Keith Red

Keith Red is a villain that features in Project ARMS.

Biography
Keith Red was a male clone that was a product of the Keith Series that was created by the Egrigori. The purpose of the Keith series was to create a specific form of genes that were needed to be bonded with the ARMS. At the time, a number of prototypes ARMS were created that contained their own artificial intelligence and the Egrigori attempted to use them to create a new race of superhumans to control the world. However, the ARMS lived in a delicate symbiotic balance with their host bodies and thus numerous failures were experienced. Thus, a number of new models of ARMS were created that were devoid of an artificial intelligence with one such implant being given to Keith Red who's activated form was known as the Gryphon. During this time, a group of scientists that were appalled at the experiments of the Egrigori decided to rebel against the organization. The group was founded and led by one of the Keith series known as Keith Blue who created the Bluemen. They determined that a special gene was needed for perfect symbiotic co-existence with the ARMS implant and managed to cultivate the material from Keith Red. This material was used to cultivate a number of genetically engineered offspring that were perfect hosts for the ARMS. With the protypes stolen, they were placed within the host children who were engineered at Abumisawa Village as part of the experiment. In time, Keith Red grew into a ranking agent of the Egrigori though held aspirations of power. Eventually, the ARMS children were removed from the Abumisawa Village after it was destroyed by the Egrigori though the offspring themselves were placed with a number of foster parents.

By the time they grew up, the organization was dispatching agents to acquire them with one among them being the Chapel Twins. However, the Chapel Twins proceeded with destructive acts leading to large scale damage to the school with these chain of events leading to Keith Red being dispatched to end their rampage. He managed to arrive at the school gym where the ARMS children were in a confrontation with Al Bowen and Jeff Bowen along with their cyborg. Upon arriving, Hayato Shingu believed Keith Red was responsible for the death of his father. This act only amused Keith Red as he was not the responsible for the death of Shuichiro Shingu. During this moment, Keith Red revealed that the Egrigori had grown tired of the rampage of the Chapel Twins and that it was his intention to eliminate them. This saw the Chapel Twins send their combat cyborg Minus against Keith Red. However, he was eaisly able to stop the cyborgs attack and used his ARMS to not only sever its frontal limbs but used a sonic attack to remove its upper body from its torso. Keith Red was disgusted at the children's attack which saw Jeff Bowen attempt to use a handgun against the Egrigori agent who viciously eliminated the child. Afterwards, he attempted to kill Al Bowen but the Chapel child was protected by the ARMS. This was an act that confused Keith Red but he decided to allow the teenagers to survie with the Chapel child but not stating that he was an older brother to them with him knowing more about their true origins that lay in Abumisawa Village. Afterwards, Keith Red was sent to lead a large force of Egrigori to burn the rebuilt village of Abumisawa to the ground in part of the mission to retrieve the ARMS.

During the attack, Ryu Takatsuki's girlfriend Katsumi Akagi was killed which led to his ARMS Jabberwock fully activating. In a destructive rampage, the Jabberwock decimated the Egrigori forces and even attacked Keith Red whose face was maimed in the onslaught. Ultimately, Keith Red's mission was a failure but he grew impressed with the power of the Jabberwock whereupon he intended to harness that ARMS power to grow in strength within the Egrigori. Seeing the interest the Egrigori had in the ARMS, a group of former experiments known as the Ex-Armis operated independently where they intended to prove their worth by defeating the Jabberwock themselves. However, Keith Red alongside with Colonel Gauss Gall of the newly developed Red Caps were moving in on their plan against the ARMS as well as Aisora City. When the Ex-Armis failed, the Red Caps moved in to eliminate them where Cliff Gilbert of the ARMS attacked the engineered soldiers after two of his comrades were killed. However, he was forced to fight with Keith Red who grew tired of the psychic and transformed into the Gryphon who killed Cliff. He was later present at Colonel Gall's command station whilst the Red Caps separated Aisora City from the rest of the world as part of Operation: Snark Hunt. Despite the Red Caps actions, Keith Red grew bored of their slow progress and inability at capturing the ARMS so he decided to seek them out himself. During his travel in the city, he encountered Hayato Shingu and seemingly mortally wounded him. Keith Red then proceeded to eliminate his comrades namely his grandfather, Carol and Al Bowen. However, at this point, Hayato managed to awaken his ARMS known as the White Knight.

As the White Knight, Hayato managed to wound Keith Red who was forced to transform into the Gryphon though he originally intended to unleas his true power against the Jabberwock. During the battle in the city, the Grypon almost overwhelmed the White Knight until he revealed his special power and severed the limbs of Keith Red. Wounded, the shocked Keith Red wondered how such damage could be made against him. Whilst initially taken aback, the Gryphon attempted to restore his severed limbs but they would not grow back as the White Knight's powers deactivated the nanomachine repair capabilities within the Gryphon. This saw Keith Red utilize the Gryphon's sonic attack in an effort to eliminate his enemies but the White Knight cut through the Gryphon's torso thus mortally wounding him. With his body disintegrating, Keith Red revealed his hopes of using the Jabberwock to gain power but learnt that he was simply another failed experiment of the Egrigori. In his last moments, he revealed to Hayato that he was not the one who killed his father though Shingu believed that Keith Red was simply lying. However, Keith Red's last words proved to be true when the ARMS saw the other Keith series with Katsumi Akagi as their hostage.

Personality and attributes
In appearance, Keith Red resembled an average sized white skinned human with short blonde hair. After an encounter with the Jabberwock, he developed a permanent paw-like scar on his left cheek. Whilst human, he held he ability to transform into another more monstrous form provided to him by his ARMS which was known as the Gryphon. This creature resembled a large bipedal creature with an avian-like beak, sharp claws with razor blades attacked to them and sharp long hair at the back. The ARMS form was much larger than that of a human and towered over them.

He developed a twisted fascination with the ARMS children where he considered himself their older brother. This was because his genetic material was used to originally create them. A particularly enimity was developed with him by Hayato Shingu who mistakenly believed Keith Red to be responsible for the death of his father. However, in truth, he was not the ony who killed Shuichiro Shingu as this was the act of another one of the Keith series. He did hold some similarities with the teenage Hayato as Keith Red was also driven by hatred and a simple disgust at the idea of protecting the weak.

As he was about to die, he became dismayed at his failure and the thought that he was simply another failed experiment of the Egrigori.

Powers and abilities
As an ARMS, he was equipped with a bio-implant that was camouflaged within his body that provided him with superhuman abilities. However, unlike the ARMS protytpes, the Keith series lacked an artificial intelligence within their implant. His power also meant that other ARMS vibrated in sympathy at Keith's implant with the ARMS teenagers commenting that their implants felt like they were scared of the one within Keith Red.

In normal form, he was easily able to survive attacks that could kill a human being such as Carol's psychic twister attack that was used against his limb which simply resumed its normal form. Even more impressive was the power to survive the psychic onslaught of Cliff Gilbert and able to brush aside the Devil Cliff throwing large pieces of construction material at him with no harm. At a moments notice, he was able to transform his two limbs into long black blades that were able to slice through objects. These included the limbs of the combat cyborg Minus and he was able to use these to mortally wound his opponents. Another power was seemingly based on sonic attacks that was even capable of being done in his human form as with a simple touch he could destroy the upper body of Minus.

Keith Red in his Gryphon form was much larger and more powerful. This form highlighted his arm blades and was strong enough to push the White Knight through several streets in Aisora City with a simple attack. He was also able to generate a sphere of black energy and throwing it at his foes. A final power available to him was present with his hair as he was able to grow these into long razor-like spines that were able to generate a powerful sonic attack. This vibrated at such strength to cause cracks in glass and Keith Red claimed that it was able to destroy his enemies if allowed to continue.

Note

 * In the anime adaptation, he is voiced by Hayami Shou and in the English adaptation by Perry Ward.

Appearances

 * Project ARMS: "White Knight
 * Project ARMS: "White Rabbit"