything to talk about.
>
>

#### Riki

Although Kirie never managed to get as far with Guy as he’d hoped, at least the man showed some consideration and affection for him. But the one whose attention Kirie always craved the most, was the one who ignored his existence to a maddening degree.

Upon first seeing Riki, before even realising that was him, Kirie was impressed and fascinated. That Riki, who barely broke a sweat beating up the Jeeks kids, that was the legend he’s been hearing about all these years. When Riki came back to Bison a few days later, the excitement Kirie felt upon knowing the legend has returned thrilled him to the core of his being in a manner that was different from the other members of Bison. Kirie was excited to finally get the chance to get to know the Charisma of the slums, be part of his team. Only, Riki seemed to immediately take a disliking to him which Kirie didn’t understand. Riki gave him a cold shoulder which was even more frustrating than if he’d shown outright hostility.

Oblivious to Riki’s past and state of mind, every step Kirie took around Riki seemed to be the exact wrong one. Even the other Bison members were taken aback by Riki’s attitude to someone they simply saw as an annoying newcomer at worst.

Unwilling to accept this state of affairs, Kirie made it a point to keep pushing until he elicited a reaction. And when he did, that reaction was always hostile. Yet Kirie never backed down. Even by the time other Bison members gave up trying to justify his actions, he’d butt heads with Riki until either Riki gave up and started ignoring him again, or humiliated him to the point of no recovery.

This dynamic kept repeating itself in the backdrop of the fact that for all intents and purposes, this great legend seemed to have come back a beaten dog, unwilling to do anything about it. In this regard, Kirie’s feelings kept getting more and more contradictory.

The disappointment over Riki’s passivity and perceived lack of spine was infuriating to Kirie. Not only Riki, but all of Bison, were not living up to his expectations at all, and he found himself constantly having to push them to apply themselves and do stuff instead of just sit around and keep getting drunk. And Riki’s disdain for him was a fact he found thoroughly depressing. In this sense, he felt that Riki’s untouchable reputation wasn’t untouchable at all. Whatever Riki could do, Kirie was sure he could do as well.

On the other hand, the glimpses he got of “true Riki”, as rare as they were, were absolutely intoxicating. In his heart of hearts, he knew that Riki was the blueprint for everything he wished to achieve. For all the times he called him a beaten dog whose era is at an end, Kirie’s obsession with him grew. To find out more about him, to follow in his footsteps, to outdo him. The jealousy of Guy he could neither shake nor truly understand. Guy who had all of Riki’s attention where Kirie had none.

All these complicated feelings only served to fuel the hot embers of his own innate ambition and propel him to take chances few would dare to take. But Riki did, and if Riki could do it, so could Kirie.

## **Tensions with Riki**

After all, being ignored in front of everybody was more irritating than being disagreed with. Even back when Bison had swatted him aside as a precocious outsider, they'd never dissed him the way Riki did. Riki's behavior [and indifference] towards him felt like a hard slap in the face. (V1 p44)

### **Rivalry with Riki**

(?!)

"To get ahead in the world, Kirie would sell his pride without hesitation. Riki would sooner throw himself in the gutter than do the same. That difference amounts to an insurmountable wall," Iason said. *A counterfeit of the real thing*. (V4 p19)

In the end, the imitation had not bested the original. That summed everything up into the expected outcome. Or perhaps it had been a mistake all along to speak of Riki and Kirie in the same breath. (V4 p19)

### **Obsession and Infatuation**

(?!)

Kirie's infatuations (V4 p140, V5 p146-7, 155-6, V6 p145-6, V7 p33-4)

Riki gave Kirie no respect at all. But Kirie digging around in Riki's past was still fresh in Katze's mind. As was the way Kirie stuck to Riki like a lost puppy. Though Kirie still tried to imitate Riki, whenever could, despite his own fierce magnetism. When Iason was informed of this, only the corners of his mouth turned up. (V4 p39)

## **Dealings with Iason**

The day of the Auction in Mistral Park was the day that changed everything for Kirie. Running into Iason that day was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He knew his chances were thin, but he took the risk, and that had opened up a new world to him—for better or for worse. Kirie had never had such an opportunity before and had no idea what to expect or where it would lead him.

Still, the encounter with Iason had given him something to live for, so Kirie clung tenaciously to the thin, uncertain threads Iason offered him. He asked for little and watched every step along the way, knowing that it was Iason who held all the cards and that the smallest mistake could cost him everything. But despite Kirie's own precautions about how far to push and when, it was Iason who set aside his prejudices about slum mongrels and extended Kirie this opportunity.

He wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he enjoyed Iason's full confidence. But the Blondy didn't seem to despise him. For the time being, Kirie told himself that that was enough. He understood the one condition that governed the connection between them:

> Don't ask, don't tell.
>
>

Although various rumors spread around the slums about Kirie procuring sexual partners and pets for the elites, the job Iason had for him was simple – he was to deliver Guy to him. To Kirie, who fancied himself both younger and better looking than Guy, this was hard to understand, and he even attempted to subtly get Iason to look his way instead. Iason showed no interest in this option.

In order to discuss this business, they met several times for a brief chat. Although Kirie wished for more frequent contact, there was no way he could pull it off from his end. The calls were curt and one-way. All Kirie had to cling to were these scant threads that could be severed at any moment. Even so, the meetings left him with a sense of exaltation and achievement.

When he found himself face to face with the Blondy, Kirie was surprisingly quick on his feet. Although visibly nervous, he managed to keep his composure and hold conversations with Iason respectfully but without grovelling. He didn’t try to hide or mask his slum origins, using the slang freely. He preferred to play up his mongrel heritage than pretend to be something he was not. This didn’t seem to bother Iason nor would he reprimand Kirie if he spoke bluntly, which led the boy to fancy that he enjoyed special privileges with the Blondy. He let his expectations climb a little higher, but kept his ego in check. He wasn't about to let his opportunity slip away.

## Striking it Rich

After striking it big, Kirie attempted to make a grand appearance in the slums in his brand new, top of the line car. His goal was met by the passersby who gawked at him, green with envy. However the reaction of his Bison mates was drastically less satisfying.

It was obvious that they were the ones Kirie was aiming to impress the most, undoubtedly hoping that this will elevate him from the position of the runt of the litter into a full-fledged member who deserved just as much, if not more, respect than anyone else. But on the contrary, they called him out for selling out his mates to the androids for money and seemed to find his peacocking tacky.

The arrogance with which he returned didn’t seem to subside even after their lukewarm reaction to his newfound riches. Completely caught up in his own delusion, he just kept digging himself in deeper and deeper. But after getting knocked down a peg or two, he understood that the only true merit and the only thing that will gain him their respect is to show some guts.

> I'm making a name for myself and living up to it!
>
>

The trouble is, he always had a very wrong idea of what that meant in the slums.

## The Jeeks Incident

Kirie, on a high from his success from dealing with Iason, decided to “do Bison a favour” and deal with Jeeks. The same day he visited the Bison safehouse to flaunt his riches, he dropped a tear gas bomb on Jeeks’ safehouse, destroying it and sending them fleeing.

While the popular opinion was that Jeeks got what they deserved, this occasion had only made them even more intolerable, and the slums collectively blamed Bison for it.

The Bison members naturally neither wanted nor condoned what happened but were left to clean up the mess. This was the last drop for them and they told Kirie in no uncertain terms that they are done with him. Thus, Kirie was officially no longer part of their group, but the slums didn’t really know this and continued to associate them.

Kirie, for his part, was bitter that instead of praise, which is what he expected, this was the reaction he got, when in his view all he did was show some guts and do Bison a favour. Once Bison finally dealt with Jeeks for good and were praised for it in the slums, Kirie felt left out that no one as much as thanked him.

## Selling Off Guy

Diven by personal ambition, Kirie didn’t blink twice when he approached Guy with an offer from Iason. Showing just how out of touch he was with the moral compass of his Bison mates, he seemed genuinely confused that Guy repeatedly rejected this offer. What’s more, he treated the rejection as a personal loss. If he'd been able to pull it off, he believed that he’d have one foot through the door out of Ceres.

However, it wasn’t only personal ambition that spurred him on. His jealousy of Guy and the desire to separate him and Riki played a role in it too.

Guy agreed to meet Kirie, not to indulge him, but because he had his own issues to bring up, and had no interest in being friendly. But then Kirie lured him to meet Iason by dangling a carrot on the stick in front of his face, which was Riki. Unapologetically, Kirie handed him over to the Blondy.

> But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. There was no getting to the next level without you.
>
>

He assured both himself and Guy that being a Blondy’s pet was going to be amazing, and this spun-out version of reality was the only way Kirie could cope with what he was doing. And so, he didn't feel a twinge of guilt. If he knew his conscience was going to bother him in the least, he wouldn't have called Guy in the first place. For his efforts, Iason rewarded him with an incredible amount of money. They were to have no further contact after this.

Kirie had scored big time. But deeper inside him and with greater intensity, other things disturbed his peace of mind. Guy had occupied his thoughts far more than was necessary. All those outbursts of envy smoldering inside of him, now he could leave them behind. But his goal had always been Riki. The legendary Riki, who ignored him since the very beginning and whose only weakness seemed to be Guy. And so he decided to use this weakness to finally draw out the real Riki that had been hidden from him by an impassive façade all this time.

Kirie hoped to see Riki's reaction when he told him what he’d done. Would he be surprised? Angry? Would he scream? Or grieve? He wanted to see Riki's casual attitude finally give way. With those warped sentiments warming his heart, Kirie went to confront Riki.

The bravado with which he approached Riki, knowing he held all the cards, was new and changed the dynamic between them from the get-go. As soon as he brought Guy up, he had Riki’s full attention, for the first time in his life. It was almost as if Kirie's arrogance alone held Riki's wordless fury in check.

After informing him that Guy was with Iason now, Kirie attempted to push Riki further by flaunting his apparent success and comparing it to Riki’s apparent failure. However, to his chargrin, Riki again, payed him no heed. All his thoughts focused on his former pairing partner, Kirie’s gloating and provocations had no impact at all. Yet he wanted more. More of the real Riki dragged out into the light of day.

So finally, Kirie dealt the ultimate blow.

> What if—what if I sold Guy? What would you do then?
>
>

The fierceness of Riki’s reaction intoxicated him. This was Riki's true nature, and it sent shivers of excitement down his spine. Had he finally unmasked the legendary head of Bison once more? He found himself provoking Riki far more than was necessary.

> Go ahead and hate me all you want.
>
>

Only by shoving this fact in his face would Riki's eyes and heart be his and his alone. As the object of his obsession walked away from him with words of hatred thrown his way, all he could think about was that even that was better than being ignored.

As for Guy, he truly had no idea what will happen to him, he could only guess, but at that point ignorance was his bliss. The unshakable truth was that he'd done as he was told, had ensnared Guy and sold him to Iason. That was all. The important thing to him was keeping in touch with a Tanagura Bloody. The pieces of silver taken in exchange were an added reward.

## **Return to Guardian**

Disappointed that the deal with Iason turned out to be a dead end, Kirie needed to find another way to reach his goals. Meeting one of the Tanagura elites face-to-face emboldened him and opened new perspectives. Through Iason, he learned how Midas worked, but now his eyes were drawn to what he hadn't seen before—or, rather, what he hadn't looked for. He began to pay close attention to those things that he would have previously completely ignored. One of them was the only place in Ceres that was off-limits – Guardian.

He started looking at the place he once called home with completely new eyes. Kirie had left its precincts for the slums five years ago. Once he had graduated from the foster center, he hadn't had the luxury of ruminating about his life there. It was enough for him to stay with the flow while keeping his head above water. Nevertheless, Guardian's uniqueness and its special place in the greater society, was imprinted on his mind. The one spot of holy ground in Ceres.

With his newfound insight, Guardian’s nature lit a spark of curiosity in Kirie. The Kuger family were in charge of taking care of the foster center, but they never left its walls, and that was seen in the slums as just a fact of life. So was the fact that once the kids were released from it, no one would think to go back. Until Kirie.

But that didn't mean he could simply pop in to say hello. Not even a graduate of Guardian cut past the gate without an appointment. Simply dropping by on a whim to poke around his old haunts required doing things by the book and going through channels and setting up a formal meeting. Unaware of that, Kirie had been turned away at the front gate.

No matter how humbly he begged, or how high and mighty he protested, the security guard denied him. Eventually, Kirie reluctantly withdrew, the unexpected reality forcing itself upon him. He wanted to show off to his once helpful block mother and sisters what a man he'd become in the past five years.

Guardian was a garden paradise, a terrarium shut away from the world, and Kirie never felt to what extent this was true until he tried to get in. Undeterred by initial rejection, Kirie went all in. No matter how much paperwork he needed to submit, no matter how long he had to wait, no matter how many hoops he had to jump through, if "regulations" were all they knew, then Kirie would follow the damned regulations.

The amount of red tape confused him. Sure, the children should be kept safe, but this amount of security and bureaucracy seemed like an overkill. Consequently, Kirie figured that as far as he was concerned, having taken the time to come this far, they might as well give him the damned pass. This certainly wasn't the kind of thing Kirie did just to blow off a few hours.

> I want to give a little back to the institution that did so much for me.
>
>

Kirie used the pretext of a kind benefactor who wanted to share his success with the children in Guardian, bringing in what was in poor supply at the foster center and what the children wished for. Having been raised there himself, Kirie found a way to convert what he'd wanted *then* into concrete form and present it to them *now*. The block mothers and sisters were uniformly impressed as he expected they would be. Nothing like this had happened since the beginnings of Guardian. Guardian graduates simply did not return once they'd left the nest and they certainly did not come bearing gifts.

But in truth, all he was looking for was an opening. He didn’t know exactly what he was going for, but the fact that the Kuger’s were the top family in Ceres seemed like a good start. A smooth operator weaseled his way into the graces of the high and mighty under false pretenses and made easy pickings of them. Kirie didn't know whether or not he could get a foothold in the high society the Kuger clan occupied. But the fact was, for the time being, nobody questioned their top-dog status in Ceres.

He started coming regularly to the point where the security guard at the front gate knew him on sight, and Kirie even stopped to chat with him for a few minutes. The man had been the bane of his existence and a ridiculous waste of his time, but Kirie planned on making a number of return visits and wanted to leave a good impression. It was all part of his calculations. Despite all the hassle, he never let his smile waver, and played the role of a generous big brother perfectly.

### Kirie and Manon

At first, he spent his hours there chatting up block sisters until he finally zeroed in on his pray. Manon Sol Kuger was the son of the head administrator of Guardian and an intolerable, and clueless, snob. Kirie set Manon in his sights for no reason except that he was the rightful successor to the Kuger family name. There could be no downside to getting involved with the man who would someday become top dog in Ceres as the head of Guardian.

Kirie and Manon had once been block mates, but the 3 year age difference between them and social status created a distance that Kirie could not surmount easily. The first time Manon bothered to say hello, Kirie introduced himself and referred to their shared history together. Manon hadn't reacted in the slightest. He didn't remember a thing about Kirie, but Kirie didn't take it personally. The only thing important to him was his relationship with Manon from that point forward.

Kirie could definitely not make the first move in his direction. Whenever their eyes met, he would only nod silently in reply. Unless the other party approached him first, the effort would have no meaning. That was his whole operating strategy. And when, according to plan, Manon did call to him in his haughty voice, Kirie congratulated himself.

After that, every time Kirie visited Guardian, he did not let pass any opportunity to nonchalantly press forward his advantage with Manon. At first, they only talked. He didn't force Manon's hand. He kept things on an even keel. Kirie had been out of Guardian for five years during which his wiles and iron will alone had kept him from being eaten up by the slums. Getting the older, prouder, and utterly clueless Manon to eat out of his hand was far easier. He tickled Manon's self-esteem with flattering words. Ingratiated himself without fawning. Casually provoked him again and again. And conquered him in short order.

Once he was sure of his hold on Manon, Kirie was always the one who took the initiative. Manon did not appear to get turned off when Kirie came onto him. Seeing the temptation take hold, Kirie had no problem guessing where things were going.

Kirie knew exactly how to push Manon's buttons. Sex being the first step to true bonding, a single, delicious piece of information gleaned from the pillow talk was icing on the cake. This was Kirie's forte. He didn't sell himself cheap. But when he threw himself into a part, he played it to the hilt. That was his policy. Using slow, tantalising sex, Kirie drew every private thought from Manon's mouth. At first, Manon stubbornly kept his thoughts to himself. But in the face of the mounting pleasure, his will steadily eroded away. His vulnerable zones, his weaknesses, Kirie had learned them all.

His efforts had been rewarded with a rough understanding of Guardian's organizational chart, and various details on how this isolated society functioned. But eventually, during Kirie’s pillow talk interrogations, an unexpected name spilled from Manon's lips - Katze.

### Interest in Katze

Kirie had never actually seen the man in person, but there was no way he wouldn't know the name. He'd heard plenty about Katze trawling for information in Midas. A big man in the black market, he was somehow tied up with Riki. Naturally, Kirie didn’t know the details, but he suspected that it was Katze who caught wind of Riki's talents in the slums and brought him up to the major league.

It was taken as common sense that nobody but Riki could have achieved something like this, but Kirie always believed that whatever Riki could do, so could he. And now, hearing Manon throw the name of the famed Scarface around, Kirie wasn’t about to let this chance go. Rather than an accident, Kirie took it to mean that the god of luck finally smiled upon him the way it had on Riki before.

The amount of disdain Manon showed when talking about Katze only peaked Kirie’s curiosity further. But most importantly, he wondered what his connection to Guardian was. It was obvious that Manon’s grudge was personal, so to know that the big shot from the Black Market had somehow gotten under Guardian’s heir’s skin had to mean something.

But Manon probably had no idea about the magnitude of Katze's reputation in that other, darker world. Only in ignorance would Manon have so casually bandied Katze's name about. Kirie’s excitement knew no bounds. Scarface Katze, once known to him only in whispers and rumors, had suddenly become flesh and bone.

However, getting any proper info out of Manon, who hated Katze’s guts, proved pretty hard and time-consuming, but Kirie was nothing if not patient. Using his sexual wiles on Manon, Kirie managed to extract information known only to those in Guardian and a handful of Tanagura Elites.

> His shining face revealed not a trace of the kid who'd once picked at Bison's table scraps. All that remained were the hard and brazen eyes of personal ambition.
>
>

### Finding out the Truth

Upon finding out the true nature of Katze’s dealings with both Tanagura and Guardian, Kirie, who knew much more about Katze than Manon, connected some dots the Kuger heir couldn’t. Aware that he stumbled on something big, he manipulated Manon into getting them even more information, and ultimately, access to the restricted areas of Guardian. Eventually Manon took them to the sub-level bunkers of the foster center.

The shocking truth and the true purpose of Guardian that they saw there caused Manon to lose his mind on the spot. The more resilient Kilie, while not instantly suffering the same fate, was overwhelmed by what he witnessed.

## **Kirie's Fate**

To extract information from Kirie with chemical interrogation was easy. To break his entire personality down and mindwipe him was not an issue for the Blondies. To a Blondy, slumdogs were lower than insects. Even if only for the sake of convenience, a mindwipe was done without a second thought. That's how Blondies were. Ruthless. (V8 p97)

### **Kirie and the Vermillion Sphere**

A sphere -- strobing from yellow, to orange, and then to red. The tips of [Kirie's] fingers brushed against the vermillion sphere approximately six inches in diameter. Despite its metallic luster, it was neither hot nor cold to the touch, but body temperature.... The surface was slippery to the touch. Not too hard, not too soft. Slightly elastic. (V6 p76)

It throbbed in response [to Kirie's touch], synchronizing with Kirie's own heartbeat. (V6 p77)

#### **Feels for Riki Revealed**

*"The human brain is strange. When chemical interrogation is induced, it creates a fantasy world as a defense.... Fantasizing about sex with you was comfortable for him, and to break him out of that was quite the struggle."* (V7 p33-4)

In time, the large vermillion egg would hatch into the thing Kirie desired most. Slowly, gradually, the hue and shape changed. The egg hatched and morphed. At last, a human form emerged...Riki. (V6 p145)

### **As an Alita**

*"Why turn Kirie into an Alita? To give some old bastard for a fucktoy?" (V7 p31)*

After uncovering the secrets of Guardian, Kirie's mind was wiped and he was turned into a mindless sex doll, loaned (or possibly even sold) out to visiting foreign dignitaries.

Kirie had been turned into an Alita -- his personality overwritten into that of an automaton by Raoul Am. (V8 p135)

If whatever Kirie did meant he was reduced to exist as an automaton, then that was the price Kirie paid. (V7 p31)

see Sex Dolls

## **OVA-Specifics: Demise**

In the 1992-4 OVAs Kirie is not shown being hounded by the Midas police, hiding out at Riki's place, or being hypnotized and mindwiped by the Vermillion Sphere, his dark desires for Riki revealled.

### **OVA 1: The Tower**

    In the 1992 OVA. Kirie sells out Bison to Iason Mink, his former gang members thrown in jail after Kirie baits them into a trap during a smuggling job. Kirie goes to Iason for a monetary reward, but Iason double crosses him.

Kirie himself is baited and trapped -- he had been dealing with an android holographic replica of Iason all along. It transforms in front of him, menacingly approaching the youth. Kirie is last seen screaming in terror.

see Androids

    The symbolism behind the Tower Card imagery comes from classic Tarot decks, where the sixteenth card in the Major Arcana is The Tower, a symbol of destructive or climactic change, ofttimes for worse rather than for better. Kirie's doom is imminent, but it also reflects one of the many forms of ironic foreshadowing used to hint at Iason's own downfall.

- compare with Lanaya Ugo: Downfall

### **OVA 2: Hazall**

    *"The food and wine. Top quality in every respect...."*

*"Only the best for the VIP. That is Jupiter's wish."* (1994, OVA 2)

In the 1994 OVA, Kirie reappears. He is seen at a Parthian trade convention dinner in a mindless haze, being groped and caressed by Federation VIP Mr. Hazall. He has been turned into a sex doll. It is unclear as to whether or not Hazall kept Kirie or not, as the boy's fate was ultimately left a mystery.

Kirie presented with the Tower Card, as seen in the 1992 OVA.Kirie attacked, as seen in the 1992 OVA.As seen in the 1994 OVA.
## **Gallery**

**As seen in the 2012 anime series.As seen in the 2012 anime series.As seen in the 1992 OVA.As seen in the 1992 OVA.Kirie in the foreground - Crystal Bunko edition (2001-07) – Katsumi MichiharaTokuma Shoten edition (2009-10) – Saichi Nagato**