Agent Gabriel (エージェント・ガブリエル, Ējento Gaburieru) is a secondary ally featured in the short story "Blackstar.", part of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: Short Story Collection.
He is an American Speedwagon Foundation agent who commissions Rohan Kishibe to draw a sketch of Spaghetti Man, hoping that would bring them closer to discovering the identity of the higher dimensional creature controlling Spaghetti Man.
Appearance
Agent Gabriel is a large man with a robust physique reminiscent of an NFL player. He has white skin and blue eyes. His bulging muscles are concealed by a high-quality suit. Gabriel's expression is often stone-faced and Rohan perceives him as being someone that can overshadow even the largest of boulders.[1]
Personality
Gabriel is a polite, quiet man whose calm presence could make one feel like they are being safeguarded against some unseen danger. Rohan initially considers him strange due to his secrecy and bizarre behavior of traveling all the way from America to Japan for commissioning an expensive sketch. He appears stoic and speaks monotonously; his expression rarely changes aside from when he shows surprise upon seeing Rohan's spaghettified pen. He is patient and doesn't feel intimidated from Rohan piercingly looking at him.
Gabriel is trustworthy and has a strong desire to protect others from supernatural creatures. He is truly concerned for Rohan's safety after failing to protect others from Spaghetti Man and advises him not to be reckless.[1]
History
Background
Agent Gabriel is a member of the Speedwagon Foundation's Paranormal Investigations Department. He and his coworkers leak details they discovered about the Spaghetti Man on Chan's forum so that users on the forum could be of assistance with their investigation. The Foundation receives intelligence of Rohan Kishibe becoming Spaghetti Man's next target, so they prepare a task force to protect him. When Rohan encounters Spaghetti Man, Gabriel continuously calls his phone with no caller ID. Rohan finally answers after three minutes and starts yelling at him, but Gabriel calmly asks for his location. Rohan hangs up, assuming it's either a prank caller or Spaghetti Man, though Gabriel tries calling again.
After Rohan successfully manages to escape from Spaghetti Man's attack, Gabriel calls him once more before Rohan loses consciousness. The Speedwagon Foundation's task force presumably takes him to a hospital for his injuries.
Later, Gabriel manages to contact Rohan for a commission and they meet at a café a week after that to discuss the terms.[1]
Blackstar.
Sitting at the café, Rohan draws meaningless lines in his sketchbook with Gabriel watching. Rohan describes how humans have a psychological tendency to find something meaningful in an irregular pattern of dots and lines. Whenever Rohan draws manga, he always questions if his lines have any meaning because things without meaning have no reality. Gabriel acknowledges Rohan's claim but rebuts that this rule doesn't apply in all cases, and sometimes people see things that they shouldn't. Rohan is shocked and asks whether the man is an editor of an occult magazine. However, Gabriel states that he's an agent like he told Rohan earlier, and gives him his business card.
Rohan acknowledges Gabriel's guts for coming all the way from America to Japan for a simple commission, but remarks that it wasn't a compliment after Gabriel thanks him. Apologizing, Gabriel deeply bows his head. Rohan is suspicious of the extraordinarily high commission fee, but Gabriel claims that the Foundation determined that Rohan's sketch is worth exactly $500,000, because he is the only person in the world who can draw a portrait of Spaghetti Man. Intrigued upon hearing the name, Rohan accepts Gabriel's request, deciding that Spaghetti Man will be the next thing he draws. Rohan takes out a twisted metal rod from his bag, revealing that it used to be a pen but was transformed into a spaghetti-like shape. He then explains his story to Gabriel.
After hearing the story, Gabriel divulges his true identity to Rohan, showing him another business card with the Speedwagon Foundation's exact name and the division he works for. Rohan is not interested in the money and asks for their information in exchange. Gabriel asks Rohan if he's familiar with the superstring theory in astrophysics. The theory concludes that spacetime has ten dimensions. The Speedwagon Foundation hypothesizes that there is a creature existing in those ten dimensions whose actions are limited in three-dimensional spacetime, so they use Spaghetti Man to try contacting humans. Essentially, they think Spaghetti Man is a bait meant to lure humans from the three-dimensional spacetime into a different dimension.
Gabriel warns Rohan not to make his next story about the Spaghetti Man since he already escaped its pursuit once and shouldn't attract its attention again. Rohan declares that he's still a manga artist and would draw what he wants. He draws a new image of Spaghetti Man in his sketchbook, tears out the page, and gives it to Gabriel before leaving.[1]
Chapters
Novel AppearancesReferences
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Blackstar.