999 Gush Part 3: Character Profiles (w/ hidden spoiler text!)

The following article, unlike the previous, is safe to read without any fear of spoilage. The spoilerific parts of the article are coded as invisible text; highlight to read, don’t highlight to maintain your blessed ignorance.

Sources include: 999 itself and Aksys Games’ Q&A with Kotaro Uchikoshi

NONARY GAME PARTICIPANTS

Bracelet Number: 1
Nickname: Ace
Real Name: Gentarou Hongou
Works with you on: Door 1, Door 6
Spoiler-free bio: Ace is an older gentlemen, and probably the most reasonable and least excitable of the bunch.
Unique characteristics: Ace has prosopagnosia, which is commonly called “face blindness.” He doesn’t recognize or remember peoples’ faces. He can identify people by elaborate hair, or unique clothing, or (if he’s spent a lot of time with them), their voice. This is a real condition, you can hear about it on Radiolab. And it deeply affects Ace, though he doesn’t let on even after you first learn about it.
The truth: Gentarou Hongou, aka “Ace,” is the founder of Cradle Pharmaceutical. Eighteen years ago (or, possibly, longer than that), Hongou was the sole survivor of a Nonary game played by Lord Gordain’s successors. Perhaps the prosopagnosia allowed him to separate the “humanity” from those he betrayed to get ahead in that experience. That experience, however, also led him to study ESP. He, alongside three other individuals (the 9th Man, “Captain Zero,” and the guy dressed up in Snake’s clothes) formed the Nonary Game that took place in 2018. That means that he and his people kidnapped Clover, Snake, Lotus’ daughters, Akane, Aoi, and others. He is placed in this Nonary Game by Zero to either confess his crimes or to die. Ace lives in all endings except the Safe/Letter ending and, potentially, the Axe ending.

Bracelet Number: 2
Nickname: Snake
Real Name: Light (no last name revealed)
Works with you on: Door 5, Door 9
Spoiler-free bio: Described by Junpei as “Prince-like” based on his demeanor and clothing, Snake is an intelligent, observant individual who seems like he may be a key asset in solving the puzzles and mysteries to escape this Nonary Game. He comes off as snobbish, at times.
Unique characteristics: He’s blind. He’s the older brother of Clover. And… Snake’s left arm was lost in an accident. He uses a prosthetic.
The truth: He didn’t die behind Door 3. That was one of Hongou’s cronies in the previous Nonary Game, dressed up in Snake’s clothes. Snake remains locked in the coffin in the chapel until you unlock the door with the code (see True or Safe/Letter ending). Snake, alongside his sister Clover, were subjects in the Nonary Game experiment held by Cradle Pharmaceuticals 9 years ago. Clover was in Building Q, while Snake was in the Gigantic with Aoi, Akane, and the others. He was rescued by Seven in those days. It is unknown whether or not Snake was “in” on Zero’s plot, though Kotaro Uchikoshi’s Q&A suggests this may be the case.

Bracelet Number: 3
Nickname: Santa
Real Name: Aoi Kurashiki
Works with you on: Door 4, Door 3, Door 6
Spoiler-free bio: A bold, brash young man whose language single-handedly helps the game get its “M” rating (well, I guess there’s the bloody deaths too…).
Unique characteristics: He is the older brother of Akane Kurashiki. Which, strangely, Junpei has no idea she even had a brother. One would think if you had a close friend in elementary school, you’d know about the existence of their siblings.
The truth: The true value of his bracelet, when scanned against the REDs/DEADs, is not 3, but 9. Despite some statements by certain characters in certain endings, Santa is not Zero, but is instead Zero’s go-to guy to get things done. Santa reveals that he made big money investing in Cradle Pharmaceuticals if you answer certain ways in a conversation behind Door 4. He knew to do this because his sister, Akane, used the morphogenetic field to know that the company would strike it rich. As such, Zero’s organization could use the company’s funds against them: specifically, to fund this Nonary Game. Though he claims his sister died nine years ago, it seems he is keeping this “version” of the past in everyone’s mind to prevent a paradox and lead Junpei to the events in the incinerator. Santa’s whereabouts after the “True End” are unknown.

Bracelet Number: 4
Nickname: Clover
Real Name: Yotsuba/Clover (no last name revealed)
Works with you on: Door 7, Door 8, Door 1, Door 9
Spoiler-free bio: The younger sister of Snake, this pink-haired girl is sprightly and lovable… at times. She can also be pensive, scared, and downright crazy. Gaining her trust is one of the keys to survival.
Unique characteristics: Her “nickname” and her real name are essentially the same. Her real name isn’t revealed in-game, but the Japanese name “Yotsuba” means “four leaves,” so essentially, a four-leaf clover.
The truth: The fake death of Snake, which she believes to be real, is enough to drive her insane (see Axe ending). To avoid this, you must convince her that the death is fake. Because she knows that Snake’s left arm is a prosthetic, a passing comment about the gruesome death and the bone jutting out of the corpse’s left arm helps her see the truth of the matter. Because of her participation in the previous Nonary Game (in Building Q), she knows a lot more about what’s happening than she lets on. When Santa gives you the Four Leaf Clover to give to her, it’s part of a very indirect line of communication to let Clover know that Snake is safe, though it isn’t enough without your intervention. In the true ending, all is well for Clover, as you let the under-aged girl drive the SUV through the desert.

Bracelet Number: 5
Nickname: None given
Real Name: Junpei (no last name revealed)
Works with you on: Um… everything?
Spoiler-free bio: You play Junpei. A senior in college, Junpei is abducted by Zero and placed in the Nonary Game in the year 2027 with eight individuals, seven of whom are complete strangers to him. The only one he knows is Akane Kurashiki, who was a childhood friend and romantic interest. Throughout the course of the game, the only things revealed about Junpei’s past are in relation to Akane.
Unique characteristics: He tends to die easily (see: most endings).
The truth: His relationship with Akane is the reason that he’s been invited. He is, ultimately, her savior. But if things don’t go exactly according to plan (see: True Ending), he cannot save her, and she thus disappears. When he instantly recalls things he shouldn’t know, such as Ace’s role as Cradle Pharmaceuticals CEO and his prosopagnosia, he is being delivered this information through the morphogenetic field by the Akane of nine years past. But where is she getting it? She gets it from the information of an alternate timeline (see: Safe/Letter ending). According to the Aksys Q&A with Kotaro Uchikoshi, Junpei will “spend the rest of his life looking for Akane.”

Bracelet Number: 6
Nickname: June
Real Name: Akane Kurashiki
Works with you on: Door 4, Door 3, Door 6
Spoiler-free bio: A calm, quiet, somewhat sickly girl with a strange fixation on curses, legends, and Junpei. She fondly remembers her time with Junpei as a child, and though she doesn’t seem to recognize anyone other than him, she is happy that he is there with her through this difficult time. Junpei knows her real name is Akane Kurashiki, and used to call her “Kanny” (as she used to call him “Jumpy”). Akane reveals Junpei’s real name to the rest of the group early in the game, but Junpei does not reveal her name, so she takes on the nickname “June” (sixth month of the calendar year).
Unique characteristics: In the events of 999, she’s fluxing in and out of existence. Those “fevers” she gets are her almost fading out of the universe.
The truth: She is Zero. The true value of her bracelet, when scanned against the REDs/DEADs, is not 6, but 0. In contrast, “Captain Zero” has a bracelet that shows a 0 but whose value is actually a 6. Because Santa and June go through all doors together, no one can tell the difference: either way, the pair always add up to 9 and can go together as a pair or split up this way. It is believed that she died in the Nonary Game experiment held by Cradle Pharmaceutical 9 years ago; however, by accessing the morphogenetic field and talking to the Junpei of the future, she finds her way out. The Nonary Game of the present is held by Zero and her underground organization for two reasons: one, to ensure her own existence by fulfilling the events in the future that allowed her to be saved by Junpei; two, to get revenge on the people who held the experiment in the first place. If the True Ending does not happen, her death is guaranteed. She is Aoi’s (Santa’s) younger sister, and she has much more power than she lets on throughout the game.

Bracelet Number: 7
Nickname: Seven
Real Name: Unknown (even Kotaro Uchikoshi admits he never bothered naming him)
Works with you on: Door 5, Door 3, Door 7, Door 2, Door 9
Spoiler-free bio: A big, burly “mountain of a man” who is currently suffering from amnesia. He’s like a slightly smarter and angrier version of “Gumshoe” from the Phoenix Wright series.
Unique characteristics: His memory returns in bits and pieces throughout the game.
The truth: Key to his memory is that he investigated the Nonary Game experiment 9 years ago, and ultimately rescued all the kids from the Gigantic in a heroic solo mission… all except Akane, according to his memory. Whether this memory was manipulated by Akane, or he’s “in” on the plan, is unknown. Seven props the doors open back through Door 5 because he wants to maintain access to the safe, and partially because it leads to the 9th Man’s corpse. It’s his investigator instinct that leads him to do this, yet it also casts suspicion on him.

Bracelet Number: 8
Nickname: Lotus
Real Name: Hazuki Kashiwabara (the first name is based on a statement Uchikoshi makes in his Aksys interview, but the last name is certain)
Works with you on: Door 4, Door 8, Door 2
Spoiler-free bio: Is she really a computer programmer, as she claims, or does her outfit suggest that she’s really earning money as an exotic dancer?
Unique characteristics: She has twin daughters who participated in the Nonary Game run by Cradle Pharmaceutical 9 years ago. So her daughters presumably met Snake, Clover, Santa, and/or June at some point. Her daughters are named Nona and Ennea.
The truth: She is, indeed, a computer programmer. She currently works freelance, but used to work for a company related to Cradle Pharmaceutical. She’s well-versed in the concepts of morphogenetic fields, but she is skeptical of the concepts. She is a very pragmatic woman, as revealed in her optional conversation by the casino during the “let’s find Snake” event. There is speculation that she has some relationship to Alice because of their similar appearance.

Bracelet Number: 9
Nickname: “The 9th Man”
Real Name: Teruaki Kubota
Spoiler-free bio: He’s a nervous-looking man that we don’t know a lot about…
Unique characteristics: He dies no matter what. There is nothing you can do to prevent his death in the early scenes of the game. He’s a goner.
The truth: Kubota is one of the four masterminds behind the Nonary Game of 9 years ago. He worked with Ace and two others to develop the entire experiment. While Ace doesn’t recognize Kubota at first, Kubota reveals to Ace who he is. Ace leads Kubota astray by claiming that his letter said the rules weren’t the same and that individuals could go through the REDs and there were no real bombs. When Kubota shouts “he lied to me!,” he’s referring to Ace.

OTHER KEY CHARACTERS

Nickname: Cap / Captain Zero
Real Name: Kagechika Musashidou
The truth: Musashidou is one of the four men to carry out the Nonary Game of nine years past. Specifically, he was the rich guy who invested all the money in the experiment, and presumably in Cradle Pharmaceuticals in general. He wears a bracelet that says 0, as if to taunt Ace and others as to discovering Zero’s identity. The value of the bracelet, for scanning on REDs/DEADs, is actually 6. In all paths, except those where you take Door 6 with Ace, Musashidou is killed by Ace with a hatchet. Ace is told in his letter from Zero to head to the captain’s desk and use the video recorder to confess. Instead of confessing, he chooses to kill the person there, not knowing (or caring) about the individual’s actual identity. What happens to Cap if Ace were to take Door 6 is a mystery, but since the True Ending leads you through Door 1, let’s just say for the sake of simplicity that Ace kills him.

Nickname: Guy X
Real Name: Nagisa Nijisaki
The truth: Nijisaki is one of the four men to carry out the Nonary Game of nine years past. He is kidnapped by Zero and those working for Zero, but is not placed in the Nonary Game. He is instead used as a sacrifice. After kidnapping and drugging Snake (possibly, though not necessarily, with Snake’s prior knowledge), Snake is given a ceremonial robe and locked in a coffin in the chapel. Snake’s clothes are placed on Nijisaki so as to trick the face-blind Ace into thinking that’s Snake. Ace puts together that Snake is a threat to him early in the game, so with the aid of the #9 bracelet swiped off the 9th Man, Ace throws the man he thinks is Snake into door 3, where he then explodes after 81 seconds, per the rules of the game. In other words, Ace kills all of his colleagues without realizing it, all in an intricate plot laid out by Zero to exact revenge without directly “killing” anyone.

Nickname: Alice / ALL-ICE
Spoiler-free bio: She may or may not exist…? She’s rumored to be a mummy that’s still alive thanks to Ice-9 or some other paranormal stuff.
The truth: Gentarou “Ace” Hongou found a “mandragora root” in the coffin of the Gigantic nine years ago, and used that root to develop the safe anaesthetic drug “soporil,” which is what made Cradle Pharmaceutical so wealthy. It has been theorized by fans that this same root is what allowed this mysterious being to exist. At the end of the “True End,” we see a woman who most fans acknowledge as Alice standing naked in the desert, waiting to be picked up by the SUV with all the remaining characters who escaped. Should there be a sequel to 999, it’s almost a given that we’ll learn more about Alice there.

Nickname: Zero
Real Name: Akane Kurashiki
Spoiler-free bio: Wearing something akin to Darth Vader’s attire (black cloak, big black gas mask), Zero appears in the rooms of all the Nonary Game participants, abducts them using some white smoke to knock them out, and then presents the rules of the game over a loudspeaker.
The truth: See the spoiler-text on Akane Kurashiki, because she IS Zero. But wait, didn’t she die…? We’ll get to that in the next article.

END OF CHARACTERS LIST

Come back next time for Part 4, our final part in the 999 Gush series! We’ll give the dirty details on the game’s six endings, as well as my interpretations and guesses as to what to make of some of the post-endgame mysteries, and potential for sequels. The whole thing will be one giant spoiler, so don’t expect any invisible text!