| “ | You're just a belligerent fighter — how would you know?! My fate was decided from the moment I was born — what do you know about the formless vow of the Mask Maker?! | ” |
– Luchino to Aging, 2002: (B Side) Blood Sabbath | ||
Luchino B. Campanella (ルキノ・B・カンパネルラ, Rukino B Kanpanerura) is a descendant of Huey Laforet and Monica Campanella, and the current leader of the Mask Makers. He is a magician and is nicknamed "Rookie".
Appearance
Luchino takes after his ancestor Monica in looks, with blond hair and blue eyes. When killing, his expression becomes stony and mask-like, radiating an iciness in order to cover up his inner feelings of disgust and nausea. He wears the same cold expression when acting as the president of the Mask Makers.
Personality
As the current leader of the Mask Makers, Luchino is known to be a cold, merciless assassin who is highly respected by his subordinates. He puts on a professional air, and refuses to let his true emotions show. However, he has some psychological issues when it comes to actual murder, often vomiting in disgust after the act. He is also quite adamant when in pursuit of something, which is shown through his determination to know the truth about the murder of his ancestor Monica Campanella.
In addition to the hardened persona he demonstrates as the Mask Maker, Luchino shows another side as the Rookie Warlock; here he is less aloof and more charismatic, determined to bring smiles to the faces of his audience. He sees this as a means of redeeming himself for the acts he commits as the Mask Maker ("The filth that built up within himself each time he killed someone (...) seemed to dissipate ever-so-slightly each time he someone's smile, just as he had seen now. (...) And as a result, the two-faced Rookie could not let go of the smiles of others."). He is also shown to let his mask of professionalism unwittingly drop around Aging at times, showing the more immature, childish nature he attempts to suppress by bickering with her.
Light Novels
2002: (B Side) Blood Sabbath
Following the death of his wife, Luchino's father, the former president of the Mask Makers, betrays the organization and leaves with a good portion of their trained mercenaries. Luchino is left behind and takes on full responsibility as acting head of the Mask Makers, making use of the "mob of thugs" who chose to remain loyal. His position of authority is generally well-received in spite of his coming into the role as a teenager.
Sometime before 2002, he explains the history of the Mask Makers to a reporter in Lotto Valentino, whom he has tortured and interrogated. Luchino believes that Huey Laforet is responsible for killing Monica Campanella, and his family has aimed to avenge her in the centuries since. Luchino's hatred for Huey goes beyond duty and he is determined to see revenge through to the end personally. After giving the reporter this information, Luchino explains that now that he knows the truth he must take care of him. He references his cover as a stage magician by saying that he'll show him a magic trick --- making his stiletto disappear --- then stabs and kills him.
Luchino orders the other Mask Makers to dispose of the body but does not stay to oversee or help with the cleanup job. In spite of his stoic exterior, he struggles with the thought of the violent act he committed. While his subordinates handle the corpse, he locks himself in the restroom and succumbs to nausea.
Aging is waiting for him outside. She teases him for his inability to stomach mercenary work, and Luchino becomes defensive, losing his mature exterior. Aging reminds him that it's normal for someone his age to find killing people difficult and that Illness has the same problem, then promptly changes the subject to their next mission.
They have been commissioned to hijack the luxury cruise liners the Entrance and the Exit and capture certain passengers. Aging questions Luchino's choice to go with them on the ship, but he insists he has to bring an end to this matter himself. When asked if he intends to avenge Death, he tells her she would have to pay them as a client because he does not act on personal grudges, and she points out that he is involving his own personal grudges in their work by plotting revenge. Luchino maintains that even his hatred for Huey is just business to him. Their client requires them to capture only one immortal, and it won't conflict with that goal if he "takes care" of another.
When Aging mocks him, he reminds her that she and the other Agonies are mere tools and do not have the right to speak back to him. She questions why he puts up such a cold front when it's clear from the way he speaks to them that he doesn't actually believe this. Luchino grows anxious at her ability to see through his mask and makes a swift exit, leaving Aging to look through the photos of their targets --- the immortals.
Luchino boards the Exit under his cover identity as the Rookie Warlock, a stage magician who is well-known in several countries. Although his father suggested other career options, he went out of the way to choose this one himself. He believes that each time he makes someone smile with his magic, some of the "filth" that builds up inside him when he kills people dissipates. He knows this is just a means of running away from his problems, but concludes that since he cannot stop hurting people he must continue in whatever way he can.
Luchino schedules a magic show during the first night of the cruise at the 'Ristorante Cuculo', and includes the fact that he is from Lotto Valentino on the pamphlet in order to lure the immortals to the performance. Contrary to the title 'Rookie', Luchino is shown to be a highly skilled magician, impressing his audience with an advanced and varied repertoire. Although he maintains a calm persona, he spends the show consumed by thoughts of how to best deal with the immortals, having not expected them to fall into his trap so easily. When he suspects that they have noticed him staring at their table, and plays his attention to them off by choosing Sylvie as his assistant for his next trick. The show ends with both himself and Sylvie smiling in earnest.
Later that night, Luchino sits alone in the closed restaurant. The owner of the establishment informs him that a visitor from his hometown has asked to see him. The visitor is Elmer, who thanks him for the show and explains his own connections to Lotto Valentino, openly admitting that he lived there three-hundred years earlier. Luchino is taken aback by his honesty, but pretends to view it as a joke, not wanting to give away his own identity. They have a conversation which lasts about ten minutes before Elmer takes his cue to leave. Luchino tells him he should visit Lotto Valentino again someday, and notes to himself that he will be coming along with him there, anyway, if his plan is carried out.
Before Elmer parts with him he comments that Luchino resembles someone he knows. Luchino assumes that he is referring to Monica, to whom he bears a physical resemblance, but Elmer only elaborates that all he has shown him is fake smiles --- suggesting that it was not a reference to Monica's appearance, but to Huey's comportment. The realisation that his enemy and target has seen through his mask puts Luchino on edge. Seeing his discomfort, Elmer quickly reassures that the smile Luchino wore on stage, at least, was a real, genuine one. He advises him to hold onto his magic, because if it makes him smile and laugh like that it "won't betray him", and leaves. In spite of the kindness of these words, Luchino finds himself on the verge of crying as he watches him disappear. He is thrown off by Elmer's disposition and struggles to fathom why a man such as this did not prevent Huey from killing Monica.
At the start of the second day of the cruise, Luchino receives reports that the Mask Makers have succeeded in taking over the communications office, the control room, and the bridge of the ship without problems. He takes a walk through the shopping mall to observe the passengers, and notices that many of them are wearing a similar red and black pattern. When gunshots erupt, the mall is thrown into chaos. He plans to return to his room to notify the other Mask Makers of this development, but on the way a group of the people in red and black approach him, wielding weapons. He realizes two things at once: first, that these people are smiling genuine smiles, and second, that they have lost interest in the passengers and are coming after him. His instincts tell him to escape. He had memorised the layout of the ship in order to lure the immortals into a trap, and he uses the knowledge to run to the nearest hiding place, a storage room.
He briefly makes contact with Aging before he is found by the people in red and black. Unarmed, he attempts to make a covert escape behind the cargo, but he is attacked by one of the men before he can get out. He points a submachine gun at Luchino's head, but before he can fire Aging leaps onto the scene and snaps the man's neck.
Now calm enough to regain his professional mask, he asks Aging how the mission has gone. She admits that she thinks the rest of the Mask Makers on the Exit have already been wiped out. As she laughs the situation off, Luchino collapses from shock. She catches him in her arms and embraces him, assuring him that he can rebuild the company once the mission is over since he still has her and the other Mask Makers on the Entrance.
Once he recovers, Aging suggests that he protect himself and the remaining Mask Makers by refunding their client and giving up on the mission. Luchino refuses, telling her that the true legacy of the Mask Maker is not the organization at all, but his resolve and determination. Because of his personal goals, he won't leave the ship without Elmer even if he does cancel the mission. Luchino asks her, not as her boss but as the heir to the Mask Maker name, to help him escape with the surviving Mask Makers and their hostage. He adds that they'll take care of the people in red and black if they can, and Aging agrees, telling him that she can't pass on something "that reckless and entertaining".
The two of them leave the storage room as the ship starts shaking. On the way, Luchino takes the submachine gun, which he had been taught to use by Death, from their dead attacker. They are approached by a group of armed men in red and black. Acting on fear and instinct, Luchino guns them down. While he grows nauseous at the thought of having killed them, they begin to get to their feet again, smiling. He finds himself relieved rather than frightened because this means he isn't to blame for their deaths, but he scolds himself for this, and takes aim to fire at them again. Aging picks him up before he can shoot and sprints outside, hooking her rope to the ship before hurling both of them into the night air. She dashes along the hull of the ship carrying him with her, and Luchino, in a state of shock, drops his gun into the ocean. When they reach her cabin, he regains his composure and demands to be put down. She admits that he is so light she had forgotten she was carrying him.
He embraces the temporary shelter from their enemies and sits down on the sofa to contemplate their next step. The television set switches on to display the seajacking announcement spoken by Bride under the guise of the Mask Maker. His mind goes blank as he watches the photographs of the immortals appear onscreen.
While he collects his thoughts, Aging has an animated phone call with one of the Mask Makers on the other ship. Although he wants to be angry with her for not taking the situation seriously, he is relieved to see her so lively. This relief disappears when Aging informs him that the gunman who killed Death is on the other ship. Reliving the emotion he had felt at the news of his subordinate's death, and thrown off by the announcement, he struggles to face the reality of the situation and respond to it as a leader.
Aging points out that the PA announcement doesn't matter because they were going to hijack the ship as the Mask Makers anyway, and Luchino argues that if anyone was going to defile the the name of the Mask Makers it had to be the Mask Makers themselves. Aging attempts to be understanding, but Luchino reacts with frustration. He realizes as he speaks that his anger is with himself; he wishes he were able to give up on the Mask Makers so easily but knows that he can't. She sees through him and responds with a smile, ruffling his hair. Luchino finds strength in her reasurance, and resolves to carry on. She hands him his favorite stiletto -- his ancestral weapon -- and Luchino vows to himself to keep the Mask Makers alive by any means necessary until Monica is avenged.
He and Aging make their way to the amusement park on the ship, where they find a group of children in red and black, all holding blades and sharp objects. Aging asks whether she is allowed to kill them if they attack, and Luchino debates whether it would be right to kill them under the Mask Maker name when the original Mask Maker had intended to save abused children like these ones. Before he comes to a conclusion, Elmer appears and offers his advice and assistance as a fellow Mask Maker. Luchino is dumbstruck that he recognized him as the leader of the organisation, but agrees to work with him.
After Elmer and Aging work together to save Sylvie, Luchino catches an already injured Bride fleeing the bridge. He stalls him by asking questions, and when the ships collide he takes the momentary shock as an opportunity to close the distance between them and stab him. He does not feel his usual nausea, knowing that this man was to blame for the Mask Maker's defilement. Bride pushes past him as though unharmed, and Luchino falls to the floor. He tells him that because their philosophies and actions are opposed -- his being rooted in faith and Luchino's being rooted in resolve -- all they can do is pass each other by. Luchino laughs and admits that his intention was never to have a discussion with him in the first place; he had only been waiting for the right timing for his 'magic trick'. Using the earlier attack as a distraction, he had wrapped a strong fibre, used for levitation tricks, around Bride's body. The other end had been tied to the hull of the Entrance, and when the ships begin to move apart again Bride is dragged overboard. Luchino does not stay to watch the end result.
A boat arrives to pick up the surviving Mask Makers. Luchino meets with Life, commending him for his work and expressing his relief that he made it back. Life expresses dismay that he had not been informed about the new plan following the collision, and Luchino offers to show him a magic trick to cheer him up. While Life politely declines, he moves behind him and binds his wrists with a pair of previously unseen handcuffs. Having been informed by of Life's betrayal as the Demolisher, Luchino fortifies his role as the organization's president and begins to violently interrogate the traitor, putting on his mask to hide his repulsion. Also present, Angelo looks at Life and confirms he is the Demolisher, having heard of his betrayal through Charon Walken. Angelo walks off, leaving Life's fate in Luchino's hands.
Luchino's resolve wavers when Life begins to mock him. The Mask Makers' ship suddenly collides with a large cruiser, and Life escapes while Luchino is distracted by the impact. The cruiser, belonging to SAMPLE, speeds away before he can react, taking his former ally with it.
He is approached by Elmer, who had boarded their ship because he thought Luchino might still have business with him. He reminds him that he has been a Mask Maker for three hundred years, then requests that he smile, as his boss.
Several days later, Luchino has regained his composure as a leader and allows Elmer, now a hostage under Aging's supervision, to speak to him. He explains to him the reason behind his hatred towards Huey. Elmer responds that he won't stop Luchino from getting revenge on Huey if that's what will make him happy, but informs that he has the story wrong. He tells Luchino the truth of Monica's death -- that the person to blame is not Huey, but Lebreau.
Relationships
Aging
Aging is one of the Four Agonies. Although she often mocks Luchino, she rescues him on several occassions and provides reassurance when he needs it. Likewise, he speaks to her coldly and chides her for her lack of seriousness, but is shown to be grateful towards her and take comfort in her presence. Aging suggests that he lets her see through his mask because deep down he "wants someone to tell him to stop trying so hard". During the events of 2002, when the Mask Makers are split between the two ships, Aging is teamed up with Luchino on the Exit.
Huey Laforet
Huey is Luchino's ancestor whom he has never met. At first, Luchino harbored a great hate for Huey, but this is only because he believed that Huey killed Monica.
Elmer C. Albatross
Although Elmer was originally his primary target, Luchino eventually comes to trust him. This occurs when Elmer joins the Mask Makers and informs Luchino that Monica's death was actually by the hands of Lebreau Fermet Viralesque.
Trivia
- His nickname is a pun on the first two syllables of "Luchino" - ルキ (Ruki) - which sound like "Rookie".
- As a weapon, Luchino uses the same stiletto as Monica, the original Mask Maker.