Rachel "Ray" Gardner

**Rachel Gardner** (レイチェル・ガードナー, *Reicheru Gādonā*) is a recurring character of the series.

## Description

### Appearance

Ray is a small girl of small stature with hip-length blonde hair that has a single hair strand hanging in the middle of her face (mostly on the right side), large blue eyes and a petite frame.

She wears a shirt that has black and white horizontal stripes where it almost covers her black shorts, a loose white cardigan and clunky black boots with silver buckles. In addition, Ray wears a plain black choker and she has a small black messenger bag with a triangular flap.

### Personality

Ray is originally presented as an extremely calm and collected girl, although this likely stems from her desire to die and the other floor masters say that she is ruthless, selfish and manipulative who is willing to do anything to get what she wants. However, it is a misnomer to consider her an evil or malicious person as she does not inherently understand human morality and does not have actual cruel impulses.

She is shown to have issues with empathy and difficulty expressing or understanding emotions, and while she has shown fear, anger, compassion, and happiness, these are rare, fleeting, and moderate. She does not, however, fake emotions, and will not pretend to have feelings that are not present. In the later episodes, though, she appears to become more expressive.

Ray is fixated on the idea of the existence of God. This make her distress when Gray told her God won't accept her oath with Zack and when Zack told her he believes God does not exist in the world. Her desperation in needing a God she believes made her so delusional that she saw Zack as her God.

Only until Zack helped her accept her actions that she finally came to terms with her warped view and realized that her true wish was simply to be wanted by someone in life and death. Afterwards, Ray started to act like a normal person, particularly in regards to Zack who she developed a close bond with over time.

## Trivia

* In the novel, Zack mentions that no one around Ray's age has ever been assigned as a sacrifice in the building, meaning that Ray is the youngest to be sent to B7 as a sacrifice.
* In the novel, it's revealed that Ray is able to memorize any books she has read, even if it's only once.
* According to the epilogue in Episode 4, Ray is diagnosed with delirium (specifically hypoactive delirium) which is exhibited throughout the entire game:
	+ She has difficulty paying attention to her surroundings or following others as they speak. This is evident as Zack constantly tells her to stop spacing out. Another example is her mother's frustration with her (Ray's) lack of empathy.
	+ Prior to the storyline, Ray obtained a bible and became fixated on the idea of the existence of God. After waking up with amnesia and meeting Zack as they ascended to escape the building, the mentioning of "God" has made her delusional to the point that she saw Zack as her God, though he denies it completely.
	+ After Dr. Danny tells her that she will meet her parents in hell, she exhibits depression-like symptoms which continued via slow speech and apathy until Floor B1. However, she is still capable of expressing other emotions.
	+ Her sense of reality is warped through the expressions of her perceived "perfection" by stitching and stuffing those who she endears afterward into dolls such as animals, her own parents, and even Zack.