Touta Konoe (近衛 刀太 Konoe Tōta?) is the main protagonist of UQ Holder!, a teenaged vampire, as well as the grandson of Negi Springfield. Formerly human, he was transformed two years prior to the start of the series. Later events reveal that he might be a clone of Negi Springfield.
Appearance
As an immortal, Touta's physical appearance has barely changed from the time of his transformation two years prior to the series' beginning. He bears some resemblance to his great-grandfather in his youth, but the traits common of the Konoe family are present as well. Touta is notably short in stature, his vampirism most likely having stunted or altogether halted his growth, and has spiky brown hair and dark brown eyes. Despite his young appearance and short stature, Touta has a very muscular build. His common attire is that of a red T-shirt, dark jacket, worn with the sleeves rolled up, as well as dark pants and shoes.
Personality
Touta is shown to be an energetic and carefree individual, always smiling and being rather optimistic, even Yukihime commented on his optimistic nature. Among those traits, Touta is also a kind and friendly person, wishing to befriend many people and Immortals such as himself, and refuses to allow potential friends to slip away, evident by his desire to befriend Kuroumaru Tokisaka, despite the latter's known intention to kill him in order to get to Yukihime, before finally becoming friends.
Touta is known for openly speaking his mind, without much care for what people say, always boasting about his dreams and desire to make friends, or if he's simply being blunt, such as telling Yukihime he isn't interested in her body when she offered him a peek. He also does as he pleases, even if it gets him into trouble, for example, his attempts at peeking under Kuroumaru's pants in order to find out his gender.
This doesn't mean he's dumb. In fact he is surprisingly smart able to dupe, Fate, do extensive paperwork, and figure out what tricks his masters are teaching him. Also, he seems to hide a lust for vengence and hate like his grandfather.
He cares a great deal for people close to him, such as how he expressed his happiness after finding out Yukihime was immortal, and thus wasn't dead after being cut down by Tachibana, and always exhibits great rage towards those who attempt to or have harmed his friends.
Touta claims that due to having no memories of his life prior to two years ago, he has nothing to look back to or remember, and envies those who do, he also claims to lack any real talent of his known, and as such, copies the talents of others around him, as he has been back at the countryside before leaving, saying the world is his "teacher".
He also seems to have a great affinity with children, as he got along great with the homeless orphans of New Tokyo as well as the various children staying at Fairyland Hall.
History
Two years prior to the story Touta's parents died, but with Touta still clinging to life Yukihime saves him by his parents request, by turning him into a vampire just like her. He has no memories of anything prior to the accident, so he went on without a goal or a purpose in life, but after meeting his four best friends, he decided to go the capital with them so he could see all the world had to offer. To do that he had to defeat Yukihime and receive permission to leave the village. Tachibana tricked Touta into weakening Yukihime with a magic-negating bracelet so he could kill her for her bounty. This led to Touta's abilities as a vampire to awaken and ended with the defeat of Tachibana. After Yukihime revealed her identiy as Evangeline and stated that they shouldn't stay in one place, now that Tachibana died people know her location so more people might come to kill her. After saying goodbye to his friends he goes on a journey across the world and beyond.
Plot
UQ Holder Arc
Touta is introduced alongside his friends sitting on tree branches, talking about immortality and invincibility. When Yukihime arrives outside of the school, Touta and his friends jump from the tree branches using ropes and attempt to attack her together, however, she defends herself using a Barrier and takes them down. Inside of school Yukihime tells Touta and his friends they're 100 years to early to win against her. When they ask her to teach them magic, she tells them they're being unreasonable and attacks them until they reach the outside of the school. Later on while paying his respects to his family, his friends approach him and they talk about Yukihime and wanting to go to the captial. When Yukihime returns home Touta attempts to attack from above, unable to do so they engage in combat, until she breaks the floor boards. While cooking food he asks her to teach him magic and talks about their fight. After sitting down, they both talk some more until Touta decides to go and train. A day after being kicked out of class Touta and his freinds are given items by Tachibana, with him receiving a bracelet, which he gives that night to Yukihime as a gift.
The bracelet turned out to be part of a trap that left Yukihime defenseless when Tachibana attacked her with the intention to grab her bounty, and when Touta arrived he was stricken with a fatal wound and left to die. He survived by becoming a vampire after drinking Yukihime's blood, defeating Tachibana and then setting out. He then runs across Kuroumaru, who attacks him because he is from a clan of immortal hunters despite being immortal himself. Touta manages to trick him during a fight and win, making him sign a contract to be his friend.
Afterwards the group is taken to UQ Holder Headquarters and then dropped into the pit below to qualify for training. They meet Jinbei and learn the limitations of Touta's immortality before Touta gains the Gravity Blade and then escapes to become an official member of UQ Holder.
First Mission Arc
During their first mission they come across a slum being assaulted by the Demolition Man, a PMC working for Strong Hand, after Touta accidentally injuries the members of UQ Holder who were sent to help them. He then trains in doing Instant Movement and meets Kaito, who gives him pointers that he follows through with until the slums come under attack, where he is sealed by Kaito in his werewolf form. He then wakes up to his Magia Erebea until he's nearly killed Kaito and then they settle things with an arm wrestling contest. Before Strong Hand can withdraw, however, they receive a better offer for the capture of Touta and Nagumo summons agents to assist in capturing him. Yukihime arrives to rescue him with several other Numbers, and in the end Touta is charged with a several million yen debt for the damages his battle caused.
Imprison Fate Arc
Touta is recruited to go with Kirie and meet with Karin as she arrives from the moon, only for her to claim he failed her six times there. The shadow-user from Strong Hand attacks her then and she grabs him as she dies, bringing him back with her to the past. As a result he manages to fend him off long enough for Ikkuu to drive him off. They then make a plan to capture Fate, only for his friends from the country-side to be present. Touta faces him long enough for Kirie to un-petrify and then he and the others jump into the past where Fate faces Yukihime until he submits. Fate then allows him to ask a question, leading to Touta asking if it was him who killed his parents. Fate confesses that it was before leaving, though Touta is skeptical.
Investigation arc
Touta escapes the ice magic
After the recent events, Touta decides to get stronger in order to be a match for Fate and asks Yukihime to help him. However, Yukihime instead gives him a job - to investigate a dangerous immortal at the Amano-Mihashira Academy City. He is joined by Kuroumaru, Karin and Ikkuu, and eventually, the group arrives at the city, not knowing that they are noticed by a mysterious boy.[1] Touta is then introduced to his class as a new student and along with Kuroumaru, they are seen playing basketball. The two head for lunch and are surprised to see its true nature, with students rushing to get the best meals, which is, as Karin explains, a tradition. Touta and others are then given more information, finding out that there are already two victims. However, at that moment, they are approached by Michiel who belittles them for being non-wielders, which visibly annoys Touta. He challenges Michiel to a duel, however, he manages to break free from Michiel's ice spell and strikes Michiel with his palm, claiming that this is nothing compared to Yukihime or Fate.[2]
After defeating Michiel, the second rate students begin to idol Touta and the news about this incident quickly spread. Later, the team goes to investigate the two murder scenes, with Ikkuu projecting the day of the incident, showing there was nowhere to jump from, but Touta claims that there were other options for the victim to fall down. He then witnesses the second victim who literally became a part of the concrete wall in a bathroom. Afterwards, Karin orders Touta and Kuroumaru to return to the dorms. Touta arrives to a free room on the fourth floor, eventually opening the door and greeting his new, mysterious roommate.[3]
This new 'roommate' nervously introduces himself as Santa Sasaki. Touta works with bonding with him until the reveal that he was a ghost came to light, after which zombies began to spring up and Santa begged him to help stop Sayoko, who was responsible. He fails, being taken out by a possessed Kuroumaru, until Karin arrives as he finishes healing. He is then taken to the blimp to face Kuroumaru until he snaps out of it and then they jump to the past, where Santa says good bye to her. Touta then welcomes Santa into the Numbers.
Mahora Preliminaries Arc
After the events of the previous arc, Touta trains by himself until he runs across Mana Tatsumiya, who fights him until she deems he's good, but still needs more training. Learning how much stronger his grandfather was leaves him somewhat somber, so she agrees to help him train if he'll join in the Mahora Martial Arts Competition coming up to help investigate an entry by his grandfather. He consents, but when they take the slip to Yukihime and Fate, it reveals that Negi and Nagi have been taken by the Mage of the Beginning, who identifies him.
Yukihime then forces him to withdraw from the competition as she and Fate would take his place, leaving him dejected at their headquarters until he runs away. During this time he learns that the Gravity Sword can talk, and he meets Afro under attack. He ends up saving him, only to learn that it was part of the preliminaries for the competition that he had withdrawn from and still gets the points added to his account. Afro challenges him for those points he gained, only to lose and then show him around and explain the underground tournament rules and ask him to join him as a team.
Afro takes him to his place where they try to give him a Magic App only for it to not work with him, and when he goes off to think on things he gets attacked by a cloaked girl(who calls Touta her brother) who claims he's a copy of Negi Springfield, not his grandson. Negi was sterile due to his transformation and certain parties wanted to preserve his abilities, creating a number of clones of which Touta is apparently a failure. She then tries to kill him using a weapon that inhibits magic and a large scale spell to bypass his immorality, but Kirie, Kuroumaru, and Santa arrive to rescue him.
Relationships
Evangeline A.K. McDowell
After losing his memories, he was very hostile to Yukihime even though he had to live with her, since his parents had died. After some time he bonded with her and started to open up. Later on, Touta started trying to defeat her in the hope that he can go to the capital as she promised him.
He even went to such an extreme as to give her a bracelet that weakened her magical power in order to ambush her. After that event Touta learns who Yukihime really is: a vampire with a 600,000,000 yen bounty on her head. Not only that, Yukihime tells him she had turned him into a vampire two years prior. Even after this Touta tells Yukihime she is his only family and he will continue to trust her.
During the Mahora Preliminaries Arc, he realises that he has feelings for her and aims to seek her approval or becoming stronger to stand by her side. After returning from Dana's spartan training, Touta outright proclaims his love to her and even asking her to marry him so that he can stay with her always.
Jintetsu and Haruka Konoe
While his accident years ago made him lose memories prior and about the accident as well as about his parents, Touta revealed to want to take revenge for his deceased parents when the supposed culprit of the their deaths, Fate Averruncus, claimed himself to be the one who attacked them years back.
Negi Springfield
Touta's eminent "grandfather." When meeting him for the first time, due to how Negi was hugging a naked Yukihime while inviting her to come with him, Touta gave a truculent response by pushing his grandfather away from Yukihime, telling Negi to not do anything to Yukihime, declaring her to be his.
Kuroumaru Tokisaka
Touta initially meets Kuroumaru when they are both bathing and Touta accidentally stumbles upon Kuroumaru. Kuroumaru then attacks him for groping him and calling him a girl. After properly introducing themselves and getting along for a while, they have a duel since Kuroumaru is on a mission to kill Evangeline. Kuroumaru loses and as part of the bet, Touta decides to make Kuroumaru his best friend and forces him to sign a friendship contract.
Karin Yuuki
Touta initially was deemed a nuisance by Karin herself when he first joined, although that was mostly because of his close relationship with Yukihime (Something she envied quite a bit) He originally started a fight with her after passing his entry test and was stopped by another member before anything serious could occur. Later in their first mission, she appeared to still have some distaste for him and appeared to act cold around him, but acknowledged his skill occasionally and even worked alongside him to help protect the people in the slums from attackers. Touta himself seems to respect her as his senior and acts fairly friendly with her, but he does disagree with her often. When she was under the false impression she had been artificially infatuated by Yukihime's chocolates she stole a bite of, it was hinted she may have developed some manner of feelings for him, though she strongly denies as such and continues to prioritize her attention on Yukihime even after.
Kirie Sakurame
Their first meeting wasn't the best of meetings as at first, he thought of her as a shy girl when they first met. But once outside the UQ Holder HQ and on the mission to pick up Karin, she turned out to be rude and demanding to him, treating him like a dog. But later on when they were done with it, she seemed to treat him a little better. After the Zombie epidemic, it has shown evident she might be developing a crush on him. She even made an excuse to walk into the boys' bathhouse to probably take a peek at Touta. She also says that seeing Touta getting killed numerous times during the training makes her feel bad and tells Touta to stop dying. Touta receives his first kiss from Kirie after trying to save her from committing suicide and having kirie accidentally land on top of him in lip lock.[4]
Santa Sasaki
Touta first met Santa during the Investigation Arc where members of UQ Holder began to investigate a series of murders commited by someone with strange powers. Touta and Kuroumaru was assigned to be roommates with Santa secretly by Sayoko, who had planned for them later to take care of Santa after she was to soon pass on. At first Santa was not thrilled in having two members of UQ Holder being he's roommates since he considered them the enemy's at first but over time Touta's upfront and infectious kind attitude helped Santa overcome he's previous convictions of friendship and doing the right thing. Touta later begins to act like a older brother of sorts toward Santa, looking after him and his well being while Santa also looks up to Touta.
Abilities
Immortality
Touta has two sources of immortality. One comes from being a vampire and the other comes from his inheritance of Magia Erebea. As a vampire of high rank (Yukihime who turned him is considered a shinso), Touta boasts a rank A form of immortality as he has gained eternal life as well as eternal youth and a very powerful healing factor, rendering him incapable of dying through natural means. Once Touta's Magia Erebea abilities are released, he can heal even faster from injuries than when he is in his normal form. He can regenerate any injury, and reattach limbs, such as his head and his arms, without being encumbered by the wounds. However, the severed part has to be completely destroyed before it will regenerate because they are linked together by his magical energies. So if his limbs are severed, he can restore them simply by reattaching them, but if they are sealed away then he has to retrieve them. This is potentially fatal weakness because if Touta's head gets severed and locked away, he would remain conscious and alive, but unable to regenerate the head as his body would never decay. In addition, since Vampirism and Magia Erebea are both magic based, individuals with the Magic Cancel ability can kill him by stopping him from healing. He can also be killed by erasing him from existence.
Enhanced Healing Factor
Touta's immortality grants him a powerful healing factor. He heals small wounds in seconds and also instantly regenerated his pierced heart by fastly recovering its pieces. Nagumo stated that his regenerative abilities gets an A minus and is very troublesome. When Dana destroyed his top half, Touta regenerated in 3 minutes and 26 seconds. After his harsh training with Dana, he decreased the recovery time to 32.4 seconds.
Natural Abilities
Superhuman Endurance: Possibly a side-effect of his immortality, Touta appears to have an extreme tolerance to pain. Touta is capable of having his head cut off, his arm eaten, and his eye cut open without showing too much pain; the most severe of these would in fact, appear to be the eye; having limbs cut off only seem to serve as minor annoyances to Touta, as he is more than capable of joking about it afterwards.
Superhuman Strength: He discovered his strength as a vampire near-death, though the true feats are unknown as of yet. He was able to to defeat Tachibana with one hit even though being easily "killed" by him the first time. He was also able to train and use the gravity sword to hold it at 2000 times gravity and swing it rapidly, when one month earlier he couldn't even hold it at 1000 times the weight.
Supernatural Reflexes: He was able to dodge and attack at the same time without even having to turn around to face his attacker, which hints at some incredible reflexes.
Combat Abilities
Touta's swordsmanship skills in action
Swordsmanship: Touta is shown having limited experience in the art of the sword; his earliest known usage was an attempt on Yukihime with his comrades using wooden swords and later revealed that Yukihime tutored him on swordplay. Before gaining any true practice with a sword, Kuroumaru Tokisaka, a master himself, acknowledges Touta's skills. After meeting Jinbei Shishido during the UQ Holder's initiation test, Touta came to possess the Gravity Blade, and after a few months of training to master its powers, developed a skill in using the sword. Due to being the type that "learns as he fights", Touta appears to improve with the Gravity Blade through every battle, and after coming into a conflict with Xinzqai Chao, has displayed a highly improved fighting style that revolves around the use of the sword's weight to increase the physical force of his blows, as well as reacting on reflex; Touta, while wielding the Gravity Blade, is capable of parrying the attacks of Xinzqai even while the blade is at a thousand times gravity; moving effortlessly to strike his opponent even while defending Kirie Sakurame. He also uses his exceptional battle instincts to evade his enemies strikes. Despite his prowess with a blade, it is still clumsy compared to true masters and many fighters state that what he lacks is a powerful finishing strike.
Martial Arts: It's been noted on multiple occasions by Yukihime, Jinbei, and Kuroumaru that Touta has great talent for martial arts. Having undergone training from Yukihime, mainly for the purpose of leaving the village, Touta has a decent grasp of the basics of physical, hand-to-hand combat, and it becomes increasingly obvious that, in place of continued formal training, Touta improves himself through actual combat situations. He has shown himself to have remarkable reflexes, capable of detecting surprise attacks from behind and reacting within seconds. [5] Touta's skill has improved to the point that he can fight on nearly equal ground with Kaito, at least before the man decided to become serious in battle.
Ki Manipulation: Touta can enhance his strength and endurance through Ki. During his training with Dana, Touta has learned to use his own Ki to create a Ki barrier that can block physical attacks from one direction. Later on Touta receives help in his training from Kuroumaru to be able to use his Ki to harden his body to protect himself from blade based attacks.
Techniques
- Shundō: A movement technique that allows the user to move faster than the eye can follow. This is used by concentrating ki or magic power into the feet to get from point A to point B in the least amount of steps. It's important that when going from point A to point B that you hold to the ground with the inside of your feet or you will simply trip. He has not mastered the art but is proficient in it despite seeing it once, a month ago.[6] After training with Kaito and learning the tricks to it Touta was able to master the technique.
- Magia Erebea: Touta has shown an ability to cover his arms with something resembling pieces of black armor. Upon witnessing this, Nagumo noted that it reeked of powerful and evil miasma. This ability seems to greatly enhance Touta's physical capabilities as with a single punch, Touta was able to deal great amount of damage to Kaito, causing him to be thrown several meters away. Later on, Touta is able to utilize Magia Erebea to absorb the lightning spear thrown by Ruin Ishkur and take the form of Raiten Taisō much like his grandfather Negi Springfield. This allowed Touta to match Ruin Ishkur's speed and allowed him to earn the upper hand in their battle.[7]
Magic Abilities
Light and Dark magic legacy: Touta possess two types of unique magic (Spiritual energy) inside of him which are incompatible with each other hence the fact that he is unable to summon the simplest of magics. These are the Magic Cancel, called "White of Mars"(Light-based magic), and the Magia Erebea, also called "Black of Venus"(Dark-based magic). The "White of Mars" erases all and the "Black of Venus" swallows everything. Despite the fact that Touta is originally unable to use magic he receive training from Dana in order to fill that gap. Eventually, Touta learns how to separate the two powers within him using a trick what he dubs "Revolution" (which is simply him using a Hula Hoop(s)). This allows Touta to be able to use Magia Erebea like his grandfather, taking an enemy's magic or special move into himself but currently due to Touta's lack of experience he can only hold/use such power for a few seconds at most. At this current time, until Touta learns how to separate the powers inside him on his own, he must rely on his "Revolution" style to make Magia Erebea work. Also if Touta doesn't constantly spin his "Revolution" while he has a foreign magic in his Magia Erebea hand then the power he's stored will leek out or explode due to his Magic Cancel.
Weaknesses
- Sealing Cross: Being a vampire, if he has a cross engraved on his body it completely seals away his movements until it is overcome or removed.
- Magic Cancel: Since Touta's immortality is revealed to be more magic based due to Magia Erebea, any magic cancelling attacks or effects would stop his regeneration, leaving Touta vulnerable.
Equipment
Touta wielding the Gravity Blade
- Gravity Blade(重力剣, Jūryoku Ken): A pure black katana created by an evil mage about 30 years ago, this sword is a blade with the ability to increase its "gravity", or, more accurately, weight. Doing this increases the relative power of the blade's physical strikes on an opponent. Located on the hilt of the blade, under the guard, is a dial which has a "heavy" and "light" setting, flipping the dial in either direction allows Touta, or any other user, to alter the blade's weight, heavier for increased power, lighter for ease of use. At 200x of its original weight, Touta makes a comment that it feels like a body builder, at 50000x of its original weight, simply throwing the blade is enough to completely destroy a small palace with ease, as demonstrated by Jinbei Shishido. The sword was in fact created and owned by Albireo Imma. After Touta leaves UQ Holder its revealed that the gravity blade is able to talk, and that it was originally created to help those connected to "3-A".[8]
- Portable Hoop: A foldable or connectable ring hoop that Touta now carries with him at all times and uses it in his battles. With it Touta can use his "Revolution" style without assistance or aid, thus allowing him to both use Magia Erebea and Magic Cancel abilities.[9]
Battles
| Opponent | Result |
|---|---|
| Touta & Friends VS Yukihime | Loss |
| Touta & Yukihime VS Tachibana | Win |
| Touta VS Kuroumaru | Win |
| Touta & Kuroumaru VS Jinbei | Loss |
| Touta VS Monsters (UQ Holder Test) | Win |
| Touta VS Karin | Draw (i) |
| Touta & Karin VS Demolition Man | Win |
| Touta VS Kaito | Loss |
| Touta VS Kaito (rematch) |
Win |
| Touta & Jinbei VS Nagumo |
Win |
| Touta & Ikkuu VS Xinzqai Chao |
Win |
| Touta & Karin VS Fate |
Interrupted (i) |
| Touta VS Fate | Interrupted (i) |
| Touta VS Michiel | Win |
| Touta & Kuroumaru & Ikkuu VS Santa | Loss |
| Touta VS Sayoko | Loss |
| Touta VS Kuroumaru (Zombified) | Draw (i) |
| Touta VS Mana Tatsumiya | Loss |
| Touta VS Three Preliminary Participants | Win |
| Touta VS Cloaked Girl | Loss |
| Touta, Kuroumaru & Afro VS Takahata Fudoson | Win |
| Touta VS Karen Da | Loss |
| Touta VS Morborgran | Loss |
| Touta VS Gloria Chief | Loss |
| Touta & Kuroumaru VS Ruin Ishkur | Win |
(i) Incomplete/Interrupted
Trivia
- So far Touta has been "killed" more times then any other Immortal in the series.
- Whether Touta is actually a clone or not is still in doubt.
- There might be more "descendants" of Negi Springfield, like the Cloaked Girl who defeated Touta, to whom was calling brother.
- Touta received his first kiss from Kirie, but by accident.
References
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 43
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 44
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 45
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 104, Page 13
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 22, Pages 2-3
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 21, Pages 10-15
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 90, Pages 11-15
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 67, Page 14
- ↑ UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 101, Page 4