&application;
Player name: Saffy
Player LJ: presea
Email / AIM: namine[at]feathery[dot]org / inherits the sun
Timezone: CST
Other characters: Asch (promisedsomeone); Emil Castagnier [d2] (pactum); Sirkka (newworldlover); Axel [d4] (smolderingdark).
Character: Niwa Daisuke
Fandom: D•N•Angel
Deviance: 1
Age: 15 (or perhaps 10,000) [no he’s really 15]
Gender: Male, surprisingly.
Species: Human (with a “curse” in his DNA)
Canon Used: The manga. Omake/side-stories are canon. I haven’t seen the anime, and from what I heard, most of it was the same except for a few plot points that sort of make it hard to play Daisuke from a certain canon point. In other words, they‘re sort of different and sort of the same, and it‘s not worth it to mix up the material. If I see it eventually and decide a few details from Daisuke’s story are relevant, I’ll add them in, but I don’t really see the need since he’s the main character and we know too much about him anyway. Saw the anime since apping, was not impressed. Might use it for voicing things but not much else.
Appearance: Daisuke is not the big macho hero type. He’s short and “delicate” looking, enough that even he concedes to being girly sometimes. His red hair is spiked in a terrible, unfixable mess, and his equally red eyes are bright and curious rather than dark and mysterious. When he’s not in his school uniform, he wears loose clothes and a sweater, though sometimes gayer nicer clothes pop up if he’s feeling particularly daring. But mostly he looks like this. Why he has a thing for plaid I will never know, but I chalk it up to his lack of testosterone. He looks like a cross between Tsuna and Sora hair-wise.
Psychology:
Daisuke is not a normal boy with a normal life, but he certainly tries. He’s hardworking and earnest most of the time, though he has his lazy moments like any teenager. He’s bright and insightful despite his tendency to miss really obvious things, yet he can formulate strategies and solve complex puzzles on his own if given a little time to concentrate. That doesn’t make him a genius, but it makes him a very good at what he does. Daisuke is, after all, a thief.
Not just any kind of thief. He doesn’t steal from banks and he doesn’t make little old ladies cry… usually. He’s a Niwa, which means that for hundreds of years the males of his family have been coerced into stealing artwork of a peculiar caliber, known as Hikari art. Daisuke is, at first, reluctant to do all of this because-- well, he’s sane, and he has to pull this off in addition to a normal school life. Not only that, but the alternate personality sleeping in his DNA really makes him tick. Daisuke is always drawn to doing the right thing, but Dark always wants to know what’s in it for him, leading them to disagree on several occasions. At the very least, such dangerous work means that Daisuke will bend over backwards to avoid hurting or killing someone, because solving something simply isn’t always the best.
Since light isn’t always “good” in this universe, Daisuke (rather than the angelic creature inside of him) is blessed with a wonderful sense of optimism and the sort of blind determination one needs when confronted with very old and dangerous mysteries. He also possesses a self-sacrificial streak which rubs off a bit sometimes. There is something to be said for trust in the future as well; he is absolutely committed to finding a way to help Satoshi live longer, despite the hundreds of years of history that contradict everything Daisuke wants to accomplish. He doesn’t even know where to start, but he makes naive promises like that, and maybe-- just maybe-- he can make them come true. It’s apparent to everyone around him that Daisuke cares truly and deeply for his friends, even if they don’t care for him back (or even in the right way). For all his incredible awkwardness, within Daisuke rests the ability to change the course of the curse forever.
So he might be talented, and he might have a bit of potential, but Daisuke certainly doesn’t fit the bill most of the time. He likes to pretend that smiling will make him seem mature and responsible and unbothered by everything, mostly to cover up his own concerns. He’s easily underestimated, so at times he’s distracted by proving himself one way or another, though it’s generally in a very quiet and proper way. While he is usually the one to calm Dark down and control him, Daisuke can have his fits, too. He’s still a bit of a kid, not really as mature as his classmate and destined rival Satoshi, which means he has no problems lying about things if it’s needed or if he wants to get out of trouble. He can sulk with the familiarity of any fifteen-year-old, or retaliate when he’s being obviously trolled, but he’s actually non-confrontational to a fault; this leads to one of those hilarious dating scenarios where he has to date two twin sisters at the same time, in the same place, just because he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
And oh, he has such a hard time refusing anyone. Risa Harada especially. She was his first crush, and despite knowing this, she rather selfishly manipulates Daisuke into doing things for her. They’ve managed to become friends (after much kidnapping and almost-death happened) but most people with a backbone would set her straight if given the opportunity. Her twin sister Riku is Daisuke’s current love and pretty-much-girlfriend, and though she is much bolder, she’s able to keep up with Daisuke quite a bit more-- and might be too smart for her own good. Also, Daisuke was drafted along with the rest of the male cast into cross-dressing for a play the girls put on, and though he was pretty embarrassed about it, he went along with it and put in as much effort as anyone would expect of him.
Daisuke might be a bit wimpy. And he has a hard time spitting out what he really feels. And he trips a lot, and makes a lot of stupid mistakes… but he’s really a boy trying to help people in his own way, either by finding the happiest ending he can for the living artwork he encounters, or calling his friends up every night to talk about nothing at all so that they can feel better. He inspires hope in most everyone he meets and he’s determined to fulfill that promise. Sweet, altruistic, and full of love, Daisuke is an incredible kid on the road to being a mature and influential young adult.
Other Skills/Abilities: Daisuke is a thief. It’s in his genes-- quite literally-- and in his crazy training from his mother. From the time he could walk he began training in acrobatics, lockpicking, disarming and disabling various security protocol. He had no choice in the matter; it was either do or die in his house, considering even the door is booby-trapped to kill someone if they weren’t careful. It makes having friends over very problematic, one could say. He’s skilled in hacking locks if they happen to be electronic, dodging lasers, that sort of thing, and his stamina is a lot better than one would give him credit for.
In a true twist of poetic irony, Daisuke has a talent for making art. It became the focus of one plot arc when he was sucked into the world of his own painting, which inexplicably became linked to a piece of living art and the legend it represented. Although Satoshi is the descendant of a great artist and presumably has that sort of talent, Daisuke’s art has the spark of true genius rather than imitation. He’s rather shy about it, as most insecure artists are, but he keeps drawing anyway. And he’s very good at it.
When off the Plane, Daisuke is able to call upon Dark to help him out when he’s… not sleeping, that is. Dark knows how to use magic, but knows it hurts his host too much to use it without the help of Cute Bunny Mascot With. That is where Dark gets his wings, mostly. Dark is smart, difficult to catch, and very, very quick on his feet. When not taking over Daisuke’s body, he usually sits in the back of his head criticizing Daisuke’s life and making fun of him like a personal Stephen Colbert. While present on the Plane, Daisuke will have Dark suppressed in his DNA.
Other Weaknesses: Daisuke might be a very nimble thief but he also has a random clumsy side that shows itself at the worst times. It doesn’t interfere enough to actually hurt someone, but when he’s not watching what he’s doing, he fails. It’s mostly for comic relief. He is a teenager after all, and they can be very uncoordinated at that age.
His other weakness is that when he’s too close to a girl he’s infatuated with, he can’t help but turn into Dark. The other way around works, too. Daisuke spends a lot of time trying to calm himself down and not let that blushy-fluttery feeling get the best of his heart rate and what he’s trying to accomplish. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. At least that won’t happen on the Plane.
History:
The following is tl;dr. Read at your own risk.
Daisuke, by all appearances, is your typical wimpy middle-school student. When we’re introduced to him, he’s trying to get up the courage to ask out a girl whom he likes a lot. After psyching himself up for a while he finally did it-- and was rejected. Terribly. That rejection was a catalyst that set off the rest of the story, awakening the cursed being within his DNA and changing his life forever.
But where did it start?
The notion of cursed DNA isn’t a new concept. One could also think of it as the sins of the father being passed down to the son. Hundreds of years ago, when Japan was very different, there was said to be an artist possessing talent that could create life. His name was Hikari, and he sold his soul to the devil for the talent, as if giving the pieces life would give him life as well. The works he created were miraculous, usually based off stories (or perhaps there were stories based off the art?), and all of them had a single thing in common: they were magic. They seemed to possess the viewer so much that a man named Niwa decided to steal the art for himself. It wasn’t that he wanted to commit a violent crime, he simply didn’t feel alive unless he was stealing such priceless art.
Well, when Niwa came to take the magnum opus of Hikari’s art, something went terribly wrong. Either the artist hadn’t finished or he hadn’t added the right touch, but the art cursed them to house the beings called Kokuyoku. They were winged spirits with magic from old, and from that day forward, every son born into either family would inherit the curse brought forth by passion on his fourteenth birthday. The cat and mouse game continued after the revolution and into present day, where we met Daisuke Niwa. The Niwa family inherited Dark, the infamous and ageless phantom thief with dark wings. Whereas Dark was all showmanship and hidden compassion, the Hikari family didn’t fare so well. Satoshi was the young, intelligent, and very powerful heir to Krad-- Dark’s other half, who was apparently insane and hell-bent on revenge.
Even at a young age, Daisuke showed amazing talent and altruistic tendencies; he scaled a very tall fence and bravely ventured into a scary place in order to a stuffed animal for his future crush, Riku Harada.
Daisuke was at first unaware of his heavy destiny, and hung out with his more-forward guy friends, at least until Dark manifested in response to his feelings for Risa. He rebelled against the idea of someone else borrowing his body to do unlawful things, but eventually came to accept it. However, pulling off such late night antics and trying to live a normal life at the same time cost him much, and he ended up not being as careful as he wanted to be. Satoshi, who had been waiting for this moment practically out of the womb, sniffed out the clues and confronted him.
Daisuke wanted to like the guy. He seemed to have no friends and he wasn’t exactly mean, just mysterious and maybe a little creepy/obsessed, but he was a good guy, really! There was just one problem-- he was trying to catch Dark at night, seeing as how Satoshi Hiwatari was the commander of the police force. Kid genius indeed. It made things terribly difficult for Daisuke until Dark managed to win a bet, which would keep Satoshi from arresting Daisuke. It wasn’t impossible for Satoshi to catch Dark, it just made things a little more challenging.
Daisuke slowly began to realize that his feelings were shifting from Risa to her twin sister, Riku, who was more of a tomboy but genuinely cared about the derpy kid. Dark realized this as well, and every night while on the run he’d stop by the sisters’ room in order to turn himself back into Daisuke-- by staring at Riku, no less. She always had a tendency to wake up and accuse him of being a pervert, which… wasn’t far from the truth, and all of this made the love quadrangle even more awkward! Risa had the most fangirl crush on Dark ever, and thus there would be hijinks.
But life went on. Daisuke continued to steal Hikari artwork with the help of Dark and slipped out of Satoshi’s clutches every time. Finally, Satoshi was able to figure out a way to separate host from angel and it would have been golden from there-- it would have succeeded-- if not for Satoshi’s human heart suddenly getting in the way. Daisuke Krad appeared and took out all of his rage on Daisuke, who was pretty much defenseless. He managed to scrape out of it alive, and Satoshi finally allowed Daisuke to break the puzzle and become reunited with his cursed self. He couldn’t have done it without the help of another living artwork known as the Guide of Eternity-- or Towa-chan, as she preferred to be called-- and after the field trip of doom, Daisuke took her home and she became the Niwa family’s maid.
Later on, Riku decided she liked something Daisuke painted. However, it ended up sucking Daisuke into its strange snowy world, where Daisuke met a living piece of Hikari art known as the Second Hand of Time. Or maybe he had been trapped within it? Whatever the details were, he was unable to get out, and had to puzzle out the clues from the play his class was putting on versus the truth of the legend. Mostly he was guided by an intense desire to help Freedert, who was her other half. Outside, steps were being taken to get him out of there, but Dark had to pretend to be Daisuke in the meantime.
Daisuke nearly lost himself inside of it, but Dark and accidentally Riku came to help him. Daisuke ended up being the key to getting them out; he drew Riku’s room, and thus the pair could escape. Daisuke promised to stay behind, and with his family’s help as well as Satoshi’s, Dark was able to find a way to reunite Freedert with her long lost love. Just like Dark and Daisuke were different sides of the same person, there was a darker side to the Ice and Snow story that Daisuke knew. Only with its completion could there be happiness.
However, Daisuke wasn’t the one to save Freedert, or so he convinced himself. Though he had the ability to manipulate “time”, he regretted deeply that he couldn’t have given the two lovers more. Yet the night after Daisuke was released from Freedert’s world, it snowed. It wasn’t a cold snow, it was warm and pure just like the snow in his painting, and he knew it was from the last of the art’s magic. Which was fitting, since his painting had given the art life after so long.
Still possessing that dangerous sense of wanting to help people, Daisuke found Satoshi collapsed outside the school and decided to bring him home. Yes. Home. Into a booby-trapped house with his very disapproving mother and somewhat understanding father. The family treated him very politely, with the sort of nervous smiling one gets when they’re trying to hide something under the rug. In this case, there were traps under the rug, behind the paintings, attached to the kitchen door, and underneath the stairs. And surveillance cameras. In short: Daisuke’s daily life is insane. Satoshi managed to make it out alive, though, and Daisuke felt a little closer to him, even though being friends with a Hikari was deemed “wrong”.
Daisuke had developed a listening problem while being hit in the head by various girlfriends and tripping over himself all throughout his childhood, obviously.
Anyway, Satoshi transferred away and Daisuke had more harem-flavored hijinks, though he always wondered what happened to his stalker friend. Speaking of stalkers, Daisuke had contracted one too, because suddenly Risa got kidnapped, ruining an otherwise awesome date with Dark. Riku was worried sick, literally, and Daisuke & Dark both ran themselves ragged trying to figure out what had happened. Unfortunately this also got negative police attention and Satoshi miraculously jumped back into the plot just in time to save Daisuke’s face! The police went looking for Dark elsewhere and Daisuke, well… he was unconscious, so someone must have brought him home, probably one of his crazy family members who were lurking in the area for Operation: Date.
Though reeling from the energy he expended, Daisuke was determined to go and find Risa, who, like most princesses, was being kept in a tower. Satoshi knew exactly what was going on, and he and Daisuke worked together. Daisuke was very thankful for his help and they had a good talk while they went through various puzzles and tricks and traps aimed to kill any intruders. A rogue piece of Hikari art named Argentine had recently attained a lot of power, and he wanted a heart so that he could have wings just like the Kokuyoku, so he tried to steal Dark’s “heart”-- that is, Risa.
While Risa tried to tell Argentine he was a creep for putting her in pretty dresses, Daisuke and Satoshi downstairs fought for their lives; a simple puzzle had turned out to be much more than that and Krad had to step in to save the two boys. He then tried to kill Daisuke. Again. After all of that chaos, Satoshi and Daisuke had another talk about the origins of the cursed DNA, which Daisuke’s family really sucks at informing him about.
Lastly, Satoshi mentioned that Hikari were all very short-lived and that fact made Daisuke stop in his tracks. Casting aside everything he was taught about how the Hikari were the enemy, Daisuke made a promise then and there that he would find a way to give Satoshi’s life back, to let him live a normal life and free him from his destiny. It just wasn’t fair. This marked Daisuke as a real idiot but kind of an awesome one, too. It really solidified their bond as best friends despite the circumstances.
The peril wasn’t over, not with Argentine still trying to win Risa over. Dark went to save Risa and fight Argentine while Satoshi tried to figure out a way to dismantle his family’s artwork. He found the source but it was too late-- Risa was being her usual useless self, and Satoshi transformed into Krad so that he could save her. Argentine lost all his power and his life, regrettably, but it had to be done. The princess saved and his secret mostly-kept, Daisuke returned home.
He was surprised to find a little while later that there was something haunting the basement. Upon investigation, it was … Argentine! Satoshi rebuilt him with a piece of Qualia-- Argentine’s “Eve“, so to speak-- so that he could be a complete being. And apparently he had one power remaining-- the ability to fix up other artwork. It wasn’t the same as creating art, only restoring it, and the Niwa family had a sad lack of restorative artists. Thus, Argentine became a part of Daisuke’s daily life, along with all the other oddities. Daisuke was a little sketchy about this but no one else listened to him, as usual.
Presumably, life returned to normal, with Daisuke resuming his not single life at Azumano Middle School, Satoshi transferring back in, and lots of ogling art museums for future heists. Er, aesthetic value.
Canon Point: Post-Volume 13.
Reality Description: Daisuke’s world is a little place named Azumano, presumably near or a part of Tokyo, Japan. It’s filled with all sorts of Western oddities though-- western architecture, lots of art museums, gorgeous churches, and-- until recently-- some kind of trick-filled tower at the edge of the city that no one knew about. The clothing and technology is based around what was available in 1998, so cell-phones were reasonably clunky and plaid was not in style yet (thank you, Daisuke, for trying). It isn’t chock-full of towering skyscrapers, though there are a few tall buildings as well as a clock tower. Most noticeable is the town’s absolute obsession with Phantom Thief Dark. Either people love him or hate him, but he’s practically marketable at this point.
Also important is the presence of real, ancient magic. Art is everything in this world. The bond between an artist and his artwork can give something a life of its own, the same as the audience that surrounds it. The mechanics are shrouded in mystery, but they can do anything. Even live like normal people. Magic as it is used by Dark and Krad is generally very toxic to the human host unless the source of it is love, which brings us back to the relationship between art and artist. There is no room for Plato here-- it’s all about playing God, whether on accident or on purpose, so Dark or Satoshi usually has to pick up after it.
A varied cast of characters appears in Daisuke’s crazy life.
Dark is his inheritance from the Niwa family line: a pushy, skirt-chasing, extremely carefree thief who enjoys the attention he gets. He’s very powerful and extremely notorious around Azumano. Despite his flippancy, he cares deeply for a few people, especially his host-- and will go to any length to protect them. Daisuke and Dark have a relationship that is mostly brotherly, with Dark doing a lot of teasing.
Hiwatari (Hikari) Satoshi is the heir of the Hikari family and of Krad, Dark’s other half. Their relationship is complicated mostly by the fact that Krad wants to destroy Daisuke and Dark in very un PG-13 ways and Satoshi is, of course, a complete social retard. They’re best friends, even if Satoshi won’t admit it, and he’s a part of Daisuke’s world as much as Daisuke is a part of his.
The Harada twins are also a huge part of Daisuke’s life now that he contains Dark. Risa was the first one he fell in love with. She’s incredibly girly and the more useless of the two physically, and she isn’t above bullying Daisuke into doing things for her. Also, her cooking is terrible. She’s in love with Dark, hilariously enough, and perhaps a little crazy. Riku is Risa’s more serious twin and a tomboy. She’s better at school than her sister, and rather than being irresponsible and chasing whatever she feels like, Riku has real empathy. She becomes Daisuke’s mostly-girlfriend later on, but she has to work for it because he is a real doormat.
Daisuke’s family raised him to be the most slippery thief in existence. His family consists of: Emiko, his obtusely cheerful and secretly psycho mother who fangirls Dark like no one else except Risa; Kosuke, a somewhat awkward but nice man who must have raised Daisuke to be so … Daisuke-ish; and Daiki, Daisuke’s grandfather who was Dark aaaaaaages ago and often watches the goings-on over a cup of tea. Other enchanted servants help Daisuke out, too: With, a bunny-like creature who can shapeshift to keep up Daisuke’s double life as well as act as Dark’s wings; Towa-chan, a vain piece of rescued artwork that looks and acts like a sixteen year old girl, now functioning as the Niwa’s maid; and Argentine, the socially stunted but quite cute basement lurker who keeps the Niwa’s stolen artwork from decaying into obscurity.
Daisuke has only one normal guy friend, and his name is Saehara Takeshi. He’s a reporter wannabe who always writes about Dark’s escapades. His father is the police chief, too. His mother is gone, so Saehara all the cooking and cleaning for his house. He’s not afraid to tell it like it is, and that irks Daisuke sometimes, but they’re still pals.
Player LJ: presea
Email / AIM: namine[at]feathery[dot]org / inherits the sun
Timezone: CST
Other characters: Asch (promisedsomeone); Emil Castagnier [d2] (pactum); Sirkka (newworldlover); Axel [d4] (smolderingdark).
Character: Niwa Daisuke
Fandom: D•N•Angel
Deviance: 1
Age: 15 (or perhaps 10,000) [no he’s really 15]
Gender: Male, surprisingly.
Species: Human (with a “curse” in his DNA)
Canon Used: The manga. Omake/side-stories are canon. I haven’t seen the anime, and from what I heard, most of it was the same except for a few plot points that sort of make it hard to play Daisuke from a certain canon point. In other words, they‘re sort of different and sort of the same, and it‘s not worth it to mix up the material. If I see it eventually and decide a few details from Daisuke’s story are relevant, I’ll add them in, but I don’t really see the need since he’s the main character and we know too much about him anyway. Saw the anime since apping, was not impressed. Might use it for voicing things but not much else.
Appearance: Daisuke is not the big macho hero type. He’s short and “delicate” looking, enough that even he concedes to being girly sometimes. His red hair is spiked in a terrible, unfixable mess, and his equally red eyes are bright and curious rather than dark and mysterious. When he’s not in his school uniform, he wears loose clothes and a sweater, though sometimes gayer nicer clothes pop up if he’s feeling particularly daring. But mostly he looks like this. Why he has a thing for plaid I will never know, but I chalk it up to his lack of testosterone. He looks like a cross between Tsuna and Sora hair-wise.
Psychology:
Daisuke is not a normal boy with a normal life, but he certainly tries. He’s hardworking and earnest most of the time, though he has his lazy moments like any teenager. He’s bright and insightful despite his tendency to miss really obvious things, yet he can formulate strategies and solve complex puzzles on his own if given a little time to concentrate. That doesn’t make him a genius, but it makes him a very good at what he does. Daisuke is, after all, a thief.
Not just any kind of thief. He doesn’t steal from banks and he doesn’t make little old ladies cry… usually. He’s a Niwa, which means that for hundreds of years the males of his family have been coerced into stealing artwork of a peculiar caliber, known as Hikari art. Daisuke is, at first, reluctant to do all of this because-- well, he’s sane, and he has to pull this off in addition to a normal school life. Not only that, but the alternate personality sleeping in his DNA really makes him tick. Daisuke is always drawn to doing the right thing, but Dark always wants to know what’s in it for him, leading them to disagree on several occasions. At the very least, such dangerous work means that Daisuke will bend over backwards to avoid hurting or killing someone, because solving something simply isn’t always the best.
Since light isn’t always “good” in this universe, Daisuke (rather than the angelic creature inside of him) is blessed with a wonderful sense of optimism and the sort of blind determination one needs when confronted with very old and dangerous mysteries. He also possesses a self-sacrificial streak which rubs off a bit sometimes. There is something to be said for trust in the future as well; he is absolutely committed to finding a way to help Satoshi live longer, despite the hundreds of years of history that contradict everything Daisuke wants to accomplish. He doesn’t even know where to start, but he makes naive promises like that, and maybe-- just maybe-- he can make them come true. It’s apparent to everyone around him that Daisuke cares truly and deeply for his friends, even if they don’t care for him back (or even in the right way). For all his incredible awkwardness, within Daisuke rests the ability to change the course of the curse forever.
So he might be talented, and he might have a bit of potential, but Daisuke certainly doesn’t fit the bill most of the time. He likes to pretend that smiling will make him seem mature and responsible and unbothered by everything, mostly to cover up his own concerns. He’s easily underestimated, so at times he’s distracted by proving himself one way or another, though it’s generally in a very quiet and proper way. While he is usually the one to calm Dark down and control him, Daisuke can have his fits, too. He’s still a bit of a kid, not really as mature as his classmate and destined rival Satoshi, which means he has no problems lying about things if it’s needed or if he wants to get out of trouble. He can sulk with the familiarity of any fifteen-year-old, or retaliate when he’s being obviously trolled, but he’s actually non-confrontational to a fault; this leads to one of those hilarious dating scenarios where he has to date two twin sisters at the same time, in the same place, just because he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
And oh, he has such a hard time refusing anyone. Risa Harada especially. She was his first crush, and despite knowing this, she rather selfishly manipulates Daisuke into doing things for her. They’ve managed to become friends (after much kidnapping and almost-death happened) but most people with a backbone would set her straight if given the opportunity. Her twin sister Riku is Daisuke’s current love and pretty-much-girlfriend, and though she is much bolder, she’s able to keep up with Daisuke quite a bit more-- and might be too smart for her own good. Also, Daisuke was drafted along with the rest of the male cast into cross-dressing for a play the girls put on, and though he was pretty embarrassed about it, he went along with it and put in as much effort as anyone would expect of him.
Daisuke might be a bit wimpy. And he has a hard time spitting out what he really feels. And he trips a lot, and makes a lot of stupid mistakes… but he’s really a boy trying to help people in his own way, either by finding the happiest ending he can for the living artwork he encounters, or calling his friends up every night to talk about nothing at all so that they can feel better. He inspires hope in most everyone he meets and he’s determined to fulfill that promise. Sweet, altruistic, and full of love, Daisuke is an incredible kid on the road to being a mature and influential young adult.
Other Skills/Abilities: Daisuke is a thief. It’s in his genes-- quite literally-- and in his crazy training from his mother. From the time he could walk he began training in acrobatics, lockpicking, disarming and disabling various security protocol. He had no choice in the matter; it was either do or die in his house, considering even the door is booby-trapped to kill someone if they weren’t careful. It makes having friends over very problematic, one could say. He’s skilled in hacking locks if they happen to be electronic, dodging lasers, that sort of thing, and his stamina is a lot better than one would give him credit for.
In a true twist of poetic irony, Daisuke has a talent for making art. It became the focus of one plot arc when he was sucked into the world of his own painting, which inexplicably became linked to a piece of living art and the legend it represented. Although Satoshi is the descendant of a great artist and presumably has that sort of talent, Daisuke’s art has the spark of true genius rather than imitation. He’s rather shy about it, as most insecure artists are, but he keeps drawing anyway. And he’s very good at it.
When off the Plane, Daisuke is able to call upon Dark to help him out when he’s… not sleeping, that is. Dark knows how to use magic, but knows it hurts his host too much to use it without the help of Cute Bunny Mascot With. That is where Dark gets his wings, mostly. Dark is smart, difficult to catch, and very, very quick on his feet. When not taking over Daisuke’s body, he usually sits in the back of his head criticizing Daisuke’s life and making fun of him like a personal Stephen Colbert. While present on the Plane, Daisuke will have Dark suppressed in his DNA.
Other Weaknesses: Daisuke might be a very nimble thief but he also has a random clumsy side that shows itself at the worst times. It doesn’t interfere enough to actually hurt someone, but when he’s not watching what he’s doing, he fails. It’s mostly for comic relief. He is a teenager after all, and they can be very uncoordinated at that age.
His other weakness is that when he’s too close to a girl he’s infatuated with, he can’t help but turn into Dark. The other way around works, too. Daisuke spends a lot of time trying to calm himself down and not let that blushy-fluttery feeling get the best of his heart rate and what he’s trying to accomplish. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. At least that won’t happen on the Plane.
History:
The following is tl;dr. Read at your own risk.
Daisuke, by all appearances, is your typical wimpy middle-school student. When we’re introduced to him, he’s trying to get up the courage to ask out a girl whom he likes a lot. After psyching himself up for a while he finally did it-- and was rejected. Terribly. That rejection was a catalyst that set off the rest of the story, awakening the cursed being within his DNA and changing his life forever.
But where did it start?
The notion of cursed DNA isn’t a new concept. One could also think of it as the sins of the father being passed down to the son. Hundreds of years ago, when Japan was very different, there was said to be an artist possessing talent that could create life. His name was Hikari, and he sold his soul to the devil for the talent, as if giving the pieces life would give him life as well. The works he created were miraculous, usually based off stories (or perhaps there were stories based off the art?), and all of them had a single thing in common: they were magic. They seemed to possess the viewer so much that a man named Niwa decided to steal the art for himself. It wasn’t that he wanted to commit a violent crime, he simply didn’t feel alive unless he was stealing such priceless art.
Well, when Niwa came to take the magnum opus of Hikari’s art, something went terribly wrong. Either the artist hadn’t finished or he hadn’t added the right touch, but the art cursed them to house the beings called Kokuyoku. They were winged spirits with magic from old, and from that day forward, every son born into either family would inherit the curse brought forth by passion on his fourteenth birthday. The cat and mouse game continued after the revolution and into present day, where we met Daisuke Niwa. The Niwa family inherited Dark, the infamous and ageless phantom thief with dark wings. Whereas Dark was all showmanship and hidden compassion, the Hikari family didn’t fare so well. Satoshi was the young, intelligent, and very powerful heir to Krad-- Dark’s other half, who was apparently insane and hell-bent on revenge.
Even at a young age, Daisuke showed amazing talent and altruistic tendencies; he scaled a very tall fence and bravely ventured into a scary place in order to a stuffed animal for his future crush, Riku Harada.
Daisuke was at first unaware of his heavy destiny, and hung out with his more-forward guy friends, at least until Dark manifested in response to his feelings for Risa. He rebelled against the idea of someone else borrowing his body to do unlawful things, but eventually came to accept it. However, pulling off such late night antics and trying to live a normal life at the same time cost him much, and he ended up not being as careful as he wanted to be. Satoshi, who had been waiting for this moment practically out of the womb, sniffed out the clues and confronted him.
Daisuke wanted to like the guy. He seemed to have no friends and he wasn’t exactly mean, just mysterious and maybe a little creepy/obsessed, but he was a good guy, really! There was just one problem-- he was trying to catch Dark at night, seeing as how Satoshi Hiwatari was the commander of the police force. Kid genius indeed. It made things terribly difficult for Daisuke until Dark managed to win a bet, which would keep Satoshi from arresting Daisuke. It wasn’t impossible for Satoshi to catch Dark, it just made things a little more challenging.
Daisuke slowly began to realize that his feelings were shifting from Risa to her twin sister, Riku, who was more of a tomboy but genuinely cared about the derpy kid. Dark realized this as well, and every night while on the run he’d stop by the sisters’ room in order to turn himself back into Daisuke-- by staring at Riku, no less. She always had a tendency to wake up and accuse him of being a pervert, which… wasn’t far from the truth, and all of this made the love quadrangle even more awkward! Risa had the most fangirl crush on Dark ever, and thus there would be hijinks.
But life went on. Daisuke continued to steal Hikari artwork with the help of Dark and slipped out of Satoshi’s clutches every time. Finally, Satoshi was able to figure out a way to separate host from angel and it would have been golden from there-- it would have succeeded-- if not for Satoshi’s human heart suddenly getting in the way. Daisuke Krad appeared and took out all of his rage on Daisuke, who was pretty much defenseless. He managed to scrape out of it alive, and Satoshi finally allowed Daisuke to break the puzzle and become reunited with his cursed self. He couldn’t have done it without the help of another living artwork known as the Guide of Eternity-- or Towa-chan, as she preferred to be called-- and after the field trip of doom, Daisuke took her home and she became the Niwa family’s maid.
Later on, Riku decided she liked something Daisuke painted. However, it ended up sucking Daisuke into its strange snowy world, where Daisuke met a living piece of Hikari art known as the Second Hand of Time. Or maybe he had been trapped within it? Whatever the details were, he was unable to get out, and had to puzzle out the clues from the play his class was putting on versus the truth of the legend. Mostly he was guided by an intense desire to help Freedert, who was her other half. Outside, steps were being taken to get him out of there, but Dark had to pretend to be Daisuke in the meantime.
Daisuke nearly lost himself inside of it, but Dark and accidentally Riku came to help him. Daisuke ended up being the key to getting them out; he drew Riku’s room, and thus the pair could escape. Daisuke promised to stay behind, and with his family’s help as well as Satoshi’s, Dark was able to find a way to reunite Freedert with her long lost love. Just like Dark and Daisuke were different sides of the same person, there was a darker side to the Ice and Snow story that Daisuke knew. Only with its completion could there be happiness.
However, Daisuke wasn’t the one to save Freedert, or so he convinced himself. Though he had the ability to manipulate “time”, he regretted deeply that he couldn’t have given the two lovers more. Yet the night after Daisuke was released from Freedert’s world, it snowed. It wasn’t a cold snow, it was warm and pure just like the snow in his painting, and he knew it was from the last of the art’s magic. Which was fitting, since his painting had given the art life after so long.
Still possessing that dangerous sense of wanting to help people, Daisuke found Satoshi collapsed outside the school and decided to bring him home. Yes. Home. Into a booby-trapped house with his very disapproving mother and somewhat understanding father. The family treated him very politely, with the sort of nervous smiling one gets when they’re trying to hide something under the rug. In this case, there were traps under the rug, behind the paintings, attached to the kitchen door, and underneath the stairs. And surveillance cameras. In short: Daisuke’s daily life is insane. Satoshi managed to make it out alive, though, and Daisuke felt a little closer to him, even though being friends with a Hikari was deemed “wrong”.
Daisuke had developed a listening problem while being hit in the head by various girlfriends and tripping over himself all throughout his childhood, obviously.
Anyway, Satoshi transferred away and Daisuke had more harem-flavored hijinks, though he always wondered what happened to his stalker friend. Speaking of stalkers, Daisuke had contracted one too, because suddenly Risa got kidnapped, ruining an otherwise awesome date with Dark. Riku was worried sick, literally, and Daisuke & Dark both ran themselves ragged trying to figure out what had happened. Unfortunately this also got negative police attention and Satoshi miraculously jumped back into the plot just in time to save Daisuke’s face! The police went looking for Dark elsewhere and Daisuke, well… he was unconscious, so someone must have brought him home, probably one of his crazy family members who were lurking in the area for Operation: Date.
Though reeling from the energy he expended, Daisuke was determined to go and find Risa, who, like most princesses, was being kept in a tower. Satoshi knew exactly what was going on, and he and Daisuke worked together. Daisuke was very thankful for his help and they had a good talk while they went through various puzzles and tricks and traps aimed to kill any intruders. A rogue piece of Hikari art named Argentine had recently attained a lot of power, and he wanted a heart so that he could have wings just like the Kokuyoku, so he tried to steal Dark’s “heart”-- that is, Risa.
While Risa tried to tell Argentine he was a creep for putting her in pretty dresses, Daisuke and Satoshi downstairs fought for their lives; a simple puzzle had turned out to be much more than that and Krad had to step in to save the two boys. He then tried to kill Daisuke. Again. After all of that chaos, Satoshi and Daisuke had another talk about the origins of the cursed DNA, which Daisuke’s family really sucks at informing him about.
Lastly, Satoshi mentioned that Hikari were all very short-lived and that fact made Daisuke stop in his tracks. Casting aside everything he was taught about how the Hikari were the enemy, Daisuke made a promise then and there that he would find a way to give Satoshi’s life back, to let him live a normal life and free him from his destiny. It just wasn’t fair. This marked Daisuke as a real idiot but kind of an awesome one, too. It really solidified their bond as best friends despite the circumstances.
The peril wasn’t over, not with Argentine still trying to win Risa over. Dark went to save Risa and fight Argentine while Satoshi tried to figure out a way to dismantle his family’s artwork. He found the source but it was too late-- Risa was being her usual useless self, and Satoshi transformed into Krad so that he could save her. Argentine lost all his power and his life, regrettably, but it had to be done. The princess saved and his secret mostly-kept, Daisuke returned home.
He was surprised to find a little while later that there was something haunting the basement. Upon investigation, it was … Argentine! Satoshi rebuilt him with a piece of Qualia-- Argentine’s “Eve“, so to speak-- so that he could be a complete being. And apparently he had one power remaining-- the ability to fix up other artwork. It wasn’t the same as creating art, only restoring it, and the Niwa family had a sad lack of restorative artists. Thus, Argentine became a part of Daisuke’s daily life, along with all the other oddities. Daisuke was a little sketchy about this but no one else listened to him, as usual.
Presumably, life returned to normal, with Daisuke resuming his not single life at Azumano Middle School, Satoshi transferring back in, and lots of ogling art museums for future heists. Er, aesthetic value.
Canon Point: Post-Volume 13.
Reality Description: Daisuke’s world is a little place named Azumano, presumably near or a part of Tokyo, Japan. It’s filled with all sorts of Western oddities though-- western architecture, lots of art museums, gorgeous churches, and-- until recently-- some kind of trick-filled tower at the edge of the city that no one knew about. The clothing and technology is based around what was available in 1998, so cell-phones were reasonably clunky and plaid was not in style yet (thank you, Daisuke, for trying). It isn’t chock-full of towering skyscrapers, though there are a few tall buildings as well as a clock tower. Most noticeable is the town’s absolute obsession with Phantom Thief Dark. Either people love him or hate him, but he’s practically marketable at this point.
Also important is the presence of real, ancient magic. Art is everything in this world. The bond between an artist and his artwork can give something a life of its own, the same as the audience that surrounds it. The mechanics are shrouded in mystery, but they can do anything. Even live like normal people. Magic as it is used by Dark and Krad is generally very toxic to the human host unless the source of it is love, which brings us back to the relationship between art and artist. There is no room for Plato here-- it’s all about playing God, whether on accident or on purpose, so Dark or Satoshi usually has to pick up after it.
A varied cast of characters appears in Daisuke’s crazy life.
Dark is his inheritance from the Niwa family line: a pushy, skirt-chasing, extremely carefree thief who enjoys the attention he gets. He’s very powerful and extremely notorious around Azumano. Despite his flippancy, he cares deeply for a few people, especially his host-- and will go to any length to protect them. Daisuke and Dark have a relationship that is mostly brotherly, with Dark doing a lot of teasing.
Hiwatari (Hikari) Satoshi is the heir of the Hikari family and of Krad, Dark’s other half. Their relationship is complicated mostly by the fact that Krad wants to destroy Daisuke and Dark in very un PG-13 ways and Satoshi is, of course, a complete social retard. They’re best friends, even if Satoshi won’t admit it, and he’s a part of Daisuke’s world as much as Daisuke is a part of his.
The Harada twins are also a huge part of Daisuke’s life now that he contains Dark. Risa was the first one he fell in love with. She’s incredibly girly and the more useless of the two physically, and she isn’t above bullying Daisuke into doing things for her. Also, her cooking is terrible. She’s in love with Dark, hilariously enough, and perhaps a little crazy. Riku is Risa’s more serious twin and a tomboy. She’s better at school than her sister, and rather than being irresponsible and chasing whatever she feels like, Riku has real empathy. She becomes Daisuke’s mostly-girlfriend later on, but she has to work for it because he is a real doormat.
Daisuke’s family raised him to be the most slippery thief in existence. His family consists of: Emiko, his obtusely cheerful and secretly psycho mother who fangirls Dark like no one else except Risa; Kosuke, a somewhat awkward but nice man who must have raised Daisuke to be so … Daisuke-ish; and Daiki, Daisuke’s grandfather who was Dark aaaaaaages ago and often watches the goings-on over a cup of tea. Other enchanted servants help Daisuke out, too: With, a bunny-like creature who can shapeshift to keep up Daisuke’s double life as well as act as Dark’s wings; Towa-chan, a vain piece of rescued artwork that looks and acts like a sixteen year old girl, now functioning as the Niwa’s maid; and Argentine, the socially stunted but quite cute basement lurker who keeps the Niwa’s stolen artwork from decaying into obscurity.
Daisuke has only one normal guy friend, and his name is Saehara Takeshi. He’s a reporter wannabe who always writes about Dark’s escapades. His father is the police chief, too. His mother is gone, so Saehara all the cooking and cleaning for his house. He’s not afraid to tell it like it is, and that irks Daisuke sometimes, but they’re still pals.