Kamui Uehara

Kamui Uehara
Also known as	Format Kamui, Angel of Absolute Zero, King of Crime, Kamui Fujiwara, Uehara
Nationality	Japanese
Family	Mokutaro Shiroyabu (Son)
Occupation	Assassin, serial killer
Status	Deceased
Weapon	Sharp metal tube (presumably), pistols

Kamui Uehara (上原 神威, ウエハラ カムイ) is a metaphysical conception that is key to several games that exist in Kill the Past. Many characters in the series, such as Format Kamui, Kamui Fujiwara and Uehara are referred to by the name Kamui Uehara or Kamui at various points in time. Although it is suggested that Kamui Uehara is one person's personality moving between multiple people, this is unlikely to be strictly true, as rather than individuals becoming "possessed" by Kamui, it is more like that they begin to take on attributes of Kamui's supposed personality on top of their own.

History

Format Kamui

The original incarnation of Kamui Uehara, known as the Format Kamui, was born on Lospass Island. At the age of two, his left eye was replaced with a silver eye in accordance with ancient Sundance Tribe rituals. Eventually, when he was in Kanto, he was killed in the event known as the Silver Case. In an attempt to replicate Format Kamui's personality as well as his silver eye, the Shelter Kids Policy was put into place. Because those who have acquired a silver eye can have their personality transmitted into others who are primed to receive it, Ward 24 was inadvertently turned into a breeding ground for the concept known as Kamui Uehara. A counterpart to Kamui was also developed in the form of Ayame Shimohira, which consists of the same Kamui personality being transmitted to a female host.

Under these circumstances, known as the Kamui System, the government could repeatedly activate Kamui within anyone who had grown up as a Shelter Kid, which they could use for assassinations (the political factions) or to make a statement to society (Nezu, who used Kamui as the equivalent of an 'in-game event'). Because the fact that the Format Kamui was killed was never made public, the people believed these Kamuis to all be the same one. Publicly, Kamui was sent to the psych ward of IMM Hospital in 1984. The circumstances regarding the emergence of Kamui's personality in this system are not detailed, but they involved the crime ring TRUMP, Kamui's "bodyguards", going to the Triangle Towers in the Shelter.

A newly death-filed Kamui stock

After Nezu's death at the climax of The Silver Case, Kamui was freed from this system. Now, Kamui and Ayame were concepts that manifested less rigidly. It could no longer be said that Kamui inhabits a single person, and is instead more of an omnipresence.

True nature

The reality of what Kamui Uehara truly is and represents is not clarified, but it is highly suggested to be something greater than a recurring personality. The word "Kamui" is sometimes used metaphorically, especially in Flower, Sun, and Rain and The 25th Ward: The Silver Case in which characters other than Shelter Kids are called "kamuis" by other characters. Kamui is frequently associated with God, likely due to the name's origin to refer to gods in Ainu mythology.

In the first half of The 25th Ward, Kamui is heavily associated with oncoming chaos. His existence is treated as a threat to Ward 25's ideal of peaceful orderly "life". In the series as a whole, the people look to Kamui as representing unpredictable change, which stands in opposition to the controlled experiments that hide behind the facades of the Wards and other conspiracies. He's also often associated with criminal power; the Format Kamui was known as the King of Crime.

In #05 electride, Kamui is referred to by Mokutaro Shiroyabu, who is attempting to eliminate him, as living inside a point. This conception of points seems to refer to a kind of invisible existence that allows messages to be implanted to those ready to receive them; whether becoming Kamui in the case of the Shelter Kids, or reading the messages and potentially utilizing his power in the case of observers like Kosuke Kurumizawa. Kamui is also described as the "main character of all of this", a sort of omnipresence that exists throughout the game's reality. It is unclear if this metafictional conception of Kamui was brought into Kanto by the Shelter Kids Policy or if the Format Kamui was just a manifestation of it as well, but it suggests that Kamui Uehara may represent the player in some form. For example, it is said that Kurumizawa "exists within Kamui's power", and he hides within the player's power by acting as the go-between between the player and the game in the form of the game's cursor.

By the events of No More Heroes III, A 'Newtype' Kamui has emerged. Given the mutual recognition between him and Travis Touchdown, it can be assumed that this is Uehara from the events of The 25th Ward and Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes; however, he now displays a previously-unseen mastery of Kamui's metaphysical and metafictional nature. This iteration uses this 'power' in a more direct and bombastic fashion: he is able to disperse into polygonal shapes not unlike the game cursor in The 25th Ward in order to teleport and avoid harm, and is further shown to directly freeze the game in order to (once again) converse directly with the player.