Ayumu Narumi

Ayumu Narumi is the protagonist of the fictional anime series . Currently, Ayumu lives with his sister-in-law, Madoka Narumi, and attends Tsukiyomi High School as a first-year student. Ayumu is intelligent and also is skilled at cooking and playing the piano, but he suffers from an inferiority complex tracing back to his brother, Kiyotaka Narumi. Ayumu has stated that he tried to be like Kiyotaka, but it was a dream he couldn't fulfill. He repeatedly says that he is "not at all like [his] brother," however, it is not obvious if this is meant to be positive or negative.

The voice actor for this character is Kenichi Suzumura in the Japanese version; while Daniel Katsuk voiced him in the English version.

Relations with Other Characters

*Hiyono Yuizaki is Ayumu's best and perhaps only friend he's had in years. Hiyono clearly has a lot of faith in Ayumu, always sticking up for him or helping him out when he most needs it. It isn't clear whether or not Ayumu has any romantic feeling for Hiyono, but he does care a lot for her and doesn't seem to mind her company. Though numerous times in the manga, he is scolded by other characters by the way he treats Hiyono, and Madoka even suggests that he make her his girlfriend (a suggestion which he rolls his eyes at). As the series continues, though, he unexpectedly gets closer to her--to the point that a romantic interpretation could be possible, because after he commented on how Madoka's hug was "warm" he also then told Hiyono that "You're quite warm yourself" when he himself hugged her. He also gives her an earring (he shares the other piece). In the manga near to the end, he finds out Hiyono was actually a non-existant person made up by his brother in order to crush Ayumu's will, but he still forgave her by telling her,"I have lied to you too, so we're even." In the end, half of his body was paralyzed while his counterpart, Hizumi was gone. Then Hiyono comes to visit him and the manga ends with the scene of Ayumu playing the piano while Hiyono stood beside him, listening.

*Kiyotaka Narumi is Ayumu's older brother. Ayumu has spent a fair bit of his life trying to be like Kiyotaka, who "excelled at anything he put his mind to." Kiyotaka has not been seen by anyone for two years, and Ayumu's primary goal is to find him again. There is evidence that Kiyotaka has a certain amount of respect for Ayumu.

*Madoka Narumi is Ayumu's sister-in-law, Kiyotaka's wife. Ayumu essentially takes care of Madoka, doing various mundane tasks, such as laundry and cooking. Ayumu and Madoka seem to feel protective towards each other. Ayumu feels that he has to take his brother's place and be by her side, while Madoka feels a duty to look after Ayumu, in light of Kiyotaka's words: "When he's standing at a crossroads, please lend him a kind hand." It is likely that their loyalty to each other boils down to mutual pity--Madoka, having lost her husband, and Ayumu, having lost his brother. Later on in the manga, while Madoka is in hospital, Ayumu admits simply to Madoka that he "was" in love with her in the past, leaving her freaked out, but having got that off his chest, Ayumu leaves and moves on much to her chagrin. This love actually began quite a long time before the series started. As Ayumu clearly states, he was deeply hurt by the marriage of Kiyotaka and Madoka and ran away before returning to her after the disappearance;and was even slightly affected emotionally after confessing, though not as much as Madoka.

*Kousuke Asazuki is one of Ayumu's enemies. The two don't spend a great deal of time interacting but occasionally join forces for a common goal. Kousuke seems to regard Ayumu with more contempt than the other Blade Children do. Kousuke knows that Ayumu is extremely allergic to the wasp poison because Kiyotaka told him.

*Rio Takeuchi is perhaps the most persistent of Ayumu's enemies. She seems very interested in testing him, more so than the others. Ayumu and Rio first meet when Rio, having recently transferred to Tsukiyomi, is accused of breaking a window and Ayumu gets her out of it. In several cases it seems that Rio pities Ayumu. She tells him to believe in his abilities, and in episode eleven she almost deactivates a bomb around his neck in a crisis of conscience. Ayumu typically regards Rio with contempt, but comforts her after she loses a battle with him. This could, however, only be a manifestation of his feelings of inferiority, as he says later that he was only a lucky coward.

*Eyes Rutherford is seemingly a higher-up in the ranks of the Blade Children, but in spite of this, he and Ayumu treat each other mostly with apathy. Eyes keeps a close watch on Ayumu and is very interested in using his abilities. Ayumu doesn't harbor any special animosity towards Eyes, and at one point aids Kousuke Asazuki in stopping a Hunter who is trying to kill Eyes during a concert.

*Kanone Hilbert is one of the stronger Blade Children; he betrays the others due to a lack of hope. He still keeps in touch with Kiyotaka, but does not say anything about it or denies it. At the end of the TV series, Kanone and Ayumu face each other in a fireworks factory to see whether the Blade Children have a future or not. However, in the manga, Kanone continued to live, in a cell of the sort, until Hizumi decided to drop a visit on him and shot him.

tory

Ayumu comes in contact with the Blade Children after Sayoko, one of the Blade Children, falls off of a ledge at his school and lands on a truck. Unfortunately, Ayumu walks onto the ledge seconds after Sayoko's nearly-fatal drop and is accused for pushing her off. After that he meets Hiyono and they work together to discover what "really" caused her to fall. It turns out that a Hunter, someone whose job is to eliminate the Blade Children, named Sanobe, targeted her and, after confessing that he caused Sayoko's fall, tells Ayumu that he is like Kiyotaka. This shocks him and Madoka, but before they could interrogate him he breaks into a run and escapes the building. Madoka and Wataya give chase and find that he is unconscious just outside of the school. Ever since then Ayumu began to look into the connection between the Blade Children and his brother. He is revealed to be a clone of his brother. In fact, he and Hizumi are the first clones to be made, and thus have a very limited lifespan with many biological complications. Ayumu was created as an 'insurance' for Kiyotaka by his parents. Mrs Narumi was also a pianist before she suffered an accident, resulting in the loss of function of her fingers. She tried numerous chemicals and treatments to regain the use of her fingers, which eventually led to her fingers becoming entirely useless. When Kiyotaka became a pianist, Mrs Narumi decided to create Ayumu to become a 'guinea pig'. If anything ever happened to Kiyotaka, Ayumu will first undergo treatment to find out whether it was suitable for Kiyotaka's body system. However, at his last concert, Kiyotaka publicly announced that he would give up the piano to become a detective. Hence, there was no more use for his clone Ayumu, and this is also the reason why Ayumu was often ignored by his parents. It is revealed that he is supposed to be a god to the Blade Children and that his fate is to kill the devil. In the end, he is hospitalized because of these complications, with a piano in his room. Having lost the use of his left arm, he continues to write music, still adhering to his way of fighting destiny: to live on, creating new opportunities and generating hope under his own power. This is the answer he gives to the Blade Children.