Gyrus

 'The Astronaut'

The protagonist of Room of Swords, Gyrus Axelei is a bright, young scientist whose insatiable curiosity lead to him becoming an astronaut, for the purpose exploring the universe. Never the strongest or fastest, Gyrus relies on his innovative mind to keep up with his intrepid crew during missions.

Appearance
Gyrus is a fit young man with tanned, pinkish skin and green hair. His eyes are shown to be a light shade of purple.

He is 5'8" (176 cm) tall, shorter than both Kodya and Nephthys but taller than Tori and Sylvia.

In the first few chapters, he appears far more naive and is convinced he needs to find his spaceship. And, in line with his desire to find his spaceship and his captain, he wears a white astronaut suit and helmet until he realizes the air is safe to breathe -- after which he changes into a yellow spacesuit with black straps, gloves, and dark boots.

He later adopts a more battle appropriate outfit, though he keeps his jump boots in all of his outfits.

Due to the star-shaped tuft of hair on the top of his head, and his reddish hued face, he has earned the nickname "Strawberry" from Sylvia. The authors have confirmed that one of the inspirations for his character design was in fact a strawberry.

Personality
Gyrus is a loyal and intelligent character, considered the strategist of the team. What he lacks in strength, he makes up for with wit, being able to formulate quick plans on the fly and utilize his tools and environment to his best advantage.

He often puts himself and others in danger in order to keep his friends safe, as shown in his fight against One. Because of his unwavering loyalty to those he trusts, he can become extremely stubborn and irrational; his emotions can often cloud his judgment, leaving him feeling worthless or leading to him making terrible decisions against the greater good.

In the earlier voyages, Gyrus was severely dependent on others for help, being unable to fight and becoming increasingly insecure about his abilities as his friends were injured in battle. However, after training with Kodya, he became far more independent and mature, able to hold his own in a fight and keep his mind clear in battle.

Gyrus is shown to be good with words, being able to convince Tori and Sylvia to join his team in both voyages they met, and being able to easily maintain the trust of everyone in his team.

In flashbacks and passing mentions from Kodya and Nephthys, his former self is shown to be an extremely powerful and great leader. His 'Black Box' self, made of his old memories, seems to be highly intelligent, if a bit mysterious. To read more about the last iteration of Gyrus to enter the Room of Swords read Gyrus’s Past.

Abilities & Items
Gyrus controls a bright green energy that can telekinetically lift objects and people. He can shape this energy into force shields and blades of energy. This energy is the only known ability (besides Boss Swords) able to hurt Shadows. This ability draws from his mana, however, once it is depleted it begins to sap his life force, creating cuts all over his body and possibly causing internal bleeding.

He currently owns four items: Scout, a yellow star-shaped computer who refers to him as 'User Gyrus', used to scan objects and environments and create holograms; his jump boots, which allow him to jump large distances both vertically and horizontally; a mysterious object found in a chest in One's castle; and a completed Boss Sword.

He has also gained the ability to be a battery. An implant inside his body allows his power to be forcefully and painfully drawn out by corresponding bracelets, an implant which he designed. His energy can be used to power weapons or teleporting ships.

[SPOILER]

' ''Gyrus' Breaking Point is named 'Event Horizon' and appears to be a manifestation of a black hole; in this state, he is capable of controlling every bit of matter and energy which crosses the point of no return. His Black Box self uses this ability to control and absorb shadows in order to restore Kodya's body, at the cost of his left arm.It is mentioned by Nephthys that it took him years to master this ability. His older self is stated to have total control over his subconscious, being able to manifest within his Black Box and replace pre-set memories to remember things even when his memories are erased by a reset.'''

History
(SPOILERS)

Gyrus was [supposedly]taken from his mother, Amelia— the Queen of a nation and also the founder (in the original timeline) of the organization he works for— and his father, Iro (AKA ‘Captain Iro)— who has the ability to travel through time— as a baby by Don (unbeknownst to the current version of Gyrus), kidnapped Gyrus and took him to the future.

The iteration of Gyrus that controlled his subconscious first appeared in the Room of Swords eleven years ago, heavily injured, bringing the first Boss Sword with him. He was healed by Don, after which he continued to go through realms collecting Boss Swords and meeting new people, who joined him and Don in their mission to get home.

After a few years, Gyrus, after learning about the truth about Don (or at least the bits and pieces the shadows wanted him to know) decided to side with the shadows—for the time being, at least. His goal became to not complete the Room of Swords, like Don had previously convinced him he had to do, but to destroy it, thus completing the terms of the contract everyone in the ROS had made with Masiosare. He tried at one point to expose Don for who he really was, but things went south and he made it out with just one member of the ROS (the heart chakra). Thinking that he might put his friends in the Room of Swords in more danger should he try to reveal the truth, he chose to leave them in the dark for their own safety and instead work with his friends outside the Room of Swords.

After looking into the future with Masiosare and seeing that Kodya would be killed permanently by Don should he not intervene, Gyrus made a hurried decision to take on the shadows’ offer of giving him powers equivalent to that of a God (supposedly), even though he was warned his body could not yet handle it. He then attacked Don head on, taking swords with him and attempting to save his friends, their powers, and their swords from Don’s grasp by turning them into shadows. However, Don manipulated bystanders (who already thought Gyrus had gone mad thanks to events that occurred a year earlier) into thinking this was Gyrus attacking them once again, and he managed to get Raegan to get Kodya, under the pretense that he would be able to “snap Gyrus out of it”. Kodya intervened and ended up giving Gyrus critical injuries which resulted in him having to use the last do his energy to get out of the Room of Swords (because people cannot come back if they die in the Room of Swords).

He used his Black Box to store a "copy" of his consciousness so that his reset self would be able to recall what had happened.

The version of himself copied into the black box had a romantic relationship with Kodya.

Don Santiago
Don appears to be very important to Gyrus, as he replaced his Captain with Don in his memories, allowing his younger self to remember that Don was someone significant and that he had to find him. On Gyrus' last iteration that entered the TOS, he encounters Don in the Room of Swords. Don heals him and offers him food and shelter, and the two become close friends after that. After Gyrus' betrayal, Don seems incredibly wary and cautious of him but admits that they need him to fight the shadow creatures. Later, it is realized that he is the “prize” of the winner between the ongoing fight between Don and the shadows. Don had planned to give Gyrus "less sunlight" after deciding his predecessor wasn't the way he wanted him to be because he had "doted on him too much" (this is implied by Don when he talks to Gyrus about the tomatoes he's growing) Don becomes an enemy willing to do anything, including killing anyone who gets in his way, to collect the 24 swords from the different realms to obtain his freedom from the prison he was put in by Masiosare.

Tori Grieve
Tori was the first person Gyrus met after he woke up in the new realm. She attacked him, but then granted him mercy and teamed up with him, in part because he looked very similar to her Queen, who she is in love with. Tori's appearance made him realize he could breathe the air only minutes before his tank ran out. Originally, she was distrustful of him, however, after battling Three together, Gyrus convinced her to travel with him to find his ship. After a while, she begins to trust him more and look to him for strategic advice.

After Gyrus’ training and at the beginning of the realm’s timer, her memories had been wiped. She returned to being distrustful, especially of his 'witchcraft' and the lewd gear he offered her, but soon begins to trust him again. After a while, she starts to see him as a strong leader for their team, and the two remained close friends until they reached the Room of Swords. After which, she became distrustful of him due to hearing about how a previous version of him had betrayed the Room of Swords.

Sylvia
After giving her food and lending a kind hand, Sylvia quickly became very fond of Gyrus. She becomes very protective of him, willing protecting him with her life, to the point that she is frequently referred to as his bodyguard. The two share a very strong friendship, as he's devastated when she dies protecting him from an oncoming attack by One. Even after resetting, it only takes another chocolate bar for her to warm up to Gyrus again. She seems very affectionate and loyal to him and is easily convinced to fulfill his requests (for example, when he asks her to go with Kodya to investigate the throne room). Sylvia, when finally freed from the Room of Swords, ended up using her breaking point every day (up until Gyrus and Iro arrived) in order to save her village from anamolies that came from a reality rip nearby her village.

Kodya
Kodya took it upon himself to act as a mentor of sorts to Gyrus, albeit a little reluctantly. Gyrus mentions that Kodya keeps himself emotionally distant; always calling him 'kid' and lecturing him. Despite this, they truly have a strong bond and faith in each other. Kodya has a soft spot for Gyrus, though during this time he tried to block out his feelings because he wasn't even sure if Gyrus was to be trusted anymore, after what a previous iteration him had done.

Upon Kodya's death, Gyrus desperately tries to save him, ultimately deciding to take his words to heart and not let his death be in vain. After failing to complete the sword, Gyrus fell unconscious and met his past self from before he had been reset, and asked him for help. His old self then took over his body and used his breaking point, event horizon, and took Kodya from the shadows at the sacrifice of an arm.

It is later revealed that his past self and Kodya were in a romantic relationship. During this time, Kodya was also Gyrus’ apprentice, and Gyrus was Kodya’s savior, since Gyrus had saved Kodya from drowning in freezing water when they first met. Kodya, in turn, had saved him many times.

Nephthys
Gyrus and Nephthys are fairly good friends; the two made a good team alongside Tori in the fight against Two in the tower and she appears to have known him well in his previous life. Nepthys has a powerful intuition, and the ability to see the future, as well as to heal people. Nepthys is also Kodya's best friend.

Trivia

 * His age was revealed in an Answers chapter to be 20 years old.
 * A later Answers chapter revealed his birthday to by September 16th.
 * Sylvia refers to him using a strawberry emoji.
 * His character was inspired by strawberries and several anime characters, including Mob, Saitama, Fayt, and Ichigo.
 * According to the creators, he is meant to be 'mostly of Korean descent'.
 * His captain's name is originally Captain Iro (revealed in the Season 1 Finale), however, he replaced this person with Don in order to remember him once he was reset.
 * He is confirmed by the creators to be demisexual.