Next, we move onto the characters. As they say, one does not have a story if the audience does not know who the characters are, right?
Characters, as they appear in order of appearance in each book:
-Character #1: Eiji Kuroda (Main Protagonist) [First Appearance in Book 1]
Race: Human Male
Age: 25
-Occupation: Junker, Former Martial Artist, and Former College Student of Tokyo International University [Associates Degree in Modern and Feudal Japanese History]
-Personality: Eiji has an air of aloofness around people, preferring to not interfere with the way they live. This has made him reserved, distant, and sometimes disinterested about many subjects between conversations, though this has enabled him to become more aware of the situation around him, as well as taking matters rather seriously instead of seeing them either in a positive, negative, or humorous light. In combat, he seems to be more of the reckless type, despite his calm and cool demeanor, rushing in combat first to assess his opponent. He yearns to improve himself in combat and as a person; the textbook definition of a true martial artist. He has a soft, yet shy side when approached by women and girls and hides the fact that he is interested in all forms of music. He also tends to be forgetful at times, despite being the wise person that should know everything.
-Backstory: Born in Tokyo, Japan to a normal family, Eiji would have been your average person. In fact, he was living a normal life until his middle school years came around, in which he began to see Youkai: fantasy spirits and creatures based on folklore, around his vicinity. Despite the fact that he had a choice to save people from these creatures' misdeeds, he was powerless to do so, forcing him to watch in fear partially due to his own moral code of “not interfering with anyone’s life.” From random strangers to friends that he knew and saw back then, they were either eaten or abducted alive in his line of sight, gone missing, or were apparently “kidnapped.” This burdened his mind with regret to a point that Eiji nearly committed suicide, witnessing such events in front of him numerous times.
As a result, he tends to not make many friends throughout his growing years, though people who have helped him develop himself tend to have his respect in his own point of view. He took up the martial arts at the start of his high school education to ease his regrets of the past he created, which lead him into going to college. However, he eventually dropped his academic education to focus more on the martial arts to begin training and proclaim himself as a Youkai Hunter. Little did he knew was that he is actually a descendant of a lost clan that existed long ago in the history of Japan, which were known for their extermination skills against Youkai.
-Abilities: Eiji has knowledge and experience of various martial arts and their weapon counterparts, though he prefers his variation of Bushinryu Ninjutsu, a fighting form he managed to replicate from the Video Game Series Fighters on the Street (WE HAS A STREET FIGHTER SCWUB HERE!). This fighting style relies on the practitioner to execute fast, rapid strikes and kicks to overwhelm their opponent(s) until a weakness appears in their opponent(s) for the user to exploit. Because he recently replicated this fighting style from a video game, he lacks the full utility of the style that is portrayed in the video game due to real-life physics taking into account and his limited knowledge in this particular fighting method. To compensate for his inexperience with the new strategies given to him, he modified some movesets with his own martial arts experience, trading off gravity-defying attacks for heavy and strong attacks that would actually make sense in real-life fight situations and physics.
-He also could detect and sense Youkai and spirits at a short distance, which he later hones to become instinct upon entering Gensokyo. However, this power derives from his connection with the lost clan his ancestors once existed as, and as a result, he finds out that he is the inheritor of this lost clan's secret, but forgotten technique: the Sealing Strike during a near-death experience in combat. It is a focused open-palm strike that seals an opponent's magical abilities, and unlike most sealing techniques, which has a limit to how much power it could seal away, the potency of this technique is near limitless, that even powerful youkai or entities are not immune to it. However, he only shares a very small fraction of this lost clan's bloodline. As a result, the ability can only be used once per fight, last for a certain amount of time upon contact with the opponent, and does not affect an opponent's physical capabilities. Other limits are the facts that it requires a small window of time to charge up, the technique's range is in melee reach, and must have his full concentration to achieve the full effect of the ability. Almost any form of contact can break this technique's prep time, so Eiji sparingly uses this attack in most situations.
-He has the ability to strengthen a weapon's durability he is holding during his fight against his first youkai and later, could create a spirit weapon that takes the form of the broken blade of a weapon, which allows him to deflects danmaku, ranged attacks, and letting his strikes pass through physical matter. Its drawback is that he could only create a spirit weapon from broken swords only, as that is the preferred weapon he is proficient with.
[Picture(s) Coming Soon]
-Character #2: Renko Usami (Main Heroine) [First Appearance in Book 1]
-Race: Human Female
-Age: 25
-Occupation: College Student of Tokyo International University [Aiming for a Doctorate’s Degree in Super Unified Physics Major].
-Personality: Renko tends to take matters in a very objective and logical approach. Being the leader of the Sealing Club, she tends to be a bit flashy and mostly takes pride in her approaches when discussing about discoveries and the mysteries of fantasy folklore. Some speculate that she and Maribel shared a Pseudo-Love relationship, since they were generally together during their club activities and discussions, hinting her constant swing to depression when they are separated from each other during their adventures. Renko takes this as a sarcastic compliment in response more than an actual ‘fling’ going on between the two.
-Backstory: Renko Usami is a College Student of Tokyo International University, living near Tokyo, Japan. She majors in physics and is very objective and logical in her approach to matters. She has a friend named Maribel Hearn and together, they began the Sealing Club. Their club, consisting of only the two of them, describes itself as a “club for necromancers.” However they don't do many of the things necromancers would normally be associated with. Instead, they investigate spirits and such. Specifically they're interested in Gensokyo and seem to be among the few, or even the only, humans in the outside world who know of Gensokyo's existence. About a year ago, her friend disappeared from the world, in which she is currently seeking clues across Japan to find where she could have disappeared to
-Abilities: Renko is a Living GPS, Telling the current time by looking at the stars and the current place by looking at the moon. Upon entering in Gensokyo or being near the Great Hakurei Barrier, her powers can extend from “buffing” magic based on Astronomy that motivates her allies to fight efficiently, to making the galaxy stop functioning for a short amount of time.
She also carries a spray of mace as a self-defense tool against strangers, as well as a handgun. Though the handgun is believed to be broken, making it a mere toy to the public, it is believed to be of futuristic design and has the crest of the Lunarian Capital on the magazine design.
(http://e-shuushuu.net/images/2010-02-26-250046.png)
-Character #3: Jun Satou (Side Character) [First Appearance in Book 1]
-Race: Human Male
-Age: 23
-Occupation: Martial Artist, College Student of Tokyo International University [Aiming for a Master's Program in IT Degree], Japanese-English Translator
-Personality: Jun is a focused martial artist and takes his practice in the martial arts seriously, though he originally joined martial arts just to keep his fitness and health in check. However, he seems to be more of the talkative person and seems to be carried away by doing so, making a lot of friends and connections in the process. He also tends to be more honest about himself compared to most others that he has encountered. He also seems to be more prudent and prefers the careful mindset when it comes to fights and solving problems, always wanting to study his opponent(s) or the situation first, plan a strategy, and then execute said plan to take them down. Because of this, he tends to keep a cool head in many situations. However, he tends to try to keep things at a positive level, and when situations become too serious or unbelievable to understand, he tries to joke about it, hoping for the situation itself just passes by. He does care about friends who are close to him, particularly Eiji and Renko.
-Backstory: Jun and Eiji first met when they both were taking Karate at different times five years ago. Eiji was a black belt, 2rd rank at the time, while he himself was a brown belt, and they both learned from each other from sparring, tournaments, and even hanging out with each other once in a while. As time went on, Eiji left the dojo in pursuit of creating his own style, while Jun remained in Karate, dabbling in Judo to make him more diverse in many combat situations. At the same time, his father wanted him to pursue a safer goal in life, so he chose to pursue being an IT Technician to keep the old man happy. Being in a co-habituate school system, from the dorms to the classes, he became Renko's roommate, and although he does not understand Renko's current situation, he does everything he could within limits to at least help her live a good life.
-Abilities: Like Eiji, Jun is a Martial Artist, and prefers his fists and weapon in combat, a Katana, mainly used for Kata forms. He does not know this, but he has potential to use spell cards, despite being a Human with no special magical abilites. Unlike Eiji, who is currently focused on developing his own form of fighting, Jun focuses more on being a Karate Master and has dabbled in Judo as a secondary fighting style to fall back to.
[Picture(s) Coming Soon]
Character #4: Rumia (Antagonist) [First Appearance in Book 1]
-Race: Female, “Youkai of the Dark”
-Occupation: N/A, Generally, Youkai are Youkai, and therefore, they hunt for food, humans or not.
-Personality: Apparently, Rumia is quite simple-minded, and doesn't like the sunlight or the summer heat. She seems like to fly around aimlessly during the day and the night, sometimes bumping into trees since she is less capable of seeing obstacles through her veil of darkness. Because of this, some speculate that she is not as smart as she believes so. Despite her innocent appearance, she eats humans and thinks that a youkai's job is to hunt them down, but she also seems to be quite lazy and has commented that it is generally a pain for her doing it.
-Backstory: Being a youkai was simple for Rumia. For one, she was not tied down to a job or role in life, owing nobody anything. However, even hunger gives off something to do once in a while, and Rumia was one of those youkai who hunted humans. The Vampire Contract, which states that a youkai could not simply hunt a human in Gensokyo down in free sport, made her job rather hard to execute. However, that did not stop her by much, for hunting humans outside of Gensokyo or those who were gapped inside Gensokyo were fair game (And that is why many people make Rumia the first person to be an obstacle for most of their OC's). She grew fond of tormenting a person named Eiji Kuroda at one time during his growing years, as he reminded her of a hopeless version of a person she once met in Gensokyo, and continued to do so until he quit college. After that, she stuck to people who recently gapped inside Gensokyo, until one day, she once again wandered into a gap that she could not see, transporting her back into the Outside World of the Science Era.
-Abilities: Rumia has the ability of manipulating darkness. By covering herself in pure darkness, she is able to prevent sunlight from passing through the darkness, as it is magical in nature and can render traditional lights such as torches useless within it. Because of this, people who happen to go inside the darkness would not able to see anything.
In addition to her power to manipulate darkness, it is hinted that her ribbon hides a form that was sealed off long ago. When removed by a person with abilities to seal magical powers, Rumia unleashes this sealed off power, becoming EX Rumia! She gains a black stormbringer sword, looks more mature, and her magical powers are multiplied by 9, becoming a formidable threat to even the most skilled youkai exterminator.
It should also be noted that while her field of vision is reduced by her own ability, she is used to it enough to be able to read Aya's newspaper even with almost no light, while Rumia herself couldn't write notes or read her notebook. At that time, she has also shown that she can control how much light can pass through the darkness, as she let only a bit of it entering to be able to read.
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/villainsfanon/images/5/59/Swr_rumia.png/revision/latest?cb=20150121012655)(http://static.zerochan.net/Rumia.full.474447.jpg)
Normal/EX forms
Character #5: Charlotte Cambria (Side Character) [First Appearance in Book 1]
-Race: Human Female
-Age: 28
-Occupation: Youkai Hunter, Bodyguard of a Noble Daughter in France.
-Personality: Secretive, dutiful, and honorable, Charlotte tends to keep these things at heart, especially in her dual roles as a Bodyguard and Youkai Hunter. She is also materialistic, often buying things here and there. Many men comment her as being the ‘textbook definition of a woman’ in their perspective. However, she is against her secretive side of the job, which is to keep society from noticing that there are youkai around their everyday life, making her say more than what she really needs to at times. Even though she holds this in so that society itself does not break out in rampage, she has held a grudge against the organization she serves because of this. She believes that human society has a right to know where these things come from so they do not fall victim of attacks such as those reported as “kidnapped,” or “Gruesomely Murdered.”
She also has a disdain for men, for they were the ones who constantly tried to get together with her because of her beauty and attractiveness. As a result, many see her as having a cold heart when they were rejected or witnessing such events, which sometimes it is true.
-Backstory: Celeste was raised to be a maid of the Royal Palace in France. One day as a child, she was brought up by the combat instructor of the palace for the students to demonstrate their fencing skills on her. However, instead of them beating her up for demonstration purposes, she too demonstrated talent for fencing and beat them instead. The instructors at that palace, impressed by her talents in the sword skills despite her youth, taught her combat lessons in fencing for free with better accommodations and education of the Royal Palace in France. Later, she became the bodyguard for the lady-in-waiting of France; the young noble Liliana du Alexis. Later, she was recruited as a Youkai Hunter by the International Youkai Exterminators' Agency when both the princess and her survived a band of wild Youkai assaulting them in the dead of night at a country side in Romania.
-Abilities: With the power of Christianity at her side, Celeste Cambria is specialized in exterminating ghost, demon, and vampire type Youkai. She is skilled in Fencing, and seems to be a master at it. She also could create mirrors from thin-air, which could reflect laser danmaku around, depending on the angle of the mirror and the trajectory of the shot, while it could support her weight while she advances forward towards her opponents. This power, however, can only be formed with light sources that are around her on the given situation, whether from the moon, sun, or the interior lighting of a building. When focusing her attacks, she can project a laser danmaku from her weapons, which shoots at a straight direction to her opponent at blinding speed.
[Picture(s) Coming Soon]
Maribel Hearn/Yukari Yakumo (Main Antagonist?) [Mentioned in "Journal Entries" & First Appearance in Book 1]:
-Race: “Gap Youkai,” Formerly Human
-Occupation: Unknown, she sleeps most of the time. Was formerly a student at Tokyo International University from the outside world many years ago [Bachelor's Degree in Psychology].
-Personality: Yukari is known for being a very youkai-like youkai who sleeps all day and lives for the enjoyment of life. Though she rarely leaves her house, she's well-connected and is acquainted with most of the most powerful youkai and anyone having anything to do with the Great Hakurei Barrier or the outside world, although she rarely attacks humans. She has a tendency to toy with her opponents rather than use her full power from the start. If anyone is suited for the role of "mastermind", it's Yukari. She excels at mathematics and is experienced due to her long life.
She possesses superhuman intellect, and especially surpasses in dealing with numbers. Concretely to what extent this amazing intellect goes is hard to know, but it would be no mistake to think that this intellect far surpasses that of humans.
-Backstory: Before she was Yukari Yakumo, she was once a human girl named Maribel Hearn, who lived in the outside world, attending a Japanese College or University. Maribel came from a lineage which has had the ability to sense the supernatural since long ago. Because of this, she has the ability to see borders. Society wasn't receptive to strange people, so she had to keep her ability a secret.
As opposed to how it has been revealed that Renko Usami's hometown is Tokyo, Maribel's hometown and home country is unclear. Since she fluently speaks Japanese with Renko, she probably has lived in Japan for a long time. Some speculate that she and Renko shared a Pseudo-Love relationship, since they were generally together during their club activites and discussions, though Maribel denies this notion between the two due to being the complete opposite to Renko.
The more that Maribel and Renko ventured between the boundaries of Gensokyo and the Outside World, the more Maribel began to lose grip between what was real and fantasy. Eventually, she broke down, abandoning Renko Usami in order to save her only companion’s life as a human from the fate that Renko would have succumbed to during their last adventure together, and became Yukari Yakumo, the dimensional traveler that would later become one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo History.
According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, an apparent article on Yukari appears in the first edition of the Gensokyo Chronicle from 1,200 years ago. However, this article did not refer to her name as "Yukari Yakumo". It is believed she chose this name for herself, the name "Yukari" signifying that she was a youkai of boundaries, and the name "Yakumo" from a poem about creating a great fenced mansion where one can live a peaceful life in seclusion, and a strong fortress to keep the gods trapped inside. This land would be Gensokyo. It is also hinted that Yukari forgot her real name because Renko Usami constantly nicknamed her “Merry” during her time as a Human.
Over a thousand years ago, Yukari met and became friends with a human girl named Yuyuko Saigyouji. Over time, Yuyuko was driven to suicide out of despair over her ability to control death. After Yuyuko died, her body was used to seal the Saigyou Ayakashi, a youkai tree which drained the lives of too many humans, by an unknown individual who hoped Yuyuko would never have to suffer and experience pain again. The seal was created as the boundary between life and death. Yukari continued to be friends with Yuyuko's ghost, although Yuyuko gradually forgot who she had been and why she had died.
It is not stated who sealed the Saigyou Ayakashi. It was someone who held Yuyuko very dear, judging by the record "My wish... is that she will never again reincarnate, and never again suffer pain..." Yuyuko's profile describes the hypothetical breaking of the seal as "breaching the boundary." The boundary sealing the Saigyou Ayakashi is apparently the boundary between life and death.
-Abilities: Yukari is with no doubt one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. A few other youkai like Suika Ibuki and Yuugi Hoshiguma have been considered to be around her level. Yukari also refers to Eiki and Watatsuki no Toyohime as being stronger than she is, and tries to avoid direct confrontations with them. Despite her power, she might still lose spell card battles to humans or youkai.
Her physical strength is what you'd expect from a youkai. While the extent of an average youkai's strength is never really specified, their bodily ability is typically very high, so her strength is still far from that of a human.
Yukari is able to create boundaries in thin air within space and time. With the word "boundary" in its name, Yukari is capable of pretty much anything put under the influence of this ability. The most common application of Yukari's boundary manipulation abilities is opening "gaps," which act as portals between two places, where she's able to hold, sit on or emerge from such gaps.
Yukari is skilled in Onmyoudou, the Taoism-derived arts of traditional Japanese court wizards, and specialises in spells which create and manipulate barriers (presumably due to overlap with her innate abilities). Yukari has been able to teach some of her spells to Reimu Hakurei, whose own techniques have similar roots.
Yukari also displays great aptitude with shikigami, a technique that binds a powerful kitsune and numerous lesser servants at once under her command. As Shikigami are strongest when following orders, Yukari must also be skilled at giving the correct orders to fully maximize her shikigamis' potential.
(https://kafkafuura.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/994071495cb9c8358ff00ea0ef1a79ca-nakatani.jpg)
More will come, eventually. I just gotta sort all of the characters out atm, xD