app for The Velvet Key
Player Info:
Nickname: Josie
Age: 21
Personal LJ: plessur
Method of Contact: private message 'plessur' or private plurk 'rollpie'
Characters Played: none.
Character Info:
Name: Mafuyu Hinasaki
Age: 21
Canon: Project ZERO/Fatal Frame http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Frame_%28video_game%29
Pull Point: After deciding to stay with Kirie at the end of Project ZERO.
Background Info:
History: Mafuyu Hinasaki is the older brother of Miku Hinasaki, the only living relative that he has left after the suicide of his mother and the death/disappearance of his father. They were both born in Japan and also born with the gift to see what other people couldn't see - the supernatural.
The power of the dead was what led to the tragic end of their mother, a power only available to her when she looked through the camera that had belonged to her own mother and the grandmother of Miku and Mafuyu. It was from then on that Mafuyu began to care for his sister. Not much is known about how their life would have been, but what is known is that he had friends in literature, to writers and researchers of folklores. The two known are Yuu Asou and Kei Amakura, and it was to Yuu Asou that he once asked his friend to look after his sister if anything was to happen to himself. No matter what, Mafuyu wanted to make sure that his sister would be okay.
Among the people that Mafuyu knew was a man by the name Junsei Takamine. He was a famous novelist, who at the time of Project ZERO had become stuck in a rut for a new novel. His research had led him to the Himuro Mansion, a place surrounded in mystery where only so much was known. The master of the Himuro family had massacred the whole household and the last owners after him had disappeared... a Shinto ritual was also spoken of, but no detail were known. This lack of information drove Takamine to locate and visit the mansion, which then led to his own disappearance.
Takamine's disappearance led Mafuyu to follow after him with what information he had. He was indebted to him, and his disappearance apparently worried him enough to search him out and to leave his sister behind.
When he came upon the mansion, Mafuyu had a feeling of uneasiness which he was soon to find out was for a reason. Going with the camera of his grandmother, it was put to good use not too long after being inside when he was attacked by a ghost. The camera had the power to dispel the ghost, something that he never knew until then. Unfortunately, a little time after, he was found by a ghost of intense strength. He tried running away, but was caught by her.
But that wouldn't be the end of him. Mafuyu would awaken and find out the fate of Takamine and his team. Dead, all in the same manner. He lost that camera of his too, dang. Instead of turning back though, he began to try and find out what the curse was that had taken their lives, looking for a way to stop it.
As he searched, the mansion around him began to change. The ghosts inside took him back to the past, unearthing their history around him. He thought that by doing this, the spirits were trying to tell him something, and so he searched for a way to figure out what it was.
In trying to find answers, Mafuyu's thoughts went back to the spirit of the woman who had made him pass out. He had sensed a powerful energy from her that he hadn't felt from any of the others, even though he encountered many as the ghosts begun to awaken. He decided to try and find out more about the woman in his search. A search that would lead him to find out the truth of the mansion.
The Himuro family had held the duty of raising a Shrine Maiden in near total isolation from the world. Once she was the right age, preparations would be made for her ritual where a maiden would be tied from her limbs and then ripped apart. The ropes that had bound her would be used to keep shut the Hell Gate, keeping back the calamity that lurked behind it.
The last maiden for this ritual had been a woman named Kirie. It had been close to the end of her time when she had met a man. It had been a short meeting, but she grew feelings for him that she had never felt before from the little contact with others she had had in her life. It was unfortunate that the priests of the household noticed this, and the head of the family ordered for the man to be 'hidden'.
Kirie found out about what had happened, and his fate had sent her into a deep sadness. It was all of this that made the ritual fail, her ropes breaking from the power of the malice and spreading all over the house. The master went mad from it and killed everyone, but the malice also took hold of Kirie's spirit and made her into the monster that now wanders the mansion.
Her spirit was split into two, with the other half of her spirit being someone who wished to fulfill her duty. Not only this, but Mafuyu found out the reason for Kirie's attachment to him, realising that he had looked like her lover from long ago. When finding out all of this however, Mafuyu was also in for another surprise - the appearance of his sister. She only appeared for a short time before disappearing, but he realised that she must have been somewhere in the mansion, even maybe in another time. He left notes to her of what he knew and also asked her for her help in trying to put Kirie to rest.
Instructing Miku to use an object that would help to close the Hell Gate, Mafuyu goes to Kirie to where the Hell Gate is to see her, in some kind of hope of getting through to her. How this goes down isn't seen, but it probably didn't go too well when Mafuyu is seen only after the calamity has been taken from Kirie (when Miku puts the object, the Holy Mirror, back into place before the Hell Gate. Kirie comes up behind her and gets caught in its light, cleansing her). He's still alive at this time, watching with his sister as the two halves of Kirie meet at last. Her dutiful side telling Kirie not to forget her duty, Kirie goes and closes the Hell Gate, then ties her spirit up before the gate to make sure it never opens again.
The doors slam, the place begins to crumble, and Kirie tells them to go. However, instead of going, Mafuyu decides to stay and tells his sister to leave. There's little choice in the matter, with Miku finding herself outside and Mafuyu staying within. His decision to stay was made so that Kirie, the last maiden who would feel pain and loneliness for all of eternity, would not be as alone as she had to be. He wanted to be with her and saw this as his reason for coming to the mansion.
And that was the end of Mafuyu.
Personality: 'My big brother... he was so sweet and kind...'
These are the first words we hear about Mafuyu Hinasaki, spoken by his sister in the opening. Though the game takes place mostly through his sister, we see by his actions that these are true to his character.
To understand it, you have to know his part in the game. Stuck in Himuro Mansion after going there to look for a person dear to him called Junsei Takamine, Mafuyu begins to learn of its history and what made it become the place it is today that cause people to lose their lives when they wander inside. That reason is Kirie, the woman filled malice from a failed ritual and a regret for not being able to do her duty correctly.
Despite finding out his friend is dead and that his sister is also trapped in the mansion with him, Mafuyu's mission soon turns into finding a way to put to rest the evils that are found within the building, to appease the spirit behind it all and to hope that no one else is taken by it. He also finds himself feeling sympathy for the woman that the curse has affected the most, Kirie. Her soul trapped between the evil that plagues it and a wish to fix things and do the duty she was unable to properly do, he even pleads to his sister to try and help her if she can. We see from this the ability to sympathise even those who put him into danger, to look beyond that and to see the reasons and cause. Not only that, but a care and hope to protect others, if there may ever be any others, who might find themselves in the danger he did.
Mafuyu's care for his sister isn't shown too much in the game, but it's there nonetheless. In Project ZERO III we find out that he had trusted her care over to a close friend, Yuu Asou, if something should ever happen to himself. Miku speaks also of their closeness, stemming from being the only family the other has and also from the gift that they both share. From her words we're able to see a close and loving relationship between the two.
Ultimately, Mafuyu is someone who can be shown most of all through his kindness for others. It's with no regrets that he stays behind with Kirie. Though a spirit willing to stay alone and to suffer all by herself for all eternity, he stays in hopes of making her 'life' better, if only so much.
Game Specific:
Arcana: The Fool
Justification: It's in Mafuyu's actions in the whole of the game and his reason for doing what he does that I've gone with the Fool arcana. He's a man with a lot of potential - young, a novelist only starting of with connections to a famous one. A kind personality and a drive to help others.
Yet it's from his kindness and his helpful personality that we see the reverses. He gives up his life to stay with Kirie though he still has a sister who will be all alone. He's sorted a place for her to be if anything was to happen to him, but one could see this as impulsive and foolish. He went by his feelings alone, all for a ghost he only knew because she trapped him in the Himuro Mansion.
His choice leads to his death, but it also leads to all the wasted potential. He gives up everything so that Kirie won't be alone.
Samples:
First Person Sample: My name is Mafuyu... Mafuyu Hinasaki. I've been brought to this place like many of you, though I don't know why yet, or even how.
But if people do know why, please tell me. There's somewhere I need to be, someone I need to see, and this place...
... this is not the place I should be.
[ there's a pause, then followed by a sigh. ]
... Kirie...
Third Person Sample: At what point did the ground stop shaking underneath him? When did the sound of the rumbling and the crashing of stone turn to silence to his ears? Mafuyu couldn't remember - nothing, that was, but the last words he was able to speak to his sister. Maybe none of these things have stopped, but as he had this last chance to speak his sister, he knew his words would be heard as clearly as they sounded to him. They would reach her in her place of safety...
Thank you... for everything.
He knew she would be fine. His sister, Miku... she would one day be able to live a happy and wonderful life.
And he... he would be able to soothe the soul of the Rope Shrine Maiden that would be unable to be free.