Yami

Golden Darkness (金色の闇), mostly referred to by other characters as Yami, is a major character in To Love-Ru and To Love-Ru Darkness. She is a lonely assassin who is initially hired by Lacospo, one of Lala's arranged suitors, to kill Rito Yuuki. But when Lacospo effectively annuls the job, she decides to take her time and, under the pretense of still needing to complete her mission to kill Rito, stays on Earth. As she spends more time on Earth, she builds a very strong relationship with Rito's mature younger sister, Mikan Yuuki and to Rito himself, whom she also develops feelings for.

In To Love-Ru Darkness, Yami becomes central to the main plot. This is because there is a group that wants her to join them as the heartless assassin she once was. Her "sister", Mea Kurosaki (a transformation weapon of the same program that created Yami) and a mysterious figure known as Nemesis, arrive to Earth to take her away and revive the old heartless/murdering self that she once was.

Golden Darkness/Yami's character and appearance are based on another character named Eve from the manga series Black Cat (another series by Kentaro Yabuki). This Eve has also been created by Tearju Lunatique from Black Cat, whom Tearju Lunatique was designed and named after.

Appearance
Yami has long blonde hair, dark red eyes, and a child-like figure. Her 3-sizes are B75-W52-H77. Although it should be noted that she can change her appearance to look older with her transformation ability, her choice to remain in her child-like form is most likely due to the fact that it is comfortable when in combat. This can be seen in both the manga and OVA where she wonders on whether or not having larger breasts and a more mature body would affect her balance. Characters have made several notes about the shape of her thighs throughout a few points in the manga—most notably the principal, who makes the remark during their first meeting. Of course, this was all before they were pummeled by none other than Yami herself. She is additionally famous for her all-black Gothic-style signature leather outfit. Her outfit has a star shaped gap at the chest of her clothing, which can also be found on the clothing of Mea and Nemesis. It also features two waist belts, five leg belts on both of her legs, and two sleeves that attach to her upper arm via belt.

Another notable aspect of her appearance are her silver and black hair clips on each side of her head which give her a cat-like appearance, possibly paying homage to the illustrator's earlier work, "Black Cat", from which her character design also originated.

When the Darkness Transformation was activated, her appearance (mostly her attire) drastically changed. She donned a much more revealing leather outfit with clawed gloves. Two black horns appeared on her head.

Personality
"I hate ecchi people." ―Yami's view on perverted things

Though she does come off as stoic, emotionless, and withdrawn in actuality she is pretty kind, but she would attack people who talks about something that she doesn't like. She also hates perverted people and normally attacks Rito (despite knowing its not his intention), who by his clumsy nature trips into her and gropes her, or the Principal, whose perverted nature makes him come running to her in almost no clothing whenever he sees her. Other people she has attacked include Kenichi Saruyama, Yuu Kotegawa, and Taizou Motemitsu. She also has a weakness towards anything slimy and with tentacles.

Yami is often reading books to understand Earth's culture and learn more about emotions such as love. She had been contracted to kill Rito, but after their initial meeting she chose to 'assess' him. Since chapter 158, she has begun showing small inklings of feelings towards him for not taking advantage of her while affected by Celine's pollen.

In To Love-Ru Darkness Yami's feelings for Rito are shown quite a few times. He shows kindness to her, and because of this she's not sure about her feelings or whether she really wants to kill him but tries to convince herself that he is still her target. Strangely, he is the only person she has ever opened up to about her origin and about her old life before being an assassin, instead of to her closest friend Mikan, which is also something that confuses herself. One time she looked at him from behind holding a book titled "lovers", further hinting her feelings for him.

She has a fondness of taiyaki, which was the first she eats after coming to earth which was also given to her by Rito, shortly before her attempt to assassinate him. It's stated that since becoming an assassin, Yami has never slept with a calm mind (her body always "standing" on guard), but she appears to have slept calmly ever since she slept next to Rito (Darkness Chapter 13).

In the beginning Yami wasn't always heartless and cold. Before she became an assassin, she was a happy, cheerful and playful little child, especially around Tearju, but was left heartbroken when hearing that she had left and Yami was left in the hands of the organization, Eden that made her the mostly emotionless person she is today. Had she not been raised by Eden, she would have likely had a similar personality to Lala or Run Elsie Jewelria. However, as the series progresses, she begins to show a more happy and gentle side from time to time and opens up more around others especially Rito, whom she shows love/hate feelings to.

Since Tearju's arrival, Yami has remained distant towards her, although she still cares for her greatly. The real reason for this was because of her life as an assassin and what she became after they last met, she was afraid of the awkwardness between them. She once admit herself that being an assassin is even worse than "being a pervert like you". But with some encouragement from Rito and Mea, Yami slowly tries to become closer to Tearju. Yami is shown to evidently be shy, constantly avoiding mushy moments and Tearju, whom she still feels awkward towards.

After she returns from her Darkness transformation, Yami's personality displays significant changes. While she is still mostly her usual self, she now has stronger tsundere tendencies, mostly regarding Rito. She has become much more angry and over-reactive when it comes to her feelings for Rito, whom she continues to deny having any feelings for.

Darkness
"I feel really perverted." ―Darkness

When the Darkness Transformation is activated, Yami's personality changes quite drastically. In fact it can be inferred that her personality becomes the complete opposite of her normal one in that she becomes hyperactive, perverted, and less bothered by slimy things. Her feelings for Rito, which she would regularly try to hide, are laid so out in the open that it becomes a complete and total obsession.

She is shown to be more playful and enjoys "ecchi" things. Yami seems to be more than openly infatuated with Rito, wanting him to do more perverted things to her. She has absolutely no problem admitting she loves Rito, and yet, as he is her "target", she still intends to kill him. In fact, she constantly believes that by killing him, he will then be in her heart forever and they will become one, which she describes as the most ecchi thing possible. However, she acknowledges that for him, this reality is one of being chewed up and swallowed like taiyaki. She thus uses her newfound powers to manipulate matter and prepared the most fitting place for the "ecchi him" to die as tribute. She also expresses disappointment, at best, when he is taken away from her. She is so fond of the "ecchi him" that she says that a Rito who is not ecchi would be like taiyaki without the red bean paste filling.

Because of her newfound fondness towards anything "ecchi," she doesn't hesitate use her powers to do something lewd to others and herself even during battles. Her trauma towards anything slimy and with tentacles seems to have transformed into delight and become weaponised in this form, as seen when she created tentacles to molest Lala as well as herself and used water to molest a large number of students in a swimming pool.

She appears to be incredibly obsessed with Rito, to the point where all of her transformations seem to start assuming his form. She also has nothing but murderous emotion towards Lala, as she believes Rito's fiancée would naturally be her biggest enemy. Finally, when she is unable to retrieve Rito from Lala, she decided to destroy the entire planet, and Rito along with it, and playfully calls him hers in the process.

Originally, her personality was emotionless with the destructive impulses and instinct of plunging the universe into chaos. The cause of her new ecchi personality in this form might be because of the memories of being sexually harassed by Rito, but even she is not sure how she ended up this way. Mea speculates that Rito's actions caused a "bug" to occur in the program, which ultimately allowed Yami to resist its complete takeover, ironically Mea also believes that aggravating this "bug" further is the solution to allowing Yami's true personality to resurface and crash the program entirely, in other words the only solution is for Rito to "subdue" her by intentionally harassing her instead of by accident, because it's something even she would not expect from him. Ironically, when he does indeed take the offensive as above, Darkness becomes quite weak against Rito, ultimately crashing the program completely.

It is revealed by Mea that the "bug" is in fact caused by Yami's feelings towards Rito. After reverting to normal, however, she still continues to deny having any feelings for him.

History
Not much of Golden Darkness' history was known until she opened up to Rito. She is a living weapon created by Dr. Tearju Lunatique from her own cells (making Yami a clone) who named her Eve and raised her. Eve was a happy little girl who looked up to Tearju who would read her bedtime stories and cook. Despite the food turning out poorly Eve would still force herself to eat it. They lived happily and Tearju planned to run away with Eve but her plans were preempted by the Eden organization which found out about the planned flight and attempted to kill Tearju, forcing her to flee without Eve. Eve, who had just finished making a necklace for Tearju, was then told that Tearju had abandoned her and she would be trained as a weapon. It is then that she was renamed Golden Darkness. Eden was destroyed by the hitman Black (a character based on Train Heartnet, the main character from Black Cat), setting Eve free of their control. After Eden was destroyed Tearju heard rumours about a golden-haired assassin and knew it had to be Eve. Tearju started searching for Eve but was unable to find her. They meet again in To-Love-Ru Darkness after Dr. Mikado, who was Tearju's classmate in high school, goes out and brings her to Earth. Ever since, they now have an awkward relationship, though they still care for each other.

Before she met Rito and Lala, Yami lived alone in the universe, performing assassination assignments as they were given to her. At some point she bought an artificial intelligence for her spaceship from a junk shop and named it Lunatique.

Soon after Yami completed her assassin training she went to a planet whose inhabitants have tentacles. Though she herself refuses to tell of the experience, it is strongly implied that it caused her extreme dislike of anything slimy and with tentacles.

Yami once fought and defeated the assassin called Tyrant Azenda because of a dispute within the assassination organization they both worked for. That organization used to exist on the Planet Kild, in the Talha Galaxy, which was known as the garbage dump of the Universe

One time, while Yami was in the midst of combat her mind ran amok and transformed into her Darkness Form for a few seconds. Although the transformation was incomplete she sliced the Planet Kild in half. Some time after that, Yami came to Mikado suffering from many injuries and with no memory of what had happened.

When she arrived on Earth, Yami had no memories from before she became an assassin. However, being close to others, especially Rito, has caused those memories to resurface. Yami eventually notes that Rito's warmth reminds her of what she felt when she was with Tearju as a child.

Powers and Abilities
Transformation Ability: Golden Darkness' signature ability is her transformation ability otherwise known as the Trans-ability. This ability allows her to turn almost any part of her body into almost any animate objects (preferably weapons or tools used for combat) or reshape the size and figure of her body. The nanomachines that circulate through her body allow her to do this. A downside to her powers is that if she uses her power excessively, the nanomachines in her body overheat, leaving her extremely weak and unable to move and causing her to pass out (To Love-Ru Chapter 45).

Yami considers her power to be a "cursed power" and that it can only be used for hurting people (mainly males), however, she is truly able to use her powers for harmless and trivial purposes with safe precision, such as cutting up Lala's tofu (Chapter 76) or doing maid work at Saki Tenjouin's mansion (Darkness Chapter 31).
 * Page19.jpgn Transformation: This ability gives her the power to change any and all parts of her body into weapons like her hands turning into blades, claws or huge mechanical gauntlets. Yami mostly uses this ability to create weapons from her hair, she has also been shown to create non-weapon objects such a frying pan or even some medical equipment but is still useful against opponents.
 * Hair Manipulation: Yami's most notable ability is her control over her hair. She can control its movements, extend it's reach and uses it to create giant fists and dragon heads. She can even solidify her hair to form metallic objects like sword blades, metal teeth, battle axe, spiked maces, drills, hammer, wrecking balls. etc. Even a giant shoe that's similar to the ones she wears. She can also use his hair for create puppet. However she rarely uses this ability in combat, instead, she uses it to assault Rito if he happens to cause (either unintentionally or not) some mishaps around him.
 * Body Transformation: Yami is able to change her bodies size and measurements to look more mature and adult-like.
 * Partial Animal Transformation: She is also able to change parts of her body into animal-like features that gives her extra capabilities, growing a pair of white feathered wings (black while in her Darkness Form) from her back similer to an angel, to enable her fight. She can also turn her legs into a fish tail similar to a mermaid with gills that lets her breath and swim better underwater.
 * Attire Transmogrification: On her "date" with Rito, Yami used her abilities to change her black Gothic outfit into a cute dress, but she said that she can't hold it for very long.
 * Darkness Transformation: Following Tearju's expulsion from Eden, the scientistsTo_love_ru_wiki_contri_5.png affiliated with the group implanted a program called "Darkness" into Yami. Nemesis has stated that this form is a grand weapon of destruction that has the capability to destroy the whole universe. It was also feared by Tearju after Rito and Momo mentioned it to her during the Festival (Darkness Chapter 24). Because the scientists ultimately hated the fact that the universe was heading towards peace, they designed "Darkness" to activate when Yami felt a sense of peace in her heart. The Transformation starts with Yami losing control over her transform ability, in which it started molesting her with her hair. After a while, she is then cocooned by her hair and emerges in a transformed state. In this form, all of Yami's previous abilities are enhanced as well gaining new ones:
 * Limitless Transform Ability: According to Nemesis, the Darkness form is what happens when Transform runs amok and removes all of its limits, which she referred to as the Limitless Transform Ability. This ultimately turns Yami from an Anti-personel weapon into an Anti-planetary weapon.
 * Wormholes: Yami can create wormholes with the use of her hair and teleport anything or anyone anywhere, even herself. It is described by Tearju as applying her Transform Abilities on space to displace it.
 * Matter Manipulation: Yami is now able to freely control physical matter itself by transferring her Transform Ability into said matter. She has been shown being able to control water and solidify it, creating huge hands and is also able to stand on it. She can also control solid material like creating a wormhole in the ground shaped like a mouth with sharp teeth, and creating and controlling a giant earth statue shaped like Rito.
 * Energy based Weapons: Yami can now construct weapons made out of energy.

Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Apart from her alien powers, she also has excellent martial arts skills. Her physical combat skills nearly match her transformation power, meaning that even if her transformation powers were taken away from her, she could still win a fight with just her fighting skill, as shown when she beats up the school principal while in Mikan's body only using kicks and punches. She has also shown to be skilled with a regular Katana (though created from her hair).

Enhanced Strength: Yami is shown to have a great amount of strength despite her child-like appearance.

Enhanced Durability: Yami is able to withstand heavy attacks like a direct hit from a laser from Lala's tail.

Enhanced Agility and Reflexes: Yami has really good athletic skills, capable of doing somersaults, leaping over buildings and dodging certain impacts, but is still unable to dodge Rito's clumsiness, who always seems to manage to stumble upon her regardless.

Expert Tactician: Yami has seemgly proven herself to be an excellent tactician, as shown from observing her opponents and finding any sort of weakness, such as being knowledgeable of the Demon Sword, Bladix, at first sight or single-handedly finding out the rough alien Khameleon at the Tenjouin beach resort like a detective (due to reading too many detective mangas, as pointed out by Mikan).

Trivia

 * Yami is one of the most popular and main characters, aside from Rito, Lala, and Haruna. This may be because she is almost identical to Eve from Black Cat, which was also made by To Love-Ru's illustrator Kentaro Yabuki. She appears regularly in the To Love-Ru series, but not in every chapter.
 * Yami's transformation powers, such as growing wings and being able to transform her legs into a mermaid tail, were inspired by Eve from Black Cat.
 * Yami also made a cameo appearance in the manga Mayoi Neko Overrun in chapter 7 page 27.
 * Her name means "Darkness" in Japanese.
 * Because Yami is created from Tearju Lunatique's genes, their eyes should share the same color (because eye color is defined by specific genetic code), however, in the anime, Tear's eyes are emerald green, while Yami's ones are crimson red.