Ketsume

Silver Watchers

**Ketsume** (ケツメ) is an ex-member of the Hallow Crew.

## Appearance

Ketsume is a tall and gaunt man with sharp features, looking much older than what he actually is. His skin is of a grayish pale color, and he has gray eyes and long hair.

When going out on public, Ketsume wears a black suit and cape and dress shoes, along with a black magician hat. When in his hideout, however, he opts for much flashier clothing: instead, he wears a black vest with a buttoned wine-red jacket over it, pants of the same color and black shoes. His cape is much longer, almost touching the floor; it is of a blood-red color externally, and internally, black. In both sides it is full of drawings of red eyes, some bleeding. He occasionally wears a red magician hat.

## Personality

With other people, Ketsume initially appears as calm, collected, mysterious and aloof. He is shown to be passionate about magic tricks, especially optical illusions, puppeteering and ventriloquism, and often makes shows where he presents those tricks. Ketsume vows to never reveal how he does what he does, as he claims people would get bored and wouldn't like to watch him anymore. He is also shown to treat others very friendly, even convincing some of his fans to see more of his tricks.

In reality, this is all just a facade and Ketsume's true personality is selfish, manipulative, morbid and deranged. His main trait is his obsession with eyes and dolls: he attracts people to his hideout to take their eyes, either for admiration or for his abilities, and has even been shown to have a room with many eyeballs in jars and different kinds of puppets. When met with unique kinds of eyes or people he deems as interesting, Ketsume can barely hold his impulses, and normally kidnaps them to keep them as a "toy".

Ketsume also has a very distorted vision of love, as he claims to be devoted to his younger sister Hitomi and love her more than anything in the world, but is very possessive of her. Their relation is very abusive, as Ketsume forbids Hitomi from going anywhere without his permission or presence, tries to control her every moment, and when he feels like he needs to, he punishes her by locking her up or hurting her. He seems to be incapable of understanding that Hitomi wants freedom the most, and thinks she can only be happy if he is "protecting" her. He has the desire to make her "eternal", by turning her into a doll, and he also said he wanted to transplant her eyes into his.

## Background

Three years prior, Ketsume used to be a member of the Hallow Crew. However, after he tried to steal the eyes of some members, he was kicked out of the organization by Chrono Diabolus. Enraged by this, Ketsume decided to take vengeance on the Hallow Crew, so he took Hitomi and they went to another country. Ketsume eventually decided that he wanted to create a great army so he could destroy the Crew, and later, rule the world.

## Abilities & Powers

### Nen

Ketsume is an Specialist, but he also has experience with some other Nen types. Being an ex-member of the Hallow Crew, he is an excellent fighter and very proficient at using Nen.

#### **Living Puppets** (永遠の人間, *Eternal People*) **Type: Specialization**

With this ability, Ketsume can create puppets that are the copy of a real person, and, after putting this person's eyes on the puppet, he can make it come to live and control it. The dolls have certain liberty, being able to move and think for themselves, but cannot disobey Ketsume's orders. The puppets have the same looks and voice as the person they were based as, making it almost impossible for them to be detected as impostors, except for some few details:

1. When in puppets, the eyes never look natural. They are said to have "dead-looking, haunting eyes" that rarely move and spread no emotion, often described as creepy.
2. The puppets do not possess the full personality or memories of the original, only some remnants. They have to use what they have to act and pretend they are the original.
3. They have no Nen abilities. Despite being of the same nature of the owner and having the capacity to create their same Hatsu or a different one, the puppets do not possess their abilities by default. In fact, their combat abilities are heavily affected for the worse.

When gaining life, the puppets' behavior is normally the same: they act like the original owner of the eyes does, but just like Ketsume, have an obsession for eyes almost as fierce as him. This can cause them to try deviating his orders to live their own life. If the puppets' eyes are taken away, they become a normal lifeless puppet once again.

#### **Third Eye** (全てを見える眼, *All-Seeing Eye*) **Type: Specialization and Manipulation**

Ketsume uses cords attached to the ceiling tied around some of the eyes he possesses, and then uses this Nen ability to make them a kind of "cameras". When he focuses, he can see what is in front of the eyes he places around.

#### **Silver Watchers** (秘密の盲目のガーゴイル, *Blind Gargoyles Of Secrecy*) **Type: Specialization**

The Silver Watches are mannequins resembling humans that Ketsume keeps around his hideout. All of them show wide smiles on their faces and some of them are seen saluting, pointing, shushing or holding weapons. They are set to play a "Red Light, Green Light" game, as the Silver Watchers can only move when they aren't being looked at; when someone is staring at them, the mannequins can only stay on place, not being able to move in any way or speak.

Their behavior is known to be extremely aggressive when they are free to act: they usually break everything around them, and even write messages with the blood of their victims on the walls, such as "I never sleep" and "I see you". Some are also sadistic, trying to scare their victims by making noises, laughing and whispering menacing things. Ultimately, they take their victims' eyes and kill them.

If a two Silver Watchers were to stare at each other, they would remain like this forever unless an external force redirected their looks. Due to this fact, the mannequins tend to gouge their own eyes out, as to avoid trapping each other.

## Quotes

> "*There is a thin line between bravery and stupidity... and you've just crossed that line. Don't you know what I'm capable of? Did you forget I can do whatever I want to Pitou?*"
> ― To Fuyuki after being attacked by him
>
>

> "*I know you're just as bad as me... even you probably know that, you just don't want to accept it. But there's nothing wrong with that. You did what you did for your King... and I'm doing what I'm doing for you. The difference is that you failed, but I won't let myself fail.*"
> ― To Pitou
>
>

## Trivia

* Ketsume's name is formed by 血 (it can be read as *Ketsu*), meaning "blood", and 眼 (it can be read as *Me*), meaning "eye". So, his name means "bloody eyes".
* His Nen ability, *Silver Watchers*, is heavily based on the enemy characters The Gold Watchers from the game Dark Deception.