Fabio Ubuh
Fabio Ubuh (ファビオ・ウーブフ, Fabio Ūbufu) is a tertiary antagonist featured in the light novel El Aleph.
Also known as the "Monstruo of Antigua" (アンティグアの
Appearance
Fabio Ubuh is a dark-skinned man of average height with a bulky build. He is scruffy and his body is covered in hair.[3]
Personality
Fabio is dangerous, violent, and cunning in regards to getting away with his murders. Due to his Stand, he is capable of committing locked-room murders without leaving any evidence behind.[3]
He is blasphemous and has destructive impulses. As a child, Fabio was forced to convert to Catholicism in order to receive an elementary education at a boarding school. However, the tragedy that later struck his family after they were betrayed in the Guatemalan Civil War led him to believe that God was cruel and apathetic. After Fabio failed to escape from Antigua and was robbed instead, he became deranged, believing the never-ending bloodshed in his country was due to churches being built on Mayan holy land. He thinks his family and fellow indigenous people were never saved because they still prayed to K'iche' gods.[1] Consequently, Fabio is obsessed with destroying anything related to Christianity, excited to do so whenever a holy day draws near. He despises seeing Christian imagery such as holy icons, crucifixes, and statues in his city and compulsively shatters them into pieces using his Stand. He shoots 27 people to death at different times, not caring about their age or gender as long they are of Christian faith. He also almost vomits when seeing an unconscious nun on the ground.
While walking, Fabio sways from side to side. He cries often, especially after committing his crimes. It's unknown whether he actually feels remorse for what he does or is shedding tears of joy. After destroying a statue, he moans as if he's crying despite actually smiling. He cries after causing a massacre in the cathedral square and once again when telling J.D. Hernández that he evolved into his true self when he awakened his Stand.[3]
Abilities
Stand
Wielding the Stand El Señor de las Moscas, Fabio Ubuh can control any number of flies around him. He waves his arms, hands, and fingers to give detailed commands and signals to the flies. Along with the flies' nature to target light and heat, they become lethal weapons when El Señor de las Moscas hardens their bodies to become strong enough to tear through flesh and shatter bone.
History
Background
Fabio Ubuh is a descendant of the K'iche' people. He was raised alongside his younger brother and sister by their mother in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, and attended a Catholic boarding school for his elementary education. During the Guatemalan Civil War, his family had offered refuge to guerrilla fighters. However, the same soldiers rounded up his family in the town square and massacred them as a warning for the other Mayans.
Fabio tried to sneak out of Guatemala and gave a pollero all of his money to smuggle him across the border. However, the pollero robbed him of all his possessions and left him for dead.[1] It's implied that the pollero was one of Fernando Alhorn's men, who shot him with a Bow and Arrow.[4] However, Alhorn himself does not know of Fabio's ability when Octavio mentions it to him.[5]
Brought back to Antigua, Fabio realized how much he hated seeing all the Christian iconography in the city. Believing that the money coming in from larger countries, coup d'etats backed by the CIA, and the civil war were due to Christianity, Fabio strove to annihilate the religion.
At some point, he worked at a dairy-processing maquiladora and told his coworkers about his attempt to cross the border. He was later laid off from his job.
Starting in around 1972, Fabio destroyed statues and murdered Christian believers whenever a holy day approached.[1] He assassinated 27 victims in locked rooms using his Stand. A Mexican journalist posted an opinion piece in an American magazine titled "A Killer Lurking in the War-Torn Streets of Guatemala", claiming that the Guatemalan police were puppets of the military who were more concerned with arresting left-wing opponents instead of stopping the killer. Furthermore, the piece claimed that over 20 of Fabio's murder cases were covered up by the Guatemalan government. However, news of his incidents spread to several human rights groups and non-governmental organizations such as the Speedwagon Foundation. Thus, around November 1972, the Foundation dispatched agents to Guatemala and spent 5 months investigating each crime scene and conducting interviews with the police, families of victims, and any witnesses.
J.D. Hernández, one of the investigators, sent a comprehensive report to the Foundation headquarters, and they determined that Fabio would strike again during the Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Guatemala.[3]
El Aleph
Battle Against the Speedwagon Foundation
Fabio heads to the Church of La Merced. He shatters the statue of Saint Francis using his flies. The sacristan sees Fabio hiding his face in his hands and moaning as if he is crying, but is actually smiling instead. The priest assumes he's a drug addict but just before he could question him, Fabio shoots flies at the man's right shoulder and stomach.
Fabio leaves the church and heads into the courtyard of a convent at the end of a road. He sees an unconscious nun on the ground, triggering his hierophobia. He crouches over her and fights the urge to vomit, until a souvenir vendor who saw what he's doing startles him by screaming. Fabio then flees deeper into the convent. As J.D. follows him into the darkness, Fabio shoots him, though his fly targets the heat from J.D.'s lantern and destroys that instead.
Fabio then summons a swarm of flies against J.D. and Joaquín, raining down on them like bullets. The two manage to escape outside and reach the plaza. Octavio catches Fabio when he emerges from the underground passage and attempts to pin him down by the neck. A crowd of people from the parade surrounds them, including an old homeless lady and several children. However, Fabio summons a massive swarm of flies, big enough to blacken the entire sky. He flicks his wrist, sending the flies raining down like artillery toward Octavio. Octavio is shot in the shoulder and back, but manages to crawl away and take cover, letting Fabio go.
Fabio cries as the flies rain down on everyone around him, confusing J.D. as to what sort of emotion Fabio is actually feeling. Lisa Lisa reveals that she was disguised as the old homeless lady, and activates her Ripple technique, Thousand-Color Overdrive. Leaves, flowers, and the dyed sawdust from destroyed rugs pile on top of each other in layers, forming a massive electrified dome that covers the plaza and acts as a fly net.
Fabio shrieks in his language when Lisa Lisa approaches him, shocked as to what Lisa Lisa just did and wondering why he can't control the flies anymore. He sends out a swarm of flies from his mouth but Lisa Lisa simply redirects them to her left using her muffler. Lisa Lisa then grabs Fabio's throat and floods his body with the Ripple, causing him to fall unconscious as if he had just been shocked.[3]
Imprisonment
The Speedwagon Foundation hands Fabio over to the Guatemalan police and informs them how to safely keep him in custody. Since he cannot generate flies from thin air, he is confined to a sterilized room with no ventilation shafts[1] and wears a straitjacket.[4]
J.D. visits Fabio several times but Fabio refuses to speak, so they sit in silence each time. However, Fabio finally caves in and explains his past. Once he begins speaking about his Stand, he starts rambling in excitement, resulting in the latter half of his testimony being unintelligible.[1]
Chapters
Novel Appearances- El Aleph Chapter 1: I - Guatemala Arc
- El Aleph Chapter 2: II - Guatemala Arc
- El Aleph Chapter 3: III - Guatemala Arc (Mentioned only)
- El Aleph Chapter 5: V - Peru Arc (Mentioned only)
- El Aleph Chapter 7: VII - Peru Arc (Mentioned only)
- El Aleph Chapter 8: VIII - Peru Arc (Mentioned only)
- El Aleph Chapter 13: XIII - Final Arc (Mentioned only)
Quotes
Quotes- “What the hell did that senile old lady just do? The moscas aren't listening to me anymore.”
- “This was no different from enslavement on a gringo's plantación!”—Fabio Ubuh, El Aleph Chapter 2: II - Guatemala Arc
- “You can't see it, either. I'm the only one who can. And I can't tell you much about something you can't even see. You can't understand it... You can't... You can't. It's undeniable proof that I've evolved into my true self... A true idol for me to worship.”
