Gabriel (ガブリエル, Gaburieru) and Juliano (ジュリアーノ, Juriāno) are identical twins who work as bodyguards and hunters for the Runorata Family, though their loyalty lies exclusively with Bartolo Runorata and Carzelio Runorata.
In the early hours of December 31, 1931, the twins rescue a runaway Carzelio from the clutches of Sarges and his Lemures at a riverbank, incidentally saving the lives of a group of delinquent youths in the process. They accompany Don Bartolo Runorata to Chicago three years later in December 1934; upon their return, Bartolo orders the twins to exclusively guard Carzelio during the preparations for the upcoming three-day casino party he Family will host at Ra's Lance in February 1935. When Carzelio's new housepet escapes, the twins track him down on the second day to Central Park and are drawn into a standoff between various factions involved with the party.
Appearance[]
Gabriel and Juliano have blue eyes and light brown hair. As identical twins, they are distinguished through their different hairstyles—Gabriel's hair is slicked back, while Juliano's hair is less tamed—and deportments as depicted in Volume 20's first color insert (featured below); there, Gabriel sports a cordial expression and meets the viewer's gaze whereas Gabriel avoids eye contact, his expression sullen.
The twins wear matching sharp swallowtail coats, gloves, and shiny patent-leather shoes, elegant contrasts to the black biker goggles perched atop their heads.
Personality[]
Volume 20's first color insert. Gabriel is featured on the left (stage right) and Juliano on the right (stage left).
Gabriel is the refined gentleman to Juliano's unrefined gangster, addressing others with polite poise while Juliano adopts a rougher deportment. Although Gabriel comes across as more thoughtful and intuitive than his brother, he always solicits his brother's opinion and tends to defer to Juliano when making decisions about decisive next courses of action. Most of the people with whom Gabriel and Juliano interact conceive of them as "two in one" not least because they are a permanent team, but because they address each other in the first person: Gabriel calls Juliano 'I,' and Juliano calls Gabriel 'Me.'
Aside from such behavioral differences, Juliano and Gabriel are mutually trigger-happy hunters who care for the thrill of the hunt and little for human life save for that of their masters. For this they have been deemed "mad dogs" by the Runoratas who fear and antipathize them, an epithet that the brothers find so anathema that they prefer to speak at the Runorata estate only in the presence of Bartolo or Cazze. These are the only two people for whom Gabriel and Juliano have nothing but the utmost love, respect, and loyalty. They are willing to do anything that Bartolo and Cazze request and anything to keep them safe, conceputalizing themselves as their masters' human shields; should their masters die before them, they are prepared to choose death as a consequence. Where their colleagues dream of prestige or climbing the Runorata hierarchal ladder, the twins want only to serve Bartolo and Cazze as tools.
Gabriel and Juliano act more akin to butlers than security guards when with their "young Master Cazze," to whom they referentially bow despite his young age. They treat him so not merely because they believe in his worthiness as a future mafia leader, but because they personally care for his wellbeing; they are genuinely happy to see Cazze so carefree in 1931 and genuinely furious with those who would hurt him.
Chronology[]
1927–1931[]
Gabriel and Juliano first come into the Runoratas' employ as assassins, but are later reassigned as Bartolo's bodyguards after killing one too many unnecessary targets. They initially believe that their duty is to put their lives on the line for Bartolo Runorata rather than the Family proper, but soon do the same for the Family upon a long-time bodyguard's advice to treat the Family as an extension of Bartolo himself.
Cazze thanks the twins.
Bartolo's first grandchild Carzelio "Cazze" Runorata is born in late December 1922 while the twins are on bodyguard duty. The twins are entrusted with protecting Carzelio on multiple occasions in the years to come on the condition they must do their utmost not to kill anyone in Carzelio's presence; as they have not emotionally embraced the bodyguard's advice, they protect Cazze each time out of obligation rather than any especial care. This changes shortly after Cazze's fifth birthday in late December 1927, when ten-odd people attack a Runorata vehicle carrying Cazze and his father. Gabriel and Juliano easily slaughter the attackers and only after the fact consider their pledge to refrain from killing in Cazze's presence. To their astonishment, Carzelio fearlessly and innocently thanks them for saving his life—so they drop to their knees, bow, and apologize for disregarding their guardship of him as mere 'work'. From this point on, they regard Carzelio as much their Master as they do Bartolo.
Some time after the incident, a rumor spreads among the Runoratas about Carzelio winning over the "mad dogs'" hearts; in achieving this, Carzelio may as well have already won the fight to be Bartolo's successor.
Four years later finds the Runoratas at the crossroads of certain Family relationships due to the actions of executive Gustavo Bagetta, who murders the heads of the Genoard Family in December 1931 and escalates a feud with the Gandor Family. In service of the latter, Runorata apothecary Begg Garrott agrees to order explosives from an old friend; the friend promises to smuggle the explosives aboard the Flying Pussyfoot at the end of the month. Ignorant of these affairs, Cazze runs away on December 30 just after his ninth birthday, leaving behind a note wherein he promises to return after New Year's Day. His father's subordinates immediately set out to search for him, but the situation worsens when a woman calls the manor and claims to have kidnapped Cazze. She demands that the Runoratas bring ransom money to a specific bungalow near the riverbank and warns them against contacting the police.
Gabriel and Juliano, who are currently off duty, persuade Bartolo to permit them to hunt down Carzelio's kidnappers. Once they reach Bungalow #3, they discover a note from the kidnappers that claims Carzelio has been entrusted to a group of young strangers by the nearest bridge. The note instructs its reader to deposit the ransom money in the provided box and then float the box down the river. Juliano attaches the box to the back of his motorbike and continues on with Gabriel toward the handoff site, pausing once the two of them are close so they can pool their wallets. The twins decide to initiate the hunt proper if the kidnappers reject their paltry total sum of thirty-two dollars on the mutual understanding that the hunt will end—if Carzelio has been harmed—in the kidnappers' deaths. They then take their motorcycles off road, which proves fortuitous when a Lemur drives an off-road truck down it not long after.
Assuming that the Lemur is Carzelio's kidnapper, Gabriel and Juliano embark on a short chase that culminates in the Lemur crashing his truck into the trees at the wood's edge. They string him from one of those trees so as to interrogate him but learn little besides his destination, for his demeanor changes when they demand he "release the child;" from then on, he repeatedly accuses the two of being "government dogs" until he passes out. Juliano guesses that the Lemur was referencing Bartolo's beneficial relationship with Senator Manfred Beriam; in other words, the man had insinuated that the Runoratas, and therefore Bartolo, are Beriam's lapdogs. Offended on Bartolo's behalf, the twins which Gabriel takes offense to At that, Gabriel coldly surmises that the kidnappers are so misguided that they somehow believe that Bartolo is below Beriam, and the two ride off toward a cluster of bungalows bungalows in order to teach the kidnappers a lesson.
Near the entrance of the forest, the twins dismount their noisy bikes in favor of pushing them, wary all the while of wire traps and other manner of obstacles that they missed their chance to ask the Lemur about. They take stock of their weapons: Juliano has three handguns including backups while Gabriel has only one gun, two knives, and wire. Gabriel tells Juliano to handle the transaction while he strikes the kidnappers' headquarters. Thus does Gabriel set off via motorbike for the militaristic campsite near the bridge while Juliano continues pushing his own bike through the woods. At the sound of a distant gunshot, Juliano breaks into a sprint—still pushing his bike—and resolves to kill all his enemies and then himself should that gunshot have ended Carzelio's life.
In the shadows surrounding the camp, Gabriel eavesdrops on two Lemures conversing about a child who is slated to die. The men momentarily lose conscious when Gabriel presses a thumb to each of their throats; once they come around, Gabriel subjects them to a brief yet brutal round of torturous interrogation. Their screams draw the attention of Carzelio's actual kidnappers—Pamela and Lana; at the sound of the latter's voices, Gabriel knocks the Lemures insensate, drags them into the shadow of one of the campsite's military vehicles, and conceals himself in the cover of the woods before the two women arrive. They spend several minutes investigating the campsite, then head down the slope after Pamela mentions that Cazze and Sonja will be worried. Gabriel, who had been watching the women all along, surreptitiously follows them due to Pamela's use of Carzelio's nickname.
Pamela and Lana halt upon spying an unfolding confrontation by the riverbank: five or six armed Lemures have the youths surrounded; their leader, Sarges, holds Cazze hostage at knifepoint. Gabriel approaches the horrified women to advise that they allow him to rescue the hostages rather than attempt any rash rescue by themselves. He ignores their reactions in favor of assessing the situation, only to share their shock when he spots an enormous grizzly bear by one of the trucks parked alongside the river. Recovering from his shock the fastest out of all present, he determines that the bear is exactly the opening he needs.
The bear and Gabriel make their moves concurrently: while the former attacks one of the Lemures, the latter uses the opportunity to neutralize two Lemures from behind. Juliano then bursts onto the riverbank via his motorbike, distracting Sarges for three seconds—enough time for Gabriel to flip Sarges to the ground. The remaining Lemures drop their weapons. By the time Sarges regains his senses, Gabriel has positioned himself between him and Carzelio as a human shield. He kindly, obeisantly requests that Cazze join the youths downriver, outside the dangerous scope of the Lemures. Juliano dismounts his bike and greets Carzelio with a bow. Once Cazze walks away to rejoin the youths, Juliano questions what Sarges thought he would accomplish by making the Runoratas his enemies. Sarges, like the Lemur driver before him, comes to the unwise conclusion that Bartolo is "Senator Beriam's loyal hound" who must have ordered the twins to dispose of the Lemures.
Gabriel frigidly consults Juliano on how they should respond to such disrespectful words about their master; Juliano suggests that they render Sarges unable to ever utter a word again. However, two unfamiliar Lemures emerge from the bed of a worn-out truck and order everyone to freeze. They keep their—Sonia's—old-model submarine guns aimed at the twins' heads as they approach Sarges to ask if he is all right and fellow Lemures begin retrieving their fallen weapons. Unconcerned by being held at gunpoint, Gabriel and Juliano hold a whispered discussion about the issue of killing the Lemures, newcomers included, in Carzelio's presence. Juliano points out that Cazze has seen them kill once before and that stalling puts him at risk of being hit by a stray bullet.
While the twins confer, Lana throws a smoke grenade she pilfered from the campsite into the midst of the fray; this is the grenade with which the Lemures were to signal their trainside brethren that negotiations were a success. Once again, the bear attacks and the twins seize the advantage; the former attacks the two newcomer Lemures and the latter assault the rest until they are insensate or otherwise unable to rise. While tossing the men into a pile, Juliano asks Gabriel to explain the situation; he is confused by, among other mysteries, the demands about putting money in a crate. Gabriel explains that, according to the men he tortured, the men's objective was not to do with kidnapping Carzelio but with a train that will imminently pass by. Upon recalling that the kidnapper on the telephone was said to be a woman, he asks Juliano to collect Carzelio; then, he turns to Pamela and Lana to ask who they really are.
Lana tearfully incriminates herself as the woman on the phone and the one responsible for the kidnapping idea, begging Gabriel to report her alone to the police since none of the other people had any idea about the situation. Gabriel lightly reminds her that the Runoratas had been instructed not to contact the police before revealing that his master has given him and his brother jurisdiction in deciding the kidnappers' fate. So saying, he discovers an overlooked half-dollar coin in his wallet and asks if it will be enough to pay the ransom. Lana frantically agrees. He asks the women to keep the exchange secret, for the Runoratas would sentence him to a slow and painful death if they heard he had valued Carzelio at a mere fifty cents. As for why he is letting the kidnappers go free, he says their smokescreen provided the means for him and his brother to neutralize the Lemures without fatal bloodshed. For this, he is genuinely grateful; for the temerity of criminals who would make enemies of the Runoratas over fifty cents, he might even possess respect. Nevertheless, he warns the women against pressing their luck again.
Pamela supports a swooning Lana and thanks Gabriel, whom she says they owe, but Gabriel replies that they are even. As they watch Juliano and Carzelio hurry in their direction, Gabriel confides that he has not seen Carzelio so enjoy himself in a long time—ergo, they are even—and walks ahead to meet with his brother and his young master. Carzelio apologizes for making Gabriel worry, though Gabriel only smiles and says angers is a task best left to Carzelio's actual family; the twins cannot manage to be angry with Cazze when he is so clearly happy with what transpired. Still, Gabriel is taken aback when Carzelio asks if he can take somebody home with him, assuming that he means one of the youths. Cazze instead points to the bear, whom he has named Charlie and would like to keep as a pet. The twins approve Carzelio's request at once.
At the sound of the approaching Flying Pussyfoot express, all look toward the bridge—by which Sarges has scrambled into a boat whence he brandishes a machine gun. However, everyone's attention is drawn to a woman leaping from one of the freight cars and to the cargo crates that plummet with her. She and the crates crash into the river—save one that crashes onto Sarges instead. These crates contain the explosives intended to change the tide of the Runorata-Gandor feud in the Runoratas' favor; their loss haunts the Runoratas in the years to come.
December 1934[]
The twins, several more bodyguards, and Begg travel to Chicago three years after the kidnapping incident as Bartolo's entourage in December. When Elleson Hill is the target of serial bombings, Bartolo, who is suspicious of the bombs' origins, orders his men to capture Nice Holystone, a scarred blonde notorious in Chicago for her explosives hobby. The day after the bombings, the Runoratas and Rubik not only capture Nice but her blonde companions Rail, and Miria Harvent—the former of whom also bears scars—and brings them to Nebula's headquarters. Bartolo focuses his initial interrogation on Nice.
The next day, Bartolo, Begg, the twins, and other bodyguards encounter and briefly exchange words with Gustav St. Germain and Carol in the corridors of Nebula's guest room-dedicated floor, then continue on until they reach a meeting room in which Nice and Rail sit. This time, Bartolo focuses on Rail and their now-confiscated explosives that Bartolo suspects are the ones stolen three years prior. Cal Muybridge—Nebula's chairman and Bartolo's old confederate—interrupts the interrogation and unties the ropes binding Rail, which leads to mayhem when Renee Parmedes Branvillier and other Nebula researchers enter the room shortly thereafter; Rail seizes a grenade from the confiscated bomb pouch and hurls it at the researchers, one of whom a Runorata bodyguard has shot through the head for shooting at Rail.
Bartolo's bodyguards, potentially but not explicitly including the twins, use the meeting table to shield Bartolo from the blast while the surviving researchers chase after the escaping Rail and Nice—only for the researcher who was shot in the head to stand when Bartolo speaks with Cal. Begg confirms that the researchers are likely failed immortals. The twins and their colleagues form a defensive wall around Bartolo as he takes his leave of the room and the building.
Once outside, Gabriel and Juliano flank Bartolo as he, Begg, and Huey Laforet watch a truck carrying Frank, Sickle, the Poet, and several Shams race out of Nebula's underground parking lot. The twins say nothing while the other three men converse; it is not confirmed whether they are present for Bartolo's later lunch engagement with Huey, Gustav, Carol, and others.
February 1935[]
Bartolo and the twins have returned to the East coast by 1935; on Bartolo's orders, Gabriel and Juliano spend February exclusively guarding Cazze while the Runoratas finish constructing a giant casino in their Ra's Lance hotel. Thus do the twins accompany Carzelio to New York City as part of an eight vehicle convoy, serving as the convoy's rearguard on their motorbikes. After picking up Mary Beriam, the entourage head to a Martillo casino to additionally pick up Melvi Dormentaire and his bodyguard Felix Walken. By this time, the twins have not only met Melvi but also Tim, the leader of Huey's Larva; they have also been shown photographs of some of Manhattan's more dangerous characters, including Graham Specter. Either en route to Mary or the casino, more likely the former, the entourage passes a vehicle driven by Shaft that contains passengers Graham, Ladd Russo, Lua Klein, and Nader Schasschule.
Upon arriving at the casino, Mary is delighted to encounter fellow Flying Pussyfoot survivor Czeslaw Meyer; she remains outside with Czes while Carzelio et al. descend into the casino's belly, one twin serving as vanguard and the other as rearguard. Within the casino are the extraordinary likes of Christopher Shaldred, Ricardo Russo, Jacuzzi Splot, Graham, Ladd, and casino manager Firo Prochainezo, the last of whom Melvi is speaking with. Ladd attempts to murder Felix the instant he learns Felix's true identity, instigating a new bout of violence between himself, Felix, Chris, and Graham. Melvi calls Felix off the fight and the two ascend the stairwell, passing a descending Maiza Avaro as they do. Carzelio promises Firo that the Runoratas will cover the cost of repairing the extensive damage suffered by the casino before he, his entourage, and the twins follow Melvi and Felix outside. As Carzelio escorts Mary to one of the waiting cars, Tim approaches and chastises Melvi on the pavement; since Gabriel and Juliano recognize Tim, they refrain from intervening.
Gabriel and Juliano later accompany Carzelio and Mary to Ra's Lance, where Carzelio is to reside during the three-day casino party in the luxury of a grand suite on one of the hotel's uppoermost penthouse floors. For now, he and Mary chat in a tent erected outside the building in advance of Charlie's arrival, which the twins discuss before speculating as to why Mary is present despite her unfitness for a casino. They surmise that Bartolo and Senator Beriam have agreed on some sort of arrangement, a thought likely influenced by the fact that Bartolo gave Carzelio a letter to pass on to Senator Beriam. Although they will trust Bartolo implicitly if Bartolo truly intends for Mary to be involved, neither brother can trust that Beriam is not scheming. If Beriam is scheming, says Juliano, they ought to send him Mary's severed ear; however, he retracts the idea when Gabriel reminds him that Mary is Carzelio's honest friend. Since the brothers balk at making Carzelio sad, they agree to bide their time as hunters until their masters identify their prey.
That night, the truck transporting Charlie suffers an accident on the road. Charlie runs from the wreckage down the streets of New York; in a strange non-coincidence, witnesses begin reporting monster sightings in their local area. Once the twins receive word of the incident, they contact the police to vouch for Charlie's friendliness.
As Carzelio's personal bodyguards, Gabriel and Juliano guard the grand suite whenever Carzelio is within it and closely guard Carzelio at all times when he is out and about. On the second day of the party, in the safety of the suite, Carzelio frets over Charlie's respective safety to the twins; after the twins fail to reassure him, they volunteer to hunt down Charlie posthaste and exit to the hallway, which is filled with a dozen-odd other bodyguards. Gabriel asks Juliano if he thinks some faction might try to take Carzelio hostage. At minimum, the other mafia families and the Martillo Camorra would find Carzelio a valuable prisoner—but the twins are further concerned that the House of Dormentaire may have designs for him due to their distrust of Melvi, who seems more loyal to the Dormentaires than Huey. Despite their worries, they leave Carzelio in their colleagues' care.
The twins track Charlie to Fred's Clinic, the gate of which is guarded by men in suits whom the twins guess are police officers or even agents of the Division of Investigation. As Juliano and his brother push through the crowd of rubberneckers to get a better glimpse of the clinic's interior, he spots three ominous men and one women emerge from a parked car near the crowd and points them out to Gabriel, who recognizes Graham from the photographs. Someone inside the clinic recognizes Ladd and invites him inside, leaving his companions, the twins, and the crowd to wait outside.
At an odd noise originating from Central Park, Charlie bursts through the clinic's doors and charges for the gates. Gabriel and Juliano knock the guns of the guards from their hands in time for Charlie to safely broach the gate; Victor Talbot, having followed Charlie outside, draws his own gun and shouts for the guards to restrain the bear before it causes a panic. Isaac and Miria slip by him a moment later and manage to scramble onto Cookie's back. Ladd exits the clinic as well, punching Victor in passing.
Gabriel and Juliano mount their motorbikes and chase Charlie, followed by Ladd, Lua, and Graham and Shaft via Shaft's car—the bumper of which Victor lunges for and grips even as he is dragged across the ground. The unlikely group races past Luck Gandor, Maria Barcelito, Laz Smith, Mark Wilmens, and Alkins en route to Central Park, where Salomé Carpenter and the Larva and Lamia have been blasting the aforementioned noise from a portable speaker. Luck and his assassin entourage arrive in the park soon after the twins et al., followed not long after by Ricardo and Christopher. Salomé antagonizes Ladd into punching him, causing fighting to erupt between the Lamia and the assassins. This briefly ceases when Charlie emits a fearsome roar, but resumes when Chané arrives and duels Ladd. Gabriel and Juliano circle the pandemonium on their motorcycles while pondering how to safely extract Charlie so that they can escort him home.
The fighting halts once more when Felix commands everyone's attention via Salomé's speaker; Charlie immediately ditches Isaac and Miria in favor of scooping Felix onto his back. Felix affirms his love for Chané before inviting anyone who holds a grudge against him, Huey, and/or the Runoratas to challenge him outside the room he will be guarding during tomorrow's party. Ladd attempts to attack Felix in the her and now, and, when Charlie sideswipes him, demands that Charlie's owner—whom he assumes is Felix—be held responsible for the blow. Juliano and Gabriel immediately train their guns on Ladd and declare that anyone who intends to hurt Charlie's owner is an enemy of the Runoratas, although Juliano tells Ladd they will let him go if he goes now. Instead, Ladd replies that the twins were his enemies from the start.
Victor fires a bullet into the air and identifies himself as a DOI agent. With the gunshot having attracted police attention, all present except for Lua, Shaft, Victor, Isaac, and Miria form battle lines: on the twins' side are those affiliated with Huey and the Runoratas, including Chané, Salomé, Felix, the Larva, and Lamia; on Ladd's side are Graham, their fellow Gandor-hired assassins, and—to everyone's surprise—Christopher. In the ensuing dissolution, Charlie scoops Chané onto his back and carries her and Felix out of the Park at a hot pace. While Gabriel and his brother follow on their motorcycles, Gabriel shouts that they should perhaps keep Carzelio away from the casino tomorrow in light of Felix's challenge. As for the challenge itself, Gabriel is unimpressed; any bodyguard who reveals his charge's location to an enemy or opponent is, in his opinion, a terrible bodyguard indeed.
(To be continued in 1935-E.)
Abilities[]
The twins are extremely capable fighters, having proven demonstrably competent in close unarmed combat. At minimum, they know some form of martial force. Although Gabriel prefers knives and Juliano prefers guns, both are able to inflict lethal wounds with any weapon.[2]
Their motorbikes are modified, capable of racing up to more than sixty kilometers (~forty miles) per hour.
Speech Mannerisms[]
In the original Japanese, the twins have an odd linguistic wherein wherein they refer to each other with first-person expressions. Gabriel, who speaks more politely than Juliano as a rule, uses the more polite watashi (私) while Juliano uses ore (俺). The light novel's official English translator, Taylor Engel, has decided to directly and where possible respectively translate these as I and Me.
So, when Gabriel says, "Mr. Bartolo. Would you let Me and I..." the Me and I in Japanese is written as 私と『私』 (watashi to 'watashi'). And when Juliano adds, "...of course I and Me should..." the Japanese is 俺と『俺』 (ore to 'ore').
This exchange in Volume 20's third digression...
(G) “…We were told to do our best not to let the young master witness any killing, I.”
(J) “Not even possible, Me. We did do our best, for five seconds or so.”
...is written like this in Japanese, with watashi and ore respectively bolded:
「......極力、坊ちゃんの前で殺しは見せるなという話だったんですがねえ、私」
「無理だろ俺。極力頑張ったよ、５秒ぐらいな」
The twins moreover use kochira and kocchi to refer to themselves. This cannot be naturally approximated in English, so whether and how to interpret such a quirk must be left to the translator's personal discretion.
References[]
- ↑ "...every one of them, especially the apparently identical twin youths..." —1934 Peter Pan in Chains: Finale/Chapter 5
- ↑ 1935-D Luckstreet Boys, Chapter 27.