History: Yumikage was born into the prestigious Tsukimitsu family of sorcerers, the youngest son of three siblings. From a very young age he grew up with the expectation that he live up to his family's standards in all ways. From the ridiculous (dressing as a girl until seven years of age is a familial tradition he is still prone to embarrassment about, even if he still occasionally cross-dresses for fun, mostly when drunk or partying his best friends) to the magical, Yumi's life was always lived within strict boundaries, and up until high school, he rarely had a chance to make choices for himself, let alone friends.
In some ways, this was understandable: Sorcerer families are cautious by nature, but sorcerers are also considered prime
food by vampires. Children of sorcerers are often kidnapped at a young age, their blood being more potent than an average human being's, and they can be kept for decades in captivity just for this purpose. It's a nightmare story every child grows up with, and it's to the point C3 offers escort services for magician families, to protect them from just such a fate. As someone from a pure-blooded family of sorcerers, Yumi couldn't even walk home from school on his own without risk.
So Yumi lived a life within careful boundaries, going where he was told and doing what he was told. It was necessary, it was safer, and it was ultimately what his family expected of him. He had two older siblings, both successful, and Yumi was never quite enough to measure up.
My first decision that I ever made in my life on my own was on that day, when I reached out to you.Of course, a breaking point eventually came.
He'd always been warned off of Tsurugi Kamiya by his family, and for years he kept his distance from his classmate in spite of knowing he was also already working as a sorcerer even while being the same age as him. Saved by Tsurugi once before from attacking vampires, curiosity took root in Yumi's mind, and one day in high school, he approached him with both money and a request: Escort him off the books after school... so he could buy his only friend Jun a porno magazine for his birthday, just so he could see the look on Jun's face. Tsurugi found it hilarious.
They managed to buy the magazine, but they didn't manage it without incident. On the way back, ten vampires tried to attack at once, and Tsurugi took out all of them while barely breaking a sweat. Shocked at the ease with which Tsurugi handled them, Yumikage could merely stare as Tsurugi continued on as if it was merely a speedbump in the day, easily dealt with. He couldn't even spend time with his friends outside of school because of the dangers, but Tsurugi could do
anything, it felt like in that moment.
This incident began their friendship, so to speak, as well as a multitude of changes for Yumi.
He wanted that strength, craved that freedom. He stole a weapon his family had been keeping and proceeded to drag Tsurugi with him to an abandoned area, demanding that he teach him how to use it. Over the course of highschool, Yumi would seek out Tsurugi for help in learning how to fight, and slowly but surely he grasped a sense of freedom, rebelling against expectations and becoming courser, rougher around the edges. One day he walked into class, black hair bleached blond, and had seemingly discarded all hints of the subdued young man he used to try to be. This was Yumi's rebellion as well as his strength, his fiercely stubborn attempt to become his own person, standing in his own place.
In the same vein, he and Tsurugi grew closer. What started out as Yumi paying Tsurugi for help training became a true friendship, ultimately culminating in Yumi offering to pay Tsurugi's debt off himself, but Tsurugi refusing the aid. He wanted to be Yumi's equal friend, and Yumi secretly wanted the same. Tsurugi made one request however, something he shared with no one else: If a day came where he wasn't 'Human' anymore, he trusted Yumi to kill him.
Fast forward a few years, and they're both working at C3 together. Yumi goes to college with Jun, and the trio of them become C3's top combat unit. Yumi meets a girl--Shifumi--at college, a classmate of his and Jun's. He falls for her... but so does Jun.
Only one of them says anything about it to her face, and it isn't Yumi. Having only told Tsurugi about his feelings for her, Yumi encourages Jun to confess to her, letting his feelings stay buried. He attends their wedding as Jun's best man, and gives a speech to the happiness of the couple. He's happy for them, he
is.
Time passes. Jun and Shifumi have a son named Taku, and Shifumi dies shortly afterwards in an incident at C3 where a bunch of subclass escape. Everyone is affected in their own way, and Jun takes time off to mourn and figure out what he's doing. Yumi is there for him as best he can, dragging Tsurugi to meet with him and Taku against his fears, and they both come to love Taku deeply. He's also watching Tsurugi mentally deteriorate from excess magic use: His friend has been working for C3 most of his life, and he can't even remember his own age sometimes. Tsurugi is dying, Jun is absent, and Yumi feels helpless, frustrated, but tries to keep it together as best he can.
By canon timeline, Jun has returned to C3 and everything is going back to 'normal'. Normal, but not, because things are coming to a head with the vampires and C3 has plans in the works that will doubtlessly put Tsurugi in jeopardy. Yumi knows more than anyone the stakes for Tsurugi, and it's during the confrontation with Touma he finally, finally confronts him: He knows his plans to make Tsurugi a Servamp, and he's going to stop him.
He
doesn't actually manage to stop him, but Tsurugi breaks free from the body control he was under by his own power before striking a killing blow, unable to kill his best friend. Yumi passes out from magical exhaustion, content in the knowledge that his friend has decided to make a choice to fight.
Later, while everyone is recovering in the aftermath of the collapse of C3's Tokyo branch, Yumi spends time keeping an eye on the young Eves at the Sendagaya Onsen (where his sister lives, as she married into the family). A call comes through: Tsubaki has attacked the hospital where the worst injured were recovering, including Tsurugi and Jun. Yumi rushes to help, but he arrives just in time to see his brother bleeding out. In a last ditch effort to save a sliver of hope for eventually defeating Tsubaki, he pools his energy with his siblings to send Mahiru and Kuro away to safety with a teleportation spell.
Personality:
Yumi, to be blunt, is someone who almost immediately can come off as bristly and even hotheaded. He has a very delinquent way of speaking, blunt and even rude, though he is capable of being polite. He's
Rebellious and prone to a hairtrigger
temper when upset or angry, and might come off as immature because of it. He straight up kicks a trash can all over a conference room because he felt like no one was listening to his concerns over their plans to deal with Touma.
That being said, very often this anger comes from a place of care, if a very badly articulated one that borders on hostile at times. Yumi is extremely
caring when it comes to the few people he's close to, bring
loyal to those people through pretty much anything, though he's
terrible at both articulating and showing those feelings. This is extended even to love: He fell for a girl in college, Shifumi, but never said a word about his feelings to anyone but Tsurugi... and then when Jun said he was going to confess to her, he encouraged Jun to do so in spite of his own feelings. Yumi was a best man at their wedding, even. He just can't seem to spit out how much people mean to him.
He's definitely the one person Tsurugi tends to listen to in their small friend group, and the most successful at getting him to do things he's scared or unwilling to do. He's been dubbed 'Tsurugi's Mother' at times, hilariously. It's a kind of aggressive care that involves a lot of cursing and bossing around, but it's care nonetheless. He is exactly that guy to yell and curse at someone when they're being stupid because he cares but can't articulate it, alas.
Deeper though, is a core of Yumi's personality that he's wrestled with all his life: Feelings of
inadequacy. Yumi's always been expected to excel, constantly under pressure by his family, but at the same time never been given real acknowledgement for the work he puts into improving. He knows he'll never match up to the things his elder siblings have accomplished and become, and he
resents them even though he loves them. He's got a serious
jealous streak, not only regarding them but also Tsurugi: He loves his friend, but there's no denying his feelings regarding him are a complicated mix of one-sided rivalry and devoted friendship. He wants to be as strong as him, wants to be his equal. But he just can't match up to someone as strong as Tsurugi is.
Powers and Abilities:
Yumi is a magician who comes from a long line of pure blooded sorcerers, and has strong magical power he uses to fight. In terms of it's uses, Yumi most often uses it for attack magic, but he can also use it to create barriers with the right tools. In canon, magic is powered by the strong repressed emotions of the user, and Yumi's reflects his volatile and stubborn nature.
Guns: His skills manifest primarily in the use of magical firearms he can summon at will, generally two shotguns he duel wields, though they're sometimes smaller. He's seen using them to attack but also occasionally bind his opponents (and allies, in Tsurugi's case) by creating shadowy strands that tether them. These are extremely effective against supernatural opponents like vampires, capable of causing them great harm.
Cry for the moon: Using an incantation and his guns, Yumi forms a highly concentrated
ball of magical energy that looks, well, like a moon. By applying centrifugal force, Yumi is capable of a consistent output of devastating blasts, but aiming it takes a great deal of concentration. Once the magical energy is spent, he must immediately sleep to recover, which leaves him vulnerable.
Barriers/containment: Magicians at C3 use a variety of magical objects for their work, and Yumi is no different. He carries a set of keys around his neck that can create
barriers when used, for either protection or as seen in the image above, containment. He's got passable skill with it, but they'll still shatter if enough force is applied.
Inventory: The clothes on his back. His guns (they're magical items he can manifest at will, I'm not sure they're even a properly physical item?). A string of keys he wears around his neck, also magical items (see above).
Magicians are kind of a paranoid bunch.
Samples:
TDM,
older TDM ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jealousmoon
