Roi E. Yatokami [FINISHED]

» Name: Roi E. Yatōkami
- Given: Roi (French for “king”)

- Middle: E. (stands for Enlil, the king of the ancient Sumerian pantheon)

- Surname: Yatōkami (from the name given to the snake-like spirits of war from Japanese folklore)

» Name Origins:
- Given: Roi
One of Roi’s female ancestors on his father’s side was a Frenchwoman who, by her own admission, was allegedly descended from the ancient royals of France dating back to the days of yore. Therefore, to embody her wish that, someday, Roi would take over the reins of the newly founded Yatōkami clan and lead it to prosperity just as the French royals had France, albeit for a very limited period of time, she insisted that if a male child would be born who had the birthmark resembling the crowns of the ancient kings of France, that he should have his first name be the French word for “king”, which was of course “Roi”.

- Middle: E. (stands for Enlil, the king of the ancient Sumerian pantheon)
One of Roi’s male ancestors on his father’s side was the firstborn son of the nobility who ruled Iraq who was, if his stories were to be believed anyway, supposedly connected through blood ties that dated all the way back to the ancient royals of Sumer, the ancient nation which later became Iraq. He had apparently issued an edict that, if a male child was born later on down the line who would have a peculiar birthmark in the shape of a horned crown on his forehead, this mark having been the symbol used to represent Enlil, the leader of the Sumerian pantheon since the Sumerians associated the divine right to rule over the masses with this particular deity. So, he insisted that Roi be given the middle initial taken from the name of this ancient god of Sumer since he too, just like his wife aka Roi’s grandmother, hoped that Roi would one day take over as clan head and lead the clan into far greater prosperity than his forebears had done in their time.

- Surname: Yatōkami
This surname was taken from the clan name of Roi’s mother since Roi’s father, being the sole survivor of the tragedy that wiped out both sides of his clan, had to marry into hers instead. In doing so, he agreed to let their future child aka Roi, have her surname instead of his as would be the usual convention. Roi’s mother was a full Japanese woman, and more specifically from a noble clan in her own right and she was the sole heiress to the clan head seat. Her clan’s name was derived from the name the locals used to refer to the snake-like spirits which were said to bring horrifying calamity to those who were unfortunate enough to come upon them, even going so far as to eliminate the entire families of those hapless people. This was allegedly given as a title to the founders of Roi’s mother’s clan in recognition of the work they did to eliminate any who stood up to the ruling family of Japan in the ancient past. The locals, however, referred to the founders by that name since for some odd reason, all who came into contact with these two were said to have faced utter ruin regardless of their prosperity up to that point. Roi was given this name by his mother in the hope that Roi would wreak ruinous vengeance upon the enemies of his clan for the crimes they had dared to commit against it in the past. This occasion had apparently been even more unnerving due to the clan members having witnessed all the portents heralding impending calamity on the day of Roi’s birth.

» Alias:
- Roi (his friends/allies/superiors and colleagues are free to refer to/call him by this name)

- Mr. Yatōkami (anyone having business ordeals of some kind with him refer to/ use this name)

- Master Yatōkami (his personal guard, his subordinates, and personal servants call him this)

- “Lazy Ass”/Know-it-all Pervert” (a girl he knew way back in his childhood and early years used to call him this)

- "Ghost" (his former colleagues in the Shadow Syndicate, his victims, and his clientele [past & present] know him by this name)


» Age: 27 years old

» Gender: Male

» Association:
- Yatōkami clan

- Yatōkami Inc. (business group)

- Shadow Syndicate (former top field agent, moniker “Ghost”)


» Purpose: Roi is meant to be a Powerless Human who after a certain period of time ICly, will be awakened as a Quincy with an appropriate power concept. After that at some point in his IC history, he will be transformed into a Ziamichi type being where the soul of another compatible race will be sealed into his body by an item known as the "Marauder's Magatama" which will fuse with him when he first makes contact with it , thus granting him the unique ability to wrest control of one or more of the predominant supernatural attributes from certain NPC supernatural entities of various types known as "Heretic Deities" (divine entities, demonic entities, and even semi-divine heroes and heroines from real world legends) and imbue himself with the aforementioned attributes which will then serve as his unique powers in other situations, albeit only after successfully confronting and defeating them in some manner, either thru straight combat, or through some other means such as trickery.

» Appearance Written:

Physical Description:
Roi is a 27 year old young man who is a hulking 6’ 3” in height and who weighs in at 180 lb. He has a large frame with considerable musculature, all of which is of the lean, athletic type and sharply defined since he has not more than an ounce of fat anywhere on him. The bone structure that supports this musculature tends towards the medium range throughout most of his body, with his limbs being the only exception.

His skin has a light tanned tone over most of his body due to his partly Middle Eastern heritage. However, the parts of his skin over his limbs, face, and the majority of his chest is much more weather-beaten and of a slightly darker tan due to the exposure he has had to the elements over the years, especially the harsh sunlight from all the time he has spent in the tropical and subtropical countries. The skin over most of his body is relatively smoother than that of his limbs which is far rougher, with his palms and soles being heavily callused from the rigorous training he has had in handheld weapon usage, especially swords as well as from all the training he has had in hand to hand combat styles.

His originally black hair is noticeably voluminous, shaggy and coarse to the touch since he is usually too lazy to care for it and because of all the exposure it has had to harsh environments in the past, reaching down till just below the base of his neck (when he lets it down). It is quite strongly rooted to hit scalp and usually seen tied up into a high spiky ponytail. Due to this, his high wide forehead forehead is clearly seen. His face, however, is generally oval in shape. His heterochromic eyes (left: poison green; right: amber yellow) are small, thin, with cat-like pupils, and closely set on either side of his aquiline nose. When combined with his high-set cheekbones, gently tapered chin along with his strongly set, chiseled jawline and prominent Adam’s apple, and gaunt cheeks give him a distinct appearance. Interestingly enough, he has the good fortune of being completely smooth and devoid of facial hair. His ears are like those of any other human and the teeth beneath his thin, firm lips are the same as those of any other human with the exception that his canines are slightly longer and his teeth are more durable overall.

His chest, shoulders, and back are broad and almost herculean in appearance, albeit more muscular in the chest and shoulder area than on his back. The rest of his torso is similarly well defined with all the various muscle groups such as his toned pecs and prominent six-pack rectus abdominis on his washboard abdomen being clearly visible during those times when he is shirtless. He does not have any noticeable hair on his chest on anywhere else on his main torso or even his limbs. His limbs have far more defined musculature than does his torso, and their bone structure tends more towards the heavy end of the density spectrum with the prominences being clearly visible due to the general lack of subcutaneous fat and also because of the aforementioned weaponless part of his combat training. His hands and feet are large and sinewy with the digits being slightly longer and more flexible than average.

Identification Features:
Alas, there are quite a few healed scars and birthmarks that mar this body of his. His main birthmark is something that looks like a horned crown, situated between his penciled eyebrows on his forehead slightly above the root of his nose. There are a few moles here and there but they are mainly of the non-elevated type. The only other prominent birthmark is something that looks like a pair of entwined snakes located one on each of the uppermost part of his arm just below the beginning of his shoulders. He has several scars that span the course of his body. On the left side of his face, traversing both eyelids across his eye is a vertical scar that begins a few centimeters above his eyebrow and ends just above his cheekbone. He got this one from having to fight and enemy who tried to take a stab at his eye in an attempt to blind him and reduce his visual prowess some. The next scar is the biggest he has, going diagonally across the front of his torso from his left shoulder to his right hip. This one was received from the fight he had with a particularly skilled swordsman in the past. His limbs have several small scars across them but his ankles have two circular scars from the wound he had tried to inflict on himself in order to escape the shackles clapped on him at some point in the past.

Apart from these, the other features that can be used to distinguish him in a crowd are the various tattoos he has on certain areas of his body. His left upper limb displays the image of Byakko, the White Tiger of the West. His right upper limb shows the picture of Seiryu, the Azure Dragon of the East. His forehead depicts Qilin, the King of the Holy Beasts. His upper torso has the likeness of Genbu, the Onyx Turtle of the North. His abdomen on downward till his feet is bedecked with a portrait of Shuzaku, the Red Phoenix of the South. Finally, his back is adorned with a full size image of Kannon of the Thousand Arms, the Golden Goddess of Mercy. All of these tattoos use metallic paint the colors of which gleam brightly when exposed to ambient sunlight or moonlight.


Expressions, Gait, Mannerisms, and Posture:
Roi’s eyes almost constantly have a bored or maybe even a sleep-addled look to them. The only exception to this is when something or someone happens to pique his curiosity or perhaps piss him off in some way. In such a situation, his eyes take on a keen, laser-like focus and his gaze becomes piercing and intense. When he is aroused or when he is about to attack his targets, his eyes become like those of a great white shark pursuing its prey. If he is enraged, his eyes turn steely and as cold as an ice-storm in the deepest of winters. When a more melancholic mood overtakes him, his eyes look dull and listless just like the rest of him.

He usually has a slightly forward-slouched posture and a relaxed gait with his left hand in the corresponding trouser pocket and his right hand hanging free and swinging lazily as he moves about or resting gently on the three swords at his left hip. This gait and posture when combined with his bored, sleepy default facial expression make him look almost lackadaisical in nature. However when his interest is piqued or when he is in the presence of a superior, he will straighten up his posture and look alert so as to not fall from grace and more importantly, so he can avoid the hassle of a long lecture or any other troublesome consequence that might be coming his way. When he is about to use his sword techniques, he usually goes with the appropriate prescribed stances and postures which he was taught to take during his training. With regards to mannerisms, he has only two noticeable tics, one being his right eyebrow and right corner of his mouth twitching slightly when he is irritated and progressing toward outright anger. The other is that when he is nervous, his right hand tends to rub the back of his neck. Other than that, he has trained himself to minimize almost all expressions so as to lessen the chances of the other party reading his mood and so, appears fairly inscrutable.


Attire Preferences:

In Private:
When by himself at home, up top, Roi has on a comfortably fitting, breathable and yet durable turtleneck shirt which is dark or light colored depending on the weather. Below, he usually prefers to wear a comfortable, breathable, and yet durable dark or light colored custom order cargo pants with pockets built in at strategically optimal spots. His forearms, wrists, and hands are covered by tekkou while his shins and feet have suneate over them. He usually goes barefoot in this situation.

At Home w/ Others/ When Outside (Casual):
When he is entertaining guests at home, underneath, he wears his usual turtleneckshirt which is slightly more formal and has pockets in easily accessible spots. Below, he usually has on a denim variant of his usual hakama, this one having belt loops for his custom order military style utility belt. His upper and. lower limbs have their usual coverings. He usually has either simple tabi socks or traditional geta sandals as footwear. If out and about, then with the aforementioned outfit, he wears his heirloom windflower light silk green colored scarf and has custom order long tabi boots as footwear.

When Outside (Formal):
When attending formal events, he wears much more formal collared shirt with a standard black suit jacket above. Below, he wear a matching pair of formal trousers with the same utility belt as before holding it up. His arms and legs have their usual coverings, only these are much more ornate. For footwear uses custom order long tabi boots, overlaid for most of their length by his trousers.

In Battle/On Mission:
When in battle or on a mission, he wears a dark or light muscle tee with matching custom order ballooning hakama but made of Kevlar. Over the turtleneck shirt he wears a grey colored tactical load-bearing vest. His forearms are protected by a pair of grey colored metal half gauntlets, while his shins are protected by matching metal shin guards. His choice of footwear is a pair of matching colored tactical tabi boots.

In Special Climates
When in adverse climates, he tends to wear variants of his usual outfit that are suited to the inclement weather at hand. Over these renditions of his usual outfit, he tends to wear either a dark or light colored cloak with a yin yang design. He also protects his face from the adverse weather with a mask which matches the color scheme of the rest of his outfit.

At the Beach or Pools/When Training
When at the beach or when training, he can be seen shirtless and wearing nothing more than his briefs over which he will usually have a pair of light colored swim trunks (if at the beach or the city pool) or his usual dark or light custom order hakama with the hem of the legs tucked into his long tabi boots (in training) or just a pair of sandals (if at the beach or pool).

Accessories:
- A windflower light silk green colored scarf

- A gold locket with a silver cross

- A set of three gold rings each set with his birthstone


» Appearance Image:

In Private:

Spoiler:

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At Home w/ Others/ Outside (Casual):

Spoiler:

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Formal Occasions:

Spoiler:

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In Battle:

Spoiler:

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In Special Climates:

Spoiler:

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At the Beach/Pool or Training:

Beach/Poolside:

Spoiler:

Training:

Spoiler:

» Positives:

Adaptive:
Roi is the kind of person who can adapt to almost any situation as far as possible. This allows him to at least survive most if not all potentially dangerous situations even if he does not succeed in fulfilling his intended objective(s) for those situations. This is particularly useful in those situations where his resources happen to be limited as he has been trained to work with the least amount of materials necessary to achieve the most results with judicious use of said materials. Even if the materials are simple and of such low quality that would otherwise be overlooked or ignored by other people, he is able to use these in order to achieve his goals almost as effectively as he would if he were to have access to high grade materials. Furthermore, since he is so adaptive, he tends to be able to flow with any changes in the situation at hand and adjust his thoughts, words and deed to best fit the new conditions, most of the time anyway.

Calculating:
Roi takes life to be a giant strategy game. Due to this, he always uses his well above average level intellect to constantly improve his efficiency at executing various tasks and also to find ways around any obstacles he might face rather than powering through them via pure determination. This trait is his main strength since he is capable of high pressure planning, critical judgement, and tactical analysis, and keenly incisive deduction that to those who are easily fooled would almost make him seem like he can see into the future.

His calculating nature causes him to continually look out for the interests of the people closest to him and use his intellect to secure his side the better end of any deal offered to him. Due to his keen intellect and calculating nature, he is also drawn to various strategy games of which he likes go and shogi the most. He can often be found engrossed in these games when he is not out napping, cloud watching in the parks, and indulging his other hobbies. Roi’s calculating nature affects his social life as well since it causes him to observe any new acquaintance closely in each of their interactions to determine whether or not it would be advantageous for him to befriend them unless they happen to be the downtrodden type in which case he will befriend them without thinking of how they will be useful to him.

Calm:
Roi is not easily rattled by surprises and keeps his cool in all but the most trying of circumstances. He never panics and never acts hastily when under fire in all but the most extreme circumstances. This trait allows him to assess a situation objectively and take the best possible route to resolve it. However, one of the situations that can make him lose his cool quicker than usual is if someone were to threaten his near and dear ones or any downtrodden individuals whom he has chosen to take under his wing.

Honest:
Since an early age, Roi has been used to being honest, due to his parents inculcating that virtue in him in the hope that he would grow up to be a decent adult. In addition to this, the laziness and dislike of troublesome situations that he has inherited from his father cause him to avoid telling lies or giving excuses since it would mostly likely end up becoming a royal pain later on if anybody called his bluff later on. In battle, this means he is quite straightforward, not wasting time with trying to trick the opponent and instead just preferring to beat them down with sheer force.

Loyal:
Roi is intelligently loyal to those around him whether it be his family, his friends, or other associates/colleagues. As long as they are not engaging in any acts that he considers immoral, he will do his best to support then with the full extent of his abilities whenever he can use them. He will never give in to another party’s temptations and/or threats and betray them unless and until they start acting in ways that go against his personal moral code, or at least that's the idea. In reality, however, despite his efforts to maintain his ironclad loyalty at all times, there are factors he cannot account for that will make this a lot harder to pull of constantly, such as if the enemy tempted him with the allure of women of his type (intelligent, self-thinking, strong, and voluptuously beautiful), or if they offered him unique equipment that no one could take away from him and hijack for their own use, and if they presented him with the anime, manga, and other collectors items from pop culture that enthrall him. However, most times, if the offer is short lived, he can exert his iron will to overcome the temptation and keep his loyalty/allegiances intact, but if this temptation were to be stretched out over an extended duration, it could prove troublesome for him.

Observant:
Throughout his younger years, Roi's father had drilled into his head the fact that if one has a keen eye for detail, more often than not, only one truth would prevail in the end. As a result, Roi has learned, under the watchful eye of his father, to take in all the details of a particular situation no matter how seemingly small and insignificant and as far as possible. This trait is very useful to him since it allows him to quickly deduce any given target's weaknesses and strengths, especially if he has encountered other targets of the same or similar type before his current one.

Passionate:
Roi tends to devote himself mind, body, and soul to whatever objective he has taken up. Thus he works tirelessly to accomplish that goal. He does not settle for doing the minimum required, but rather goes above and beyond expectations unless there is something absolutely preventing him from doing so. This means that as long as whatever ally or cause does not end up going against his own personal moral code of being a champion of the downtrodden and being forthright in all his actions, thoughts, and deeds, he will be undyingly loyal to that ally or cause even to the point of unhesitatingly throwing himself into the line of fire to defend them against whoever it is that seeks to harm them.

Patient:
Roi is a fan of the slow and steady approach as he was constantly reminded by his dad that doing things slowly and deliberately will ultimately always yield better results than if one were to rush through things in an attempt to get them done as quickly as possible. This above average patience of his come in handy when dealing with particularly intractable individuals, whether they be human or others as he eventually gets them to come over to his side by wearing their resistance down little by little. This trait of his also prevents otherwise silly mistakes on his part, whether in everyday life or in battles and saves him from many a troublesome situation that may otherwise arise if he were to be hasty.

Revolutionary/Bully-Beater:
Roi had been bullied a lot as a child since he was weak back then and so over the course of his life has acquired a marked hatred of any sort of bully, whether that be on the individual, state, or even nation level. If he comes across such, he will drop everything else that he is not required to do at that moment and devote his energies to trying to take out the bullying party and in doing so, rescue the one being bullied from their oppression. He would even go as far as break the rules of whatever contract he has taken on if he finds that his employer happens to be the bully in that situation and instead turn his blades towards them in an effort to eliminate them.

Strong Willed:
Even if he loses a fight that he cannot run away from, Roi would much rather die than surrender himself to the mercy of his enemy. This is because he believes that if he were to surrender to the enemy or other party, they will simply hold his defeat at their hands over his head and constantly deprive him of his freedom of choice in various circumstances or maybe even find a way to use his personal code of ethics against him in some manner or another. This trait works with his tenacity and patience to allow him to see his ventures through to the end, even if during that course, his loyalties change due to drastic changes happening in the ventures.

Tenacious:
Roi can be quite determined in the pursuit of his goals almost to the point of having a single-minded focus on his target. Even if the odds were to turn against him, he would keep on trucking, chipping away at whatever he is working on till it comes to a close, for better or worse. This means he can be relied on to completely and thoroughly resolve whatever task he is given to the best of his ability instead of trying to cut corners. In battle, this means that he can be quite the irritating and maybe even dangerous opponent for those who like to blitz their opponents quickly since he just won’t go down until his energy reserves almost totally run out and instead keep getting up over and over and throwing himself into the fray against whoever decides to stand in his way. This also means he will doggedly pursue a mark till he has eliminated them.

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» Negatives:

Cynical:
Roi has been betrayed several times by people and by circumstances he has been in the past. So eventually, he lost much of his faith in the much touted innate goodness of people in general and in the idea that the world rewards effort as long as one puts enough of it into one’s daily life in the pursuit of any given venture. So, in most situations, he has a hard time believing in people when they say they have good intentions, even if, in the end he goes and helps them out anyway. He has also resigned himself to the fact that the world will continue to mess with him at every turn despite the work he puts in diligently (at least when his laziness is not pervading his being) and take everything he desires away from him when he least expects it.

Introverted:
Roi is not the most outgoing of people, and as such, he prefers to keep to himself most of the time and that time is usually spent in activities like, watching anime and reading manga, spending time with his very few close friends and allies, womanizing, napping, playing shogi or some other strategy game, training his swordplay skills, and reading mystery novels. However, if he is addressed by another person, he will usually respond in a courteous manner unless the person is disturbing his napping and cloud gazing time, but he never bothers with being officious towards the person. Due to this rather introverted nature of his, Roi has a smaller than usual social circle which consists of his family, his closest friends and allies and any other acquaintances that the former three make him known to during everyday life.

Lazy:
Roi’s most defining trait is his indolence which borders on sloth, that is, during the times when he is not overcome with fits of extreme energy. He prefers to take things easy as often as he can, mostly whenever his family and acquaintances are not watching him closely. He will procrastinate in all but the most crucial of circumstances, using any excuse necessary to get out of doing the trivial things like chores and minor errands. He can often be found taking naps outside on nice sunny days with cool zephyr blowing through the area or else engaging in the pursuit of his many hobbies when not busy doing anything else.

Perverted/Libidinous:
Roi is a true blue pervert who is, according to him anyway, one without equal, at least in his pervert ways. When he is not on the clock at his teaching position, his job as the historian and lead archaeologist for the various brand name universities, fulfilling requests from his clientele as to various enigmas, or otherwise engaging in his other more “respectable” hobbies, he can usually be found in his custom-order house (which he actually owns) enjoying anime-style Playboy mags, adult visual novels or manga, or even similarly themed R-rated movies (most of them anime and not live action, of course). He even has dakimakuras (body-pillows) of his most favorite anime girls (in rather skimpy clothing and in very provocative poses) and spends quite a lot of time and money purchasing figurines (all of which can be fully customized and put in any pose he likes) of the same, most of them in rather raunchy poses and outfits. He also happens to have quite a large collection of eroge and Blu-Ray versions of his all his favorite anime of the harem, ecchi, and erotica genres. However, when it comes to 3-D women, he is generally very careful about showing his interests, if for no other reason than that fact that most happen to be leagues ahead of him in sheer might and would completely clobber him if he ever tried anything of the kind, not to mention the men associated with said women would probably hunt him down and vaporize him.

Sarcastic:
Due to his cynicism, Roi can be quite sarcastic in his remarks about people, various situations, and even the world at large. This can range anywhere from the dry, facetious type to outright caustic and humiliating kind. This especially shows itself when someone or something has pushed him past the point of his tolerance for the irksome and troublesome. When that happens, there are clear signs that his mood is souring slowly but surely. Stage 1 is when his right eyebrow and the right corner of his mouth start twitching ever so slightly. If the target of his sarcasm is removed from his vicinity, he will go back to normal. If not, then he proceeds to Stage 2, and this is where he uses his sharp wit to break the target’s spirit and self-confidence by exposing their weak spots and humiliating them (unless they happen to be downtrodden, but especially if the target happens to be a high ranking noble or royal or ever tyrannical). If the target leaves from the vicinity at this stage, the situation if still salvageable. If not, the last and final stage is reached, and this is starts hitting things and hitting them hard enough to send lesser individuals scurrying away.

Stubborn:
His determination, while being quite intense and proving useful in a variety of situations, also means that he has a remarkably irritating ability to be stubborn when the situation moves him to do so. Once he has set his mind to a certain point of view about the situation at hand or maybe about any given person, there is virtually nothing that can change his mind about his perspective, even if that perspective turns out to be a wrong one or the situation proves to be hopeless. The only exception to this is if the situation or party happens to violate his personal moral code.

Tactless:
Because he has had no real training in how to be sensitive to other people’s feelings and instead had to focus all his time and energy on honing his physical and mental abilities in order to survive and also since he had to withstand some very difficult situations in his life thus far, Roi can be quite a jerk when it comes to trying to empathize with another person’s situation. If someone comes to him for comfort, he is usually unable to give them any. Instead, he tends to tell them to suck it up and deal with their problems themselves, unless said problem involves a bully or perhaps a tyrannical government or perhaps a lone tyrant who is trying to control a set of people. In this case, he will go out of his way to take on the request and help them. His honesty can be quite brutal as he does not bother ever sugarcoating his words in order to spare the feelings of his audience. He tells the facts as they are, and if the audience can’t take the heat, then too bad for them. This combined with his introverted nature means he should never be chosen as the spokesperson for anything that is meant to motivate or inspire people.

» Prologue:

Roi’s story starts with that of his parents and before them, his maternal and paternal grandparents and so on back several generations into his family tree. One of his paternal ancestors, named Ur-Nammu, was the most prominent figure in his clan and in order to revive his clan back to the days of yore when it was prosperous and dominant in their homeland, had decided to make use of his talents as an archaeologist and so, in the 1900s, he had led an expeditionary team to discover and explore the innards of the clan’s long lost mausoleum (which of course was an incredibly old ziggurat said to have been built in the time when kings still had dominion over their homeland by the clan’s very first founder, Gilgamesh III). Ur-Nammu’s goal was to find the legendary ziggurat, explore it, and recover its fabled contents for the sake of expanding the archaeological community’s body of knowledge. He went there also for the sake of retrieving the clan’s ancient cache of treasure that they had won in the various wars that they had taken part in since times immemorial.

He and his team reached there and while the curse denoted by the cuneiform inscribed on the massive walls of the mausoleum worried them, Nammu knew that they had to press on and so he put on his intrepid face and led his colleagues through the first gate of the mausoleum into the first chamber. Unbeknownst to him, however, there was another team lead by a Frenchwoman named Veronique Antoinette who had come to his homeland to study the ancient civilization which had once ruled over that area. They had been waiting for Nammu’s team to lead them to the ziggurat since they had not been able to find it themselves, and since she had seen her chance, she led her team in sneaking into the ziggurat, being hot on the heels of Nammu’s team, but making sure not to get noticed by them.

Unaware of their secret followers, Nammu and his team explored the ziggurat part by part, mapping everything in minute detail and noting anything that proved to be of historical value while Veronique’s team took care of the leftovers that they had missed for one reason or another. This continued uneventfully for quite a while until, at one point, when Nammu and his team were quite deep into the bowels of the ziggurat, there was a thunderous rumbling sound as if heralding an earthquake. Unfortunately for Nammu, one of his team had been careless and triggered a trap set for any presumptive tomb robbers by the builders of the ziggurat in the ancient past. Soon the ceiling began to show cracks and before any of them could react appropriately, thousands of pieces of the ceiling began to fall towards them. In the ensuing chaos and confusion, Nammu and Veronique had dived off to one side while their respective teams had taken incentive to rush in the opposite direction.

Once the dust had settled, there was a thick makeshift wall of rubble now separating the two sides with nary a gap between the enormous pieces of ceiling. Nammu and Veronique had unfortunately been knocked unconscious from the collision they had with the floor when they dived towards it to escape the falling debris. So they did not respond immediately when their respective teams had begun to try calling out to them through the rubble to see if communication was possible. Luckily though, Nammu had a transponder and when that began to beep loudly with the voices of his team coming through it, it managed to rouse him to a conscious albeit slightly wobbly state. He had sat up groggily and while he was fiddling around with the transponder in an effort to turn up the volume to the max, Veronique had also gotten up. Of course, Nammu had pressing concerns at the moment, so he didn’t take notice of her just yet. He called out to his team through the transponder

“Hey!! Can you guys hear me?! Hello!! Respond if you’re all intact and report on your status!!”

Luckily for him, his team’s response had gotten through properly and the voices of Veronique’s team which could be heard as well, succeeded in jolting her back to near full consciousness too. That, of course, led to her crowding in toward Nammu and quite literally shouting into the transponder

“Please respond!! Jacques!! Marie!! Voltaire!! Are you three okay?!”

Her sudden and unexpected outburst and action startled Nammu who was not used to being in the presence of such well-nigh unbearably loud women before. Needless to say, the volume of her screeching causing tremendous feedback reaction in the transponder, resulting in a shrill noise that nearly sent both her team and that of Nammu’s reeling from the auditory assault. Grimacing at the strange woman commandeering his transponder, Nammu snatched it back from her and with a sigh, he continued giving his directions

“Alright now that’s over, listen closely, all of you! If you don’t want this ancient Royal Tomb to become your early grave as well, you will do as I say. Do not and I repeat, DO NOT be careless in where you step henceforth. This whole place could come crumbling down on us if that happens. A small detachment of you should go carefully, pick your way through the rubble and exit the tomb to try to get help if you can. Meanwhile, we will do what we can to find any other means of exit or if we can’t, this woman and I will stay put and wait for you to rescue us.”

His team and hers acknowledged his orders and set off to try to find help as per his instructions. Meanwhile the rest of their team got started on trying to clear the rubble a little at a time. Nammu and Veronique then headed further into the tomb, making sure to drop chemical light-sticks to mark their route as they went. As they went further in, they stumbled upon room after room, most containing false entrances, traps, and only a few that contained anything historically significant. Veronique gaped at seeing all the artifacts lying there undisturbed till now, and had remarked

“My word, this is incredible…to think this many artifacts had actually survived the ravages of time and the elements to reveal themselves to us today…what is this place anyway?”

Nammu frowned as he was reluctant to trust in Veronique since they had met just moments ago, but since she appeared to be at least interested in the less valuable artifacts, he decided to relent and explained, gesturing to their new surroundings and rooms as they passed them by

“This…just happens to be the Royal Tomb of my distant ancestors, the ruling family of ancient Sumeria and this ancient city of Ur as well. You could say it’s my family’s own personal monument…oh and…before you get any funny ideas, don’t both trying to steal anything, if you do, let’s just say…you won’t like the consequences…uh, what’s your name?”

Veronique who was listening up till now intently as she too was curious about the ziggurat, spoke up

“I see…how scary…Veronique’s the name. Nice place you got here by the way…”

Nammu’s grimace deepened at seeing Veronique’s light-hearted response and his tic reared its head, causing his right eyebrow and right corner of his mouth to twitch as he retorted in a surly tone

“Oi, you troublesome woman! Show some respect for the dead who are resting here in their eternal slumber, would you?” And I wasn’t kidding about the consequences either!!”

He said in a raised voice as he gestured to some random skeletons which lay about, seemingly having belonged to tomb robbers who had apparently been foolish enough to try to steal the funerary treasures of Nammu’s long dead forebears. Thankfully, Veronique sobered up some and began to show a more appropriate, somber attitude as she and Nammu made their way further and further on their search for the elusive, but much spoken of vault of treasure they had read about in the legends of the ziggurat. Finally after what seemed like ages, they came upon it, and after paying proper respect to the dead who rested there, they carefully extricated the treasures piece by piece along with any other historically useful artifacts from the vault and then brought them back slowly but surely to the place where the wall of rubble still stood firm, obstructing their path out of the tomb. They decided to wait patiently since it had been several hours since the rescue team had been sent out to get help. Thankfully they did not have to wait long for them to return. The team came and with the help of the rest of the members there, they succeeded in safely getting all the people involved out of the tomb, and just in time too, for just moments after they had finished pulling out the last members of both teams, the ziggurat collapsed on itself as the structural integrity could no longer be maintained.

Once they had gotten out, Nammu and Veronique showed the treasures as well as other prized artifacts to their respective teams and then made to return back to base camp with Veronique’s team being Nammu’s guests. The next several days were spent carefully cataloging everything they had found and studying them to get the initial impressions. After that, both teams few back to the museum in Egypt in order to report back to their sponsors about their finds and to submit the artifacts for display in said museum. Veronique and Nammu said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. However, the story does not end there, for due to their having cooperated in their hour of adversity, they could not get each other out of their heads and ended up contacting each other afterward. From then on, they began spending more time with each other until one day Nammu had worked up the courage to ask her for her hand in marriage. After getting their respective clan’s blessing, they got hitched and then decided to start their new clan with the both of them being the co-heads. In due course, a son was born to them and named the successor to the new clan. In time, he took over leadership in turn expanded the clan’s influence using the vast sums of money the clan now had in its vaults.

This continued on down the line, with each generation building on the works of the first in expanding the clan’s influence and territory till finally in the modern age that the world had entered, they had managed to play a minor role in the wars that began to take place. The world had begun to change greatly with the discovery of spiritual beings from various other dimensions and several of these had managed to take over the world by banding into several organizations. By now, their clan had become a major business group which was influential in the world, having branched out in various product lines. In the clan’s past several members had even served as soldiers in the many wars that had occurred. However, in the current age, the world was somewhat more peaceful, so the clan could once again plunge into expanding their consumer-base. At this time, Roi’s grandfather was born into this clan of half-Middle Eastern and half-French people.

He proved to be even greater of a blessing than his predecessors since he possessed several rare talents such as charisma, financial acumen, tirelessness, and the like which he used to take the clan and the associated conglomerate to even greater heights. After accomplishing all he had set out to do, he was made to marry a French lady just as his father had before him. Together they ruled the clan for several years and many of these were rather uneventful. However, after a while, they had found that another corporation similar to their own in size had sprung up and was threatening to take away their customers. This, of course did not sit well with the younger members of the clan even though Roi’s paternal grandfather and his wife had no intention of starting conflict. However, sadly for them, the younger members of their clan and those of the opposing party had begun to clash several times sometimes overtly and at other times covertly. This tenuous atmosphere between the two sides continued for several years without abating even up till the point that Roi’s father, Seig Enlil Ur was born.

Seig brought new hope to the clan since with him, the clan was expected to soar even higher and finally break the deadlocked competition between the two sides. However, this did not happen since, contrary to the clan’s expectations, he went into archaeology just like his long dead ancestor, Nammu had before him. However, unlike Nammu, Seig had been exposed to the cultures of the Far East and he was fascinated by them throughout his schooling, eventually becoming one of the authorities on Far Eastern mythology, history, and other such fields.

After he had finished his studies, he joined the archaeological community and had set up his base of operations with a special license in Japan so he could study the culture that had fascinated him from childhood. After making both a name and a personal fortune for himself, he had returned to his homeland where his clan was based, but to his horror, during his absence several enemies of the clan, though not their ultimate rival, had banded together and succeeded in decimating the clan and had left the business conglomerate in ruins. So, as loathe as he was to abandon them even temporarily, Seig had to put his archaeological interests on the back burner in order to revive the business conglomerate at the very least, if not his actual clan. It was hard work, but with the help of his associates with whom he had attended school, he managed to get the business back on its feet and once again to the point that it could stand on an equal footing with its old rival.

After that, he left some of his trusted associates in charge and once again returned to Japan to continue his studies of its ancient culture and more importantly the tombs of its early rulers. Unbeknownst to him, history was about to repeat itself, only this time the stage and the actors were different. Seig had gathered a team and had set out to explore a newly discovered tomb of one of the earliest rulers of Japan. Unfortunately for him, he and his team were being followed by a Japanese female researcher named Sakuya A. Yatōkami who was also interested in the artifacts that were related to that tomb. Seig and his group entered the tomb and was busy exploring the place when the group following him with the woman at their helm also entered the tomb in order to try to beat Rey to the punch. Seig and his team were taken aback at the intruders, but when said party refused to leave, the expedition turned into somewhat of a race between the two. Sadly, however, their enthusiasm ended up triggering a trap which caused the floor to collapse beneath them. As a result, Seig and Sakuya fell deep into the bowels of the tomb into some sort of a dungeon like place, not that they knew it at the time since Seig had been knocked out cold by Sakuya falling atop him and Sakuya because she had hit her head against the cold stone floor upon landing though most of the brunt of the potential impact was softened by Seig.

After what seemed like ages, the distinctive crackle of the wireless two way radio band Seig was wearing could be heard loud and clear with the worried voices of the people above who had narrowly escaped falling into the dungeon themselves

“Hello! Can you two hear us?! Are you okay?!”

Thanks to that stimulus, Seig’s mind was brought back from the brink and he slowly opened his eyes and did a quick scan as well as he could from that position, lying under Sakuya as he was. Even though he was half delirious from the impact of the fall, he could still tell that he and Sakuya had fallen into some sort of underground dungeon like the ones he had seen in the Indiana Jones movies he used to watch in his younger years. He then made to arouse Sakuya so that together they could maybe figure a way out. After several minutes of effort, she awoke and glanced around groggily

“Wha…what…happened to…us? Wh-Who are…you?!”

She exclaimed, her shrill voice wreaking havoc with Seig’s sensitive ears. Seig frowned as he realized what a troublesome woman he was stuck with, but he couldn’t do anything about it in his present circumstances, so he sighed and took a few deep breaths before bringing her up to speed

“Wh…damn woman, you don’t even remember what happened? And after you damn nearly broke my spine in half with your heavy ass body!! Just my luck…what a drag…”

Sakuya was about to retort angrily, but Seig cut her off with a raised hand indicating for her to be silent, which thankfully she acquiesced to without much resistance. He sighed and then proceeded to give instructions to the rest of their team members waiting above

“Hey! Can you all hear me? Send a few people to get help and the rest of you, stay put. We don’t need anyone triggering any more traps, you hear me?!”

The team replied in the affirmative and as per his instructions, some of them went off to find help from the rest of the camp while the rest stayed put. Fortunately, help arrived soon enough and both Sakuya and Seig were extricated from the dungeon in relatively unharmed, albeit very rattled states. After that, they set about retrieving the treasures they had seen in the dungeon and in the rest of the tomb after which they sent those artifacts off and said their goodbyes before going their separate ways. However, like what happened with Nammu and Veronique before, occurred again with Seig and Sakuya, namely each not being able to get thoughts about the other out of their heads even several weeks after the fact. Furthermore, just as what had happened with Nammu and Veronique, Seig and Sakuya began to spend more time together until they eventually fell just as hard for each other. This time was somewhat different, nevertheless because Seig had to marry into Sakuya’s clan since he had no living relatives of his own to bring as his retinue to the ceremony. He even went as far as to agree to let their future offspring, whether boy or girl, have their surname come from the name for Sakuya’s clan, the Yatōkami. And so, in the year 2391 A.D., it was that the stage was set for the birth of Roi E. Yatōkami.

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» Part 1: Birth and Early Life of a King:

In due course, during the 7th year following the inception and rise to power of the new branch of the main Yatōkami clan, Sakuya gave birth to a son. In accordance with the wishes of Seig’s distant ancestors, they gave their newborn son the first name “Roi” meaning “King” in French and the middle initial E. from Seig’s own name which stood for the name of the ancient pagan god Enlil, the lord of the Sumerian pantheon since, like his father Seig, Roi also had a peculiar birthmark on his forehead between his eyebrows that resembled a horned crown, which of course was the symbol used by the ancient Sumerians to represent Enlil. Roi’s surname was recorded as being “Yatōkami” as was agreed upon earlier between Seig and the elders of Sakuya’s clan, the Yatōkami. This name was allegedly derived from the title given to the founder of the Yatōkami since like his namesake, those snake like deities of calamity and strife, he too brought disaster to the enemies of the lord whom he had served back in ancient Japan and was born with the Snake Sigil, a birthmark that resembled a coiled cobra with its hood extended. Sakuya had been born with this special mark as well, and like her Roi also had this mark on his right upper arm, hence why he was given the honor of bearing his mother’s surname.

This event was one that brought great joy all of the clan’s members. The entire clan swore allegiance to their new heir, Roi, at a splendid feast that was arranged to celebrate his arrival into the world. He inherited many a genetic gift from both sides of the family. From his father Seig, he inherited stamina, charisma, fortitude and intellect, and a strategic bent of mind that were decently above average. In addition, Seig also passed onto them his adaptability, photographic memory and attention to detail that had brought him so much fame among the clan members. From her side, Sakuya passed on her innately keen intuition, her sharp reflexes, and auditory memory. Along with these, she also passed on her intellect which, just like her husband’s, was decently above the average. Thus, with both sides of the family passing on their respective mental and physical gifts to him, Roi showed great promise from an early age especially in the area of his IQ which reached a sum total of 180, higher than those of either of his parents.

Sadly, along with these gifts came several unsavory traits as well, mostly psychological and related to his personality though. From Seig, Roi had inherited some innate degree of cynicism, a large measure of his indolence, and his tendency to be introverted rather than go out and engage people. Like his mother Sakuya, Roi proved to be quite stubborn in his ways, as well as being sarcastic and utterly tactless in his dealing with others. This of course worried a large majority of the clan members since they expected that these qualities would get in Roi’s way and hamper his ability to lead the clan as well as steer the associated business conglomerate through the treacherous unpredictable waters of the business world. This fear and worry was especially heightened when they saw signs of the rival conglomerate to their own now beginning to ramp up its activity in an effort to overtake them. Of course none of this was actually discussed in Roi’s presence since, even though he would not be able to understand them, their tension would be easily detected by him.

As a result of his genetic gifts, Roi proved to be a decently quick and efficient learner of virtually everything that he was taught by the private instructors hired by Seig and Sakuya. Over the next several years, the sight of Roi progressing so steadily under the watchful eyes of his instructors brought great joy to both of his parents, Seig and Sakuya, and also to the whole clan as well. Thus, their parents and fellow clan members were confident that the Yatōkami would continue to prosper under the leadership of their heir when the time came for him to take the helm and lead it. Intent on preparing him for inheriting the title of clan head, from his 12th birthday to his 17th birthday, Seig and Sakuya began to let Roi accompany them to any major clan meetings so that he could gain valuable and practical experience by observing the ways in which his parents dealt with various matters that required attention, whether those matters were political, business-related, or otherwise. Roi rose to the challenge magnificently, absorbing most if not all the wisdom sent his way by his parents and by the rest of the clan elders as well. However, Roi’s parents began to put more and more pressure on him the more they saw him succeed, which of course, caused great stress to Roi since the rate at which they now started to expect him to develop was far greater than what his talents, amazing as they were, would allow even when he stretched himself to the limit.

Luckily for him, fortune had smiled upon him, for during the time up till the time he entered 5th grade, he had come to be acquainted with a young girl just a bit older than him and had gotten accustomed to standing up for her whenever the immature bullies of their school picked on her and even helping her in other circumstances, even though said bullies turned their wrath on him as a result. In return, she used to cheer him up and help him relax whenever his at-home studies got too much for him to handle due to his still being a young boy at the time. Even though the girl had long since left by the time Roi had turned 12, the fond memories of her were the fuel he needed to keep pushing himself despite the ever-increasing difficulty of the assignments and duties his parents had begun to dump on him in order to fully prepare him for his future role as head of the Yatōkami and as the CEO of the associated business conglomerate now being managed by his parents, Seig and Sakuya. Thus, time marched on for all parties involved till he actually turned 18 years old and during this time, Roi had progressed from elementary to middle to high-school and was now into the first year of a high-profile, brand-name college, his intended major being business and everything related as well as some courses in politics, psychology, and certain other subjects his parents felt he should invest in to ensure his path to becoming the 13th clan head and CEO of the Yatōkami would be as smooth as possible.

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» Part 2: A Plot Uncovered, A Daring Escape

During his teen years, nature had been kind to Roi, and as a result, he grew from being a young boy who, due to his weakness, was often bullied and otherwise picked on to a strong young man who, by this time, had learned the basics of various martial arts styles such as karate, jujitsu, Chinese kenpo, muay thai, and even weapon-based styles, albeit those to a lesser extent and so, his erstwhile bullies were now very wary of picking on him since on more than one occasion during this time, he had demonstrated that he would no longer stand for their idiocy and torment and would instead respond in a way that would have made Hammurabi of yore proud of him. Unfortunately, while things on a personal level were going fairly smoothly, on the clan level, things were not so nice and relaxed anymore. This burgeoning tension was primarily caused, at least as far as he understood anyway, by the repeated boardroom clashes between the younger, more over-enthusiastic members of the Yatōkami and those of their rival which was also now dealing in plant related products among other things and so was competing with them more fiercely than ever for the majority in the consumer-base of Japan and to a lesser extent, even in the world market.

Unbeknownst to Roi, Seig and Sakuya along with the Yatōkami elders had at some point met in secret with their counterparts from their rival group in order to try to come up with a solution to the growing quarrels between the clans which were now threatening to become overt, full scale conflicts, potentially physical in nature. Their idea was that, since their rival group’s head family had an heiress while they had their son, Roi, that the young woman and Roi would be made to go through a political marriage in order to quell the aforementioned inter-group/clan tensions since each side greatly admired their future leaders. They had planned to spring this on Roi on the day of his 18th birthday and so had begun to make preparations, all the while being careful not to let Roi detect any hint of such measures. However, unfortunately for them and fortunately for Roi, on the day before his 18th birthday was to be celebrated by the whole clan, he just so happened to be walking past the Grand Meeting Hall of the clan on his way to his bedroom for his usual afternoon nap since he was home for the holidays and he wanted to take full advantage of this rare luxury. On the way, as he passed the Hall, his keen ears picked up sounds drifting out from the crack between the doors. At this time no one, that he knew at least, was scheduled to be using that room, so naturally his innate curiosity was aroused which caused him to sneak right up to the doors and hide behind them, opening them ever so slightly so he could better hear what was going on inside. To his surprise, he could hear his father Seig

“So…the situation has deteriorated this much, eh?...Hard to believe, truly…”

To this, a reply came from a voice that rang a faint, vague bell somewhere in his memories, but he could not precisely place his finger on the exact identity of the owner of the voice

“Yes, indeed…that very tension is what we are here to discuss today, Mr. Seig…we can avoid it no longer, I am afraid…we have to make both of them into the poster couple for our proposed alliance…”

After this, Roi was even more surprised to hear his mother, Sakuya pipe up

“Oh my! This will be so exciting indeed! My little boy is actually getting a fiancé...even before he has had his first girlfriend…he is growing up so fast…”

Added to this excitement clearing emanating from his mother was that of another female voice

“I know, right?! I never imagined that my little girl would one day end up as your son’s girlfriend and fiancé! I am so happy right now, Mrs. Sakuya!! This will cause the rest of our respective clans to finally bury the hatchet too!”

A few moments of silence passed and then the his father and the other male Roi had heard speaking before could now be heard shushing their respective spouses in hissed tones

“Quiet!! What’s wrong with you two?!! Do you want to get us caught by Roi? Don’t you know how stubborn he can be when he doesn’t want to be forced into something against his will? We need to maintain utmost secrecy so that we can take him by surprise tomorrow!”

Roi had been listening silently to all this go on and to say that he did not believe what he was hearing and was irked by it was the understatement of the century. He was freakin’ royally pissed off that his parents would dare to do something like go behind his back to do something like hitch him to some vapid bimbo, at least that’s what he presumed this young woman was anyway, all in order to use him as some sort of political pawn, even if it was for a somewhat good cause. It was clear to him now that they had not the least bit of respect for his free will and his preferences; even though they professed they definitely did to his face in public. This, of course, was the metaphorical straw that broke the metaphorical camel’s back, but Roi did not run right away even though that was the eventual plan. He decided that he would let them think they had him in the bag, only to find that tomorrow, when they were all gathered for the clan meeting, he would put his plan into action and escape their oppressive clutches. Before that though, he would need to spend the rest of the day prepping for his escape plan. He first contacted a few friends whom he trusted implicitly and all of whom owed him favors so he knew that they wouldn’t renege on returning them since this was his time of need. He set up his escape route and gave them a list of items they would all need to evade any pursuers who would come looking for him. After that, he swore them to secrecy and carried on with his evening and night as though nothing was going to happen the next day.

The next day came eventually, and with it came endless noise and festive cheer as the whole clan had gotten together to celebrate the founding day of the clan. Many of the higher ups were even more excited since they knew the earth-shattering announcement that was going to be made later by the top brass, aka Roi’s parents and their counterparts from their rival clan. As he moved about through the clan compound, Roi had to put up with several of the clan members greeting him and the more obsequious among them ingratiating themselves to him as always and even some of the higher members trying to talk to him in whispered tones, congratulating him, but stopping short of just for what they were congratulating him, only giving him a knowing smile and clapping him on the back. Roi took all this in his stride as far as possible, a small part of him feeling pity for all these unsuspecting people who would be getting a major shock later that day during the banquet, but the rest of him remaining resolute in his plans to make good on his escape later that day.

The rest of the day entailed Roi’s parents dragging him here and there to meet all their guests and the rest of the clan members and he was hard pressed not to show his ire at their actions. However, since he knew that if he did, his plans would come to naught, he restrained himself and acted the part of the obedient son and next head of the clan and business group. Finally, after what seemed like ages, the day finally gave way to night and then it was time for the banquet, and more importantly, Roi’s escape from the cage that his parents had apparently been planning to lock him into in the near future. Roi was careful to not let anything slip and thankfully he finally got his chance and seized it, sneaking out of the clan compound when the guards were at the banquet just a couple of hours before he was supposed to make his grand appearance. Luckily, nobody had seemed to have notice his absence due to everyone’s attention being on the banquet and the entertainment in the form of professional belly dancer-girls hired for the occasion as well as the exotic tunes of the Middle Eastern music that were pervading the air in that formal dining room of the clan compound.

Roi moved quickly as he knew that it would not be that long till they noticed his disappearance but he had left a cryptic note that made it seem like some evil organization had kidnapped him from right under their noses instead of outright declaring his rebellion against the clan’s plan to enslave him to some random woman whom he was sure he probably wouldn’t even like. As if on cue, his keen ears picked up the sounds of screams and anguished pleas for help and even some that sounded like prayers to some deity or another, if those still existed in the world. He quickened his pace of movement, thankfully reaching the safe-house that his friends had been gracious enough to set up for him in the city. He called his friends there and then, after commiserating with his predicament and vilifying his kith and kin for trying to impose such a cruel fate on him, he and his friends got down to business, namely allowing his escape from Japan to another country altogether. This was all so they would not be able to track him down and capture him in order to go ahead with their nefarious plans.

His friends then said their goodbyes and went back to their own homes for the next few days, leaving him to his own devices. For the next several days, he had managed to do pretty well for himself. Little did he know though, that soon, the universe would enact karmic justice on him for making it seem like he was kidnapped instead of plainly running away.

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» Part 3: An Accidental Discovery, an Unexpected Rapture

Things had been pretty peaceful for several weeks now and there had been no signs of the clan’s hunters coming after him or any other strange individuals following him as he went about his day. So, naturally, Roi’s guard which had been on high alert during this time began to slip and relax just a little and he began to take a little more risk in his daily outings. However, the Fates had other plans for him, for, one day, as he was out and about in the city on his daily errands he had the misfortune of stumbling upon the scene of an apparent crime in progress, namely, what seemed to be an assassin targeting a person who seemed to be a businessman, though why the assassin was after him, he could not fathom at the moment. His hatred of bullies kicked in just then and despite the rest of his mind screaming at him to walk away and not get mixed up in that ruckus, he just had to get involved and so distracted the assassin, calling out

“Hey! You in the weird getup! Pick on someone who can actually fight back!!”

He then shouted at the man, gesturing for him to run while he had the chance and prepared himself for trying to face the assassin. His plan seemed to have worked well since the assassin turned towards him and rocketed towards him with a short dagger out, apparently intending to silence him. Roi had made peace with the fact that he made a major faux-pas and that it would be costing him his life, but what happened next was contrary to his expectations as the would-be assassin actually stopping the dagger right up against his throat drawing just the faintest trickle of blood while speaking, revealing that it was a female under the assassin outfit, confirming the suspicions he got when he had noticed her figure initially when she had turned towards him

“Who are you? What are you doing here? My target isn’t you, so why did you interfere?”

Roi couldn’t believe his ears when he heard her questions, and retorted with the slightest hint of indignation

“Well anyone with a working civic sense would try to help out their fellow human beings in their hour of need, wouldn’t they?!”

The assassin laughed, her voice ringing in his ears before she corrected him

“Maybe so, but this swine deserved to die…you have no idea of the wrongs he has committed in his lifetime…and now his cup of iniquity has overflowed at last, thus sealing his sordid fate. Leave, or I will have no choice but to kill you as per the rules my employers.”

Roi grimaced and flat out refused to budge from his spot and his nature actually caused him to challenge her

“I ain’t moving from here, so do your worst, woman!”

The female assassin let out a resigned sigh, but strangely enough, she simply proceeded to knock Roi out cold with a stun gun to his neck. Then she carted him off to her employer’s HQ somewhere hidden in the bowels of the city, without leaving so much as a trace as to where she took him at the scene of the crime. A while later, she reached home base and reported to her employers with the still unconscious Roi in tow and dumped him unceremoniously in front of them, asking

“So…yeah…what do I do with this one? He interrupted me while I was on my mission…”

Since it was the Syndicate’s rule to eliminate any and all witnesses in order to keep their existence in the realms of urban legends in the eyes of most of the populace, Óðinn, the leader of syndicate’s top brass naturally ordered her to do away with him

“You know the rules, Brünhilde, do you not? Get on with it!”

She had frowned as she heard that for even though she was expecting to have to do that, she still felt it would be a great loss to just simply kill Roi off as her keen eye for potential had sensed a great deal of it in him. So she proposed her plan to her superiors, having thought long and hard over it on the way back to base

“I do know them, but you see...the reason why I did not kill him right away...is because I sensed that he might well be useful to us as a field agent. I will take full responsibility for him, Sir.”

Óðinn seemed to consider this for a moment and since he knew her past accomplishments and because she had proven herself loyal to the Syndicate time and again in the past, he relented and allowed her this one freedom, but had insisted that Roi be tested in real combat full intensity conditions in order to prove her claims about his potential, not that he was aware of what awaited him at the moment since he was still unconscious. So it was that Roi’s life was spared, at least for now. Brünhilde took him to the sick bay and laid him there after which, as instructed by her superiors, she left him and went off to the testing room to prepare it for the ordeal that Roi was going to be put through in order to give positive proof of her claims about him.

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» Part 4: A New Chapter Begins! The Rise of “Ghost’s Shadow”, the Phantom Reaper!

A while later in the sick bay, Roi finally came to and naturally, was at first taken aback by his strange surroundings which at first seemed like a hospital, but then as he looked around, he saw how truly run down the place was and the lack of any other patients even though the room he was in seemed like a general hospital ward. So that bit of information let him deduce that he was not in fact at some hospital, but elsewhere. Furthermore, he saw neither any nurses walking about nor any doctors, so that confirmed his suspicions. He also had a vague prickling sensation at the back of his neck as if someone or a group of people were watching him intently. However, before he could dwell on the matter any longer, a masked figure (unbeknownst to him, Brünhilde) came into the room and began to attack him with a dagger without pause or hesitation. As a result, he was forced to shelve his questions and instead focus his attention on the pressing concern of surviving this unexpected and undoubtedly lethal encounter. The figure relentlessly attacked him, causing him to flee from the room with her hot on his heels, every time just barely dodging her killing blows till finally, he came upon the room that the figure (Brünhilde) had already set up in advance to truly test his skills, not that he was aware of any of this.

He entered the room and then equipped himself with some suitable weapons so he could at least have a fighting chance and then waited for the figure to enter as well. When she did, he shut off the lights and then using the infrared goggles he attacked her with the darkness as cover and after what seemed like quite a few hours of trading blows, much to his surprise, thanks to a remarkably strong survival and fighting instinct that he did not know he had, he had actually managed to disarm her and pin her down beneath him, breaking her mask in the process and revealing her to be Brünhilde all along. At that moment, the lights had been turned on remotely by the top brass who were intently observing the fight between him and Brünhilde for the alleged potential that she had described earlier. The voice of Odin clearly rang out through the PA system in the room

“That’s enough! Cease and desist immediately! That’s an order, you two! We have collected more than enough data for our objective!”

Roi was quite incensed on hearing them speak that way about him and so he retorted angrily

"Data?! The hell do you mean?! Just what do you intend to do with me?! I demand an answer!!

Before he could wait for a response, however, Brünhilde kicked him off her and then made to stand up after which he did as well, wondering what would happen to him now. The answer came in the form of a sallow-skinned almost psychotic looking man in a doctor’s white coat who had entered the room. The man was now studying him as if sizing up a potential test subject. Roi was then led by Brünhilde and the medico to another room which had some very strange looking equipment in it. He was strapped down and from then till 3 whole days afterward, he was subjected to intense seemingly endless rounds of hypnotherapy and drugs which his captors used to brainwash him and completely seal away the memories of his past life up till that point, and needless to say, he was not given any choice in the matter. After his brainwashing was complete, Brünhilde took him under her wing and trained him ruthlessly in all the skills he would need to assist her in the field on the various missions she would be going on henceforth.

The process was long and grueling, with his training entailing being taught what was considered the set of disciplines of historical ninjutsu as was allegedly practiced by the ninja of ancient Japan. The Shadow Syndicate's research team had somehow gotten their hands on the manual written by Sandayu Momochi and adapted the traditional knowledge therein to modern standards thereby constructing a superlative regimen which was successful in equipping its field agents with skills they would need to complete their missions. Luckily, Roi's overwhelming desire to survive and not die at the hands of the Syndicate allowed him to persevere over the course of the next 6 years and acquire practicable knowledge in all of the following areas: Bujinkan (Hand to Hand Combat, Throwing Weapons, Firearms, and Melee Weapons), Chōhō (Extended Interrogation Methodology and Information Gathering), Tsūshin (Communication Methodology and Information Integration), Tantei (Investigation - Civil & Criminal), Heitan (Equipment Maintenance), Unten (Vehicle Operation - Land, Underground, Sea, and Air), Eisei (Rescue operations & Emergency Medicine), Kayaku (Pyrotechnics and Explosives) Hensōjutsu (Disguise & Impersonation), Shinobi (Stealth Tactics and Infiltration), Suiren (Water Training), Bōryaku (Military Strategy), Intonjutsu (Escape and Concealment Arts), Kishō (Meteorology), Chiri (Geography), Seiji (Politics & Current Events), and Seizonren (Survival Training). This was on top of all the regular collegiate level courses he had to take such as advanced mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, etc.

After finishing his training on his 24th birthday, he began assisting Brünhilde as per the orders of the top brass of the Syndicate and together, over the course of the next 3 years, they managed to spread the name of the Syndicate throughout the underbelly of its home city. By this time Roi had settled into his new life fairly well and without much resistance since he valued his life and did not want to die at their hands. During this time, since no repercussions had been seen for Brünhilde for her apparent transgression against the Syndicate’s rules of operation, both their guards slowly but surely slipped, which, in due time, would prove disastrously fatal for Brünhilde and emotionally devastating for Roi.

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» Part 5: Crime & Punishment

From the time he was captured, brainwashed, and trained by the Syndicate to be one of their field agents to the time up till his 27th birthday during which he had been assisting his mentor and senior field agent, Brünhilde, the Syndicate’s top brass had been feeding Roi all sorts of lies in order to paint themselves and their minions in a rosy light, making themselves out to be well meaning vigilantes who had no choice but to work outside the law in order to rid the world of the corrupt, the unjust, the tyrants who trampled upon the weak, those who manipulated others for their own gain, and other societal elements who were similarly unsavory or otherwise hazardous to its general peace and stability. However, the truth of the matter was far different from what they preached to him. They were in fact a highly organized, corrupt, and ruthless ancient secret society whose members had but one goal, to extend their influence to all the countries of the world and leech them of their prosperity and if anyone or anything got in their way, to make that something or someone disappear without a trace.

They specialized in criminal activities such as instigating and propagating conflict in unstable areas of the world by supplying both sides with weapons and other tools of war, bribery, illegal deals, blackmail, robberies, and assassinations. They tended to eliminate anyone who threatened to or actually enacted any plans to expose their secrets, including members who ever became a liability to them. All the incidents that they caused had the commonality of being completely inexplicable, having almost no evidence linking the activities back to them, and when it came to the elimination of targets or traitors, the incident always ended up looking like a genuine accident. Their preferred method of eliminating any and all evidence they ever found against them always seemed to involve the use of a conflagration to completely incinerate anything at the scene. They were known for warning their victims of their inescapable and merciless fate by sending a set of small black-colored ceramic vials full of ashes from the burnt corpses of their previous victims with the exact number varying depending on the number of days over which the Syndicate’s assassins would plan to bring death to their victims.

This time around, their intended victim was not some hapless person outside the organization, but rather their own top assassin Brünhilde, her crime being the sparing of the life of her new subordinate, Roi. However, in her case, the Syndicate chose not to warn her of her impending fate and instead just gave secret orders to their personal guard, the Valkyries, to eliminate her while she was on her most recent mission. They then gave her a mission that would take her to a remote island where the Syndicate found fertile ground to sow the seed of its influence due to the island being the scene of a long and bloody civil war that had apparently been raging for many years now. They gave her this specific mission since they were confident that anyone curious enough to look into the matter would be able to discover neither her body nor the exact sequence of events that would ultimately lead to her untimely demise at the hands of the top brass’s personal guard. Needless to say, they gave Roi different marching orders in order to keep him away from the island since they knew that, with his capabilities; he would surely uncover the truth before long and then would turn his terrible wrath against them and their minions, thus destroying all that they had been working toward since the foundation of their group. Roi had not questioned them or felt the need to check up on Brünhilde since he was confident in her ability to survive her mission and come back to him alive after having successfully completed her mission.

Therefore, it was only natural that he get a very rude and harsh wake-up call when he came back from his own mission to find that, in his absence, his mentor had apparently died in the line of duty while heroically championing the freedom of the apparently oppressed in that remote island to which she had been sent by their superiors, the Aesir, or at least that was the bullshit story that the top brass fed Roi when he questioned them about it. As broken up as he was about his mentor’s sudden death, Roi eventually came to terms with it and took up her mantle as the new top assassin of the Syndicate, and earning her moniker, “Ghost” after demonstrating his skills in the field by expanding the Syndicate’s influence further that it ever had went in the past. However, there came a long series of missions which slowly but surely brought back those niggling doubts about the circumstances of Brünhilde that had relentlessly pricked at his mind from then on.

Furthermore, they also made him start to question increasingly the Syndicate’s catchphrases that the top brass always repeatedly told him about their mission statement. This, of course, eventually led to him no longer being able to resist looking into the events that had apparently led to his mentor’s death on that remote island. The more he explored of those events, the more he grew convinced that there had been foul play at work there for he knew that, in actually straightforward fight between assassins, there was no way an operative as remarkably skilled as she was could have met her end. Eventually, he managed to piece together the truth and it sent him into white-hot spell of unbridled rage and hatred towards the Syndicate’s top brass for having taken his mentor away from him and also for having misled and beguiled him all this time with their filthy lies.

This disillusionment and the anger that ensued caused him to methodically and ruthlessly eliminate the Syndicate’s top brass one by one, each time using their own horrendous methods against them. However, before he could complete his vendetta against them, Odin had taken countermeasures to protect himself against Roi’s rebellion and made the situation so that Roi had to flee for his life once more since henceforth, the Syndicate’s assassination unit would surely be after him, hunting him wherever he went in the world. And so he flew the coop, moving from one country to the next all the while evading the attempts made on his life by the aforementioned assassination unit. Finally he managed to fake his own death and luckily for him, he had orchestrated it in such a way that the assassins were indeed fooled for a long time. After that, since he was exhausted from all the running, he set down roots in Europe, hoping to one day gain some semblance of normalcy in his life, at least as far as was possible for a broken man such as him. From here, he could not know when, where, and with whom he would end up in the coming days, but he was sure that, no matter what it turned out to be, it would be one hell of a show.

» Technology: standard everyday accessories such smartphone, laptop, tablet, Bluetooth headset, etc.

» Weapons: custom-made two heirloom swords (one a standard length katana and the other, a short sword partner to the longer katana), each with a laser edge to increase cutting power greatly and which have electrical circuits starting at the base of the blade portion and running along its whole length.

He also usually carries around a pair of semiautomatic sidearms which are also custom order, made for him and him alone by the R&D division of his clan's financial combine.

Swords:
Characteristics:

• High durability
  
  
• Rechargeable high-efficiency power cell system built into the handles of the swords. Lasts anywhere from 6-12 posts on a single charge ( 3 posts needed for a single full charge) depending on intensity of use.
  
  
• Can fire anywhere from 1-3 crescent blades of energy vertically, horizontally, or in both patterns simultaneously (creating a cross) once every 3 posts. The blades can travel 9 feet before dissipating into nothing. Require 2 posts charge time.
  
  
• Can cause a surge of electric current through its circuits in order to attempt to paralyze the target of the sword slash upon successful contact for up to 1 post maximum. This ability can be used once every other post. Requires one post charge time.
  
  
• Reads the brain waves of the holder and will not work for anyone else but Roi.
  

Firearms:
Characteristics:

• Multi-barrel "pepperbox type"
  
  
• sight scope enabled (laser and infrared)
  
  
• can use multiple ammo types (e. g. hollow point, armor piercing, incendiary, tranquilizer, etc.)
  
  
• can read Roi's brain waves and can only be used by him.
  

» Vehicle: custom order Kawasaki Ninja H2 Supercharged with onboard AI and all terrain handling capability. It can be interfaced with and summoned using the custom smartphone in his toolkit.




» Powers: None Yet


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» Skills:
1. Swordsmanship:
During the long years of brutal training Roi was subjected to, he had to train with all sorts of weapons. However among these, the type he prefers are bladed weapons, and among bladed weapons, he is most at ease with swords and having practiced with them for so long, he is well versed in all Eastern styles of swordplay such as Iaido and Nitoryu (Twin Sword Style). He has even developed a few unique unorthodox techniques which take full advantage of the custom heirloom twin swords he has in his arsenal.

2. Firearms Skill:
Aside from swords, Roi is most at ease with firearms when it comes to ranged weapon of choice. He is equally skilled at using handguns as he is at using shotguns and rifles, either assault or sniper type. However, most times, he prefers using semi-automatic sidearms rather than rifles or shotguns. He usually has two custom order such sidearms on him, secured to his frame by holsters hidden in his jacket/vest.

3. Hand to Hand: MMA
In addition to weapon based styles, Roi was also made to learn a series of weaponless combat arts. He has a decent level of mastery (second highest level of proficiency achieved) in the following fields: Karate, Jujitsu, Chinese Kenpo, Tae Kwon Do, Jeet Kune Do, and Muay Thai.




[SKILL SHEETS ARE NOT TO BE FILLED OUT UNTIL AFTER A TIER IS GIVEN! WILL SKILLS WILL BE GIVEN BY THE STAFF MEMBER THAT GRADES YOUR APP! FOR MORE INFORMATION, LOOK AT THIS THREAD]

Additional Note: The skill sheets, as of Saturday, February 10, 2018, have had small additions. There are new skills, and Master has been renamed to "Elite". Furthermore, Master is now the bridge in-between Elite and Grand Master. For more information, and the rest of the skill sheets, READ THIS THREAD

Spoiler:

General Skills

• Durability: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Trained/Beginner/Untrained
  
• General Speed: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Strength: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Weapon Skill: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  

Will Skills

• Willpower/Determination: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Mental Deduction: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Pain Endurance: Elite/Advanced//Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Focus: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  

» Role Play Sample:
Things had been pretty peaceful for several weeks now and there had been no signs of the clan’s hunters coming after him or any other strange individuals following him as he went about his day. So, naturally, Roi’s guard which had been on high alert during this time began to slip and relax just a little and he began to take a little more risk in his daily outings. However, the Fates had other plans for him, for, one day, as he was out and about in the city on his daily errands he had the misfortune of stumbling upon the scene of an apparent crime in progress, namely, what seemed to be an assassin targeting a person who seemed to be a businessman, though why the assassin was after him, he could not fathom at the moment. His hatred of bullies kicked in just then and despite the rest of his mind screaming at him to walk away and not get mixed up in that ruckus, he just had to get involved and so distracted the assassin, calling out

“Hey! You in the weird getup! Pick on someone who can actually fight back!!”

He then shouted at the man, gesturing for him to run while he had the chance and prepared himself for trying to face the assassin. His plan seemed to have worked well since the assassin turned towards him and rocketed towards him with a short dagger out, apparently intending to silence him. Roi had made peace with the fact that he made a major faux-pas and that it would be costing him his life, but what happened next was contrary to his expectations as the would-be assassin actually stopping the dagger right up against his throat drawing just the faintest trickle of blood while speaking, revealing that it was a female under the assassin outfit, confirming the suspicions he got when he had noticed her figure initially when she had turned towards him

“Who are you? What are you doing here? My target isn’t you, so why did you interfere?”

Roi couldn’t believe his ears when he heard her questions, and retorted with the slightest hint of indignation

“Well anyone with a working civic sense would try to help out their fellow human beings in their hour of need, wouldn’t they?!”

The assassin laughed, her voice ringing in his ears before she corrected him

“Maybe so, but this swine deserved to die…you have no idea of the wrongs he has committed in his lifetime…and now his cup of iniquity has overflowed at last, thus sealing his sordid fate. Leave, or I will have no choice but to kill you as per the rules my employers.”

Roi grimaced and flat out refused to budge from his spot and his nature actually caused him to challenge her

“I ain’t moving from here, so do your worst, woman!”

The female assassin let out a resigned sigh, but strangely enough, she simply proceeded to knock Roi out cold with a stun gun to his neck. Then she carted him off to her employer’s HQ somewhere hidden in the bowels of the city, without leaving so much as a trace as to where she took him at the scene of the crime. A while later, she reached home base and reported to her employers with the still unconscious Roi in tow and dumped him unceremoniously in front of them, asking then what they wanted her to do with him.