Nico

Overview:
Nico is a Spec Ops Agent of the Guild, and the main protagonist of One Eyed Ghoul Rebirth. He was paying a visit to his childhood friend Compa, whom he hadn't seen for some time. However, during his visit he and Compa find an amnesiac girl falling from the skies, and when they retrieved her, they are sucked into one unforgettable adventure.

For info on his Primal Twin, click here

For info on his Weapons and Equipment, click here

For info on his Devil Arms, click here

For info on his Archdevil Arms, click here

For info on his Ghoul Side's abilities, click here

For info on the list of his Skills, click here

For info on his Spirit Bones, click here

For info on his Satanic Treasures, click here

Appearance:
A lean built male of 5 foot 8 (becoming 6 foot 9 thanks to the implantation of Gene Seed Implants during Zelretch's Trials), with gravity defying red hair like a certain copy ninja from a certain village, and light blue coloured eyes. His attire is a black trench coat with a high collar and a red pulsating interior, a pair of black fingerless gloves on his hands, a grey polo shirt, a pair of grey coloured camp pants and black military boots. Strapped to his hips are a pair of black leather holsters, another one just below the back of his waist, and one last holster strapped diagonally across his back. On his forearms are a pair of grey wrist bracers which have their own functions, though when his Armour is deployed they merge with the forearm parts, so it looks like he has a pair of interfaces on his forearms.

Nico’s Bracers give him the ability to form various outfits listed as Sets, like his basic attire which he prefers due to it being ‘awesome’ according to him. List of outfits:

• PJ’s – A set of black bottoms and a black top with both having red outlines.

• Civilian – a black sleeveless hoodie, with a grey trim around the hood. Underneath, was a long sleeved grey T shirt, his hands being bare. He wore a pair of grey baggy pants with black ankle-high with boots. His bracers were hidden beneath his T shirt, and his armour Module was safely attached to his chest under the hoodie and shirt. He lacked the holsters and straps that he would need for his weapons like Harvester, Rebellion etc, however he could just summon them from his Void Storage into his hands instead of the holsters. The reason why he wore them because he thought they looked cool, and had only one set.

After saving IF from the Hellverse Dungeon, Nico, inspired from the slight change in his mentality towards his secret, decided to change his main attire as a symbol of his changing ideals. Instead of just wearing black and grey, Nico now had an all-black attire. His Trench Coat now had a mid-neck length collar to it as well as an inner compartment which sports a hidden hood, underneath being a matching black shirt with a crimson horned Skull imprinted on the centre, sporting a lipless maw of fanged teeth frozen into a rather sinister grin. This gave Nico a rather imposing ‘bad boy’ image, which was aided by the fingerless gloves on his hands, the rolled back cuffs, as well as the black leather pants on his lower body. They were held by a black belt with a silver buckle, with more belts hanging beside his waist. More belts wrapped around his thighs and knees, down to where they were tucked in to some matching leather boots.

When under the effects of the 'Blackening' aspect of his Deathgod Domain ability, something which he coined his 'Blackened' form, Nico's hair and eyes turn completely black hoodless coat which reached down to his ankles, sporting a furry tunic over his upper body. With tuffs on the ends of the sleeves which showed off his black riding gloves, the coat sported tattered ends at the bottom whilst it had a tight collar, where a black choker could be seen around his neck. The coat splits open at the waist, showing black skin tight pants that had matching belts wrapped around both his legs, and knee high black boots. IF once comments about him looking like a mix between edge lord and fallen angel, what with the feathery tuffs and furry tunic.

Personality
Nico is a kind person at heart, but he is very cautious around others due to past experiences as a Spec Ops Agent. These experiences come mostly from how he had been taking on cases involving violent criminals and demented psychopaths, as explained by his mother. This is further evident whenever he mentally refers to various cases he has solved, like the Birthday Stitcher, or the Hidden Nepper. This violent lifestyle severely crippled his ability to trust in others and is one of his defining traits as a character.

His mistrust is also show in more of a sense of self-preservation, as he refuses to unleash his true self in front of others. Instead, he relies on more human-based weapons and abilities, such as his Armour, Plasma Weapons, as well as his Demonic abilities and Devil Arms. In one Chapter it is shown that one of his greatest desires is that he wants to find someone he could trust in, to truly confide with without the fear of being condemned. However, because of his violent lifestyle, he feels like he doesn’t deserve the chance, thus he‘d given up hope of that.

He is observant enough to note his surroundings in a single instant, and is always prepped whenever he goes on missions, showing how he is a careful planner who has means of countering multiple situations. When noticing something amiss, Nico does not hesitate to act, for example when he heard about Avenir’s dominance over Lastation he immediately launched an investigation on his own, aside from the one the Party as a whole conducted, ending up forming a theory to take to the Lastation Military. Because of his reputation, the Military went to mobilize their forces, just in time to fend off an infected attack.

Like Neptune, he too has amnesia, and cannot remember certain details of his life.

As a One-Eyed Ghoul, he tries to hide his identity from others like previously stated. These attempts are also aided by the fact that it was a classified piece of intel by the 4 Nations, as well as every Guild Branch and the Spec Ops Unit, although he has full discretion on how to use it should the need arise. If someone would find out his identity, they are sworn to secrecy under the threat of execution as well as complete erasure from society.

However, there are instances where Nico is so caught by surprise that he isn’t able to plan as effectively as he should, as the very notion of Ghouls and the Party encountering them is enough to throw Nico off his game. It shows that he considers them to be the biggest link to his secret, and he frets about them occasionally, though his actions are indeed justified as Ghouls, while making rare appearances, each time they do usually they wallop the Party in some manner. The first Ghoul for example knocked out most of their members with little difficulty, and 2 Ghouls instigated an entire rescue operation by kidnapping one of them.

One of his biggest traits however is his slightly more honorable side, in which it has been stated many times that both his parents and Compa’s grandfather installed within him a macho-based code. Nico values this highly, as seen in many instances. He takes pride on making promises that he knows he can keep, as well as shows ample consideration when making them. He is self-conscious of the fact that not all promises can be kept, which makes him wary of making them, however this just shows how much he values his own word. Also, it shows that he’s aware of the weight behind each promise he makes, which is essential to his character. Nonetheless, when he does make a promise, Nico is shown to go to extreme lengths to keep it, even risking his secret being exposed as shown when he is rescuing IF and promises the two girls Tekken and MAGES. that he would make sure they got out of this alive.

Yet, one of the greatest traits he has is his strong sense of independence. Nico may be considered a lone wolf by his peers, favouring solo missions more than group Quests, however this is not an accurate way to describe it. Nico is a person with a strong sense of self-deprecation, as shown how he views himself as a monster that only exists to fight the other monsters plaguing humanity. He does not view himself highly, which is a large part of why he sometimes performs reckless stunts. He simply doesn’t care if he gets hurt or not, cause in his eyes monsters get hurt all the time, thus he shouldn’t care about such a trivial issue.

Furthermore, Nico has a plethora of internal issues, aside from his amnesia. These issues make themselves known throughout the entirety of Rebirth 1 and are issues that Nico deals with on his own. His mind is shown to be significantly unstable, sending him messages through nightmarish dreams as well as hallucinations. His Psyche is split, as shown with how his secret is represented by a white copy of himself with two black and red eyes. Another case would be the mirror world and his child-like self, who tells him about how he’s ‘on the road to recovery’ and that ‘the first trial is complete’ in separate conversations. This is even more apparent with the emergence of Biko, who represents his demonic powers.

Another major showing of this is when he has a mental breakdown after his near-defeat at the hands of J Greil and Hol Horse, two powerful Ghouls that he has a history with. His mind, through some rather intense dialogue between the multiple aspects of himself, realizes that right now the only way for them to win was to resort to using the powers tied to his secret, and is reminded of his own sense of pride on his word. He’d resolved to guarantee the girls’ safety, and it was no longer possible to do that while keeping his secret hidden. Thus, he will have to risk it being exposed if he doesn’t want those Ghouls to lay their hands on them. It just goes to show how much Nico values his own word more than anything, as well as how powerful the macho code he has thanks to Compa’s grandfather is.

In the end, Nico is someone who prefers to deal with his own issues without relying too much on others. It is apparent that hi lack of trust is the cause, but more than that he is shown to be someone who gets things done most efficiently when on his own. He is someone who is fiercely independent yet is shown to know the value of help from time to time. Otherwise, he’d have struck out on his own when he learned of Histoire’s situation.

As a DPU, he becomes Crimson Soul who is less restrictive on how to use his powers, and becomes increasingly bloodthirsty, brutal and less remorseful about how he kills. He lohow brutal he kills things, and gains a thrill for seeking battle↵against strong opponents.==== ses his sense of caring about the reactions of his comrades when he shows how brutal he kills things, and gains a thrill for seeking battle against strong opponents.

Stages of the Mind
 Nico is a complex character with a series of issues with his head. He suffers from hallucinations, nightmares, and has moments where he completely reacts on instinct due to a powerful trauma. Throughout OEG, he has been constantly exposed to a set of ‘hurdles’ or stages of his mind, that lead to his ‘recovery’ which implies that he will recover from these issues and solve them on his own. Something very essential to his character. The Hurdles come as follows:

Admittance (1 – 70) - This Hurdle revolves around him finally admitting to things that he has held deep inside. Throughout the story up to chapter 70, Nico has been harbouring desires and wishes that he has been repressing for his entire life. He has kept them inside under the guise that staying alone is the best thing for him due to how ‘monstrous’ he is. However, when he goes to Leanbox and camps with Lucy, Isaac, Raven and others, everything he has went through reaches a breaking point, and thus he soon finds himself admitting openly to what he really wants from people. That he wants to find someone he could well and truly trust, to find somewhere where even someone like him could belong, but deep down is under the impression that its impossible due to his true nature.

Resolution (70 – 146)  - The second Hurdle, resolution, comes in multiple parts. The first part came during the Hellverse incident, in which Nico had to confront his hidden Ghoul side, something he had long since repressed unless when alone against his enemy, when he faced off against a pair of Ghouls. Before, he had always denied his Ghoul side exit, only being forced to use it in small doses like reinforcement of his body like in the Lastation invasion, or in a brief instance with a Demon Prince. His Ghoul side then convinces him to risk using his Ghoul side however, showing him hallucinations based off these Ghouls past victims while also reminding him about the resolve his mom taught him. Ever since, Nico strives to get a connection with his Ghoul side for the time where he would eventually have to reveal it to them.

By the time Mundus takes Nico out of their fight by immobilizing them and assaults the rest of Neptune and the other girls, his Ghoul side as well as a representation of himself appear before him just like when his Ghoul side came to him in the Hellverse Incident. They start once again to try to convince Nico to shred his doubts, the few which still remain which block him from unleashing his inner beast against his opponent. Despite his earlier conviction, Nico still hesitates which prompts them to show him a vision of what would happen if Mundus was to win his fight against the girls, which finally shreds away the last of his doubts. Thoroughly enraged by what he saw, Nico decides to forego any hesitation, fully clearing this hurdle by unleashing his Ghoul side right In front of his comrades, thus commencing the next battle with Mundus.  __NEWSECTIONLINK__