The people in the corridors

Appearance About 1.80 m, slim but broadly built, athletic. Short black hair. A turtleneck under the black duty jacket, wide cargo trousers, sandals. Headphones on one ear only.

At his core, a gentle young man. He wants a quiet world without worry, anger and grief, and that is exactly why he does the work he does. He is calm and closed off and often answers “All good”, even when nothing is. On duty, he counts: bridges, minutes, steps, distances, even his own lies. At home with Lucia, that stops. Before every mission he asks: “And the others?”

Appearance 140 kilos, but not fat – a wall of muscle. Tall and wide: broad chest, broad shoulders, broad neck, a small belly. Curly hair.

Rocha means “rock” in Portuguese, and that is what everyone calls him. He isn’t stupid, just slow to speak; he works things out aloud when he’s allowed to and silently when he isn’t. He is the only one in the troop who openly contradicts Yuu. His “No” comes reliably, and so does his nod afterwards. He takes everyone with him. After a mission, he invites everyone to the bar by the bridge. Ayodele calls him “Uncle”.

Appearance Dresses the way older men dress: neat, unfashionable. Black leather shoes instead of field boots. He wears the duty jacket like a coat he has had for years.

The oldest in the troop, with LIMEN for about thirty years, there almost from the start. He trained Yuu and now serves under him. He talks as if reading from a package insert and never speeds up. With him, silence is an answer. On missions he chooses to walk at the back. He is the worst runner and the best at keeping order. His first words in the book: “Two and one.” He is on familiar terms with Rocha and keeps it formal with Ayodele.

Appearance Two braids, one on the left, one on the right. Duty jacket like the rest of the troop, boots, a vest with a bandage pouch, earrings. Always with her: a chain and a glass tablet.

On missions she stays up top: at the cordon, with the police, relatives and authorities. She writes the names of the missing on her tablet as the relatives give them to her. She measures not in numbers but in names. Loud, quick, all over the place, warm and funny; she starts sentences and swerves halfway through. Just before she delivers bad news, she twists her earring. She is against executions. To her, Jinu is “Mr Han”.

Appearance At home she wears Yuu’s old grey sweater or one of his T-shirts, with jeans.

Yuu’s girlfriend; the two of them live together in Tsukishima. Only Yuu calls her “Madam”, and it is never explained. She is friendly and playful, awake from seven, usually the one driving, and overtakes in one clean move. The sunglasses lie on the dashboard and are never put on. When she doesn’t know when he’ll be home, she cooks the tomato sauce from her nonna’s recipe. She doesn’t ask what was in the Ori. With her, Yuu stops counting.

Appearance Blond, slightly longer hair, blue eyes. Slim, muscular, athletic. A suit instead of the duty jacket, shirt with the top button open, sleeves rolled up.

The voice from outside. As a Beacon, he measures the edge of an Ori, the crowd and the rough position of the carrier; the inside is black to every device. He keeps contact until the connection breaks off at the edge, and never goes in himself. He says every number evenly and without emphasis, and that is exactly why people listen to him. He keeps a list of every lost piece of equipment and reads it out to you on your birthday. He calls Yuu “Amagi”.

Appearance An F on his chest. He wears the duty jacket open, against regulations, and under it a shirt that wasn’t meant for duty.

Serizawa is hard. He says things that are true and that no one wants to hear. He is not heartless, just someone who still believes a rule is a rule. On the night of Tokyo Tower he is off duty – it’s his daughter’s birthday; he comes anyway and does what he came to do. He doesn’t want to stay longer than he has to. His fighting style: you only hear the hits, not the step. Nobody uses his first name.

Appearance Unseen. Yuu has seen him two or three times, always from a distance.

Founder and director of LIMEN. He founded the organisation around 2178, about five years after Mecca. His rank is Source – the highest title in the system, the one that leads everything. He is addressed as Mr Regulus or Mr Kaine; there is no other name he goes by. He leads no missions and does not want to be recognised. To almost everyone at LIMEN, he is simply the boss. Hardly anyone has seen him.