Kiku Honda

Character Name: Kiku Honda

Age: 21 (looks 19)

Appearance: Standing at 5’4”, the raven-haired Japanese man is often spotted immediately as a foreigner…exotic, if you prefer. He is slender, almost effeminate, though none would argue that his feminine looks only hide his muscles. His appearance belies his age, and Kiku often finds himself explaining to people that yes in fact, he is already 21. He wears a dark pair of shades with tinted lenses, mostly during the day (though sometimes at night), finding it easier to talk to people while wearing them. He has been told before that his brown eyes look haunted or soulless…not a compliment in a world full of werewolves and vampires, most would say.

By day or night, Kiku wears a plain, black shirt, the fabric cut almost tauntingly low at the neckline over a pair of black trousers. A simple pair of black boots (each concealing a knife) make him look like almost any other citizen with a little bit of spending money and a decent fashion sense. Even his leather arm guards (also concealing knives) and his leather gloves could get him mistaken for a Hunter Trainee, though he isn’t one and never will be. His belt, which most people ignore, is also leather and contains various weapons and whatever else he feels like keeping in the pouches. He also carries an old diary, which belonged to his father and contained the records of his experiments on his brothers and Kiku.

Most people steer clear of him though, as he is often seen tapping his foot or shaking, unable to contain the adrenaline that seems to constantly course through him. His speech is also almost non-existent, and on the rare occasions he does communicate verbally the words are either spaced and misunderstood or jumbled together in a rush to get his thoughts out before they disappear. He walks as if he is in a hurry to be somewhere, though in truth the world around him simply moves slowly. He often looks as if he has not slept for days, though his body rarely shows the physical signs of its constant stress. His injuries also seem to heal faster than other human beings, though nothing he possesses comes close to that of the other creatures of the realm. (see background)

Species: Human (could change as events unfold)

Sexuality: Bi, though he is not aware of this, since he has never had any relations before. He finds it difficult to become attracted to anyone, thanks to his aliments (see background)

Personality: To other humans, Kiku finds himself alienated and unable to express his thoughts and feelings, his conditions making it nearly impossible to communicate correctly. Because of this, he prefers solitude, enjoying not having to attempt and fail to explain himself to the curious. However, he also finds himself desperately seeking an outlet for all of his built up adrenaline, and so he can often be found picking fights, regardless of consequences. Despite this, he is actually quite intelligent, choosing to fight the immortal creatures of the realm rather than a normal human being, morally uninterested in killing anything or anyone.


Trained by his father, Kiku is an extremely talented fighter in hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, and weaponry of various kinds. He develops his own weapons, most of which are suited best for close combat. He has earned himself a reputation as a suicidal badass, though he is actually quite lonely and disheartened by his afflictions. Because he does not like to kill, he has refused to join the Hunters or anyone else who seeks to destroy the other creatures of the realm. He is one of the few believers in mutual benefits, though no one would know this since none really sticks around long enough to listen to him.

When not picking ridiculously outmatched fights, training, or earning himself a bad rep, Kiku travels in search of a cure for his ailment, having come to the realization that if he does not someday cure himself, his body will exhaust itself. He often fails to communicate this, making himself quite a few enemies of all races in the process. Despite all of these challenges, Kiku is determined to find a cure.

Background:

Born in a small Japanese village, Kiku was the youngest of three sons, and he lived in a house/shop with his father and brothers. When Kiku was younger, his father crafted weapons and taught his sons how to fight, passing on the family secret of the art of weapon-crafting and their very own fighting style. As he reached his teens, he began to notice that his father spent less and less time with him, choosing instead to lock himself away in a back room with his oldest son, then later, his second son. Yet Kiku found himself filled with energy and curiosity, and he filled his time reading books and practicing his weapons. He occasionally woke up feeling strange, but he often shrugged it off, attributing it to fatigue from the practices before. Little did he know that he would soon find out about the actual reason for this.

One day his father told him his two brothers had been sent to become Hunters and had died. Kiku became angry with his father for not telling him about their assignment, and one day while his father was away he stole into the back room to see what his father kept hidden. What he found that day made him quickly pack a bag and depart from his home. His father had recorded his findings in a diary, which Kiku keeps on his person to this day.

The father took his oldest brother, and first attempted to alter the metallic content of his bloodstream. He fed him a diet of only the metals found in the human body. The self-titled alchemist believed that by substituting enough water with metal, his son’s bloodstream would adapt and thus make him immune to the vampires. He even went so far as to hypothesize that the other cells in the body would also adapt, making his son immune even to the sharp claws of the werewolves. He panicked when his son began to fall ill, locking him in the back room and not allowing either of his brothers to see him under any circumstances. He attempted to cure his ailing son by feeding him different kinds of metal, thinking that perhaps each organ operated differently and that his son would recover. Instead, his son died as his organs failed him, one by one.

Realizing his mistake, the father then attempted to create artificial body parts made of metal, hoping that by only substituting one at a time, the human side of the body would not reject them and shut down the organs. He took his second son far away from the house, where he amputated his arm and then attached a metal one using the tools he had previously wielded for smithing. He locked his son in a far away home, leaving the house frequently to bring him food and other necessities. After a month with no ill effects other than a little weight loss, he decided to try again, this time amputating a leg. He was so thrilled by his success that he decided to move on, amputating the other arm and remaining leg and attaching metal limbs. His second son died of infection and blood loss, the rust from the badly cared for metallic limbs making everything worse.

But Kiku’s father had already discovered something that would have revolutionized medicine…had Kiku not run away with it! While experimenting with his brothers, Kiku’s father also injected his youngest son with special bacteria, hoping that it would keep him healthy in case he needed him in the future. Not only did the bacteria boost his immune system, but it also caused him to heal faster, using adrenaline. His father would have described it as caffeine for every cell in his body. Because of this bacteria, Kiku found his vision sharper, his reflexes faster…though clearly nothing equal to the vampires and werewolves that roamed the land! He probably would have noticed no difference had he not been trained in the first place…or jittery.

The bacteria have since evolved on their own, meshing with his systems and wreaking havoc on them. Kiku ended up traveling, often staying up for several days and nights in a row. He fought all opposition, though not many tried to mess with him. While traveling, he attempted to research the bacteria his father had used, to see if there was a cure. He has yet to find one, but he is determined. Now instead he attempts to burn off the energy in the only way he knows how…fighting. Inside though, he is still mourning the loss of his family and the loneliness that has been forced onto him.