Ichinomiya Kantarou

PLAYER INFORMATION
⇒ Name: Nica
⇒ Journal: kurai_kun
⇒ Age: 29
⇒ Contact: AIM: Yume no Kakyou
⇒ Characters Played: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION
⇒ Name: Ichinomiya Kantarou
⇒ Age: Between 30 and 40 (His age is never properly defined.)
⇒ Canon: tactics (Specifically the manga)
⇒ Canon Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactics_(manga)
http://mangafox.me/manga/tactics/
⇒ Canon Point: Vol 12, chapter one after visiting his mothers grave.

CHARACTER INTERPRETATION
⇒ Appearance:
http://pics.livejournal.com/kan_chyan/pic/0009d67f
Kantarou is of an average height for a Japanese man of the 1920s, he also looks very young for his age coming across as someone possibly in his early 20s instead of his potential mid or so thirties. The most striking thing about him though is the fact that he is albino and is very pale in colouring.
⇒ Personality:
Kantarou is a very complex character, though he comes across as rather simple and shallow to most people. He is a very spiritual person and is a practitioner of Shingon Buddhism though has also studied various Shinto disciplines and can pretty much fill in for either Buddhist rituals or Shinto. Though he is a powerful spiritualist, he is technically a folklore writer and scholar.

The first thing that comes across personality wise is the fact that Kantarou is rather greedy, and also extremely lazy. He will discuss fees before anything else, and will try and milk a situation for as much as he possibly can. He's rather cunning in that respect as well, and is considered a tactician for how he lays out and plots his plans. As for his lazy tendencies they surface in many ways. The major one is how he avoids reaching his deadlines causing his editor to come and bother him and sometimes making Youko, one of his youkai, do the research and sometimes write for him! He likes to avoid anything serious and really spend more time playing around and having fun at others inconvenience.

All of these negative aspects, though true parts of his nature, are more exaggerated and are used as a front. Underneath the immature selfish outward appearance is a very thoughtful and serious person, one who holds great compassion for Youkai and a strong sense of spiritual balance. Under it all Kantarou is a very sad and tragic person, with a dark past he tries to hide. He has been scared emotionally and these things, though he tries to hide them, do shape who he is. He has a strong resentment towards his mother, which has governed most his life. Kantarou suffered from an isolated childhood due to bullying about his abilities and albinism. He is very conscious and uncomfortable about his condition when it is mentioned and can become very uneasy.

Kantarou holds a strong sixth sense; this caused him to be used by his family in place of his mother. Since he shared the same skill as his mother, who left the family and did as she pleased, Kantarou became her replacement. (This is implied through a conversation with his aunt, I have no particular proof of this.) He may have been used as a yorimashi, or channeler of sorts. Due to his high spiritual powers and sixth sense it would make sense. There is also a time where he starts to blur the line between his personal history and a young girl named Rosalie who is easily possessed by spirits.

Now, with a strong sixth sense, being albino and ostracized, a mother who was never there, and more or less a tool, Kantarou was a very lonely child. His only friends in fact were youkai. He has stronger feelings for youkai than he does other humans, to the point where he tends to favor them. This should not be confused with taking their side unconditionally though; he is very good with keeping a balance and understanding when something is truly wrong, or misunderstood. But, generally he prefers to spend his time with youkai and will listen to them about issues first. Due to his growing up around them, and having made so many of them his friends, he considers himself to be especially good at making friends with all youkai.

As a person his ability has affected his outlook and way of life from the start. It ostracized him from other people; this has made him very awkward with others. Crowds of people make him nervous and he can become very self conscious. Generally he doesn't have to deal with that though, as he's used to people avoiding him for being "diseased" looking. Also, since his ability has allowed him to be very close with youkai, that also effects his outlook on things. He is most comfortable with them, and thus has never really developed good people skills having surrounded himself with youkai.

But, despite his lack in people skills, he is a very good manipulator. Most of his interactions with others are of a business nature. Either they are contracting him to deal with an issue as an exorcist, are his editor wishing for him to finish manuscript, or someone he is trying to sell something to. He has been described as a 'tactician' due to how he organizes his plans, thinking several steps ahead and manipulating his situation to a favorable one.

Generally he has two sides, his outward appearance and his 'truer' appearance. Generally he will smile and act as if everything is fine, when it's not. And instead of admitting to true problems, he will exaggerate insignificant ones. This is so people he cares about won't worry about him, as he feels he isn't worth worrying about. He plays up most of his negative traits as a distraction.

Inside he is a very troubled person though, with a deep set belief that he is a sinner and is dirty. Some of this could be from the fact he is albino and was treated very badly by others, and some of it is due to something that happened to his mother in the past. What exactly happened hasn't been explained yet, but it's implied that something went wrong in a ceremony of some sort, and it was his fault leading to her death. We also know that a curse has been placed on him by an Oni, and it has been implied it was by Shuten Douji. What we do know is that there is something inside him related to Oni, and when he is around them it begins to grow. This may have been a technique used to heighten his spiritual powers by his aunt, or an effect of his curse. We do not know the details yet.

For the most part though, he comes across very good natured, and upbeat, if a little antagonistic and sarcastic. And despite being unconventional with his actions, he does follow the principles of Buddhism, especially that of no killing. Even his enemies who mean him death, he will not let them come to harm if they are human, or youkai. (Though he did exorcise a spirit before she could give a warning to his comrade.)

Kantarou's life hasn't been an easy one, at a young age his mother began to use him for his spiritual powers and it created a very strained relationship between the two. To this day he still harbors feelings of hatred for her and refuses to forgive what she did. It's not quite revealed when but at some point (perhaps when his mother died) his aunt took him in and from there he went to school and college and became a scholar of Japanese mythology. He uses this background for writing folklore books and articles but on the side uses his abilities as an exorcist.

⇒ Previous game history: N/A
⇒ Powers and Abilities:
Kantarou is a folklorist and a scholar, his specialty is his vast and detailed knowledge of Japanese mythology, etymology and youkai. Along with his vast knowledge on various spiritual practices ranging from his native Shingon Buddhism (which is a style that specializes in exorcisms) to his ability to fill in for Shintoism and understanding of Onmyoudo and Taoism. Along with his educational knowledge he is a great strategist, who always thinks three steps ahead and manipulates situations rather effectively to his desired outcome. Though it doesn't seem to help him much financially.

Despite his tactical ability he has no fighting abilities what so ever, he can defend himself just enough with a sword to prepare a spell but not much else.

His powers are based in spiritualism and this is where he shines, his power level is quite high for a human, many youkai mention that it is on the level of a strong youkai, he also has a bracelet that seems to act as a seal for something inside him. However, the canon has yet to release what that exactly is at the moment so I can't go into anymore details on that. What I can say is that it seems to be related to immunity to mind reading, as a Satori for the first time in her life could not look into his mind, as well as a strong resistance to harmful things inside his body. At one point the oni Irabagi Douji put a type of worm under her control inside him, supposedly nothing could harm it and only she could remove it, however later the worm was destroyed while within him.

Kantarou has the ability to see, understand, and speak with youkai. He claims his special skill is to "become friends with youkai" which is very good at. Even violent youkai will generally calm down and befriend him in little time. Another ability that goes with that closely is the ability to name youkai, naming a youkai is a type of contract or binding which essentially makes that youkai a slave or servant of the person who named them. It's very difficult to do this by force and nearly impossible to do it to any youkai that wasn't something small and weak. However, Kantarou has never named an unwilling youkai and doesn't believe in the practice. He has only ever named two youkai, a fox and a tengu who he considers family.

Kantarou is very good with wards and can create kekkai, spiritual barriers as well as spiritual restraints. They take time to build up though, so he's vulnerable while preparing them, and usually requires someone else to deal with the target while he does so. He is also good with ofuda, mantra, sutra, and other skills. He has also been shown to call down the power of Buddhist gods to aid him. He has even used his exorcising skills to reseal a rather strong dragon who had formally been a mountain god.

Kantarou's number one most used skill is the Kuji, which is a complex and difficult exorcism skill, it is considered hard to execute properly and will work against nearly any demon or youkai. Of course the strength of the demon or youkai will diminish its effect, but even strong youkai can be restricted by it for at least a short time.

There are


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
⇒ Personal Effects: The clothes on his back, which include white kimono, red hakama and zori. He will also have a basket full of pomegranates.
⇒ Device: An enchanted Japanese style bound book, the type used for manuscripts with the squares for kana. When "video" appears the squares disappear and instead of text subtitles the "video" plays out like a silent movie.

WRITTEN SAMPLES
⇒ First Person: http://snakesonaplain.dreamwidth.org/669.html?thread=8861#cmt8861
⇒ Third person:
What was he doing? He wasn't a warrior, he wasn't even particularly athletic, yet here he was on a battle field. Sure he had been curious about the supposed demons on the other side, he still wasn't sure there was no way to negotiate in some way. After all humans were quick vilainize youkai and anything they didn't understand. He wasn't going to blindly accept they were all by default bad. Some of them could be fighting because there was little choice, would it be reasonable to side with those who would destroy you? No. But, this was not to say he thought them harmless, or that what he was told was false. It was foolish to be too skeptical, one must prepare for all potential outcomes after all. Still, in his heart he wanted to believe that the youkai were simply misunderstood.

However, there were other things he found troubling, the history and literature he knew was not quite in step with hat he was seeing. Historical and literary figures were walking around and mingling, people were acting contrary to what he had been taught and regions that should never have met were drawn together. It was hard to judge what would be similar to the history books and what would be completely different. It left him feeling just a bit troubled. But, at least what he did know to be true so far gave him advantage, he could keep things in his favor if he played his cards right. Of course, being on the battle field was not quite what he expected....

At least he had established himself not as one who could fight, but one who could give tactical advice, and though he was confident in his abilities he was not confident that fate would look out for his wellbeing if it decided to shift things. Even if camp dulled his sense he would much rather be there now. If Haruka were with him he would feel more comfortable, he would feel safer, but his tengu was not and this endeavor had too much to potentially lose.

Maybe he should have played down his "prowess" and kept himself unnoticed. But it just felt so nice to be finally acknowledged for his skills! If only Hasumi were here to rub it in his face. Who's a two bit hack now huh? No, that wasn't quite right. He and Hasumi had already reached a sort of understanding, and if it took a giant eight headed dragon and an army of demons to remind people youkai were real... he would rather continue being looked down on.

"I feel like I'm being tested in some sort of trial for my soul...." if asked what he meant he would shrug it off. This had to be a punishment for being wicked, this was all he could think at the moment.