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OOC INFORMATION.

NAME: Kit

CONTACT: PM or kitsoru

IC INFORMATION.

BASICS

CHARACTER NAME: Nansen Ichimonji

CANON: Touken Ranbu (musical)

CANON POINT: Post-Kosui Sanka no Yuuki

AGE: Roughly 1,000 years old

BACKGROUND

HISTORY:

Touken Ranbu is the story of historical Japanese swords who have gained spirits over the hundreds of years they have existed, a phenomenon called "object spirits" or "tsukumogami". In the year 2205, humanity suffered a great catastrophe, and disagreement over how to handle the disaster led to a split of at least two factions- people who wanted to change history to prevent the catastrophe from occurring (the "Historical Revisionist Army" or HRA), and those who sought to prevent the fabric of reality being damaged by history being changed (the "Time Government"). In order to protect the state of history, the Time Government enlisted people with strong spiritual powers as "Sages" who would summon the spirits of swords, known as "Touken Danshi" or sword warriors, to chase after rogue elements in the past and preserve the flow of time.

As an object, Nansen Ichimonji was forged in the mid-late Kamakura period (1200-1400 AD) by a swordsmith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school and was owned by the Ashikaga shogunate. Ending up in the possession of the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1600's, it was gifted by his son to the new shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who in turn passed it on to his 9th son Tokugawa Yoshinao, the head of the main Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan. From that point forward, Nansen remained a treasure of the Owari Tokugawa family, worn at the hip of their leaders until the end of the era of swords in the late 1800's. Along with the Owari clan's other treasures, it became a holding of the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya when it was founded in 1935 (where Nansen remains on display today).

The name "Nansen" came about by an incident in which a housecat knocked over the sword stand it was placed in, causing the sword to fall out of its sheath and cleave the cat in two. The name "Nansen" was then taken from the story of a Zen monk by that name who supposedly killed a cat in anger. Because of this incident, Nansen believes that he was cursed by the cat he killed, causing him to manifest with cat-like personality quirks, a curse he desperately wishes to be rid of as it causes other Touken Danshi to not take him seriously as the "terrifying warrior" he claims to be.

Upon being summoned, Nansen hopes that by serving the sage and becoming known for something great besides his namesake, he can break the curse of the cat. As a Touken Danshi, he is fairly naive and inexperienced, but the first mission he is sent on ends up being an incredibly difficult one that matures and shapes his understanding of their purpose. Sent back to the Bakufu era when the Tokugawa shogunate's grasp on power was waning, his bickering with his unit captain Okanehira and a subsequent battle with HRA forces inadvertently causes two important historical figures to meet and become friends, when in correct historical record they were enemies who led to one another's assassinations. In particular, Nansen becomes attached to one of these men, Ii Naosuke, the interim advisor of the Tokugawa ruling government, not realizing that the man was fated to be killed. At first, swayed by Ii's vision of a peaceful and united Japan, Nansen believes that allowing this history to be changed is better for everyone, as it means that no one will have to die from assassination and war as in correct history. Their squad goes on to watch as the world changes from the correct version of history, such as men who were once revolutionaries peacefully exchanging ideas, accepting Western influences rather than rejecting them, and education flourishing throughout the capital in Edo.

However, due to the corruption of history by events unfolding correctly, the world becomes warped and the Time Government decides to cut off that instance of time to prevent the corruption from spreading down the entire timeline- like damming a single stream off from the great river of time, as one of Nansen's comrades puts it. The humans trapped in the now "stagnant" time period become twisted into malicious spirits, eventually forcing Nansen to kill Ii in self-defense. Unable to save this version of events, their unit ends up having to retreat from the collapsing timeline, thus learning the importance of why they must protect the state of history as it happened so that future generations can learn from it, even if that means allowing tragic events to unfold. However, Nansen swears to never forget the memory of the kind Ii Naosuke he'd met, thus allowing him to live on in his memories.



PERSONALITY:

What impression does your character give when meeting someone for the first time? How does the first impression differ from your character’s true nature?

At first blush, Nansen seems to be a cheerful, carefree, boyishly obstinate, and somewhat strange young man with an unfortunate verbal tic for meowing when he speaks. Trying to conceal himself as a human is therefore a little difficult, and it's probably easy for most normal people to tell there's something weird going on with him at first. However, despite his expressive personality being more human-like than many older swords, he sometimes has a more difficult time than them in understanding human nature. Even though he was owned by a ruling family for most of his existence, and that he's a tool made for killing, he seems to not fully understand humanity's motivations for going to war and spilling blood. Much of his existence was as more of a showpiece worn for bragging rights than as a tool actively used on the battlefield, and so he doesn't have as much firsthand experience as many swords who experienced open warfare do.

On top of his difficulty understanding humans, he has a large chip on his shoulder when it comes to being perceived as a cute "abnormality" among swords for his curse. He claims that before the cat cursed him, he was a tall and terrifying sword spirit that could silence a crying child, but because of that cat he now has to endure the mockery of his fellow swords, which endlessly frustrates him. This causes him to try to act like a tough guy to swords who tease him, such as his squad leader Okanehira. It doesn't help in his frustrations that even among his fellow Ichimonji school swords, a group who act with the strictness and power structure of a mafia clan, he is pushed around as the bottom rung member like a pet or little brother.

What are your character’s ambitions/goals? Why are they important to your character?

First and foremost, Nansen's greatest wish is to break the curse of the cat he killed as an object. As mentioned above, his frustrations with how he is perceived stem from his age being much greater than his manifestation would lead one to believe, and yet many swords around his age or even younger than him treat him with less respect due to finding his cat-like behaviors comical. His desire to be seen as more of an asset and less of a trinket or a specimen to be examined leads him to turn to pleasing his new master, the summoning sage, as a vehicle for breaking the curse. Because Touken Danshi manifest based on the legends and history attached to them, he believes that if he can make an impact as a summoned spirit that is greater than his infamy as the blade which killed the cat, he might be able to change his manifestation into something more fearsome and befitting what he claims is his "original" form as a terrifying and powerful Touken Danshi.

Despite all his complaints and desires to break the curse, his catlike behavior does lead to him being pampered by some of the older Touken Danshi and even his master, and he does act a bit the spoiled brat when he manages to get away with using his cute and catlike behavior to his advantage. In this sense, you could say that while it's his ambition to break the curse and be recognized as the powerful sword that he is, he doesn't totally hate how he has manifested. Later in canon, he does eventually realize that it's because he is 'sharp as a cat's claws' that his original masters had pride in him as a sword, and he eventually comes to accept his manifestation.

What are some of your character's regrets? How is your character impacted by them?

After Kosui, Nansen has just been through a traumatic experience in which he bonded to a human over a period of several years, in the process gaining the hope that he might live past his historical death- only to learn that fate couldn't be changed, and being forced to put the man out of his misery by his own blade. As a result of this mission, Nansen learned the reason that they cannot sway from their mission as Touken Danshi: to protect history as it was, lest the fabric of time be damaged. However, Ii Naosuke left a huge impression on him, both in his grand vision for a modern Japan, and as one person trying to do the best he can to use his power to protect as many people as possible.

Though he learned that Ii couldn't have been saved, a part of Nansen remains with some regrets and hesitancy as to whether it was "right" to leave that timeline to its doom- whether or not there really was something that could have been done to save Ii, to change history for the better. It's a learning process many swords are shown to experience throughout the canon, and in the scene in which Nansen is forced to kill Ii, he questions his more experienced senior Izuminokami: "what if the government isn't right?" After having grown from a similar experience with his own master's death, Izuminokami accompanied them on this mission in order to pass this lesson on: for now, there's no room for regrets. All they can do is what is "right" in the moment, and if they learn that the Time Government was wrong, they can "kick their ass" later. Taking that lesson to heart, Nansen decides to focus on hope rather than regret.





INVENTORY: Nothing but the clothes on his back.

POWERS

SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Sword Body: As a sword spirit, Nansen's true body is the sword he normally carries. The human body he was manifested into by a sage means that it is more durable than a sword would normally be, as his spiritual power protects it from normal wear and tear to some extent, however it is still a sword and needs regular maintenance in order to not rust or break. If his sword body breaks or is melted down, Nansen would die.

Swordsmanship: Being that Nansen is literally a sword, he has intrinsic skill in kendo in addition to the many centuries of experience he has of watching his masters use him.

Superhuman strength/reflexes: Touken Danshi possess much greater physical abilities than humans, including their strength, speed/agility, and stamina. For example, they are strong enough to cut down an enemy three times their size, or to battle dozens of enemy swords before becoming exhausted. Injuries heal much quicker and can be tanked more easily than a human. In particular, since Nansen's manifestation is heavily cat-influenced, he tends more on the speed and agility side of this than the strength and stamina side, allowing him to use nimble footwork and acrobatics around enemies to wear them down.

Awakening/"Sakura Fubuki": When Touken Danshi are excited or battle-lust, they can enter a state of heightened spiritual power and they become engulfed in a storm of cherry blossom petals. If seriously injured in this state, they can enter a spiritual "Awakening" which enhances their human body's physical abilities. However, it is very exhausting, and they risk breaking if they push it too far.

Supernatural/Time distortion senses: As Touken Danshi are tasked with protecting the integrity of the timeline, they can sense when time has been warped, and to some extent the location of a time distortion. In addition, they can also sense when the HRA are nearby in the current time period, and they can sense and communicate with other spirits like youkai or ghosts.

Passive Time/Memory manipulation: In general, humans who meet Touken Danshi will not remember them once they have left the timeline they have traveled to, in order to prevent changing history with their presence. This is something that happens seemingly without their effort, perhaps also a byproduct of being spirits. That means that sometimes it can be difficult to remember them even if you have already met them before.



NERFING:
• At 20% Nansen's general physical abilities- strength, speed, agility- will simply be on the level of a normal human athlete at peak.
• His ability to sense time distortions and spiritual auras will also be greatly lessened to mere impressions, equivalent to our sense of hearing being reduced to just a vague, muffled sound.
• Any of his passive effects on time or memory will be null (I might regain the memory gap later just for comedic use?)
• His sword body will be absent until it is regained, but he remains with the intrinsic knowledge of how to handle a sword.
• He isn't strong enough to enter Sakura Fubuki or Awakening without his sword body and until he begins to regain a good amount of his spiritual power (I'll leave it to mod discretion!)


WEAKNESSES: Since his true physical body is his sword, if he regains it then it will be possible to kill him by breaking or melting his sword body.

SAMPLES.

TDM Thread 1
TDM Thread 2