Karabo Frampton

Karabo Frampton
Japanese name:	カラボー・フランプトン
Portrayals
Japanese VA:	Eizou Tsuda
English VA:	John Eric Bentley
Appearances
Primary franchise:	Fate
Appears in:	Lord El-Melloi II Case Files
Characteristics
Species:	Human, Magus
Gender:	Male
Height:	169 cm
Age:	70s
Magecraft
Mystic Eyes:	Mystic Eyes of Transience
Affiliations
Organization:	Holy Church

Karabo Frampton (カラボー・フランプトン, Karabō Furanputon^?) is one of the people involved in the Mystic Eyes Collection Train incident of Lord El-Melloi II Case Files. He is an Executor of the Holy Church.

Profile

Background

Seven years prior to the Mystic Eyes Collection Train case, Karabo was the lead investigator of the Holy Church looking in to a series of murders in London, where the victims where all decapitated and their heads stolen from the crime scenes to presumably obtain their Mystic Eyes.

Appearance

A dark-skinned, elderly man in his seventies who cuts a tall and imposing figure with his Holy Church garb. He has a prominent scar that runs across his right brow and eye, taking up much of the length of his face.

In the manga adaptation of Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, Karabo's appearance differs slightly from how he looks in the light novels and anime adaptation, having a less aged-looking face and a trimmed mustache in place of his long white beard.

Karabo Frampton in the manga.

Personality

In contrast to his stern exterior, Karabo has the calm personality of one who is weary of their long life and is open to providing guidance to young people. He was far too kind a person to be an Executor. However, he is terrified of not being able to have confidence in his own memories due to his Mystic Eyes, only to regret their absence later on, showing a human-like weakness.

Role

Lord El-Melloi II Case Files

His fellow passengers, including Lord El-Melloi II and his entourage, react with shock upon seeing a member of the Holy Church aboard the Rail Zeppelin. Karabo attempts to allay their fears and suspicions, saying he is also there to attend the auction and even presenting an invitation he received for it as proof.

In the anime, he treats Gray gently when she laments her motion sickness, explaining that the Rail Zeppelin runs on magical tracks over Leylines, and offers her an apple to help. As she reaches out to take it, their hands briefly touch and Karabo has a vision of Artoria Pendragon, much to his shock. He immediately apologizes to Gray for unintentionally "seeing".

When Trisha Fellows's decapitated body turns up, Karabo offers to perform the autopsy, and knocks out Olga Marie when she vehemently protests. In the novels, following the autopsy, Lord El-Melloi II deduces that he has Mystic Eyes and Karabo explains his Mystic Eyes. He is unable to see Trisha's assailant despite his ability, saying that the events around her death are curiously hazy, speculating that they had some kind of protection against clairvoyance. Following El-Melloi II's conclusion that Trisha was murdered for her Mystic Eyes, the suspicion first falls to Karabo, as a member of the Holy Church. However, he reveals that he is in fact aboard the train to sell his Mystic Eyes, as his visions have become more frequent and are nothing but troublesome.

For this reason, when the Rail Zeppelin is forcibly rerouted to a Child of Einnashe, Karabo is determined to venture out to reactivate the leyline to get the magical tracks back up and running, as the auction is danger of being cancelled otherwise. He enlists the help of Yvette L. Lehrman, the only mage other than El-Melloi II's group to not barricade herself in her room, as well as Gray and Melvin Weins, who had found his way to the Rail Zeppelin while it was stuck in the forest.

After activating the first focal point of magical energy with Karabo's Black Key, the Child of Einnashe begins to grow aggressive and retaliate. They rush to another two focal points located by Yvette and activate them, but Gray falls down a cliff during the battle. They successfully restart the Rail Zeppelin, but are forced to leave Gray behind as they make it back to the train.

Later, Hishiri Adashino gathers the passengers together to explain her deduction of Trisha's murder after Olga Marie's discovery of her missing head in an Imaginary Number Space. Adashino reveals that due to the nature of Imaginary Numbers, Trisha was still alive until she was found, and that she uttered one word before finally dying for good: "Karabo". Coupled with her knowledge that Karabo was the lead investigator into the serial murders in London seven years prior, with the same circumstances as Trisha's death, Adashino surmises that he was the murderer in both cases, with his unique Mystic Eyes of Retrocognition granting him the ability to bring forth recorded effects, such as a "slash", into the present. This allows him to commit murders without being physically present, thus avoiding being seen by users of Mystic Eyes of Precognition and Retrocognition.

El-Melloi II interrupts Adashino, having finally awoken from his injuries, arguing that her deduction hinges entirely on whether Karabo's Mystic Eyes are capable of what she says. It is then that Leandra appears with an apparition that serves as the Rail Zeppelin's deputy manager, as it is time to collect Karabo's eyes for the auction in half a day's time. Despite his protests, the deputy manager psychically removes his eyes, a process that preserves the Mystic Eyes but causes Karabo so much pain that he faints. After the Mystic Eyes are placed into a container, Leandra judges them to be of Jewel quality, assesses that they are indeed capable of bringing forth past effects "like sea foam washing ashore", and names them Mystic Eyes of Transience, thus confirming Adashino's deduction.

Afterwards, El-Melloi II visits Karabo in his quarters, where he is recovering from the surgery with bandages over his eyes. He admits that he only remembered investigating the London serial murders when Adashino confronted him, as his Mystic Eyes had subjected him to visions to the point of eroding away at his own memories. Yet now that he has finally rid himself of them, he feels their loss keenly as he believes he could use their powers to help with the current situation.

Karabo is not present for the auction of his Mystic Eyes, although as Jewel-ranked items, they become the highlight of the event, being the high quality Mystic Eyes Trisha had foreseen in her visions. The price starts at 5 billion pounds and the bidding for them is fierce. It comes down to: El-Melloi II, who finds himself forced to use a credit card loaned from Reines and convinces Melvin to procure even more money; Yvette, who mysteriously has an unusually high amount to bid; and Adashino, who has virtually unlimited funds from the Department of Policies at her disposal and the most confidence, as Karabo being under arrest means that the winnings would go back to the Department.

Following El-Melloi II's reveal that Doctor Heartless was the mastermind who controlled Karabo into committing the murders and the Master of "Hephaestion", now known as Faker, Karabo joins in the efforts to prevent the pair from making their escape. Due to the circumstances, the auction of his Mystic Eyes was rendered void and Karabo was able to regain them, and he fights against Faker with his new knowledge of what they are capable of, attacking with his Black Keys and Faker's own slashes from the past. However, she is able to freeze Karabo and Gray with her Mystic Eyes of Compulsion, and follows with a severe blow to Karabo's chest. He is able to recover briefly to give Gray advice on offering prayers as she prepares to unleash Rhongomyniad before collapsing from his wound.

El-Melloi II believes Karabo died and later expresses regret that he was unable to save him.

Abilities

• Karabo seeing a vision of Gray's past
• Bring recorded slashes into the present to attack Faker

1/2

Karabo possesses a pair of Mystic Eyes of Transience (泡影, Hōei^?), a Jewel-ranked variant of Mystic Eyes of Retrocognition (過去視, Kakoshi^?) that allow him to see the past in the form of bubbles, something similar to the theory of quantum foam^WP. It seems to activate by touch, as he has a vision of Artoria Pendragon when he briefly touched Gray's hand. He loses control of them as time has passed, being increasingly subjected to past visions to the point where he forgets his own memories.

They are also able to bring forth recorded effects, such as a knife slash in the air, that are seen in the past and bring them into the present; the analogy of sea foam washing ashore is used, while visually it appears like bubbles rising to the surface and bursting. The effect has to happen in the same location as it was in the past as the Eyes can only transcend the Temporal Axis. As an attack in this manner is a truth that comes from the past, once the enemy enter its range there is no physical or spiritual way to defend against it, allowing it to harm even an existence such as a Servant.

He is a wielder of Black Keys, his aptitude with them allowing him to cut through demonic trees of the Child of Einnashe or use a single one to block a powerful magical attack from Olga Marie without breaking or damaging them. Karabo has also displayed enough martial skill to easily keep up with the Heroic Spirit Faker and even overwhelm them by using his Mystic Eyes in tandem with his blade skills. He can also use them as for various purposes besides combat, able to perform a dowsing ritual with them as well as connect to and activate Leylines if placed at focal points.

In the anime adaptation of Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, Karabo performs his autopsy on Trisha Fellows by thaumaturgical means, using incense as a medium.

Development

Creation and Conception

Karabo's Mystic Eyes of Transience were designed as an opposite to the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. If the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are a type of future sight, the “ultimate extreme” of hindsight is the ability to draw forth anything perceived in the past. His visualization of records from the past as bubbles is an approach to time being considered by modern science now.