jigokucho - app

[metafictions]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Danni
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yes
CONTACT: smithsyndicate
CHARACTERS PLAYED: n/a, also planning on apping Aiba (AI: The Somnium Files)

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Kamui Uehara
CANON: No More Heroes

Note for the mods: There are at least 3 distinct characters named Kamui Uehara in Suda51's Kill the Past chronology. The Kamui I am playing does not debut until The 25th Ward: The Silver Case, after which he crosses over into the No More Heroes series. As much of his characterization occurs in his NMH appearances, and this is the most likely series castmates would app from, I've chosen "No More Heroes" as his canon name.

CANON REFERENCE: Save the Past wiki | Suda51 wiki | a more detailed write-up under #history
CANON POINT: Post-Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
CRAU HISTORY: n/a
AGE: physically mid 20's; mentally much older
APPEARANCE: like this at his canon point, which'll look a little like this in game
CONTRACT PAYMENT: The land and funds necessary to establish an autonomous settlement somewhere in the Pacific.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

(OOC) What is the most frightening thing you've ever done? What part of you did it test the most?

At the end of The 25th Ward: The Silver Case, Kamui took part in an armed Mexican standoff with four other members of the Heinous Crimes Unit. As he was the only neutral party, the group allowed Kamui to make the first move to end the stalemate. However, Kamui was given 100 possible options, all leading him down a different path and ending. He was also told that only one end was "the truth" despite all endings also being "factual". Because the game's true ending leads into his next appearance and only takes place after choosing all 100 endings, I interpret this as every timeline collapsing into one. It's most similar to the many-worlds interpretation of parallel timelines (as portrayed in the Zero Escape series) but since he is made to experience this moment repeatedly, I refer to it as a timeloop for simplicity.

This experience scarred Kamui, more than anything he'd ever known. Before this final chapter, Kamui had been a silent protagonist, passively following other characters as a mere observer to the world around him. As someone harshly indoctrinated into obedience and passivity, not only was it overwhelming for Kamui to make this decision... he was forced to make it 100 times over. Almost none of the choices or paths were easy, either. He ran away; he killed his coworkers; he killed himself; he rebelled against his existence; he moved through other realities and was reincarnated anew; and all the while, two time traveling allies jumped into his many endings to tug him back and forth from the past to the future. There was never an escape in death or flight, either, as in at least one ending, Kamui attempted to escape the loop only to be dragged back to its origin by a time traveler.

However, all of this also formed the person he ultimately became. Until this loop, Kamui had hardly thought for himself or had much of a sense of self at all, particularly as he was psychologically programmed to be a copy of the original Kamui Uehara. His choices were limited to where he was led by the powers controlling him, and to what would allow him to succeed to the original Kamui. Despite the immense trauma and pain he suffered throughout the loop, it served to give him a sense of agency-- ironically, through forcing him into an inescapable life-or-death situation. Forcing Kamui to choose his own fate molded his budding identity, testing his ability to make a life for himself out of nothing and to become more than just a wild card for outside forces to manipulate. Only when he was fighting for it did his life become his own.

In the end, he chose to embrace the promise of his own individuality, accepting himself as his own person as well as the final and most important incarnation of Kamui Uehara. Kamui chose to accept the possibilities of the future, rather than letting his awful past crush the potential before him. This finally allowed him to speak for himself-- directly to the player, in fact. Assuming his role as "the perfect Kamui Uehara", he pledged to the player to create a world free of pain and darkness, no matter what it took.

(OOC) What is your favorite diversion? Hobbies, indulgences, vices? Would you put off important things for that diversion, or would you be more strict about how you spend your time and/or money?

As one might expect from someone heavily burdened by a duty to his destiny, Kamui doesn't have very much time to unwind. Furthermore, a lifetime of following orders and doing what he's supposed to do have made him more than a little passive when it comes to asserting his own preferences. This lends him a certain amount of naïveté when it comes to interpersonal relationships and casual existence overall, in stark contrast to his competence and capacity for killing. His indulgences and diversions are few and far between, so at best he comes off as simple, mild-mannered, and very, very low-maintenance. At worst, he's a creepy workaholic who doesn't have a life.

What he does love, though, is playing foodie. He appreciates a good, well-crafted meal and decent alcohol to drink, as well as going to new places and restaurants he hasn't been to before... which is many of them, when you are a recovering deep state guinea pig. Anything feels like an indulgence when you've had hardly anything to call your own in life, after all. So, Kamui has started off with such sinful vices as... getting a milkshake.... AND a burger. With a friend, no less!!

Sure enough, Kamui remains conscientious to a fault. His day-to-day job-- once as a detective, now as one of the guiding forces of his universe-- comes before all else. This very much includes stopping to smell the roses. He'll remember to care for his base needs, of course, but anything beyond that comes secondary to everything else that is on his to-do list. As much as he wants to continue learning and growing as his own person, doing so after a lifetime of complete assimilation is still a work in progress, and he is still in the process of learning how to balance business and duty with pleasure and identity. He's far too bound up in his own duties to relax for very long, much less give in to indulgence.

(IC) An enemy of your faction has asked for a meeting, proposing a truce of sorts to deal with a greater threat. On one hand, there is indeed a threat at hand, but on the other, this person double-crossing you is just as likely an outcome. Do you agree to the meeting? Do you trust them?

[Kamui pauses for a moment, considering the question carefully. A cause bigger than the pettiness of a turf war, maybe even as big as Hell itself-- doesn't that one sound familiar?]

If the threat is truly that great, it's worth putting aside faction rivalries to address. I've worked with people I haven't trusted before, and I would be willing to do so again.

[After all, even supposed allies had shot and killed him time and time again without batting an eye. Not that he had ever hesitated to do the same, mind you. Kamui has only ever truly put his trust in one other person, in the end, and even if he were here too, Travis would never play politics. The man's direct to a fault, a concept almost unbelievable to someone who's spent a life embroiled in others' agendas. He admires that straightforwardness of intent. Envies it, really. If only everyone were as easy to trust as Travis Touchdown.]

I take the meeting. However, I behave under the assumption that I will be betrayed. My boss would know about the meeting, of course. In the best case scenario, I might ask for back-up-- or, at the very least, someone to follow behind me if I were to be double-crossed. My faction should stay in the know, whether or not things start to go south.

Hm. Now that I think about it, taking the meeting is a win-win, isn't it? If the truce is legitimate, we'd work together to neutralize the threat as planned. If it's a trap, my own allies would know that this faction wasn't true to their word and could take the steps necessary to neutralize them, instead.

[Right. That, too. Taking this gamble could end in his death, couldn't it?] Any danger to myself is an acceptable risk. They'll have their work cut out for them if they're trying to kill me.

[And even if they somehow manage to succeed... well. Kamui smiles, the expression devoid of warmth: he and death are far from strangers.]

(IC) 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?

How many more years? [is his immediate response. His expression remains blank through the silence, because it'd been an honest question, really, surely it's not more than five, or--] Seriously. How many more years would I need to work...?

[Okay, evidently, these questions don't work like that. The bridge of his nose wrinkles with his frown.]

All right... mm. [No wonder the 25th Ward went under; in the end, nobody likes to deal with bureaucracy.] If the opportunity were available, I'd speak to my faction leader and attempt to open up a dispute. Whatever that 'dispute' might look like. [Some pointless game of telephone creeping all the way up the chain of command, he's assuming.] And I'd only try if I already knew the leader already had a good opinion of me, though. Coming off like I couldn't buckle down and do the work is the last thing I'd want, particularly if my contract were being extended. With a reputation like that, one might be made to do worse work... or to stay even longer.

[Though he's willing to spend more time, he's not a masochist: there's no use in wasting time. Why make your life more difficult for a chance at a shortcut?]

Patience is a virtue, like they say. I know what I'm here for, and I wouldn't risk my final goal for anything.

POWERS & ABILITIES:

Combat proficiency: Competent with hand-to-hand combat, firearms, and basic weaponry like knives. He is a former police detective and has been trained to be a killer since childhood, to the point that he can fight the most powerful assassin in his canon to a standstill. However, this all remains within human limits, so he won't be losing anything-- apart from arriving totally unarmed, of course.

Observer: Kamui is fourth wall aware on the level of characters like Deadpool and Travis Touchdown. He knows he is from a video game, speaks directly to the player, interacts with a character who is literally the UI of The 25th Ward, and is overall aware of meta conventions and to a degree able to manipulate the structure of the reality he inhabits. As this is against game rules, it is not coming into play whatsoever, but it IS a canon ability that influences the following powers, so I wanted to note it anyway. :)

Special points: Kamui is able to detect "special points" - essentially, an interaction point for advancing the adventure video game that is his reality. Outside of its meta explanation, he describes himself as a compass: he has a strong intuition for being at the right place at the right time. Exerting this ability will sometimes give Kamui nosebleeds.

This will be getting heavily nerfed, and upon entering the game, it will fail and give him a headache or nosebleed every time he attempts to use it. At its lowest level of regain, he'll only be able to sense a wide area (however wide you deem fair, mods!) and not what needs to be done there, and it'll give him a migraine and nosebleed. Trying to use it a second time in a day will give an even more vague result AND knock him out cold. At higher regains, it'll start to give him more specific hints, like "be at X building" or "meet Y person", but to avoid godmodding I'd like for it to occasionally fail and still be subject to the daily limitation at even the highest level of a power regain. I'm very welcome to any other limitations the mods deem necessary, as I don't want to godmod or give the mods undue work asking for clues!

Criminal power: Kamui is able to sense an individual's criminal power. Criminal power is an abstract measure of a person's potential for chaos, lawbreaking, and violence, detectable by the supernaturally attuned in the Kill the Past series. It's most similar to reading an aura, mixed with a very unspecific version of Dragonball's power level-- for example, a powerful villain would ping Kamui as having a high amount of criminal power. This doesn't mean that anyone with a large amount of criminal power will be a villain, though: it just means they'd be capable of destruction. Anti-heroes and heroes who could feasibly be pushed to chaos would also ping high, while an unenthusiastic henchman would ping moderate to low. Kamui, in turn, radiates this energy in spades, and people with a good sixth sense (or even just a really good intuition) would be able to sense something was off or strange about him.

Needless to say, this is getting nerfed a lot too!! He won't be able to pick up on criminal power at all upon entering the game, though attuned characters/NPCs may pick up on his weird/bad vibes; he'll experience the same headache/nosebleed if he attempts to use it before a regain. Any power regains will start out on the level of a tabletop game's perception check: sometimes, Kamui will be able to correctly sense a level of criminal power in a wide area, and sometimes he won't. As the power increases, he will eventually be able to again hone in on an individual. Like the previous ability, I would like for it to sometimes fail and to be subject to a daily limitation even at its highest state of power regain.

Finally, as I don't want to godmod other players, I'll only ever use this ability on others with player permission, and I frankly don't intend to ever have him regain to its canon level due to its inherent godmoddy nature.

Silver eye: The silver hyena's eye implanted into Kamui's left socket is a mystical item that grants him supernatural abilities. First, he does not physically age, although he can be killed; secondly, he has some reality-warping abilities. This allows him to teleport, travel through time, and move between dimensions and realities.

The aging is a passive power; as he can still die, I won't be changing anything there. However, as the reality warping and time travel are closely linked to his fourth wall meta awareness (and he is OP enough already cries), I will be limiting the reality warping to teleportation in this game. Kamui won't be able to teleport at all on acceptance, and regains will be focused on increasing teleportation distance. As with the previous powers, I am happy to add a daily limitation to this as well!

SUITABILITY:
Kamui's life has been steeped in darkness from day one. His dehumanizing, abusive upbringing in the Shelter Kids Project served not only to imprint him with the original Kamui Uehara's persona-- he has also been completely desensitized to violence and death to suit his role as a government sleeper agent. Furthermore, he is a former agent of the 25th Ward Heinous Crimes Unit. True to its name, the HCU only takes on specialized cases too gruesome or sensitive for the primary police force: this includes serial killings, violent murders, assaults, and so on. The 25th Ward in particular is a semi-cyberpunk dystopia with a seedy underbelly of crime, extrajudicial killing, cults, sex work, and its own underground yakuza presence. Jigoku-cho is far flashier than the hyper-conformist 25th Ward, but a lot of what Kamui would encounter in this game would not be too far off from his usual experience back home.

All of this is true of Kamui before acknowledging the many timelines he lives through at the end of The 25th Ward. He's had to kill his coworkers (and sometimes himself) in multiple ways, over and over again; although he doesn't take any specific pleasure from it, he has absolutely grown accustomed to killing even people he bears no real ill will towards. Quite frankly, after this kind of life, he wouldn't bat an eye at most of the Jigoku-cho day-to-day.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten:
Although the Shuten's hard partying ways would leave Kamui out of his depth-- please imagine this poor man getting trashed like a rookie salaryman-- he'd quickly grow to appreciate their values. In particular, he'd resonate with the idea of carving out one's own destiny on the back of one's own willpower and strength. As someone balancing his duty to the world with his duty to growing himself as a human being, it's something he longs to master. Additionally, while he does keep himself guarded, he's rarely dishonest... largely because he's such an awkward weirdo he can't be anything but overly polite or totally straightforward. The Oni would find a square like him hilarious, probably: he's odd, but hardly a liar. I could see him developing a rapport with his peers and coming into his own identity very well in Shuten, please let the Oni bully him into doing a kegstand.

Furthermore, in spite of his unassuming appearance, Kamui is an able fighter and would thrive working in and around the arenas. Most of his cast enjoys the thrill of combat as a sport, and with the enabling influence of the Shuten Clan he would almost certainly grow to enjoy it in the same way. Even he likes a good challenge from time to time.

Tamamo:
The Tamamo Clan's values of insight would appeal to Kamui, especially if he were able to serve the clan with regained abilities. After having to navigate so many branches of the timeline, he also places a lot of importance on foresight and staying one step ahead, and he'd readily offer his services to the Tamamo in the hopes of securing his status and having a smoother ride through Jigokucho. As a trained killer he'd also have no issues dispensing Tamamo punishment, either: no loose ends mean nothing comes back to bite you. He'd also be be happy to work adjacent to the restaurant industry, as one of the few things he is genuinely passionate about is food.

Finally, the Tamamo's indulgences would leave Kamui even more out of his depth, but ahaha oh boy, if anything will get Kamui to figure out what ELSE he likes, it will be this clan. Conversely, if he can't loosen up, you probably need somebody organized to run your brothel, right...? Welcome to his Tamamo bisexual disaster era.

Sutoku:
Just like with the Tamamo Clan, Kamui's appreciation for careful planning and the insight his powers could eventually give his allies would give him an edge in working with the Sutoku. For the unobservant, he's unassuming and easy to overlook in a crowd-- perfect for an info-gatherer. He even impersonated a man in front of his future coworkers, who didn't recognize him as the "manager" they'd met a week before. He's good at staying on the down low and keeping his eyes and ears open: he is an "Observer", after all. On the other hand, actually using that information to manipulate his enemies wouldn't come very easily to him at all. Most of his life has been spent in a reactive role, moved around by the real politicians and schemers.

In spite of this, the Sutoku Alliance's philosophy probably meshes with Kamui's own goals and worldview the best: though his goal is to create a more ideal world, he's deeply aware of the faults of humanity, too. He'd most likely try to take a passive informant-type role alone and fade into the background as much as possible, but he'd put his all into it-- particularly if he could feel aligned to their egalitarian views.

He would have some fun with gaming, though! Being from a game himself, he's got a lot of natural affinity towards video games. He might even be able to swing turning an arcade into a place to pick up on the word on the street.

Enma:
This one... is complicated. Kamui's previous home was the 25th Ward: an organized, balanced, and apparently utopian society-- so long as one never looked at its dark underbelly of enforcers. He is accustomed to being an agent of order and to eliminating any threats to a world's stability, so he'd perform for the Enma to his utmost. He was also a police detective, so readjusting to an administrator's work again would be no problem.

However, with the scope of his worldview so vastly expanded, and the collapse of the 25th Ward fresh in his mind, he might become dissatisfied here. He's dedicated to duty and wishes for peace, but has no real love for authority compared to his admiration for free will. This clan could make or break him: he'd either have that light in him beaten back down, or he would learn to work within (and maybe even around?!) the Enma's rules without being broken by them. So who knows!! But he'd definitely buckle down and do the work either way.

SAMPLES

- TDM the first, ft. Natori, Greg, Soma, Santa, and Kim
- TDM the second, ft. Emily
- TDM the third, ft. Shinobu