✗ ✗ ✗ [ ooc; Pre-Game Headcanon ]
Kiryuu Yoshiya was born on December 4, 1848, the youngest son of a wealthy samurai-class family in Edo. The birth wasn't without complications, though, and both Yoshiya and his mother were left in frail health, only barely surviving. His mother regained some of her strength over a period of time, but Yoshiya was left weak and sickly, where even the slightest colds were debilitating.
Unable to play with his two older brothers due to his health and frail physical state, Yoshiya grew up spending the majority of his time indoors. What he couldn't accomplish physically or socially, though, he more than made up for in intelligence and learning. He read every bit of literature he could get his hands on, absorbing every word and fact, and picked up a decent talent for playing the koto.
At a very young age, Yoshiya noticed that he could see things that other people couldn't see. When he sat on the porch outside, he could see strange creatures following people - especially if someone was upset or angry. By his reasoning, they had to be some sort of demons; they certainly looked like the youkai that he had seen in woodblock prints. Not only could he see those, but there seemed to be some sort of ghosts, as well. They looked like people, but no one else seemed to notice them as they passed by. He attempted to tell his mother about the strange creatures that he could see, but fearing him being accused of being crazy, she hushed him, forbidding him to ever speak of it again.
The first time he saw one of the creatures consume one of the "ghosts", he began hiding away from them whenever he would see them.
In November of 1855, a massive earthquake devastated the city of Edo, destroying many buildings and causing several major fires that further destroyed the city. Yoshiya's home was heavily damaged, but thankfully had not been completely demolished and remained untouched by the fires. He and his family made it out uninjured, but a cholera epidemic broke out soon after. To avoid Yoshiya getting sick and becoming one of the many that had succumbed to the infection, the family relocated outside the limits of Edo to a small village next to the Shibuya river, where they had a secondary residence.
Yoshiya's family stayed near the river for nearly six years. Initially, the intent was to stay only until repairs on their home were finished, which should have given the cholera epidemic time to dissipate, but the family quickly came to find that Yoshiya did much better when he had more of a chance to get fresh air. Being out in the countryside almost seemed to boost his energy. He spent a lot of his time by the river, watching the fish swim, though he never had the strength to learn to swim himself. The countryside quickly became a special place for him, and when his father was required to return to Edo in 1860, Yoshiya was reluctant to leave. He didn't want to go back to a life where his only opportunity to be outside was to sit on the porch, but he had no other choice.
After the family's return to Edo, Yoshiya - now twelve years old - decided that he was too old to be afraid of the demons that had scared him into hiding years before. He had barely seen any at all in the countryside, but when he had seen them, he hadn't been as afraid as he used to be. Rather than hiding, he took to observing the demons and ghosts that he saw roaming the city. It didn't take too much for him to find a method to the madness: the people he had been calling ghosts weren't too far off from the title. They seemed to be fighting the demons, but he couldn't quite figure out why. Even after years of observation, he couldn't come to a determination, other than the thought that this was some sort of battle between good spirits and bad spirits. He wouldn't find his answer until several years later, in 1867.
At the age of nineteen, Yoshiya had taken to slipping out past the boundaries of their property, roaming around the city and watching these spirits battle each other. He had also noticed that a few of the human-like spirits had black, skeletal wings, and they seemed to antagonize the spirits that didn't have wings. One such spirit was one that he actually recognized from a few weeks prior, when he hadn't had wings at all. Curious, he followed the spirit from a distance, tracing him back to an artist's workshop. Yoshiya didn't approach him right away, but came back another day when he knew he was there, and began asking him questions about what was going on. After some brief protest, those questions were finally acknowledged.
The spirit - quickly corrected to Reaper - went by the name of Hanekoma Sanae. He answered what he could of Yoshiya's questions, filling him in on what he had been seeing his whole life. It was a game, giving those that had died a chance at returning to life. With all of his questions finally answered, the two of them gradually became friends, even if they were constantly butting heads. Sanae had Yoshiya slipping away from home frequently - much to his mother's chagrin on the rare times she found out - to meet and talk about any manner of things. Unfortunately, he seemed to pick the dirtiest places imaginable for their meetings. Yoshiya frowned upon the decisions, but went nonetheless.
It didn't take long, though, before Yoshiya found himself coming down with something, eventually diagnosed as tuberculosis. It turned into a nasty cough coupled with fevers and fatigue, and before long, he was unable to leave like he had been. While bedridden, Sanae would come by to visit, so they could still continue their talks. While Sanae felt guilty for bringing him into an environment that made him so ill, Yoshiya dispelled the guilt by admitting that he would prefer things this way. Through his gained knowledge of the Game, he knew that he could live far more while dead than he could while alive, where he couldn't even leave his house.
On March 19, 1868, Yoshiya finally succumbed to tuberculosis.
Inside the game, Yoshiya did exceedingly well. Though physical strain wasn't his forte, he showed a strong skill in psychokinesis. He fought with his partner until the final day, succeeding in winning and letting his partner return to the land of the living, while he opted to join the forces of the Reapers. He and Sanae began teaming up, and when Sanae performed his coup on the Composer later that year, Yoshiya was right there with him. He became Conductor under Sanae, and things stayed that way for the next forty years.
In 1908, after so long as Composer, Sanae made the decision to Ascend and become an Angel. He left the Composer position to Yoshiya, who was more than happy to take over. Growth set in fairly quick during Yoshiya's reign, with Sanae returning as his Producer in 1912. It was around this time that he took up the name Joshua - it was close to his actual name, and having read western texts on religion, he found the meaning of the name highly ironic and amusing considering his position.
His first major challenge didn't come until 1923, when another massive earthquake struck Tokyo, the renamed city of Edo. It destroyed a large part of the city and surrounding areas, and it took quite a bit of time and effort on his part to get the Music of the area settled again.
Eventually, Tokyo had expanded so much that it diverged into special wards. Joshua was forced to split his hold on the city as well, and rather than fight it, he took control of the Shibuya district, where his most fond memories from childhood originated. If there was one place he wanted to take care of more than any other, that was it.
In 1945, firebombing attacks by the United States devastated a large part of Tokyo, including Shibuya. Again, Joshua had to watch his city be destroyed, and had to build it up again and restore harmony to its Music.
In 1964, the Shibuya river - the same he had played next to as a child - was turned into a drainage conduit. Joshua was not pleased at all with this change - but taking some good from the bad, he converted the drainage conduit into their headquarters.
From there, things went nowhere but up. In the 1970s, Joshua obtained a Conductor, Kitaniji Megumi, that was just as resilient as he himself had proven to be over the years. Kitaniji didn't fall in the occasional attempt to overthrow Joshua, like so many of the others had. Finally, things were becoming static and set - Joshua, Sanae and Kitaniji.
But with everything relatively calm and set, Joshua began to notice that the city was beginning to become chaotic. Something was going sour in the Music of his city, and the levels of Noise were increasing as people refused to change. The people of his city were slowly growing stagnant, and he couldn't repair the damage. What Joshua wouldn't admit to himself, though, was that the change in Shibuya was spawned by his own stagnation. The sudden relaxation of routine had allowed Joshua to realize subconsciously how lonely and miserable he was in this position, and had reflected in Shibuya by increasing the amount of Noise, thus bringing its citizens into the same sort of mindset.
Unable to fix what was going wrong, Joshua opted to completely erase Shibuya and begin anew. Kitaniji refused to let him do so, claiming that it could be fixed. Joshua agreed to make a bet with him, to see if he could change Shibuya for the better within one month. With Shibuya's existence on the line, The World Ends With You begins.
Unable to play with his two older brothers due to his health and frail physical state, Yoshiya grew up spending the majority of his time indoors. What he couldn't accomplish physically or socially, though, he more than made up for in intelligence and learning. He read every bit of literature he could get his hands on, absorbing every word and fact, and picked up a decent talent for playing the koto.
At a very young age, Yoshiya noticed that he could see things that other people couldn't see. When he sat on the porch outside, he could see strange creatures following people - especially if someone was upset or angry. By his reasoning, they had to be some sort of demons; they certainly looked like the youkai that he had seen in woodblock prints. Not only could he see those, but there seemed to be some sort of ghosts, as well. They looked like people, but no one else seemed to notice them as they passed by. He attempted to tell his mother about the strange creatures that he could see, but fearing him being accused of being crazy, she hushed him, forbidding him to ever speak of it again.
The first time he saw one of the creatures consume one of the "ghosts", he began hiding away from them whenever he would see them.
In November of 1855, a massive earthquake devastated the city of Edo, destroying many buildings and causing several major fires that further destroyed the city. Yoshiya's home was heavily damaged, but thankfully had not been completely demolished and remained untouched by the fires. He and his family made it out uninjured, but a cholera epidemic broke out soon after. To avoid Yoshiya getting sick and becoming one of the many that had succumbed to the infection, the family relocated outside the limits of Edo to a small village next to the Shibuya river, where they had a secondary residence.
Yoshiya's family stayed near the river for nearly six years. Initially, the intent was to stay only until repairs on their home were finished, which should have given the cholera epidemic time to dissipate, but the family quickly came to find that Yoshiya did much better when he had more of a chance to get fresh air. Being out in the countryside almost seemed to boost his energy. He spent a lot of his time by the river, watching the fish swim, though he never had the strength to learn to swim himself. The countryside quickly became a special place for him, and when his father was required to return to Edo in 1860, Yoshiya was reluctant to leave. He didn't want to go back to a life where his only opportunity to be outside was to sit on the porch, but he had no other choice.
After the family's return to Edo, Yoshiya - now twelve years old - decided that he was too old to be afraid of the demons that had scared him into hiding years before. He had barely seen any at all in the countryside, but when he had seen them, he hadn't been as afraid as he used to be. Rather than hiding, he took to observing the demons and ghosts that he saw roaming the city. It didn't take too much for him to find a method to the madness: the people he had been calling ghosts weren't too far off from the title. They seemed to be fighting the demons, but he couldn't quite figure out why. Even after years of observation, he couldn't come to a determination, other than the thought that this was some sort of battle between good spirits and bad spirits. He wouldn't find his answer until several years later, in 1867.
At the age of nineteen, Yoshiya had taken to slipping out past the boundaries of their property, roaming around the city and watching these spirits battle each other. He had also noticed that a few of the human-like spirits had black, skeletal wings, and they seemed to antagonize the spirits that didn't have wings. One such spirit was one that he actually recognized from a few weeks prior, when he hadn't had wings at all. Curious, he followed the spirit from a distance, tracing him back to an artist's workshop. Yoshiya didn't approach him right away, but came back another day when he knew he was there, and began asking him questions about what was going on. After some brief protest, those questions were finally acknowledged.
The spirit - quickly corrected to Reaper - went by the name of Hanekoma Sanae. He answered what he could of Yoshiya's questions, filling him in on what he had been seeing his whole life. It was a game, giving those that had died a chance at returning to life. With all of his questions finally answered, the two of them gradually became friends, even if they were constantly butting heads. Sanae had Yoshiya slipping away from home frequently - much to his mother's chagrin on the rare times she found out - to meet and talk about any manner of things. Unfortunately, he seemed to pick the dirtiest places imaginable for their meetings. Yoshiya frowned upon the decisions, but went nonetheless.
It didn't take long, though, before Yoshiya found himself coming down with something, eventually diagnosed as tuberculosis. It turned into a nasty cough coupled with fevers and fatigue, and before long, he was unable to leave like he had been. While bedridden, Sanae would come by to visit, so they could still continue their talks. While Sanae felt guilty for bringing him into an environment that made him so ill, Yoshiya dispelled the guilt by admitting that he would prefer things this way. Through his gained knowledge of the Game, he knew that he could live far more while dead than he could while alive, where he couldn't even leave his house.
On March 19, 1868, Yoshiya finally succumbed to tuberculosis.
Inside the game, Yoshiya did exceedingly well. Though physical strain wasn't his forte, he showed a strong skill in psychokinesis. He fought with his partner until the final day, succeeding in winning and letting his partner return to the land of the living, while he opted to join the forces of the Reapers. He and Sanae began teaming up, and when Sanae performed his coup on the Composer later that year, Yoshiya was right there with him. He became Conductor under Sanae, and things stayed that way for the next forty years.
In 1908, after so long as Composer, Sanae made the decision to Ascend and become an Angel. He left the Composer position to Yoshiya, who was more than happy to take over. Growth set in fairly quick during Yoshiya's reign, with Sanae returning as his Producer in 1912. It was around this time that he took up the name Joshua - it was close to his actual name, and having read western texts on religion, he found the meaning of the name highly ironic and amusing considering his position.
His first major challenge didn't come until 1923, when another massive earthquake struck Tokyo, the renamed city of Edo. It destroyed a large part of the city and surrounding areas, and it took quite a bit of time and effort on his part to get the Music of the area settled again.
Eventually, Tokyo had expanded so much that it diverged into special wards. Joshua was forced to split his hold on the city as well, and rather than fight it, he took control of the Shibuya district, where his most fond memories from childhood originated. If there was one place he wanted to take care of more than any other, that was it.
In 1945, firebombing attacks by the United States devastated a large part of Tokyo, including Shibuya. Again, Joshua had to watch his city be destroyed, and had to build it up again and restore harmony to its Music.
In 1964, the Shibuya river - the same he had played next to as a child - was turned into a drainage conduit. Joshua was not pleased at all with this change - but taking some good from the bad, he converted the drainage conduit into their headquarters.
From there, things went nowhere but up. In the 1970s, Joshua obtained a Conductor, Kitaniji Megumi, that was just as resilient as he himself had proven to be over the years. Kitaniji didn't fall in the occasional attempt to overthrow Joshua, like so many of the others had. Finally, things were becoming static and set - Joshua, Sanae and Kitaniji.
But with everything relatively calm and set, Joshua began to notice that the city was beginning to become chaotic. Something was going sour in the Music of his city, and the levels of Noise were increasing as people refused to change. The people of his city were slowly growing stagnant, and he couldn't repair the damage. What Joshua wouldn't admit to himself, though, was that the change in Shibuya was spawned by his own stagnation. The sudden relaxation of routine had allowed Joshua to realize subconsciously how lonely and miserable he was in this position, and had reflected in Shibuya by increasing the amount of Noise, thus bringing its citizens into the same sort of mindset.
Unable to fix what was going wrong, Joshua opted to completely erase Shibuya and begin anew. Kitaniji refused to let him do so, claiming that it could be fixed. Joshua agreed to make a bet with him, to see if he could change Shibuya for the better within one month. With Shibuya's existence on the line, The World Ends With You begins.