Amami

Amami (天海) is a secondary character in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 5. He poses as the main antagonist in the vanilla title, acting as a red herring for the true villain. Kazahanaki diminishes his role to be a minor and rarely seen antagonist.

Background Story
Amami is the god of the Loophole of Time. His sheer existence maintains the gateway between the modern and parallel worlds, supporting the foundations of space-time in both worlds. The god has known no other soul within the eternal darkness, even lacking a sense of self-identity.

Yuki became his first source of light. This Yuki has already experienced the parallel world's era of revolution, having wandered into a pocket portal as she is summoned by the White Dragon of the Warring States period. She recognizes the nameless deity and calls him by the name she identifies with him. The god is compelled by her mystical luminosity to reach out to her. As he does, Nankoubou's curses heads towards them. Amami is caught within their path.

These occult hazards instantly drag the weakened god towards the monk. Although he meant to target the priestess, Nankoubou compromises by substituting her for the deity. Nankoubou casts multiple curses to enforce the god's servitude to the Tokugawa family, manifesting as several binding chains. The deity's soul was corrupted to form a magical hourglass. If the Tokugawa shogunate cannot survive 1,000 years, the god can never return to his realm. The god remained a prisoner in the mortal realm and chose to adopt the name Yuki called him to remember her. In his absence, space-time contorted into spiritual anomalies within the Loophole of Time, leading to the eventual base for the Combined World.

His real body is constricted underneath Nikko Toshogu Shrine, the place containing the great sovereign's remains and the place where Nankoubou is posthumously celebrated as a deity. With their deaths, Amami was forced by the curses to create a spiritual projection of himself to guide the Tokugawa shogunate. He is celebrated and feared as "The Minister in White Robes" (白衣の宰相, Byakue no Saishou), an enigmatic advisor and invaluable mentor who has protected the Tokugawa family for countless generations. Amami wears a mask to conceal his identity and to prevent others from becoming too suspicious of him.

Story Events
Sensing the birth of the Combined World, Amami believes he can rule it instead of his former realm. No one alive can break the curses on him in either timeline.

During the first timeline, Amami has a healthy ambition to reclaim his powers. He uses his prestige to rob the Dragon Gems from the Star Clan and employ Ouchi. Once Yuki descends to the parallel world, he uses his latent god powers to locate her immediately. Amami shields her from a rampaging Suzaku. This Yuki has no previous knowledge of the parallel world so he chooses to introduce himself to her as a helpful benefactor. He lets Yuki and her comrades stay at Nijo Castle and instructs them to find the Four God talismans to repair the damaged modern world.

While Yuki and company obey his advice, Amami plots for his return to godhood. He makes Chinami his indentured spy, discreetly executing Makoto and his rebels to convert them into units for his undead taskforce. Amami tells Ouchi to swap the Four Gods talismans with the Four Fiends, taking their powers for himself. Once his true colors are revealed to her, he effortlessly deflects Yuki's attempts to stop him and uses his new powers to awaken the Mashira and Kai as his servants. The god also deals with miscellaneous revolts on the side by ordering Shozan's execution and the first subjugation of Choushu.

To crush the rebels against him, Amami uses his influence to make Iemochi unfavorable and becomes the de facto leader of the shogunate. He conjures an army of vengeful spirits to hunt for the runaway Iemochi, weakening military forces in Choushu and Satsuma. He orders the Mashira to kill Ryouma. He commands the Shinsengumi to return to the capital, rendering Iemochi defenseless and needless for the shogunate's longevity; he is executed by Amami soon after. Amami has his minions set fire to Komatsu's manor in the capital to cause the Satchou Alliance's failure. His plans simultaneously weakens Yuki and her guardians' spiritual capacity, rendering them nearly powerless against him.

Amami suspects the priestess will challenge him and awaits her at Nikko Toshogu Shrine. Since he has nearly regained his full strength, Amami overpowers them. He prepares to slaughter Yuki's comrades until the curse on his mortality takes effect. The god had not anticipated for Iemochi to rise from beyond the grave and sign a document to abolish the shogunate. He dies from the curse. The Dragon Gems he had return to the priestess and, without his lifeforce to sustain space-time, the parallel world disappears with him.

Subsequent timelines have him repeat his schemes yet be foiled by a learned Yuki's resistance. Her party defeats his replica multiple times. Amami voices his regrets for not reuniting with the priestess each time he is defeated. At this point, his soul is sent back to the past and he is forced to repeat his years of mortal enslavement.

Once Yuki learns Amami's past, she directs her party to defeat the god's real body. With his ambitions extinguished upon his real body's second defeat, Yuki and company decide to save him from Nankoubou. They arrive too late to save Amami from the monk's first curse, yet they save him from suffering many others. Freed from the shrine, he enjoys the dawn horizon with Yuki and her companions.

Kazahanaki Amami retains his memories of the previous timelines. This time he wishes to rule the Combined World so he and Yuki can have an utopia to themselves. His duties leads to him protecting the Nanki Branch, Iemochi's supporters for the shogun position, against the rival Ichijo clan branch. Throughout the main story, he attempts to conceal Iemochi's location by using the spiritual malevolence emanating from Edo Castle to his advantage. He permits Makoto's death by letting the rebel free near a giant horde of vengeful spirits in Edo's suburbs.

When Yuki is trying to investigate a way to save the three worlds, she learns from Ouchi about Zhulong. Amami visits her in a dream to confirm the rumor for her: everything will return to their rightful state if the dragon is defeated. Depending on the timeline, he may or may not continue a resistance against Yuki and the Ichijo Branch. Upon Zhulong's defeat, the final curse over Amami breaks so he retires to his proper realm. His return restores balance to the present and future timelines for both worlds.

Personal Routes
After Yuki experiences every other timeline in the original game, she is summoned to the Warring States period after leaving the capital. The event occurs in mere seconds to her companions so no one else is aware of its occurrence. Yuki is initially confused by the experience until her era's White Dragon explains what had transpired. Yuki feels deeply remorseful the longer she mulls over it and considers telling someone else the truth about Amami. The priestess hesitates upon realizing that her comrades are partially joined by their anger towards him. She struggles to label him her enemy with her knowledge.

Amami privately visits her twice. The first time he sneaks towards her quarters while searching for Iemochi. The second time he momentarily traps her by using a local shrine's power. Confused on her feelings yet wishing to open to someone, Yuki confesses her regrets to Amami. The god insists she has no reason to feel pity since he doesn't resent her. He tries to compel her to join his side, but Yuki refuses to turn her back on those dear to her. Both meetings end without incident, Amami pulling back after their brief conversation.

When Yuki is visiting Shimonoseki, the locals are threatened by vengeful spirits. After they are purified, Yuki is led away by a group of samurai reporting another threat. They trick her into coming alone, knock her out, bind her limbs, and drag her away from public view. She awakens by nightfall to learn the ruse, as the men reveal themselves to be pro-shogunate supporters. Her assailants accuse her of betraying the Minister's trust and debase her as a false priestess. Amami arrives to the scene, identifying himself and then provoking them to continue their attack against Yuki. As the men hesitate to go through with their threats, Amami pardons them with the faint promise to finish her himself.

Alone with her nemesis, Yuki asks aloud if he will honor his word. The god instead takes pleasure in seeing her defenseless and within his custody. He teases to free her if she swears servitude to him. Her defiance wounds him, but he uses his powers to vanquish the ropes around her. Amami promises to do the same to her abductors. He is mildly envious when Yuki voices her protest, feeling that he will never know her gratitude. Shun and the others find Yuki after he leaves.

Yuki's activities calls her back to the capital, increasing her visits with Amami. During their second conversation, she tries to convince him to feel sympathy for others. She tries to touch his hand when he leaves, surprised when his hand is transparent. Amami explains his image is an illusion to her, causing her to feel more grief. After she returns a dropped amulet to a city girl, Yuki laments that the god will never understand the warmth of joy or humanity. Her thoughts resonate within the god who finds himself visiting her in her distress. He makes no attempts to conceal himself from her comrades and, as she fails to convince him to change, he is dumbfounded when she begins to cry. Amami surprises himself when he tries to wipe away her tears since he is aware it is a futile effort.

In spite of her uncertainties, Yuki continues to help forge the Satchou Alliance to bring the shogunate to its knees. One night before they leave the capital, Yuki leaves her room when she hears Amami's voice. This time his thoughts had reached out to her so Yuki voices her desire to save him from his suffering. Amami responds by teasing her mercy for him. Since it is nearly dawn, Yuki has to head back before her friends notice her absence. She gives him a parting wish to redo their first meeting, stating that she wanted to show him her world at peace. He voices his changing intimacy for her only after she leaves.

Nikko Toshogu Shrine goes the same except Yuki leads the party to Amami's real body. After they stop him, Yuki rushes to his side and touches his cheek. They both rejoice feeling one another's cheeks for the first time since they met. As they touch, Yuki's priestess powers instinctively cleanses Amami of Nankoubou's curses. He bids her farewell before returning to his realm. The White Dragon explains this to Yuki once he disappears.

While her comrades take pride in their victory, Yuki doesn't want to leave Amami alone again and uses her life force to search for him within the void of darkness. She insists on going towards the depths, the White Dragon pleading for her to stop before she dies. It tries to warn her that her encounter with Amami was an unforeseen miracle, but she continues to call out for him. Amami somehow finds her before she loses consciousness, happy to reunite with his light. She asks to hear his wish which is granted by the White Dragon in a cutaway. He wants to live with her in her world so they can always feel one another.

Kazahanaki Amami hires a group of samurai to apprehend Yuki and bring her to Edo Castle unharmed. They fool her with a ploy similar to his first storyline except she hesitates to defend herself when she hears Amami's name. She is knocked out and awakens in Amami's arms. Since she freed his real body, Amami can make physical contact with her. He explains his knowledge and his motives to her, learning that her lifeforce is running out simply by touching her. Yuki worries that he is still suffering from a curse and unintentionally hurts him with her priestesses powers. Amami assures her that they will reunite soon since the merge is occurring sooner in this timeline. Yuki's body gives out before she can protest.

Rindou and Ouchi greet her when she regains consciousness, stating that her body was found uninjured in Edo Castle. She answers honestly to their inquiries and ponders Amami's intentions for her. Ouchi identifies a white lotus at her bedside as a positive trinket for her. When she touches it, her vitality strengthens. Yuki wonders if Amami was merely concerned for her health.

After Yuki fails to stop Edo's fire, she wallows in self-pity. She wishes to vent to someone over her pain, briefly considering Amami before her body gives out. Amami answers her plea by reuniting with her in a dream. He answers that he did have the power to stop Makoto's death but allowed it to happen. Yuki cannot bring herself to hate him, fearing that she will cause his real body harm. Her stress gets the better of her as they chat, causing her to cry. Amami explains that she called out for him to bring her relief and embraces her. As she relaxes in his arms, he tempts her with the chance to forget her duties. Yuki regains her will to stay true to her convictions and refuses. He is amused to see her regain her spirits and rewards her feelings with a kiss. Their meeting ends when she wakes up.

Worried by Amami's lingering regrets in their last departure, Yuki later suspects that defeating Zhulong will return Amami to his native dimension. The god confirms her prediction when they meet in another dream, accepting their eternal departure as an inevitable fate. His callousness saddens her. All she can feel in his passiveness is his sorrow and loneliness. The god chooses to praise her loveliness over a direct reply. She wakes up soon afterwards, stopping herself short of shouting her wish to spend more time with him. Amami helps pave her way to Edo Castle by directing his lordship away from it, purposely weakening his influences in Edo.

Yuki mourns the separation she will have to endure the night before the climatic battle. She wishes to see him one last time, calling out for him before sleeping. Amami hears her but forces himself to stay put, deciding that it would be best for her to remain indifferent. His silent musings for Yuki are interrupted by a concerned Iemochi. The disposed lord begs Amami for guidance, unable to face an uncertain future. Amami openly scorns his cowardice and calls him a disgrace. He tells his lord to find the answer himself before officially resigning.

Zhulong's defeat warps Amami to the Loophole of Time. Yuki wants to reunite with him before returning to her world, surprising Rindou and Ouchi when the White Dragon grants her wish. Yuki wants to save him in gratitude to all the kindness he has shown her, expressing her desire to give him company. The White Dragon cannot grant her wish. Now that Zhulong is gone, Amami is the only entity which can sustain the dimension. She is adamant, even offering her life for it. Only then does Amami interject; he can't stand the thought of his only light fading for senseless pity. She clarifies she wants to be with him on her own will, not because of her priestess duties. Her confession moves him to feel warmth for the first time they have been together. Powered by the earnestness of their feelings, the White Dragon grants Amami the permission to project himself into the modern world with Yuki. They can never touch one another again, but Amami no longer needs to spend his days in solitude. They share a date as he confesses his dearest thoughts for her.

Development
Ruby Party had several prototype ideas for Amami's position, even considering him to be a woman at one point. They had thought to make his character the previous Black Dragon Priestess. Once they decided upon their current concept, the director struggled to integrate the Warring States prelude in a comfortable manner. Members thought to include Nankoubou sealing the Four Gods at Sekigahara before they decided to settle on establishing the monk during Amami's story route. Players can only learn the game's entire story by playing his story.

Amami's story was conceived from the idea of light meeting darkness. The writers dub him a key person and do not consider him a villain. Developers devised him with the hopes of presenting an otherworldly "absolute beauty" from head to toe. He originally had an European theme to his design until Tohko Mizuno took over with her creative input. His antiquated attire was made to emphasize his status as an outsider. She gave him heterochromia to make him stand out from other god characters in the series.

Suwabe was hired because Ruby Party members wanted a "sexy" voice. They think he perfectly acts the exaggerated poise and splendor typically expected from an ancient god. Suwabe commented that any scene when Amami was open about his emotions left a deep impression on him during recording.

Personality
A placid smile molds onto Amami's lips to form a fixed visage of duplicity and repudiation to all who see it. His tranquil voice is peppered with sweet-sounding deceit and discourtesy, calmly ordering the death of the human realm as he pleases; his authoritative eyes barely blink when questioned, rarely taking a second glance to the destruction he has wrought; his writhe fingers point to ridicule and never intertwine with any others than his own. The god views humanity to be lesser than dirt, believing that it's sacrilege for humans to believe otherwise. A god is entitled to claim anything they desire for themselves in his mind, and Amami naturally expects the living to color his road to glory with their lives. He may acknowledge human emotions and grant wishes, but he does not comprehend them; Amami uses them as tools to force the opposition into submission.

He has spent his forced enslavement yearning only for one objective: Yuki, his "only light" (唯一の光, yuiitsu no hikari). Amami fixates on her, their separation saddening him more than his weakened powers. Once they reunite in the same age, he is determined to create an utopia to hold her, wanting a world with the two of them within it. He seeks to eradicate anything and anyone which will come between him and his goal. He coos gentle words to her and seeks to spoil her when near her, calling her "dear child" (愛しい子, itoshii ko). Both are too proud of their beliefs to abandon them, hurting Amami when it drives them to become enemies. He can't fathom why Yuki refuses him, yet he won't hesitate to smite her if she means to threaten his godhood.

During his original personal route, Amami is torn and perplexed by her opposition to him. The god becomes self-aware of his restlessness as he interacts with Yuki, surprised by the uncertainties they inexplicably share with one another. Her sorrowful pleas for human compassion, which at first meant nothing to him, suddenly shaped into a wall which drives them apart. Her time spent away from him makes him realize how alone he is without her. The god only understands the meanings of true kindness by coming into contact with her for the first time, feeling warmth and kindness in her touch. Only then can he identify the love he has developed for her.

Kazahanaki Amami remembers the joy felt by his past self, thinking that physical contact alone can restore his broken ties to the priestess. His presumptions fail him, so Amami concedes to adoring Yuki from afar. Her weaknesses and resistance against him become endearing memories for him, and he hopes to always treasure them once their duties eternally separate them. He wants her to live through her frail state, hastening the end to their conflict. When Yuki makes her last wish to somehow be with him, the god is so moved to have his affections returned that the thought of never touching her no longer bothers him.

Character Symbolism
His symbolic color is jet black. Its Japanese spelling indicates pure darkness, a place which has no light or a representation of the darkest of moonless nights. Color theory presents different perspectives over whether or not it can be faithfully replicated onto objects without betraying the heart of the concept.

Amami's symbolic item is the bishop's hat. The flower is famously known as horny goatweed in China, and its extract is typically sold as a male sexual stimulant. An old Chinese legend states that an elderly and sickly goat consumed it and had its health and sex drive rejuvenated. The tales state that the plant promotes the flow of yang (masculine energy) within an individual for the phenomenon, its mythical properties even reaching the ears of Japanese Heian nobles.

It is alternatively named the anchor herb in Japan since its flowers resemble a ship's anchor. This thread of stories suggests the flower represents any of life's departures. To give it to someone before leaving them notes a sense of possession from the giver. The flower usually means the giver will never let the object of their affections go in the Japanese flower language.

Quotes

 * "I have been waiting for the day of your arrival for far too long..."
 * "Always know that I am thinking of you, dear child."
 * "Chinami, listen well. Do your part for the priestess, no, for the country you left."
 * "The human world is a world of conflict. Should you end this war, another will arise to take its place. Have you not once considered my world without humanity to be free of corruption?"
 * "You would fight a god? Laughable. I shall abolish the scant time you have left in this world."
 * "Such foolishness. You fail to see the priestess is beside you only because she has the heart to pity you."
 * "Priestess, stop. It is futile for you to save that one. He will be of no use to you."
 * "No, Priestess. It is not I who should be held responsible. The one to blame... is you. You disobeyed my words and became delirious gathering your guardians. You provoked my desire to obliterate them."
 * "Gaze upon only me, dear child. Perhaps I should bind one as lovely as you with an invisible chain, so you will always have your eyes on me and never go against me again."
 * "I have never touched another, and none have touched me. Why would I be distressed?"
 * "The one to break my eons of solitude and gift me with a moment of happiness was you."
 * "Dear lone human child who would forgive this god... May your light shine eternal."
 * "Hey, Amami. Everyone tells gods their wishes, don't they."
 * "Indubitably. Self-indulgent and illogical ones. Impossible, petty desires on some days."
 * "You still grant them in the end."
 * "A curse that was cast upon me, not a privilege. I have no place to balk."
 * "But, if gods are there to grant people's wishes... Who can grant the wishes of gods? Who will be the one to grant your wish?"
 * "My wish...? ... Yes, who indeed."
 * "Amami... I know you can't wish, but I want to teach you how. Is it really so wrong for me to think this way? Is it so wrong for me... to think about you?"
 * Yuki and Amami; Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 5

Fighting Style
Amami utilizes the same AI as Nankoubou and Chi You. He has weaker stats than his counterparts, making him easier to counter and defeat with a low-leveled party. Ryouma can defeat him easily using his unique weapon seal.