Miroku Loop Octopus

Miroku Loop Octopus
Technical Information
Japanese	ミロク=ループ=オクトパス
Romaji	Miroku Ruupu Okutopasu
Biographical Information
Classification	Human
Race	Loop Octopus
Gender	Male
Affiliation(s)	Magic Kingdom Levianta

"Precisely. You are able to live comfortably because of the senate. Don’t forget that."

―Miroku

Miroku Loop Octopus was the head of the senate in the Magic Kingdom Levianta during the reign of Maria Moonlit, and a member of the Loop Octopus Clan. For the sake of his political power, Miroku sought to manipulate the queen as a puppet using Venom and was himself subjected to the brainwashing drug.

History

Early Life

Miroku was born to the Loop Octopus Clan in the Magic Kingdom Levianta during the BT era of Evillious. He eventually came to inherit a position in the senate, while also siring two sons. The older one, Gammon, was disinherited as the family's heir when it was discovered the child had no magic potential; instead, the younger son was chosen as the new heir. When the fourteen-year-old Maria Moonlit received a "divine revelation" from Levia and Behemo and was made into the next queen of Levianta, Miroku became the head of the senate by virtue of owning the orphanage she grew up in. As head of the senate, he was thus the only one able to interact with the queen and relate her prophecies to the rest of the government.

Miraculous Revelations

When the supposedly virgin queen told Miroku that she'd been miraculously impregnated with the children of the gods Levia-Behemo, Miroku assumed the children were merely the result of an affair and feared his position meant he'd be suspected as the father. To prevent a scandal on himself, Miroku tried to force the queen to have an abortion. When she escaped and had the children anyway, he had her recaptured and tasked his steward Horus Solntse with drowning the babies in the river. He later attempted to have his steward killed, only for Horus to reappear later; impressed, Miroku kept him on as a co-conspirator.

At that point, Miroku conspired to manipulate the queen by having Horus invent a brainwashing drug to use on her called Venom; Miroku also used Venom on the senator Ceci Vaju to arrange to become the man's heir in the event of his death. Unbeknownst to him, however, rather than using the Venom on the queen, Horus began drugging Miroku himself. Now susceptible to suggestion, Miroku became Horus' puppet and was completely unaware of the true state of the queen; he instead began mistaking his own purple dreams for Maria's prophecies, regularly thinking that he himself was Maria Moonlit.

Years after Maria's children were taken from her, Miroku was perturbed when she delivered another prophecy that the senate would have to "atone" for their mistake and create the receptacles for Levia and Behemo themselves or face the destruction of Levianta. As he prepared for the resultant meeting in the senate to discuss the prophecy, Miroku had his retainer fetch his son Gammon, and the current head of the royal institute research facility, Adam Solntse, to also attend. At the meeting, Miroku related to the rest of the senate both the prophecy and the project that would be instituted to avert it: Project 'Ma'.

Fall from Power

Miroku continued on as head of the Leviantan senate while Project 'Ma' was underway, keeping the prophecy and project a secret while publicly undergoing work on the country's "Next Queen Project". Listed as Vaju's heir, Miroku planned to inherit the research facility and therefore remain head of the senate even in the event that the facility produced the next queen of Levianta. To that end, he gave the research facility a wealth of permissions and resources to aid the project. Around the time the first project candidate, Eve Zvezda, was successfully impregnated with the God Seed, Vaju died and Miroku inherited the facility as he wished.

Despite this, when it came time for Eve to deliver the children, the babies were stillborn and the project was deemed a failure. Shortly afterwards, Gammon Loop Octopus launched a rebellion to overthrow the current senate, during which time Miroku's cognition rapidly decayed from being drugged by the Venom. He was later taken by his son and left to lie in a stupor before the Levia-Behemo temple, completely removed from power and his own mental faculties.

Personality and Traits

A self-righteous and arrogant man, Miroku was only concerned with his own political gain. Having established a strong position in Levianta's government, Miroku would use any means at his disposal to hold on to his power, whether through abusing and manipulating his own queen or his fellow senators. He frequently employed deceit and force in his dealings, as well as using the brainwashing drug Venom. He was inclined to kill those he considered loose ends, while keeping around those that proved useful to him.

Fitting his manipulative personality, Miroku was generally rude, cruel, and, furthermore, irreverent towards matters of the gods and the queen. While aware of the weight that Maria's prophecies held for the rest of the senate, he refused to believe her claims when they proved inconvenient for him and he thought little of her prophecy of doom for the rest of the country.

Miroku's mental state began to sharply decay as a result of, ironically, being drugged with Venom himself. Due to the brainwashing he was entirely unaware of the queen's current state of being. Furthermore, his writings suggested that at times he even believed himself to be the queen, mistaking his purple dreams for her prophecies. During Gammon's military coup, Miroku's brainwashing had such an effect on his mind that he was rendered insensible.

Skills and Abilities

Like all the Loop Octopus Clan members, Miroku had the ability to view the future using Purple Dreams. He also possessed a notable amount of physical strength, capable of crushing an apple using his bare hands. In addition to this, Miroku possessed many powerful political connections due to his position. Other allies, like the senator Cecil Vaju, he was able to amass using the Venom drug to brainwash them.

Character Connections

Horus Solntse: Miroku's former retainer. Miroku saw fit to use Horus to do his dirty work in disposing of Maria's children. Although initially seeing him as a loose end to be disposed of, himself, he was surprised by Horus' resourcefulness and kept him on as an accomplice for many years. As a result, he was completely unsuspecting to the fact that Horus was brainwashing him with Venom.

Maria Moonlit: Miroku's queen. Having obtained his head position in the senate by "finding" Maria, Miroku saw her merely as his means to power and therefore sought to closely control her with no regards to her own emotional wellbeing or to the potential truth of her prophecies and claims. After being drugged with Venom, Miroku nonetheless seemed to have a particular fixation on Maria's prophecies.

Trivia

Conceptualization and Origin

• Miroku's name is also another name for the fifth Buddha Maitreya.

Appearances

• Original Sin Story: Crime (first appearance)
• Original Sin Story: To (mentioned only)
• Original Sin Story: Punishment (mentioned only)
• Outlaw & Lychgate (first indirect mention)