PERSONA
Name: Tomoe "Tanaka" Murakumo
Age: 28; October 31st, X762.
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Ethnicity, Father: Joyan
Ethnicity, Mother: Joyan
Class: Hunter
Race: Human
Rank: S-rank
Guild: Guildless
Tattoo: Tongue, black in color
Face: Angra Mainyu - Fate series
PHYSIQUE
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 150 lbs
Hair: Black, unkempt, ear length
Eyes: Golden
Overall: Tomoe is, despite his age, younger in appearance than the number of years he's been alive would suggest. While twenty eight years old in truth, his appearance befits that of somebody of the age of nineteen or twenty. This is, in essence, a result of contact with the Kusanagi blade altering his appearance over time to more accurately fit that of its original wielder. Degrading and twisting his body, Tomoe now more resembles the original and younger appearance of Susanoo's original chosen one whose name was lost to time. Or... he would, except that engraving himself with curses to become closer to HER has resulted in an alteration to what was once the body of one who would inherit Kusanagi's power, fallen from grace.
Standing at 5'10" and weighing 150 lbs, Tomoe is not as towering or imposing as he once was, losing much of his original physique. He dedicates himself daily to training both body and mind, regaining a portion of comfort in his movements in the new flesh he's been given. With a build of lean muscle, the Joyan warrior prioritizes agility over excessive bulk in his personal training.
When not in armor, Tomoe wears a layered, ragged blood red cloak that he alters depending on his mood, and a matching red bandana on his head. Sometimes he'll wear the cloak to obscure his body and travel in peace, and other times he'll remove layers of it so that nothing is obscured above the waist, allowing for free movement and the exposing of his torso, which shows many of the tattoos and curses he has placed upon himself to show his devotion to HER.
Tomoe has tanned skin, jet black hair and piercing golden eyes. Any trace of the crimson hair and sunset colored eyes he once possessed have vanished, replaced by HER corruption. His gaze is that of a man with the desire to set the world on fire, and his posture reveals him to be casual about the idea of it. One look at this man when he's not putting on an act, and anyone would be able to tell that he's the type who would commit great atrocities and tear down society itself if he was given the means to do so. He slouches the same as always when comfortable, shrinking his 5'10" height down somewhat when he's in social situations.
Extra: -
PERSONALITY
Personality: Tomoe has been a fighter for good and evil alike in the past, teetering in between them for the longest time. After doing a lot of soul searching, Tomoe has decided that despite everything he had learned and experienced during his time in the light, he was forever indebted to HER and the Midnight Cult. They had pulled him from death itself when he had given up, and regardless of their intentions for doing so, he's always been okay being a puppet for their purposes. As someone who should have already died twice over, he had no right to decide his own path in life anymore.
Tomoe fights with loyalty for HER and his former cult, and even without the active presence of his fellow worshipers, knew it was his duty to become a servant to the whims of his dark goddess. He's not open about his religious beliefs, considering the nature of the scoundrels who would keep HER love away from the public eye, but is nevertheless more loyal than almost any other; it just took him a long period of rest and thought to realize such a thing. With his mind set on the true path to world peace, Tomoe has decided to once more become a pawn and weapon of HER. He would commit any atrocity and act out any ritual for the sake of bringing the glory and love of the dark goddess to Fiore and eventually to the rest of Earthland.
His personality could also be considered to be "many". Namely, with his cloak that allows him to change his face, he would naturally assume many different mannerisms and ideals for each of them. Over time, these different faces have simply become their own people, in a way, if Tomoe were to allow it. He can override these personalities instantly if he willed it, but if nothing serious is going on, he allows his various personas to live their own lives. With each face having their own personality, Tomoe could almost be considered something of a fragmented existence due to his desire to see the lives of his many faces play out.
Naturally, due to his loyalties and the atrocities he'd need to commit, he is very cautious at all times and takes many precautions to ensure he can get out of situations easier or avoid conflict entirely when he doesn't wish for it to happen. Just as well, unknown enemies are something he treats with the utmost care, and prefers only to participate in fights that either he's started or that he has personal investment in.
Outside of his cultist activities, Tomoe's a pretty alright guy. He loves to get drunk, get into fights and start fires. He has an arrogant demeanor when out and about in a casual setting among those he deems lesser, but still refuses to pull his punches once a real fight begins; his literal punches, more often than not, as he does prefer to keep his abilities as hidden as possible. He's not quick to anger, but he is quick to annoy. In the past he's been known to start fights for something as simple as a funny look, but he's just as quick to analyze a person's abilities and retreat for another time if he feels like it'd be the right move. Given his time as a rugged swordsman and a scholarly cultist both, he can acknowledge the battle hungry beast inside of him while still recognizing his own faults and shortcomings.
When drunk or feeling particularly mischievous, Tomoe will participate in rather crude jokes or actions. He's not afraid to goof off when relaxed, and often doesn't care about the repercussions of his actions; rather, he'll deal with any negative reactions tossed his way after the fact. He desires to cast off his humanity and become HER true puppet, an avatar of hatred and a man to take all the negative attention onto himself, but despite this he still knows how to have a good time with his bros. He's unsure what to do when it comes to romance, as he feels any kind of true relationship would take away from his devotion to HER - something completely unacceptable.
He was never quite able to get rid of the working class Joyan accent he was born with, often talking like a country bumpkin or an uneducated drunkard, but can sometimes suppress it in serious situations temporarily while acting as a cultist or engaging in serious dialogue - the results of cultist brainwashing, ultimately. In that same way, he can turn off his usual rugged war-loving personality by reading from his cult's gospel - one he'd kept the entire time, of course, in secret. While acting as HER puppet after reading a prayer from his gospel, he becomes a tactical and emotionless killer set on success at all odds, or gathering enough information to succeed at a later date. In a way, he's been trained to be HER perfect assassin.
It should go without saying that Tomoe Tanaka is a very unhinged individual.
Likes:
- Wandering: Tomoe has a strong sense of wanderlust and loves nothing more than adventure. This need is so strong that he sometimes leaves a location in the middle of the night to venture elsewhere in search of new experiences, all without telling anybody.
- HER: SHE saved his life and gave him another chance to live when he thought he would die pointlessly at the bottom of the ocean. SHE gave him new purpose, and even without the brainwashing of the Midnight Cult in play, he loyally pledges himself to HER in a way that doesn't betray his own ideals. He wants the world to know that SHE is not evil as the world has painted her to be, but that SHE merely wants the best for Earthland. Tomoe wishes to find a way to bridge the morals of a hero with HER own, and allow them to coexist. He does keep his love of HER a secret most of the time, however.
Dislikes:
- Government: Tomoe hates the government of Fiore that would suppress the Midnight Cult and their desire for HER love. Through HER, all can find enlightenment and strive for a perfect world together.
- Weakness: Tomoe doesn't mind weak people in regards to their ability to fight, but is annoyed by those who have no moral compass or goal to strive for. Even if failure is a possibility, the thing that separates the weak from the strong is that the strong will accept that failure head on and move beyond it. Those who stagnate in their weak mind or who bend to the wills of others of ill intent, are better off dead than plaguing the world.
- Demons: Tomoe absolutely loathes demons of all kinds. They at one point terrified him, but as time passed, he's been left with nothing but a burning hatred for them due to their invasion of Astera. The fear and shame of failure that he felt from his fight against them in Astera have culminated in a grudge against all demons and those who would use the magic of demons.
Motivations:
- Spread HER love: Through rituals, sacrifices and blood altars, Tomoe would spread HER message all throughout Fiore. He wishes the same thing as most: the eradication of evil and the unjust in all their wicked ways. Any who would stand against HER would need to be tortured, made to see the error of their ways, and erased. The will of the dark goddess is one to be respected and adored, and it was Tomoe's primary mission in life to spread that adoration to all throughout the lands.
- Eliminate Demons: Demons are a plague to the world that should never have existed. They came from another world and brought nothing but despair and misery to humanity. One of Tomoe's goals before he dies once and for all is to rid the universe of all demons, demon worshipers and users of demonic magic. All traces of their kind must be wiped out if Earthland is to prosper.
- Kill Illumin: Even deeper than his hatred of demons and royalty is his hatred of Illumin and those who serve that creature's will. In addition to Illumin's disdain for humanity, the existence of their religion casts HER into a dark shadow of obscurity. For the Midnight Cult to rise and prosper, Illumin and their religion would need to burn once and for all.
- Destroy the Government: For a more short term goal than god slaying, Tomoe wishes to clean Fiore of the current government, royals included. He wants no part of a system that tries to deny the dark goddess, and will actively rebel for the sake of burning down such crooked leadership. The rest would come after - sermons and all - but at least to start, the government needs to go.
Fears:
- Losing himself: Being somebody of many twisted personalities and faces, Tomoe always fears losing himself to them. He's come close a few times already, and always has a feeling of anxiety in his gut that any time he changes faces and becomes someone else could be the time that he fully loses himself. The loss of the person named 'Tomoe', after all he's been through, is something he fears heavily.
- Death: Through everything, Tomoe's fear of death persists. As someone who has already died before, he knows how it feels and wishes to avoid that feeling ever occurring again. Going with that, Tomoe often freezes up in situations where death is a real possibility without the assistance of his gospel.
HISTORY
History:
- From Child to Adult:
Tomoe was born and raised by working-class parents in Joya. Under the Murakumo family name, he was set to take over their family business as farmers one day. Many days he'd work the fields and tend to the animals, sweating and bleeding for the good of his family as any good Joyan son would. He'd learn the ways of his culture, living off the land and swinging bamboo sticks around in an effort to mimic any passing samurai he'd run into.
That was all well and good, until one day when a group of samurai stood imposingly at their door early on a cool Spring morning. They explained that the local lord was upping the taxation of his citizens, and that farmers in their region would be required to pay triple the regular taxes in either money or resources. Being only successful enough to keep their heads above water in the economy, their parents had no clue what to do about the money. They panicked, begging to their neighbors for anything they could spare, but to no avail. The young Joyan boy watching it all happen at the time didn't have an iota of comprehension of how dire their situation was.
"If we can just live as we always have, we should be fine. Right?"
The day of the month when taxes would be delivered arrived, and the samurai made the rounds before eventually closing in on the Murakumo household. The obvious outcome was followed: there was nowhere near the amount of resources to comply with the lord's demands.
Rumors had spread recently that the lord's old guards had been fired in return for some cheaper but more unruly folk - borderline thugs, merely bestowed the proper armor and weaponry befitting a lord's militia.
After a quick exchange in the barn, Tomoe's mother and father found themselves lacking hands.
"If a farmer can't make ends meet, whadda they need 'eir hands for?"
Men that were never seen before, and who Tomoe had never seen again, ended the lives then and there of the two most loved people in the boy's short life. After banter between the lord's men and laughter shared all around, the parents then found themselves lacking heads. The last seconds of their lives without heads were spent alternating between seeing the livestock they had bred desperately to make ends meet slaughtered, and their own son looking on in terror.
Once Tomoe had seen the light in their eyes go out, he fled to their basement in adrenaline-filled fear. There he stayed for seven days, barricaded, living off of the cockroaches and rats to survive, too afraid to wander into the light.
When he couldn't stand living among filth anymore, he overcame his anxiety on the seventh night to find... ashes. The charred remains of his parents and livestock, crops razed, house burned black.
Aimlessly and emptily collecting what he could scavenge, he fled his ruined life with nothing but memories, the will to survive, and a nameless sword he knew nothing about.
He traveled the countryside of Joya, introducing himself as a "war orphan" and stealing from folks kind enough to trust him, to survive and get by.
"You can trust me. My parents were honorable and powerful samurai!"
Spending many years among various groups of people in the economic hierarchy, he picked up tidbits about swordsmanship here and there. Mostly though, he focused on the subtle art of thievery to work his way up as he wandered.
Eventually maturing enough to gain a body strong enough to swing a blade competently, he began selling himself for any purposes the common man would need him for - yes, any purposes. Though in the case of the more... "greasy" acts, it was more like pretending to go along with it, before murdering the would-be offender in cold blood and making off with their money before the authorities could find the body.
"Heheh. His junk was hanging right out when he died. What an idiot."
Discovering how easy it was to kill the defenseless and unsuspecting, he took to bigger targets to practice on, and came to a startling conclusion: people were idiots. And so he became more of an assassin for hire against low-priority targets. Guy who cheated on his wife, abusive boyfriend, the guy who got a promotion they didn't deserve, and so on. They all had one thing in common, though: jealousy. For the envious want what they don't have, and are willing to put a price on the misery and suffering of those that are the targets of their envy. This concept had intrigued Tomoe, who had not particularly felt jealousy before.
One day he became too confident, however - assassinating a politician was too big of a spotlight for someone still learning the art of murder like Tomoe. A chase ensued, and the politician's guards caught up to the failed assassin and gutted him with their spears, leaving him to bleed out looking up at the rain in the tranquil Joyan forest.
As his vision faded, he found a woman standing over him. A pitiful look on her features, she knelt down and sunk her teeth into the dying Tomoe.
In what felt like an instant, Tomoe was reinvigorated; and then in dire pain, altering between several times in the following minutes. At the end of it all, he felt as if he was birthed into a new life at the ripe age of 24 years.
"Holy shit..."
From the rush of adrenaline, Tomoe could only absorb some of the information at the time that the woman began to speak to him. Bits about being reborn as a Vampire, obligations to the clan, and the responsibilities that will come with his new power. The most notable thing though, was her insistence that he at once head to Fiore if he wanted to experience something interesting to perhaps awaken something hidden inside.
And like that she vanished, and left the young man to travel and deal with his new identity. No longer human, but close enough to blend in easily enough. While he felt anger towards the nobility of Joya and wanted vengeance, he felt it could wait while he obeyed the instructions of his savior.
"It was the least I could do, for a beauty like her."
And so he wandered towards Fiore, training his swordsmanship along the way, and meeting a Lich at one point; that was pretty cool. Doing various odd jobs as he went for money, he eventually found himself in Magnolia after a year of travel.
Rumors circulated of a gorgeous guild master within Fiore's famously chaotic family known as Fairy Tail, and just had to see her - and the guild - with his own two eyes.
- X788:
Tomoe went on adventure after adventure with allies from the Fairy Tail guild, and after failing to protect civilians during a demon invasion in Astera, wallowed in misery and cursed his weakness. During the process of regaining his fighting spirit, he encountered a strange man on the cliffs of Astera and engaged in a fight with him. Failing once more, Tomoe succumbed to his wounds and was killed: hurled off the cliff's edge and into the briny depths below. His last thoughts were of the friends he failed, and the stories he'd never tell.
Afterwards, he awoke. Simply, as if from a long slumber, he opened his eyes from within a dimly lit hut. His body ached all over and was left with unsightly scars, but he was alive. There was barely a single thought in his head other than his own name and vague details about Joya and working as a swordsman for hire.
It was then that he noticed a cloaked, older man in the corner of the room staring at him. There was only a lantern next to the man's table to illuminate his face, and as pale and scarred as he was, Tomoe felt no fear or malice from him. Instead, as naturally as anything, the Joyan approached groggily with many questions on his mind. The man quickly caught Tomoe up to speed, telling the rogue that his life was now in the hands of the Midnight Cult and Her, and that the wandering swordsman would finally pledge his blade to a cause. Additionally, he also explained that in order to properly revive Tomoe without issue, he had to 'extract the older evil within you', as he put it. The Joyan didn't understand the meaning behind his words, and naturally began to argue the point that he shouldn't belong to anyone.
Before Tomoe could object to any of it, he felt pain like burning coals course through his throat - a curse of some sort placed upon him, preventing him from disobeying unless he'd rather meet a quick end to his second life. After the pain subsided, Tomoe felt more accepting of his situation. It was as if a wave of relief washed over him, knowing that She had a plan for the reborn Joyan.
Tomoe, of course, immediately had questions as to who She was and how he had already come to know of Her existence - and all at once as if reading his mind, he was filled with all the answers he had ever needed. She was always there, watching over him through his life. All She needed in return for her limitless compassion and kindness was a servant; a sword to fight against the tyrannical light guilds and government.
With a new purpose in life and forgetting his old life, not even bothering to reconnect the dots behind his death, Tomoe became a proud member of the Midnight Cult. He would become a blade for a cause greater than himself, for the first time in his miserable life, and all at once redeem his past failings.
- X789:
Bit by bit, Tomoe regained his memory as he confronted visions of his past and met new people who helped him along whether they knew it or not. Eventually, some time close to the end of X788, he regained his memory in full.
He remembered the allies at his old guild of Fairy Tail and the days and nights he shared among them. Clouding those happy memories was the realization that he had taken many lives during his time in the Midnight Cult, sending him into a spiral of guilt. While the ronin would prefer not to dwell on those types of things usually, and outwardly portrays the sort of person who is proud and has moved beyond those mistakes, he is in pain inside. Thus, he took to joining the Penumbral Guard and assisting them in protecting the town of Marigold and eventually, all of Fiore. In his words it's convenient and for his own gain to assist the Guard, but in truth he seeks repentance for his past misdeeds.
Over the course of the year that Tomoe had his memory restored and had broken free of the Midnight Cult's influence, he noted that his appearance was altering bit by bit. His hair brightened, his height shortened, and his voice was changing. Subconsciously, he had received a vision that he was becoming a worthy inheritor of Kusanagi as Susanoo's chosen heir. Thus, as months passed, his appearance became that of Kusanagi's first wielder after using the blade time and time again. Stuck in a new body, he would live life as he saw fit despite his increasingly vague sense of self.
As somebody trying to help a budding guild get off the ground, accept his place as Susanoo's new heir, and spread HER message in a subtle way that isn't destructive or harmful, Tomoe has a lot on his plate. Rather than shy away from it, he would run towards these struggles as he always has.
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