John Bacchus

John Balks is the Eleventh diary owner, and the final owner introduced in the series. The Mayor of Sakurami City, John Balks is actually the creator of the Future Diaries technology and suggested the survival game to Deus Ex Machina. He fused the first Future Diaries together to create his "Watcher Diary".

Personality
Balks is a middle-aged spectacled gentleman dressed in fine clothes and wears a hat resembling a Jewish kippah. Using his position as mayor of Sakurami City, Balks is the most powerful man in the city and his influence is very strong. In his opening scene, Balks convinces the entire city council to agree to shut down Kamado Ueshita's orphanage by crying crocodile tears and blubbering about how he adores every child in the city as if they were his own. Balks is obviously intelligent and manipulative, but can be just as honest.

He is very polite and acts like a gentleman towards Kamado. However, he is perhaps one of the more ruthless of the twelve diary owners, being strategic and using his intelligence to make any situation's outcome be to his advantage. His goal in the game is to help humanity evolve to a higher form of being, having similar beliefs like the Macedonians, Romans and Nazi Germany. His diary, the "Watcher Diary", has an ability to read the other Future Diaries' entries, and the Apprentice Diaries. It is probably the most powerful of the twelve Future Diaries, on par with Yukiteru Amano's Random Diary. However, the diary is vulnerable when misinformation is put on the diaries that Balks is reading, although he can counter this weakness by figuring out the true details of the diaries.

Backstory
Balks, wishing to evolve humanity to new heights, met and approached Deus with the proposal to give mankind some of his divine power. His concept was the Future Diaries, which could predict the future. Learning of Deus' approaching demise, Balks' idea would contribute to the survival game Deus had in mind to choose a successor. Deus used his powers to help create the powers of the Future Diaries, whilst Balks developed the actual technology. The two made several archetypal prototypes to test out the powers of the diaries - The "Radar" Diary, which could predict a person's surroundings; the "Searcher Diary" which predicts the actions of certain individuals; the "Organizer" Diary which predicts the actions of groups; and the "Supplier" which gives others the power to predict the future.

Balks formed a fifth prototype, the "Watcher" Diary, in order to watch and record the activities of all other diaries. This effectively made Balks the first Future Diary owner, despite being titled as Eleventh in the survival game.

Enter Eleventh
Balks debuted with the other diary owners during Deus' first meeting of the survival game, targeting Yukiteru Amano as the primary target to eliminate after he killed the Third owner Takao Hiyama. He is present at the second meeting, and other subsequent ones, although he does not make a move in the game until later on, likely observing the other owners until half of them are eliminated.

Balks begins to make his move against the other diary owners, manipulating Kurou Amano into his services by telling him that if he destroys Yukiteru's diary, his debts will be cleared. When Kurou ultimately fails to achieve this, Balks has his subordinates attempt an assassination of Kurou and Yuki. Kurou is killed, but Yuki uses his diary to kill the men, prompting him to play the game after all and target Balks. Balks makes his plans to eliminate Kamado next, convincing the council of Sakurami City to shut down her orphanage after the incidents involving the residents.

At the final meeting held between the last diary owners, Balks suggests to Deus to eliminate Yuki and Yuno Gasai from the game after they have not made an appearance in five days, although Minene Uryu objects. As Deus is about to follow Balks' request, Yuki and Yuno arrive, Yuki revealing Balks' identity to the other owners and vows to kill him in order to avenge his parents. Forming an alliance with Kamado, Yuki and Yuno plan to ambush Balks whilst he is on his way through a country road, guarded by Masumi Nishijima. However, Balks anticipates the attack and uses an EMP weapon to disable Kamado's Apprentice Diaries. Yuki and Yuno then turn against Kamado, killing her orphans, causing her to flee. However, Balks and Nishijima pull over in their car, offering Kamado a ride.

Balks and Kamado make their getaway, Yuki and Yuno giving chase in a car down the motorway. Yuki eventually rams Balks car until it crashes. Yuno confronts Balks, aiming a gun at his head, but Balks merely mocks her as Minene arrives with Aru Akise, carrying with him the umbilical cord of the "real" Yuno Gasai, something which Balks takes note of. He tries to shoot Yuno but Yuki flees with her.

Several nights later, Balks takes Kamado to the city's university where he reveals the Holon III supercomputer. He explains his plan to Kamado - to connect her Blog Diary to the supercomputer, so every citizen in Sakurami City can become Apprentice Diary owners, allowing him to create a superior race of human beings like Macedonia, Rome and Nazi Germany tried to do. Minene, who is spying on the conversation, calls him a maniac and tries to throw a grenade at him. Balks immediately catches it and tosses it back, causing Minene to flee. However, Minene and Nishijima are able to destroy the computer terminals, believing they have defeated Balks. That is until a policeman speaks on Nishijima's radio, claiming his phone is telling him of his future, Holon III actually possessing two more terminals.