Personality[]
Tatsuki is a timid, easily frightened, highly neurotic bundle of anxiety. Anything from physical contact to sudden noises can immediately send him jumping, so he tends to do best in quiet, less public environments. His friendship with Mitsuki, however, has him working to break past his comfort zone and spending more time outside of his apartment, as he is one of the few people that Tatsuki has grown comfortable with since being taken in by Hagane.
Most of Tatsuki’s anxieties are a result of the severe trauma he faced in the Outskirts where he was nearly killed by a Warden during an Ayakashi swarm. Even though he lives safely within the city now, it has taken him some time to shake his paranoia. Still, Tatsuki is a genuinely kind, if soft-spoken, boy that hates conflict. He does what he can to look out for his friends and tries hard to be more social and open around them, and he’s at his happiest when he sees that those around him are smiling, too.
Appearance[]
Tatsuki is covered head-to-toe with some article of clothing, afraid to show skin due to both his fear of being touched and the fact that his human appearance is an illusion. This appearance bears a resemblance to his true form, retaining his striking red eyes and pure white hair with pale skin. He wears a light blue dress shirt and black tie beneath a yellow sweater vest along with straight black slacks. His socks are light blue to mass his dress shirt, and he wears a pair of brown penny loafers. Finally, Tatsuki’s hands are covered by off-white gloves that he only ever removes to transform his weapon to fight, as the direct contact between his hand as an Ayakashi and the Sukibara turns it into the massive sycthe meant to devour him.
Tatsuki’s true form is that of a kamaitachi. He stands on two legs and remains similar in height to his human form, covered head to toe in snow white fur.
History[]
Tatsuki was born a few hundred years ago and has very little memory of his life in the Overgrowth as an Ayakashi. What memories he does hold, he does not look back on fondly, but he does remember working with two other kamaitachi partners to survive in the overcrowded depths. His old trio would target any random passerby within their territory, tricking them, cutting them down, and then healing them before running off with what they stole. Tatsuki, as the gentlest among them, served as their healer due also in part to his familiarity with the vegetation of the forest.
Their life was easy as long as they stuck together, and for years, it remained that way as they traveled the forest. One day, however, they approached the edge of the Outskirts, and out of curiosity, Tatsuki found himself observing humans for the first time. Enraptured by them, Tatsuki constructed an illusion for himself, taking on a human-like form, and wandered about in the Outskirts where he met a young woman with stained skin named Namida.
Having not learned their language, Tatsuki was not able to communicate with her, and as she reached for him, his timid nature caused him to hide. She tried to coax him out, thinking that he was an orphan and pitying him, but he remained hidden from her reach. When she realized that he wouldn’t let her touch him, she left, only to bring him back food from her own rations. She spoke to him gently, apologizing for how hard his life was and how children like him were the reason she became a Warden, so that she could protect them. She bid him farewell and asked that he stay safe, and Tatsuki returned to the Overgrowth.
Not long after, unfortunately, a massive swarm of Ayakashi rose up in the Outskirts where Tatuski and his partners had been, and before they knew it, they were caught up in it and struggled to escape. When Tatsuki reached out for his partners, they turned their back on him, choosing to cut their losses due to the danger of the swarm and the impending human conflict. Lost and alone, he was left to ride out the wave himself.
Leading the attack on the Ayakashi was Namida, and when they came face to face once again, she raised her weapon, a giant scythe made of Ayakashi remains called the Sukibara. Out of defensive instinct, Tatsuki transformed into the human form she was familiar with. She froze, suddenly realizing that the small human boy she had looked out for was actually an Ayakashi, and she began to cry.
Terror-stricken, Tatsuki fainted, and when he woke up, Namida was gone but her weapon remained. With barely a memory of what had happened, he picked it up and began wandering into the city. Due to his small presence, very few people in Chuushu paid him any mind, and those that did quickly veered away from him, put off by his vagrant child-like appearance. However, he eventually stumbled into Hagane, who recognized pretty quickly his need for help and took him home.
Hagane cleaned Tatsuki up, fed and clothed him, and gave him a place to sleep on his couch. The next morning, he tried talking to him to learn what had happened, but Tatsuki’s inability to communicate as a human, coupled with his jumpy behavior, led Hagane to believe that a severe trauma had occurred. He quickly began teaching Tatsuki how to speak and taking care of him, seeing the boy as an experiment to disprove his father’s theories.
Once he had learned to speak, Hagane met with Okuda to forge paperwork to make Tatsuki a legal resident to Chuushu and enrolled him into Hanasaka Academy. While they did this, Tatsuki was left to make friends with Mitsuki, which went more smoothly than either of the guardians had expected. With Mitsuki as a new surrogate brother, a school to attend, and a better grasp on language, Hagane bought up a nearby apartment for Tatsuki to have to himself just above his own bachelor pad and he began his human life.
Tatsuki began at the Koukai Agency in his last year at the academy so that Hagane could keep a better eye on his progress, working half-days between the two until he graduated. He began working in the mailroom full-time immediately after finishing school, allowing him to have little customer interaction for the sake of his anxiety.
Powers & Abilities[]
As an Ayakashi, Tatsuki has a natural ability to transform, which he uses to appear human. When fighting, he has unreal swiftness and flexibility. As a Kamaitachi, Tatsuki grew up in a band of three, serving as the healer amongst their trio, but one day got swept up in a wave of Ayakashi that intended to flood Chuushu, separating him from his fellows. Now, Tatsuki wields the weapon, Sukibara (空腹), which was used to kill the swarm of Ayakashi he was swept up in and nearly took his life.
The weapon begins as an innocent-looking good luck charm made from Ayakashi remains, but when imbued with spiritual energy, it grows into a twisted lethal shape. The weapon becomes stronger and larger by building itself on the bones of the Ayakashi it has slain. Because he is an Ayakashi, Tatsuki need only remove his gloves and touch the base weapon to transform it. It is a reflection and example of just how brutal and deadly the Ayakashi are, a reminder to Tatsuki of his own nature and causing him to fear the kind of violence he could inflict on his friends.
The weapon has different forms depending on how much spirit energy is pumped into it, ranging from a small knife to an enormous scythe. The Sukibara’s namesake, meaning The Hunger, comes from its ability to devour those it kills, transforming the scythe part into a grotesque face with an infinitely stretching mouth, sucking in anything and adding that to its physical makeup. It can also suck up spirit blasts and throw them back at the enemy, as well as digest Muramasa’s fog.