“ | If living has meaning, then so does dying... if dying has no meaning, then neither does living. | ” |
–Lucia, in a confrontation with Kotarou in her route |
Lucia Konohana (此花 ルチア Konohana Ruchia) is one of the heroines in Rewrite and Rewrite Harvest Festa! She's the class representative in Kotarou Tennouji's class and she rules it with an iron fist.
Her leitmotif is Sunbright (サンブライト Sanburaito).
Personality[]
As a class rep, Lucia is known to lack much tolerance for rule-breaking and will react to it with violence at times. She doesn't like touching living beings, so she is often seen wearing gloves, and she carries multiple spares at all times. This makes her classmates believe that she is a clean-freak.
Lucia usually keeps a cool and collected attitude, but becomes very violent when people upset or embarrass her to the point where she'll threaten people or be physically violent towards them. She can be easily appeased, however, and only repeated or grave offenses will cause this kind of drastic behavior. Although she can come across as very blunt, Lucia has a surprisingly soft side of her, particularly during her route and around Kotarou and Shizuru.
Appearance[]
Lucia wears a light pink uniform as well as black thigh high socks and the common dress shoes. Her eyes are blue, and her hair is tied back with a white lace ribbon. She also wears white gloves. In battle she wears a black dress with ruffles, no stockings and black shoes. When Kotarou comes to her house she wears a pink and white cosplay/maid outfit. She likes to wear the dark colors like dark blue or black with details with white and the other same tones.
Synopsis[]
Past[]
Lucia Konohana, born Haruka Asahi (アサヒハルカ, Asahi Haruka), was experimented on as a child by a section of Guardian, with the experiments being led by Brenda McFarden. The experiments were held in hopes of modifying humans so that they that could survive the environment of a potential post-apocalyptic world where the Key has succeeded in destroying most of the planet's resources. The plan was then to put those successful subjects in cryogenic stasis for a thousand years, effectively turning them into "Humans of the Future". Many children were experimented on, but only Lucia survived. To adapt to those harsh conditions where everything on earth evolved to kill human beings, her body learned to produce a poison that effectively withers anything she touches, as well as very slight vibrations that she can control at will. As a result of her body's changes, she also lost her sense of taste, among other minor sensory differences.
These experiments were going on in secret, however, and when other sections of Guardian caught on to it, the project was immediately cancelled. Lucia was then placed in the Santa Brosia orphanage under her birthname, Haruka Asahi. She was given suppressants for her poison so she could live among the other children. However, the people who made her suppressants were negligent, so her poison started affecting plants and even animals, all of which would wither and die at her touch. This made her target of the other orphans' bullying, who began to spread rumors that these things happened around her because she was cursed. Things reached a boiling point one day when Lucia was sick and feverish. Thanks to the suppressants being defective and her fever making her lose control, the caretaker watching over her died in a matter of hours after Lucia touched her cheek. In her traumatized state, Lucia exuded even more poison, to the point where all the other children become sickly and the whole orphanage had to be emptied and cordoned off as a hazard.
This marked the start of Lucia's trauma, as she came to truly believe that she was "cursed" and began to wear her gloves everywhere, even after she started taking better suppressants. After leaving the orphanage, she started going by Lucia Konohana again, a name previously given to her by Brenda. However, Lucia got wind of the fact that one of the kids who left the orphanage had started spreading the rumor about "Haruka Asahi" at his new school, right before dying. To put a quick end to this, Lucia herself went over to frighten everyone from his class into not talking about "Haruka" anymore. She frightened the students who knew about the rumor by breaking windows and fluorescent lights with her vibrations, and then she went on to threaten a young man interested in occult research, who had come to one of the class's grade school reunions, to ask them questions about "Haruka Asahi". He was still reluctant to let the topic go, so Lucia grabbed his arm, leaving him a mark that remained even years later, and used her vibrations to make a sign fall almost on his head.
Common Route[]
Kotarou Tennouji becomes closer to Lucia after trying to play pranks on her by switching her food with super-spicy food, which she tolerates surprisingly well. Eventually he becomes interested in her white gloves and her reason for wearing them. Again and again, Lucia expresses severe dislike at the idea of touching things or people, but as she can't tell the truth about why she does it, she instead claims that she does it because she thinks other people, plants, or animals are "filthy". This angers Chihaya Ohtori, who thinks Lucia believes herself superior to all of them. After that, Shizuru explains to Kotarou that Lucia's gloves and reluctance to touch anything living comes from her personal trauma and from believing she'd cause those things to die (which is later on explained to Chihaya by Kotarou). Chihaya, desperate to make amends, tries to reconcile by buying Lucia flowers and going to visit her along with Kotarou and Kotori Kanbe, but ultimately she pushes too hard, and they both end up being at odds again.
In the end, Haruhiko Yoshino suggests that everyone bring Lucia and Chihaya both to a cafe so they can participate in a parfait-eating competition where cooperation is necessary to win. Even when the servers of the cafe make the parfait super-spicy instead of sweet, both of them succeed at finishing it in time, and then make up.
Lucia Route[]
Thanks to an anonymous tip sent to the Occult Club, Kotarou learns about the existence of Haruka Asahi and her curse, so he begins investigating. While doing that, he stumbles upon Lucia, and tells her about the rumors. Lucia immediately realizes that he's talking about her past, so she decides to work with him in order to throw him off the trail. Yoshino gives Kotarou a list of everyone who knew the student who died due to Haruka Asahi's "curse" four years ago, but Lucia uses her powers to break his phone in order to buy time. Then she visits all of the homes of the deceased student's former classmates and intimidates them by shattering all the glass in their homes. In this manner, she ensures that everyone is still too afraid to tell Kotarou what they know. To disorient Kotarou even more and make him stop investigating, Lucia tells him Haruka has threatned to "curse" her, and even goes as far as to show herself being "possessed" by Haruka. She then grabs Kotarou by the arm to give him a similar "warning" to the one she gave years ago.
However, Kotarou finds out that one of the students, one who no longer lived in the same place that he lived in four years ago, did not experience anything strange. In contrast, the elderly couple now living in that student's previous home did experience the glass-breaking. This is when all the pieces connect, and Kotarou goes to Santa Brosia to confront Haruka Asahi--who he now knows is Lucia Konohana. She commends him for putting it together, but ultimately she thinks it's useless since she still is "cursed". Her poison still won't ever let her touch people. In response, Kotarou rewrites his own body to accept Lucia's poison, which catches her off-guard. She is shocked to learn that he has powers as well and has made himself immune to hers. Embracing her, he vows that he will never let her be alone, to her joy.
This scene is interrupted when Touka Nishikujou and other members of Guardian enter the church wearing bio-hazard protection suits. They take Kotarou to a hospital, and to their amazement, they find out that the poison didn't affect him. Touka then introduces Kotarou to bits and pieces of Guardian. Kotarou jokes that, in exchange for his secrecy, he should be allowed to ask certain things of Lucia, including cooking for him, wearing a maid outfit and calling him master, among others. This is well-received by Touka, who informs an embarrassed Lucia that these are orders.
To Kotarou's dismay, Lucia actually does take into account all of his demands during dinner later on. She is embarrassed to hear that he was joking and more so when he calls her outfit cute. Lucia finally talks to him about the experimentation that took place early on in her life. Afterwards, Kotarou excuses himself to go use the bathroom, only to find out Shizuru had been hiding there the whole time. The three of them have fun despite Shizuru's entrance, and afterwards both Shizuru and Kotarou leave the place together. As they walk together, Shizuru mentions Lucia's dream date and all its details, and Kotarou decides it'd be a good idea to make it a reality for her.
Lucia and Kotarou go on Lucia's dream date to a mall outside the city. They spend a wonderful day there playing around and living out every aspect of Lucia's perfect dream date, and they end it with a view of the city on the top floor of the tower-like mall. Lucia wanted him to kiss her to really make it a dream come true. After she worked up the courage to ask, she was surprised by him already doing so and she finds herself feeling awkward about the kiss though she enjoys it. When the kiss is over, she sees his red face and realizes he's doing his best not to ruin the moment and appreciates. To relieve him, she teases him on being embarrassed and kisses him after he tells her his feelings for her. The two soon set appointments in places to kiss and be together again as she acknowledges that she is no longer a class rep with her plans.
They both go home afterwards, only to almost immediately receive word that Shizuru is in the hospital.
Kotarou consults Touka about what happened. Apparently, the medicine suppressing Lucia's poison had begun losing its effectiveness, and even Shizuru, who can produce drugs inside her body in order to overcome the poison barrier, can't stand being around the poison anymore. Kotarou is also put through tests to determine whether he's been affected. When he asks Touka about Lucia, she informs him that Lucia is in a different facility where they can contain her poison more effectively, and that they're looking for a new kind of suppressant. However, the investigation brings no results, and Lucia grows restless. Her anger and sadness is unleashed when one of the researches leaves the microphone on and she hears them talking about her as if she were "nuclear waste". With her vibrations, she cracks the glass panel the scientists are hiding behind and she screams at them in rage. If she cannot be helped, she says she should be sent 1000 years in the future, where she belongs.
At that moment, someone breaks into the facility. It turns out to be Brenda, who tells Lucia that they can still send her to the future. She asks Lucia if she will comply, and Lucia agrees.
Afterwards, Lucia presents herself in front of Kotarou. She's not wearing her gloves for the first time, and she says that they should go on another date, claiming that new suppressants have been made for her. They end up at the park, where Lucia expresses her happiness about going to the future and says her goodbyes to Kotarou right before releasing a cloud of poison that kills most beings in the surrounding areas. Despite his resistance to the poison, even Kotarou passes out, as Lucia's body has been modified by Brenda to produce a stronger, more lethal poison than before. However, before the poison can kill him, he's found by Chihaya, who is mostly unaffected thanks to Sakuya's protection. Kotarou then rewrites his body in order to stand the newer levels of poison, and they both escape the scene.
After meeting up with Touka and Shizuru, he tells them about the situation and they agree that Lucia's most likely hideout at the moment is the mall. Kotarou, Shizuru and Chihaya hurry to the scene, while Touka and other Guardian members try and take Brenda down on their own.
As expected, Lucia is at the mall, but she won't surrender. The only way of calming her down, she says, is for Kotarou to accept her not as Lucia Konohana, but as Haruka Asahi, the girl who is cursed. Kotarou doesn't understand what she means, so instead Shizuru decides to stop trying to reason with her and to try to incapacitate her instead. However, Lucia is stronger in a more poisonous environment, so she ends up wounding Shizuru instead. Horrified by what she's done, Lucia backs away, almost stumbling over the railing on one of the top floors of the mall. As she's about to fall to her death, Chihaya saves her. Chihaya grabs her by the hand and tells her that even though she feels like she's the most unfortunate person in the world, she still has people who care about her and who will always be with her. People who are, after all, risking their lives to help her, and who will accept her. This is further emphasized by the poison slowly taking effect on Chihaya, even with Sakuya's bandages protecting her, a show of how much she cares about her friend despite everything. However, this only makes Lucia feel worse about herself, and even after Chihaya is out of danger, she won't back down.
In the end, Kotarou finally understands. What Lucia means is that he not only has to accept the Lucia that "could be cured", but also the Haruka who might not ever get a cure. Someone who has to live with her poison and the deaths she caused. After a long fight on the roof, Kotarou tells her that he loves her and, more importantly, that he needs her. This is what Lucia had been waiting for, since in her opinion, even though she needed Kotarou because he was the only one who could accept her poison, Kotarou didn't seem to need her at all. After a reconciliation scene, Lucia decides to go to the Guardian shelter with the rest of them. Touka then appears on a helicopter and takes them away from the scene.
In the epilogue, Lucia and Kotarou are shown living in a Guardian shelter in the United States. There's still no suppressant for Lucia's poison that works perfectly, but there's a project to make one based off of samples of Kotarou's DNA. Shizuru stops by from time to time, and they're moved from shelter to shelter every few weeks in order to keep people like Brenda from finding out about their whereabouts.
They move to another shelter afterwards, this one in South America. Kotarou tells Lucia he has a surprise for her, and so he makes her enter the shelter with her eyes closed. When he tells her that it's okay to look, she's presented with a garden of sunflowers that have been coated with a special material that is resistant to her poison. Overwhelmed with joy at actually being able to touch living plants, Lucia turns around and smiles at Kotarou.
Chihaya Route[]
During the common route, she accompanies Kotarou and the rest of the Occult Club when they decide to help Chihaya and Sakuya fix their garden. She does not handle any plants directly, but instead digs holes for the plants to be placed in. She also appears briefly during Chihaya's route after the Leaf Dragon incident, showing up at school suddenly after a long period of absence. She refuses to tell them what she's doing back at school, causing Chihaya to get angry. Kotarou finally tells her that he and Chihaya are both working with Gaia, but that they don't like the way they do things, and that they want to bring the Occult Club back. Lucia is shocked and calls Kotarou an idiot for answering so honestly, and says she and Shizuru can't possibly go back to the way things were. Kotarou claims he'll change things regardless and end the conflict between Gaia and Guardian so they can all be friends again, even though he doesn't know how. Lucia seems wistful, but nonetheless leaves the school.
Later on, when Kotarou and Chihaya confront Shizuru and Touka over the Key, Kotarou asks where Lucia is. All Shizuru says is that she "couldn't be here." It's unknown whether this means that Lucia did not come due to her indecisiveness about fighting Chihaya and Kotarou, or whether a problem arose with her poison again. It is also possible that, like in Shizuru's route, she had to be relocated to another facility.
Shizuru Route[]
Lucia appears briefly in Shizuru's route, mostly in scenes regarding Guardian. She is transferred to another part of Guardian, so, after a celebration with the Bayern Knights, Kotarou and Shizuru walk together to see her off. In the middle of this, Kotarou plays the song Aogeba Tōtoshi, a Japanese song that plays during graduations, since they are not going to be able to graduate from high school. After this, Arata Imamiya shows up to escort her to her car and she leaves.
Anime-Original Route[]
Moon Route[]
Lucia is brought to the moon along with all the other members of the Occult Club and Yoshino's Wolf Pack to protect the Moon Kagari from the familiars sent by Sakura Kashima. She was originally given a spear to fight with, but insisted that her weapon be changed into a katana. She is the first in the club to die, as she's fighting a group of 60 familiars.
Terra Route[]
After Kotarou kills the Earth Kagari in order to stop salvation, Lucia is found by Touka and grows up with all the other heroines of Rewrite. She and the other girls recreate Kotarou as a familiar and travel to the moon, where they see a seedling which will become Moon Kagari.
Weapons[]
- Gloves: Because her poison affects any living thing she touches, she wears gloves. Lucia has many pairs of gloves; in her school uniform the gloves cover her entire arm; sometimes she even wears a pair of gloves with rivets (spikes) on them in order to punch Kotarou.
- Katana: Lucia fights with a katana (Japanese Sword), the blade is made of high-carbon steel making it almost unbreakable.
Abilities[]
- Speed and Strength: Like most members of Guardian who are superhuman, Lucia has extreme strength and speed. Her speed is beyond most humans but does not surpass Shizuru's. Her strength and speed greatly increase when she's in a poisonous environment.
- Poison: Lucia has the misfortune of poisoning anyone and everything she touches, which is why she always wears gloves. As a result, this makes her immune to other toxins; she is capable of surviving in the poisonous air of the future after mankind destroys it. Kotarou Tennouji is the only person who is immune to this ability. Shizuru Nakatsu is not immune but makes a medicine that counteracts the poison, thus to be known as her first friend
- Vibrations: Due to the experimentation on her, Lucia can produce vibrations that can break small things like complex mechanisms, glasses, and lightbulbs. This ability makes it difficult for her to use mechanisms such as guns, and as she can't do much more than break things that are near her reach, this ability is not very suitable for combat.
- Healing: When in an environment filled with poison her healing ability tremendously increases. An example of this is when her arm was wounded by Shizuru in a poison-filled shopping mall, and she was able to recover back to full health in a matter of minutes.
Quotes[]
- "Enemy of women! Filthy, filthy, filthy!" (whenever she mistakes that Kotarou is trying to do something perverted)
- "Hang yourself and die." (When Kotarou asks Lucia to support his relationship with Shizuru)
Etymology[]
- The name Lucia is written in katakana (ルチア), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (光愛, 瑠亜, 留智亜 or 琉千明), it could possibly mean:
- 光愛 - "light" (光) (ruchi) and "love, affection" (愛) (a).
- 瑠亜 - "lapis lazuli" (瑠) (ruchi) and "second, Asia" (亜) (a).
- 留智亜 - "detain, fasten, halt, stop" (留) (ru), "wisdom, intellect" (智) (chi) and "second, Asia" (亜) (a).
- 琉千明 - "precious stone, gem, lapis lazuli" (琉) (ru), "thousand" (千) (chi) and "bright, light, clear" (明) (a).
- Lucia's surname Konohana means "this, current, next, coming, last, past" (此) (kono) and "flower, blossom" (花) (hana).
Trivia[]
- Lucia's Route was written by Ryukishi07 , the writer of the When They Cry series. Many of the themes in this route are similar to the themes in both Higurashi and Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
- Lucia's three sizes are 93 (Bust), 59 (Waist), 86 (Hips).
- Lucia's name is derived from the Latin word "lux", which means "light".
- In her route, she mentions that for some time, her vision was black and white thanks to the suppressants she takes to stop her poison from spreading.
- Despite her inability to have actual houseplants, her apartment is full of plastic flowers.
- Despite being so serious, Lucia often goes along with Kotarou whenever he suggests using a Chihaya device, such as a Chihaya chainsaw or a Chihaya beam. This is a common gag in the visual novel.
- Her birthday is on December 23.
- She got third place in the Rewrite popularity poll, with 15047 votes.
- As with a number of other characters in Rewrite, Konohana is also the name of a place in Greater Osaka.
- Lucia’s favourite flower is delphinium, sunflower is her childhood’s flower.
Characters of Rewrite | ||
Main Cast | Kotarou Tennouji • Kagari (Moon) • Kotori Kanbe • Chihaya Ohtori • Akane Senri • Shizuru Nakatsu • Lucia Konohana | |
Gaia | Sakuya Ohtori • Midou • Shimako • Sakura Kashima • Shuuichirou Suzaki • Takasago • Iko Fuku • Tenjin • Tenma • The Voice • Tsukuno | |
Guardian | Touka Nishikujou • Arata Imamiya • Sougen Esaka • Akari Konohana • Brenda McFarden • Luis • Gen • Bartholomew • Moriguchi • Marcus Noe • Mikuni • Reinin Okogi • Sekime • Tsurumi | |
Others | Haruhiko Yoshino • Chibimoth • Pani & Gil • Inoue • Jasmine • Keisuke and Rikako Kanbe • Minata • Shizuru's parents • Shizuka Nakatsu • Tomoko • Winter Fang |