Nine Barthes



Nine Barthes is the leader of the Flana Institute and a secondary antagonist of the 2013 anime series Gundam Build Fighters. Serves as Aila Jyrkiäinen's manager during the Gunpla Battle World Tournament, Nine seeks to win major tournaments for his sponsors and will stop at nothing to make sure his test subjects get his institute titles.

Biography
While scouting in Finland for new test subjects, Nine runs into Aila Jyrkiäinen, a street orphan who can sense Plavsky Particles to predict outcomes of Gunpla battles. As Aila could already predict 87.3% of the actions in battle, Nine sees her as an opportunity for the Flana Institute to earn money from tournaments. In exchange for food and shelter, Nine begins to relentlessly test Aila to improve her prediction rate. This leads to the development of the Embody System, a system that could increase Aila's particle reaction time to 99.7%. While Nine recognizes that the system breaks tournament rules, he nonetheless forces Aila to wear the system given that it could be easily hidden within a cosplay.

Eventually, Nine introduces Aila to Josef Kankaansyrjä, the leader of Team Nemesis who is seeking a tournament title as a birthday present for his grandson Lucas. After Aila crushes Gawain Oakley, the team's previous ace, Josef promotes her as the team's primary pilot and sends Aila to the European qualifiers in the Gunpla Battle World Tournament, where she swiftly defeats the previous world champion Carlos Kaiser to qualify.

Under Nine's close management, Aila progresses to the quarterfinals where she faces Ricardo Fellini. As the battle progressed, Aila grew distracted with the fact that she would have to face her love interest Reiji if she beat Fellini. After receiving an angry call from Josef, NIne activates the Embody System to full output and blames Aila for refusing to fight Fellini. This mentally tortures Aila into mercilessly destroying Fellini's Gundam Fenice, even after the later concedes the battle. As Nine medically scans Aila after the battle, he realizes that Aila's feelings for Reiji are causing her to subconciously refuse to fight and threatens to toss her out to the streets when she refuses to train for the semifinals.

As the semifinals begins, Aila subconsciously refuses to fight Reiji, driving Nine to exponentially increase the Embody System's output on his test subject. As this causes severe mental and physical pain on Aila, the Qubeley begins to overwhelm Sei and Reiji. Just before Nine could finish the Star Build Strike, the Arista on Aila's neck glows in response to her pain, causing the Arista on Reiji's right hand to respond as well. This transports their consciousness into a space where Reiji finds out that Aila is not fighting willingly. After Reiji offers her to stay in Sei's home instead, Aila realizes that she could finally escape the Flana Institute, causing the Embody System to completely shut down. As Reiji and Aila engage in a lover's spat, Nine finds himself shoved off by his former test subject.

After Aila loses in the semifinals, Nine Barthes offers his services to Chairman Mashita and Baker. Knowing that the current Meijin Kawaguchi (a title given to PPSE's ace pilot) Tatsuya Yuuki fights under a different philosophy than his predecessor, Mashita hires Nine to build a new Embody System (this time disguised as a pair of sunglasses) and force Tatsuya to wear them. As the finals progresses, Aila finds out in the crowd that Tatsuya is under the duress of the Embody System. She notifies Reiji and Sei of this. and, when Nine is prevented from further increasing the Embody System's output by Allan Adams, Reiji and Sei were able to defeat Meijin, destroying the Embody System in the process.

Personality
Despite having a calm demeanor, Nine Barthes is an especially cruel handler of his test subjects. Nine uses Aila's impoverished background to his advantage, often threatening to send her back on the streets whenever Aila expresses her disgust with Gunpla battles or refuses to follow commands. While he initially seems to express concern with Aila's well-being, he is only interested in the financial gain of his institute and mocks Aila for her unwillingness to fight against opponents prior to increasing the Embody output.

Nine is also a person who will jump on any opportunity to earn money, as seen when he offers his services to Chairman Mashita and Ms. Baker. Upon meeting Tatsuya Yuuki, Nine forces Tatsuya to wear a mask with an upgraded Embody System, insisting that it is only business and forces Tatsuya's friend Allan Adams to watch him operate the Embody System.

Trivia

 * Nine Barthes is voiced by Daichi Endo, a seiyuu who has previously voice acted as Sakumoto Hatake in Naruto Shippuden.
 * Nine's Embody System is similar to the Berserker System from G Gundam.  Like the Embody System, an active Berserker System in Allenby Beardsley's Nobel Gundam increases the pilot's fighting output at the expense of severe physical and mental strain.