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Ellie
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Information

name Shishiwakamaru	species Youkai	moonblessing Cordis
canon Yu Yu Hakusho	age maybe ~900? looks ~16	employment Sunset Host Club
timepoint End of series	gender cis man, he/him	residence Level 3, Caihong

About

Shishiwakamaru is a vain, snarky, narcissistic, but highly calculated youkai swordsman. He's a big flirt with a pretty face and a taste for the finer things in life, and he holds himself with pride and gentlemanly airs. He's drawn toward flamboyant folk and egos at least as big as his own, if not even more over-the-top, seeking intellect, humor and style in the few friends he keeps. He has a quick wit, and finds fun in teasing people he thinks are dull — at least until he loses his patience, and loses his temper. He's a celebrity fighter in his world with a sizable fan club to passionately cheer him on in battle. He's particularly famous with his fangirls for his good looks — and he's very proud of that. In Prismatica, he's hoping his beauty will literally pay off; he's eager to rebuild his idol-like reputation in his new home any way he can. Although he may be shallow in his vanity, Shishiwakamaru is a rather deep thinker of high intelligence and class.

He has a unique, rather twisted sense of honor; he vilifies pacifism, and considers fighting for the pursuit of justice to be misguided, self-righteous and weak. Instead, he exalts violence for its own sake, finding purity in the transparency of inner darkness and ill-will, and considers violence to be the true constant force that drives the world. He's solely invested in a sense of self-serving neutrality, neither good nor evil, always impartial until it pertains to himself directly. He follows his own moral compass, and defines virtues only as he sees fit. Shishiwakamaru respects strong fighters, whether human or youkai, but he disdains those who fight under the pretense of working toward some greater good. He fights in his own self-interest, his main motivator being to achieve fame. Fighting is more artful without the morality attached.

Appearance

height ~5'8" / 173cm
build svelte, boyish, muscular
hair periwinkle blue
eyes violet

first impressions Shishiwakamaru is a remarkably attractive young man, with slightly androgynous, youthful, fey good looks. He carries himself with confidence and grace, with a brisk gait. His arms are often tucked inside his kimono, folded comfortably against his chest, long furisode sleeves left hanging. He always keeps his katana on his hip, sometimes habitually resting his hand on its hilt idly. He wears mostly traditional Japanese clothing, seen often in blue zubon or hakama and a simple white kimono, tied with a thin red obi. In-game, he'll switch up his color palette, but still stick to more traditional-style clothing, leaning toward muted colors and subtle, elegant patterns. And of course, he must wear a fragrance to match! In the daytime, he keeps it fresh and errs on the brighter side, perhaps clean notes of green tea and bitter orange, with a complex, soft herbal base. In the nighttime, though, he may indulge in a more robust, warmer cologne: imagine an opulent blend of lavender and black pepper, spicy and aromatic, with a heady, woody core. Cuz ain't no one gonna get a date in Prismatica smelling like AXE, okay, we bougie here. Shishi's chichi.

features Shishiwakamaru looks more boyish than masculine, but not quite effeminate; he has a heart-shaped face with soft, small features, except for wide, magenta eyes. He keeps his long hair in a ponytail, keeping the front bangs parted, with two weird antennae/cowlick-like strands sticking up in the middle, idk what that's about. His complexion is fair and unblemished, soft skin clearly taken good care of; even with all his sword-fighting, I doubt he lets those hands get callouses. He can also sprout horns and fangs and turn into a tiny, clawed, flying imp thing, so uh, there's that.
His voice in Japanese sounds like: Normal (Japanese) | Imp (Japanese)
His voice in English sounds like: Normal (English) | Imp (English)

Powers

Makokumeizanken — the Banshee Shriek

An enchanted katana, crafted by his ~~only~~ best friend Suzuki, designed to suit and manifest the wielder's inner nature. Within the hilt there is a demonic flute that whistles an incantation to release evil, which resonates and is amplified by the shockwaves of an enchanted blade. The Makokumeizanken has many powerful abilities unto itself:

Shrill Call of the Reaper — Shishi spins the sword so fast above his head that it creates an ear-piercing, shrill frequency, putting an entire stadium of people in pain. Majorette from hell, whoo.

Chorus of 1,000 Skulls (later advanced to Chorus of 10,000 Skulls) — Shishi reveals a twisted, gory base within the hilt of the sword, a small wailing face in its tissues. From the mouth of this is emitted an insatiable swarm of deadly skull apparitions. This move takes so much energy (youki) from him that it is sometimes difficult for Shishiwakamaru to control the skulls, who violently eat people indiscriminately; whether Shishi sincerely can’t control the skulls or simply doesn’t care to is neither here nor there.

Cage of Hell — Shishi can channel his youki into a physical barrier. Anyone who crosses it without breaking it would presumably be killed, or close to. The cage works to his advantage as it drains the opponent of their energy while keeping them confined within range of his sword, with virtually no escape, unless they harness their own spirit power enough to break the wall (as Genkai did).

Shishiwakamaru states in his first appearance that these moves are not activated unless his life is threatened — meaning, by default, he tailors his own ability based on the strength of his opponent, never wasting his time or energy. His sword will hardly even let him fight weak people. However, Shishiwaka trained extensively since these abilities and enchanted items were first explained in his debut. While these items at first took a lot of energy out of Shishi, and he had less precise control over his own forces due to this, after training and advancing his power level several statuses, I imagine Shishi most likely has gained more control over some of his more volatile moves from before.

Shide no Hagoromo — the Cape of No Return

Enchanted cloth with teleportation abilities, also crafted by Suzuki. Name translates vaguely to "Veil of Deathly Emergence." The hagoromo can transport his opponents through the ether to fairly far-off locations, manipulating space itself. Shishi claims he has little control over where the victims will end up being deposited, or whether or not they will be alive (Kuwabara was), but again, up for speculation whether he actually can’t control it or just doesn’t care. Considering he trained and leveled up significantly since we first saw the hagoromo's ability, it may be safe to assume he's gained more control of the technique, and may have more power to decide where the opponent will be transported. I may make use of this assumption in game at times, depending on the situation.

Transformations

Shishiwakamaru is a youkai, and while he typically appears more or less human, in fact he does have a more demonic appearance naturally that he's able to hide and manipulate at will. Many youkai have horns, claws, fangs, pointed ears, etc, so Shishiwakamaru is not unusual in this, but unusual in the fact that he is able to seemingly effortlessly and naturally disguise these traits on command.

Partial transformation — By sprouting horns, fangs and screwing up his features, Shishi sometimes attempts to intimidate people, particularly if he's become aggravated or excited. He can clearly control this entirely at will.

Demonic form (perhaps also a partial transformation) — When his emotions become even more heightened, particularly while bloodthirsty or ambitious in battle — while still in complete control of his appearance — the shift in his features intensifies even more. Whether this is a manipulative intimidation strategy, or if this is an emotive expression of his mood, is unstated — I may likely treat it as both in game.

Imp form — He is also a cute flying imp, um, surprise...? It's to be assumed this is Shishi's natural form, without a more humanoid disguise. He is seen in this appearance only toward the end of the series, while training for the second tournament. This imp form can also come in handy in battle — he may be small, but he's still strong! He kept up his beautiful boyish appearance while competing in both public tournaments, but he's seen in his imp form mostly while training with friends in private. Because of this, I imagine Shishi feels most comfortable in this form when he's just hanging out (likely because it requires no youki effort), as he's usually seen resting on his friend Suzuki's shoulder. He will probably only take this form in-game with those he becomes close with.

Inventory

Arrived With

Makokumeizanken

Shide no Hagoromo

A teeny-tiny pointed dagger or large needle to use as a small sword while in his imp form

A small bamboo flute

Fancier traditional clothing set (furisode, hakama)

Acquired

Summer yukata

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Permissions

hugging yes	fighting yes	backtagging yes
kissing yes	injury yes	threadhopping yes
flirting yes	death yes; hmu	crau maybe; hmu
romance yes	manipulation yes; hmu	fourth-wall maybe; hmu
sex yes	mind-reading yes; hmu	off-limits have at it! hmu

Permanent Permissions

Detecting Youki — As a youkai, Shishi emits a spectral aura or demonic spirit energy called youki, which can be felt by other youkai/spirits/non-humans around, and likewise he can notice others'. Feel free to detect that, and let me know if he should detect your character's energy back!

Let's Get Famous — Shishi enjoyed a fair bit of fame at home, and I'd love to play with that and build some kind of fanbase here; he misses his hoards of fangirls. He works as a host here at the Sunset Host Club, so that should help garner some romantic reputation, and of course is always open to any modeling gigs (cuz he's so gorgeous obvs lol werk), but he'd really like some spotlight as a fighter here, too. If your character cares about celebrities, likes to gossip, or they tend to be passionate fans of good-looking boys, or just otaku of any kind, PLEASE feel free to use Shishi as an idol prop like that, even if they've never met directly yet. Let's spread his name around! Plot with me! Shishi lives for the applause~ ♥

Folklore

Shishiwakamaru is strongly based on a real-life folklore character, Ushiwakamaru, who in turn is based on legends around a real-life Japanese military general from the 12th century, Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Almost every detail of his character design (most notably his weapons, a katana with a flute inside, and a sheer hagoromo) is a reference to the archetypical image of Ushiwakamaru. Moreover, in his real legend, Ushiwakamaru is widely described by historians as the "first bishounen," noted for his good looks, just like Shishiwakamaru. Shishi first appears on a battle team themed around disturbed fairytales, who claim to be bitterly fueled by their resentment of their stories' twisted reception over the years, although Shishi states he is mainly motivated by increasing his fame further. Although others of his team were merely in disguise as their fairytale characters, Shishiwakamaru implied he himself was in fact his own character. This honestly isn't impossible, considering youkai live for hundreds upon hundreds of years, and the adventures of Ushiwakamaru/Yoshitsune in real life spanned only fifteen years, during which, as the real legend has it, he trained extensively under famously powerful youkai himself.

Hundreds of years before the series began, it's stated C-class youkai and lower used to get into the human world, when the barrier between realms was weaker, and would go cause mischief. Considering Shishi was C-class when we first met him in the 1990s, and this folktale is over 800 years old, he could very well have gotten bored back then, gone into the human world to fuck around with swords, went wilin' out for a couple decades while he made a name for himself, secured his legend (only to keep fighting for fame much later on as his relevancy faded), faked his own death and made his exit dramatic af, and then peaced out back to the demon realm.

However plausible, I will avoid playing out this headcanon explicitly, but I wanted a section to explain the IC and IRL connection to the fairytale character. I may reference elements of samurai culture and Heian-era (12th century) traditions, keeping in line with the imagery of Ushiwakamaru, if not the identity. At the very least, I'm playing Shishiwakamaru as being originally from a noble samurai class (because names ending in "wakamaru" were common only for teenage samurai boys in training in the Heian era, he wears a furisode kimono like other well-off wakashu boys often did, and he's clearly well-trained in swordsmanship). Likewise, I'll be playing his age at around ~800-900 years old, from the same time period as Ushiwamaru — cuz youkai are old af, and cuz why not, it's a game lol, we're here for fun, sup. :v

All that said: when interacting with Shishiwakamaru, if you feel your character would recognize the story or image of Ushiwakamaru (being still today a common subject in kabuki theatre, and a very popular children's storybook character, especially for young boys), and you want your character to reference/mention/ask about this connection — do it! Shishi's quick on his feet and so am I! :)

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