Hibiki Lates

Hibiki Laytis, known as Hundred Night Hibiki, is one of the Mages who belong to the Blue Pegasus Guild's team, The Trimens.

Appearance
Hibiki is a rather tall young man with a slim build who sports long spiky blonde hair framing his head. His facial features are quite handsome (a commodity for the Trimens, save for Ichiya). In his first appearance, he is seen wearing a black blazer with a pinstriped shirt underneath, and dark pants. His attire has the Blue Pegasus insignia located over the side of his left shoulder, and also has a pair of white stripes around the wrists and ankles. For footwear, he wears high-quality dress shoes.

Personality
Like the rest of the Trimens, Hibiki behaves like a typical womanizer in that he usually charms up to any female (regardless of the age) he meets for the first time ever. Often with little to no shame even if accomplices of that woman are there to watch. Nevertheless, he is capable of becoming serious when he wants to be; he also possesses some level of will power, having resisted Nirvana's effect for a time before passing out, though he notes to himself that Lucy's bond with Celestial Spirits is what truly saved him, afterwards. He is apparently more perceptive and knowledgeable than he lets on, and because of this, he was the only member of his team whom Bob entrusted with the information regarding Nirvana's true capabilities.

History
Hibiki is a long-standing member of the Blue Pegasus guild; the length of his membership goes so far back that Bob entrust him with important information and considers him his right hand man. He is said to be the reason why so many women join the guild in the first place. At one point, Hibiki was the lover of Karen Lilica but their relationship ended when she was murdered on a mission by Angel of Oracion Seis. Hibiki apparently never got over her death, but it doesn't interfere with his work.

Oración Seis arc
He, along with Eve Thylm and Ren Akatsuki, act as greeters to the other members of the Light Team. Though they're more womanizers then anything instantly trying to woo over Lucy Heartfilia and Erza Scarlet (and later Wendy Marvell) and he, along with his team, is very rude to the other men. After the representatives gather at their guild to discuss the threat of Oración Seis, he along with Eve and Ren, rush out with the other to go find the dark guild and indeed quickly locate their target. However the Oración Seis easily decimate them and kidnapped Wendy (as well as Happy) but are saved from death thanks to Jura Nekis. The bunch soon regroup to save their kidnapped members. Hibiki stays behind with Lucy and Erza, the latter whose been poisoned by Cobra, to look after them as well as guide the other back to their location once they've found their targets. It is here that he reveals to Lucy that she has gained a rather fearsome reputation because of Natsu's antics.

After Natsu Dragneel finds Wendy, Hibiki helps Natsu find his and Lucy's position through his Magic. Allowing him to reach Erza just in time and allow Wendy to cure her of the poison. However no sooner then this task is accomplished, Jellal Fernandes activates Nirvana, which Hibiki knows about having been informed by Ichiya secretly. Both Erza and Natsu split from the group at this point and Wendy nearly succumbs to the power of Nirvana due to her negative thoughts, forcing Hibiki to knock her out for her own safety.

He then carries Wendy while Lucy, Charle, Happy and he try to follow after their friends. Hibiki explaining Nirvana's purpose along the way. However they soon come across Angel who nearly kills Natsu having incapacitated him by exploiting his motion sickness. Lucy does battle against the Oración Seis member with Hibiki nearly joining in. But he is wounded when Angel takes control of Sagittarius and hits him in the shoulder, leaving Hibiki out for most of the fight.

As the battle continues, Angel mentions she was the one who killed Hibiki's fellow member, Karen, who was also his girlfriend. This news greatly shocks Hibiki and he is nearly affected by Nirvana due to his negative thoughts, but he manages to suppress them. Later he watches as Lucy nearly sacrifices herself to free Karen's former spirit, Aries, from Angel's grasp. But she is saved when Angel's spirit, Gemini, who can't bring themselves to kill her after reading Lucy's heart and discovering her pure love for all Celestial Spirits. As Angel dismisses them, Hibiki comes up at Lucy from behind seemingly affected by Nirvana and makes to strangle Lucy. But its a ruse to get Angel off her guard while he uploads a top level spell into Lucy's mind, mentioning to her that it was her love of Celestial Spirits that saved him from Nirvana.

He then passes out from exertion but accomplishes his task as his power allows Lucy to fire off the spell and defeat Angel. As he recuperates, he leads the rest of the Light Team on board the Christina (repaired in a make-shift manner by the Mages who were using their individual Magics in tandem to enable the vessel to fly once again) a charge against Nirvana to save the Cait Shelter Guild as Zero attempts to destroy it. He was the one who found Nirvana's weakness and, using his Magic, he forwards it to the others. However, Zero hijacked the transmission and reveals that he already defeated four of their comrades(Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Happy) and that he is standing in front of one of the lacrimas. Hibiki, along with the rest of the light team, tells the four to stand up. When they finally finalized the plan, Hibiki reaches his limit and transmission was cut off.

After the Oracion Seis was defeated and Nirvana stopped, the Light team regroups in Cait Shelter Guild where they learn the secret of the guild.

Magic and Abilities
Archive (古文書 Komonjo): A rare type of Magic which allows Hibiki to transfer information to and from people for various purposes. With this, he is capable of coordinating the movements of his allies as well as knowing their present conditions and giving them new knowledge. As a result of this, Hibiki usually distances himself from the battlefield and acts as a command center of sorts, but is capable of defending himself should the need arise.


 * Force Blast: User can manifest his Archive Magic in a form of Magical screens and forcefully explode them in front of his target causing similar damage of a blast. It is sufficient enough to throw away his target into the air, as seen with Wendy.


 * Force Shield: User can cast a Magical shield from screens with his Magic. It is unknown to what degree it could stand up to assaults, both Magical or otherwise, but was powerful enough to block an Ice-Make spell cast by Gemini (who was assuming Gray's form and abilities at that time).


 * Telepathy (思念伝達魔法 Shinen Dentatsu Mahō): This Magic allows users to communicate with other people just using his mind. With this, he is able to establish contact with comrades even over considerable distances. However, it is likely that he can only establish this connection to individuals that he knows, met, and is personally familiar with. Other users of Archive are also capable of intercepting the connection, as Zero has demonstrated, by "jacking-in"


 * Information Transfer: User can uses his Magic to transfer some information into person's mind. This is particularly useful in reconaissance missions, since Hibiki can send information regarding miscellaneous data (such as the nearby surroundings, for instance) to his comrades, which they can perceive on a mental level as loading bars in buffering progress occurring within their mind that represents the images and symbols being downloaded into them in real time; with this, he can navigate allies on where to go by transferring "maps" into their heads. The data that he could transfer also includes (but probably not limited to) the knowledge on how to perform powerful spells and enchantments like Urano Metria. Unfortunately, bestowing such information to another person is not without drawbacks; it seems to induce a mental strain that lasts for the duration of the download (though Lucy was perfectly fine after performing Urano Metria, albeit could not remember any details of it after that). As such, Hibiki claims that executing the skill based on the information he provides can only be used once.

Major Battles

 * Light Team vs. Oración Seis

Trivia

 * According to the Blue Pegasus membership card, Hibiki likes all females and dislikes bugs. His handsome features consistently places him fairly high in the Weekly Sorceror's "Mage I'd Like as a Boyfriend" ranking, and maybe why so many girls sign up for the Guild he is affiliated with. He apparently has no personal preference in any particular lady, but rumors circulating about him spread nonetheless, spanning about 18 (unconfirmed) legends about him so far.


 * In the OVA, Welcome to Fairy Hills!!, Hibiki was one of the potential boyfriends for Lucy Heartfilia.

Quotes

 * (To Lucy Heartfilia) "...I almost fell into darkness, but the bonds you have with your spirits wrapped me in the light."