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Shinomori Aoshi
Shinomori Aoshi
Original: Rurouni Kenshin
Turned into a ryu-youkai on accident by Kenshin, he becomes Kenshin's "little one", lover, and right hand man.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Aoshi doesn't talk about his feelings, but he runs his fingers through hair to show affection, especially with Kenshin.
- The Ageless: Ryu-youkai (vampires) not only don't age, but age backward into some sort of physical prime.
- Really 700 Years Old: Perpetually around 20 after being turned by Kenshin, but is over a century old.
- Complete Immortality: When he transitions to a chaos demon, he's not only ageless but Nigh-Invulnerable; his true true form is now chaos goo, which is basically indestructible.
- Aloof Big Brother: The closest he comes to an actual relationship with Kenshin’s clan is to act like an aloof mentor toward Atem, and to a far lesser extent Kenji (whom he seems to moderately dislike).
- Alone in a Crowd: Aoshi doesn't really feel a part of Kenshin's clan.
- Animal Eyes: As a vampire he has cat eyes. He has no natural way of hiding them and has to use sunglasses and contact lenses.
- Animal Motifs: Saitou's imagination dubs him a panther.
- Panthera Awesome: After becoming a chaos demon he's a full-on catboy and able to shapeshift into a panther.
- Armor-Piercing QuestionAoshi, to Saitou: Do you know my name?
- Aoshi in general is good at using questions to pierce through angst and emotion, using it particularly to cut through some of Kenshin’s Heroic BSoD.
- The Atoner: Defied. He’s done evil things and he knows it, but he isn’t repentant.
- I Did What I Had to Do: He believes everything he does is necessary.
- Big Guy, Tiny Guy: He’s pretty averaged sized, about six feet and athletic, but when he’s with Kenshin...
- Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: Played with. After being marked for the Egyptian chaos goddess by Bakura, he ends up with a
slight problem with inhibition control. After the apocalypse he eventually becomes a full blown chaos demon. How sucky or awesome this will turn out to be is yet to be seen. - Blood Knight: Fighting is a (usually guilty) pleasure, but when he’s allowed to let loose, he can actually feed on it.
- Bomb Throwing Anarchist: All but literally, in 2015, when he attacks the Cabinet and Diet and leaves hundreds of people dead. As he says, it's time to burn it down and start over.
- Broken Ace: 150 years on and he still doesn’t like himself.
- Byronic Hero: Tall, Dark, and Angsty - but still compelling.
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: Well, for 10 years. Come the apocalypse he can’t even touch Kenshin, who is locked away in meditation because Kenshin goes insane and becomes dangerous when he stops meditating.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: In 1889 he gets drunk on one or two cups of sake. note
- Catboy: One of the downsides of being a chaos demon is that you’re malleable to others’ perceptions of you - and Saitou has been associating him with a panther for over a century. His "natural" new form has a cat tail.
- Cat Ninja: Saitou was assigning Aoshi, a genuine shinobi, a panther as an Animal Motif long before he ever developed his vampire cat eyes let alone his chaos demon cat tail.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: Bakura places the mark of his chaos goddess on Aoshi to claim him for her.
- Combat Pragmatist: He owns and uses (highly illegal) guns, despite his vampire powers and ninja skills.
- Cool Sword: He gets his cool swords eventually, but it's delayed longer than Kenshin and Saitou; Toutousai doesn't think he deserves a true sword because he threw away the broken ones, so he is first given normal swords with a single pragmatic enchantment, nothing in comparison to the powerful swords the other two get.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Yuumeiga is stated to, when empowered by good intentions, be able to cut through anything.
- Black Swords Are Better: Unmeiga is made of black steel (as opposed to Yuumeiga, which is silvery).
- Evil Weapon: Unmeiga is powered up by evil actions.
- Named Weapons: His original and his second kodachi don't have names, even when enchanted, but when they're powered up again they're given the names Unmeiga and Yuumeiga.
- Reforged Blade: They're powered up when they're broken in a fight and reforged (with his fangs used as materials).
- Utility Magic: His kodachi are first given the pragmatic enchantment of the second sword turning into the sheath for the first, so that they take up half as much room (and he can use one as a surprise weapon).
- Costume Porn: He's one of the only characters regularly described changing outfits.
- Badass Longcoat: The better for hiding his weapons in. And other things.
- Cool Shades: Wears sunglasses to hide his cat eyes and protect himself from sunlight.
- Sunglasses at Night: When he doesn't feel like putting in his human contacts.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Most of his various outfits include one. Semi-justified in that he’s protecting his vulnerable throat.
- Stripperiffic: He fights in his underwear a couple times, and in serious situations will usually remove his coat, and possibly his scarf, to fight in his tank top and conveniently show off his tattoos.
- Deadpan Snarker: Anytime he actually jokes, you have to see through his straight face to realize that’s what it is.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Occasionally gets into a sarcasm battle with Saitou.
- Despair Event Horizon: Seeing Heaven and realizing, not that he could never go there now that he was a vampire, but that even when he was fully human he wouldn’t have been worthy. Culminates essentially in Then Let Me Be Evil.
- And of course he doesn’t tell his lovers anything about it for a century.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: After their first meeting with Rune, when Rune healed Saitou, Aoshi thanked him by laying a kiss on him.
- Dual Wielding: Twin kodachi are his signature weapons. Later ends up with two enchanted kodachi with completely opposite powers.
- Emotion Eater: When he upgrades to chaos demon, he feeds on violence.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Already a Badass Normal before being turned into a vampire by Kenshin.
- A Father to His Men: The Oniwabanshuu in all incarnations - to the extent that when Atem calls him "uncle" instead of treating him as Okashira it feels like a snub.
- Flower Motifs: His tattoos are all flower representations of people important to him, following the hanekatoba Japanese symbolism system, and when he upgrades to chaos demon, his teleportation happens in a swirl of flower petals. If the "Splats" sidestory is not AU, then we should believe that his true form has flower petals swirling in it.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Completely averted. He’s still mourning the Oniwabanshuu who died for him in the series come 2015. He visits their grave every year and has tattoos dedicated to them, as well as to Okina and Misao.
- Glamour Failure: Of a particular type - animals don’t like him after his transformation.
- When it’s not restricted to regular animals but extends to things like youkai animals who have no problems with other ryu, it seems to be more a case of Animals Hate Him.
- Glowing Eyes: His eyes don’t change color with his power or ryu nature, but they are consistently described as getting “bright”.
- A God I Am Not: When Bakura’s chaos mark finally transforms him and he becomes a chaos demon, he accepts it very easily and It’s not megalomaniacal. It's just a fact which he is willing to use to its full advantage.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The most possessive of the trio, albeit rarely against the other. Particularly when they have Saitou marked as their prey - the idea of anyone else getting their hands on him makes him run off with his swords and no plan.
- Gun Fu: He uses his guns in his martial arts in the modern day.
- Hates Small Talk: He is seriously antisocial. If it’s not for a purpose, he’d prefer silence to conversation, even from his lovers.
- Hemo Erotic: Blood is sexy. Kenshin’s is full-on aphrodisiac.
- Hidden Depths: It turns out he's an accomplished artist, since he drew all of his own tattoos, and he knows enough about flower symbolism to design them. He also performs a proper tea ceremony for Kenshin; Kenshin uses the symbolism of it to make him think when he wants to get his head back on straight.
- Honorary Uncle: Atem and Kenji call him "Uncle Aoshi", though Aoshi doesn't much care for the title.
- Hypnotic Eyes: His vampiric specialty is enthralling people via stare.
- I Love You, Vampire Son: Vampire "masters" (turners) and their "little ones" (turned), usually have a sexual relationship. Aoshi and his little ones definitely do, although not romantic. Aoshi and Kenshin, his 'master', do have a romantic relationship.
- Immortal Life Is Cheap: Aoshi is killed at least three times “onscreen”, and one of those was just to make a point. He even offers to be temporarily killed as camouflage at one point.
- Impossible Task: Saving Saitou from dying of old age when he refused to be turned into a vampire to save him. He and Kenshin had to find a way to keep him alive, restore his youth, and cure his lung cancer.
- Insubstantial Ingredients: He literally makes a knife out of venom.
- The Kirk : To Saitou’s Spock and Kenshin’s McCoy.
- Living Emotional Crutch: At times he and Kenshin pass this status back and forth for the other.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Moves in and out with his ImportantHaircuts.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Aoshi is intensely intelligent and excellent at planning, but putting either Saitou or Kenshin in immediate danger is sometimes enough to make him throw out his plans and just attack without thinking.
- Magnetic Hero: The "hero" part is probably a stretch, but the people he collects as his marked human prey, little ones, and underlings stay collected and very loyal to him.
- Meaningful Rename: When Bakura's chaos mark is changing him - the kanji of his tattooed name changes from the canonical spelling, which reads "blue + violet", to reading "blue + death".
- Mindlink Mates: With Kenshin, to the point that they sometimes don’t even bother forming words, just communicate with feelings. And, eventually, with Saitou, although Saitou still holds them at a distance.
- Morality Chain: Kenshin. Saitou a little bit, but thoroughly and especially Kenshin. Kenshin doesn’t even realize how much Aoshi smothers his own desires and impulses to align with his morals.
- And the literal counterpart, Restraining Bolt: Saitou puts a magic control collar on him.
- My Instincts Are Showing: As a ryu-youkai, you do not want to wake him in the day if you don't want fangs; he attacked both Misao and Saitou because of it.
- Necessarily Evil: He has no delusions that the things he does are worthy of forgiveness. He just hopes to accomplish some good with his irredeemability.
- Ninja: He trains a new, modern Oniwabanshuu, starting with Atem.
- One-Man Army: His attack on the Japanese government leaves about 500 people dead, armed with only his swords and a handgun.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Pretty much his entire philosophy. There is evil out there; good people like Kenshin can’t handle it properly; he’s irredeemable, but at least he can put his own evil to good use.
- Pretty Boy: Often called ‘beautiful’ by other characters, moreso than anyone else. Even the ladies.
- Saitou literally names him "Uncle Prettyboy" to a little girl, and when Saitou can't think of his name when he's drunk he names him "Pretty".
- Psycho for Hire: In the modern era, he’s an assassin of the supernatural for anyone from the police to the yakuza. He’s very good at it.
- The Quiet One: As the narrative lampshades: When Aoshi starts speaking in entire paragraphs, you know you need to listen.
- Restraining Bolt
- They try to offset Bakura’s curse on him with the symbol of Ma’at. It slows things down and causes him pain but that’s about all.
- Saitou gets a magical collar made for him so that they can control him after he massacres the government and they learn things are only going to get worse during the insanity-inducing apocalypse.
- Samurai Ponytail: He goes in an out of this hairstyle over the years, apparently with his mindset. Subverted in that he’s not a samurai, of course.
- Important Haircut: Whenever he feels like keeping himself under control and moving forward, he cuts his hair. Whenever he feels like wallowing in chaos and being antisocial, he lets it grow.
- Scars Are Forever: Averted once he becomes ryu-youkai - even his old scars have healed.
- Played straight after he is beheaded by Hiko and Kenshin brings him back by more or less ki-welding his head back on. The scar on his neck doesn’t fade.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Called out almost by name in 2014. He believes he must be the best, or nothing.
- Sex Is Violence: After his upgrade to chaos demon, when he feeds on violence, he also gets aroused - his emotions are described as “something between gluttony and lust”.
- Sexy Mentor: All his little ones eventually end up in orgies with him.
- Shrine to the Fallen: Aoshi continues to maintains the grave of the four Oniwabanshuu who fell in the series, and has turned his body into a sort of shrine with memorial tattoos.
- Sleep Cute: With both Kenshin and Saitou, at various times and in various combinations. Often he puts his head in Kenshin's lap.
- The Stoic: As of the “Year 10 (2)” chapter (which is set in 2025, and the story started in 1879), he has literally smiled twice, had his lips twitch once, and given a single vicious grin.
- Beneath the Mask: He bottles up his emotions so that people don't realize if he's sad, despairing, or lonely, which negatively impacts his relationship with Saitou - he doesn't say what's bothering him until it boils over into an argument.
- Sparing Them the Dirty Work: To Kenshin and even Saitou, he does the dirty work that doesn't align with their morals, including killing so Kenshin doesn't have to.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: It takes a long time to get through the ice, but Kenshin and his Oniwabanshuu can attest to the sugar.
- Sword and Fist: And foot and elbow and teeth and guns…
- Tattooed Crook: Modern Aoshi gets mistaken for yakuza because of his flower tattoos, which are actually memorials. (He's not yakuza, but is an assassin who sometimes contracts with them, so it's really a matter of semantics.)
- Animated Tattoo: Eventually the snake tattoo Bakura marks him with comes to life. That in turn leads to all the others coming to life.
- That Man Is Dead: When the Kyoto Oniwabanshuu hold a funeral for him, they make him a grave with Han'ya, Hyotoko, Beshimi, and Shikijo, and he gives them some of his blood to bury. It's later revealed that he considers that the death of his humanity and considers himself to truly be buried here.
- They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Trying to get Aoshi to talk about his personal issues is probably harder than pulling teeth. His teeth. While he’s awake and armed.
- Token Evil Teammate: The others don’t realize just how "evil" he is, usually, but he's the pragmatic killer who embraces plans others shy away from. Occasionally he'll do or threaten something that reminds people.
- Touched by Vorlons: Bakura’s Isfet mark on him is not as useless as they suppose; after it's been on him for decades Bakura reveals that it's eroded his impulse control to have Chaos work through him. And then he reveals that it's actually turning him into a chaos demon.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Aoshi doesn't sleep around much, but almost everyone seems to want him, and he'll play it up occasionally.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Develops the ability to change his shape into whatever he can imagine as a chaos demon.
- Wake Up Fighting: You do not want to wake up a vampire in the middle of the day; he attacks Misao, Saitou, and Keji and Atem at different points when they wake him up during daylight. Saitou also says this was his habit before the story.
- What You Are in the Dark: When he went to Heaven on his Impossible Task, he didn’t have to come back, and the major concern was that the temptation to stay would be too much. In fact he sat down there for a while and didn’t move, but in the end, saving Saitou proved to be stronger than the siren-song of peace.
- Would Hurt a Child: Punts chibi toddler Atem (when he was woken up and couldn't control himself), and he says or implies at several points that he would hurt or kill a child if he felt he had to for his goals of protecting Kenshin and Saitou.
Kaji Ryoji
Kaji Ryoji
Original: Neon Genesis Evangelion
A human that Aoshi marks as his and takes as his bodyguard / companion / portable lunch in 1945.
- The Alcoholic: When Aoshi picked him up he was interested in nothing but drinking.
- Addled Addict: He was so deep in the bottle that when Kenshin abducted him, had Aoshi feed on him, and then returned him to where he came from, his only response was to start drinking away the money that Kenshin left him with as payment for his blood.
- Nailed to the Wagon: He didn't want to sober up, but Aoshi didn't leave him much choice.
- Recovered Addict: Six months later, after being marked by Aoshi and basking in his presence, he no longer drinks.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: Aoshi marked him as his prey with a special bite.
- The Fettered: If not his actual life then at least his quality of life was saved by being bound to Aoshi and has no desire to be freed from him.
- Obi-Wan Moment: In his old age, he is at peace with his life and his coming death, so on his deathbed he is giving Aoshi a smile and telling him It Has Been an Honor.
- Peaceful in Death: His death is peaceful and his body serene, in direct contrast to the way he was found drinking himself to death out of angst forty years before.
- The Renfield: He was acquired by Aoshi specifically to be his mortal helper and emergency food supply, and in return is given protection and purpose, nd an offer of immortality, which he chooses not to take.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Deserted from the military rather than partake any further in the atrocities they were expected to commit.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: He was a Japanese soldier in World War II, but Kenshin and Aoshi found him homeless and drinking himself to death with no purpose in life.
- Smoking Is Cool: Doesn't smoke much, but does accept cigarettes from Saitou.
- War Is Hell: Whatever he saw and did during the war destroyed his life.
Gojyo Sha
Gojyo Sha
Original: Saiyuki
A half-Chinese gambler who was found on a website and willingly became ryu-youkai, joining Kenshin's clan.
- Angst? What Angst?: Should be a woobie, with his backstory full of dead family and terrible life choices, but doesn’t seem to notice it. Lampshaded by Seth. Seth: You sound pretty cavalier about having a pure shitbag of a backstory.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Which trope apparently now comes in "male".
- Mellow Fellow: Rarely gets upset or angry.
- Never Gets Drunk: After his transformation the alcohol doesn’t seem to affect him, though he keeps drinking it like water.
- Replacement Goldfish: Turned by Aoshi to beef up Kenshin’s clan again.
- Streetwalker: He was a prostitute when Aoshi recruited him.
Hakkai Cho
Hakkai Cho
Original: Saiyuki
A Chinese student of chi and feng shui studying at Tokyo University when he developed cancer. Willingly became ryu-youkai and joined Kenshin's clan in a bid to heal himself of his illness.
- Bookworm: He's the first person in the RP actually making a study of how ki manipulation by ryu works and how ki fuels their bodies and abilities.
- Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: And he enjoys it.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Effectively a magical engineer, though his 'magic' of choice is chi/ki.
Saitou: He fung-shuied the shit out of the place. - Convenient Terminal Illness: Averted. Part of the reason he contacts Aoshi is that youkai are immune to illness.
- Eye Scream: He has a false eye because he lost his to disease, which is bad enough. Worse is when he rips it out in a gory mess at Aoshi's suggestion.
- Geometric Magic: Hakkai was a student of feng shui even before he became ryu and could sense the ki flows.
- Our Mages Are Different: The closest the story has to a mage in the traditional sense other than Seth and Pegasus. All other magic seems to be innate. Hakkai uses his ki sense to manipulate ki into ‘magical’ effects, unlike the the other ryu who use it to augment their physical abilities or hunt prey.
- The Reliable One: He is functionally Aoshi's right-hand man and Kenshin's Prime Minister, the one Aoshi doesn't have to worry about, who can keep the entire country running in the background. Aoshi makes an effort to appreciate him for it but acknowledges how much he depends on him.
- Replacement Goldfish: Turned by Aoshi to beef up Kenshin’s clan again.
- The Smart Guy: He's a scholar. Not much on the physical activity front, as Aoshi determines in trying to train him, but a force on the mental front.
- Stepford Smiler: He's always pleasant and smiling, no matter what's going on behind his eyes.
Seri
Seri
Original: None
A naga who Aoshi joins forces with in Year 10.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: He plays bodyguard, assistant, translator and guide to Aoshi, who really doesn’t need protection.
- Foreign Fanservice: He’s from Thailand, like all of the naga, and every other one of Aoshi’s thoughts is how attractive they are (and they're described with things like golden skin, long dark hair, muscles, golden-dusted scales, and lots of gold jewelry).
- Gorgeous Gorgon: Averted, not because he’s not gorgeous, but because naga aren’t actually considered monsters. They're revered beings on a level with dragons.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Not (as far as we know) as an individual (although, depending how old he is…), but the Thai naga themselves are a race of chaos who learned morals from Buddha.
- Snake People: He’s a good old fashioned naga.
Ruby Moon
Duo Maxwell
Duo Maxwell
Original: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Former human agent of Kaibaland, caught in Dragonhame Castle, Osaka, tortured and turned to a ryu. Freed by Aoshi and currently working as an agent 'on loan' to Kaibaland again.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Originally worked for the anti-youkai Kaibaland, turned against his will into a ryu-youkai
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's usually cheerful and bouncy, almost genki, but he's also a cheerful and vicious killer.
- Disappeared Dad: He vanished (was captured and presumed dead) when his son was only a toddler ad he didn't know his daughter existed, and he stayed gone for over twenty years. He continues to feel bad about it.
- The Fettered: When he was originally turned, he was bound to Rei.
- The Unfettered: Freed by Aoshi, is now a ryu with more than a little bit of chaos demon in him, able to act according to his own will.
- And then he got fettered again via a contract with Kaibaland. It remains to be seen how long that will last.
- The Unfettered: Freed by Aoshi, is now a ryu with more than a little bit of chaos demon in him, able to act according to his own will.
- Genki Girl: Male version
- The Grim Reaper: His motif - he calls himself 'Shikigami' (God of Death) and carries a scythe.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Very long, and perpetually bishie like the other ryu.
- Magical Contract: Enforced with Bakura's magic to ensure he can't betray Kaibaland or disobey his commanding officer.
- Stealth Expert: His main ability as a spy, though he is also trained in many skills that currently aren't much use outside Kaibaland.
