Ray

Ray (レイ) is one of the protagonists of The Promised Neverland alongside Emma and Norman.

Initially, Ray appeared as an aloof and introverted individual who was often seen with his head buried in a book instead of socializing with the other orphans in Grace Field House. Despite his distant disposition, Ray is able to interact well with the orphans and is fiercely loyal and caring to them, particularly Emma and Norman.

Since he is one of the smartest children living in Grace Field, Ray is considered one of Grace Field House's three "Premium quality goods"undefined next to Norman and Emma. Ray is also the only orphan whose intelligence can match with Norman's.

After successfully escaping Grace Field alongside Emma and 13 other orphans, Ray now seeks William Minerva, whom he believes can grant him and his friends liberty and help them find a safe and peaceful life away from the demons.

History
Ray was born on January 15, 2034, from Isabella. A year after his birth, Ray was removed from his mother's hands, and a year later in 2035, he was sent to Grace Field House where he grew up alongside Emma, Norman, and several other children.

Ray is in the minority of people who do not suffer from childhood amnesia. Due to this, he remembered his life before he arrived at the orphanage; including being in his mother's womb, having the farm's tracker stapled into his ear, the demons and human adults in different facilities, and when he was sent to Grace Field House. When he became literate, his suspicions towards the idyllic life grew, and he eventually discovered the true purpose of the 'orphanage', the litany of tests, the gates surrounding the orphanage, and the numbers on his neck.

Due to knowing the truth behind everything that was going on in the orphanage since an early age, Ray began deeming his life as cursed which lead to him becoming an introvert and preferring to read a book under a tree while the rest played. However, he loved Emma and Norman deeply and treasured the time spent with them, and the two, in return, often sought to play and spend time with him. The two wished for Ray to socialize more and not have his head stuck in a book all the time.

Ray found out the possibiltity that the children had a tracker inside their ear, which resulted in a scar. He also deduced that Isabella was actually his birth mother – a theory which was later confirmed true when Ray asked her about it on his 5th birthday.undefined After this, Ray made a trade with Isabella and became her spy. In exchange for keeping an eye of the orphans from behind, he would would recieve different goods from the outside world. However, his loyalty was never solely given to her, as this was Ray's way of getting intel from the enemy's side. At six years old, Ray began coordinating an escape plan and developing a device to break the trackers so Norman and Emma could escape, though he never included himself in the equation.

Appearance
Ray is a slim boy of average height with somewhat messy short black hair, parted to the right so that the longer, chin-length clumps on his left obscure much of his face. Around the sides, it appears to spike upwards, following the shape of his head, and he also has triangular forest-green eyes with noticeably small black irises.

He wears the standard orphanage uniform- a white shirt and trousers along with plain shoes. The number "81194" is tattooed across the left side of his neck.

Personality
Ray appears to be rather aloof, introverted and snarky, as he often excludes himself from playing with the other orphans and prefers to read a book instead. However, he is able to interact well with his fellow siblings and loves them all deeply. Even if there are times when they do not get along, he still deeply cares about their well-being and would go to great lengths to keep them safe. An outspoken person with little patience for inconvenience and silliness (like Emma's), he frequently loses his temper or is often left dumbfounded when people such as Emma displays reckless behaviour and intentions, noticeably when he considered Emma as an "airhead" when she intended to rescue every orphan from Grace Field.

Furthermore, he is very blunt and honest, as when Norman is trying to figure out a way to break it to Emma that Ray was the spy all along, Ray abruptly comes out with it before Norman has the chance. In some cases, he considers it a kindness to be blunt, rather than alleviate the truth and/or give people false hope. He was also motivated by cold logic and reason, and he figures the best plan for success is to take the smallest group possible, even if that group doesn't include himself. While he worked extrmely hard for six years to make sure that Norman and Emma could escape safely, he had to sacrifice a lot for it, including possibly sacrificing his other siblings that were shipped out.

Ray's strengths are his cunningness, sharp wits, and his manipulative nature. He is also rational, logical, cynical, and highly intelligent. Ray is an academically inclined young boy who excels in the orphanage's daily tests, also using his intelligence to decipher problems and to come out with solutions. According to Emma, he's always the best at anything he tries. He's also known as "The Walking Encyclopedia". When recalling which books in the archives mention ruins, he's not only able to remember the books but also, without even looking, their exact location on the shelves. According to Norman, he is level-headed and precise in everything he does. He also always thinks ahead and finds the most optimal solutions to things.

According to the data Krone obtained, Ray is a person who makes plans too fast and gives up on them just as fast. This was specifically proven when after the plan of saving Norman got foiled, Ray lost hope and excluded himself from helping the others to devise another plan to escape. Ray is also noted to be extremely self-sacrificing and audacious. He was driven to suicide via self-immolation, and willingly did so to help aid in the escape. However, he also reveals to Emma that he wasn't going to go down as cattle and he would die as a selfish human. His little hesitation in throwing his life away likely stems from his past. Because he has known about the truth about the farm, the outside world, and his very own mother since a very young age, Ray began deeming his life as "cursed" and therefore planned to die inside the House. Additonally, after years of watching his siblings walk to their death without doing anything about it, Ray developed extreme guilt and felt like the only way he could atone was by dying himself.

However, after the escape succeeds, Ray comes around to see that even a dream-like future can be achieved. This culminates in his change of mindset, and he admits to Emma that he's glad to see their siblings safe when he had previously thought bringing them would be a burden. He swears to keep on living and protect every single one of his siblings, and becomes fiercly protective and loyal to them. As opposed to his relatively pessimistic mindsit prior to the escape, Ray became more optimistic and is now not scared to hope for a dream-like future where no one dies. He is determined to fight for such future. He also resolves not to do things on his own anymore and to be a part of their family. When he looks like he might try to sacrifice himself again, he’s reminded of how much Emma values his life and says that he’ll come back to her if she trusts him.

Introduction Arc
Taking a litany of tests, eating scrumptious homemade food and having a good time – Ray went through the same routine every day in Grace Field, an orphanage where he lived since the day he was born. Under the loving parental care of Isabella and the companionship of Emma, Norman and the other orphans, Ray spent a pleasant childhood in Grace Field.

When the day came for Conny to be sent off to foster parents, Ray and the other orphans bade farewell to the toddler. Sometime after Conny left with Isabella, Emma found Conny's beloved stuffed toy on a tabletop in the house, Ray remarked how Conny might not have travelled far from Grace Field, and thus advised Emma to return the toy back to Conny.

Sometime later, Ray was loitering through the orphanage's hallway and noticed the saddened Emma and Norman returning, he questioned the two, and stared at them as they did not answer him.undefined

During the next few days, Emma and Norman remained silent and secretive about Conny's death and the existence of demons. Ray noticed their suspicious behaviour, as he one day followed the two to the orphanage's forest and demanded their odd behaviour for the past few days. After the two let the cat out of the bag, Ray expressed how he also suspects Isabella and the orphanage. When Emma wanted to save every single orphan, it greatly bothered Ray as he viewed her goal to be impossible to achieve. Nonetheless, he joined the two and help in figuring out a way to escape from Grace Field. The three learnt and gathered every possible information they could get about the outside world and to aid in their eventual escape.

Isabella eventually got Krone appointed as Grace Field's second caretaker (as the orphans' "Sister"), an additional obstacle for Ray, Emma and Norman to deal with. Krone tried to get in the way of the trio, much to their dismay.

Jailbreak Arc
Ray, Emma and Norman eventually recruited Don and Gilda into the team as additional help and told them about the secrets behind Grace Field, Isabella and the existence of Demons. Along the way, the five faced obstacles and issues whilst working together, such as the interference of Isabella and Krone ; suspicions of Gilda being on the enemies' side ; and Don's unhappiness towards the limited trust Ray, Norman and Emma had on him and Gilda, whom they did not tell the entirety of their plan and motives to. Ray was also the spy who worked for Isabella behind his friends' back, as figured out by Norman. When Norman questioned his motive, Ray explained how he already knew about the orphanage's secrets a long time ago, and how him serving his mother as her spy is all pre-planning for him and his friends' escape.

Isabella eventually cut ties with Ray and no longer have him as her spy, when Ray desperately tried to persuade her, telling her how he is still capable of being her spy, Isabella explained how she would be ceasing his friends from escaping without his help, and thus locked the latter inside an empty room, preventing him from saving Emma and the rest. As Ray struggled to free himself and save Emma and Norman before it was too late, Isabella already managed to foil their escape plan by herself by fracturing Emma's leg and prepared Norman to be shipped out.

Isabella's success in rendering their plan useless greatly affected Ray, as he struggled to think of solutions to prevent Norman from getting shipped out as well as aiding in Emma's fractured leg. Nevertheless, his solutions were rendered useless, as Norman was unable to escape due to how outside the walls lies a steep cliff which made his escape impossible.

Norman was soon shipped out. The team and the plan began to fall apart, as Ray became depressed over the failure of the plan and the loss of his friend. Hence, Ray gave up and excluded himself from Emma, Don and Gilda and no longer aid in their escape.

As two months pass, Ray and Emma withdraw into themselves and were depressed over Norman's shipment. The night before Ray is to be shipped out, he sits alone in the dining hall, saying goodbye to the House. When Ray asks Emma if she has really given up, she smiles and reveals she has never given up the idea of escape. Ray proposes they set the house on fire that night as a distraction. After Emma agrees, Ray reveals that he plans to set himself alight, to distract Isabella and deny the demons their feast. As the clock chimes midnight, the now twelve-year-old Ray starts the fire. As it spreads, the children evacuate and Emma severs her ear so she cannot be tracked. Isabella tries to extinguish the fire and save Ray, who she thinks is engulfed in flames, but the children had wrapped meat and hair in his clothes as a decoy. Months earlier, Norman told Emma of Ray's plan to burn himself and prepared a counter-plan for her, which meant that they were already prepared to escape. When Ray is saved, he is seen being visibly shaken by Emma's interference of his suicide plan, but before he is able to say anything more, Emma slaps him and forces him to go escape with her, refusing to let him die. Emma then tells Ray that she'll take out his tracker from his ear.

The children reach the boundary and prepare to scale the wall, but Ray notices the younger ones are not with them. As the children reach and climb the boundary wall, Ray is told by Emma that the children under the age of four are going to be stay behind, hoping to be freed before being harvested, and the only one knowing the truth is Phil. The children cross the cliff by using ropes and coat hangers as zip lines, Jemima starts crying because she is afriad of crossing. Ray tells her he'll go with her and they cross together. As they safely arrive at the other side, Ray hugs Jemima close and mentions to himself that he has "lost" to Norman, will now live for his family, and discard his previous ideas of dying. As everyone succefully escapes, the escapees are able see their first sunrise outside the farm.

Intelligence
Ray is an extremely intelligent and cunning strategist. He is a highly studious boy. Ray gains knowledge of the outside world from the books that he reads hence act as a trump card for the group during and after their escape from the Grace Field House. Ray is also extremely perceptive, as it is revealed that he realized years ago that the "orphanage" is, in fact, a farm, with the children as livestock, without ever having to actually see the reality with his own eyes (like Emma and Norman) in order to realize this fact. Ray was also the first human (possibly aside from those working for the demons) to discover the demons' physical weakness (their middle eyes) and managed to get Emma to slay a wild demon before it ate him. Hence showing his capability in quick-thinking under pressure in a life-and-death situation.

Hyperthymesia
Unlike others, Ray does not suffer from childish amnesia, so he can remember details from when he was an infant, or even when he was in his mother's womb. Thanks to his natural ability, Ray was able to discover the secret of the orphanage and also that Isabella was his mother.

Physical strength
Although he rarely performs physical activities with other children, Ray has demonstrated his good physical abilities, as krone has reported that he is more fit than Norman. He also had a great physical strength and was able to hit the door of the Krone bedroom with a kick.

Culinary Skills
Ray was taught about cooking by Mujika, and ever since, he has shown to be an excellent and talented cook. He's seen cooking the most often out of the Grace Field kids, and the other kids are seen at least once gushing over how good his cooking is. When he and Pepe helped Mister to make Yakisoba for his food stand, he was extremely fast at cooking them.undefined

Emma
Being orphans of Grace Field, Ray grew up with Emma and has been best friends with her ever since they were toddlers. Despite deeming his life as "cursed", Ray mentions that Emma and Norman mean the world to him and that the time he spent with them truly made him happy and his life worthwhile. At the same time, Ray has a rather complex relationship Emma— as their personalities are arranged to contrast with each other's; with Emma being a jovial, gullible and sociable person— and Ray as more of an edgy and sharp-witted introvert. After setting motion to the escape plan, Emma's optimism, ideals, nature, and opinions regularly get on Ray's nerves since they contrast so heavily to his own. This went to such a point that Ray asked Norman to hide their true plan (as in only bringing the three of them) from Emma.

However, despite their different ideals which occasionally lead to personality clashes, bickering, and disagreements, the two love each other regardless and help each other when one is in distress. Ray is always looking out for Emma, and they do not let their differences get in the way of their friendship, and they are always able to work things out and face no difficulties working together. Emma also often encourages Ray to be more open and out-going, and frequently invites him to join the orphans in games such as a game of tag, and not have his head buried in a book all the time. Likewise, Ray encourages Emma to speak up, honestly tell people what's on her mind, and not to bottle up her feelings. Seeing Emma and Norman make it out alive was Ray's top priority regarding the Grace Field Escape.

On his birthday night and before being ready to commit suicide, Ray thanked Emma for everything, implying that he was grateful towards both Emma and Norman for everything they had done for him. However, after Emma saves him and when Ray sees Emma and Norman's plan come to fruition almost flawlessly— the plan he once deemed impossible— he realizes he’s made an error in judgment. From that point on, he lends Emma his support and becomes incredibly loyal to her and his whole family.

At the same time, Ray is still not above scolding her, calling her out on her shortcomings and mistakes. He still tells her what he thinks and still reminds her of reality, but now he understands she can handle it and is confident in her abilities. Ray is the one who reminds Emma that she needs to speak up and that her own doubts and insecurities are important.

Norman
Growing up together for almost their entire lives, Ray has been best friends and brotherly figures with Norman. Ray views Norman and Emma as the most important people in his life and mentions that they matter more to him than anybody else. He thanks them for giving him such a happy life despite deeming his life as "cursed". He is very devoted to both of them, as the six years he spent in strategizing the escape plan was for the sake of their survival. Norman is one of the people that Ray swore not to let die, and Ray does anything in his power to protect them, including selling himself off to Isabella and being ready to commit suicide to help them escape.

Ray respects Norman greatly and holds him in high regard, and at the same time, he acknowledges and understands Norman's strengths and weaknesses – knowing how he is one of the smartest children in the orphanage. Norman, as well, is deeply confident in Ray's abilities. After setting motion to the escape plan, the two boys put their trust in one another. Ray believes Norman to be more logical and less reckless as opposed to Emma and hence trusts and rely on him more. The two, however, do have opposing views on various situations, like when Ray wanted to leave the others behind to heighten the chance of their survival, while Norman, believing in Emma, wants to help find a way to help everyone escape. Additionally, even after finding out Ray was the spy, Norman refused to give up on him (due to Emma's influence) and the two were once again able to work on their differences and help each other out.

After Norman was shipped out from Grace Field, Ray was devastated and greatly saddened over the loss of his best friend. Following this, he became depressed and lost all hope to the degree of giving up and excluding himself from devising the escape plan with the other orphans. During the escape, when Emma saves Ray from his attempted suicide, she informs him that Norman was able to tell Ray's true intentions and was extremely keen to not let him die. Norman also passed on a message from him to Emma, and then to Ray: "you can die anywhere, but this isn't the place. I'll show you something cool, so just shut and come." After witnessing their plan come to fruition and hallucinating Norman telling him to not give up to, it inspires him to keep living, dream for a hope-like future, and finally abandoning his previous cynical ideals.

Isabella
What will you do now? Kill me? Mama, I want to make a trade with you. In his early youth, Ray revealed to Isabella that he knew the orphanage's true purpose and that he had figured out their familial connection. Ever since his 6th birthday, Ray worked as a double-agent for Isabella. In reality, he had been planning escaping this whole time. Despite their biological connection, their relationship was purely "professional", and while they mutually converse, their relationship remains tense. It is also implied that both sides felt little love towards each other, as Ray knows Isabella will proceed with sending him and his friends to their deaths. This leads Ray to determine the best way to deceive Isabella, and avoid this outcome. Although it is later revealed that Isabella does genuinely love Ray as her son, it is unknown in which way Ray views her.

Trivia

 * In the special edition of Volume 13, in an interview with Posuka Demizu and Kaiu Shirai, the two explained how Ray was supposed to die. The idea, however, was scrapped.undefined
 * Kaiu Shirai revealed Ray, Emma and Norman's birthdays in Volume 5, though he stated how Ray's birthday is on 15 January, he later stated how Ray's birthday is actually on another date.


 * A mini-game in The Promised Neverland official site revealed two manga pages for players who achieved high scores. The pages showed how Isabella named Ray after the American singer-songwriter Ray Charles.
 * Isabella furthermore explained how she was listening to Ray Charles' music which gave her the idea of giving Ray the musician's name, and how "Ray" is a unisex name and is of no particular nationality, which makes sense since Ray Charles is an African-American.
 * Kaiu Shirai's commented in Volume 5 how Ray at a young age aimed to read all the books in Grace Field House before he turns 12. Hence in Chapter 32, 14 January 2046, one day right before his 12th birthday, the book he has is the final book he just finished reading.
 * When Ray was around 4 to 5 years old, he revealed how all the books he had read are fantasy books, thus implying how fantasy is his favorite genre of books as they are the first type of books he chose to read.undefined
 * Ray, unlike the other orphans, didn't experience childhood amnesia. This contributed greatly to his discovery about the truth of the orphanage. It is likely that he has hypermnesia- abnormally sharp or vivid recall.
 * Ray originally had a tendency to scold Emma by hitting her head when she said something silly. Eventually, he is seen patting Emma's, Phil's, and other of his younger sibling's heads, suggesting that it has become a form of affection.
 * The following are Ray's rankings in some of The Promised Neverland's official popularity polls.
 * Announced in Chapter 75, Ray is in 3rd place in the Color Illustration Character Poll which was held on The Promised Neverland's official LINE account.
 * In Shounen Jump's popularity poll results released in May 2018 in Chapter 88 of the Manga, Ray is in 3rd place.
 * In commemoration of the manga's 2nd Anniversary, in Shounen Jump's 2nd popularity poll results released in September 2018 in Chapter 102, Ray is in 3rd place with a total of 4651 votes.
 * One of Ray's favourite things to do is disassembling machines. He likes to take items such as clocks apart together with Norman when they were younger.undefined
 * Posuka Demizu considers Ray to be a fast character to create as compared to Norman and Emma.undefined
 * Ray's dream, when he can get into the human world in future, is to see the famous Mona Lisa painting and the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, Spain.undefined
 * Ray has achieved a full score in all daily tests, except the ave.2, he has got a 292 out of 300.

Interlanguage Wikis

 * Ray on Spanish Wiki.
 * Ray on Italian Wiki.
 * Ray on Portuguese Wiki.

Other Wikis

 * Ray on VS Battles Wiki. (Manga spoilers ahead)

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