Konoe Ayatsuki Mercury

Konoe Ayatsuki Mercury, more commonly known as Nine, is a witch, one of the Six Heroes, and one of the Ten Sages. After her supposed death by the hands of Yūki Terumi, Konoe mysteriously came back as the servant of Hades Izanami, Phantom. She is a playable character as well as one of the primary antagonists in BlazBlue: Centralfiction known as Nine the Phantom and is the boss in Act I of Arcade Mode.

Information
Konoe is a witch who went by the name of Nine. The name "Nine" comes from her being the ninth member of the Mage's Guild's Ten Sages. Celica A. Mercury is her younger sister, Shūichirō Ayatsuki was her father, and her mother is deceased. She was the lover of Jubei of the Six Heroes, and one herself, as well as the mother of Kokonoe. She was the first person to achieve the rank of the Ten Sages while still being a student. Konoe's role in the story is further explained in the novel, BlazBlue: Phase 0, where Ragna tells her to beware of Terumi.

She was chosen as the Ten Sage with absolute authority regarding the Black Beast's matter.

She passed down her knowledge of magic to mankind during the Dark War. During the Dark War, she created the Nox Nyctores in order to help humans fight against the Black Beast. After the war, she discovered what Terumi's future plans were, and he "killed" her, giving Kokonoe a motivation to despise Terumi. She created the Nox Nyctores using human transmutation, a process that requires thousands of human souls. It is said that the magical power used to create Mu -No.12- belongs to Konoe. It is known that the process through which the Nox Nyctores were created involved the compressing of seithr into a solid unit, then implanting the unit with the soul of a Black Beast. This compression spell, known as Infinite Gravity, was used by Konoe to create the Nox Nyctores and defeat the Beast, and later by Kokonoe to implant a Black Beast's soul into Fluctus Redactum: Ignis. Konoe is also known to be the creator of Burning Red.

Immediately following the Dark War, Konoe released the souls from the Nox Nyctores, with the exceptions of the Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa, Geminus Anguium: Ouroboros, Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk, and Phoenix: Rettenjō. She and Celica later buried the Deus Machina: Nirvana in the area that would become the 4th Hierarchical City of Naobi many years later.

As Phantom, she is responsible for the injuries that plague Jubei throughout Continuum Shift. After having encounters with Valkenhayn R. Hellsing, Jubei, Hakumen and Celica A. Mercury, all are left stunned at their realization that she is Nine.

Relius Clover is the one that prepared Phantom's current vessel, while it is Hades Izanami herself that is sustaining her existence. Despite this, her soul is still unstable.

She was tasked with preparing the core of the Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi for the Imperator.

She encounters Hakumen and Platinum the Trinity, and after Platinum uses her Nox Nyctores, Arma Reboare: Muchōrin, it is revealed that she is Nine. Rachel Alucard theorizes that Terumi pulled Nine's soul from deep within the Boundary and put it into a vessel, making her the "ultimate pawn". However, despite the brainwashing placed upon her, Nine shows signs of resisting, and Hakumen says that her hatred for Terumi still burns.

Phantom comes face to face with Jubei after the latter attempts to strike down Hades Izanami. Hades Izanami decided to let her restrictions on Phantom go, and allowed her pawn to fight at her full strength as a brainwashed Nine. After taunting Jubei with her newfound ability to speak once more, the two engaged in combat; it is assumed that Nine was the victor, as she returned to her master's side soon after the engagement.

Appearance
Konoe has long, bright, vibrant pink hair and bangs with contoured feathery strands that cover her left eye. She has yellow eyes and is well-endowed. She used to wear a dark purple witch's hat and a Mage's Guild uniform, with the additions of a tied purple ribbon and cape, along with long black straps attached to her sleeves, long black curved leggings that reach to her mini skirt, and black slippers with stilettos.

During the Dark War, she wore a black mage's coat. Konoe wore the coat loosened and opened, which showed her sleeveless white collar shirt with a purple Windsor knotted tie.

As Phantom, she wears a purple cloak with a high collar with red blood zig-zag almost like zipper, and two long, white scarves ending in red rags that resemble flames. She also wears a large, pointed hat that conceals her face.

In BlazBlue: Centralfiction, she retains her witch hat except that it has a flame-like design. Much of her physical form is the same before becoming Phantom, except her fingers are longer and sharper and her hair is longer and wilder. She wears a purple collar with an attaching magenta cape, a short revealing purple dress matching with two separate long sleeves, black gloves, long black curved leggings with dark purple trimmings and dark purple heeled slippers. Her eye color remains the same but her sclera has become black, or sometimes red if her devilish attitude is shown, as shown when mocking Hazama/Yūki Terumi in his arcade ending as Hazama for example.

Personality
Prior being brainwashed into Phantom, Konoe was a person who liked to do things her own way, a trait shared by her daughter. She is a kind-hearted individual who cares about her friends, especially her younger sister Celica. However, she was not easy on Kazuma. Although she seems to have a mature and serious personality, she can be somewhat impulsive and violent when angered, as shown when she attempted to use a fire spell on Bloodedge for annoying her. She was this way even with her lover, Jubei, before falling in love with him as well as rash, headstrong and independent.

Before having her daughter, Konoe had more time on her hands to delve into magical legerdemain. This was likely due to the fact that she was the best in her field of expertise. Unlike her daughter who was a whiz with science, Konoe had an ability, charm and prowess with the magical arts. Being the best in her field and from her expertise and leadership, it was easy to see why she responded to others the way she had. These would psychologically determine her to be right-brained and eccentric, if not at least eclectic.

Konoe also displays a poor sense of direction similar to her sister, seen when they walk together in the wrong direction during the search for their father.

As Phantom, however, all of her personality has seemingly vanished. She no longer speaks nor has any signs of any emotions whatsoever; becoming an empty shell in comparison to what she was before. While as Phantom, she attacks anyone who is deemed as the Imperator's foe, even going so far to attack Trinity Glassfille and her lover Jubei.

When her restrictions as Phantom are released, Nine retains her same arrogant tone and confidence in her abilities; however, she no longer has concern for the well-being of her former comrades and family. Despite this, she still retains her memories, taunting Jubei about their former relationship before engaging him in battle.

However, in Continuum Shift and Chronophantasma, she shows signs of resisting, indicating that she is regaining her original sentience.

In Centralfiction, Nine is confirmed to have regained her original sentience, but she has acquired a bleak view of the world from being driven mad through all the time she spent in the Boundary. She wishes to destroy it so she could recreate it with her desires in mind and is not above using those around her to achieve her goals. She retains her characteristic condescension and arrogance, though taken to new and alarming levels, as seen from how she kicks her defeated opponent and props her foot on them. It seems she has completely detached herself from her former comrades, save for her sister, Celica.

Powers and Abilities
Recognized as the greatest Magician of the Dark War, whose power and knowledge far surpasses mankind's understanding, Nine has shown to be one of the most powerful characters in the BlazBlue universe. She is also hailed by many as the genius creator of both Ars Magus and the Nox Nyctores.

Nine is capable of utilizing many types of sorcery, showcasing her power through spells such as Gravity Seed, Infinite Corridors, Mind Eater, Teleportation Magic and even her own original spell, Infinite Gravity. Her preferred method of offensive magic manifests in the ability to manipulate fire. As an alternative, she can also wield lightning magic.

In her playable iteration, Nine is capable of wielding the powers of fire, water, and wind that she can combine to cast a wide variety of powerful spells. These include, but are not limited to, a sphere of electricity, a gravity field, and unstoppable pillars of energy that erupt from the ground after a set time has passed.

She can project massive beams of energy from both her hands and feet, conjure powerful explosions, and create bindings and arrows of magical energy that grow stronger the more powerful the spells she has in her slots. Finally, her Astral Heat involves calling down scores of meteors from the sky to finish her opponents off, much like that of her daughter, Kokonoe Mercury.

She can summon a creature known as Hi no Kagutsuchi to aid her in battle by striking down her opponents with its limbs. It can also breathe a massive stream of fire from its mouth and devour her opponents before transforming into a cage of fire.

Aside from her vast magical skills, Nine is also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, using powerful kicks to attack enemies.

Unlike the majority of the current playable roster, Nine does not have a Drive. Instead, she has two slots from which she can store spells that she can cast whenever the Drive button is pressed. Her Active Slot is where the spells that were combined from her normal attacks are stored. Her Stock Slot is where she can store a spell for later use in battle (or switch it with that in her Active Slot) with the use of her Special, Sea-Moss Gate. Whenever her normal attacks connect or are blocked, a spell is stored into the Active Slot and can be combined with additional attacks to create new spells.

Two of her Distortion Drives involve the spells in her Active and Stock Slots. Cardinal Nova inserts random spells in both slots and the damage inflicted by Azurite Inferno increases if both her Active and Stock Slots are full.

Her Overdrive, Burning Red, allows her to store spells in her Active Slot even if her attacks are on whiff.

Trivia

 * Konoe was already researching techniques that combined science and magic, even before the events of BlazBlue: Phase 0.
 * Konoe is shown to have quite a sweet tooth, a trait that Kokonoe, her daughter, inherited. She claims that sweets help clear her head, something her daughter also agrees on.
 * When Amane Nishiki uses his Astral Heat on her, "Me" appears as her younger version.
 * In the Phase Shift novels, her name was noted without the "A.", as Konoe Mercury.
 * Konoe's last name, Mercury, comes from the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth: a powerful god whom had three forms, Hermes Trismegistus. Wisdom, writing, magic, alchemy and astrology were this one god's domains under the various guises.
 * Mercury is also a periodic element, Hg, with an atomic number of 80. It is commonly known as quicksilver.
 * Konoe's spells are all named after crystalline substances. Her Exceed Accel, Overdrive, and specials have colors in their names. The names of her Distortion Drives have a word that relates to fire.
 * Konoe's birthday, April 30, falls on Walpurgisnacht. In Germanic folklore, Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht (Dutch: "Witches' Night"), is believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains. Fittingly, it is also the name of her personal musical theme.

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