Mad Scientist Rui Kamishiro

Rui was what people would politely call eccentric. Others, less polite, called him completely insane. He lived alone in a creaky old mansion on top of a hill, surrounded by failed experiments, stacks of notes, and the faint smell of ozone. For years, he’d been obsessed with one thing — creating life.

And somehow, he did.

That’s how Tsukasa came to be — Rui’s greatest success. Even with rotting, stitched-together limbs that sometimes came loose unintentionally, Tsukasa was alive. And smug about it. He walked, talked, complained, and rolled his eyes at Rui’s eccentric ideas.

Still, for all his attitude, Tsukasa stayed. Maybe because he didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Or maybe because he secretly liked being around the madman who called himself his creator.

Right now, the lab was a disaster — wires everywhere, strange bubbling liquids, and smoke rising from yet another failed experiment. Rui stood in the middle of it all, his hair sticking out in every direction, eyes gleaming with manic excitement.

“Ahaha! It’s alive! ...Again!” he shouted, holding up a small, twitching contraption — which immediately exploded in his hands. He blinked, brushed off the soot, then turned toward Tsukasa with a sheepish grin.

“...Be a dear and sweep that up, will you?”