Rui (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) is a medical student at the imperial university. He’s very calm, and often likes visiting the library to read books. He coincidentally meets Tsugumi after an accident where one of his books are burned.
One day, Tsugumi finds a “maremono” with a weak aura and gives it to Nabari. Not long after that she encounters Rui in the cafe she often visits. She tells him about how she ended up working for Fukuro and how she can see the aura of maremono. He finds what she says fascinating and asks to be friends with her so they can meet each other more often. After that she finds out there’s more victims like Rui who’s books get burned by a mysterious guy wearing a cap.
On Tsugumi’s day off, she encounters Rui at the library. He invites her to the Flemish Rose restaurant they often visit and they talk about what each other do and suddenly Shizuru appears. Apparently Rui is a big fan of Shizuru’s books and completely fangirls over him while Shizuru feels like he’s seen him somewhere before. So they leave the restaurant to visit the park and Rui tells Tsugumi not to be so formal around him since they’re probably around the same age and are friends too. Shizuru remembers who Rui reminds him of and he says he looks a lot like Shiginuma Shouko–Takashi Shiginuma’s wife.
A few days later Taro is attacked by one of the student-like figures after catching them burning a book known as the Kagutsuchi. Shiori tells Tsugumi to be careful because of this because sure men can get hit or beat up but there’s obviously worse things for woman (aka rape). The next day, Tsugumi goes on patrol and tries to hide out in order to watch for another attack. Its then Rui spots her and scares her lol then invites her to the restaurant they often visit. There he gives her a brooch he made and tells her his hobby is making stained glass brooches, kaleidoscopes, and earings (a real jewelry making man). He apparently sells them at shops at Tsugumi actually bought his kaleidoscope once and is ecstatic to hear she loved it so much. He then offers to take her to his workshop, where he makes all his jewerly. She’s kinda skeptical at first but decides to go anyway.
So he takes her there and shows her all the different tools and how he makes certain ornaments. He then tells her its a good way to get money since medical books and student books are expensive which is also way he’s grateful for the library he uses. Suddenly, he tells her that he likes her and says it was probably a love at first sight sort of thing. This completely surprises Tsugumi but he tells her that there’s still so much about her he wants to learn about and same for her about him. But she still agrees to hang out with him and he’s super happy. It gets late so he walks her home and she tells him to be careful since one of her co-workers were attacked by someone burning books.
One night Tsugumi goes on a date with Rui since he asked her the day before and is doing whatever he can to hang with her more. They see a movie together and Rui helps a woman who was injured in an accident. Afterwords Rui tells Tsugumi he hopes that he isn’t bothering her cause his feelings he has for her are no lie but she’s so wrapped up in work and books being burned she’s not really thinking about relationships lol. Rui says he will still greet her normally though and kisses her on the head before departing.
So eventually they’re sent an invitation to visit the Nachitagal ball and both Tsugumi and Hayato go undercover to find out about Takashi and his auctioning of maremono. Tsugumi goes with Hayato to the masquerade ball and meets Shouko. She gives her a drink and because Tsugumi never learned to not take things from strangers, she drinks it. She then meets up with Hayato and he notices she looks sick. They run into Rui and Hayato leaves her with him. Next thing she knows she falls unconscious and wakes up in Rui’s workshop.
He suddenly makes out with her while she kinda just takes it cause the drug affect. He also stops the whole charade and reveals he’s the Kagutsuchi leader and his goal is to wipe out Nachtigal. He stops making out with her but did it to prove a point that if it was anyone other than him they wouldn’t stop. He wants revenge on Mozuyama who may have killed his parents. He asks her to join him but she of course refuses so he decides to leave her be but will be there if she changes her mind. He then walks her home and leaves her with Hayato.
Not long after she finds out that Rui is actually Shouko’s long lost son that she had before she married Takashi. He was adopted by different parents and doesn’t even know that she’s his birth mother. One night she finds Rui burning books as he claimed he’d been doing before. He still has hopes she’ll leave Fukuro and join his group but she still refuses. He actually does like reading books and despises those who would use books as tools so he wants to eradicate the source of it all. He also tells her that his adoptive parent’s death was supposedly drunk driving but was most likely staged to look accidental cause that same day his dad got in an argument with Mozuyama, who did experiments he didn’t approve of. He also believes he’s the cause of one of his first friend’s in school committing suicide. She understands where he’s coming from but doesn’t believe he’s doing it the right way. Nevertheless he leaves knowing they’ll meet again anyway.
One night when Tsugumi encounters Rui, they get captured by Mozuyama. He tells Rui he captured his allies as well and tells him in detail about him and how his adoptive father had the mumps in high school. This is the reason he was infertile so he and his wife couldn’t have kids. But he then tells him that an unexpected pregnancy happened with another family. So he reveals Shouko was his mother and he’s his father (lmao wtf). He tells him Shouko aka his mom was a whore that basically screwed anyone so her having an unknown son wouldn’t be unlikely. Rui just keeps telling him he’s lying and Mozuyama goes on about hoe he inherited his smart genes and should leave his group and join Karasu. Rui tells him to go to hell and Mozuyama also admits he spiked his father’s drink for insulting him hence why he died in the accident.
Soon Takashi arrives to ruin the party even more and starts beating Rui up. After that he starts testing them by attempting to rape Tsugumi so Rui will either join him or Tsugumi will submit to him. Thankfully, Rui’s friend appears to distract them and they manage to escape before anything can happen. They go to Rui’s place and he has a depressing sulk about how he’s actually blood related with such disgusting parents. He tells Tsugumi to leave and never come back, but just before she does, he embraces her from behind and starts crying while telling her not to go. She end up staying with him and they confess their love to each other as they finally make love on the floor.
The next morning Rui tells her to choose between joining his group, Kagutsuchi, or staying with Fukuro. Tsugumi decides to stay with Fukuro but doesn’t intend to leave his apartment but instead stay and watch over him so he doesn’t do reckless things cause she still wants to stay with her man. So she calls Shiori to tell her that she’s fine but circumstances have changed and she’s staying with the Kagutsuchi leader or rather, her lover lol. So after that they basically spend time together but Rui can’t stop his man instincts and wants randy times with her cause what else are they gonna do when they’re alone together? They even take a bath together and he teaches her parts of the body if ya know what I mean.
One night Rui comes home to find out his friends were attacked and captured by Mozuyama. So he decides to get revenge and try to save them. But knowing that Tsugumi would just go after him thus putting her in danger, he drugs her with an anaesthetic that makes her unable to move. Once Rui leaves, she drags herself off the bed and stabs herself to keep awake. She manages to leave and call Shiori and ask for help since Rui was basically going on a suicide mission to kill Mozuyama. So they meet up at Nachtigal and find Rui pointing a gun at Mozuyama.
Rui is about to kill him as he begs him to have mercy since he’s his father but nope. But before he can do anything Shouko asks Rui to stop and give her the gun so SHE can shoot him instead! Apparently Mozuyama was a friend of her brother’s and he betrayed them both (it also sounds like she was probably raped by him). So after getting in a scuffle, Tsugumi manages to grab the gun from Rui and convince him not to kill Mozuyama. In the end, Mozuyama is arrested and Tsugumi finally lives her normal lover life with Rui.
In the Kagutsuchi end, Tsugumi decides to join Rui and his group and leave Fukuro. She writes a letter to them saying she’s safe but she’s leaving to take care of a friend. So she ends up burning books with Rui. One night she encounters Hayato who wonders why she’s with Rui and in a Kagutsuchi uniform no less, but she explains she has joined them of her own free will and apologizes for betraying him. When they get back, Rui feels bad but she tells him its fine cause she wanted this and make guilt love with each other. The next day they interrogate Sasagoi to tell them where the location of Mozuyama is. Well, it just so happens he hates him too so he decides to tell him in hopes of him killing him. That following day Tsugumi realizes Rui hasn’t come home so she goes to Nachitagal to find the whole building on fire. She goes in to find Mozuyama dead but Rui on the verge of death. He ends up dying in her arms but she doesn’t escape and dies together with him as the building burns down.
Thoughts: Rui is literally the definition of angst and another tragic silver/white hair cause god knows we don’t have enough of those already lmao. Anyway, I honestly liked Rui cause he had this genuine kindness regardless of his own beliefs. And even while burning books I mean, it’s not like he was necessarily a traitor per se because he was basically just doing acts that were his own sense of justice. Idk, but I felt for the guy considering he found out he was a bastard of a creepy ass-mofo. I got a lot of Iori vibes from him though, I guess mainly from his appearance and how he seems like a perfect student who actually has a darker past and needs to be mentally healed lol. His route actually took a unexpected turn though cause it was so cheerful at first and suddenly shit happens so I’m just like “oh, ok.” I don’t think drugging Tsugumi was the solution…. I mean I get he wanted to keep her safe ((and he’s a med student so I guess he’s not like Toma using some random ass drug he prob bought through drug dealers lmao)) but like, come on… just lock the doors or something idk.
Otome Adventures 