CHARACTER INFORMATION
Canon Character and Series: Raidou Kuzunoha, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
In-Game Name: Raidou Kuzunoha
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Position & Ship: STRATEGIST, the Silvana
The first thing that anyone will notice about Raidou is the military cap that he seems to be wearing out in public at all times, whether he’s inside or outside, or if it’s hot or cold or raining or clear. The front brim is just wide enough to obscure his features unless you’re standing close enough.
Once the hat is off, though, one will note that Raidou is a clean-faced and almost effeminate-looking kid, decently tall for his age and apparently rather thin beneath that huge cloak he’s always wearing… he looks more like a scholar than he does a fighter, in spite of the fact that he’s always got his sword and his gun close at hand. He has pale skin, angular features and storm gray eyes. Should one ever have the luck of spotting him without his hat, one will note that his hair has been cut in a peculiar fashion: it resembles a bowl at the top, tapers out just at the nape of his neck, and ends in weird whorls just under his ears.
Raidou is never seen wearing anything else but a black, high-collared and long-sleeved top together with black, straight-cut slacks – it almost looks like a generic uniform of sorts. He tops this with two holsters – one for his gun and another for an odd bunch of tubes full of smoky liquid – and a thick, all-weather black cloak. His hands are almost always gloved.
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THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Personality:
Raidou appears to be, for all intensive purposes, the perfect detective: he is calm and reserved, amazingly level-headed and self-possessed, displaying a sort of confidence that could be mistaken for arrogance to anyone with a chip on their shoulder. He is extremely observant and very perceptive (it comes with the job), and often applies his analytic theories not just to the cases he solves but also on the people around him. This would normally intimidate people, but Raidou makes it a point to be extremely polite and subtle with his words in order to put others at ease (people reveal more when they’re not scared, you see). He also displays a maturity that one doesn’t often find in teenagers, most especially guys like him.
Raidou is also extremely serious about his job, and rather guarded when it comes to talking to people about what he does – the family must keep its secrets safe, and Raidou also doesn’t see the point in explaining the exact nature of his business to anyone. He also never does things without purpose, and will never approach another person first unless he feels that it will benefit him or further his current investigation in one way or another.
Overall, Raidou definitely doesn’t act his age… some may even think that he acts way too old for his own good, and doesn’t know how to loosen up. What they are not aware of is the fact that Raidou has a very dry sense of humor (perhaps it comes from the work he does, and the things that he’s probably seen), and is secretly rather sadistic. It’s nothing too harmful in the long run, but may come as an unpleasant surprise to people who end up on the receiving end of Raidou’s occasional whims.
Abilities/Weapons:
As a licensed detective, Raidou is permitted to carry a gun and can wield it rather well too… he is, however, much better at using a sword (a katana, in particular), as that is the traditional weapon of his family.
Beyond the hand-to-hand combat aspect of his work, Raidou’s abilities are generally directed towards sleuthing and criminology – he is an extremely intelligent young man, a genius in every right, and it shows in how well he can turn situations inside and out, solve things on the spot and draw up eerily accurate conclusions based on but a few observations alone. Raidou’s strongest point, however, is his amazing strength of will, which aids in demon-trapping.
The Kuzunoha family is a long line of devil summoners who, through ancient rituals and dark magic, defeat and bind demons, trapping them in test tubes until they have a need to summon them to aid them in their work. Their magic works on two principles: the principle of strength (the devil summoner must first be able to defeat the demon of choice in a fight; whether it’s a physical duel or a magical one depends on the demon), and the principle of naming (the devil summoner must be able to successfully guess the demon’s true name).
Devil summoners are taught several tricks of trade in order to help them along – or they should be, anyway. Beyond the binding magic and being able to perceive ghosts and demons even when they have concealed themselves from everything else, Raidou knows little of the secret arts. He is yet to return to the main house and undergo the tests and trials that will see if he is worth of learning more.
The main reason why devil summoners are trained as detectives is because it serves as a convenient front to disguise their real line of work while still remaining connected to the general population – detective work also grants one a keener sense of the details, and those sorts of observational skills are extremely important in investigating potential demon-related cases.
On another note, it is important to emphasize the fact that the phases of the moon greatly affect the conditions in which a devil summoner must work – although there are exceptions to this rule, it has been commonly understood that demons are at their strongest during a full moon, and their power waxes and wanes according to the rest of the phases. This works both for and against devil summoners like Raidou, as he uses demons to fight against other demons.
Since the whole demon-summoning shebang is a huge family secret, though, let’s just say that Raidou’s pretty good at beating monsters that no one else seems to be capable of beating. …Or, at least, he will be, someday. Raidou is very, very new to this job (he’s been a devil summoner for just a little over three years now), and it’s clear that he’s got a long way to go.
True to the assignment that he is supposed to take once he’s gained enough experience on his own, Raidou is a rather skilled military tactician and strategist, most especially when it comes to land-based combat. He is only starting to learn the ropes of aerial combat now, but he’s a rather fast learner.
How well can your character hack?: Decently enough. Raidou can break through all easily hackable exchanges or files on the network, and a few with medium security (although these ones can already a rather long time for him)… anything beyond that completely escapes him. The network is a relatively new thing for a traditional family like Raidou’s, and they have only started training their family members how to access its secrets for their own purposes. Of course, Raidou will only use hacking as a last resort – he’d much rather put his faith in his senses and keen sense of perception.
Weaknesses:
While it may look like Raidou is nice enough in his own way (or at least, capable of getting along with people when he has to), Raidou is, in actuality, merely mimicking what he sees other people do: he has noted down the patterns of behavior that seem to work for people, and is merely following that example in order to get what he needs. He actually doesn’t understand human emotions very well, nor is he capable of really relating to them – he can pick things up based on observation and draw the necessary conclusions, but he just can’t relate with the situations that people find themselves or the reasons why they feel a particular way. To make a long story short, he tends to relate better with the demons he traps and the monsters he kills than he does with other people.
Furthermore, the job has always come first before everything for the Kuzunoha – they are not an evil bunch, but eliminating or trapping a demon operating in the area takes first priority, with concealing their identities and leaving no trace of their presence coming in as a close second. Even if doing both of these tasks means endangering human lives, a Kuzunoha is not supposed to hesitate to do all that is necessary to complete their mission.
…That’s the idea, at least. Raidou is particularly torn over this idea, and hopes that he’s not going to find himself in a situation like that anytime soon.
Raidou’s biggest weakness in combat would be the fact that his overall battle strength depends mostly on the demons he happens to have on his roster – they provide most, if not all, of the firepower for him. He may be a trained fighter, but a devil summoner is more of a sorcerer than anything else: he can hold his own in combat, but it may not be enough to save him against very skilled opponents. He is also more accustomed to fighting inhuman creatures than he is human beings – he’s trapped demons and slain monsters before, but he has never killed people. He will certainly hesitate to fight other people, and will probably lose it if he is ever forced to seriously injure or kill another person.
It might be good to know that he has a weakness for cats, but that’s probably not important.
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PERSONAL NOTES.
Before the Shirogane Family were even considering the possibility of fighting crime, the Kuzunoha Clan were excelling in it all over Reial—
Or so the record says. The Kuzunoha actually exist for a very different purpose that sometimes crosses over into the realm of crime-fighting and puzzle solving. They are tied in with the very existence of Reial, particularly the event of the Long Night.
The Long Night is traditionally said to be a time when the barriers between the worlds are at their weakest, allowing creatures and denizens of all the realms to cross freely through the borders… people say that it is just merely a superstition without realizing that it is actually true. Demons, monsters and other horrific things do escape from their home realms and into Reial every year during the Long Night, sometimes at horrifying speeds and numbers. Their presence is silent and quiet for the most part, but they are capable of doing terrible amounts of damage to people and property if they are let off on their own for too long. The Kuzunoha Clan exists to hunt these creatures down, and have been perfecting their demonic arts over the centuries in order to help them do this.
The Raidou Kuzunoha that people see at the moment is actually the fourteenth person to carry this name – his real name has been concealed from the public, and it is pointless to try and ask him what it is as hiding one’s true name is the best line of defense against demons. Every member of the Kuzunoha clan inherits the name of one of their ancestors, and the name of Raidou is the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon any summoner within the family. This particular Raidou is the result of a marriage between the Thirteenth Raidou Kuzunoha and a woman from the Shirogane Family – given the fact that both family lines are in danger of terminating (a sign of the times, or a grand conspiracy?), it was a last ditch attempt on both ends to salvage their lineage, even if it meant marrying their number one rivals. Both sides consider this union a great success, as the fourteenth Raidou seems to have the best of both worlds at his disposal.
Raidou was groomed to be a detective from the moment that he could walk and talk, alongside more traditional skills befitting of a family like his – hand-to-hand combat, the composition of poetry, tea ceremonies and the like. This was balanced alongside his training as a devil summoner, and continued up until he finished his certification exam as a detective at fourteen, with remarkable scores. He took the Trial to become a devil summoner barely a week afterward, and has been traveling around Vohemar, hunting down demons and looking into every odd case along the way ever since. His family has assigned him to do this in order for him to gain experience – once he is suitably skilled, he is supposed to proceed with his “real” assignment.
Devil summoners are kind of like secret agents in Vohemar: only the upper echelons of the government know about their true purpose, but they insist upon having a Kuzunoha implanted in each and every militant or judicial arm in the continent in order to guard against demons. Suffice to say, summoners are expected to blend in with their surroundings, and need to gather the right amount of skill and experience to be able to seamlessly fit in to wherever they will end up. It is for this reason that Raidou is traveling with the Silvana – he needs to sharpen his skills as a strategist prior to returning to the main house and presenting himself to the family’s contacts in the military.
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