[ APPLICATION ]
Mun
Name: Unkie
Livejournal Username: vesperia
E-mail: unkieeeee[@]gmail.com
AIM/MSN: croaseraph
Current Characters at Luceti: n/a
Character
Name: Mikado Ryugamine
Fandom: Durarara!!
Gender: Male
Age: 16 17 16
Time Period: Timeskip between book 7 and 8
Wing Color: Deep blue, navy-ish
[ Other:
Height: 165cm (5'5)
Weight: 50kg (110lb)
Blood Type: O
Birthday: March 21 ]
History: SPOILERS for the novels below, obviously.
Mikado was born and raised in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Saitama prefecture, to be precise. That fact, plus his name, have been the two basic motivators in his life. While Mikado himself doesn’t stand out much, people always remember his name. Ryugamine Mikado roughly translates to “Emperor of Dragon’s Peak.” And throughout most of his life, he has been told that his name sounds like the main character of a manga. But sadly, that’s not necessarily the case for him. There’s not much to do out in the country, and Mikado began to wonder-why can’t his life be exciting and adventurous like his name implies?
Elementary school was when he met his best friend Kida Masaomi. They were always together, that is, up until middle school. Masaomi moved away then, leaving Mikado by himself.
It wasn’t so bad at first, but then he got a computer. And with that computer, he discovered the internet. And slowly, day by day, he began to close himself in, limiting his contact with the outside world, until he was essentially a hikikomori. There was a whole world to be explored online, and what’s more, he was able to keep in regular contact with Masaomi.
It all started out as a joke. Mikado and a couple of his other online acquaintances thought it would be fun to pretend they were a gang based in Ikebukuro, Tokyo-the “Dollars”. Getting a little carried away, they created their own password-protected website and made it an invite-only group. Naturally, they thought as they got over it they’d just leave it and let it die.
But something strange happened.
They began to notice that their little team was starting to gain power not just on the net, but in real life as well. They don’t know who started it, but with the power of word of mouth, the group began to grow in startling numbers, with many people calling themselves a Dollars member.
Mikado’s friends, however, decided that if they just up and left, it would disappear on its own. While they did just that, Mikado stayed to take care of the Dollars. He realized that this group had power, and all this power was in his hands. And with that he became the sole, anonymous Dollars Leader. He was just a middle school student.
Then came an invitation from Masaomi to attend high school together in Tokyo. Of course he wanted to go-having lived in the middle of nowhere all his life, going to school in Tokyo seemed like one grand adventure, the one he was looking for all his life. At first his parents were hesitant to let him go, but they eventually agreed and Mikado entered Raira Academy with Masaomi.
When he arrived in Tokyo, Masaomi greeted him there (he barely recognized him!). Masaomi was kind enough to act as a guide to Mikado over the next few days, informing him all about things like who he shouldn’t become enemies with and the gangs of Ikebukuro like the Dollars and urban legends and stuff like that. But Mikado’s going to be leading a normal life here, so it’s not like he has to worry about any of that, right?
Of course one of the first things he witnesses his first night in Ikebukuro is the urban legend, the headless motorcycle rider. And of course over the course of the next few days he is lucky enough to meet almost everyone that Masaomi warned him not to make enemies of.
As school started Masaomi and Mikado ended up in separate classes but one girl in his class caught his eye-a quiet, lonely looking girl named Sonohara Anri. Anri and he ended up becoming class presidents together but they never really talked. It wasn’t until later, at one time after school when he saw Anri being bullied, when they started to become friends (and he started to crush on her later). Anri told him a little bit about herself-about how she hasn’t heard from her friend Harima Mika in a while, and how she hasn’t shown up for school, and her history stalking another Raira student who hasn’t shown up for school-Yagiri Seiji.
Mikado’s curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to get to the bottom of this. He heard rumors from the online chat he frequents that human experimentation is being carried out by Yagiri pharmacies, the same name as the guy Mika was stalking.
It was one evening out on the town when Mikado accidentally bumped into a mysterious girl with a neck scar being chased by the headless rider. He took her back to safety to his apartment and tried to ask her questions, but apparently she had lost all of her memories. It’s the following day after school when things begin to get weirder-not only the headless rider but also Orihara Izaya, one of the people who Masaomi warned him about, approached him.
The headless rider revealed herself as Celty and told Mikado why she was chasing this girl, and he agreed to take them back to his apartment. He asked them to wait outside so he can go talk to her a little bit first, but to his surprise she was gone and instead two suspicious men were there, and they started to strangle him. Luckily Celty and Izaya noticed that he was taking a bit long and came in and saved him. Izaya mentioned that they were probably from Yagiri Pharmacies, and suddenly all the pieces click.
As the leader of the Dollars, Mikado decided that he has to do something, so he goes online to gather information and organize the first offline Dollars meetup. He called Yagiri Namie, one of the executives of Yagiri pharmeceuticals and Seiji’s older sister, to come meet later that evening to talk. They met on what could be called Ikebukuro’s main street in a sea of people and he tried to understand why she and her company were doing all of this. Not getting a satisfactory answer Mikado put his plan into action.
Suddenly all the phones on the street began to ring, and Namie and her henchmen found that everyone was staring silently at them. And even more bizarrely, everyone heard a voice coming from above, and there was Celty riding down the side of a building into the crowd. In the confusion, Mikado tried to escape but Seiji confronted him anyway and tried to attack him. Luckily Celty saved him, and when Celty was about to attack Seiji, the girl with the scarred neck screamed for her to stop. Turns out Celty’s head wasn't implanted on the girl at all, it was just Mika with plastic surgery.
Life returned to normal after that and it wasn’t until about a year later when things began to act up again. These were the slasher incidents-people would get mercilessly cut on the streets but never die. It sure was scary, but concerned Mikado when a few Dollars members started to get attacked, and really worried him when Anri was attacked. He and Masaomi visited her in the hospital almost every day. After she was released things should have returned to normal for them, but around that time the number of people wearing yellow began to increase, and tensions between the Dollars and the yellow people-the Yellow Scarves-also started on an upward scale.
However, oblivious to the situation his friends were in and only slightly worried about the condition of his Dollars, Mikado carried on his life as normal. He did notice that neither Anri nor Masaomi had been in school for the past few days or so, so he made the decision to go visit Anri’s house and see if she had caught a cold or something. On the way to her house, though, he was intercepted by Celty, who seemed like she had something important to take care of with him. Per her request he hopped on her motorcycle with her…
Celty took them to an abandoned factory somewhere on the outskirts of town, to find it filled with Yellow Scarves members. He didn’t understand the situation very well, and was just able to process Anri holding what looked like a katana and Masaomi bleeding from the head.
He and Anri were able to rush Masaomi to the hospital, and they had plans to visit him every day during Spring Break when Mikado got a phone call from Masaomi’s homeroom teacher saying that he had dropped from school. His phone contract had been canceled and his apartment empty, leaving one member of their trio vanished.
It was a sort of silent agreement between him and Anri not to speak about their secrets until Masaomi returned, whenever that happened to be. Their relationship couldn’t move forward without him. And his best friend’s disappearance weighed heavily on Mikado, as many people noticed that he wasn’t as upbeat as he used to be.
The beginning of the new school brought more interesting things, as a younger student by the name of Kuronuma Aoba approached Mikado and identified himself as a Dollars member, and also immediately pinned Mikado as one himself. He also asked for a tour of Ikebukuro since he had apparently just moved here and wasn’t familiar with the city. Though Mikado had only been here for about a year so far, he agreed to do it.
The tour of the city did not go over very well, though. He, Aoba, and Anri did get together with the intention of having a peaceful outing on the town, but their plans were interrupted when they were harassed by some gang members. They were able to escape, luckily, with the assistance of other Dollars members Kadota and his gang and van. Unfortunately though just as they thought they were safe, they were cornered again by another biker gang called Toramaru. While they did eventually manage to escape unharmed, Mikado was unable to give Aoba the tour of Ikebukuro.
Aside from that incident being just another “unusual” thing of the city, Mikado didn’t pay much mind to it. About a month later, this came back when he got a message from who he thought was his disappeared friend Masaomi, warning him to stay away from the Dollars for the next few days. Of course, this was a message from his best friend, and he couldn’t just ignore that advice. So when Aoba approached him again the next day asking for a redo of the Ikebukuro tour, he was ready to say no. …And then the kid started flirting with Anri in order for him to say yes, so he reluctantly agreed again.
When he returned home that evening, he got news that some rogue Dollars members had gone to Saitama and attacked the biker gang that was in Ikebukuro the previous month, Toramaru, and that Toramaru was back in town for revenge. Distressed that his own Dollars would do something like that, he began to research and gather information on the incident. He had stayed up literally all night doing this when he received a phone call from none other than Izaya. He talks with Mikado about the issues with the Dollars right now and how if he doesn’t want to get himself or Anri hurt, then all he has to do is turn off his phone an ignore the situation. He eventually lays it flat on him that Mikado’s not afraid of the Dollars causing trouble, but the ever-changing Dollars leaving him behind. Izaya then tells him that he always has friends to count on in situations like this, including himself. Mikado leaves that conversation thinking Izaya a nice person.
Then, there was a knock at his door-it was Aoba. He had come to ask him to meet him a bit earlier. He took Mikado to an abandoned factory and there were already others there that Aoba called his friends. He told Mikado everything-that not only were all of them Dollars members, they were the ones that attacked Toramaru, and that they’re all actually the original core group of the Blue Squares color gang, and oh, they want Mikado to be their leader.
However Mikado remembered Izaya’s words and Masaomi’s warning, and he hesitated. Aoba wasn’t going to let him leave, when suddenly Celty appeared out of the blue and rescues him. Since it was close to their meeting time for their Ikebukuro tour, she took him to their meeting spot and Anri was already there, with a littler girl named Akane. They were surrounded by yakuza, and not knowing that their objective was actually Akane, Mikado and Celty took them both and escaped.
They arrived at safety for the time being, but as Mikado looked at all the Dollars mail he had been getting, he noticed that there were messages about some of the Dollars members harassing and kidnapping girls thought to be in cahoots with the Toramaru leader. Determined to stop them himself, he leaves the safety and confronts them. He tries to fight them but he has no physical power, so he ends up getting beaten pretty badly.
When he comes to he sees Anri with him, holding a sword and the thugs he had tried to fight collapsed. Upon checking his phone again, he sees that Kadota and the leader of Toramaru, Rokujo Chikage, are about to duke it out over at Raira. He and Anri decide to head over there.
They don’t get involved with the fighting, but they do see the thugs that called themselves Dollars from earlier attempting to pick a fight with Chikage. Suddenly, though, they’re attacked by a mysterious motorcycle rider (who is not Celty), but much to his dismay Mikado is protected by Anri, who brings out her sword again and starts fighting with her. In the midst of of all the fighting all of the place, Shizuo approaches Mikado telling him that he no longer wants to have anything to do with the Dollars and that he quits.
When the mysterious biker lady finally leaves and all the “Dollars” thugs are defeated, Mikado chases after Chikage to apologize. He tells him that he takes all responsibility as the creator of the Dollars for the trouble that the members of his gang caused, and asks for forgiveness. Chikage, however, doesn’t exactly believe him, and says that whoever the Dollars leader is a sick person, who just lets his gang grow out of control and just watches from afar, watching it like a game. He then goes on to tell Mikado that he seems like a good kid, and he shouldn’t try to purposefully set foot into the “other side” of the city.
Mikado then realizes that he wasn’t afraid of being left behind by the Dollars, but by the city itself, and that he wasn’t able to keep up in the first place. If he wanted to be able to do anything in this chaotic city, he would need power to do so.
So he contacts Aoba again and they all regroup, and accepts his offer to become the Blue Squares leader. However, he retaliates by stabbing Aoba with a pen as their “contract”, thinking that he was behind all the trouble that got Anri involved in all of this.
In the months that follow, Mikado begins to spend more and more time with Aoba, working together as the Blue Squares faction in the Dollars to “get rid” of any members that seem rotten or are causing unnecessary trouble. He believes that he can cleanse the city so that when Masaomi eventually comes back, all three of them can once again spend their time peacefully together.
Personality:
After a first meeting, Mikado would not leave much of an impression. He has no physical attributes that really set him apart from any average Japanese teenager, and his behavior towards strangers is a generic politeness. The only way most people remember him is by his unusual name. This way, on the surface he is a very polite kid, kind, straightforward, and even kind of a pushover. He seems to be the very honest and hardworking type.
That’s not all untrue. Those first impressions do hold true for the basis of his personality. He’s very responsible, and it shows since he is not only on his second year as class representative, he is still the sole leader of the massive gang the Dollars. He can be your typical “nice guy,” almost to a fault, and is very hard to make angry. He’s highly idealistic, has a strong idea of right and wrong, and optimistic. He dislikes fights, which why he was rather shocked when he found out that the Dollars members were picking fights with other gangs. He also cares a lot about the people and things that are close to him.
On top of that, he is rather observant. He is pretty good at picking up bits of information here and there and then piecing together a larger picture, like how he figured out the story behind Yagiri Pharmaceuticals and Harima Mika. Another trait like this is his perseverance-while he might waffle a little bit before a large decision (he spent 10 minutes deciding on whether or not he should become the Blue Squares leader before he was interrupted), once he makes up his mind, he sticks with it. He has the mentality of “I know I can do something and I will do it.” He, however, tends to be more reactive than active, as his preference is to sit back and observe instead of creating the situation himself. Unless the situation directly affects himself or something or someone close to him and he knows he can do something about it, he might take play the part of passerby. While he might not strike up casual conversation from his end, he will, however, take the initiative to ask questions if he is curious.
Those traits, like many things in Durarara!!, have another side to them. It is true that he is your typical nice guy and he is rather hard to make angry, but when he snaps, it is not pretty. Mikado, rather than have a boiling rage, he goes with a silent and chilly fury. Not just anger, but he doesn’t show much emotion even when he’s feeling something extreme. Along with that, he can easily wear a smile on his face and has a good poker face, and when he switches suddenly between his fury and that, it is very unsettling. He cares deeply about the things and people close to him, but the ways he shows this is a bit unconventional. We call this yandere. Messing with his love interest will result in a stab wound to the hand; messing with his Dollars will result being assaulted by masked men on the street; messing with his best friend will result in being set on fire.
When it comes to being idealistic and his sense of right and wrong, it would be good to emphasize again that he is highly idealistic and has a strong sense of right and wrong. He has a strong perception of how himself, the things close to him and the world immediately around him should be, and it can almost be said that he lives in that image he has in his mind, which he considers the “right” perception. Anyone who challenges that image is usually the receiving end of his wrath.
In comparison to last time, Mikado has definitely become more self-confident. He doesn’t hesitate or stutter as much when talking to people, and it is evident that he’s more self-assured. On the other hand, though, he is not as open as he used to be. While he’ll openly talk about how he feels to a select few people, like Masaomi, Anri, or Izaya, he will put on a smile and make up an excuse to those he doesn’t want to involve/talk to about deeper matters.
As far as skills go, his most outstanding one is his technological prowess. He’s good with computers and the Internet and the like, but that’s to be expected since he is the Dollars leader. Along with that, he is also rather good at collecting information when it comes to it. Lastly, he has a sharp tongue and a quick wit, which comes off as “verbal abuse” when he uses it on Masaomi.
Strengths:
Physical: Mikado is just a scrawny, normal human being. Fortunately though, working as the Blue Squares leader for these past few months has given him a bit more experience in street fighting, and can land in a good hit in here and there.
Mental: He has tech smarts and book smarts. This is evident as he ranked really high in the Raira entrance exams. Also, he’s actually very perceptive. Given clues, he’s able to piece together an event only after hearing parts of the situation. Like when he was learning about Harima Mika-he only saw Anri fighting with Seiji, and heard just a bit of Anri’s story before he was able to more or less put the entire story together. He also definitely knows how to persevere. If he wants something, he will go through with it, just as how he managed to bargain with his parents to get to move to Ikebukuro. Even though he’s no good at fighting, he kept trying to intervene to stop the gang war when the Dollars and Toramaru were fighting. And currently, even though he’s no good at fighting and may even think of it as a pain, he won’t stop until his mission to create his perfect Dollars is complete.
Emotional: He has an incredible poker face, and can come off as emotionally stable. He can say most things with a smile on his face, and depending on what he says it can be a bit strange. For example, the day after the fight with Toramaru, Mika asks what happened to his face since he had bandages on it. He explains that he fell down the stairs which is… not what happened. However, when Mikado is nice, he is genuinely nice. Even after he stabbed Aoba, he offered to bandage and disinfect his hand.
Weaknesses:
Physical: At the end of the day, Mikado is still a human, which means no special powers, and a small and underweight one at that. And while he has been fighting for a while, he’s still not very good at it. Masaomi catches him picking a fight later on and comments, “Who is this guy, he’s still an amateur!!”
Mental: He really cannot tolerate people who go against his ideals. One such person is Aoba, who, in Mikado’s mind, went out of his way to rip apart his peaceful life and dragged Anri into the mess of Ikebukuro’s underworld. He also finally snaps when Chikage tells him that he shouldn’t be looking for the trouble that the city offers, and should live a normal life like he should. He ends up sobbing in the middle of the street, and Aoba ends up with a pen stab wound. He can also be rather trusting to a fault, which could play into his optimism. Izaya offers him some advice and tells him that he is a friend, and immediately after Mikado considers him a good person and consequently afterwards often mentions how he wants to ask him for advice. Even though Masaomi had told him in the very beginning that he is not someone he should associate with.
Emotional: While he can come off as such, he is definitely the least emotionally stable out of his trio, due to his warped perception of the world and extreme levels of yandere. He also has the tendency to keep things to himself, especially if he thinks that the problem concerns him and him only.