application (amatomnes)
CHARACTER
» Name: Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th
» Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army/vs. King Abaddon.
» Canon Point: After the end of "Soulless Army."
» Gender: Male.
» Age: 18 (an approximate guess - official guidebook says "late teens.")
» Orientation: Unknown. In the game, Raidou is propositioned by both males and females, but he ignores both types of advances equally. In the guidebook, his "type" (referring to romantic/sexual preference) is listed as unknown, saying that "since he has a duty, he has made it his decision to ensure that [romance] does not impact [his duty]."
» Personality:
In the in-game world, very few humans have the capacity to see and interact with demons, so the people possessing that ability, including Raidou, were prepared from birth to join the ranks of summoners, humanity's only defense against havoc-wreaking demons. Dating as far back as the Heian period, the Kuzunoha village cultivated thirteen generations of summoners before Raidou - he was given the title of Raidou Kuzunoha the Fourteenth only after he completed the near twenty years of conditioning and passed the merciless final test.
Raidou was born between 1912-1914, a period of financial and political prosperity right on the cusp of the first world war, which would establish Japan as an emerging world power. Several details of Raidou's attitude towards the outside world can be deducted simply from the political climate during the time period he grew up in. As a result of the First Sino-Japanese War, which took place during 1894-95, Japan seized control of Korea and established its military dominance over China, shifting the main power in Asia from China to Japan; because of this, Raidou probably has negative opinions of the Chinese and Koreans (and the Russians, whom the Japanese had trounced during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War), but positive views of the Allies (America, Britain, etc), who were at that point in alliance with Japan, since the game takes place after the first world war and far before the start of the second world war. During the 1920s and 30s, which is when the Devil Summoner series takes place, Japan was becoming increasingly globalized in the industrial sense, but continued to be domestically insular. He had very little interest in the fad of Westernization that was sweeping Japan during that time period; he was used to a much more traditional culture, and he probably held some disdain towards people who ignored age-old beliefs in favor of the "modern way of life."
He grew up in the small, provincial Kuzunoha village, and it was unlikely that he had much exposure to the outside world beyond the stories told by the other members of the village. His childhood was based entirely around training: while other young boys played with their friends and siblings, he was put under the harsh regimen of the village's elders in preparation for his future as a devil summoner. His days were consumed with practice in the art of wielding both a katana and firearms, in addition to his main task of learning to confine, control and summon demons. That left him with very little time to himself, and prevented him from making childhood friends or interacting with his family (if he lived with his family at all). While his physical and mental discipline flourished and his skill in combat increased, his sense of empathy and interpersonal skills languished, leaving him well-mannered but ill-equipped to deal with other people on a personal level.
However, after he passed the Kuzunoha village's final test, Raidou was dispatched to the city of Tokyo, which had only recently become the capital of Japan. It was the complete opposite of the environment in which he grew up in: he lived with his employer, the detective (and ex-spy) Shouhei Narumi, in an apartment building several stories high within the neighborhood that would eventually become today's Shinjuku, a cultural center filled with interesting people and varied shops and restaurants. With Raidou's exploration of the city came exposure to all of the people Tokyo was home to, including soldiers, factory workers, gamblers, prostitutes, crossdressers, and the yakuza; he took it all in stride, never changing expressions or acting rudely even while losing his naivete and being faced with situations he'd never seen before. While not everyone he met was pleasant, he held his composure, addressing each person politely, if bluntly - even after gaining more experience, Raidou was still not a master of tact or casual conversation. Despite his exposure to so many different people, Raidou never tried to make friends or form close bonds with others; all of his interactions were within the context of work and investigation, further fueling the solitude and loneliness Raidou had become so accustomed to. Part of his disconnect with humanity also lied with the fact that he was very attuned with spirituality. Along with practicing Shintoism, which the demon summoning community is based around, his sixth sense took precedence over his other five senses. He was separated from most people because he could see demons, whereas most humans couldn't; it gave him a feeling of being simultaneously better and worse than the people around him. He was proud of his abilities and enjoyed being a summoner, but that made it harder for him to shake off the persona of "the Fourteenth" and simply exist as a normal teenager.
Raidou drew a strict line between "work" and "play," never once slacking on his duties as the capital's protector in favor of more entertaining prospects. In fact, he ignored leisure activities entirely, choosing to devote all of his free time to investigation and further training. Narumi often pushed Raidou in the direction of social activities, suggesting that he spend time at the local summoner-friendly soda bar, Shin-Sekai, but the hints were lost on Raidou, who only ventured into such establishments if there was someone he needed to speak with. His childhood left no time for play, and in his adolescence those habits continued; even when left to his own devices in a city as wild as Tokyo, Raidou never strayed from the path set out for him. While his battle tactics and investigation strategies prove that he was certainly bright, he rarely attended school because his duties as a summoner took precedence. He fell behind on traditional education, and fell even further behind on establishing healthy relationships with his peers. Not only did he not have friends his age, he didn't have friends at all: his two closest companions were his guardian, Gouto, who was cursed with the form of a talking cat, and his employer, Narumi. While the nation's capital was fiercely protected under Raidou's care, he sacrificed his own physical, mental and emotional livelihood in exchange for the safety of Tokyo. He even gave up his given name after earning the title of Raidou Kuzunoha, and there was only one person - Gouto - who addressed him by his real name: Jouhei.
» Appearance: For a Japanese teenager, Raidou is somewhat tall, standing at 5'8" (175 cm) and weighing 143 pounds (65 kg). He has uncharacteristically light eyes (between light gray and lavender, depending on the lighting), pale skin, and dark hair that he styles into his trademark eartails. He wears his school uniform's hat everywhere, even in the bathhouse or hot springs, and even when he isn't attending school, he wears the uniform along with a black cape that conceals his gun holster and the pockets he holds demon-confining tubes in. Unless he's bathing or sleeping, he carries a katana, a revolver, and 8 metal tubes with him.
» Suitability: While Raidou is a master at suppressing his own personal feelings and desires over the course of the games, he isn't uncomfortable with seeing others express their own desires, and in a situation where sexuality is more acceptable than it is for him in canon, it's likely that he would become more comfortable with his own sexuality.
There are many beings, human and demon alike, who approach Raidou in canon with sexual and romantic propositions. In the human world, prostitutes (biologically female and males crossdressing) approach him as he's investigating the red light district, and passerby make comments and assumptions about his sexual preference. In the demon world, Raidou is constantly praised on his physical attractiveness, and some of the demons express a desire to be with him sexually - two demons, Titania and Oberon, even attempt to kidnap him and keep him as their consort because they find him attractive. Even though he never takes any human or demon up on their offers or directly addresses their questions about his sexuality, he denies them gracefully and maturely; he has no interest in sex himself because relationships would impede his duty of protecting the capital, but he isn't scared or offended by the idea.
In Amat, survival would be the most important thing to him: while in Atia, it would become his duty to keep himself alive by having sex, just as it's his duty to protect Tokyo in the games, and he would willingly accept and fulfill that duty. Raidou is trustworthy in non-sexual situations that require an incredible amount of maturity: he diplomatically negotiates with demons in order to become their partners, and he takes care of problems in the demon world without alerting or causing trouble for the human world. That same maturity he displays in canon would carry over to situations both sexual and non in Atia.
SAMPLES
» 'amatomnes' Entry:
[When the video feed starts up, the network is granted a view of two feet clad in a pair of especially snappy black dress shoes, offset by the cream of the palace's carpet. The frame wobbles as the device is turned to the left and then to the right, being inspected by whoever is holding it. The first sound emitted from the boy holding the device is a light "hm," signaling the end of his short investigation, and then the camera swivels up to focus in on his face. His brow is furrowed, and his mouth is set in a hard line - after a staring contest with the device, he speaks.]
My name is Raidou Kuzunoha the Fourteenth. Who am I speaking with?
[After a moment - and another staring contest, during which Raidou blinks not once - he amends his initial question with a second, more forceful statement.]
Please tell me where I am and when the next train to Tokyo arrives.
[And even as he ends the feed, he keeps his eyes locked onto the camera, looking at it as if, by doing that, he could size up whoever might be on the other side.]
» 'amatomneslogs' Entry:
There are some people in the world who have never woken up in an unfamiliar place before (and never will). Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th isn't one of those people. When dealing with demons, it's almost par for the course; if it happens to you enough, it's easy to get used to being transported to alternate realms and different dimensions. There are some occasions, though, when it's just as disconcerting as the very first time, and this is one such occasion.
--Well, having a full night's rest and waking up in a comfortable bed with very high-quality sheets isn't so disconcerting. For the five seconds that Raidou is conscious but unaware of his displacement, he appreciates how nice the bed feels, finding himself rolling onto his other side purely to experience the simple pleasure of the sheets shifting across his bare skin. That's what tips him off about the whole situation: right now, he's naked. Recognizing that is what propels him to sit up and open his eyes, and when he does that, it cements the fact in his mind that he is not where he is supposed to be, and he has not been doing what he is supposed to be doing. It's a bad feeling, an unpleasant sensation in the pit of his stomach that's a lot like the feeling he gets when he's falling or passing out.
Quickly, Raidou looks around the room for a sign of someone else's presence. There are two people - or rather, one person and a cat - who almost always follow Raidou when he's thrown into sticky situations like this. Neither of them are in the room, but what's worse is that there's nothing to indicate their whereabouts at all. There's no black fur shed on the sheets like there is in Raidou's own bed, and the floor isn't strewn with Narumi's clothes, and the air doesn't hold the scent of fancy imported cigarettes. The room is glitzy but it holds no trace of human life besides the boy in the bed and the clothes that are folded at the foot of it. However, there must have been a person (or a demon; that's also a definite possibility) who interacted with Raidou at one point: it's entirely possible that he removed his own clothing and simply doesn't remember it, but he refuses to believe that he fastened a collar to his own neck.
What does the collar signify? Raidou doesn't know. He finds himself reaching his hands up to experimentally tug at it, testing its strength and getting a feel for the material. Whatever it's made of, it doesn't feel like the work of demons - but what human would capture a summoner and give that summoner a collar? More importantly, what human would capture a summoner, have sex with him, and then give him a collar? It isn't the time or place for Raidou to reflect on his personal feelings on the matter, but it does warrant speculation as to what his captor's goals are. Captors, plural? It's very likely, he thinks, that Titania and Oberon have found a way to pluck him away from Tokyo and into the land they reign over; they seemed rather interested in him, in the sexual sense, the last time he spoke to them. Thinking that gives Raidou a sense of relief, allows him to relax and separate his rational mind from the situation's tension, because while Titania does enjoy having her indulgences fed, she and her husband are not immediate threats to Tokyo's safety, and so Raidou's duty has not been as sorely compromised as he had first feared.
With his mind made about where he is and why he is here, Raidou decides to dress himself in preparation for what he needs to do next. Ignoring the looseness in his body - it's unusual, for him to feel so well-rested and free of tension, and "unusual" is "unpleasant" - he clothes himself just like he does every morning at home. The routine of adding on the layers and layers of clothing is something he finds calming, a monotonous physical task that gives his mind time to work. When every article of clothing is on and in place, down to the very last button, he tips down the brim of his hat and opens the door. He has a few choice words for Titania, and he intends to share them.