Takehiko Shizuka

Title/Alias: Drifter, That Scary-looking Man, You Bum, Total Headcase, and That Poor Gentle Soul

Genre: Fantasy

Appearance: Standing at a slightly taller than average height, in his mid-thirties, is a man with a faraway gaze and haggard appearance. He has rather lengthy hair that, when not tied back, tends to frame his face and, sometimes, lightly cover it. His face sports light stubble. Most striking of all, however, his eyes are a green color. Possessing a medium-light build he appears to be mostly fit and his wiry muscular frame doesn't add too much more to his mass. He often sports a long black coat with only a few worn spots. No holes in it, yet. His shoes have seen more wear, though, hinting at heavy travel. Only his shirt and trousers ever seem relatively new.

Personality: Perhaps one of the hardest things to describe in words is the general personality of Takehiko. The experiences one person may have can vary radically from another. At times he can be rather forgettable, and other times the actions burn into the memories of others like a searing brand. He is normally very kind with a smile offered to any should they look his way. Though sometimes quiet, he can sometimes strike up quite the conversation, whether with company or alone, that is usually fraught with warm laughter and giddy giggles. Despite his outward appearance, the likes of which can make many adults uneasy and cause grant of wide berth, most young children seem to really enjoy his company. And he, theirs. However, on rare occasions, a truly spontaneous and righteously blazing temper can flare and tempt grand violence.

The Word: Up until a few years ago nobody had even heard the name Takehiko Shizuka. And then, well, there he was: In a late night diner, walking down the streets, resting by the trees, or most often seen staring out at the Sumida River from some randomly quiet locale. He seems to be a few bananas short of a bunch, at that, talking to himself about all manner of things. Sometimes the stuff he says doesn't even make a lot of sense, unless, of course, you really want to listen.

Nobody seems to know where he gets his money and it's doubtful that the people who take pity on him give him enough to get by on. Yet his clothes seem clean, he looks well fed, and he's in decent health. Rumor has it that he's not just some simple man down on his luck that is completely bonkers, but only a select few might know the truth about his existence. And he may not even be one of them.

Powers:

 
Kirin Healing - Although not conscious to his Human half, his Kirin half can use words spoken as a medium to heal those in true need, either mentally or spiritually or emotionally. This has, as of yet, not applied to physical healing, but very well could if the need is that great, although such an extent would be severely limited due to his...situation.

Word of Penance - Although not conscious to his Human half, his Kirin half can use words spoken as a medium to cause those who hear them to become penitent for their negative actions. It does not guarantee those who hear will not continue, but usually causes enough shock and internal conflict for those in danger to seek safety. While the words spoken are physical, the source of the power is not and should be able to affect those who are deaf.

Kirin Wrath - Kirin are known for their caring natures, their love for all things great and small, and not for bloodshed. However, when the wicked threaten the innocent, the Kirin can bring forth great judgement with its righteous flame. Through the Human counterpart the Kirin half can channel power for a brief time to fight with tremendous speed to smite foes. The only witness to the only known time it has ever happened said, "He fought like a madman; it was brutal. There was no rhyme or reason or style; no patterns of attack. I've never seen a flail of the arms bring a man to his knees like that."

Skills:

Cracked/Open Mind - While perhaps an extension to Powers through effect Takehiko possesses a very open mind. In this he is easily approachable by many beings. His greatest skill is in hearing over seeing; a number of the voices heard inside his head are probably from various other beings and not just a product of his own psyche. He is greatly able to accept things as they are presented, no matter how strange or wild they may be. The overly cute and overly scary may receive the same reaction from him. He has little hesitation in conversing with any who might decide to speak with him first pending he isn't too distracted.

Empathy - His natural empathy is expanded to great lengths, some of the time. Yet, due to his capricious and chaotic nature, there is no guarantee that he will always be empathic. Sometimes he may be able to pick up on deeper emotions that nobody else does, while other times he won't be able to pick up on the seemingly obvious.

Harmless Demeanor - Because of his 'enlightenment' many people find him to not be worth a lot of effort when it comes to violence and interrogation. Why ask the crazy man things when you may not get a sensible answer when the nearby woman will do just fine? His worn clothing adds to the effect; he doesn't look like he has much cash at all on him, although he doesn't look like a trashy beggar, either.

Languages - Because of his career he is quite fluent, in addition to Japanese, in English and German.

Flaws:

Because of his open mind he's quite receptive to many beings, gladly social, and that puts him in danger of being tricked by some very mischievous types. While he has a strong will against doing harm to others, it's possible for him to be herded into doing something that may cause trouble for others indirectly. Serious tones have a lesser effect than if the whole ordeal seems like a game.

Also, because of circumstances, he is severely crippled in dealing with mathematics. Very small numbers he can manage, but anything even remotely more complex and he has great issues. Dealing with money is the same; instead of attributing numerical worth to each coin and bill, he memorizes general worth with appearance. The same pattern of coins will always buy him the same cup of coffee.

While it has never come up, he does not know who his real parents were. While the parents who raised him never told him otherwise, he always knew somewhere deep inside that they were not related to him by blood. His parents named him, but what if his real parents also gave him a name? What could it have been? Subconsciously these kinds of thoughts do plague him, but while awake the other stuff - the city, the many voices - those are very distracting.

Ah, the power of laughter is amazing. It is also the ultimate distraction. The humor in any situation, even rueful irony, can send him into a fit of laughter. So can carefully timed jokes whispered into his ear by the unseen when a situation is quite grim. Generally, when confronted with a choice of emotions, he will naturally opt for the humorous. This is part of the reason he sometimes scares people, usually adults, away. Although, his laughter is often heavily contagious.

Background: Orphaned as a baby he was taken in by a couple that could not bear children and raised as their only son. On his fourteenth birthday, after a particularly nasty argument with a greedy shark of a landlord, he went missing. He doesn't even remember the events that shortly followed that day. He simply pressed on with life, working at first at the markets, his financial expertise earning him better jobs and higher wages, and eventually he scored a great accountant job for a prestigious bank.

And then the unthinkable took place. It wasn't even that many years ago, but something seemed to completely break inside him when the Crossover occurred. He vanished from his home and job much like he did twenty-one years prior. He was then seen to be walking streets he had never touched, behaving in a strange manner; indeed, it would seem that the man he was had gone.

Voices in his head, saying many things to him, became a commonplace event. Sometimes other things would speak to him, as well, although at times they registered as nothing more than the whispers in his head. He would speak back, they would listen. Most of the time. But at times they would reveal important things, funny things, or scary things. Yet, most of the time, it was all seemingly casual conversation. His skill with math was gone; numbers had become an obstacle for him he could not cross. Language, on the other hand, had become a strong point. Perhaps that is why they spoke to him.

The truth was far deeper, however. The fact was that he was Kirin and Human. His Kirin side had abode in harmony with his Human side for many years, although the absurdity of haste in modern society was tiring to that other half. Too easy was it, at the time, for his Kirin side to be pushed aside in need for the ever-growing demands of society. The Crossover was a breaking point for the Kirin half, either by consequence or outside influence, and with it so broke the man. His self-awareness of that Kirin counterpart was either repressed or erased, his innate powers dampened because of this, and the man leftover had no idea who he was or what he was. Oh, he knew his name, sure. But everything had changed.

At first he questioned his sanity. He perhaps had a mental breakdown from the stress of work and now Tokyo was a madhouse? Now he could see and hear things that weren't- no, shouldn't be there. Yet they were. And the voices in his head? He only wept once for his case, falling asleep on the bank of the Sumida, alone and without a friend in the world. He awoke and felt...better. It's as if he had come to terms with himself. He sat there for the better part of the day, staring out at the rushing water, letting the busy world pass by as he, for the first time since his childhood, took a moment to simply enjoy living. There he had the ground beneath, a tree behind him, grass, flowers, and the river was there, too. And the sky above. So far far above the massive city of Tokyo. Such a large place. He didn't need it. He had himself. That spot became a popular place for him to rest and spend time with the things around him. At times he would bring items for a picnic, at other times a thermal jug of hot jasmine tea, and he would even bring extra glasses in case anyone wanted to join him.

Whether consciously aware or not, the Sumida River became his best friend. Many hours were spent talking to the river of the many strange things going on in the city, the news printed in the papers, odd activities in the streets, funny jokes, anecdotes about children, anything! Anything at all, he felt he always had somebody there to listen. Trees grow to be quite old at times, but that river. Well, he couldn't do the math, but he bet that river was there for a long long time before any of the trees he knew. It must know so much. And with all the honking and yelling and crashing and zapping and fighting and crying it sure must be nice to get to hear somebody talking directly, sensibly, even if his words sometimes didn't make the kind of sense he wanted.

So many people in such a great city, and so many of them must be so lonely. Sometimes he would find people so confused and lost or hurt and lonely or heartbroken or on the verge of mentally breaking. When these people cared to listen, and he cared to speak, they would often find comfort in his words, no matter how sensible or ridiculous they may outwardly sound, for in the midst of it all there was a powerful force, some special kind of healing, that simply...helped. This was not a conscious effort on Takehiko's part, though. It simply happened when it was needed.

Very few times ever has he ever had an outburst of sudden fierce rage. The moments can take place after prolonged wear on his patience or they can be seemingly random. Even so, they don't seem to last too long. At such times his words seem to demand attention and, furthermore, can cause others to, in short, grow a conscience. It is a final warning to cease negative actions lest there be violence. This isn't always effective, because some people don't mind violence, yet such words have held sway even over the hardiest of thugs. Pushing past that limit, well, it's only happened once. Once ever. And the poor man awoke at his favorite spot by the Sumida with his hands and face caked in dry blood. He became mortified, wept that he had possibly hurt somebody; he hated violence! Pouring his heart out through his tears he begged for forgiveness from whomever would listen as he cleansed himself with the river's water and spent the next two days huddled up, not moving, not talking, just staring out into the water. The world around him, in all practicality, ceased to exist. Had he hurt somebody or not he never found out, but the necessity to eat coaxed him to go at last. He was mostly fine the next day after.

It should be noted that others could very well catch a glimpse of his true nature, should they have such gifts or talents, but the glimpse would be as looking upon a pile of jigsaw pieces upturned from the box or trying to see the reflection of the beast in a greatly shattered mirror.

It should also be noted that Takehiko has a substantial amount of savings tucked away in a bank account built up over his great career that he has lost memory of. Whether the memory loss is only temporary is yet to be seen.

NPC's of Importance:

Daisuke and Etsuko - Etsuko, the older sister of ten years of age, and the younger brother Daisuke, at the age of six, have become good friends with Takehiko over the past year. Etsuko tends to be a very good judge of character, either by intuition alone or some other gift, and behaves with remarkable maturity. Her younger brother, on the other hand, is quite shy and especially so with people he doesn't know very well. What began as an item dropped by Takehiko, returned by the kids, ended with shared tea and an amazing story. Subsequent visits usually net more fantastic stories about...everything, anything! Sometimes he talks about the kami that speak to him, things he's seen happen around the city, and other times he spins yarn about great and wild things from the farthest reaches of the imagination. Most of the time they are quite funny, and those two kids do love to laugh, but overall the stories seem to be opening their eyes to more around them. If only a little at a time.

Sumida - It may be difficult to determine the kind of friendship that Takehiko feels concerning the Sumida River. He approaches his mostly one-sided conversations with a strange sense of familiarity. This isn't from lack of respect and it's probably fairly obvious. He's simply applying that familiarity as an endearing quality. It's no wonder he finds the Sumida to be such a good companion: it is always there with no fear of it going somewhere else in the middle of a conversation, it never seems to tell you to shut up or go away, and when you just want quiet company it never seems to say too much. Usually. Due to Takehiko's 'condition' he may very well have even shared tea and casual conversation with Sumida without even being aware of any particular significance or import. Pleasant company is pleasant company, after all, and he's always glad to trade stories. Especially the funny ones.