Fay D. Flourite

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Illustration of Fay

Fay D. Flourite (ファイ・D・フローライト, Fai D. Furōraito) is a character in the manga Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE by acclaimed manga artist group CLAMP. The romanization of his name has also been expressed as Fai D. Flourite, Fye D. Flowright, or any combination of the three, but in the character guide published by CLAMP, the name is officially represented as "FAY D. FLOURITE." His name is pronounced by rhyming Fay with 'eye'. The Del Rey editions of the series began release in English before the proper romanization was published, however, resulting in the widespread use of the "Fai D. Flowright" rendering among many English-speaking fans. Del Rey has yet to publish official corrections.

In the anime adaptation of the manga he is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa

Story

His first appearance in the manga is in chapter 2, where he is about to leave his country, the country of Celes (Also called Seresu by some fans). His past is largely unknown; compared to Syaoran and Kurogane, his motives for joining the group are the least clear. What is known about him is that he is connected to Ashura-ou, the King of Celes, whom Fai has now trapped in a state of eternal (or near eternal) slumber (This is the elder Ashura-ou, not his child who is the protagonist of RG Veda) . It is also known that he has transformed his "creation", Chii (originally from Chobits) into a net-like shield to serve as a sort of alarm for Fay should Ashura awaken. It appears that a battle had taken place within the palace; there are bodies dressed in the same blue coat and black armband that Fay sports.

His greatest desire becomes ensuring he never returns to Celes, fearing an unknown consequence if Ashura should awaken. He also fears that if Ashura does awaken, he will search for Fai throughout the dimensions.

Unlike the other members of Syaoran's group, Fai does not require the magic of another to arrive at the shop of the Space-Time Witch, Yūko Ichihara. Instead, he uses his own magic to send himself, because he is a mage. While he does possess the power to travel to other dimensions, Fay notes that his powers (and others with the power to send others through dimensions, like the High Priest of Clow and Princess Tomoyo) are limited in this ability and usually must use a great deal of magic to accomplish the task. Yuuko Ichihara, as he states, is currently the only person who possesses the power to send people through multiple dimensions.

Character

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Fay D. Flourite in the anime adaptation.

Of Syaoran's group of allies, Fay is the most enigmatic. He appears to be happy-go-lucky and good-natured, and acts like a fool, but has been shown to be as perceptive as Kurogane, and a skilled fighter. However, it has also been seen that he does not value his life and that he hides a deep emotional burden; this is demonstrated by his dark reactions when Kurogane asks him about his past, and the aftermath of a battle where Fay does not defend himself for an attack when he had the ability to. His past is a profound motivating factor for his actions and is something Fay cannot seem to overcome; instead he masks it all with the guise of cheerfulness and carefreeness.

Fay is emotionally distant, refusing to allow anyone to become too close to him, in fear of harming them by allowing them to get involved with his personal problems. Despite this, Kurogane has noted that the mage has become attached to Syaoran and Sakura. While Fay places little value on his own life, he worries about his companions and would go as far as breaking his own personal vows to ensure their safety. Kurogane confronts Fay about this, and states that Fay should figure out what he's doing with his present and future, because his past has nothing to do with neither Kurogane nor their younger companions.

None of Fay's traveling companions are aware of his past, save that he is trying to escape someone (Ashura). Kurogane, the most perceptive of the group, is usually the one to question Fay outside the presence of Syaoran and Sakura as to why he is trying to escape and why he fears Ashura. In rather careful responses, Fay has revealed that he would know if the Ashura he flees from is just another look-alike sharing the same soul (there can be someone who shares the same soul in several dimensions) because he "...would know if it's just the same face or if it's the same person. I would know.". It is not clear if Fay is a criminal on the run, but it seems to be how he has come to think of himself judging from a conversation between him and Kurogane in manga chapter 112. During their stay in Outo, Mokona using one of his 108 Secret skills was able to detect that Fay was lonely too despite the fact he smiles a lot: "Fay still thinks of something else."

It is also interesting to note that Fay seems to know the secret behind just what is going on nearly all of the time. The fact that he does know and doesn't bring it to the attention to his companions is a sign that he again has no wish to involve himself too deeply in their affairs and that he is extremely intelligent.

Template:Spoilers In the recent chapters of the manga, Fay lost his left eye to the Syaoran clone. Due to the severity of the injury and the fact that there was no available medication or qualified doctor, Fay would have died. To save Fay's life, Kurogane turns to Yūko and demands to know if Fay can be saved. She affirms it, but for him to directly pay her for the wish would be too heavy a price to bear. At this moment, it is brought to attention that the fresh water stored underground is almost gone (the inhabitants of this world depend heavily on that water) due to the actions of both the clone and the vampire twins, Subaru and Kamui. Subaru requests that the water be restored.

To satisfy the conditions of Kurogane and Subaru's wishes at reasonable equivalent prices, she has Kurogane ask her to restore the water. In exchange for requesting Yūko to grant Subaru's wish instead of his own, one of the twins must give their blood to Fay, since the healing powers of a vampire far surpasses that of a human, and again even more so since the twins are purebred. Since Kurogane wishes for Fay to live, but Fay does not want the same thing (Fay claims that with his death, the magic the clone stole from him will also perish. The clone with only half of Fay's magic is already unstoppable), the responsibility of forcing Fay to live would lie with Kurogane. In short, Kamui mixes his blood with Kurogane's such that Fay gains Kamui's vampiric healing ability, but can only drink blood from Kurogane.

When he did awake the first thing he did was smile at Kurogane and said, "Good morning, Kurogane." This is the first time that Fay has actually called Kurogane by his full name. It has been a long running gag of the series that Fay would always come up with silly nicknames for Kurogane. It is still not known what affects of being a vampire will have on his personallity although as of now he still seems to be the same Fay. If anything, it seems he now realizes a little better how what he says and does affects those around him. When he finds out that Sakura went into the desert by herself he is deeply worried and makes to go after her but is stopped by Kurogane and Syaoran. After Sakura came back badly wounded from her journey he is the first to greet her, grabbing her in a hug.

In chapter 133, the reader is given a small look into Fay's previous life. He is in a dark cell with only one barred window. He is muttering to himself over and over again "I want to die", but also thinks to himself "But before that I want someone to...". It trails off there. He doesn't specify what he wants "someone" to do. It is also unknown still whether or not that desire has come true.

In the recent chapters, he decides to follow Sakura to look for the clone Syaoran, calling her "My only princess".

In chapter 137 - 138 we see more of Fay's darker side. In chapter 137 we witness his feeding which amazingly he goes through easily and without complaint. At the end of that chapter he asks Kurogane if he can feel the unseen people watching them. When Kurogane says yes we are brought to chapter 138 which starts with them trying to figure out who is watching them. Whether it is their next opponent or the person who has been watching their entire journey so far. Fay says he doesn't care who it is but he will not let them hurt the others (Kurogane, Mokona, Syaoran, and Sakura) anymore. He walks off without another word. Template:Endspoilers

Magical Ability

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Fay using magic (Episode 1)

Fay sports a tattoo in the shape of a phoenix, which spreads all the way across his back and wraps around his body. This tattoo is the "most precious thing" that Fay pays in order to have Yuuko grant his wish to maintain dimensional distance from Celes.

Template:Spoiler Unlike previous magic-using characters created by CLAMP, Fay's magic is "written" out as he casts it, previously by aid of his magical staff and later using his finger, instead of summoning a magic circle like Yuuko Ichihara, Clow Reed, and Sakura Kinomoto. During the group's escape from Rekord, Fay casts his magic by whistling, which he remarks is a method he had never used before and doesn't really count as his "real" magic. This would explain why Fay had always made the "Hyuu" ("wheet-whoo" in the Del Rey version) sound whenever he wanted to whistle; he wanted to avoid casting magic after all.

While initially believed that he could no longer use magic without the tattoo, it is later revealed that Fay can still use magic; it's just that he made a vow to not use magic without the tattoo. It is hinted that he may just have a more difficult time controling his powers without it. While he manages to use "passive magic" to detect things such as barriers, he breaks the vow once in the world of Rekord in order to aid the group's escape after stealing back one of Sakura's feathers. Fye is presumed to have used magic in episode 26 of the anime against Fei Wong Reed's guards, as he acknowledges the consequences of invoking magic (The camera focuses on Fye's blue eyes *hint*). In chapter 120, he uses his magic again in the world of Tokyo in a vain attempt to reseal Syaoran's "heart", the source of Syaoran's emotions and memories, located in his right eye. Fay had known from the beginning that the Syaoran that the have been traveling is just a clone with half of the "heart" from the original Syaoran.

It is revealed that Fay's eyes are his source of magic, which is the reason why in chapter 120, Fay's left eye was ripped out by Syaoran, who - once his "heart" was removed - was revealed to be a clone seeking only power to regain Sakura's feathers. Syaoran consumed the eye, causing his right blind eye to turn blue like Fay's eye, and was then able to use Fay's magic with a devastating level of power. After the original Syaoran turned up, he remarked that Fay must have been trying to reseal the clone's "heart" by letting the clone have his own eye (by letting the clone consume his eye, the clone would also be consuming the "heart", which Fay picked up after it was discarded). It was also said that Fay must have known the chance of that working was near nil, but he still tried.

It is uncertain how powerful he is while missing one eye, or if there is more to Fay's magic than what we can see. However, because the clone successful gained half of Fay's magic, Fay believes it is best that he dies as he knows that even with half his magic, the clone will be incredibly dangerous and that by dying, Fay's magical power will die along with him.

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Trivia

• On several occasions, Fay would say the sound 'Hyuu!' (translated as 'Wheet-Whoo', or occasionally just 'Wheet' in the English Del Rey books), claiming that he doesn't know how to whistle, but as we later find out he is able to use magic by whistling, explaining why he refused to actually make the sound before.
• In Volume 1 of the English Del Rey translation of Tsubasa, there has been an error in translation, in which Chii referred to Fay as 'my king'. Fay is not the king of Celes, he personally introduces himself as the Wizard/Magician of Celes.
• In the Ōto Country he used the alias 'Big Kitty' and in Piffle World he entered himself in the race under the name 'Swallow' (Tsubame).
• During the group's stay in the Hanshin Republic, the Kudan which was attached to Fay is an alternate version of Windam, one of the Three Mashin (Rune Gods) from Magic Knight Rayearth, which possibly got its name from the Toyota Windom, considering that many of the characters form Magic Knight Rayearth were named after cars.
• In omake made by CLAMP published at the end of their manga, Mokona teleported them to a sushi restaurant where they ate "Sushi", here we see that all the TRC characters are enjoying the "raw fish" meal, Fay seems to be more uncomfortable by it (although not confirmed yet in original storyline if he really dislikes raw fish) or rather wanting to "barf" at the mere sight of it.
• According to chapter 126, Yuuko stated that Fay is also the oldest among his group, as his magical powers slows his aging process and allows him to live several years longer than humans.