NAGANO, KAITO

Basics

Full Name: Kaito Nagano

Nickname(s): Noodly

Age, D.O.B.: 23, October 27th

Gender: Male

Class: Devil Summoner

Arcana: The Hanged Man

Career: Currently serving as a Devil Summoner in place of his father. Also helps to run the family restaurant, Naganoodle.

Ethnicity: Japanese (three-quarters), Korean (one-quarter)

Family:
Daisuke Nagano - Father, 48
Rin Nagano - Step-mother, 41
Chiharu Nagano - Mother, 46 (Deceased at 27)
Yukito Nagano - Step-brother, 17


Appearance

Face Claim: Shokudaikiri Mitsutada from Touken Ranbu

Kaito stands at a solid height of six feet and two inches. His skin is milky but not pale, and he possesses a firm and toned musculature that's kept in working order by regular exercise. Faded scars of nicks and scratches trace along his upper body; most were acquired over the course of his kendo and karate training, but others are reminders of fights he's involved himself in. His fingers sport rough calluses that are the telltale sign of a kendoka. His facial features are sharp and narrow, and a single golden eye peeks out at the world. He lost his right eye at a young age after an ill-advised decision to play with some scissors. An eyepatch sits over the blind eye at all times. Thick and messy black hair slightly covers the right side of his face, and he prefers not to cut it until it starts reaching past his chin.

While in the past he preferred loose and baggy clothes, Kaito's taste in attire has shifted towards the formal. In his day to day routine he wears black slacks, sturdy boots, tucked-in dress shirts, snug gloves, and a blazer when the weather permits. Black, white, and gold dominates his closet's color scheme, but he is also partial to shades of red and orange. At home or while cooking, he reverts to his old preferences: loose and comfy above all else. He may or may not have a few Phoenix Ranger Featherman R aprons as well.

Also, he might have an affinity with spandex.


Personality

Virtues: Forward-thinking, easygoing, emphatic, open-minded

Vices: Sardonic, spiteful, bit of a tease, low tolerance for the arrogant

Likes: Spring, warm breezes, cooking, keeping active, American pizza

Dislikes: Natto, thunderstorms, the feeling of helplessness, Japanese pizza, people hanging in his blind spot while talking to him

Hobbies: Combat training (martial arts, firearm use, etc.), cooking (he went to school for it), keeping up to date with all things sentai (nerd), reading crime thrillers

Goals: Follow in his mother's footsteps as a police officer, see his step-brother through high school and university, raise money for his father's treatments, Not Dying Horribly

Kaito is in-between seasons of his life right now, and it can be seen in how his personality as an adult has taken a sharp 180 compared to his youth. He is attentive, responsible, and dependable... for the most part. His pride no longer hovers above him, and he is not afraid to admit when he's on the wrong side of an argument.

All of these and more were glaringly missing from his psyche as a child, all the way until his high school days. Raised under a single parent for years, he was subject to bullying as a kid and protected himself in the best way he could think of - talking back with his fists. Kaito once possessed a fiery and obstinate demeanor that threatened to bulldoze anyone who didn't agree with it or get out of his way in time. It's to his advantage that he's been able to grow up a bit.

Outwardly Kaito maintains a laid-back personality that contrasts his initially intimidating appearance. He's got a strong sense of adaptability and can take most of what life throws at him with little more than an upturned brow. No situation is too overwhelming for him to react to, and he tends to counter the more ridiculous events with dry humor or a well placed "what the fuck."

In his head, of course. Usually.

Around people Kaito is much more patient now than he ever was as a kid, but if someone can get under his skin, he has a hard time hiding it. He tends to turn slightly to the right during conversations as he doesn't enjoy having anyone in his blind spot while he's speaking to them. When he's deep in thought, he can lose track of his surroundings and tune the world around him out - sometimes to great comedic effect.

The man has recently had to put his own future on an indefinite hiatus due to unforeseen circumstances. It bothers him greatly - more than he lets on, and maybe more than he actually realizes. His interactions with old friends are a bit stinted, and he constantly worries that they'll leave him behind; worse, he fears he might not be able to catch back up with them. Kaito tries not to let those worries show, but on bad days the worse facets of his personality show up. Bitter pessimism laces his tone, and his temper flares much quicker. He becomes a reflection of his severely ill-tempered younger self.

At his best, Kaito is an extremely emphatic individual, a loyal friend, and doggedly (heh) protective of his inner circle. He cares deeply for his family, enough that he would drop all of his own hopes and dreams in a heartbeat to help them. Which he has, to his chagrin. Those close to Kaito are exposed to a much more playful persona, though it is often coupled with relentless teasing and gut-wrenching wordplay. He has a soft spot for younger children as well, and despite his appearance seems to draw their attention when he goes out - his shopping trips are often delayed by playing with grade schoolers at the park.


History

Once upon a time in Sanyo City, Kaito was conceived to the unlikely union of an ex-gangster and a straight-laced policewoman. The fmaily enjoyed a happy four years together before his mom died.

Rough.

But not uncommon. You've heard the tale before. A mother and her son were driving home one evening and had the misfortune to be crushed between a drunken bus driver and a building. Chiharu died before reaching the hospital, and Kaito received a nasty concussion on the right side of his head. The impact was close enough to the front of his face that nerve damage had been done, and while he was lucky enough to survive, he permanently lost sight in his right eye. To this day he doesn't remember much of the incident. It's probably for the better.

The loss of his love and the near-death of his son was traumatizing, but Daisuke was determined to raise his boy to the best of his ability. A daunting task for sure, but he tried his best. Alas, children are cruel. Kaito faced a grueling six years of bullying and alienation because of his father's status as a single parent, and these interactions helped to shape a short fuse and a tendency to talk with his fists. Seeing a repeat of his own childhood, Daisuke put Kaito through karate for a few years to try and teach him some self-control. It backfired; he was eventually found to be using his classmates as practice partners outside of the ring and Daisuke pulled the boy out of karate lessons at the age of ten.

At the age of ten, Kaito gained a new mom - Rin. His memories of his birth mother had long become hazy by then, and although they butted heads for a time he did not complain too loudly about the new addition to his life. This was helped by the appearance of a new baby brother, a quiet boy by the name of Yukito. The pair quickly became attached by the hip, and although Yukito faced a similar style of bullying when he moved, Kaito willingly got himself into even more trouble to protect his younger brother.

Throughout middle school, Kaito became painfully aware that lashing out with his fists all the time was bound to give him broken hands and jail time. He barely escaped a juvenile misdemeanor charge after a particularly big fight with some Mishiro High kids, which dashed any chance he might have had of dodging out of Wakaba. A moody fifteen year old entered into his freshman year and found an odd anomaly that had been missing for most of his life - friendship. Outside of Yukito, Kaito kept mostly to himself, but there was a boy who wasn't having any of that: one Ushio Aokawa, a third year Disciplinary Committee member and the captain of Wakaba High's Kendo Club. He remembered Kaito from when they went to the same middle school and saw the freshman's penchant for fighting as potential - if he could focus his anger into being productive, he'd make an excellent teammate. And while at first Kaito was vehemently resistant, Ushio's unrelenting optimism eventually broke through and he begrudgingly joined the club.

And the Disciplinary Committee. That part he'd been duped into.

As it turned out, the decision to follow Ushio was probably the best Kaito could have made - under the senior's guidance and their adviser's tutelage, Kaito learned how to channel his irritation into his practice just as Ushio predicted, and through his tenure as a high schooler he became more level-headed, though his mindset of "punch first" continued to plague him all the way through graduation. Kaito excelled in kendo and found it fun, and after Ushio graduated he took up the captain's haori mantle and led Wakaba's Kendo Club to moderate municipal and regional success.

In the middle of his third year of high school, Daisuke decided to drop a revelation on Kaito by revealing his status as a commissioned Devil Summoner and introducing him to the world of the supernatural. While at first he'd thought his father had gone delusional, Kaito's complaining was quickly silenced when the elder Nagano quite literally transformed their pet dog into the Demon Inugami. Understandably, the youth had a thousand and one questions to ask, but Daisuke kept most of the answers vague, with his explanation being that while the boy was far from ready to step forth into the world of spirits, in time he would take over his duties.

So that happened. For the most part, Kaito tried to repress that memory and focus on surviving the immediate demon before him: the future. It had become clear that between Kaito and Yukito, the younger brother shined far brighter in academics, and he had aspirations to become a doctor or mathematician or whatever it was the smart kids did when they grew up. The elder brother was far from bitter about it - in fact, when his parents asked him what he would do after graduating, he already had an answer ready: attend culinary school, work at the restaurant, then become a police officer like his birth mother had been. It was a quiet aspiration, a small goal that he had quietly nurtured throughout his life, but now the path to it had become clear. He would spend most of his time working at the restaurant so the family could save up and send Yukito to cram schools in hopes that he would be admitted into Futaba High, then join the police academy once his brother's future was more or less secure.

For a time it seemed the family's future had been determined. The pieces had fallen in place the way they had wanted, and Yukito's hard work earned him a spot in Sanyo's most prestigious high school on a scholarship. On the other hand, Kaito had successfully earned his chef's license and was hard at work everyday to help the family earn money for Yukito's university cram school tuition. However, we all know that no future is set in stone. Just weeks before Yukito was to begin his third year of high school, he was involved in a physical altercation with some Wakaba High students - and he got slammed with a juvenile misdemeanor charge. While it was eventually dropped and his record cleared, the damage had already been done. Futaba High contacted the Nagano family to inform them that Yukito would not be permitted to continue his education with them, and there was no room for appeal.

The youngest Nagano's journey had been completely derailed. While he had a Plan B already in place to help him recover, the bad news compounded when Daisuke fell ill to the point that he was confined to his bed. His career as a solo Devil Summoner had caught up to him; a plethora of injuries both physical and magical in nature had caused extensive internal damage. While there were doctors and healers within the Devil Summoner community who could feasibly restore his body to working order, it would be a trying and very expensive process - one that the family could not afford if they wanted to send Yukito to college. A unanimous agreement was made by the other three members of the family that they would continue to focus on putting the youngest through school, but for Kaito that meant a number of upheavals were about to take place in his own life plans. Entering the Sanyo police academy was now out of the question because he had to work twice as hard at the restaurant to save every Yen they could. Moreover...

Kaito would have to take over as a Devil Summoner a few years early. Daisuke was still an active Devil Summoner working for the Kuzunoha Offices and his work wasn't going to do itself. While initially very hesitant to take over that side of the family business, pressure from the organization's higher ups and his own sense of responsibility to his father drove Kaito into a corner. Neither he nor Daisuke were happy with the end result, but Kaito chose to accept his fate. He took his father's Magnetite, contracted Inugami, and thrust himself into an entirely different world that he been spending all his spare hours learning about since.

Winter has come and gone, and it is now springtime in Sanyo. Uncertainty hounds him with every step he takes, but Kaito Nagano has never been one to hesitate for very long. Life has its setbacks, and he'll be damned if he's gotten this far just to be stopped now. The man has no idea what the future holds for him anymore, but he'll regardless keep pushing headfirst towards it.


Equipment
Legacy - A beat up orange Zippo lighter given to Kaito by his father. In addition to its primary function, it houses Kaito's Magnetite and is used to summon his Demons.
Fond Memory - A bamboo shinai that Kaito picked out in high school. It's well-maintained to this day. While inside Prisons it transforms into a distinctly nondescript katana. (Slash Damage)
Memento - A neon green hard rubber trainer modeled after an SIG Sauer P220. It originally belonged to his mother. Within Prisons, it takes on the appearance of the actual pistol - fully loaded. (Pierce Damage)


Notes
-Hello, this is Dog.
-Like dogs, Kaito has an exceptional sense of smell that will be played out liberally for giggles. It also helps him while cooking.
-Also, Kaito Likes Dogs. So much so that Daisuke duped him into believing they had adopted a Shiba Inu pup when he was a middle schooler. Imagine the surprise when they sprung his identity as a Demon to the poor kid.
-His favorite television genre (if it hasn't already been made glaringly obvious) is sentai. Phoenix Ranger Featherman R is an eternal classic and his favorite iteration of the franchise.
-Kaito's nickname is an old insult from grade school - he was a bit on the thin side before entering high school, and earned the moniker when someone commented on his 'noodly arms'. Although the boy resented it for some time, after he began to work in the restaurant he got over the irritation and has embraced his noodly destiny ever since.
-Though he is still wet behind the ears when it comes to supernatural combat, Kaito has plenty of martial arts training and street fighting experience to defend himself in a scrap. Quick reactions and good instincts make him a formidable opponent, but his most dangerous skill is being able to adapt to situations on the fly. Kaito also possesses a remarkable sense of spatial awareness and a habit for making use of everyday objects as improvised weapons...