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| | == Dragons of Earth == | | == Dragons of Earth == |
| - | [[Image:Seven Angels (X manga).jpg|thumb|The [[sigil (magic)|sigil]] of the Dragons of Earth is a stylized representation of the [[Menorah]]]]
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| - | The {{nihongo|'''Dragons Of Earth'''|地の龍|Chi No Ryū}}, also known as the {{nihongo|'''Seven Angels'''|七の御使|Shichi No Mitsukai}}, are a group of seven individuals who are fated to stand against the [[Dragons of Heaven]] in the [[apocalypse|apocalyptic]] battle on the Promised Day to determine the fate of the [[Earth]] and [[human]]ity. The Dragons of Earth [[ideology|ideologically]] represent the belief that conflicts between man and nature cannot be resolved peaceably, and that humans are on an irreversible path that will ultimately lead to the murder of the planet itself unless they are stopped. Unlike the Dragons of Heaven, the Dragons of Earth seem to have no common rationality for their acceptance of their roles as the destroyers of humanity. Many of the Dragons of Earth are textbook cases of [[Antisocial personality disorder|antisocial]], [[Narcissistic personality disorder|narcissistic]], or [[Avoidant personality disorder|avoidant]] behavior. They either lack the ability or desire to form meaningful bonds with other humans, or tend to form unhealthy relationships. Many of them seem to be [[Amorality|amoral]], not truly understanding why killing is intrinsically wrong. Although they all realize that humanity is destroying the Earth and that by removing humanity, they would be allowing for the Earth to be revived, they seem genuinely indifferent to this matter. Again at odds with the portrayal of the Dragons of Heaven, the Dragons of Earth lack the ability to create ''kekkai'' (barrier fields), and it seems to be the case that whenever a Dragon of Earth finally forms a sincere bond with another person or realizes that they wish to protect someone dear to them, they are shortly thereafter killed.
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| - | Unlike the Dragons of Heaven who are shown to have strong bonds for each other as well as unity within the group, the Dragons of Earth are only seen together once in the entire manga, when they meet up after Fūma's awakening. They are encouraged by Fūma to simply go their own ways. Only Nataku and Kakyō always stay with Fūma.
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| - | The Dragons of Earth are also known as the Seven Angels (translated also as the Seven Harbingers and the Seven Minions). Regarding the multiple translations for the title of the Seven Angels, the kanji 御使 is often translated into English as "angel"; however, its literal meaning is closer to a "messenger of authority" or a "servant of authority". While this ties in rather well with the [[etymology|etymological origins]] of the world ''angel'' (Ancient Greek, ''αγγελος'', meaning "messenger"), the literal meaning of the kanji made for an awkward translation in the [[VIZ Media|VIZ]] [[manga]], resulting in the Angels being called "[[wikt:harbinger|Harbingers]]". To add to the confusion, the official merchandising of the ''X'' movie in Japanese translated 御使 into "Minions" in English. The official translation, as per Clamp's final word, stands as "the Seven Angels".
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| - | === Yūto Kigai ===
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| - | [[Image:Yuuto Kigai (X manga).jpg|thumb]]
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| - | Yūto is a polite but largely [[amorality|amoral]] young man who originally appeared in the Clamp [[dōjinshi]] work ''[[Hagun Seisenki]]'', as a college student at Clamp Campus and a comrade of Takamura Suō. A [[bureaucrat]] working at the Ward Office, he never lets on to any of the happy couples turning in their marriage licenses that he is seeking to destroy humanity, assuming an air of bland cheerfulness which he maintains even in combat. Usually sporting a pink shirt and white overcoat, people have been known to remark that he looks like a [[pimp]] (except in the American translation of the manga, where this is softened to "someone in showbiz"). He is in a sexual relationship with [[#Kanoe|Kanoe]], but is amused by the knowledge that Satsuki has a crush on him; he sees the latter as a sort of younger sister and protegée, and attempts to educate her about emotions.
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| - | In combat Yūto wields a ''[[sai (weapon)|sai]]'' dagger capable of severing human hands with one swipe, and which bears a powerful whiplash attachment that can smash through concrete. He is also a water master (an ability that in ''X'' he had not used for some time), capable of summoning floods and hurling water bolts, as well as arranging more benign fountain displays for the amusement of others. In the anime, he can even transform himself into water and travel in this form (on one occasion entering a room through [[fire sprinkler]]s). Fire is his natural enemy, and thus he comes up against [[#Karen Kasumi|Karen Kasumi]] on more than one occasion.
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| - | In the TV series, he dies from wounds sustained after a mortally-wounded Karen incinerates him, while in the movie he is brutally killed by Fūma who practically dismembers him before impaling him with his Shinken. He has not yet died in the manga. In the movie, he does not display water-based powers, these being given to [[#Shōgo Asagi|Shōgo Asagi]] instead.
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| - | In the ''X'' [[Tarot]] set, he is [[The Devil (Tarot card)|The Devil]].
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| - | {{anime voices|Kazuhiko Inoue|Nigel Whitney}} in the feature film
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| - | {{anime voices|Michiaki Furuya|Ezra Weisz}} in the TV series
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| - | === Satsuki Yatōji ===
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| - | [[Image:Satsuki Yatoji (X manga).jpg|thumb]]
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| - | A complex and ingenious young woman with utter contempt for humans, and a love for the digital world. At a young age she developed the uncanny ability to interact with computers through cables inserted into her skin, and to hack into any technological system. This led to her father sending her to a lab for further study; she amazed the scientists by mastering the [[Sephirot]]h at the age of 14, and they planned to use her ability to conquer the world. However, she rebelled against the boredom she felt and in the anime TV series, through her "friends" in the computer world, arranged for the death of her father (in a road traffic accident), along with anyone else who stood in her way. While escaping from the lab she encountered [[#Kanoe|Kanoe]] and joined her cause, having learned from the digital world that she was one of the Dragons of Earth; later Yūto forcibly convinced the scientists to never bother her again. In the manga, she kills the people in the lab (who are implied to be [[Freemason]]s), but it is unknown if complications arose from this or when and where she met Kanoe.
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| - | Satsuki is an extreme rationalist, and attacks Yuzuriha when the latter cannot explain why killing humans is more wrong than the killing of the natural world. She spends much of her time wired into a massive supercomputer named the Beast (provided for her by Kanoe), through whom she can physically control cables across Tōkyō, using them for [[reconnaissance]] and offensive purposes. She develops feelings for Yūto, one of the few people who managed to befriend her, and who in fact gave her the answer that Yuzuriha couldn't; in the anime and movie versions, this causes the Beast to become jealous and kill her by invading and impaling her entire body with its cables. For now she remains alive in the manga, although various hints foreshadow a similar end for her.
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| - | In the ''X'' [[Tarot]] set, she is [[The Hermit]].
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| - | {{anime voices|Kotono Mitsuishi|Anne Marie Zola}} in the feature film
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| - | {{anime voices|Houko Kuwashima|Karen Strassman}} in the TV series
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| - | === Seishirō Sakurazuka ===
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| - | {{main|Seishirō Sakurazuka}}
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| - | [[Image:Seishirou Sakurazuka (X manga).jpg|thumb]]
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| - | Originally from ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'', in which he appeared to be a kindly, magically-aware [[veterinarian]], Seishirō is in fact the ''Sakurazukamori'', a lone assassin whose signature is [[cherry blossom]]s and the inverted [[pentagram]]. A powerful ''[[onmyōji]]'', Seishirō can control ''[[shikigami]]'' and confound his opponents in illusions.
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| - | The assassin defeats Subaru in battle when they meet for the very first time since the events in ''Tokyo Babylon'', but leaves the younger man alive. Subaru believes himself not worthy of killing, but in their final battle at [[Rainbow Bridge (Tokyo)|Rainbow Bridge]], Seishirō arranges for Subaru to kill him. In the feature film, Subaru and Seishirō annihilate each other in magical combat during the first ten minutes.
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| - | In the ''X'' [[Tarot]] set, he represents [[Death (Tarot card)|Death]].
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| - | {{anime voices|Tōru Furusawa|Garrick Hagon}} in the feature film
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| - | {{anime voices|Otoya Kawano|Dave Mallow}} in the TV series
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| - | === Nataku ===
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| - | [[Image:Nataku (X manga).jpg|thumb]]
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| - | An [[androgynous]] [[Clone (genetics)|clone]] of extreme psychic ability, born of genetic material of Kazuki Tōjyō, the deceased granddaughter of the president of Tōjyō Pharmaceuticals, and her father Masaki. It is sent to retrieve the Shinken by the Chairman Tōjyō who wishes to destroy the sword so that Nataku cannot become entangled in the matter of the Promised Day. In the process of stealing the Shinken, Nataku mortally wounds [[#Kyōgo Monō|Kyōgo Mono]], Fūma and Kotori's father, who was attempting to protect the Shinken. Nataku later battles both Karen and Aoki, the former refusing to believe it can possibly be unemotional and regarding it as a "lost child". Nataku is haunted by the memories of its previous life as Kazuki, and follows Fūma unquestionably as Fūma resembles the person Kazuki cared most for—her father. In the anime, after Fūma is badly wounded by the spell Sorata casts as he dies, he absorbs Nataku's flesh into his own and is healed. In the manga, Nataku dies when Fūma realizes its greatest wish, to die by the hand of the one it loves most (Fūma, who resembles Kazuki's father) while protecting the person most important to it (Karen, who resembles Kazuki's mother).
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| - | In the ''X'' [[Tarot]] set, Nataku represents [[The Moon (Tarot card)|The Moon]].
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| - | {{anime voices|Rika Matsumoto|Don Fellows}} in the feature film
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| - | {{anime voices|Motoko Kumai|Mona Marshall}} in the TV series
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| - | === Kakyō Kuzuki ===
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| - | [[Image:Kakyo Kuzuki (X manga).jpg|thumb]]
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| - | A dreamseer in a permanent coma, appearing as a tall man with a sad expression, golden eyes, long, pale hair, and almost always dressed in white. His ability to see the future in dreams was discovered at an early age, and as a result he was kept a prisoner by an unknown political group. Having never seen the outside world, he drew [[#Hokuto Sumeragi|Hokuto Sumeragi]] into his dreams and fell in love with her after she showed him the sea through her own imagination. However, he foresaw that she would go to her death at the hands of the [[#Seishirō Sakurazuka|Sakurazukamori]] (as seen in the last volume of ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]''), and broke out of his room in an effort to stop her; shot by one of his guards with a [[sniper rifle]], he failed to reach her in time and sank into the coma in which he spends the duration of the ''X'' story. He came to believe that the future was immutable, and began to wish for his death although unable to kill himself being in a physical coma.
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| - | In ''X'' he meets and befriends the fledgling dreamseer [[#Kotori Monō|Kotori Monō]] within the dreamscape, but realizes that she, too, will soon die at the hands of her older brother [[#Fūma Monō|Fūma]]. To grant Kotori's last wish that [[#Kamui Shirō|Kamui]] should be spared, Kakyō possesses her corpse during its "death dream" and clings to the Shinken, preventing Fūma from removing it from Kotori's body and using it to kill Kamui. However, in doing so Kakyō alerts Fūma to his presence, and the Dragon of Earth hunts down the dreamseer and convinces him that he will grant his wish to die in peace, provided Kakyō aids him as one of the Seven Angels.
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| - | In the anime, Kakyō is coerced into manipulating [[#Princess Hinoto|Princess Hinoto]]'s own future-seeing dreams, but finally turns against Fūma after encouragement from Hokuto and Kotori that the future is not, after all, unchanging. He enables Hokuto to enter her brother [[#Subaru Sumeragi|Subaru]]'s dreams and talk him into helping Kamui during the crucial moments of the final battle. At the end of the series he dies peacefully, and his spirit is finally able to join his beloved Hokuto and "go outside".
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| - | In the ''X'' [[Tarot]] set, he represents [[Wheel of Fortune (Tarot card)|The Wheel of Fortune]].
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| - | {{anime voices|Yuji Ueda|Terrence Stone}}
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| - | === Kusanagi Shiyū ===
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| - | [[Image:Kusanagi Shiyuu (X manga).jpg|thumb]]
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| - | A member of the [[Japanese Self-Defense Force]] who is telepathically linked to the plants and animals of the Earth, and thus strongly resents humanity's pollution and destruction of the natural world. Although his punch carries the force of an earthquake, he is the least [[antisocial]] of the Dragons of Earth, and the least active in the destruction of Tokyo. He meets Yuzuriha (and is the first man she ever met who can see [[#Yuzuriha Nekoi|Inuki]]) and develops an affection for her; although she falls in love with him, his intentions remain platonic as she is still a child. He frequently rescues Yuzuriha from death at the hands of other Dragons of Earth and, indeed in the anime, threatens Fūma and ultimately switches sides; as a result he is attacked and grievously wounded by Nataku and Arashi, the latter having also defected to the other side. In the manga, he has, at the very least, expressed personal opinions that run contrary to the goals of the Dragons of Earth — specifically that life is sacred and should never, under any circumstances, be willfully destroyed. He also seems to think that conflicts between nature and humanity should be resolved with as little harm to either as possible. In the movie, he does not show these pacifist qualities and instead actively attacks the Dragons of Heaven without hesitation and is a very violent character. Additionally, his relationship with Yuzuriha Nekoi does not exist in the movie.
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| - | In the ''X'' [[Tarot]] set, he represents [[The Star (Tarot card)|The Star]].
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| - | {{anime voices|George Nakata|Jeff Harding}} in the feature film
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| - | {{anime voices|Masaki Aizawa|Jamieson Price}} in the TV series
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