iha kazura; application information
Player Information
Name: aaron
Age: 27
AIM SN: xXbananarchyXx
email: see contact list
Have you played in an LJ based game before? yes
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? co-creator
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Senkou No Night Raid
Canon Format: anime series
Character's Name: Kazura Iha (real name, Takuma Kishida, will not be used)
Character's Age: 21
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a
What form will your character's NV take? Kazura's NV will take the form of a stylish early 1930s or late 1920s pocket watch with a face similar to this one. However, the watch will have a flip cover that goes over the face. The inside of the cover will be a small screen with a recording camera for video and hologram, and holograms will hover above the face of the watch. There is no keyboard, but Kazura will be able to input telegraph messages in Morse Code by tapping the smaller inset timer that will be translated automatically by his NV into text (though he can also transmit Morse Code over the Network if he desires). Audio will play from well-protected speakers at the back of the watch's body.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Kazura has the canon ability of teleportation. He can teleport both himself and anyone or anything he is holding onto to any point that he can visualize.
He needs to be able to see, and to be able to clearly visualize spatially where it is that he's teleporting to - it does not work if he's blindfolded, and he can't teleport to a place he can't see and hasn't been to, but he can teleport from inside a building if he knows the lay of the land outside (for example, from having seen a map).
Kazura's ability to teleport is limited by his stamina and the amount he is teleporting - his strength doesn't allow for an excessive use of his ability, and the more he carries, the fewer times he is able to teleport. In canon, it is shown that, while teleporting with two other people roughly his size, his limit is approximately five times. Without this additional weight, it would likely be more, though I imagine not more than 13 times, up to 15 times taxing him to his absolute limit. In canon, it is shown that when people like him overuse their abilities, they bleed from the nose, and I imagine further use would cause massive headaches, bleeding from other facial orifices, and eventual unconsciousness or coma.
However, in canon Kazura dislikes his ability and uses it exceptionally sparingly. He doesn't use it often, unless he's in a direct fight with a person who also has abilities, and his aikido didn't already work. He may use the ability more in the setting of Siren's Pull, though, than he does in canon, since he's gone from having a distinct advantage through his ability to being slightly outclassed because of its limits.
On a less superhuman level, Kazura is also fluent in three languages besides his native Japanese (English, Chinese, and German), can drive with great skill nearly any available type of vehicle, is very skilled at aikido (hand-to-hand is his preferred method of attack and defense), and is familiar with the use of a variety of firearms.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? n/a
Weapons: Kazura will be arriving in a military uniform, and will likely have a 1930s era Chinese or Japanese sidearm.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Kazura's childhood is clearly covered in the series. He was born Takuma Kishida in 1911 into an old samurai family. Being born into a time characterized by war - just before the first World War and growing up during and just after it, in a time of political upheaval - he was raised strictly, training in aikido and being groomed for the military from a young age. At some point during his childhood, he discovered his ability to teleport, though it is never stated when or even if his family knows about this. Additionally, he made friends with a boy named Nishio, who he played with relatively frequently. During this time, he gashed his foot on a piece of cut bamboo, and Nishio cut himself in the same place to help him get through it - this is a scar Kazura bears on his foot even to adulthood.
Wanting to be a proper Japanese young man, a pride to his family, he very much bought into Japanese nationalism, and aspired to serve in the Japanese Imperial Army from a very young age. To foster this dream, he entered into a military cadet school when he began to be educated, which led to him joining the Imperial Japanese Army Academy.
With Kazura's strict discipline, fierce determination to be a good son of Japan, and natural intelligence and early life training, he succeeded brilliantly at school. He graduated from the Army Academy as one of the top six students in the school, an extremely high privilege that earned him the pride of his family. Things were looking quite good.
And then he met Sakurai.
Kazura had received his award for having top marks, an Army Sword meant to honour him, when he discovered that he had not been assigned to a squad, something that would prevent him from entering the Empire of Japan's Army War College, which was the next step in his military career. When he went to the office to question this, Sakurai stepped in and, with a few words, ended his career. Having heard about Kazura's ability to teleport, Sakurai had stepped in and taken him from his military training, putting him into a secret military spy organization called Sakurai Kikkan, which features people with special abilities who are able to seek out information.
While Kazura would still be serving Japan in a way, this interference by Sakurai ensured that he would never receive recognition for it, and that his dreams of serving in the army would never come to fruition. This is something that makes Kazura extremely bitter. Following this incident, Kazura was put into a sort of spy school, given the fake name of Kazura Iha, and trained in driving a variety of vehicles, taught Chinese, English, and German, and taught a variety of other spy techniques.
For in-canon history, please see the following link (compiled via watching the series, for both Aoi and Kazura's applications): HERE
Point in Canon: near the end of episode 13, while searching for Aoi in the rubble of the plane that carried the A-bomb
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: n/a
Character Personality: Kazura is an extremely conflicted individual, and a human embodiment of the saying "still waters run deep." Despite his stoic outer persona, he is an incredibly passionate and very flawed person. While he's loyal and determined, he can also be incredibly gullible, and he has spent his entire life brainwashed into Japanese nationalism to the point it has, to some extent, compromised his sense of self. Altogether, he's a very troubled person who is doing his best to make choices that may change the world while being uncertain of what it is he wants himself.
He has a few very good traits - he's intelligent and tactically oriented, a quick learner, meticulous in his work, and does work very hard for causes he's committed to - when he is committed to a cause, a group, or even a single person, he is very reliable, loyal, and gives his all. Kazura has a great deal of attention to detail, and this attention to detail has on many occasions spared himself and his friends a lot of trouble, it also lends itself to his naturally occurring intelligence and excellent work ethic. When Kazura is given a task, he will do it to his utmost, complete it on time, and do a very good job. Also, he's very honest, and if he fails to live up to the standards he's been presented, Kazura will not attempt to shift the blame or shirk responsibility - he acknowledges his failing, apologizes, beats himself up thoroughly, and makes every attempt possible to fix it. He's also a quick learner, having picked up photography, three languages, and driving techniques within a six-month spy course, and having acheived top marks in his schools previously.
Kazura is also a very moral person, he does what he thinks is right. Though he was essentially brainwashed as a child into Japanese nationalism - Emperor worship, believing that whatever Japan does is just and good and right, and that Japan has the right to decide what happens to other countries - he does have a naturally-occurring concept of what is right and what is wrong. In his canon, he was convinced by a fellow Japanese nationalist (albeit an extreme one) into following a philosophy that he'd heard from a teacher in his school. When faced with the fact that this person would slaughter thousands of people in order to enact this philosophy, to accomplish something that would put Japan on top, the most powerful country in the world, Kazura was unable to follow along, and abandoned the plan because he simply couldn't stomach the idea of killing thousands in order to make his country the strongest. Considering how he was raised, what he believes in, this required an incredibly strong force of will, and a very, very strong code of personal ethics. This also shows itself in his unwillingness to use his ability - though part of his abstinence from using his teleportation stems from bitterness that the ability tore him from his dream life, he also has a firm belief that using his ability when in combat against 'normal' people constitutes an unfair advantage, something he isn't comfortable using.
However, despite this, there is a lot of bad about Kazura. He's very stubborn, and also quite gullible, easily led astray by people more influential, intelligent, or charismatic than himself. Ocasionally, in these situations, his gullibility can overwhelm his loyalty, causing him to turn on people he sees as friends (though after canon events, this is less likely to happen). Most of his problems stem from being raised as a Japanese nationalist, as previously stated. He has a natural tendency to do as he's told, to obey, and to attempt to prove himself to others as being valuable to authority figures, and sometimes, when separated from authority figures and left to his own devices, he isn't sure what he should do, exactly. Though events in canon have given him a bit more surety about his own opinions and what it is he wants, he's still naturally inclined to bend to the will of others, to follow orders, and to not think too much about what those orders entail.
He also has, because of his upbringing, a firm sense of being superior to those around him by the sole fact of being Japanese when they are not. He has a clear idea of what a good Japanese man or woman should be, and anyone who falls short of these standards will likely be judged quite harshly by Kazura. He has a sort of distance from those around him who don't think the same way, he's cool and withdrawn if polite, and comports himself as if he's just a bit better than those around him. This attitude, though, is also starting to deteriorate a little due to his natural empathy and morality, and through the events in canon - he's learning, just a little, to appreciate others despite faults, and to question his upbringing.
This leads into a central point of Kazura's current personality - his major conflict between his upbringing and the enlightenment throughout the course of his canon. At the start of the series, Kazura was very rigid, superior, a perfect Japanese son despite his bitterness at having his dream of being a soldier stolen from him, he had every intention to be the best Japanese man that he could be. He tried to silence Aoi's questioning of the rights of Japan in China, he wouldn't speak about anything that wasn't supportive of Japan - in effect, he fully bought into Japanese nationalism. In the final few episodes of the anime, however, he started to realize - through Aoi - that what Japan considers to be in its best interests is not always the right and moral course of action. He learned that his country was not always right - and to someone with Kazura's beliefs, this constitues something like the collapse of his world.
As he comes into Siren's Port, he'll be dealing with a massive crisis of faith. Everything that he has done, everything he has aspired to, everything that he believed would make him a good person has proven to be fallible. Something he believed in unswervingly is no longer concrete. He is questioning his faith, himself, his own actions, and the actions of others that he had previously brushed off as unquestionably wrong or right. This has left him with very conflicted emotions - while it feels liberating to be thinking for himself, it is also terrifying. While it feels good to be following his own strong moral judgment, he also feels a certain level of self-loathing for failing to be what he was raised to believe he should be. He is shaming his family, his country, his upbringing by thinking for himself - and that is frightening and causes a great deal of guilt and self-hatred. He both believes and doesn't believe that everything he's been doing is for the best, and everything is being questioned. It's a time of upheaval for him, new beginnings, and the painful ending of an era.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: n/a
Character Plans: While I see Kazura wanting to stay neutral, it would be interesting to see his reactions to the propaganda and the swaying of people who might try to lead him in either direction - he can be easily manipulated, and it'd be interesting to see people try. I am mostly applying him to watch him adjust to a modern setting, to blow his mind with information on how the future (for him) goes, and to develop his character and play with relationships and the growth that are heavily implied in the final few episodes of the anime. Finally, I'm very interested in having him work towards and become a police officer, and assist with other characters who might need help!
Appearance/PB: Kazura is a stylish Japanese man with black hair worn slicked back with a few strands purposefully falling over his forehead, and green-based black eyes. He wears predominantly black with wine or purple accents (ties, scarves etc.) and always very classily - suits, fedoras, peacoats, stylish boots. He looks like he's just walked off a page of GQ, essentially. Kazura is approximately 5'11" and very muscularly built, though the cut of his suits tends to hide this.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[the video feed turns on, and Kazura stares at the device in his hand, head tilted to the side. only his head is visible, his hair pushed back except for a few strands, though obviously finger-combed into place. there are smudges of dirt on his cheeks, though it's obvious he's tried to clean them off. while he tries to look calm, it's obvious he's quite agitated, the tendon on his neck standing out, his brows slightly furrowed]
I've been checked into my apartment. That...Greeter...explained what had happened, though I'm not sure if I believe it just yet. [he pauses, and exhales - his breath is slightly shaky] I'm doing as recommended, and making a "post" on this device to introduce myself. The Greeter said I should attempt to make friends with my "own kind."
[he pauses again, looking at the NV with a troubled expression, before exhaling shakily again]
I've done it, then. Can someone explain how I can go back? The Greeter said I couldn't, but obviously she had motives to keep me here. It's of utmost importance that I return to China.
Third Person Sample
Kazura turned the pocket watch over and over in his hand, running fingers along the etched surface of the cover. Whether or not the bit of technology was a familiar shape, the function of it was alien, even after having used it several times. There were too many buttons, too many options - he preferred the simplicity of Japan. Even in China, things had been too complicated, too many emotions, too many hard decisions. Kazura didn't like to admit it to himself, but he was much more comfortable following orders, doing as he was told. Things had been easier when he was in school.
Now everything was strange - the incident in China, the plane crash, and then the added stress of this world, not knowing if Aoi was safe or not...it sent a pang through his chest, a deep longing for home. He wanted, more than anything, to go back to Japan and settle back into his old life, to be Kishida Takuma, whose parents were proud of him. He didn't want to be this person who questioned everything, who didn't know where he belonged or who he was.
Still, he didn't want to lose Aoi, even if all of this was squarely his fault.
Sighing slightly, Kazura slid a thumb over the cover of the "NV" again, and frowned slightly at it - the symbol of everything that was confusing in his life. Even the ill-fitting vest, dress shirt, and slacks he'd found after hours of rummaging at the donation place didn't quite symbolize it to the same extent. Frustrated, he flicked open the NV, and perused the buttons for quite some time before managing to select a video entry. Frowning at the device - he still had a hard time believing it transmitted a movie of himself in real time - he spoke quietly, evenly.
"There has to be a way to get out of here." he said, "There has to be someone who knows."