Who are the Prefects of Twisted Wonderland?

Abduction: After practice with his school’s kendo team for a tournament that is taking place the following day, Yuuken is waiting at a bus stop to go home when he is suddenly met with the Black Carriage of Night Raven College.

Etymology: Enma’s family name is pronounced the same (the kanji is different) as 閻魔 (Enma), the king of hell in Buddhism. From the Kyoto National Museum website: “The King of Buddhist Hell is Enma, who is also the judge of the afterlife.”

Abduction: After winning a judo tournament for her high school Yuuka is on her way home when she stops to check in on a kitten in a cardboard box that has been left out in the rain. The kitten leaps out of the box and into the street in front of a car, and Yuuka is suddenly met with the Black Carriage of Night Raven College.

Etymology: “Hirasaka” is written and pronounced the same as the hirasaka of Yomotsu-hira Saka, known as “The Entrance to the Underworld” in Shintoism, explained on Shimane Prefecture’s official tourism website: “Yomotsu-hira Saka appears as the boundary between the land of the dead and the land of the living.”

Abduction: While out on a ramen delivery for his father’s restaurant Yuuta takes a shortcut on his scooter, turning onto a side street where he is met head-on by the Black Carriage of Night Raven College.

Etymology: “Mito” uses the same kanji as 三途川, the “River of Three Crossings,” which is “a mythological river the souls of the deceased must cross by one of three crossing points.” Credit to blogger Tansho for the discovery that “River Styx” was changed to 三途川 in the Japanese-language dub of the “Hercules” TV show.

Abduction: After school Yuuna heads for the train station to secretly go to Tokyo and compete in what will be her second of tryouts to become a model. She hears a sound behind her, and when she turns around she is met by the Black Carriage of Night Raven College.

Etymology: Yuuna’s family name is pronounced the same (the kanji is different) as 往生 (oujou), a term in Japanese Buddhism for rebirth in the Pure Land. There is also 大往生 (dai-oujou), which means “peaceful death.”

Abduction: Walking alone on his way home from school Yuuya stops at a crosswalk where the light is almost never red. After 6 months of walking the same route, it was his first time ever stopping at that light. When it turns green he steps out into the street and hears a rumbling sound. He has no memory of anything after that. Crowley says what he heard was the Black Carriage on its way to pick him up.

Etymology:  Last name – Black Tree. First name – Kindness. 
Black can often symbolize mystery, grief or death in literature, while trees can be symbolic of life, growth, and/or endurance. Together “Kuroki” could be interpreted in variety of ways, such as standing solitary and strong in the face of hardship, life and death intertwining, and more.

Physical description of Kuroki Yuuya from the official English translation:

“Urged on by Crowley, he peered into the glass, and a boy with short black hair appeared on its surface. Eyebrows, nose, mouth, ears-all were utterly average. Not one thing distinguished the boy in any way. If pressed to highlight a notable feature, Yuya would have said that the boy’s eyes were perhaps a bit rounder than average, but even this did not conflict with his other features. The roundness of his eyes blended in with the rest so well that it would have been forgotten the second anyone looking at this face glanced away from it. Put nicely, the face had a comfortable familiarity to it. Put not so nicely, it was mediocre—a sort of everyman’s face, which, if encountered in the morning, would be forgotten by evening.”

– Twisted Wonderland the first novel (official translation)