Name: Shunketsu (Last name), Soeki (First name)
Age:<i></i> 12
Gender:<i></i> Male
Brief Physical Description:
There is a somehow slippery and disturbing quality about this boy's features, somehow reminiscent of a white snake for it's chilling and oily, scaled texture. Though Soeki has no scales of course he does just have an unfortunately 'creepy' look about him. His skin is as white as humanly possible - totally pale even, and his hair is even whiter. The only part of his body which is not utterly devoid of all pigmentation are the yellow irises of his piercing eyes. There's always a very sly and devious look in his eyes - an analytical, mischievous, and unsettling gaze is cast forth from them.
Soeki's appearance makes him very few friends, but when it comes to his physique, he's got quite the advantage there. Much taller than most boys his age, Soeki stands at 5'11" - and it's been his ambition to soar over six feet of height since he began approaching it. His shoulders, though still developing, are rather broad and show good structure; his growing though lean musculature is well defined and thick, albeit somewhat exposed by his unfortunate lack of body fat. He appears just a bit skeletal along his ribs and fingers, but the fine musculature of his toned six pack abs and his rather thick shoulders and upper arms appears to 'make up' for the areas which are too skinny.
Soeki's legs and arms are somewhat long in relation to his torso, though not too disproportionally so. His fingers are also long, and their nails are typically painted black - a habit he's adapted to make the most of his already odd appearance, in an effort to at least maximize whatever obscure appeal he may have. His facial features don't really resemble those of most others. They appear to lack common asian attributes, indicating a much more northern European origin in their shape and structure, though not outstandingly so.
Clothing description has been encased below in a spoiler.</COLOR>
<COLOR color="#8F0000">Soeki's favorite color is black, because it stands out sharply in contrast against his pale white skin; as such his preferred choice of wear is almost always black. He resents how many others prefer it as well though he persists in wearing it. Some of the things Soeki often wears are listed below.
Fishnet Shirt: Soeki doesn't wear much on his head or torso, instead wearing a fitting sleeveless top garment which covers him from upper torso to his hips. It's of a fishnet style, not even really covering him much or even offering any protection from the elements - instead, it's mostly cosmetic. It does however help him to absorb the temperature of his surroundings, as Soeki often does not wait for his body to warm or cool itself.
Loose pants: Because Soeki's legs are rather skinny, he prefers to leave doubt as to their thickness by wearing a firm, loose pair of almost baggy pitch black pants, adorned in multiple pockets. They end abruptly just four inches above his ankles however, bound to his legs by tight elastic bands within, exposing the lower portion of his legs and feet. The same sort of band keeps the pants secured to his hips.
Black Footwear: Though not picky with what he wears on his feet, Soeki often wears thick-soled sandal type shoes which preferably leave the majority of his upper feet exposed, binding around the ankle in black straps instead... but though those are his usual footwear, he may stray from them for boots and other heavier forms of footwear instead.
Soeki's persona as a whole is effected largely by regret and remorse.
Soeki is cautious and understanding by a default. His snake-like eyes aren't for show; he is very analytical and perceptive, thinking ahead while also doing so quickly. At the same time, however, a critical flaw of his has been sheer aggression and intolerance. Soeki lacks tolerance for things he feels to be genuinely wrong or dis-likable, and by nature he does not back down from conflict. The fights he's gotten into were often ones he didn't really try to avoid. It's not necessarily because he is overly confident in himself or his abilities, but because he just doesn't give in to others.
He's not easily understood at a glance, he's very intelligent, and he was something of a bully in the past.
Soeki's aggressive nature and somewhat traumatic past, however, were not a good combination. It led him to mistakenly hurt others who didn't really mean him any wrong but wound up disturbing him, and he did hurt innocents - badly. The only reason guilt did not crush him was because he was able to save those he injured and ended up nursing them back to health before being separated from them.
He considers himself reckless and foolish for ever having harmed others. For that reason he still feels as if he owes the world a debt, as he was once angry and hostile towards many things, mostly the world and it's populace in general as a hurt child. But he's matured rather quickly and regretted committing acts of malice the moment he saw the undeserved cruelty they inflicted.
Having hurt others himself, Soeki no longer wishes to cause anyone pain. He is a thoughtful and deep person who instead tries to focus on the beauty and significance of the world around him, appreciating nature and the simple kindnesses found in daily life. His guilt, however, drives him to feel an debt-driven desire to protect others, and that the blood of those he spilled can only be paid for by the spilling of his own blood in the defense of other beings.
Soeki is actually kind of wise for a teenage boy, as he's learned a lot from his own past shallowness and mistakes from his youth. He is capable of having intelligent conversations and dislikes it when others are treated in manners which are hurtful, deceptive, insincere, or shallow.
Soeki does however enjoy strength, and aspires to become powerful so that he is of use to society and his fellow human beings. Though he aspires to do good things in order to atone for his sins, he is not sure exactly how. But because he already has the talents of a beginner Shinobi, he has decided he will use any combat abilities he gains to contribute positively to the world by stopping those who cause pain and suffering in their inconsiderate cruelty, just as he once did... because he was an evil person himself, Soeki can easily recognize evil people based on their behaviors and body language, comparing them to himself or rather how he once was. And though Soeki will never wrong or harm innocent or good people, he has no mercy for the wicked; his desire isn't to kill them, but to "convince" them to change their ways. Very forcibly.
Aside from being a former bully who now preys on other bullies, Soeki is also a huge pervert. He loves anything girly and pretty - statues, girls, older women, and sometimes even the really girly boys (Think Haku on that one). His hormones have been raging for a while now as puberty has been going on for it's first few years, leaving the boy with a rather insatiable need for sex much above what 'average' or rather 'normal' would be. He's a little ashamed about it when others do not approve of it, though, he really can't help it and does as usual anyway... though he never hurts anyone. But it can get creepy. From stalking, to watching, to taking pictures, sometimes touching when the object of his affection is caught off guard... Soeki also gets attached very quickly, but surprisingly is not really clingy. He keeps an odd amount of distance, considering he's something of a benevolent male yandere.
Soeki had two biological parents. His mother's name was Mamiya Chigokai, of the mystery-shrouded clan of blood bending Shinobi known for their terrible power. The father was a random older male of the same clan who raped Mamiya after she'd recently turned seventeen, impregnating her with an unwanted child.... though the relative was distant enough that Soeki, fortunately, was not inbred.
But had Mamiya not been inbred, she would've surely had an inbred child. Her own parents had arranged for her to marry Ginsen Chigokai, her brother by blood, in order to keep their genes pure in the fear of other lesser suitors for their daughter. Yet, the pregnancy ruined everything.
She was accused first of being a slut, then accused of raping the man who'd actually been the one to force himself upon her, who was an upstanding member of the community they lived in and everyone believed him over the shady teenaged girl. She was disowned, cast out of their little outlying village, and forever banished.
Mamiya was an untrained girl, with no knowledge of how to wield her power over blood... out on the roads, wandering aimlessly and begging strangers for food each day which she was fortunate enough to get, she knew she would one day be killed. Probably raped again, too. She hoped the child she was going to give birth to would at least finish her off before then...
As it turned out, she did get her wish. Nine months after being banished from Lightning Country and the rest of her clan, Mamiya died while giving birth with the help of a stranger - just some young passing man, a Chuunin of Kirigakure on his way back from a simple mission. Unfortunately, the sight of a dead woman and a baby in his arms was terrifying to the young man, who simply placed the baby in a dirty basket he found nearby and set him along the side of the road closer to the Village Hidden in Mist for some other traveler to take in.
Two strangers passed, before someone finally took in Soeki; a retired old Shinobi on a trip to gather some herbs and vegetables from a surrounding forest not too far from the road he found the baby-in-a-basket on. This man's name was Kirezen Shunketsu, whom gave Soeki both his first and last name.
Because Kirezen and his own wife were sterile after an unfortunate battle long ago with another Shinobi, they could not produce children, nor had they found any infants needing adoption for nearly two years until they found Soeki. They accepted the child as their own, bringing him in and having him registered as such in Kirigakure, whom Soeki became a citizen of at that moment.
Kirezen and his wife, Mama Swat (An alias which replaced her real name), were a bit of an older couple; both were in their fifties when Soeki was just a baby. But they raised him well with their wisdom of youth and child care which they had kept in practice for nearly two decades, and in the beginning Soeki had a really nice and comfortable beginning. In fact, he still lives with old man Kirezen - and what's left of Mama Swat.
As it turns out, the same old enemy of the Shunketsu couple returned one day to take away more than their fertility. Soeki was only five when he watched nearly half of his adopted mother explode, and a scene of extreme violence between Kirezen himself and the intruder. Life was never the same after that.
Mama Swat didn't swat anything anymore. Soeki could steal all the cookies he wanted from the jar, sleep as late as he wanted, even do as he pleased. He'd thought in his mind as an immature child how he yearned for freedom... but when Mama Swat was left as nothing more than a scorched, barely alive vegetable for the rest of her maimed lifetime, Soeki suddenly lost all desire to break those rules which had bound him.
He learned the concept of gratitude then, put into application first after that moment. The wandering, vengeful Shinobi had been killed by Kirezen himself, who'd nearly burned their house down with his spewing flames. It had been a constant struggle for Kirezen to douse the flames with water, and he never full recovered from the battle after that.
Soeki also began to value strength a lot more, having seen how it could ruin or save lives. His childhood after that became abysmal as Kirezen lived in a constant state of restricted grief, his burden lightened by the merciful hand of alcohol and the occasional pinch of calming drugs as he cared for Mama Swat's burnt, barely living torso as well as Soeki for the rest of his life. He may have become an alcoholic, but he remained a dutiful father, performing whatever Soeki or his own wife needed, though never having the energy for a real conversation except upon the rarest of his days.
Soeki desired to attend the academy, not long after the attack on his home. Though very young he could see readily how strength was important, and wanted to learn how to be strong too, like Kirezen had been. His future started off well and ambitious, with a minor exception...
Ridiculed for his appearance, and deemed stupid for his strange interests, Soeki was beaten by the other children and picked on brutally. It happened twice in particularly bad instances, until Soeki began to grow rapidly.
By age seven, Soeki was a giant amongst his peers, with nearly half a foot over any of them. And having received pain for himself, the traumatized boy haunted by images of his adopted mother's mangled body and his own bleeding bruises, Soeki knew just how to dish out pain on his own. His retaliation was first done out of a fear of being made like Mama Swat at the hands of these cruel children, who were supposedly his 'equals'.
Soeki just began beating up all the snobby kids. Saying one smart comment about him, or anyone really, put a mark on their heads - and whenever Soeki was in close proximity with such a child, he would lay down the beating until physically separated from his victim. Violence became intoxicating, just like Kirezen's alcohol, and it was a way to channel all the hatred and confusion in his life. It began a repetitive problem, causing Soeki to fall behind in life.
But there was one boy who liked Soeki, despite the fact that the other kids either feared or hated him. Just a simple black haired child who Soeki had unknowingly stood up for - he'd hospitalized the boy's own bully who'd picked on him for having a girly name, essentially saving the boy from any further abuse.
Soeki didn't know how to respond. The fellow child showed him respect and fondness, when all Soeki thought of people was hatred and disgust. People caused cruel and terrible destruction to others. The only other good person he'd known in his life was Kirezen Shunketsu. He did not feel like waiting for that one kind boy to stab him in the back... so one day, after he made a questionable joke about one of the same bullies Soeki had beaten up, Soeki began beating the boy too. An innocent, defenseless target.
And for some odd reason all his rage and fear came out in that moment, rearing it's ugliest face. It was a fit of panic and exhausting anger - and when Soeki finally stopped punching, there was blood. Both his own, and the boy's, who was unconscious on the grassy ground...
They had been in the outskirts of the village, not too close to it's walls, but far from the buildings and in the shade... no one was nearby to help.
Soeki shivered in that moment, looking down at his fists. He had hurt a completely innocent person - just one act of reckless malice had condemned someone undeserving of his fearful rage.
He felt wrong and so ashamed he wanted to kill himself - and with some shards of broken glass nearby, that was exactly what Soeki had planned to do, until he heard a pathetic and painful grunt from the boy who he'd beaten. Soeki asked him for forgiveness... and the boy asked for help. He dropped the glass shard.
Soeki recalled everything he'd learned about first aid from old man Kirezen, and treated the boy's wounds in a desperate attempt to stop his own terrible sin from taking the boy's life. He didn't want to make another mangled, nearly lifeless Mama Swat -- so he did everything in his power to save the boy from his non-fatal injuries, though many ribs and bones had been broken.
In the end, the boy lived, though he was afraid of Soeki and kept distance after that. He forgave Soeki. But as Soeki soon learned, forgiveness did not undo damage... the boy was never as much as a willing friend to him then as he had been in the past, and he came to realize that he had lost something precious because of his own malignant recklessness. Soeki never forgave himself, even if the one he'd hurt had.
The crime was not without punishment, and Soeki was beaten too. By adults. And he gracefully, happily accepted that beating. To him it was fair... but it wasn't enough. He never felt satisfied, he never felt like the damage he'd been done was truly paid for. But if this was what they wanted to do for his crime, then he would accept it....
In the years which followed, Soeki became as he is now; a different and much more benevolent, mature man, with a need to atone for his past sin by defending good things rather than destroying them. He returned his focus to his the academy, hoping to work hard and prove himself worthy of protecting others in the future... both to the academy, and to himself.
He aspires to succeed like never before, for the sake of guarding others.
