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PLAYER
NAME: Bell
CONTACT: PM this account or fightingoutside@plurk.
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER: Yep!
CHARACTER
NAME: Yoshitsugu Ōtani
CANON: Samurai Warriors
AGE: 32
CANON POINT: After Hideyoshi dies, but before the big wars between the East and West begin.
HISTORY:
Little is known about Yoshitsugu's childhood within the game, though there are hints he was either orphaned or seperated from his family at a very young age. His only constant companion was his friend, Toudou Takatora, and they managed on their own with little to their name until they were far enough into their teenage years to enlist in the army of a samurai lord named Azai Nagamasa (who was, at this point, the most powerful in the area in which they lived).
Beginning only as foot soldiers with no rank at all, the friends are nonetheless determined to gain rank as swiftly as possible, knowing their own abilities well and wanting to grow closer to Nagamasa in order to understand his motives. After multiple skirmishes their first major battle gives them the opportunities they need, when Azai Nagamasa, alongside his wife Oichi, goes to the aid of Oichi's brother Oda Nobunaga. It's a brutal battle and they do not escape without injury but ultimately Nobunaga is rescued, the battle won, and during said battle both Takatora and Yoshitsugu stand out to the point that Nagamasa personally comes to thank them for their efforts. For such lowly soldiers to be noticed by their commander is a notable thing, and it strikes a chord with the young men.
In the numeous battle that follow, in support of either Nobunaga or another of Azai's allies, Asakura, Takatora and Yoshitsugu continue to shine. Nagamasa notes Yoshitsugu's wisdom and Takatora's determined spirit, and what happens is that Nagamasa and Oichi become like parents to the two of them. The very logical Yoshitsugu has by now noted that Nagamasa is headed down a harsh path that is unlikely to go well for him.
Proving correct about the harsh path, Yoshitsugu is right at his Lord's side when Nagamasa has to make a hard choice between supporting the Oda or supporting his earlier allies, the Asakura, eventually choosing to support the latter. Yoshitsugu decides to support his Lord and Lady in this journey, despite noting it is unlikely to go well, saying to Takatora that he has been inspired by Nagamasa's spirit. They fight against the Oda and their allies the Tokugawa during the Battle of Anegawa, which is not a success, but they survive. Unfortunately it becomes clear that the Azai at this point are heading for destruction.
Yoshitsugu goes against the flow in trying to defend Nagamasa but it is for naught. The Oda attack the main Azai castle, and despite nearly escaping Nagamasa doubles back to rescue his men but is killed by Nobunaga personally during the attempt. It is a hard moment for all of them, but Yoshitsugu nonetheless learns the value of going against the flow for for a good cause from his Lord Nagamasa and keeps this lesson in his heart. He and Takatora share fond parting words, as Takatora will not surrender to the Oda and will instead become a ronin, whereas Yoshitsugu will stay with his Lady Oichi as she is returned to her brother.
When Oichi is remarried to a man named Katsuie, one of Nobunaga's generals, Yoshitsugu chooses to go into the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who also serves Nobunaga, having noted him as the one most likely to succeed Nobunaga and therefore best choice of leader for one going with the flow of things. He is proved correct about this more quickly than anyone could have guessed when Oda Nobunaga is betrayed and killed by his own follower, Akechi Mitsuhide, and it is Hideyoshi who manages to first engage Mitsuhide in battle and defeat him in order to claim both vengeance and the 'mantle' of succession.
After this battle Yoshitsugu gets to know one of Hideyoshi's proteges (and someone who views Hideyoshi like a father), Ishida Mitsunari. When Takatora sends Yoshitsugu a letter inviting him to desert the Toyotomi and join Takatora's current Lord, Yoshitsugu comes under suspicion but Mitsunari burns the letter and almost demands Yoshitsugu's innocence. Hideyoshi laughs and agrees, and this event leaves an impression on Yoshitsugu. Finding parallels between Mitsunari and Nagamasa in terms of dreams and passion, Yoshitsugu afterwards becomes good friends with Mitsunari.
Afterward, the former Oda generals split into their own armies and fight amongst one another. This means Yoshitsugu, alongside Takatora whose Lord was defeated and is now therefore serving the Toyotomi as well, eventually end up fighting Oichi's new husband Katsuie and Oichi herself. She bids them a kind farewell before herself and her husband commit suicide in their castle after a Toyotomi victory, which is one of the few moments in canon that shows Yoshitsugu's calm break for a moment, the loss a deeply sad one for him. A succession of battles against the other rulers in the land after this lead to Toyotomi Hideyoshi becoming the ruler of Japan in its entirety. During this time, Yoshitsugu's friendship with Mitsunari strengthens and Takatora finds his chosen Lord, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
There follows the first period of peace in Japan for a very long time. It is enjoyable but Yoshitsugu is shown to anticipate it ending once Hideyoshi dies, noting that his followers are loyal to Hideyoshi himself but not his legacy or each other. He communicates this to Takatora and Mitsunari both in a teasing, darkly humourous way on numerous occasions, and during one evening spent with the both of them says to Takatora that he would be happy to die at his hands. This is a hint that he knows they will end up fighting one another, and it upsets Takatora, who tries to claim he'd cope with it fine before stomping off (as Mitsunari had done earlier thanks to the teasing), disturbed.
Afterwards Yoshitsugu thinks to himself he would be happy to give his life to one (Mitsunari) and soul to the other (Takatora), as he cannot split himself into two and remain at the side of both of his dear friends, whom he says he does not truly deserve.
Sometime after Hideyoshi dies and exactly as Yoshitsugu predicted, the land is plunged into chaos again. Toyotomi loyalists under Mitsunari's leadership support Hideyoshi's heir, Hideyori, as the Western Army. Their opponents, the Eastern Army, support the Tokugawa and follow Ieyasu as potential new ruler. Yoshitsugu predicts the East will win and the West do not have a chance, as the East is solid with its loyalty to their Lord and one another while the bonds of the West are much more fragile. 'Going with the flow,' Yoshitsugu initially thinks he will support Ieyasu because of this but is moved by Mitsunari's passionate plea for assistance and chooses to support his friend, going against the flow for a cause despite being absolutely certain they will lose.
After many battles the key one of the war, the Battle of Sekigahara, takes place. The West has more numbers but Yoshitsugu believes one of their number, Kobayakawa Hideaki, will betray them and cost the West a victory. Mitsunari dismisses this but it nonetheless happens, nearly resulting in Yoshitsugu's death there and then. He survives, even after a fight with his friend Takatora who is with Ieyasu's forces, but the impact means that the East's win is cemented.
As the battle comes to a close, with Mitsunari forced to flee alone and the Western Army falling about him, Yoshitsugu says 'thank you' to Mitsunari for letting him fight for a dream. He then prepares to commit seppuku. Takatora turns up and begs Yoshitsugu to keep living, but Yoshitsugu refuses, tells his friend to live well and then asks for Takatora's assistance in committing the act.
PERSONALITY:
Yoshitsugu's overall characterisation is themed around 'the flow,' which he uses to choose his path in life. The flow is simply what current events dictate is the most likely outcome in a situation; with his gift for perceiving this, Yoshitsugu is not often surprised and has a relaxed and carefree demeanour that rarely breaks even in the most stressful and dangerous of situations... be that the destruction of the armies he sides with in canon, his own death, his body's natural weakness to sickness, or, as we see during a set of events in the game's 'Chronicles Mode,' a false accusation of being a serial killer. As he sums it up:
'This stone (in the stream) is exactly how I've been living my life. Saying nothing, not moving, just caught up in the flow...'
This has a tendency to unnerve or irritate many individuals but as with almost everything else, Yoshitsugu takes that in stride. To go with the flow means to accept everything that life throws at you, for good or ill, though it's true that his attitude of 'saying nothing and not moving' causes him plenty of trouble that he could easily avoid by simply speaking up much more often than he does. It's suggested that he knows and accepts this, and that there are times he can be persuaded to speak up; again in his Chronicles bond, the main character directly says he should do as such with prompts Yoshitsugu to make a confession of affection. It takes the right person and a developed relationship to bring this out of him, however (or, on a smaller-scale, sometimes the urge to tease and joke).
This also applies to the big decisions he makes in life; for all Yoshitsugu says he lives by the flow, he is taught the value of going against it at times by his experiences within the Azai army and especially by his first Lord, Nagamasa. This is because, despite being an outright realistic man, Yoshitsugu is nonetheless moved by those with more idealistic and emotional personalities (despite stating that he himself can never be that way) and will go against the flow for those who particularly touch him, even when certain it won't go to plan. He knows within canon, for example, that Mitsunari's attempts to defeat Tokugawa Ieyasu will fail, but Mitsunari's pleas and stated convictions persuade him to fight at Mitsunari's side with that same calm, composed attitude nonetheless.
That's not to say he doesn't have his moments of emotional vulnerability, nor moments when the calm is broken, but these are only very rarely expressed; for example, there is only one instance in canon where Yoshitsugu shows outward anger towards someone, that being the traitor whose defection to the enemy ensured Mitsunari's defeat and certain death (an expected but loathed turn of events). Usually Yoshitsugu keeps such things to himself; the key example of this is the regret he feels that he cannot 'split himself in two' in order to fully support the two men dearest to him, Mitsunari and Takatora. Neither ever knows that Yoshitsugu has such feelings, and neither hears that he would like to give them 'his life and his soul' respectively in order to compensate for it. That is part of his inner world that, in almost all circumstances, is shared with nobody else, and only one person in canon is shown to ever see 'beneath the mask;' his mother-figure Oichi, the wife of his first Lord.
Yoshitsugu's way of communicating is, in fact, frequently blunt and often comes off as rather mean. He will outright tell someone they are hopeless if he thinks they are, tell them they are stupid if he thinks that's the case, and quite directly inform his friends when anything they plan to do is going to go wrong. That he is not the kind of man to sugar-coat any situation is obvious, and frankly, he can be a little mean at times. Yoshitsugu outright says he can't help but pick on those he considers 'pure and sincere,' and will take up almost any opportunity he gets to tease. This has the potential to and outright does at times antagonise others who would otherwise wish him no harm.
His sense of humour can be rather dark; good examples are Yoshitsugu making jokes implying he is a wanted serial killer, saying a drink he is serving is made from his cat, threatening one who draws his facecloth away from his face with a fake curse of death, and leading one of the most naïve members of the cast to believe he is a ghost! That he delivers his jokes in such a direct, calm manner can be a problem as people frequently misunderstand that it is indeed a joke and are often left confused, irritated or, on occasion, outright frightened of what he has implied. The example of the serial killer even lands him in interrogation, and he is only rescued from this situation by the intervention of Toyotomi Hideyoshi! One can easily assume that he gets himself into trouble on frequent occasions because he can't stop himself from making inappropriate or dark comments he finds personally amusing. What is certain is that is earns him a canon reputation for being rather strange and hard to understand. That he enjoys cultivating his air of mystery only contributes to this reputation.
You can consider him somewhat brutal when situations demand it; as a talented strategist Yoshitsugu can and does make the tough decisions and employs harsh techniques in battle where it is needed and flow dictates they are most effective. On a more personal level he willingly puts himself into a near-death situations for Mitsunari's sake despite Mitsunari deeming as such to be too painful a thing to be allowed, and commits seppuku once Mitsunari's battle is lost. The latter is particularly strong an example because he does so knowing his friend on the opposing side, Takatora, will come looking for him in a last-ditch attempt to make him change sides; it means he can request that Takatora assist him in the ritual suicide, which is no small thing. Either Takatora doesn't help Yoshitsugu and then has to watch Yoshitsugu suffer, or Takatora has to end that suffering through beheading. The latter occurs but either were bound to be traumatic for Takatora, something Yoshitsugu had to know, but he nonetheless put his friend in that position.
Despite how it may seem at times, Yoshitsugu is not a heartless person. He is realistic about consequences, a natural tease, blunt and sometimes hard to understand, but takes no joy in the suffering of others. The reality of war is that you sometimes must fight loved ones, that you must often do the hard thing, and that's all there is to it. Yoshitsugu accepts this as the reality of their times and faces it as he does everything in life; with composure and an outward calm.
POWERS:
- Yoshitsugu uses a special baton with a concealed sword in order to fight, and he is decent enough with his swordplay. Using a normal, lightweight sword or a short blunt weapon would be just as possible for him.
- His main way of fighting, and something in which he is much more skilled, is through use of magic. Canon shows him using a variety of energy attacks (in the form of beams or projected balls of white or purple energy), along with attacks that involve fire, cutting wind and lightning; Yoshitsugu's most powerful attacks are more personalised, summoning charm cards carried by what looks like little dragonflies made of energy which explode on command. Some of these he seems to need a focus to use or use well; in the games his special baton fulfils this purpose, but some kind of staff or similar would also work. Most of these attacks cannot extend beyond four or five metres long.
- It's likely he can manifest these abilities on a smaller scale that is not destructive, such as creating very small flames to light things or just manifest temporary dancing 'energy' crane-flies for fun. In addition he's shown to be capable of regular, non-magical sleight-of-hand tricks, which he used to tease in canon but it could also be used for more practical reasons.
- Yoshitsugu is in canon a strategist and a very good one at that. He is capable of creating and carrying out clever strategies on both small and large scales and is especially good at those which involve deception. His remarkable foresight and ability to read a battle well also helps with this role.
- His upbringing as a soldier since a young age and care for his injury-prone friend in his younger days has given him at least some ability to tend to the wounds of others.
- On the downside of things, Yoshitsugu has a weak immune system and is very prone to getting sick. His constitution in general isn't particularly good and hot climates likely harder for him to deal with.
SAMPLES
1ST PERSON: Here.
3rd PERSON: Here!
MISC
PLANS:
A character from a (very heavily fictionalised) version of one of Japan's warring eras, Yoshitsugu has been born and raised in war and indeed participated in battles since his teenage years. I have had the opportunity to utilise his direct combat abilities in other games but never his strategic abilities, which is a shame, as they are quite considerable. This game looks like an ideal opportunity and setting to put them to good use.
CHARACTER @ID SUGGESTIONS:
Compared to a cat quite often, one might think of him as being very much like a bakeneko. So you could use @bakeneko or something similar? Otherwise, Yoshitsugu also has heavy associations with butterflies, mayflies and camellia flowers to play with.
HOW DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN COST?
He was asked and he accepted. Simple as that. As someone who goes with the flow, such decisions aren't particularly hard and it appeals both to his 'accept what happens to you' side and the one that likes to sometimes fight against it for the sake of others whose emotional pleas impress him (even if he feels it's a foolish choice to make). After all, what can protect Azai Nagamasa's legacy more than fighting against a future without freedom?
NAME: Bell
CONTACT: PM this account or fightingoutside@plurk.
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER: Yep!
CHARACTER
NAME: Yoshitsugu Ōtani
CANON: Samurai Warriors
AGE: 32
CANON POINT: After Hideyoshi dies, but before the big wars between the East and West begin.
HISTORY:
Little is known about Yoshitsugu's childhood within the game, though there are hints he was either orphaned or seperated from his family at a very young age. His only constant companion was his friend, Toudou Takatora, and they managed on their own with little to their name until they were far enough into their teenage years to enlist in the army of a samurai lord named Azai Nagamasa (who was, at this point, the most powerful in the area in which they lived).
Beginning only as foot soldiers with no rank at all, the friends are nonetheless determined to gain rank as swiftly as possible, knowing their own abilities well and wanting to grow closer to Nagamasa in order to understand his motives. After multiple skirmishes their first major battle gives them the opportunities they need, when Azai Nagamasa, alongside his wife Oichi, goes to the aid of Oichi's brother Oda Nobunaga. It's a brutal battle and they do not escape without injury but ultimately Nobunaga is rescued, the battle won, and during said battle both Takatora and Yoshitsugu stand out to the point that Nagamasa personally comes to thank them for their efforts. For such lowly soldiers to be noticed by their commander is a notable thing, and it strikes a chord with the young men.
In the numeous battle that follow, in support of either Nobunaga or another of Azai's allies, Asakura, Takatora and Yoshitsugu continue to shine. Nagamasa notes Yoshitsugu's wisdom and Takatora's determined spirit, and what happens is that Nagamasa and Oichi become like parents to the two of them. The very logical Yoshitsugu has by now noted that Nagamasa is headed down a harsh path that is unlikely to go well for him.
Proving correct about the harsh path, Yoshitsugu is right at his Lord's side when Nagamasa has to make a hard choice between supporting the Oda or supporting his earlier allies, the Asakura, eventually choosing to support the latter. Yoshitsugu decides to support his Lord and Lady in this journey, despite noting it is unlikely to go well, saying to Takatora that he has been inspired by Nagamasa's spirit. They fight against the Oda and their allies the Tokugawa during the Battle of Anegawa, which is not a success, but they survive. Unfortunately it becomes clear that the Azai at this point are heading for destruction.
Yoshitsugu goes against the flow in trying to defend Nagamasa but it is for naught. The Oda attack the main Azai castle, and despite nearly escaping Nagamasa doubles back to rescue his men but is killed by Nobunaga personally during the attempt. It is a hard moment for all of them, but Yoshitsugu nonetheless learns the value of going against the flow for for a good cause from his Lord Nagamasa and keeps this lesson in his heart. He and Takatora share fond parting words, as Takatora will not surrender to the Oda and will instead become a ronin, whereas Yoshitsugu will stay with his Lady Oichi as she is returned to her brother.
When Oichi is remarried to a man named Katsuie, one of Nobunaga's generals, Yoshitsugu chooses to go into the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who also serves Nobunaga, having noted him as the one most likely to succeed Nobunaga and therefore best choice of leader for one going with the flow of things. He is proved correct about this more quickly than anyone could have guessed when Oda Nobunaga is betrayed and killed by his own follower, Akechi Mitsuhide, and it is Hideyoshi who manages to first engage Mitsuhide in battle and defeat him in order to claim both vengeance and the 'mantle' of succession.
After this battle Yoshitsugu gets to know one of Hideyoshi's proteges (and someone who views Hideyoshi like a father), Ishida Mitsunari. When Takatora sends Yoshitsugu a letter inviting him to desert the Toyotomi and join Takatora's current Lord, Yoshitsugu comes under suspicion but Mitsunari burns the letter and almost demands Yoshitsugu's innocence. Hideyoshi laughs and agrees, and this event leaves an impression on Yoshitsugu. Finding parallels between Mitsunari and Nagamasa in terms of dreams and passion, Yoshitsugu afterwards becomes good friends with Mitsunari.
Afterward, the former Oda generals split into their own armies and fight amongst one another. This means Yoshitsugu, alongside Takatora whose Lord was defeated and is now therefore serving the Toyotomi as well, eventually end up fighting Oichi's new husband Katsuie and Oichi herself. She bids them a kind farewell before herself and her husband commit suicide in their castle after a Toyotomi victory, which is one of the few moments in canon that shows Yoshitsugu's calm break for a moment, the loss a deeply sad one for him. A succession of battles against the other rulers in the land after this lead to Toyotomi Hideyoshi becoming the ruler of Japan in its entirety. During this time, Yoshitsugu's friendship with Mitsunari strengthens and Takatora finds his chosen Lord, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
There follows the first period of peace in Japan for a very long time. It is enjoyable but Yoshitsugu is shown to anticipate it ending once Hideyoshi dies, noting that his followers are loyal to Hideyoshi himself but not his legacy or each other. He communicates this to Takatora and Mitsunari both in a teasing, darkly humourous way on numerous occasions, and during one evening spent with the both of them says to Takatora that he would be happy to die at his hands. This is a hint that he knows they will end up fighting one another, and it upsets Takatora, who tries to claim he'd cope with it fine before stomping off (as Mitsunari had done earlier thanks to the teasing), disturbed.
Afterwards Yoshitsugu thinks to himself he would be happy to give his life to one (Mitsunari) and soul to the other (Takatora), as he cannot split himself into two and remain at the side of both of his dear friends, whom he says he does not truly deserve.
Sometime after Hideyoshi dies and exactly as Yoshitsugu predicted, the land is plunged into chaos again. Toyotomi loyalists under Mitsunari's leadership support Hideyoshi's heir, Hideyori, as the Western Army. Their opponents, the Eastern Army, support the Tokugawa and follow Ieyasu as potential new ruler. Yoshitsugu predicts the East will win and the West do not have a chance, as the East is solid with its loyalty to their Lord and one another while the bonds of the West are much more fragile. 'Going with the flow,' Yoshitsugu initially thinks he will support Ieyasu because of this but is moved by Mitsunari's passionate plea for assistance and chooses to support his friend, going against the flow for a cause despite being absolutely certain they will lose.
After many battles the key one of the war, the Battle of Sekigahara, takes place. The West has more numbers but Yoshitsugu believes one of their number, Kobayakawa Hideaki, will betray them and cost the West a victory. Mitsunari dismisses this but it nonetheless happens, nearly resulting in Yoshitsugu's death there and then. He survives, even after a fight with his friend Takatora who is with Ieyasu's forces, but the impact means that the East's win is cemented.
As the battle comes to a close, with Mitsunari forced to flee alone and the Western Army falling about him, Yoshitsugu says 'thank you' to Mitsunari for letting him fight for a dream. He then prepares to commit seppuku. Takatora turns up and begs Yoshitsugu to keep living, but Yoshitsugu refuses, tells his friend to live well and then asks for Takatora's assistance in committing the act.
PERSONALITY:
Yoshitsugu's overall characterisation is themed around 'the flow,' which he uses to choose his path in life. The flow is simply what current events dictate is the most likely outcome in a situation; with his gift for perceiving this, Yoshitsugu is not often surprised and has a relaxed and carefree demeanour that rarely breaks even in the most stressful and dangerous of situations... be that the destruction of the armies he sides with in canon, his own death, his body's natural weakness to sickness, or, as we see during a set of events in the game's 'Chronicles Mode,' a false accusation of being a serial killer. As he sums it up:
'This stone (in the stream) is exactly how I've been living my life. Saying nothing, not moving, just caught up in the flow...'
This has a tendency to unnerve or irritate many individuals but as with almost everything else, Yoshitsugu takes that in stride. To go with the flow means to accept everything that life throws at you, for good or ill, though it's true that his attitude of 'saying nothing and not moving' causes him plenty of trouble that he could easily avoid by simply speaking up much more often than he does. It's suggested that he knows and accepts this, and that there are times he can be persuaded to speak up; again in his Chronicles bond, the main character directly says he should do as such with prompts Yoshitsugu to make a confession of affection. It takes the right person and a developed relationship to bring this out of him, however (or, on a smaller-scale, sometimes the urge to tease and joke).
This also applies to the big decisions he makes in life; for all Yoshitsugu says he lives by the flow, he is taught the value of going against it at times by his experiences within the Azai army and especially by his first Lord, Nagamasa. This is because, despite being an outright realistic man, Yoshitsugu is nonetheless moved by those with more idealistic and emotional personalities (despite stating that he himself can never be that way) and will go against the flow for those who particularly touch him, even when certain it won't go to plan. He knows within canon, for example, that Mitsunari's attempts to defeat Tokugawa Ieyasu will fail, but Mitsunari's pleas and stated convictions persuade him to fight at Mitsunari's side with that same calm, composed attitude nonetheless.
That's not to say he doesn't have his moments of emotional vulnerability, nor moments when the calm is broken, but these are only very rarely expressed; for example, there is only one instance in canon where Yoshitsugu shows outward anger towards someone, that being the traitor whose defection to the enemy ensured Mitsunari's defeat and certain death (an expected but loathed turn of events). Usually Yoshitsugu keeps such things to himself; the key example of this is the regret he feels that he cannot 'split himself in two' in order to fully support the two men dearest to him, Mitsunari and Takatora. Neither ever knows that Yoshitsugu has such feelings, and neither hears that he would like to give them 'his life and his soul' respectively in order to compensate for it. That is part of his inner world that, in almost all circumstances, is shared with nobody else, and only one person in canon is shown to ever see 'beneath the mask;' his mother-figure Oichi, the wife of his first Lord.
Yoshitsugu's way of communicating is, in fact, frequently blunt and often comes off as rather mean. He will outright tell someone they are hopeless if he thinks they are, tell them they are stupid if he thinks that's the case, and quite directly inform his friends when anything they plan to do is going to go wrong. That he is not the kind of man to sugar-coat any situation is obvious, and frankly, he can be a little mean at times. Yoshitsugu outright says he can't help but pick on those he considers 'pure and sincere,' and will take up almost any opportunity he gets to tease. This has the potential to and outright does at times antagonise others who would otherwise wish him no harm.
His sense of humour can be rather dark; good examples are Yoshitsugu making jokes implying he is a wanted serial killer, saying a drink he is serving is made from his cat, threatening one who draws his facecloth away from his face with a fake curse of death, and leading one of the most naïve members of the cast to believe he is a ghost! That he delivers his jokes in such a direct, calm manner can be a problem as people frequently misunderstand that it is indeed a joke and are often left confused, irritated or, on occasion, outright frightened of what he has implied. The example of the serial killer even lands him in interrogation, and he is only rescued from this situation by the intervention of Toyotomi Hideyoshi! One can easily assume that he gets himself into trouble on frequent occasions because he can't stop himself from making inappropriate or dark comments he finds personally amusing. What is certain is that is earns him a canon reputation for being rather strange and hard to understand. That he enjoys cultivating his air of mystery only contributes to this reputation.
You can consider him somewhat brutal when situations demand it; as a talented strategist Yoshitsugu can and does make the tough decisions and employs harsh techniques in battle where it is needed and flow dictates they are most effective. On a more personal level he willingly puts himself into a near-death situations for Mitsunari's sake despite Mitsunari deeming as such to be too painful a thing to be allowed, and commits seppuku once Mitsunari's battle is lost. The latter is particularly strong an example because he does so knowing his friend on the opposing side, Takatora, will come looking for him in a last-ditch attempt to make him change sides; it means he can request that Takatora assist him in the ritual suicide, which is no small thing. Either Takatora doesn't help Yoshitsugu and then has to watch Yoshitsugu suffer, or Takatora has to end that suffering through beheading. The latter occurs but either were bound to be traumatic for Takatora, something Yoshitsugu had to know, but he nonetheless put his friend in that position.
Despite how it may seem at times, Yoshitsugu is not a heartless person. He is realistic about consequences, a natural tease, blunt and sometimes hard to understand, but takes no joy in the suffering of others. The reality of war is that you sometimes must fight loved ones, that you must often do the hard thing, and that's all there is to it. Yoshitsugu accepts this as the reality of their times and faces it as he does everything in life; with composure and an outward calm.
POWERS:
- Yoshitsugu uses a special baton with a concealed sword in order to fight, and he is decent enough with his swordplay. Using a normal, lightweight sword or a short blunt weapon would be just as possible for him.
- His main way of fighting, and something in which he is much more skilled, is through use of magic. Canon shows him using a variety of energy attacks (in the form of beams or projected balls of white or purple energy), along with attacks that involve fire, cutting wind and lightning; Yoshitsugu's most powerful attacks are more personalised, summoning charm cards carried by what looks like little dragonflies made of energy which explode on command. Some of these he seems to need a focus to use or use well; in the games his special baton fulfils this purpose, but some kind of staff or similar would also work. Most of these attacks cannot extend beyond four or five metres long.
- It's likely he can manifest these abilities on a smaller scale that is not destructive, such as creating very small flames to light things or just manifest temporary dancing 'energy' crane-flies for fun. In addition he's shown to be capable of regular, non-magical sleight-of-hand tricks, which he used to tease in canon but it could also be used for more practical reasons.
- Yoshitsugu is in canon a strategist and a very good one at that. He is capable of creating and carrying out clever strategies on both small and large scales and is especially good at those which involve deception. His remarkable foresight and ability to read a battle well also helps with this role.
- His upbringing as a soldier since a young age and care for his injury-prone friend in his younger days has given him at least some ability to tend to the wounds of others.
- On the downside of things, Yoshitsugu has a weak immune system and is very prone to getting sick. His constitution in general isn't particularly good and hot climates likely harder for him to deal with.
SAMPLES
1ST PERSON: Here.
3rd PERSON: Here!
MISC
PLANS:
A character from a (very heavily fictionalised) version of one of Japan's warring eras, Yoshitsugu has been born and raised in war and indeed participated in battles since his teenage years. I have had the opportunity to utilise his direct combat abilities in other games but never his strategic abilities, which is a shame, as they are quite considerable. This game looks like an ideal opportunity and setting to put them to good use.
CHARACTER @ID SUGGESTIONS:
Compared to a cat quite often, one might think of him as being very much like a bakeneko. So you could use @bakeneko or something similar? Otherwise, Yoshitsugu also has heavy associations with butterflies, mayflies and camellia flowers to play with.
HOW DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN COST?
He was asked and he accepted. Simple as that. As someone who goes with the flow, such decisions aren't particularly hard and it appeals both to his 'accept what happens to you' side and the one that likes to sometimes fight against it for the sake of others whose emotional pleas impress him (even if he feels it's a foolish choice to make). After all, what can protect Azai Nagamasa's legacy more than fighting against a future without freedom?