Yu Ominae

Yu Ominae (御神苗優) is a fictional character in the manga series Spriggan. He is the manga and OVA's main leading protagonist, stationed at ARCAM's Japanese branch.

Early history
It is known that Yu Ominae was born in Japan, but where in the country was never specified. When he was a little boy, he joined up with his archaeologist parents to a trip in Iran, where he enjoyed most of his early childhood since his parents were part of an archaeological expedition.

Childhood nightmare
When he was visiting a nearby village, heavily armed men stormed the archaeology camp and gunned down those who were present, including Yu's parents. The young Yu had only learned of it when he returned to the camp to see the corpse of his dead parents.

Seeing that they were not alive, the boy could only cry out in sadness and anger.

New life
Yu was subsequently adopted by his cousin, Akiha Ominae, who became a surrogate foster mother to the adolescent. Takashi Ominae acted in a father position while Yu was in the United States. The two tried to raise Yu in a normal setting, helping him forget about the traumatic experiences back in Iran.

Significant event
During his pre-adolescent years in the United States, Yu was kidnapped by CIA operatives as a part of amassing child soldiers for the US Army's COSMOS program and underwent training, including combat knife training by Bowman. Although he was claimed to be rescued and brought back to Akiha, she swore that something was not right with Yu, especially when he began to fight back against an evening home invasion by himself with military-style techniques. Takashi reprimanded Yu when he found out that he was responsible for killing some of the robbers.

COSMOS operation
During his time in COSMOS, Yu had participated in a black ops mission in South America in raiding an archaeology camp. After he and his team killed the camp's armed security guards and its archaeologists, Yu began to recall from his subconscious the death of his parents. Due to this, Yu was able to regain most of his original memory. However, he went berserk and began to kill his fellow COSMOS soldiers and critically wound his commander before meeting with Oboro. Hiking in the forests alone before encountering Yu, who was armed with an M60 GPMG before Oboro was able to disarm him by using his Qigong martial arts after he paralyzed him with minimal force by pressing his palm on his head.

Back in Japan
Yu was then brought back to his native Japan by Takashi and Akiha with possible assistance from Oboro, possibly after deciding that it would be best for him to get back to his roots and to be safe from whoever changed Yu's life (Although they didn't know that the CIA was responsible for his brainwashing) before Oboro had saved his life. Yu was then brought into ARCAM's Japanese branch as a ward of Yamamoto and subsequently stationed at ARCAM's Japanese branch as well.

During his time with Yamamoto, he began his covert military training in order to be a Spriggan agent. Oboro would train him in various martial arts, with the exception of allowing him to be taught the Qigong arts.

Spriggan life
Yu began to get involved in some of ARCAM's dangerous works, starting with his bodyguard duties to his ex-friend Rie Yamabishi, who was also an orphan like him when the two were in an orphanage in the United States before Yu was adopted by his relatives. Later on, Yu faces his adversaries in his assignments from various militaries like the British Army and covert groups such as Trident Corporation mercenaries and his former COSMOS comrades as he continues to contributes to ARCAM's role in destroying all known existing out-of-place artifacts, even working with Yoshino Somei for a few times. He had also clashed with Iwao Akatsuki a few times, fighting him in India and Romania before the two placed their differences aside in order to stop Larry Markson from conducting his operations in the South Pole, making the two rivals.

As Yu continued to foil the attempts of individuals, organizations and nations in attempting to covertly acquire out-of-place artifacts, he was placed to the ultimate test when Trident Corporation forces lead by Larry Markson and with a shadow ARCAM Corporation team forced to collaborate with Trident under Henry Garnum, they tried to unleash the power of the Fire Snake hidden in the South Pole Shrine in a bid to conquer the world. Yu, Jean, Iwao, Yoshino and other members of the ARCAM shadow team under Dr. Percup Ramdi were able to oust Trident Corporation soldiers from the South Pole and were able to quell the fiery beast.

Post-Spriggan
After the successful operation to eliminate the rampaging Fire Snake from the South Pole Shrine and defeating Markson's Trident forces in the South Pole, Yu was seen attending college after graduating from his high school, but is still posted at ARCAM's Japanese branch, attending to a mission in Mexico to secure the Gold Statue of Pachacamac and secure the safety of his classmate, Nanako Kondo.

First mission
Yu made his first appearance in the Spriggan: First Mission one shot story where he had first mission to infiltrate a Machiner's Platoon building in Japan after being order to recover the Megiddo Flame from Major Humming Bat, a Machiner's Platoon officer who ran the facility. Yu had his first encounter as well with Yoshino Somei, who was working undercover under the alias of Sakura Himeno. Though Yu defeated and disabled Humming Bat by removing his cyborg arms, he was outwitted by Yoshino when she gassed him and grabbed the Megiddo Flame before Yu recovered and waited for her inside her car.

Later recovering the said artifact, Yu met Yoshino again when the two were seen outside the gates of a nearby school somewhere in Tokyo.

Sprigggan: Lunar Verse
Yu appears in Spriggan: Luner Verse as a hidden character after a players beats the game and save the cleared game.

Character
A slacker at heart, Yu is the typical delinquent who happens to get in trouble with some of his teachers since he doesn't pay attention to some of his classes. In addition, he cuts classes for most of the time, leading to teasing from his peers to think that Yu wants to avoid school since these are only good times for him to conduct his Spriggan missions in secret before he graduated from high school (With one of them telling Yu that he should have a girlfriend). At one point, Yu wishes that he wasn't a Spriggan agent, but he doesn't regret where he was now. Despite his high school lifestyle, Yu is an expert in martial arts, firearms and commando tactics, thanks to his years of indoctrination with COSMOS and his military training with ARCAM. Yu can defend himself easily from all known threats.

Yu uses a Yamaha V-Max motorcycle as his personal means of transportation from school to ARCAM's Japanese headquarters in Tokyo and vice versa, with other trips to different places as needed. His current residence is in the top floors of ARCAM Japan's main building, furnished to accommodate Yu and possibly other Japanese or foreign Spriggan operatives with penthouse-style accommodations.

Yu has negative looks on Yoshino Somei, due to the fact that she gets herself into trouble for most of the time whenever he is deployed in an ARCAM-sanctioned mission.

Trivia

 * Yu's Spriggan codename is Fairy, a reference to the actual Spriggan.
 * His first name is sometimes translated as Yuu or You.