Magane Chikujoin (築城院 真鍳, Chikujōin Magane) is the enemy character in the light novel and anime series Record of the Night Window Demon (夜窓鬼録 Yasōkiroku). She is a criminal who murdered the entire student body of Korougamine Academy in "Sougenkyu Murder Case" in the fifth volume of the original series. Her special power is the ability to reverse cause and effect, the Infinite Deception of Words.
History[]
Magane makes her first physical appearance in Episode 6 as she is skipping at what appears to be a mall. Her next appearance is in a book store where she finds a book from the manga she is from in addition to a monster manual for the tabletop roleplaying game Call of Cthulu, and begins to leave the store. When the store owner asks her to pay for the book, she states that it is her book and then utilises her powers to summon a creature from the Cthulu rulebook that kills him. Later on she is confronted by Alicetaria February and Mamika Kirameki, but before she is able to do any damage, Selesia Yupitiria and Meteora Österreich arrive and Magane slips away. They begin to argue, and soon after they start battling, Blitz Talker appears to back up Alicetaria. Magane sits back and watches the show.
In episode 7 Magane continues to watch the fight as Yuya Mirokuji arrives, and appears to be even more entertained. Selesia tries to convince Magane to come with them, because she does not want her to be loose in the the public killing people again. Magane then goes at her creator's home and hangs him. She then looks at his computer and notes that he could be able to change her plot to give her new powers. Magane then appears at a cafe where Sōta Mizushino and Mamika Kirameki were talking to each other.
Magane later finds Sōta and blackmails him into working for her after she deduced that Sōta was involved in Setsuna Shimazaki's death.
In episode 9 Magane finds the wounded Mamika, and Alicetelia arrives a while later. After Mamika dies, Magane tells Alicetelia that Meteora was the one who killed Mamika, and Alicetelia leaves to hunt down Meteora. Magane then talks with Sōta, only for Yuya and Meteora to arrive and save him. As Yuya and Meteora are about to fight Magane, Alicetelia arrives to fight Meteora.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Infinite Deception of Words: an ability allows her to bend reality through lies and deception; by telling a lie, manipulating somebody into rejecting that claim and saying the incantation: "uso no uso, sore wa kururi to uragaeru" ("うそのうそ" or "a lie for a lie) she creates a "lie of a lie" which by proxy makes the initial claim become real. As explained by Meteora, her power is to reverse the cause and effect by making the person under her spell deny what she asked. Reality that was bent will have its effects stuck in the real world. It is strongly implied that the usage of the incantation is not strictly necessary to activate her power, but instead is more of a verbal tic, such as when she utilizes her power against Yuya Mirokuji with only the first half of the incantation among other examples.
- Hangaku: By manipulating Yuya Mirokuji into rejecting her "lie of lie", Magane managed to wrestle control of Hangaku from him; effectively gaining a permanent ally. She would later grow bored of the ability and willingly returned the spirit to Yuya.
Etymology[]
- Magane's surname Chikujoin means "fortification, castle construction, bastion" (築城) (chiku) and "hospital" (院) (in).
Trivia[]
- Magane is the only creation in the series to actually murder humans.
- According to Rei Hiroe, Magane will still murder people with her powers till she get the ultimate reality bending skills.
- Magane is a crazy psychopath who deals in rather occult powers and uses them to summon Lovecraftian monsters. Just like Gilles de Rais from Fate/Zero. She also has the same character dynamics in that she's essentially a villain independent from the Big Bad.
- Also, with a motor mouth and love for dramatic poses, she'd be at home in a Bakemonogatari episode. She's especially similar to Ougi Oshino with her leather gloves, strangely specific hatred for hypocrites, compulsion to punish liars and Nonstandard Character Design compared to both her story's characters and the main cast. She also has a bit of Rachnera Arachnera in her, namely the purple bands, pointy teeth, extreme distaste for hypocrisy, hedonistic attitude and sporting "edgy" symbols (a skull/pentagrams).
- Her story being a mystery theme and having the ability to mess with reality via twisting lies into truth mirrors that of the Witches, especially with how the truth is treated in that series.
- So far she is the smartest character in the series. Magane demontrates this by:
- First, By quickly getting accustomed to the ways of the real world.
- Reading her own light novel thus gaining an insight of her story, traits and scope of her powers.
- True to her character, Magane used her manipulator ability to the store owner to reject her "lie of a lie" thus gaining insight on how her ability would manifest in the real world.
- She further demonstrated this by negating Yuya's Kuronagimaru effects making her immune to it.
- She also managed to take upon herself Hangaku's curse on Yuya, thus gaining control of the entity.
- Locating/killing her creator, thus permanently preventing any revision of her character traits/design.