N

N, redacted for Nakahara (中原,), was a researcher who was in charge of Project Arahabaki and the brother of Murase.

Appearance
As a researcher involved in a military research facility, N wore a like his other cohorts. He also wore a silver watch, which housed an ability-alloy gear beneath its glass covering.

In the stage play adaptation, he also wore glasses, and his outfit consisted of a white shirt tucked in a pair of dark trousers and a black belt, accessorized with a navy blue pinstriped necktie and a black watch on his left wrist.

Personality
N was deeply dedicated to his work and research, taking pride that his endeavors were for the sake of the country. Despite having had a relatively casual side to him when speaking with others, he still retained his technicality and sharpness in conversations, even injecting jargon and highly scientific terms in his speech. However, he also had a sense of dry humor even in the midst of administering a torture.

Prominently, N was quite cunning and sly, able to outwit combat-type ability users like Chūya Nakahara and even assassin Paul Verlaine, as well as an android like Adam Frankenstein to a fault, using his resourcefulness and craftiness on various occasions. He was willing to perform harsh experiments and risk the well-being of his test subjects to achieve his ends to the point of resorting to violence. In addition, N tended to tell lies whenever convenient, using his hidden knowledge to his advantage in outwitting his adversaries.

In this regard, N was persistent towards attaining his goals, such as killing two mafiosi to escape from them and unleashing Demonic Beast Guivre despite knowing its cataclysmic effects to its immediate and remote proximity, which included himself. Nevertheless, with his tenacity, N gladly accepted death once coming under the impression that he had successfully achieved his objectives.

Skills

 * Intelligence: N was the researcher in charge of Project Arahabaki and held vast knowledge about engineering, science, and particularly abilities, including the lesser-known phenomena of ability singularities. Moreover, he was one of the creators of Arahabaki, who weaponized it similar to how Guivre was weaponized. Having created the persona model for Arahabaki, N consequently knew of its capabilities and weaknesses, using this knowledge in his favor throughout various instances.
 * Deception Skills: As noted by Verlaine, N was the type of person who would lie about anything to survive, and Osamu Dazai also perceived him as a "first-rate liar". His repeated lies allowed him to outsmart his opponents at times and save his life, buying some time for himself to either come up with a plan to break out of dire situations or to trick others through manipulating his words to them. On various occasions, N's expertise in deceiving others made him one step ahead of them, ability users and other gifted thinkers alike, despite not being an ability user himself.

Background

 * This section is undergoing major reconstruction.

Towards the end of the Great War a few years after France created the ability with a personality named Verlaine, who possessed a gravity-manipulation ability from a singularity, N and his fellow researchers obtained the same research and tried to create an ability singularity using the same method. This would then become Project Arahabaki, a national secret-level operation spearheaded by N.

N's records were falsified, including redacting his real name to merely "N" and being listed as a civilian researcher in an army engineering lab where he allegedly died in an accident. "N" also served as the nickname given to him by the military as the initial of the surname Nakahara. The elder brother of Murase, N eventually recommended him to work as a security guard at the military research facility he worked in, which his brother accepted. Despite his records listing him as deceased, he retained his connection with Murase.