The above description may make him sound like a saint, but no man is perfect, and Nagi is no exception. His motives for the aforementioned Minatsuki rescue were not entirely altruistic: he was primarily attempting to convince Ganta to join Scar Chain, with the actual rescue itself being a happy bonus. Although it's rarely malicious, Nagi has become moderately skilled at manipulating people and pressing their buttons to get what he wants from them. He's not perfect at it, however, and his optimism and basic trust in people sometimes allows them to turn the tables and manipulate him. Rokuro was more-or-less easily able to infiltrate the group and nearly ruin them all from within; part of this was because Nagi was desperate and didn't exactly have time to screen everybody's loyalties, but part of it was also because he believes most people are basically decent and couldn't fathom why anyone, much less a trusted lieutenant, would want to betray the group.
As mentioned before, he doesn't have much sympathy for Undertakers or any similarly evil people, no matter how tragic their backstory or reasons may be. Although he was more than happy to talk to Hibana and try to help her find her way when he thought she was just a lost little girl, he had no trouble whatsoever cutting her down after she attacked him. As he said himself, she was nothing but "a twisted little girl with a black, rotten heart", and therefore beyond saving. (Chopping off his arm might have had something to do with it also.) This kind of ruthlessness isn't something he's proud of, but it's a sacrifice he thinks he needs to make in order to achieve Scar Chain's dream.
Nagi's biggest weakness, however, is easily his mental instability. Nobody spends years in Deadman Wonderland without developing some kind of personality or mental disorder, but Nagi appears to be the sole exception... at first, anyway. His bright smile, compassionate nature, and inspiring leadership may make it seem like he's the sole sane inmate at DW, but the simple truth is that he's every bit as crazy and fucked-up as everyone else there, if not moreso- he's just convinced himself he isn't. He spent two years carrying around a locket of the "child waiting for him outside" that was, in fact, completely empty, and he simply didn't notice. Unlike the other long-time inmates, who wear their pain and hatred on their sleeve, Nagi bottled up all his hate and fear and sorrow and shoved them in a box somewhere waaaay back in the closet of his mind. This is, as anyone who's spent more than 5 minutes in a psychology course can tell you, the worst way to deal with negative emotions, and in the end it came back to bite Nagi. Hard.
The agony of seeing his beloved infant child in a test tube drove poor Nagi over the edge, turning the sweet and mild-mannered man into a psychopathic berserker who slaughtered 22 highly trained killers with his bare hands. The "Carnage Owl", as he was named by Genkaku, emerged once again when Nagi was forced to confront the truth about his child two years later, and once again he began to kill indiscriminately just for the sheer hell of it. While in this state, Nagi claims to be sane rather than insane; he insists that he's finally seen the truth of the world, which is that everybody in it deserves to die. While the first time he went berserk had him grinning madly and cackling while sowing death, the second time is rather telling of his mental state: rather than laughing as he kills his own men, Nagi is weeping.
Even after all the pain he's endured, however, Nagi is ultimately not beyond redemption. Ganta and Karako managed to pull him back from the brink of madness shortly before his death, causing him to realize that even though he's lost so much, the dreams he spent so long fighting for aren't dead yet. There's a large part of him that's become a homicidal, raging maniac, but it hasn't won yet: despite everything, Nagi is still a basically good guy who just wants to win his own freedom, as well as that of his friends and underlings. This is a guy who's been beaten down to the pit of absolute despair, and is trying to pull himself back up.
Abilities: Nagi's Branch of Sin, the Owl's Eyeball, allows him to create spheres of his own blood that explode with massive force. He can either lob them like grenades or detonate them remotely, like mines. Other than that, he's an ordinary human.
Sample Entry: Everything from this journal over at LJ. I'll be bringing him back without his memories of his previous stay here.
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As mentioned before, he doesn't have much sympathy for Undertakers or any similarly evil people, no matter how tragic their backstory or reasons may be. Although he was more than happy to talk to Hibana and try to help her find her way when he thought she was just a lost little girl, he had no trouble whatsoever cutting her down after she attacked him. As he said himself, she was nothing but "a twisted little girl with a black, rotten heart", and therefore beyond saving. (Chopping off his arm might have had something to do with it also.) This kind of ruthlessness isn't something he's proud of, but it's a sacrifice he thinks he needs to make in order to achieve Scar Chain's dream.
Nagi's biggest weakness, however, is easily his mental instability. Nobody spends years in Deadman Wonderland without developing some kind of personality or mental disorder, but Nagi appears to be the sole exception... at first, anyway. His bright smile, compassionate nature, and inspiring leadership may make it seem like he's the sole sane inmate at DW, but the simple truth is that he's every bit as crazy and fucked-up as everyone else there, if not moreso- he's just convinced himself he isn't. He spent two years carrying around a locket of the "child waiting for him outside" that was, in fact, completely empty, and he simply didn't notice. Unlike the other long-time inmates, who wear their pain and hatred on their sleeve, Nagi bottled up all his hate and fear and sorrow and shoved them in a box somewhere waaaay back in the closet of his mind. This is, as anyone who's spent more than 5 minutes in a psychology course can tell you, the worst way to deal with negative emotions, and in the end it came back to bite Nagi. Hard.
The agony of seeing his beloved infant child in a test tube drove poor Nagi over the edge, turning the sweet and mild-mannered man into a psychopathic berserker who slaughtered 22 highly trained killers with his bare hands. The "Carnage Owl", as he was named by Genkaku, emerged once again when Nagi was forced to confront the truth about his child two years later, and once again he began to kill indiscriminately just for the sheer hell of it. While in this state, Nagi claims to be sane rather than insane; he insists that he's finally seen the truth of the world, which is that everybody in it deserves to die. While the first time he went berserk had him grinning madly and cackling while sowing death, the second time is rather telling of his mental state: rather than laughing as he kills his own men, Nagi is weeping.
Even after all the pain he's endured, however, Nagi is ultimately not beyond redemption. Ganta and Karako managed to pull him back from the brink of madness shortly before his death, causing him to realize that even though he's lost so much, the dreams he spent so long fighting for aren't dead yet. There's a large part of him that's become a homicidal, raging maniac, but it hasn't won yet: despite everything, Nagi is still a basically good guy who just wants to win his own freedom, as well as that of his friends and underlings. This is a guy who's been beaten down to the pit of absolute despair, and is trying to pull himself back up.
Abilities: Nagi's Branch of Sin, the Owl's Eyeball, allows him to create spheres of his own blood that explode with massive force. He can either lob them like grenades or detonate them remotely, like mines. Other than that, he's an ordinary human.
Sample Entry: Everything from this journal over at LJ. I'll be bringing him back without his memories of his previous stay here.