Zweilt Guardian

"You who shields our lives, may we become your swords to protect you. We pledge our undying and absolute loyalty unto you until we are no more."

- Zweilt's Oath ""The Zweilt Guardians are members of the Giou clan gifted with especially strong abilities. In rare cases, a new member might inherit the “inborn gift” (e.g. Senshirou), and along with strenuous training and a strong will to quality, they can become a Zweilt Guardian as well even though it is very difficult to do so.

Zweilts mostly act as pairs, though there are rare occasions where a Zweilt works on their own (e.g. Sairi in his previous life). Compared to normal people, they are much more athletic and have faster regeneration abilities. To preserve their abilities, a spell has been put on them, resulting in them being reincarnated over and over again to continue their fight since none of them will reach the age of thirty. Genders can also change when a Zweilt is reborn (e.g. Shusei who was a female in his previous life). They are the force opposing the Duras (led by Reiga). There were originally a lot more Zweilt partners than the current eight, but most of them died in previous battles without being able to reincarnate as the Duras destroyed their souls.

Duties
The tasks of the Zweilt Guardians consist of -
 * Watching over and protecting Kami no Hikari. (God's Light.)
 * Fighting Duras in order to maintain the balance of the world.
 * If they manage to survive after the battle, leaving behind strong blood.

Zweilt Rings
The Zweilt Ring is an artefact worn by the Zweilt Guardians and have their Demonbane weapon sealed inside. They are infused with magic, and they all have the letters AGLA (“Thy might is eternal”) as well as the Zweilt’s name engraved on it. Each Zweilt Guardian wears their ring on a different position on their hand and wields their own weapon:
 * Tsukumo Murasame – middle finger of right hand – a gun called Knell ネル (Furneral Bell)


 * Toko Murasame – index finger of left hand – a huge sword called Eon エオン (Eternity)


 * Hotsuma Renjou – thumb of right hand – a curvy blade called Masterstroke マスターストローク (Divine Skill)


 * Shuusei Usui – index finger of right hand – a pair of short sword called Kurai Kurou クライ・クロウ (Crime & Punishment)


 * Kuroto Hourai – ring finger of right hand – a black katana called Izanagi イザナギ (Hell)


 * Senshirou Furuori – little finger of left hand – a gigantic scythe called Death Scythe; a calligraphy brush called Megyllvarda (Chaos)


 * Ria Otona – ring finger of left hand – Pair of fans.


 * Sairi Shinmei – middle finger of left hand – a pair of scythe-like blades called Leda

Abilities

 * God’s Ears 神の耳 (Tsukumo, Toko)
 * God’s Voice 神の声 (Hotsuma)
 * God’s Eyes 神の目 (Shusei)
 * God’s Feet 神の足 (Kuroto)
 * God’s Eyes 神の目 – Malicious Eyes 邪眼 (Sairi)

Family
There are ten “god-touched” houses: The Giou 祇王 house is the head, followed by nine branch houses, namely Shinmei 神命, Murasame 叢雨, Renjou 蓮城, Usui 碓氷, Hourai 蓬莱, Furuori 降織, Otona 乙撫, Shikibe 式部 and Reisen 黎泉.

In order to maintain the strong blood that was “touched by god”, Zweilt Guardians must follow the custom to choose their spouse from one of the ten houses. Marriage between Zweilt Guardians is desirable because of the idea was that the child would automatically inherit the “inborn gift” of the parents - but none of these children were ever born.

Guardians
To preserve their abilities, the Zweilt have been reincarnated over and over for several generations. While most members have been partners in their past lives, occasionally a partner would die in battle like Kuroto's previous partner. There were also Zweilt who would fight alone, like Sairi. According to Tachibana, it is extremely difficult to become a Zweilt Guardian, as one would require an "inborn gift", strenuous training and a strong will to qualify.

The current Zweilt Guardians are:


 * Toko Murasame


 * Tsukumo Murasame


 * Hotsuma Renjou


 * Shuusei Usui


 * Kuroto Hourai


 * Senshirou Furuori


 * Sairi Shinmei


 * Ria Otona

Other (Former) Zweilt:

 * Oboro
 * Unnamed Zweilt - who fell in love, not with his partner, but a stranger from outside the clan and ran away from the Giou.

The Zweilt's Master
"They aren't quite conscious of it...but the axis on which their world revolves is Yuki, their master. To be beside Yuki, to receive his love and take his orders - that is their ultimate happiness. And so when they get nothing of that sort, stress begins to build up inside of them. None of them like to be deprived of Yuki."

- Takashiro Giou

As Takashiro puts it, the relationship the Zweilts had with Yuki can be simply described as a master and retainer relationship. It never had to be taught to them as they seem to live and breath it naturally and even if they may not be conscious of it, Yuki is the axis to which their worlds revolve around.

When Yuki is not near or around them, the Zweilt are shown to become seriously depressed, as the time Yuki had left for Kamakura, the Zweilts who remained in Twilight Manor became incredibly, near humorously, depressed and melancholy. For a more extreme case of Yuki not being around them, in the event of his many deaths, the Zweilt always take on a heavy psychological damage in effect to "losing him."

In Story 038, Sairi had noted that before Yuki had come to live at the Twilight Manor, the Zweilt never really conversed amongst each other and everything was very quiet. Tsukumo would add on to this by saying that the house without Yuki was almost as if, "all the lights had gone out." When Yuki arrived, the entire atmosphere changed for a brighter, more lively one.

Whenever Yuki is unconscious due to overusing his powers, they tend to gravitate around his room door or just sit around lacklusterly.

It's unknown as to why the Zweilt have such a strong emotional attachment to Yuki and have had for the many centuries they have been reincarnated over and over again. However, the Zweilt are shown to not be the only ones with such strong feelings, as the entirety of the Giou Clan acts in a similar manner.

Trivia

 * In Japanese, Zweilt is written as "hand of admonition"
 * On each of the rings that a Guardian wears, "Agla" is inscribed before the Zweilt's name (ie: "Agla Tsukumo" is written on Tsukumo's ring, "Agla Tooko" is written on Tooko's ring, etc.). "Agla" means "Thy might is eternal"
 * Every time the Zweilt use their weapons against the Duras, they pay by using their "remaining life source."
 * In each battle, the Zweilts will use up the energy of a normal person’s whole life in a short amount of time. Hence, the longer the battle lasts… the greater is the damage inflicted on the body.