Ginnungagap

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Erik von Motle

Erik von Motle

Appearance

---

Student Registration

Full Name - Erik von Motle
Age - 17
Gender - Male
Race - Human?
Nationality - German

Backstory

"Sometimes it's more impressive to be related to one powerful dragon than it is to trace your roots to dragons, faeries, dryads, satyrs, werewolves, sirens, and whatever else have you.
After all the other guy can point to which of his ancestors is important."
While the age of nobility has long passed in Europe, some people never really gave up on the idea, and Erik's family has held on to its mystical roots desperately in a world where magic seems unreal. The house of Motle has only infamy among the other mage families in Europe, widely known as the mutts of the magical community, and not exactly incorrectly, the bloodline drawing its sorcerous roots from just about every variety of mystical creature that has ever passed through the continent. And many that have not.
Honestly you would have better luck with listing the things that are not in the Motle family.
So as it is, Erik's blood and magic are a veritable cocktail of everything magical that can be found on Earth, carefully blended together to avoid anything in particular overpowering the rest. Alongside that careful art, the Motle passed down an art of blood, to use it as fuel for their spells when natural arts failed.

Erik was born to this ebbing and flowing blood and all the expectations that came with it. Keep the family line going, clean up, be presentable, master magic. Listen to your mother, obey your father, as if either one could be bothered to talk to him. Write in your grimoire. Note down everything. Find a nice girl, get married, pour your blood, sweat, and tears into your studies. Watch your family fall apart around you. Pick yourself up after you fall down the stairs.
Bleed for your heritage.
Predictably, Erik found it, lacking. Restrictive. Mother knows best, do as thou should. You have talent, don't waste it. Get moving, child. You don't need "freedom", just work harder. This is what it means to be noble. Respect it. Live it.

But what, perhaps, if there was another option he could take. There are mage schools out there now, big, famous, connected to the other world. Places that were reputable. Places that with the right words, he could convince his parents the value of including in life. And desperation bore fruit in words. And so it was, off to Silver Gate he would go.
Just leave home. It's not home anymore. Was it ever really home? That didn't matter. He could go to a school, a school far away.
Have your "freedom" then. Mother and Father will be waiting when you tire of it. Right back at home.
Anywhere but home. He would like to be anywhere but home.

Personality

Hot-blooded, fabulous, and utterly out of his depth, Erik has approximately 2 modes: showoff, and blasting. He does not trust anyone but himself to do anything right, which is understandable given the circumstances, and he feels no need to explain this simple fact of the world to anyone. He has talent and noble blood, and most the rest of his contemporaries do not. The handful that do have any nobility in them don't deserve it anyway. Really they should just stop getting in the way.
Is it really that hard to understand the concept?

Left to his own devices, Erik keeps up his extremes by rapidly flipping between devoted absenteeism and sudden deep-diving study sessions to make up for his earlier inattentiveness. It sort of works out, usually. It's always worked just fine before. This isn't home, it's okay to take a break every now and then.

Stat System

END - E 35
STR - E 15
DEX - E 15
AGI - D 25
INT - C 50
WIL - B 90 (B 112.5 w/ Bloodline)
CHR - C 90
SPT - F 15
LCK - D 40

Role - Caster
Armor Types - Cape, Hat, Accessory
Weapon Types - Binder, Book, Stylus
Skill Points Spent - 22/24

Weapons

• Motle Family Grimoire - A vellum-paged, leather-bound spellbook/journal received from his family, Erik's personal grimoire is intended to be used to record his favored and invented spells, recipes, and techniques, as well as a journal of his activities during life. The book has a variety of enchantments on it, but aside from being protected from most sorts of environmental damage, the most notable enchantment is that the only ink that will actually work on the inside pages is blood, which dries almost-immediately to a dusky maroon once applied. The book's spellwork is unfinished, as there are a number of enchantments not yet applied to it that are expected of a fledgling magician of the Motle family.

Gear

• Medical kit - A fancy kit with both magical and mundane remedies for injuries sustained on the field. Could be used for anyone but notably contains some objects specifically geared for Erik.
• Backup medical kit - Because someone is going to lose their medical kit at some point, you need a second, almost as good medical kit in a different pouch of your backpack.
• Emergency bleed kit - Contains only two things: a perfectly mundane roll of gauze, and one syringe of antihemophilic factor. Guaranteed to maybe stop you bleeding out if you've managed to lose all your other fancy medical supplies.

Other

• Hemophilia (mild) - Bleeding is easy, just one, two, three. Stopping is hard.
• Blood Mage - Erik routinely uses his own blood as a component in spellcasting; he keeps a ready supply of 1 dram (⅛ fluid ounce) vials on his person. With the right practice, this might become more than simply a basic component of keeping him as a functioning mage at all.

Independent

• Spirit Boost - As an Earth Human, Erik has a wellspring of inner power waiting to be tapped into. 40% boost to Spirit when over 50. Currently: Inactive.
• Arcane Bloodline - The unique blood of the Motle family being able to carry so much magical energy gives Erik a veritable supply of mana to access. He has a 25% bonus to WIL, his blood can be used to restore other people's mana stores, but should he bleed, he will slowly lose that WIL bonus in 2 posts.
• Show-off - Erik has an extreme sense of confidence with a strong urge to show off. If he is fighting with at least one other person, his magical potency is improved by 15%. It is improved to 20% if there's also a crowd on the enemy side.

Major Skills

• Arcture Academics 1-3 (free)
• Royal Water Vol 1 (free)
• Shin-Ganryu Blade of Dispelling (free)

Minor Skills

• Spellcaster 1 (2 pts)
• Multiplier 2 (4 pts)
• Spreader 1 (2 pts)
• Piercer 1 (2 pts)
• Sensory 1 (2 pts)
• Charger 1 (2 pts)
• Doublecast (2 pts)
• Reinforce 1 (2 pts)
• Scribe 2 (4 pts)

Spells

9/10

• Barrier
• Scan
• Scan II
• Elemental Blast
• Magic Missile
• Water Artillery
• Suppression Stream
• Reserved for Scribe loadout
• Reserved for Scribe loadout

Techniques

• Stone Stance

Spending Log

Innate Bonuses
INT D -> C
WIL C -> B
STR F -> E
+10 CHR
+10 WIL

Experience Tracker

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Drafted for the Field

Erik von Motle

Appearance

---

Student Registration

Full Name - Erik von Motle
Age - 17
Gender - Male
Race - Human?
Nationality - German

Backstory

"Sometimes it's more impressive to be related to one powerful dragon than it is to trace your roots to dragons, faeries, dryads, satyrs, werewolves, sirens, and whatever else have you.
After all the other guy can point to which of his ancestors is important."
While the age of nobility has long passed in Europe, some people never really gave up on the idea, and Erik's family has held on to its mystical roots desperately in a world where magic seems unreal. The house of Motle has only infamy among the other mage families in Europe, widely known as the mutts of the magical community, and not exactly incorrectly, the bloodline drawing its sorcerous roots from just about every variety of mystical creature that has ever passed through the continent. And many that have not.
Honestly you would have better luck with listing the things that are not in the Motle family.
So as it is, Erik's blood and magic are a veritable cocktail of everything magical that can be found on Earth, carefully blended together to avoid anything in particular overpowering the rest. Alongside that careful art, the Motle passed down an art of blood, to use it as fuel for their spells when natural arts failed.

Erik was born to this ebbing and flowing blood and all the expectations that came with it. Keep the family line going, clean up, be presentable, master magic. Listen to your mother, obey your father, as if either one could be bothered to talk to him. Write in your grimoire. Note down everything. Find a nice girl, get married, pour your blood, sweat, and tears into your studies. Watch your family fall apart around you. Pick yourself up after you fall down the stairs.
Bleed for your heritage.
Predictably, Erik found it, lacking. Restrictive. Mother knows best, do as thou should. You have talent, don't waste it. Get moving, child. You don't need "freedom", just work harder. This is what it means to be noble. Respect it. Live it.

But what, perhaps, if there was another option he could take. There are mage schools out there now, big, famous, connected to the other world. Places that were reputable. Places that with the right words, he could convince his parents the value of including in life. And desperation bore fruit in words. And so it was, off to Silver Gate he would go.
Just leave home. It's not home anymore. Was it ever really home? That didn't matter. He could go to a school, a school far away.
Have your "freedom" then. Mother and Father will be waiting when you tire of it. Right back at home.
Anywhere but home. He would like to be anywhere but home.

Personality

Hot-blooded, fabulous, and utterly out of his depth, Erik has approximately 2 modes: showoff, and blasting. He does not trust anyone but himself to do anything right, which is understandable given the circumstances, and he feels no need to explain this simple fact of the world to anyone. He has talent and noble blood, and most the rest of his contemporaries do not. The handful that do have any nobility in them don't deserve it anyway. Really they should just stop getting in the way.
Is it really that hard to understand the concept?

Left to his own devices, Erik keeps up his extremes by rapidly flipping between devoted absenteeism and sudden deep-diving study sessions to make up for his earlier inattentiveness. It sort of works out, usually. It's always worked just fine before. This isn't home, it's okay to take a break every now and then.

Stat System

END - E 35
STR - F 15
DEX - E 15
AGI - D 25
INT - D 50
WIL - C 80
CHR - C 80
SPT - F 15
LCK - D 40

Role - Caster
Armor Types - Cape, Hat, Accessory
Weapon Types - Binder, Book, Stylus
Skill Points Spent - 22/24

Weapons

• Motle Family Grimoire - A vellum-paged, leather-bound spellbook/journal received from his family, Erik's personal grimoire is intended to be used to record his favored and invented spells, recipes, and techniques, as well as a journal of his activities during life. The book has a variety of enchantments on it, but aside from being protected from most sorts of environmental damage, the most notable enchantment is that the only ink that will actually work on the inside pages is blood, which dries almost-immediately to a dusky maroon once applied. The book's spellwork is unfinished, as there are a number of enchantments not yet applied to it that are expected of a fledgling magician of the Motle family.

Gear

• Medical kit - A fancy kit with both magical and mundane remedies for injuries sustained on the field. Could be used for anyone but notably contains some objects specifically geared for Erik.
• Backup medical kit - Because someone is going to lose their medical kit at some point, you need a second, almost as good medical kit in a different pouch of your backpack.
• Emergency bleed kit - Contains only two things: a perfectly mundane roll of gauze, and one syringe of antihemophilic factor. Guaranteed to maybe stop you bleeding out if you've managed to lose all your other fancy medical supplies.

Other

• Hemophilia (mild) - Bleeding is easy, just one, two, three. Stopping is hard.
• Blood Mage - Erik routinely uses his own blood as a component in spellcasting; he keeps a ready supply of 1 dram (⅛ fluid ounce) vials on his person. With the right practice, this might become more than simply a basic component of keeping him as a functioning mage at all.

Independent

• Spirit Boost - As an Earth Human, Erik has a wellspring of inner power waiting to be tapped into. 40% boost to Spirit when over 50. Currently: Inactive.
• Arcane Bloodline - The unique blood of the Motle family being able to carry so much magical energy gives Erik a veritable supply of mana to access. He has a 25% bonus to WIL, his blood can be used to restore other people's mana stores, but should he bleed, he will slowly lose that WIL bonus in 2 posts.
• Show-off - Erik has an extreme sense of confidence with a strong urge to show off. If he is fighting with at least one other person, his magical potency is improved by 15%. It is improved to 20% if there's also a crowd on the enemy side.

Major Skills

• Arcture Academics 1-3 (free)
• Royal Water Vol 1 (free)
• Shin-Ganryu Blade of Dispelling (free)

Minor Skills

• Spellcaster 1 (2 pts)
• Multiplier 2 (4 pts)
• Spreader 1 (2 pts)
• Piercer 1 (2 pts)
• Sensory 1 (2 pts)
• Charger 1 (2 pts)
• Doublecast (2 pts)
• Reinforce 1 (2 pts)
• Scribe 2 (4 pts)

Spells

9/10

• Barrier
• Scan
• Scan II
• Elemental Blast
• Magic Missile
• Water Artillery
• Suppression Stream
• Reserved for Scribe loadout
• Reserved for Scribe loadout

Techniques

• Stone Stance

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Taking this down for now

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Eiseikato

"I'm from Solitum, so this might not apply to every phoenix," Icarus said, trying to find a better way to sit now that he wasn't trying to compete in a game he had no hope of winning, and instead could compete in a new game he had no hope of winning. "It's a bit hard to appreciate board games when your competition has a few hundred years of board games on you, even if they decide to go easy on you, they've been inventing new strategies while you're still learning the basic ones. So, sorry if I don't give you any recommendations.
"I've no idea how things are on this side, but in the Solitum desert, there aren't too many things that can compete with an older phoenix, and the things that do are temporary...so most of the adults are just busy dealing with other phoenixes. Mortal friends are just so...nobody likes to talk about it. Even the longed-lived ones don't live long enough. But all those old phoenixes also bring a lot of history with them, and a lot of them have been all around Arcanis, so we can kind of stand out even with how colorful the desert cities are. Like, my great-great-grandmother, who is I think like 30-something at the moment, remembered a lot about some time in Crystis Talon in a previous cycle, so a lot of her stuff is based on her time there, which is a few hundred years out of date from now. Honestly I think the best way to describe it all is probably just a few hundred years out of date, pulled from everywhere. Remembering your time off in a far off country can include forgetting a few details too. Me, I, well I mostly read when I was home. I've been so interested in this world, which is a place none of my immediate family can give me a two-hundred year rundown on."

Experience Get

5 skill points

The Devil Hunter Agency

Mizuki Kichiro

---

Unpowered flight was not exactly a new experience to Kichiro, the lack of novelty never did make it a welcome experience. The follow-up explosions in the wake of him standing himself up after being throw across a warehouse by a tree were a new and exciting experience, complete with ringing in his ears and remembering just how lucky he was to only have one set of those at the moment.

This whole operation was shot through, and now the cops were here. And they had probably heard the very not quiet explosion.

Mrs. Yokoi had the right idea though. Wounded and the rocks, and one of the Americans had already grabbed a rock, leaving the injured. Well, and anyone who hadn't yet realized they needed to go. And probably take the aggressive flora with them. Leaving it for the police would be problematic...

And now the ringing in his ears sounded like someone talking, that was a great addition to the whole sensation, really. Just keep moving though, that's all that there was to do. Check surroundings: two injured, there was already someone on each. Yurei, mostly dissipated. Unstable, aggressive flora, not so dissipated.
"You guys deal with that, make sure out friends outside have something to keep them busy. It would be much better for them to chase after some punk than all die to a tree" and with those few parting words and a look the the remaining members of the Japanese branch, he darted out the front door.

Out the door he made sure to do two very important things. Find out where the officers were, and then, start running once he knew they caught a glimpse. Try to avoid letting them get a good look at his face, but they could stare at the back of his head all night if they liked.
But the running was the important part. It was very important to look suspicious.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Mizuki Kichiro

---

Public transportation was so convenient, really. It only took a little bit of bus-hopping to get where one wanted to go, if one knew how to hop between vehicles properly. Well, vehicles, buildings, really any way to stay moving and out of the everyday person's field of view.
The old abandoned warehouse called to Kichiro, and he followed the trail, better late than never. Or maybe it was the fire and chaos that called out to him. He had seen plenty of both after all.

Whatever it was, it was so very invigorating, just like the crisp chilly air.
Another leap brought him to the perch he so desired, the warehouse rooftop, which was preferable to the front at this point as that area was rapidly becoming crowded and also ignited. Another few paces brought him to a much-appreciated natural skylight and a surreptitious view within. Whole lot of hunters inside, even more yurei that were uncomfortably aggressive, and far too little coordination on both sides.
"We really should figure out this whole cooperation thing with the foreigners," he sighed, but he didn't really do anything different, taking another moment to survey the scene from above before simply leaping through the gap between panels, landing foot-first on top of an unfortunate spirit that really didn't have a chance between gravity and Kichiro.
At least the catwalks weren't too crowded. And there weren't too many demons up here. Just the ones with a hostage.
No time to think, no time to let them do whatever they considering thinking. Only time to move and start punching ghostly face. And Kichiro did just that.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Pyon

• Appearance:

Hider

• Name: Mizuki Kichiro
• Title: Pyon-pyon
• Age: 28
• Division: Japanese Branch
• Class/Species: Devil Feeder

• Abilities:

• Karate - As a Feeder, it's kind of expected that Kichiro won't benefit from weaponry, so being a skilled unarmed combatant is on top of the list for skills that one needs in the field.
• Demonic Body - Like the vast majority of feeders, Kichiro is blessed/cursed with superhuman strength and speed, balancing more towards strength on his end. He is also abnormally durable, taking a lot more punishment to actually injure than your average person, and continuing to function even across that line.
• Leporidae Manifestation - Involuntary on his part, Kichiro can manifest physical traits of a hare, oftentimes ears, but he's also had whiskers and a tail before. He's never found any benefit from this other than the fact that rabbit ears are significantly better at listening and determining exactly where a sound originates from.
• Perfect onigiri - Kichiro received the ability to make truly divine onigiri from his demon

• Personality: Kichiro is the sort of person that raises eyebrows in a field like this. Insufferably wide-eyed and exuding a happiness that could only come from ignoring the kind of work the devil hunters do.
He's a bit too cheery for the job description.
Being full of joy simply being alive does not stop Kichiro from being a hard worker though. If there is a job to do, Kichiro's smiling face is likely to be found working at it already. "It's not all field work and fighting" he'll happily explain to anyone who will listen. "It's all the little things too."

His relationship with his contracted demon lacks all the normal subtlety one might try to keep with the source of one's power. Conversations are confrontational, antagonistic, and petty victories and snide jabs flow back and forth, in contrast to his typical relationships. But to anyone with any experience with him, it's obvious that there's some kind of actual connection there, though it isn't exactly a human connection. Any sort of competition or challenge directed at Kichiro is just as much a challenge to his demon, and neither one of them really believes in giving anything but 100%, so them suddenly killing an ongoing argument just to do something impressive is not unusual.

• Background: In another world, in another life, Kichiro would likely have been noticed at a young age and shuffled off to a shrine to hone a gift for working with spirits. The greatest irony in his life is that he could never be so lucky.
In this world, Kichiro grew up ignorant of the supernatural, until the age of 11, when it decided to make itself violently well-known. If he had been prepared, things could have gone differently, but he had no way to protect himself from any of the more spiritual yokai; so one night he'll never forget, he found himself possessed by a foul spirit, a gaki, and the hungry ghost used his body to suffocate his parents in their sleep.
The only luck Kichiro got out of that was that the devil hunter that showed up caught on to what was going on and exorcised the spirit from his body before driving it entirely from this world and into the next.

They never found the bodies, and Kichiro claims to not remember too much of what happened in the hours or days in between, but the long, endless time without control clearly broke something in him, because he begged the hunter to do him one single favor after freeing him. Whatever he asked for, the end result was that the hunter took him back to the Agency to figure out what could be done with him. He was too young to go out and fight right then and there of course, but he had no family now, the mundane authorities would only want to know more about what happened, and the child was at risk anyway of being possessed again. Someone needed to train that out of him at least.

Thus began the training of Mizuki Kichiro, halfway across Japan from his one-time home. From sunrise to sunset. First with chores, simple things for a kid his age; back into school under a new name once he had recovered from the trauma he had endured; then meditation in the evenings. He did not see any other path he could take in life from there. He was still a child, after all, and he would not be able to be a proper devil hunter for years, but he was determined to earn that right.
Cleaning floors shifted over the years to learning how to fight directly. There was certainly still plenty of work done around the local branch, but there was that subtle shift of becoming a student and not merely a dependent.

Something nagged in the back of Kichiro's head as he grew from a boy into a young man. He knew he had a choice once he was actually accepted as a devil hunter, and he understood the ramifications of each well, but he had an additional concern. He could close himself off, cut off that peculiarity of his soul that made him just a bit more susceptible to possession, he knew how to do that well enough by the time he really started learning the most basic art of the craft, or he could embrace it despite the past and make it a weapon.
The idea of holding that back sickened him. The idea of willingly bonding himself to another demon evoked only disgust. Eventually, the concept of someone else suffering the same way he had won out.

He became a devil feeder. All he had to do after making that decision was to find the right demon.
And convince it.

It took some legwork, some forestry, mountain climbing, and dedicate searching, but eventually he managed to track down the yokai he was after.

Convincing her, however, was something else entirely. She had a simple stipulation before making the contract. One simple little thing, perfectly reasonable. Just agree to a fight.
He wasn't supposed to agree to anything like that, it was dangerous. Ridiculously dangerous. He'd picked the rabbit-demon in question for a reason, and it wanted something ridiculous before it would even agree to discuss the terms.
Kichiro, filled with all the impetuousness of youth, accepted. And spent the dozen rounds having the stuffing beaten out of him by the fluffiest yokai he had ever met. It took everything he had, but he managed to not die.
And that's all she needed of him.

• Inventory:

• A string of prayer beads, only distinct because of one single large bead that appears to be glass, encased in which is a little, tiny, utterly unimportant shard of a lunar meteoroid. Within which his yokai is kept sealed.

• Other: Not being a rookie anymore does not protect you from being mothered by Miss Yokoi, I'm pretty sure.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Pyon

• Appearance:

Hider

• Name: Mizuki Kichiro
• Title: Pyon-pyon
• Age: 28
• Division: Japanese Branch
• Class/Species: Devil Feeder

• Abilities:

• Karate - As a Feeder, it's kind of expected that Kichiro won't benefit from weaponry, so being a skilled unarmed combatant is on top of the list for skills that one needs in the field.
• Demonic Body - Like the vast majority of feeders, Kichiro is blessed/cursed with superhuman strength and speed, balancing more towards strength on his end. He is also abnormally durable, taking a lot more punishment to actually injure than your average person, and continuing to function even across that line.
• Leporidae Manifestation - Involuntary on his part, Kichiro can manifest physical traits of a hare, oftentimes ears, but he's also had whiskers and a tail before. He's never found any benefit from this other than the fact that rabbit ears are significantly better at listening and determining exactly where a sound originates from.
• Perfect onigiri - Kichiro received the ability to make truly divine onigiri from his demon

• Personality: Kichiro is the sort of person that raises eyebrows in a field like this. Insufferably wide-eyed and exuding a happiness that could only come from ignoring the kind of work the devil hunters do.
He's a bit too cheery for the job description.
Being full of joy simply being alive does not stop Kichiro from being a hard worker though. If there is a job to do, Kichiro's smiling face is likely to be found working at it already. "It's not all field work and fighting" he'll happily explain to anyone who will listen. "It's all the little things too."

His relationship with his contracted demon lacks all the normal subtlety one might try to keep with the source of one's power. Conversations are confrontational, antagonistic, and petty victories and snide jabs flow back and forth, in contrast to his typical relationships. But to anyone with any experience with him, it's obvious that there's some kind of actual connection there, though it isn't exactly a human connection. Any sort of competition or challenge directed at Kichiro is just as much a challenge to his demon, and neither one of them really believes in giving anything but 100%, so them suddenly killing an ongoing argument just to do something impressive is not unusual.

• Background: In another world, in another life, Kichiro would likely have been noticed at a young age and shuffled off to a shrine to hone a gift for working with spirits. The greatest irony in his life is that he could never be so lucky.
In this world, Kichiro grew up ignorant of the supernatural, until the age of 11, when it decided to make itself violently well-known. If he had been prepared, things could have gone differently, but he had no way to protect himself from any of the more spiritual yokai; so one night he'll never forget, he found himself possessed by a foul spirit, a gaki, and the hungry ghost used his body to suffocate his parents in their sleep.
The only luck Kichiro got out of that was that the devil hunter that showed up caught on to what was going on and exorcised the spirit from his body before driving it entirely from this world and into the next.

They never found the bodies, and Kichiro claims to not remember too much of what happened in the hours or days in between, but the long, endless time without control clearly broke something in him, because he begged the hunter to do him one single favor after freeing him. Whatever he asked for, the end result was that the hunter took him back to the Agency to figure out what could be done with him. He was too young to go out and fight right then and there of course, but he had no family now, the mundane authorities would only want to know more about what happened, and the child was at risk anyway of being possessed again. Someone needed to train that out of him at least.

Thus began the training of Mizuki Kichiro, halfway across Japan from his one-time home. From sunrise to sunset. First with chores, simple things for a kid his age; back into school under a new name once he had recovered from the trauma he had endured; then meditation in the evenings. He did not see any other path he could take in life from there. He was still a child, after all, and he would not be able to be a proper devil hunter for years, but he was determined to earn that right.
Cleaning floors shifted over the years to learning how to fight directly. There was certainly still plenty of work done around the local branch, but there was that subtle shift of becoming a student and not merely a dependent.

Something nagged in the back of Kichiro's head as he grew from a boy into a young man. He knew he had a choice once he was actually accepted as a devil hunter, and he understood the ramifications of each well, but he had an additional concern. He could close himself off, cut off that peculiarity of his soul that made him just a bit more susceptible to possession, he knew how to do that well enough by the time he really started learning the most basic art of the craft, or he could embrace it despite the past and make it a weapon.
The idea of holding that back sickened him. The idea of willingly bonding himself to another demon evoked only disgust. Eventually, the concept of someone else suffering the same way he had won out.

He became a devil feeder. All he had to do after making that decision was to find the right demon.
And convince it.

It took some legwork, some forestry, mountain climbing, and dedicate searching, but eventually he managed to track down the yokai he was after.

Convincing her, however, was something else entirely. She had a simple stipulation before making the contract. One simple little thing, perfectly reasonable. Just agree to a fight.
He wasn't supposed to agree to anything like that, it was dangerous. Ridiculously dangerous. He'd picked the rabbit-demon in question for a reason, and it wanted something ridiculous before it would even agree to discuss the terms.
Kichiro, filled with all the impetuousness of youth, accepted. And spent the dozen rounds having the stuffing beaten out of him by the fluffiest yokai he had ever met. It took everything he had, but he managed to not die.
And that's all she needed of him.

• Inventory:

• A string of prayer beads, only distinct because of one single large bead that appears to be glass, encased in which is a little, tiny, utterly unimportant shard of a lunar meteoroid. Within which his yokai is kept sealed.

• Other: Not being a rookie anymore does not protect you from being mothered by Miss Yokoi, I'm pretty sure.

The Devil Hunter Agency

I'm already on the optimism and smiles train if that's any consideration, @BenG85. I mean there's angst to be had but I'm hiding it under like 5 layers of "actually I prefer my life now"
Just have to finish writing it al

The Devil Hunter Agency

Poking in to express interest early, liking what I've seen already