Second Exorcist Program

The Second Exorcist Program (第二 (セカンド) エクソシスト計画, Dai ni (sekando) ekusoshisuto keikaku), which was run out of Laboratory 6 in the Asia Branch of the Black Order and was overseen by the Chang and Epstain families, was an attempt keep the number of Exorcists stable by artificially creating new ones. Subjects of the program are called Second Exorcists (第二エクソシスト (セカンドエクソシスト), Sekandoekusoshisuto) or Artificial Apostles (人造使徒, Jinzō shito).

History
The Second Exorcist Project was founded ninety-nine years before the the main story by the Epstain and Chang families, who were acting on orders from Central, specifically Zu Mei Chang. In those ninety years of experimentation, all but two subjects, Yu Kanda and Alma Karma, became Fallen Ones upon attempting to synchronize with the Innocence of their previous bodies. Kanda and Alma were able to synchronize, but the resurgence of their memories led to a violent divide between the two, ending in Alma slaughtering the staff of Laboratory 6 and Kanda nearly killing Alma so he could live on and find the woman whose memory-induced hallucinations haunted him.

Purpose
During a time when Accommodators were scarce, the Second Exorcist Program was founded in the hopes that successfully synchronized Accommodators who had died in the line of duty could continue to be used by the Black Order, if only in part. This was done by harvesting the brains of fallen Exorcists and implanting them into new bodies, and then repeatedly forcing the new bodies, once they had awoken, to attempt to synchronize with the Innocence their former lives had wielded.



The project, however, had dismal results; the few Second Exorcists who awoke were unable to synchronize, and after a time the memories of their previous lives would resurface, resulting in their mental and physical stability crumbling. As seen when this happened with Yu Kanda, Second Exorcists who had their old memories reawaken were violently euthanized with magic.

Powers and Abilities of Subjects
Healing and Regeneration: In order to keep the Second Exorcists who successfully awoke from being killed by the violent backlashes that came with forced attempts at Innocence synchronization, the Chang family used their magical prowess to develop regenerative seals that were bonded with the bodies of the subjects, typically in the chest. Repeated large scale regeneration, though, does weaken and slow the seals abilities. The regenerative seal is shown to be so powerful that the blood of a person who has had one thoroughly bonded to their body can even heal others.

Immense Strength: Second Exorcists are shown to be very strong, exemplified when Kanda managed to throw Alma into a cement wall harshly enough to form a compounded crater in the wall.

Alma Karma
Alma Karma woke before Kanda and spent much of his time in Laboratory 6's Second Exorcist containment room, talking to the unconscious bodies of his fellows. He became quite lonely and was ecstatic when Kanda woke, wanting to be friends with him to the point where he annoyed Kanda so much Kanda initially wanted nothing to do with him. Alma regained his memories after Kanda, and the rage and pain it brought him led to him slaughtering the staff of the Second Exorcist Program. He also wanted to kill Kanda, but Kanda overpowered him and weakened his regenerative seal so thoroughly Alma fell into a coma for years. Because of this, and the fact that he had regenerative powers, the Black Order salvaged his body and used him as the 'womb' for the Third Exorcist Program, implanting an Akuma nucleus into Alma's body and harvesting the mutated cells to implant them in other humans.

Yu Kanda
The only subject that was able to successfully synchronize with his former body's Innocence and was actually used by the Black Order as part of its standing forces, he woke after Alma but proved to be stronger than him. His mental degradation began before Alma Karma's, and what resulted from it led to Alma betraying and coming to hate the Order and, ironically, led to Alma wanting to kill Kanda when he had previously been so intent on saving him.

Trivia

 * Noise Marie was slated to be a subject for the Second Exorcist program, but was accidentally revived by Yu Kanda.
 * The symbol within the seal of the Second Exorcists regenerative cores is a variant of the symbol of Om, a sacred symbol/sound/syllable in several Dharma.