Application: Take Two
[Player name] Kaley
[Age] 22
[Personal Journal] perpetual_poet
[Other characters currently played] N/A
[Character name] Youji Kudou
[Age] 25/26, thanks to previous time in Som
[Canon] Weiss Kreuz
[Point in time taken from canon] End of Gluhen ep. 12 + after previous time here
[Background] As a younger man, Youji was a private detective. He worked with his partner, Asuka Murase, until they investigated a missing girl at a sex club, Liott. They found the girl dead, but when they tried to escape, Youji was injured. He urged Asuka to go on without him, and she agreed; she kissed him on the cheek and ran away.
Unfortunately, right before Youji’s eyes, she was shot, and, apparently, killed. Afterwards, Youji was recruited by an organization called Kritiker and became a member of their elite assassin team, Weiss. Legally dead and working undercover as a florist, Youji agreed for the chance to protect other women from dying as needlessly as Asuka did-and for the chance at revenge.
The chance presented itself when Persia, Weiss’ boss, added the owners of Liott to the hit list. Youji immediately volunteered to be the primary investigator (and availed himself of Liott’s services…), breaking into Liott’s computer systems and stealing the schedules of the owners. During the mission, he ran into a prostitute named Maki, who demanded he take her with him when he left, or she’d blow his cover. Youji agreed, but was injured in the escape. Maki called the rest of Weiss for help and patched Youji up as best as she could, but, perhaps hallucinating his last moments with Asuka, Youji urged her to run away.
She was taken alive, but by the time Weiss arrived to rescue her, she had been murdered. As befits a seasoned assassin, Youji was merciless.
After that, missions continued like usual. Youji stepped in to discourage Ken from getting too close to a potential victim, accused Aya of dating a high school girl, and teased Omi about needing a real girlfriend, before they were given a mission about a so-called “monster” roaming the streets. They managed to connect it to a customer’s boyfriend named Tetsuya, and discovered him right as he changed.
While trying to convince Tetsuya to help them, Weiss was attacked by another, all-female quartet of assassins--Schreient. Weiss followed Schreient to their boss' lab, and fought them until they escaped. Youji matched up with the vicious, taciturn Neu. Right before she ran off, he broke her visor, and was startled to see she shared a distinct physical feature of Asuka's: a mole right beneath her eye.
The thought that Neu might be his beloved Asuka ingrained itself in Youji's mind, and he advocated pursuing Schreient and their boss, Masafumi Takatori. Of course, that meant telling Omi to skip to it and everyone else wandering off to do his own thing; Youji's was to visit a seaside cafe he used to frequent with Asuka. He pictured her sitting across from him, yelling at him because he lacked ambition. When the waitress brought him two coffees and asked where his date was, Youji replied that she wasn't coming--ever.
When they next met, he approached Neu in a darkened hallway, and didn't fight to kill; instead, he pinned her to the ground and removed her visor. More than ever, he was convinced: this was the Asuka he'd thought was dead.
Right about then, Masafumi was causing the building to burn and crumble to the ground, and Schreient were desperate to protect him; Neu braced the building's support beams as best she could, but it collapsed, and Aya, using an opening provided by Omi, killed Masafumi. Schreient were thought to be crushed beneath the rubble--but, as Youji and Weiss wouldn't find until later, they survived.
Outwardly, Youji showed no indication that an enemy's death affected him, and continued his usual womanizing. Events came to a head when Reiji Takatori, brother of Weiss' boss, found out his bodyguards accidentally killed his daughter; their leader convinced him that it was Weiss' fault, and Takatori lost no time in rising to the position of Prime Minister, and having publicized as terrorists. Aya left the group long enough for the other three to get their heads smashed in; Youji swore to himself and Asuka that he'd lost too much already, and wouldn't lose the others, too. "One splinter that can't be removed is enough!"
Weiss regrouped, stole their way into Takatori's hideout, and there found their boss dying. He told them of Takatori's hand in Asuka's "death" at Liott, and Youji fought random soldiers while Aya killed Takatori.
Mission completed, Weiss disbanded. Omi asked Youji if he was working as a detective again, but he didn't answer. He ditched a date when he saw, passing through the crowd, a woman with the same mole under her eye as Asuka and Neu. When he approached her, he called her Asuka, and she smirked at him, thinking he was just hitting on her. Youji, in a rare moment of bluster, babbled on about how no, she really did look like someone he used to know, and convinced her to accompany him to a mountain cabin. The morning after, he tried to resign himself to the fact that she was a different person, and that he had to forget Asuka--when Neu (possibly having disguised herself as the woman) attacked him from behind and nearly killed him, if not for the Kritiker agent who was tailing Youji at the time.
Seeing that he just wasn't safe, Youji went back to the flower shop to retrieve his garrotte wire, and joined the reformed Weiss--now with a mission to stop the occult organization Eszett. One of their first acts had been to employ Schreient to kidnap Aya's younger sister for a summoning ritual, and their involvement sparked Youji's interest. When they ambushed Weiss on a mission, Youji begged Neu to remember him, but she kept fighting.
However, she was injured in Schreient's escape, and Youji insisted on bringing her home. Schreient disparaged his idiocy and his teammates thought it was a trap; this led to a conflict of interest and plenty of tension with Aya, who demanded Neu tell him where his sister was, while Youji insisted she be left alone and couldn't help what she had done under the effects of amnesia and brainwashing.
When Ken brought up the possibility that Neu was taking him for a fool, Youji saw red and decked him. The next day, when he ditched them to spend time with "Asuka,” they realized that she was more important to him than Weiss. Even if she never recovered her memory, he would probably leave with her after this. Youji himself thought, "If I don't believe in Asuka, who will?"
Throughout the day, Youji received mixed signals; Neu enjoyed Asuka's favorite store, but didn't want to sit by the window in their old restaurant. When she said she thought he was disappointed and that open spaces made her uneasy, Youji thought he was being insensitive and proposed they declare that day their new anniversary.
Still, Youji had to know for sure, and took a cruel step towards finding out: he took Neu to the alley where Asuka had been shot, and watched the fireworks. Neu shook violently, shivered, sweated, clutched at her head, and claimed the memories were returning. In triumph, Youji called the rest of the team to let them know Asuka had told him where to find Schreient and Aya-chan. When he was told it was a place they'd already looked, he had an answer ready: there was a basement.
There was also an ambush: Schreient was waiting for them, and trapped Omi and Ken immediately. Neu appeared, and ridiculed Youji for believing her act, telling him she felt sick whenever he called her Asuka. Seeing that Aya was getting beaten rather badly and Omi was ill from chemicals or debris in the lab, Youji did the only thing he could: he strangled Neu, the person he believed to be the love of his life, his partner, the person he was doing the whole vigilante thing for in the first place. He killed her, and with her dying breath, she proclaimed her love for--Masafumi Takatori.
Youji broke down, crying, screaming, visiting his old office and almost seeing Asuka waiting for him there, smiling. Neu's death was just the beginning of Youji's downward spiral.
Immediately after, Schreient swore vengeance on Weiss, with help from Schwarz, and Youji found himself unable to kill the two youngest members of their rival teams, seeing that they were in love. He volunteered to be the bait on the mission, but his teammates told him his judgment was impaired, and so to be careful.
Schwarz finished the job Weiss had begun, and the rest of Schreient was defeated that night. They also took possession of Aya's sister. The final showdown between the two teams was interrupted by the building they were in collapsing into the sea--miraculously, all eight combatants survived, and Weiss was packed off into a pink trailer with a mobile flower shop, Takatori and Eszett having all-but blown their cover.
With their reasons for joining Weiss more or less null and void, the team's morale and mental health began to deteriorate. Only a single verbal clue from their superiors kept them from falling prey to a target manipulating them into killing each other. Later, they received a mission-only to find their targets already murdered when they arrived.
Youji continued his womanizing wherever they set up shop, but began suffering from psychotic breaks whenever he tried to be intimate with a date; he began to hallucinate that she was Asuka/Neu, and attempting to strangle her with his bare hands.
After being slapped and told off by his latest victim, Youji heard a strangely sad melody being played on a violin. He followed the sound, and wound up in Ayame and Azami's bar in Gion. Azami offered him a drink on the house, and Youji asked to hear him play. Ayame told him Azami wasn't actually very good, as people had died listening to him. Youji didn't react to the comment; he only reflected, "...I'm searching... and I'm starting to hate everything about myself."
Youji ended up telling Azami the gist of his problems with Asuka. He took to coming by the bar; when Azami apologized because they were closed and promised to make it up to him, Youji just said he'd ask to hear the violin.
When given a mission to kill the leaders of an international kidnapping and prostitution ring, Youji's verdict on the target was, ironically, "Women aren't for men to hurt... but to love."
Right as they killed the final target, however, another group of four assassins appeared--their weapons the same as the ones that killed their previous targets. Identifying themselves as the real Weiss, they thoroughly outclassed Youji and the others, with Aya recognizing their leader as a former member of Kritiker and his mentor. Weiss were left alive, with the warning not to interfere again.
The mobile shop moved on to Kanazawa, where Weiss met up with shady characters who ended up being the "other" Weiss, an earlier incarnation of their unit that didn't want to be part of the infighting of the family in charge of Kritiker. They completed another mission and moved on again, with Youji taking a detour back to the bar in Gion.
Ayame was there alone, and invited Youji out drinking; next thing Youji knew, he was drunk past his limit, barely remembered what had been going on, and in bed with a woman. Figuring he might as well go along, he did so--and again began to choke the girl; this one said she was okay with it, but Youji was horrified. He collapsed, and, when he woke up, hungover--he found her lying there, dead.
He went home and shut himself up in the trailer, until Manx presented Weiss with their next mission. The briefing revealed that Youji's new friends were their enemies, and his response was self-deprecating laughter.
Perhaps identifying with her, after having been fond of her anyway, Youji reacted to Manx’s subsequent death by observing she had died chasing a hopeless love. When the others expressed concern over him joining the mission, after having been "ill" and "hungover" since returning from Gion, Youji told them he was in no hurry to die, but that he didn't want to run, either.
The mission was to kill Birman so that she couldn't give the other Weiss any information, but at the critical moment, they decided to save her instead. Birman disagreed, and shot herself. Weiss split up and ran off, with Ken and Youji confronting Azami and Ayame. They learned that Ayame had a psychotic need to kill women, and he'd noticed Youji attempting to do the same--he'd killed the girl to "free" Youji of his restraint. Ayame explained that killing for pleasure was more human than killing for the gray morality of Kritiker, and Azami that he'd realized he just likes cutting women apart, and that finally giving into these desires freed them. Youji, fully acknowledging himself as a murderer, admits he sees where they're coming from, but his motto is still woman's enemy is my enemy, and he'd have to kill them now.
Youji admitted that the anger and hatred he'd projected onto Asuka/Neu--and, by extension, the girls he'd been strangling--more rightfully rested on himself. When asked, Youji answered that Ayame and Azami killed themselves. In dying, they'd finally come to understand their love and devotion to each other, and Youji told Azami he'd won; Youji had never loved a woman as much as Azami had loved Ayame.
Afterward, Weiss receive what is intended to be their final mission: to kill the final members of the previous Weiss, and then lead normal lives. Youji, along with Aya and Ken, said the prospect was ridiculous, and they would continue as they had.
Youji and Ken accompanied Aya on the mission to kill the leader of the previous Weiss, but were quickly dispatched by him. Afterwards, Weiss was formally disbanded.
Two years later, Youji is living off various women; one girl, Kimika, refers to herself as his “Thursday and Friday lover,” but even so, she’d like it if he could focus on her when they are together-and not call out “Asuka.”
After Kimika left, some thugs came looking for her and her drug money. Youji got smacked around before Ken came looking for him. Ken tried to convince him to go back to killing with him, but Youji said he’d forgotten about it all.
Later, Youji found Kimika dying, and can’t answer when she asks him to say he loves her. She understood, but internally, Youji is frustrated, hearing voices talk about how he can never love again…
…He woke up after having been found by Aya. When Aya asked him if he killed the people responsible for Kimika’s death, he said yes. They deserved it. Aya clearly mistrusted Youji’s judgment, and Youji confirmed he’s been using the drugs Kimika’d been dealing.
Aya was ready to wash his hands of Youji, claiming he had no reason to fight and would only be strung along by his emotions, and unstable. Their boss, however, gave his blessing and permitted Youji to join the reformed Weiss. With Ken, he went to Europe to infiltrate a school and retrieve information.
Youji’s assignment was to get information from a woman named Schell, but while doing so, he fell in love with her; when it came time for their final confrontation, she accused him of only using her and then coming to kill her in the end. Youji was visibly disturbed by this, and screamed about the injustice of it all for a bit.
That done with, Youji and Ken returned to infiltrate another school with the rest of the team. Youji focused his investigation on the pretty and intelligent Mayumi Tsujii, a teacher who was really working for Eszett.
It didn’t take long for Tsujii to see through Youji-she was another victim of his compulsion to strangle women, thinking she was Asuka. Tsujii identified him as someone in a great deal of pain from his memories, and again leveled the accusation that Youji was incapable of love, and just using her.
Youji was distraught, and Tsujii offered him a solution: amnesia. Total loss of self-with no memories of Weiss or Asuka, he’d be free.
The catch? Tsujii and Eszett had to win. When the time for the final confrontation came, Youji attacked Aya, and kept him busy until the building began to crumble. At that point, Aya got away to challenge Tsujii; Youji, coming up behind, listened in on their conversation-Aya declaring he would never give up his memories-and hallucinated Asuka before him. She told him she was dead, but that she was happy because he lived on. Realizing that losing his memory would also mean killing Asuka for good and all, Youji insisted on fighting Tsujii himself, so that Aya could take care of other targets.
When Aya and the others returned, Youji was on the ropes. Tsujii had him in a chokehold, and Aya threw Youji his sword. He was able to stab through and kill her with it, but the building was coming down faster and between the rubble and his injuries, there was no way he could escape.
Omi begged Youji not to die, Ken asked him if they could all go home together, and Youji smiled and agreed. He had to return Aya’s sword, and he knew now: “Home is where you guys are.”
Aya smiled and told him they’d be waiting.
[Personality] In general, when he’s on top form, Youji is pleasant to be around. He’s a social person who likes to talk. He’s very charming and flirtatious. He also likes to tease and can be rather snarky when the situation calls for it. In everyday life, it’s lighthearted banter directed at his friends. He’s completely shameless about this-he accuses his coworkers of looking up Internet porn and dating high school girls.
On assassin jobs, his sarcasm either directs itself towards the hopelessness of their cause (“If Weiss is relying on luck, we’re finished.”) or towards the fate of his victims. He’s not above making you feel really bad before he kills you.
Depending on the situation, he’s not above making you feel bad at all. He is capable of being brutally honest, potentially cruel, selfish, and downright hypocritical. When faced with a situation where he was harboring an enemy that might know the whereabouts of Aya’s kidnapped sister, he plainly refused to do anything that might displease the enemy, and will date, flirt and sleep around as much as possible, yet tell Ken his sins make him unworthy of love.
Youji is rarely startled. He takes life at an easy pace, and very little seriously fazes him. (What does is usually related to Asuka being alive, or actual, honest love.) When presented with a massacre at a wedding, all he said was that it was a shame to kill such a cute bride. He’s usually shown on an even keel-even if he isn’t truly on top of things, he can usually dodge any awkwardness with a smart remark.
He also considers himself a gentleman, and is definitely a womanizer, a ladies’ man, and a shameless playboy. He’s also chivalrous; his motto is “Woman’s enemy is my enemy.” And he’ll act in the name of it.
Privately, Youji is depressed. He was 20 when he lost the love of his life, after she was shot during an investigation. He feels responsible for her death, as she was shot while he was already injured, and became an assassin both because he wanted revenge on the people who killed her, and because he wanted to prevent other women from dying as needlessly as she did. He’s not found any great satisfaction in this, and as a result is lazy and world-weary. He’s fought for a long time and when offered an easier way out, he jumped at it. He lived to regret it, but he jumped at it, and was prepared to give up every part that made up his whole just to be free of the life he led.
[Specialties/Abilities] Youji is a normal human. He doesn’t have any special powers, but he is a highly trained assassin. He fights with a wire concealed in his watch, which he normally uses to restrain or strangle people. He’s proficient at it, but tends to avoid hand-to-hand combat if he can; he’s more likely to sneak up behind someone and strangle them. He’s also handy with a gun. He’s not fazed by supernatural powers or genetically engineered strength. Blame Eszett
Prior to becoming an assassin, Youji was a private detective, and is thus observant and capable of carrying out investigations, infiltrations, reading people, and generally finding things out. He is stealthy, capable of sneaking around and following people. His charming personality allows him to interrogate discreetly, yet thoroughly.
Other talents include his wonderful day job as a florist-he knows floriography and arrangements. He is a good enough artist that he was able to pass as a high school art teacher, both in Europe and Japan; we see him instructing a class in drawing and then painting a watercolor.
Youji is also a ladies’ man. He enjoys the company of women and they enjoy his company, too. He’s a charming, roguish flirt-and this is a talent he uses in his work. When infiltrating Weinrot High School and Koua Academy, Youji seduced female teachers in order to see what they knew about Eszett. It kills him to do so, because he is genuinely chivalrous and respectful of women, and can’t help falling in love with them, but he can and does do it. And then he kills them.
[Sample post]
[First Person]
Does anyone ever get tired of hearing 'I've been asleep for a week, what did I miss?' Permit me to shake things up a bit. Last I knew, it was February, and I was in my apartment. Now it's June, and I'm in the middle of the field.
I've lost nights before, but this is pushing it just a bit.
[He smiles genially.]
A lesser man would probably give up drinking at this turn of events, but thankfully, I'm not that fragile.
[Private to Weiss]
I don't expect explanations, but something cold and stiff would be appreciated. And nothing work related is meant by that.
[Third Person]
Youji was first aware of pain; then, he opened his eyes; third, he forced himself up to his knees and looked around. The floor beneath him was cold-well, obviously, as was the rest of the building.
And there was a problem with that observation; the suspicious corner of Youji’s brain, the sharpness honed from years of investigations, both as a detective and an assassin, was screaming at him, red voice, bright lights, harsh and piercing and it was a very strong force of will that kept him from smacking himself in the forehead to shut it up. People who have just had buildings blow up and crumble and crash down on their heads, and after an already-serious beating from a pissed-off, genetically-enhanced ex-Youji’s brain screeched to a halt.
There was a roof over his head; a quick glance confirmed that. He was not surrounded by rubble. He very clearly remembered being surrounded by rubble. And the balcony was gone-and the blood on his face was wet. He touched it to be sure; it was wet, brightly-colored, hadn’t yet begun to coagulate. His wounds hadn’t begun to heal. It hadn’t pooled on the ground, either, he noticed. There were a few droplets at best-that seriously shortened the time he could have been unconscious.
For that matter. Where was the corpse he’d just killed? And the sword he’d killed it with was-still in his hand. Good.
With a certain sense of futility, Youji reached into his coat pocket for his cigarettes and lighter. While gloves were good for the lack of fingerprints, it made fumbling around for small objects rather more difficult. He swore softly, before feeling… not the lighter.
Youji frowned and pulled it out. Cell phone? A bit nicer than his, honestly. Still, definitely not his. Youji never carried his cell phone on missions; his contacts list included his... "colleagues," and if he or his body were ever discovered at the scene of a gruesome assassination, well.
Mental checklist, he thought sardonically. I am in a place I don’t remember being, without having had time to get there, without the dead body I just killed, without my cigarettes… but with Aya's sword. And a stolen cell phone.
Might as well put that last one to use-and Youji was trying not to think about how it had gotten into his pocket. No possible explanation made sense, except that someone expected him to use it. Maybe he was supposed to call a number in the contact list and… well. Not going to bother with that idea; he checked the contact list and it looked extensive. No way to figure out which one he was supposed to call, if any. If that was the phone’s owner’s plan, it was less than practical.
Not that that eliminated anything, but. Youji tried not to sigh.
He could try to call Kritiker, he supposed, or one of the others. They’d been worried, but. Facing them with the consequences of that last battle seemed a lot more daunting now that he knew he wasn’t going to die.
Still in excruciating pain, from cuts, bruises, and damn he was not looking forward to walking on that leg--but not going to die.
Still, he rather hoped the "child of God" had a different definition of "break" than he did, but not likely. Gingerly, he braced himself with Aya's katana, putting as much weight as possible onto it as he staggered to his feet. Something was certainly broken there and the katana was not long enough to use as a walking stick, but he would manage. It hurt like hell, but he would manage.
So all that was left was just a leisurely walk around, just to get his bearings and see where he was.
Then he’d contact the others.
[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] Because the Weiss cast is la creme de la creme.
[Which rule was your favorite and why?] Stay in character.
[Where did you hear about Somarium?] The Weiss cast enabled me on d_m
[Any questions?] Not at this time!
[Age] 22
[Personal Journal] perpetual_poet
[Other characters currently played] N/A
[Character name] Youji Kudou
[Age] 25/26, thanks to previous time in Som
[Canon] Weiss Kreuz
[Point in time taken from canon] End of Gluhen ep. 12 + after previous time here
[Background] As a younger man, Youji was a private detective. He worked with his partner, Asuka Murase, until they investigated a missing girl at a sex club, Liott. They found the girl dead, but when they tried to escape, Youji was injured. He urged Asuka to go on without him, and she agreed; she kissed him on the cheek and ran away.
Unfortunately, right before Youji’s eyes, she was shot, and, apparently, killed. Afterwards, Youji was recruited by an organization called Kritiker and became a member of their elite assassin team, Weiss. Legally dead and working undercover as a florist, Youji agreed for the chance to protect other women from dying as needlessly as Asuka did-and for the chance at revenge.
The chance presented itself when Persia, Weiss’ boss, added the owners of Liott to the hit list. Youji immediately volunteered to be the primary investigator (and availed himself of Liott’s services…), breaking into Liott’s computer systems and stealing the schedules of the owners. During the mission, he ran into a prostitute named Maki, who demanded he take her with him when he left, or she’d blow his cover. Youji agreed, but was injured in the escape. Maki called the rest of Weiss for help and patched Youji up as best as she could, but, perhaps hallucinating his last moments with Asuka, Youji urged her to run away.
She was taken alive, but by the time Weiss arrived to rescue her, she had been murdered. As befits a seasoned assassin, Youji was merciless.
After that, missions continued like usual. Youji stepped in to discourage Ken from getting too close to a potential victim, accused Aya of dating a high school girl, and teased Omi about needing a real girlfriend, before they were given a mission about a so-called “monster” roaming the streets. They managed to connect it to a customer’s boyfriend named Tetsuya, and discovered him right as he changed.
While trying to convince Tetsuya to help them, Weiss was attacked by another, all-female quartet of assassins--Schreient. Weiss followed Schreient to their boss' lab, and fought them until they escaped. Youji matched up with the vicious, taciturn Neu. Right before she ran off, he broke her visor, and was startled to see she shared a distinct physical feature of Asuka's: a mole right beneath her eye.
The thought that Neu might be his beloved Asuka ingrained itself in Youji's mind, and he advocated pursuing Schreient and their boss, Masafumi Takatori. Of course, that meant telling Omi to skip to it and everyone else wandering off to do his own thing; Youji's was to visit a seaside cafe he used to frequent with Asuka. He pictured her sitting across from him, yelling at him because he lacked ambition. When the waitress brought him two coffees and asked where his date was, Youji replied that she wasn't coming--ever.
When they next met, he approached Neu in a darkened hallway, and didn't fight to kill; instead, he pinned her to the ground and removed her visor. More than ever, he was convinced: this was the Asuka he'd thought was dead.
Right about then, Masafumi was causing the building to burn and crumble to the ground, and Schreient were desperate to protect him; Neu braced the building's support beams as best she could, but it collapsed, and Aya, using an opening provided by Omi, killed Masafumi. Schreient were thought to be crushed beneath the rubble--but, as Youji and Weiss wouldn't find until later, they survived.
Outwardly, Youji showed no indication that an enemy's death affected him, and continued his usual womanizing. Events came to a head when Reiji Takatori, brother of Weiss' boss, found out his bodyguards accidentally killed his daughter; their leader convinced him that it was Weiss' fault, and Takatori lost no time in rising to the position of Prime Minister, and having publicized as terrorists. Aya left the group long enough for the other three to get their heads smashed in; Youji swore to himself and Asuka that he'd lost too much already, and wouldn't lose the others, too. "One splinter that can't be removed is enough!"
Weiss regrouped, stole their way into Takatori's hideout, and there found their boss dying. He told them of Takatori's hand in Asuka's "death" at Liott, and Youji fought random soldiers while Aya killed Takatori.
Mission completed, Weiss disbanded. Omi asked Youji if he was working as a detective again, but he didn't answer. He ditched a date when he saw, passing through the crowd, a woman with the same mole under her eye as Asuka and Neu. When he approached her, he called her Asuka, and she smirked at him, thinking he was just hitting on her. Youji, in a rare moment of bluster, babbled on about how no, she really did look like someone he used to know, and convinced her to accompany him to a mountain cabin. The morning after, he tried to resign himself to the fact that she was a different person, and that he had to forget Asuka--when Neu (possibly having disguised herself as the woman) attacked him from behind and nearly killed him, if not for the Kritiker agent who was tailing Youji at the time.
Seeing that he just wasn't safe, Youji went back to the flower shop to retrieve his garrotte wire, and joined the reformed Weiss--now with a mission to stop the occult organization Eszett. One of their first acts had been to employ Schreient to kidnap Aya's younger sister for a summoning ritual, and their involvement sparked Youji's interest. When they ambushed Weiss on a mission, Youji begged Neu to remember him, but she kept fighting.
However, she was injured in Schreient's escape, and Youji insisted on bringing her home. Schreient disparaged his idiocy and his teammates thought it was a trap; this led to a conflict of interest and plenty of tension with Aya, who demanded Neu tell him where his sister was, while Youji insisted she be left alone and couldn't help what she had done under the effects of amnesia and brainwashing.
When Ken brought up the possibility that Neu was taking him for a fool, Youji saw red and decked him. The next day, when he ditched them to spend time with "Asuka,” they realized that she was more important to him than Weiss. Even if she never recovered her memory, he would probably leave with her after this. Youji himself thought, "If I don't believe in Asuka, who will?"
Throughout the day, Youji received mixed signals; Neu enjoyed Asuka's favorite store, but didn't want to sit by the window in their old restaurant. When she said she thought he was disappointed and that open spaces made her uneasy, Youji thought he was being insensitive and proposed they declare that day their new anniversary.
Still, Youji had to know for sure, and took a cruel step towards finding out: he took Neu to the alley where Asuka had been shot, and watched the fireworks. Neu shook violently, shivered, sweated, clutched at her head, and claimed the memories were returning. In triumph, Youji called the rest of the team to let them know Asuka had told him where to find Schreient and Aya-chan. When he was told it was a place they'd already looked, he had an answer ready: there was a basement.
There was also an ambush: Schreient was waiting for them, and trapped Omi and Ken immediately. Neu appeared, and ridiculed Youji for believing her act, telling him she felt sick whenever he called her Asuka. Seeing that Aya was getting beaten rather badly and Omi was ill from chemicals or debris in the lab, Youji did the only thing he could: he strangled Neu, the person he believed to be the love of his life, his partner, the person he was doing the whole vigilante thing for in the first place. He killed her, and with her dying breath, she proclaimed her love for--Masafumi Takatori.
Youji broke down, crying, screaming, visiting his old office and almost seeing Asuka waiting for him there, smiling. Neu's death was just the beginning of Youji's downward spiral.
Immediately after, Schreient swore vengeance on Weiss, with help from Schwarz, and Youji found himself unable to kill the two youngest members of their rival teams, seeing that they were in love. He volunteered to be the bait on the mission, but his teammates told him his judgment was impaired, and so to be careful.
Schwarz finished the job Weiss had begun, and the rest of Schreient was defeated that night. They also took possession of Aya's sister. The final showdown between the two teams was interrupted by the building they were in collapsing into the sea--miraculously, all eight combatants survived, and Weiss was packed off into a pink trailer with a mobile flower shop, Takatori and Eszett having all-but blown their cover.
With their reasons for joining Weiss more or less null and void, the team's morale and mental health began to deteriorate. Only a single verbal clue from their superiors kept them from falling prey to a target manipulating them into killing each other. Later, they received a mission-only to find their targets already murdered when they arrived.
Youji continued his womanizing wherever they set up shop, but began suffering from psychotic breaks whenever he tried to be intimate with a date; he began to hallucinate that she was Asuka/Neu, and attempting to strangle her with his bare hands.
After being slapped and told off by his latest victim, Youji heard a strangely sad melody being played on a violin. He followed the sound, and wound up in Ayame and Azami's bar in Gion. Azami offered him a drink on the house, and Youji asked to hear him play. Ayame told him Azami wasn't actually very good, as people had died listening to him. Youji didn't react to the comment; he only reflected, "...I'm searching... and I'm starting to hate everything about myself."
Youji ended up telling Azami the gist of his problems with Asuka. He took to coming by the bar; when Azami apologized because they were closed and promised to make it up to him, Youji just said he'd ask to hear the violin.
When given a mission to kill the leaders of an international kidnapping and prostitution ring, Youji's verdict on the target was, ironically, "Women aren't for men to hurt... but to love."
Right as they killed the final target, however, another group of four assassins appeared--their weapons the same as the ones that killed their previous targets. Identifying themselves as the real Weiss, they thoroughly outclassed Youji and the others, with Aya recognizing their leader as a former member of Kritiker and his mentor. Weiss were left alive, with the warning not to interfere again.
The mobile shop moved on to Kanazawa, where Weiss met up with shady characters who ended up being the "other" Weiss, an earlier incarnation of their unit that didn't want to be part of the infighting of the family in charge of Kritiker. They completed another mission and moved on again, with Youji taking a detour back to the bar in Gion.
Ayame was there alone, and invited Youji out drinking; next thing Youji knew, he was drunk past his limit, barely remembered what had been going on, and in bed with a woman. Figuring he might as well go along, he did so--and again began to choke the girl; this one said she was okay with it, but Youji was horrified. He collapsed, and, when he woke up, hungover--he found her lying there, dead.
He went home and shut himself up in the trailer, until Manx presented Weiss with their next mission. The briefing revealed that Youji's new friends were their enemies, and his response was self-deprecating laughter.
Perhaps identifying with her, after having been fond of her anyway, Youji reacted to Manx’s subsequent death by observing she had died chasing a hopeless love. When the others expressed concern over him joining the mission, after having been "ill" and "hungover" since returning from Gion, Youji told them he was in no hurry to die, but that he didn't want to run, either.
The mission was to kill Birman so that she couldn't give the other Weiss any information, but at the critical moment, they decided to save her instead. Birman disagreed, and shot herself. Weiss split up and ran off, with Ken and Youji confronting Azami and Ayame. They learned that Ayame had a psychotic need to kill women, and he'd noticed Youji attempting to do the same--he'd killed the girl to "free" Youji of his restraint. Ayame explained that killing for pleasure was more human than killing for the gray morality of Kritiker, and Azami that he'd realized he just likes cutting women apart, and that finally giving into these desires freed them. Youji, fully acknowledging himself as a murderer, admits he sees where they're coming from, but his motto is still woman's enemy is my enemy, and he'd have to kill them now.
Youji admitted that the anger and hatred he'd projected onto Asuka/Neu--and, by extension, the girls he'd been strangling--more rightfully rested on himself. When asked, Youji answered that Ayame and Azami killed themselves. In dying, they'd finally come to understand their love and devotion to each other, and Youji told Azami he'd won; Youji had never loved a woman as much as Azami had loved Ayame.
Afterward, Weiss receive what is intended to be their final mission: to kill the final members of the previous Weiss, and then lead normal lives. Youji, along with Aya and Ken, said the prospect was ridiculous, and they would continue as they had.
Youji and Ken accompanied Aya on the mission to kill the leader of the previous Weiss, but were quickly dispatched by him. Afterwards, Weiss was formally disbanded.
Two years later, Youji is living off various women; one girl, Kimika, refers to herself as his “Thursday and Friday lover,” but even so, she’d like it if he could focus on her when they are together-and not call out “Asuka.”
After Kimika left, some thugs came looking for her and her drug money. Youji got smacked around before Ken came looking for him. Ken tried to convince him to go back to killing with him, but Youji said he’d forgotten about it all.
Later, Youji found Kimika dying, and can’t answer when she asks him to say he loves her. She understood, but internally, Youji is frustrated, hearing voices talk about how he can never love again…
…He woke up after having been found by Aya. When Aya asked him if he killed the people responsible for Kimika’s death, he said yes. They deserved it. Aya clearly mistrusted Youji’s judgment, and Youji confirmed he’s been using the drugs Kimika’d been dealing.
Aya was ready to wash his hands of Youji, claiming he had no reason to fight and would only be strung along by his emotions, and unstable. Their boss, however, gave his blessing and permitted Youji to join the reformed Weiss. With Ken, he went to Europe to infiltrate a school and retrieve information.
Youji’s assignment was to get information from a woman named Schell, but while doing so, he fell in love with her; when it came time for their final confrontation, she accused him of only using her and then coming to kill her in the end. Youji was visibly disturbed by this, and screamed about the injustice of it all for a bit.
That done with, Youji and Ken returned to infiltrate another school with the rest of the team. Youji focused his investigation on the pretty and intelligent Mayumi Tsujii, a teacher who was really working for Eszett.
It didn’t take long for Tsujii to see through Youji-she was another victim of his compulsion to strangle women, thinking she was Asuka. Tsujii identified him as someone in a great deal of pain from his memories, and again leveled the accusation that Youji was incapable of love, and just using her.
Youji was distraught, and Tsujii offered him a solution: amnesia. Total loss of self-with no memories of Weiss or Asuka, he’d be free.
The catch? Tsujii and Eszett had to win. When the time for the final confrontation came, Youji attacked Aya, and kept him busy until the building began to crumble. At that point, Aya got away to challenge Tsujii; Youji, coming up behind, listened in on their conversation-Aya declaring he would never give up his memories-and hallucinated Asuka before him. She told him she was dead, but that she was happy because he lived on. Realizing that losing his memory would also mean killing Asuka for good and all, Youji insisted on fighting Tsujii himself, so that Aya could take care of other targets.
When Aya and the others returned, Youji was on the ropes. Tsujii had him in a chokehold, and Aya threw Youji his sword. He was able to stab through and kill her with it, but the building was coming down faster and between the rubble and his injuries, there was no way he could escape.
Omi begged Youji not to die, Ken asked him if they could all go home together, and Youji smiled and agreed. He had to return Aya’s sword, and he knew now: “Home is where you guys are.”
Aya smiled and told him they’d be waiting.
[Personality] In general, when he’s on top form, Youji is pleasant to be around. He’s a social person who likes to talk. He’s very charming and flirtatious. He also likes to tease and can be rather snarky when the situation calls for it. In everyday life, it’s lighthearted banter directed at his friends. He’s completely shameless about this-he accuses his coworkers of looking up Internet porn and dating high school girls.
On assassin jobs, his sarcasm either directs itself towards the hopelessness of their cause (“If Weiss is relying on luck, we’re finished.”) or towards the fate of his victims. He’s not above making you feel really bad before he kills you.
Depending on the situation, he’s not above making you feel bad at all. He is capable of being brutally honest, potentially cruel, selfish, and downright hypocritical. When faced with a situation where he was harboring an enemy that might know the whereabouts of Aya’s kidnapped sister, he plainly refused to do anything that might displease the enemy, and will date, flirt and sleep around as much as possible, yet tell Ken his sins make him unworthy of love.
Youji is rarely startled. He takes life at an easy pace, and very little seriously fazes him. (What does is usually related to Asuka being alive, or actual, honest love.) When presented with a massacre at a wedding, all he said was that it was a shame to kill such a cute bride. He’s usually shown on an even keel-even if he isn’t truly on top of things, he can usually dodge any awkwardness with a smart remark.
He also considers himself a gentleman, and is definitely a womanizer, a ladies’ man, and a shameless playboy. He’s also chivalrous; his motto is “Woman’s enemy is my enemy.” And he’ll act in the name of it.
Privately, Youji is depressed. He was 20 when he lost the love of his life, after she was shot during an investigation. He feels responsible for her death, as she was shot while he was already injured, and became an assassin both because he wanted revenge on the people who killed her, and because he wanted to prevent other women from dying as needlessly as she did. He’s not found any great satisfaction in this, and as a result is lazy and world-weary. He’s fought for a long time and when offered an easier way out, he jumped at it. He lived to regret it, but he jumped at it, and was prepared to give up every part that made up his whole just to be free of the life he led.
[Specialties/Abilities] Youji is a normal human. He doesn’t have any special powers, but he is a highly trained assassin. He fights with a wire concealed in his watch, which he normally uses to restrain or strangle people. He’s proficient at it, but tends to avoid hand-to-hand combat if he can; he’s more likely to sneak up behind someone and strangle them. He’s also handy with a gun. He’s not fazed by supernatural powers or genetically engineered strength. Blame Eszett
Prior to becoming an assassin, Youji was a private detective, and is thus observant and capable of carrying out investigations, infiltrations, reading people, and generally finding things out. He is stealthy, capable of sneaking around and following people. His charming personality allows him to interrogate discreetly, yet thoroughly.
Other talents include his wonderful day job as a florist-he knows floriography and arrangements. He is a good enough artist that he was able to pass as a high school art teacher, both in Europe and Japan; we see him instructing a class in drawing and then painting a watercolor.
Youji is also a ladies’ man. He enjoys the company of women and they enjoy his company, too. He’s a charming, roguish flirt-and this is a talent he uses in his work. When infiltrating Weinrot High School and Koua Academy, Youji seduced female teachers in order to see what they knew about Eszett. It kills him to do so, because he is genuinely chivalrous and respectful of women, and can’t help falling in love with them, but he can and does do it. And then he kills them.
[Sample post]
[First Person]
Does anyone ever get tired of hearing 'I've been asleep for a week, what did I miss?' Permit me to shake things up a bit. Last I knew, it was February, and I was in my apartment. Now it's June, and I'm in the middle of the field.
I've lost nights before, but this is pushing it just a bit.
[He smiles genially.]
A lesser man would probably give up drinking at this turn of events, but thankfully, I'm not that fragile.
[Private to Weiss]
I don't expect explanations, but something cold and stiff would be appreciated. And nothing work related is meant by that.
[Third Person]
Youji was first aware of pain; then, he opened his eyes; third, he forced himself up to his knees and looked around. The floor beneath him was cold-well, obviously, as was the rest of the building.
And there was a problem with that observation; the suspicious corner of Youji’s brain, the sharpness honed from years of investigations, both as a detective and an assassin, was screaming at him, red voice, bright lights, harsh and piercing and it was a very strong force of will that kept him from smacking himself in the forehead to shut it up. People who have just had buildings blow up and crumble and crash down on their heads, and after an already-serious beating from a pissed-off, genetically-enhanced ex-Youji’s brain screeched to a halt.
There was a roof over his head; a quick glance confirmed that. He was not surrounded by rubble. He very clearly remembered being surrounded by rubble. And the balcony was gone-and the blood on his face was wet. He touched it to be sure; it was wet, brightly-colored, hadn’t yet begun to coagulate. His wounds hadn’t begun to heal. It hadn’t pooled on the ground, either, he noticed. There were a few droplets at best-that seriously shortened the time he could have been unconscious.
For that matter. Where was the corpse he’d just killed? And the sword he’d killed it with was-still in his hand. Good.
With a certain sense of futility, Youji reached into his coat pocket for his cigarettes and lighter. While gloves were good for the lack of fingerprints, it made fumbling around for small objects rather more difficult. He swore softly, before feeling… not the lighter.
Youji frowned and pulled it out. Cell phone? A bit nicer than his, honestly. Still, definitely not his. Youji never carried his cell phone on missions; his contacts list included his... "colleagues," and if he or his body were ever discovered at the scene of a gruesome assassination, well.
Mental checklist, he thought sardonically. I am in a place I don’t remember being, without having had time to get there, without the dead body I just killed, without my cigarettes… but with Aya's sword. And a stolen cell phone.
Might as well put that last one to use-and Youji was trying not to think about how it had gotten into his pocket. No possible explanation made sense, except that someone expected him to use it. Maybe he was supposed to call a number in the contact list and… well. Not going to bother with that idea; he checked the contact list and it looked extensive. No way to figure out which one he was supposed to call, if any. If that was the phone’s owner’s plan, it was less than practical.
Not that that eliminated anything, but. Youji tried not to sigh.
He could try to call Kritiker, he supposed, or one of the others. They’d been worried, but. Facing them with the consequences of that last battle seemed a lot more daunting now that he knew he wasn’t going to die.
Still in excruciating pain, from cuts, bruises, and damn he was not looking forward to walking on that leg--but not going to die.
Still, he rather hoped the "child of God" had a different definition of "break" than he did, but not likely. Gingerly, he braced himself with Aya's katana, putting as much weight as possible onto it as he staggered to his feet. Something was certainly broken there and the katana was not long enough to use as a walking stick, but he would manage. It hurt like hell, but he would manage.
So all that was left was just a leisurely walk around, just to get his bearings and see where he was.
Then he’d contact the others.
[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] Because the Weiss cast is la creme de la creme.
[Which rule was your favorite and why?] Stay in character.
[Where did you hear about Somarium?] The Weiss cast enabled me on d_m
[Any questions?] Not at this time!