Carte À Jouer

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“	Welcome, welcome, the Spirit and her followers, and also- great people rebelling against the White Queen!	”
—to Kurumi Tokisaki and Hibiki Higoromo

Carte À Jouer
Profile
Katakana	キャルト・ア・ジュエー
Romaji	Carte À Jouer
Status	Alive
Gender	Female
Species	Quasi-Spirit
Hair Color	Red
Eye Color	Red
Personal Status
Occupation	Dominion (Formerly)
Media
Novel Debut	Date A Bullet 3
Portrayal

Carte À Jouer (キャルト・ア・ジュエー^?. lit. "Playing Card") is the former Dominion of the Third Region Binah.

Summary

Carte was the previous Dominion of Binah. But with the emergence of the White Queen, she was forcefully ousted from her position and driven into hiding. She had been planning to rebel against the White Queen, and was pleased to meet Kurumi Tokisaki and her companions, seeing as they provided an opportunity for a rebellion to grow in numbers and gain traction.

Appearance

Described as mysterious, Carte is a woman with “sharp and beautiful” looks. She wears androgynous garments that include a top hat, masquerade mask, and overcoat draped over her shoulders to resemble a magician’s cape. This outfit is styled by a white sleeveless blouse with buttons on it representing each suit of her playing cards. She also wears a small tie and baggy trousers with a belt, which is further highlighted by a heart-shaped buckle. Her gloves look similar to what a poker dealer may wear at a casino. Carte has short scarlet-colored hair cropped at her chin with a small, low-hanging ponytail. She also has red eyes, nearly identical in color to her hair. Notably, Carte has two markings on her face: a blue teardrop on her left cheek and a yellow star on her right cheek.

Personality

Carte is an eccentric Quasi-Spirit with a flair for quirkiness. She is mentioned to be somewhat foolish and has a formal, exaggerated manner about her that is reminiscent of a magician or street performer. During her time as Dominion, Carte created Binah to be a refuge and safe space for harmless or pacifistic Quasi-Spirits, much like how Yesod is a haven for those who do not wish to fight. Her role was to serve as a shield to hide and protect these weak Quasi-Spirits from danger.

Carte appears to care deeply for her cards created from her Unsigned Angel’s ability. She cries when they perish, despite them being able to be resurrected, and states that she wants them to all have memorable traits, in order to make it easier for her to remember those who laid down their lives for her. She is relatively affectionate with them as well, notably stroking their hair when talking about them or generally treating them with kindness and respect.

Carte’s care extends to her goals as well. She shares the same goal as any other Quasi-Spirit- finding a reason to live- but she also wants to regain control of Binah to vanquish the White Queen and prevent the Neighboring World from falling into turmoil under her absolute rule. However, upon being mentioned to look lazy by Hibiki (with agreement from her cards), it was revealed that Carte also wishes to reclaim the title of Dominion so she can freely study magic and return Binah to the place it once was. Carte’s desire to reclaim her title is also driven by her pride, having expressed distaste and shame from being ousted from her position by the White Queen.

When addressing others, Carte uses a friendly, familiar tone, with a veneer of exaggeration. Despite being on unsteady terms with Hibiki, Carte addresses her respectfully, but she otherwise doesn’t attempt to hide her mistrust or give backhanded compliments. Carte treats Kurumi with the utmost respect and pledges her subservience fearlessly and adamantly, although this mindset initially makes Kurumi feel uncomfortable.

For Carte, Kurumi as the 3rd Spirit is akin to a God. However, her feelings toward Kurumi are not as fanatical as what the Empties have towards the White Queen. Her pride and aspirations to be Kurumi's most loyal follower sometimes drive her into a bickering match with Hibiki, who also claims herself to be the closest to Kurumi.

History

Background

While she was the Dominion of Binah, Carte used the authority of time and shadows to hide weak Quasi-Spirits who sought refuge, gaining a reputation in the Neighboring World as a person who would offer asylum to those in need. However, after being defeated by the White Queen, Carte went into hiding. Pushed into a corner, Carte used her remaining 5% Dominion Rate to create a hiding spot within Binah, looking for an opportunity to strike back. Around this time, she met and befriended Cistus while the Kurumi clone was still a prisoner of the White Queen.

Media

• Light Novel
  • Appearances:
    • Date A Live Fragment: Date A Bullet 3, 5-8
  • Mentioned:
    • Date A Live Fragment: Date A Bullet 4

Powers and Abilities

Unsigned Angel: Servante Éphémère (創成戯画セルヴァント・エフメール, Seruvanto Efumēru^?. lit. "Caricature Creation")

Weapon: Playing Cards

As a 3rd-type Quasi-Spirit, Carte is relatively weak when it comes to physical confrontations. Just like Kurumi, she prefers a more trickster fighting style rather than fighting directly. By using her Reiryoku, Carte can transform her playing cards into pseudo-life forms that serve as her soldiers. Because they are created from her Reiryoku, there is a limit to the amount she can create.

The cards are 2 dimensional beings, varying from the four different types of playing cards: spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. They can slip through the thinnest cracks and are nearly completely immune to certain attacks, such as a falling ceiling trap that would have crushed anyone underneath.

While her card soldiers are very lively, they are not alive. From Carte's explanation, many 3rd-type Quasi-Spirits have the ability to create bodies such as shadows or dolls, but they are nothing but puppets. Even though Carte's trump soldiers can talk, in principle it is more like a programmed response rather than a real personality.

Even so, Carte tries to give a unique personality to each of her card soldiers, usually by giving them stereotypical trademark words at the end of their sentences. This way, she can easily remember everyone who has perished for her. But because the cards always act very dramatically and narrowly escape death, Carte actually feels her emotions drying from growing tired of the supposedly emotional "last moments."

One of her cards, the Ace of Spades, who is stranded with Hibiki in Hod after a failed attempt to escape, seems to develop a stronger personality through its time interacting with Hibiki and Kurumi, and from being exposed to their Reiryoku.

Carte also stated that her Astral Dress was high in defensive power.

Quotes

• (To Kurumi Tokisaki) “Then, I will become your support and serve as your limbs. For you, who is regarded as an existence equivalent to God in our region."
• (To Hibiki Higoromo) “But can Hibiki-san easily win? Wouldn't that be a simple matter? No problem, my friend, I believe in you~"
• (To her cards) “Hey, give me back my tears! Give them back! Why do you guys have to make me cry every time you say goodbye?!"
• (To Hibiki Higoromo) "Ah, that’s right! I want to live studying magic all day long!"
• (To Kurumi Tokisaki and Yui Sagakure) “Hahaha! March to the battlefield! Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! You’re looking at Tokisaki Kurumi’s number one servant, Carte À Jouer!”

Trivia

• Servante Éphémère is French for ephemeral servant.
• An illustration of Yoshinon can be seen in one of Carte's cards.
• In Date A Bullet Nightmare NOCO Artbook, Carte's name is romanized as Calt A Jewer.