truestrength | app for jigokucho

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Amber
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yes
CONTACT: secondhandmagic or PM
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Kurogane (real name: Youou)
CANON: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
CANON REFERENCE: his wiki page
CANON POINT: middle of chapter 120
CRAU HISTORY: n/a
AGE: ~27
APPEARANCE: here
CONTRACT PAYMENT: Putting an end to his journey and going back home to Japan with all of his traveling companions in tow, safe and sound.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

How important is loyalty to you? What does it take to earn your loyalty? What extents are you willing to go through to maintain loyalty, and respect the loyalty others might have invested in you?

Loyalty is extremely important to Kurogane, and his loyalty is difficult to earn, as he needs time or big gestures to open himself up to the possibility of having someone else’s back. In the beginning of Tsubasa, Kurogane's loyalty lies only with Princess Tomoyo, as she saved him from madness after he witnessed the deaths of his parents. Her ability to bring him back down garnered a lot of respect from him, and eventually his loyalty as he chose to serve under her. His priority for the first couple of worlds that he and his companions visit is to get home so that he can go back to working under her.

As he spends more time with his companions, however, Kurogane starts to care of them, and a sense of loyalty towards them develops as a result. This change in his perspective first shows when Kurogane fights the Kishim in Syaoran's stead so that he can focus on getting Sakura's feather, despite saying in the previous world that he would not offer help.

Overall, the main way that Kurogane both shows his loyalty and respects the loyalty others show him is through offering his strength, which is seen time and time again after the instance with the Kishim. As his strength is what he values most, Kurogane protects or fights on behalf of the people that he feels loyal towards. He will even go so far as to kill someone and inevitably reduce his strength due to the curse placed upon him, should he feel like he needs to.

How do you react to betrayal? How severe must a betrayal be for you to consider it such?

Generally, Kurogane can rationalize someone else's motivations and their reasons for the betrayal before he reacts to it. This means that he generally isn't upset if someone crosses him, especially if he cares about that person. However, if he considers a betrayal to be deeply personal, he will get incredibly angry. As mentioned above, loyalty is very important to him, so having that betrayed is significant.

Still, despite his hotheadedness, Kurogane really views betrayal through the lens of how it affects the people he cares about rather than himself, and his reaction to said betrayal changes accordingly. For example, when Syaoran's clone attempts to kill Fai in later chapters, Kurogane fights him and yells at him even though he clearly cares for Syaoran. That's because, to him, this betrayal is something deeper than just about anything else, since he was aware of Syaoran not seeming like himself before this incident. Not only is he yelling at Syaoran because he's angry, but he's also trying to get through to the Syaoran that he knows. He's angry on behalf of Fai but he understands there's more to the situation at hand than a simple betrayal, and tries to manage both of those feelings by rationalizing Syaoran's actions and figuring out his motivations while also making sure he's aware of just how much he has hurt Fai. In this situation, despite acting quickly and even emotionally, Kurogane still analyzed it and thus reacted accordingly.

Your Faction leader, not just your boss but the leader, has asked you to carry out a hit. The target is a non-affiliated public leader, well-liked by the people of the city. Do you carry it out? Why or why not?

Kurogane carries it out without question. To him, a hit is a job that he's been ordered to do and nothing more. The fallout and implications of the killing is not something he has to concern himself with, as he believes that responsibility lies on the one who ordered the hit. Kurogane doesn't typically look deeply into who he kills or try to sympathize with them in any sense either. He does his job as quickly and efficiently as he can, unconcerned with the person that is his target.

His mindset is molded by the work he did for Princess Tomoyo, as he would carry out hits on anyone that he was ordered to, or on anyone he believed could pose a danger. As a result, a request like this, while he would not take it lightly, is also not something that he would have a moral quandary over.

You've worked with your Faction awhile now and you feel like the reward of your contract is within reach. But at the last moment, you are told you have even more service to pay beforehand, an obscure clause in the contract being exploited to keep you under your boss's thumb even longer. Your Faction Leader hasn't spoken on this, and might be able to dispute it. Do you go to your leader? Do you argue the dispute yourself? Do you begrudgingly accept the additional work? Something else?

Kurogane would go to the leader to ask why he's suddenly being told this, and to point out that he's aware of the obscure clause being exploited, just for the sake of full transparency and to make his feelings about it known. While he would be tempted to challenge the faction leader to a fight over what he considers a breach of contract, he knows better than to do something like that. His contract is also something that he really wants and that he considers worth continuing to work for, so he will ultimately accept the additional work. He has no issues with doing more work, but he will be determined to make sure that everyone else knows exactly how he feels about it. After all, Kurogane is very opinionated and is not afraid to let others—including his boss—know exactly what he thinks.

POWERS & ABILITIES:

In general, Kurogane is a normal human as far as his canon goes. He has no magical abilities whatsoever, however he does have a few skills that set him apart.

Kurogane is an incredibly skilled swordsman, particularly with the katana. His particular style creates gusts of wind that can knock his opponents back or cut them from a distance. While his skills with a sword will stay with him when he enters the game, he will need to regain his special style, since that falls beyond what just anyone could learn from years of study. He also possesses superhuman level strength. For example, in Recort, he moves a very large, very full bookshelf all on his own with no trouble, so his strength will likely be reduced to normal human strength when he enters Jigokucho.

Princess Tomoyo also placed both a curse and a protection spell on Kurogane. The curse is such that his strength will diminish every time he kills someone else, while the protection spell will prevent him from dying of a mortal wound once. Both the spell and the curse will be nerfed when he arrives.

SUITABILITY:

Kurogane is a trained killer that does not balk at violence or crime. In fact, fighting and stealing are both things that he actively invites and enjoys doing. While drugs and sex-related content don't have much of a place in canon, Kurogane's ability to remain unfazed by most things makes it likely that he'll be largely unbothered by most of it and slightly annoyed at worst if anything inconveniences him in some way.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten Clan -

Kurogane is incredibly strong and incredibly skilled when it comes to fighting, so anything in that realm will be easy work for him. He would have no trouble managing any rowdiness he might encounter in either gambling halls or the Arena, and has enough other skills, like managing finances, that he could survive in a role like that too.

When it comes to fitting in, Kurogane would have his ups and downs. He likes drinking a lot, but he also hates drunks. When it comes to partying, he’d likely get annoyed with the antics of others pretty quickly. He is, however, incredibly honest and does not mince his words, so he would never be caught lying during the process of making a deal.

Strength is one of the most important things Kurogane, as one of his goals for a long time was to become as strong as possible. By his canon point, however, he’s realized that strength comes in all types of forms, and that physical power is not as important as he once thought it was. So, philosophically, he would feel mixed towards the core values of Shuten. While he does hate liars, honor isn’t very important to him and he’s starting to come to the conclusion that power isn’t everything if he can’t protect the ones he cares about. He also teaches Syaoran his personal philosophy—don’t use a sword to cut anything if it is not absolutely necessary.

So, while Kurogane would have an easy time with the work, culturally and philosophically, he is a mixed bag when it comes to fitting in. Some aspects clash against his personality and ideas, while others align nicely.

Tamamao Clan -

When it comes to work, Kurogane would struggle in Tamamo with anything front-facing. His attitude and customer service leaves a lot to be desired, and he lacks any interest in fixing those things. He could find his niche eventually, working on the backend of things or as a bodyguard.

Fitting in with Tamamo would also be a mixed bag. Kurogane is a very realistic person, so partaking in imaginary indulgences or delusions would not be his thing. He does, however, agree with freedom being important, especially as he does not like being told what to do. As an individual that considers making his own choices and doing what he likes to be incredibly important, he can relate to that side of their philosophy. Still, indulgence and pleasure-seeking is not something he does, so that aspect of the Tamamo Clan would be lost on him. However, Kurogane is extremely perceptive, and while he’s too straightforward to be cunning, he does value the insight he gains from simply noticing things about people—from whether or not they’re lying to other important things.

Overall, while he wouldn’t be completely out of place in Tamamo, he wouldn’t fit right in either. Work would be difficult for him, but if he could find a place where he can do what he’s good at, he could scrape by.

Sutoku Alliance -

While Kurogane's strength doesn't lie in finances, he's dealt with his traveling group's finances enough to be able to get by with no problem. He'd be willing to put in the extra work to get up to speed on what he needs to know. Information is also something he would be able to gather easily, thanks to how perceptive he is. Although he isn't the kind of person to purposefully get to know important individuals, he does pick up on important things through body language and listening carefully. So, while he might not gather information in the typical way, he wouldn't have trouble managing it should he need to.

Philosophically, Kurogane isn't against an egalitarian society. As someone that doesn't like answering to other people, especially those he doesn't respect, he would mostly agree with their ideas of the perfect society. He would also be intrigued by their ability and desire to stand up to the other clans and refuse to be consumed by them because they're stronger, as he thinks that shows its own kind of strength. Sutoku's overall desire to continue being its own tribe is something he would deeply respect. However, Kurogane isn't one who is particularly pious and does not care for asceticism either.

It would be an adjustment, but Kurogane could manage work under the Sutoku Alliance and end up being successful. He largely agrees with their philosophy, although he would not fit in both idealistically and culturally when it comes to piety.

Department of the Enma -

Kurogane could manage pretty easily when it comes to city administration. As he's done a lot of that sort of thing while traversing worlds, with a little bit of training, he would have no trouble doing whatever job he's given.

Fitting in, however, would be another story. Kurogane isn't exactly keen on the system itself being above everything else, because he hates being beholden to something that never changes. Being told that there is only one way to be right and one way to exist is something that would anger him, and is also something he could never come around to agreeing with. Respecting a system and order simply because he's told to when he doesn't believe said system has done anything to earn his respect would only make him despise it.

That said, Kurogane would be successful in Enma, albeit incredibly begrudgingly.

SAMPLES

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