Name: Daichi Arata
Age: "20" (157)
Gender: Male
Appearance: This dull looking homu-, er human stands at a height of 5'11". Arata has a slightly darker complexion than others, but remains adequately fair skinned. His hair is a unkempt mess at times with black spikes spring in different directions. On rare occasions, he will try to slick his hair down to give it a "clean" and "smooth" appearance, though there will always be something sticking out. His mouth is always fixated in a frown, as if suspicious of those in the general vicinity. Another feature are the red eyes which seem rather lax to the point of inattentiveness. This gives him the appearance of a bored, unamused adult who can't stand to deal with bizarre anomalies.
His build appears rather frail at times, and he looks almost sluggish due to his looks. He is often seen in a usual black and white getup which sometimes looks stylish depending on the occasion. A white jacket with a few dirty spots near the bottom edges of it which are turning it into a gray shade. He also wears a midnight black button up. Finally, his pants and shoes mimic that same familiar shade of black which asphyxiates any bright colors.
Personality: Distant is one way to talk about Arata. This aloof young man seems relatively off in his own world as he is seen as peculiar in a scary sense. It's like he has no soul and acts rather cold when someone wants to speak with him, harshly telling them to make it quick or he has no time for nonsense. Why he acts annoyed 24/7 isn't exactly clear to college students around the vicinity, but he is shown to be a fan of the occult and the "metaphysical" world people sometimes talk about. Strangely enough, he may be muttering things to himself if supposedly alone. If found, he will eye the on-goer with suspicion and walk away.
However, hiding under that annoyed side is one of fearless, unwavering determination. When he puts his mind to something, Arata will work vehemently to complete the task. He also shows some superiority over those who were previously unaware of the supernatural world to go home and forget this all happened. Arata considers them civilians that do not have to get involved in precarious situations that will endanger them. He also smiles from time to time, but only if he has a pack of gum with him and it's in his mouth; it just makes him feel at peace for some reason.
Abilities: With his rebirth, Arata ended up trading his magic for some other... interesting properties. His "Master" made sure to give him what he needed for being a lightning bruiser - speed, strength, superior vision, the works. This was to ensure that the magi would not fail in the ritual, however he never accounted for the intelligence of the Homunculi coming out. Acrobatics is a thing too since he can't just dart around field full speed expecting to avoid all hits staying on the ground.
Along with that, he plays an unsuspecting human quite well while being wary of people he encounters. On top of that, illusions can't really fool him completely as eventually he will notice something is amiss, however stronger illusions might be able to get past the radar. Also, he does well against physical hits, but when dealing with magical hits, he takes them as well as any other human would when getting blasted by a fire ball or shocked by electricity... which is going to make his job difficult among myriads of magi.
Skills: During his years of extensively brutal training, Arata has garnered a variety of skills in the process. Rigid training cycles required him to be flexible in the events and forced him into positions where he had to use acrobatics to fight or flee. Another is fighting in which he was forced to battle against earthen elementals using grappling techniques to take them down... and on the occasion, use pure strength and no skill to take it down. Social skills could use some work though as that is one of the few things he is just mediocre on... that, and never let him drive a car.
Equipment: None of his equipment can really be identified as "supernatural." He has acquired a few items over his life through legal or illegal ways. His main ranged ways of attacking comes from his only gun - Heckler & Koch Mark 23. Although he isn't an expert in marksmanship, he will favor this is a target is too dangerous to approach or if the victim is unaware. He also needs to make sure that each shot counts due to his finite ammunition. Next is a couple of stolen, but limited amounts of grenades. Only types that he has are flashbangs, sting grenades, and smoke grenades. While these won't kill a person, they can be used for utility when against a magi. You can't hit what you can't see. Other than that, he does actually have a few legal items like pepper spray, and a taser. They may have magic, but technology always helps when at a disadvantage.
Brief Backstory:
"A chance to cheat death? Sounds like an interesting prospect, tell me more."
Arata, as he calls himself now, was a young human alchemist aspiring for eminence, disillusioned by grandeur schemes. Even more so, he was drawn to the beauty of what was known as the White Night of Klarsberg by his family. The family of magi were practitioners of frost, and like it had a cold, structured command. They were slightly lenient towards their firstborn, Arata, who favored alchemy over magic. Eventually after bearing two more children in harmony with the frost, their strictness tightened to the point of suffocating Arata. Even with their deliberate punishments and order, they always spoke of the Origin. This start drew the boy closer to this idea of being the one to procure such a mystical thing, and eventually concluded about going at it himself.
Wishing to find it for himself, Arata continued honing his abilities to prepare himself for what would come in the future. Eventually, he came to participate with his family in the battle royale leading up into the ritual. However, his family always came up short and were never the ones to monopolize the battle in their favor. Each year he participated in it, eventually with his own family he formed. In the end, he never grew close to it and became plagued by the desire. Their strength would allow them the position to obtain the Origin of All Magic. Fearing his agitated thirst, he was left by his family, mother stealing away all of the children they had bore.
Now he was all alone... completely consumed by his desire.
It encompassed the rest of his life as he searched for a way. At the last ritual, another took advantage of his crazed state as he continued to grow older and failed in being the one to take up the spot. The magi explained to him that he could help him get the spot, but only if he trusted them. Suspicious of the deal, Arata inquired details about what was to come from him and how it benefited the magi. The magi explained to him about Homunculis and the ability to last boundlessly in this realm without traversing to the other side. They also replied with the request to help them become one also since their life would not last too much longer. Explaining even more information afterwords, Arata became ensnared by their lies and underwent the ritual. Eventually, after collecting all the material Arata finished his own life, sealing his fate.
The magi attempted to make sure that the soul of the owner of the new body would not recall any of their previous memories and took many precautions such as notching the spell to ensure his rival could not know magic, along with having no memories. Purposely messing up the soul transfer, the Magi ensured that Arata would be like a piece of clay to sculpt for his own devious desires. Programming the new Homunculi afterwords was an arduous task, and the Magi made a few errors that he painstakingly corrected. Eventually, the process of programming was completed and the Homunculi awoke from it's long slumber.
The Magis plans failed to a degree as the only things the Homunculi couldn't recall was his name, most of his memories from his childhood, along with a few blanks, and importantly - most names became lost to him. The Magis errors in how he purposely performed the process caused the previous consciousness of Arata to nest itself in the body and would eventually lead to their downfall. Raising the newborn "human" discretely, the Homunculi "learned" more about the world around him. The magi who he was raised by was insisted to be called master controlled Aratas life. Eventually, the former alchemist grew sick of the stalling, along with reasons why he could not use his alchemy and quizzed his master on if he could use magic. The magi chuckled to himself and responded that there was not a drop of magic in him, however he was enhanced to perform tasks for him which he had been training him for when the next White Night transpired.
Betrayed, the Homunculi sought vengeance for what was bestowed onto him... but bode his time as he wished to procure more knowledge of what he was now capable of. This reached into when his body stopped aging at the age of "20" (92). The old magi eventually fell into the same trap Arata originally became caught in. Seeing this as a chance to take ironic revenge on his former ally, the Homunculi gathered the same materials before burning them all right in front of the old magi. This elicited a spew of unpleasant curses from the magi due to the surprise before those cacophonous shouts were replaced with silence.
With what remained of his humanity, Arata found peace with himself before promptly coming to the realization of what antics he performed. He felt... used to seeing blood and almost unaffected by the body at all. This made him fearful of himself as he began to question his own sanity and if it was even worth attempting to procure the Origin.
"... my magic is gone, my wife and children departed from me because of my volatile state,and I renounced my humanity to become a slave..."
"... this isn't what I asked for..."
Forsaking so many things, Arata bawled out in pain of what he did. His illusions were completely shattered...
Arata eventually decided to start anew on his road to redemption, seeing it as a way to cope with the pyrrhic victory he claimed. He took up the name Daichi Arata and traversed around performing many odd-jobs, refining his new talents...
Sixty-four years later, Arata found himself standing among the same city that the ritual always transpired in. He knew the greed of the magi and how so many sought the Origin. Using the money he saved up, Arata began attending school in the city as a cover just in case anyone became leery of a random hermit who shows up out of oblivion.
"... it should be happening some time this year, I'm sure of it... The ritual should be transpiring soon enough, I just need to bide my time..."
The Matsuokas... always dominating the rituals, making it seem inevitable and pointless for others to participate. They gave false hope to those wishing to procure the Origin. Arata felt they knew what they were doing and believed their greed gleamed brighter than any others...
"... I can't let them have the Origin... I wanted to avoid more bloodshed, but I guess I cannot avert the inevitable... pity what I'm going to have to perform."
