Kieli, a lonely girl with the power to see ghosts, encounters a man named Harvey, who happens to be one of the legendary Undying. The Undying were soldiers made from recycled corpses that were trained to be immortal killing machines in a violent war 80 years ago. She follows Harvey on his journey to return the ghost of a soldier, who died in that war and has since been possessing a radio, to his grave.
Kieli is nine-volume Light Novel series written by Yukako Kabei and illustrated by Shunsuke Taue, which was published under the Dengeki Bunko imprint from 2003 to 2006. The first novel was adapted into a two-volume manga illustrated by Shiori Teshirogi and released in English
by Yen Press. Yen Press has finished publishing the novels:
- Kieli Volume 1 - The Dead Sleep in the Wilderness
- Kieli Volume 2 - White Wake on the Sand
- Kieli Volume 3 - Prisoners Bound for Another Planet
- Kieli Volume 4 - Long Night Beside a Deep Pool
- Kieli Volume 5 - The Sunlit Garden Where it Began Part 1
- Kieli Volume 6 - The Sunlit Garden Where it Began Part 2
- Kieli Volume 7 - As the Deep Ravine's Wind Howls
- Kieli Volume 8 - The Dead Sleep Eternally in the Wilderness Part 1
- Kieli Volume 9 - The Dead Sleep Eternally in the Wilderness Part 2
This series provides examples of:
- Belief Makes You Stupid: Kieli believes this, though it's mostly to do with the fact that she grew up in a very religious school as the only person who could see ghosts. Listening to the priests and the nuns drone on about heaven and hell and the soul and having a connection to God, all while totally oblivious to the spirits floating around them, made her a bit... skeptical of their views and intelligence.
- Body Horror: Dear god the way some people get mutilated in this series.
- Came Back Wrong: The new, experimental undying. Cannibalistic rotting corpses that are unnaturally strong, fast, and fueled by fear and instinct. even the ones like Christopher eventually lose their minds and become simple killing machines.
- Jochim. Reanimated with an experimental core, which makes his regenerative abilities go out of control. Ew.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Kieli and Harvey
- As of volume 7, Kieli appears to be the daughter of the Eleventh Elder Father Sigri.
- Crossing the Desert: In the second novel, White Wake on the Sand.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Happens all the time in this series. Every other ghost that the three meet has come to an untimely end in some really, really horrible way.
- Cursed with Awesome: The undying, being immortal and all that.
- The Cynic: Harvey, who has given up on humanity god knows how many decades ago. Although he's trying to get better.
- Good Thing You Can Heal : The Undying. Especially Harvey, who has been shot, stabbed, burned, blown to pieces, crushed, impaled, hit by a car, run over by a train... the list goes on an on.
- Forgets to Eat: Harvey, mostly because he doesn't have to eat. Corporal explains it to Kieli in the first book. Although later he starts to avoid eating all together. And after hearing the conversation between the two men who were disposing the corpses of the failed experiments, who can blame him?
- Half the Man He Used to Be: This happens to the Undying quite a bit.
- Heart Drive: Harvey's core gives him nearly unlimited healing powers as well as immortal "life" but if it's ever removed from his body he goes back to being well, ... dead.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happened to the town of Toulouse. When they burned Beatrix at the stake, the town caught on fire.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: Kieli and Becca believe Harvey is in college when they first meet him.
- I See Dead People: Kieli.
- The Undying can also see ghosts.
- Light Is Not Good: The church's Undying hunting corps. The soldiers are dressed in all white armor and both Kieli and Harvey say that they remind them of demons.
- Running Gag: The Corporal always tends to call Harvey by the wrong name. More specifically, "Herbie."
- The Stoic: Also Harvey, due largely from his training and the fact that he's a Shell-Shocked Veteran
- Tranquil Fury: You do not want to make Harvey angry. He flips between this and down right sadistic.
- Used Future: People left Earth so long ago that its name has been forgotten. It appears they left due to the lack of resources left, and after the 80 year war, the current planet is almost out as well.
- The world is described as reliant on fossil fuels, heavily polluted, and almost without any plant life.
- Walking the Earth: Harvey has spent the past 80 years after the war doing this.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: A big theme of the series, in the beginning it's basically Harvey waiting around to die, and feeling really irritated at how long it is taking.
- At the end of volume 4, when Harvey is telling the Corporal about the crack in his core, he actually seems relieved at the idea that he'll (probably) die soon.
