jigokucho APP

[worldbent]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Kit
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yes
CONTACT: kitsoru or PM
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Matoba Seiji (JP name order)
CANON: Natsume Yuujinchou/Natsume's Book of Friends (manga)
CANON REFERENCE: Natsume Wiki link! (Not a great wiki, sorry! Happy to provide more robust history if necessary!)
CANON POINT: End of Chapter 104, after leaving his meeting with Ban
CRAU HISTORY: N/A
AGE: 22
APPEARANCE: Image; Matoba is a young Japanese man with long black hair always seen in a low ponytail, with bangs that fall across his reddish-brown eyes. His most striking feature is that his right eye is always kept covered behind a paper ward with a spell painted onto it, behind which is an eyepatch. He's normally seen wearing his clan's traditional dark kimono with a black haori over it, although he's also been known to wear a black suit when doing business with politicians and others outside of the exorcist culture. He is commonly seen holding a paper umbrella with a bullseye-like pattern.
CONTRACT PAYMENT: He will have requested the unyielding and eternal protection of his faction for the Matoba clan, in exchange for his service. No more, no less!

QUESTIONNAIRE:


• What does family mean to you and who do you consider a part of your family? (IC)

As the Matoba now span a collection of several dozen families and traditions by this point, it's hardly a matter of mere blood relation. However, the one thing that I have sworn, in succeeding as the head of the clan, is protection and the greater good of the entire clan. That is to say, if some sacrifices need to be made, it isn't something that I do lightly. Within the Matoba, every person understands their role as a protector of something larger than their own interests, and in fact, the protection of their families as they become unable to partake in exorcism themselves has been a large motivator towards many of the clans we've had join our ranks.

Regardless of whether a clan once opposed the Matoba or disagreed with our way of doing things, at the end of the day, survival is the prime motivator for all living things. As old power dies out and children unable to see are born, these families who may have once opposed us come to realize that they need some strength to cling to in their own weakness, and very quickly their tune towards the singular power of the Matoba will change. It is convenient for us, but it isn't an enjoyable fact.

Not to discount blood relations, mind you- it isn't without my inheritance by blood that I would likely have the power to do what I must. But shall we say, I feel that I have had better luck with those with whom I see eye to eye in an ideological sense within the clan than those I might be considered closer to by blood. That said, I find that those who have been my staunchest supporters tend to come from families whose history is much the same as our own- complicated.

• How important is loyalty to you? What does it take to earn your loyalty? What extents are you willing to go through to maintain loyalty, and respect the loyalty others might have invested in you? (IC)

At one time when I was still in school, my elder, Nanase-san, was facing quite a predicament. A shiki belonging to her clan had gone berserk and fled control of the clan. It was only by chance that I learned it had attacked children on the outside of our ranks, although it had managed to remain a quiet incident after I took care of it. It was rather convenient that it had decided to possess another acquaintance of mine. It would have been quite the bad look if others within the clan learned that she'd allowed that to happen- you could say her position within the clan might even have been threatened.

I don't know if she ever did find out that it was I who was behind its exorcism, but since I was young, Nanase-san has looked out for me because she believes strongly in our clan's mission, the same as I do. And now that I lead the clan, there is nothing she questions me on without proper forethought- it isn't something I'll dismiss lightly. I suppose my point is that when you know that those who will protect you will do so because of their own principles, without needing further motivation, you don't have to worry about their loyalty wavering. Earning loyalty on easily swayed concepts such as reputation or benefit is a fool's errand.

Well. I will admit that I certainly have some more complicated relationships and loyalties than that. But whatever disagreements we may have over our role as exorcists, there is something of a deeper understanding. And we do owe each other a great number of favors. It isn't very convenient to break promises towards those who have been useful to me, and who still hold much use in the future- be it personal, or otherwise, so I try to keep those relationships intact as much as possible.

• How do you react to betrayal? How severe must a betrayal be for you to consider it such? (IC)

It's a shame, but betrayal is just a matter of business. Everything comes back around- and those who are on top at one time may find themselves in need at another. Burning bridges is never a good look, so I find myself to be quite forgiving, most of the time. I recently had a business contact who attempted to broker a deal with another enemy of mine. [It's his older sister. No big. Nothing personal here.] It was a good thing that I was alerted to it- although it might have been fun to crush both of my enemies at once, losing the potential business and talent that they both could provide to my clan would have been detrimental in the long run, and there will always be the possibility that I have the opportunity to bring them under my power in the future.

That said, my patience has limits. If you forgive slights of honor too often, you'll appear weak and easily controlled, so if there is a betrayal that causes too much damage to our reputation or holdings, then of course I won't hesitate to eliminate those responsible completely by any means. It's a mess to clean up after, so I try not to have myself in that position very often. I have had members of my clan- former members, I suppose- attempt meaningless acts of revenge upon me in the past for such perceived slights as using their shiki for sacrifices. Unfortunately, some in the clan may not understand the common good that their sacrifices build towards, but I do not see these acts as betrayals towards me. Rather, while they may lash out at me for the decisions that led to the loss of what they see as their personal property, the harm they are causing is to the clan as a whole. That, I will not tolerate.

• Your Faction leader, not just your boss but the leader, has asked you to carry out a hit. The target is a non-affiliated public leader, well-liked by the people of the city. Do you carry it out? Why or why not? (IC)

It isn't for the rank and file to question the wisdom of his superiors. That's the obvious answer, is it not? Of course I would carry out the mission. It could be any reason, from a matter of personal offense to my superior, to a policy which threatens the standing of our clan, or that public figure may have holdings which would be beneficial to us if they fell into the hands of our clan. It doesn't matter, really, especially if I don't have any personal stake in their survival.

And in any case, it's irrelevant whether the target is liked, or not. Business has never been a popularity contest. I trust that for one to have made it to the top, they must at least be competent enough to weigh the pros and cons of earning the ire of the public... if the hit were able to be traced back to us at all. I consider myself a little more subtle than that.


POWERS & ABILITIES:

Spiritual Perception/"Sight": First and foremost, the main ability of most exorcists is to see the supernatural, and to harness their own spiritual power in order to use spells to exorcise or create contracts with them. Generally in their series, this is referred to as the ability to 'see', and is considered a separate and higher level ability than simply the ability to harness spiritual power or low-level perception (such as the spiritual power a monk might achieve through prayer and practice). Sight is not necessarily limited to exorcist families, and other powerful individuals (such as the main character) can be born with varying powerlevels of sight as well. Even before inheriting his position, he had been considered since his youth to be a particularly strong heir with very sharp spiritual perception, and is probably the 2nd strongest human we've met in the series after the protagonist.

The Right Eye of the Matoba: Matoba Seiji is the head of the most influential exorcist clan in the series, the Matoba. The Matoba began as a samurai archer clan that happened to have strong spiritual powers and made a living protecting villages from ayakashi attacks; they then grew in influence to amass the power of the 11 most powerful exorcist clans under their leadership at the height of exorcists' power, and have since absorbed many dozens more exorcist bloodlines over the generations.

As the head, he has inherited a curse passed down through every leader of the Matoba clan. Not much is known about it out-of-universe yet except that at one point in the clan's history, a head of the Matoba clan made a contract with an ayakashi for great power in exchange for his right eye. He broke that promise, and ever since, the right eye of the head of Matoba has been hunted by that powerful ayakashi. For this reason, Matoba wears an eyepatch in the form of a paper spelltag with a ward written over it; normal humans can't see the spelltag, and only see a normal eyepatch underneath it. Once every month, the ayakashi- a great black, formless monster that is missing its right eye- will attack Matoba, either directly or transformed in the shape of someone he knows. The Matoba distract the monster using eye-patterned parasols, other ayakashi, and weak spells in order to ward it off. Each time its attack is avoided, its hatred grows, and so too does the spiritual power of the Matoba clan who are targeted by it. It is implied that this is the source for much of their spiritual power, hence why they have not simply exorcised it.

Skills and Knowledge of ayakashi, spells, and exorcist history: Having been raised in the clan with the intention to inherit, he has had access to books, scrolls, and other stores of information that give him a wide variety of spells and information of exorcist techniques. In general, this gives Matoba an edge in the exorcism business, as he has a lot more knowledge about what he's dealing with than most others, in a world that is generally quite opaque. Exorcist spells include the ability to purify physical spaces, protect others from malignant aura or intent, and kill or contain ayakashi within sealed objects. He can produce spell circles, incantations, and written spells on the fly and is shown to be powerful enough to exorcise a huge ogre on his own with only a couple arrows.

Archery: As the Matoba began as an archer clan, this skill continues through their teachings to the present, using purified arrows or arrows carrying spelltags to exorcise targets. Matoba is an extremely skilled archer who can strike erratically moving targets with ease; he's been shown to be capable of this both before gaining the eyepatch as a teenager, and even after as an adult, with his depth perception compromised. It can be assumed that he has trained a lot to readjust his skills with only one usable eye.

Summoned Shiki Servants: Matoba's main personal servants are mindless, shadow-like ayakashi seemingly formed from his own spiritual power who can only understand simple tasks such as 'attack' or 'capture'. Despite this, they are powerful enough to ensnare and trap spiritually weaker humans and ayakashi than Matoba as well as use weapons; he frequently uses them to attack weak ayakashi or capture prisoners. They have also been seen acting as household servants, serving tea or other menial tasks in the Matoba household.
He also commands a number of natural ayakashi who take all sorts of forms, ranging from bottled ogres and beasts to tengu-masked old men and kimono-clad young women. Exorcist gossip says that these naturally born ayakashi are ones who have been in the service of the Matoba for generations, and that the Matoba has trouble finding ayakashi to make contracts with in recent generations due to their poor reputation as liars and promise-breakers.

SUITABILITY: Natsume Yuujinchou, while a slice of life series on its face, doesn't tend to pull its punches when it comes to the implications of what the world would be like if one was constantly dealing with youkai and ayakashi. This includes humans being killed by ayakashi, but also the kinds of people that would surround themselves with this world. Whenever the exorcist community is shown, there is plenty of mention of how easily one can be killed in the profession by either ayakashi or even other humans. The Matoba are particularly painted as a yakuza-like figure in the community who have consolidated power and other clans under their banner over a number of generations in order to maintain their hold, all for the sake of what they claim is a pillar of strength against the threat of dangerous ayakashi. They have been shown to be unafraid of using blackmail, kidnappings, torture, and other underhanded tactics in order to maintain and expand that control.
While he has many complicated reasons for doing so and is not shown to necessarily enjoy it, Matoba does not flinch at the prospect of harming either ayakashi or humans in order to achieve his goals. Heck, Matoba almost strangles the main character to death with his bare hands in a room full of ayakashi corpses in his first appearance! On several occasions, Matoba makes mention of the politicians whose favor he keeps, and there are grumblings in the backgrounds of scenes at exorcist gatherings that the Matoba yet again strong-arm their way either physically or financially in order to obtain what they want, including buying the mansions of former exorcists in order to gain access to their materials, or using the ayakashi servants of their own clan's exorcists as bait and fodder for greater gain. Matoba Seiji in particular is said to be far more proactive than his predecessor in pursuing power for the family, painting him as a ruthless and cunning leader that will stop at nothing if it means establishing the family's hold further. While he may see serving ayakashi in itself as distasteful, Matoba would not balk at the sorts of tasks he is likely to be handed by the clans of Jigokucho, as he has been steeped in the culture of dealing with youkai from birth.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten: Matoba certainly agrees with the Shuten tenet of 'might makes right'. On several occasions, he attempts to convince the main character that he ought to join the clan, as with his abilities, the Matoba would have undisputed power and control over all other exorcists. Although his clan is notorious amongst ayakashi as liars and promise-breakers, Matoba himself has shown hints within canon that he finds it distasteful, and that he thinks it's a shame that the Matoba allowed themselves to fall to such a disgraceful reputation. As a child, he even once says that if he ever managed to make a contract with an ayakashi, he would cherish it- although it is hard to know whether events that occurred in the time since that flashback changed his tune, given that he seems plenty willing to continue lying and using underhanded tactics as an adult. As someone that is implied to have done plenty of business with and adjacent to yakuza, and does not flinch at the need to show force, Matoba would be able to quickly assimilate to their power structure and typical roles. He is more than capable of tamping down his slyer impulses and playing by the 'rules' as his position within the clan requires, and improves.

Tamamo: One could say that Matoba's cunning is his most valuable personal trait, one that has served him well since before he inherited the power passed down through his clan. Even within flashbacks as a teenager, he is shown to be plenty wise to exorcist politics and seeks out gossip and useful figures to use on his own, such as how he immediately latched onto a young Natori Shuichi and saw the power it would mean for his clan if he could cajole the other boy into joining them. He always seems to be a step ahead of other characters when he can manipulate them into something beneficial, such as forcing the protagonist to break a seal he cannot, or solving a political problem that would be too messy for him to get involved with. While Matoba is never explicitly shown to indulge in much escapism himself- it would be a weakness exploitable by ayakashi for him to show much kindness or desire towards others- he has an explicit sweettooth to the point that his own clan members have joked about him shirking his duties to buy sweets, and there are certainly hints that he once had his own fleeting fancies towards a certain fellow exorcist before he had to take on the mantle of responsibility for his clan.

Sutoku: The Sutoku were formed in a similar way to the Matoba- as an alliance between clans which over time grew to outlast most others. Much the same as he is cunning, one could say much of Matoba's ability to hold influence over all his rivals is because the clan has access to so much past history and knowledge of exorcism. With every clan they absorbed, they too absorbed the information, techniques and knowledge that came with that clan, building into the Matoba an unrivaled database of ayakashi and exorcist techniques. Matoba is aware of others' abilities sometimes before even they are, such as how he knew of the Natori clan's paper specialty before the young Shuichi had even learned of it. Much like the Sutoku, Matoba uses this knowledge to wield influence over others, for example by threatening to blackmail the protagonist by telling his adoptive guardians about his abilities if he did not play along with a request for assistance. Exorcism is a business, and Matoba deals with most situations from the point of view of a businessman first, which would make him an excellent agent for the Sutoku if they had any need for someone who's shameless, nosy and unlikely to be intimidated by any kind of negotiations.

Enma: The core argument the Matoba make when detractors cry foul towards their power plays is that they simply wish to maintain order within the exorcist world, by any means, as a united front against ayakashi. This is likely the faction whose values that Matoba would agree with most on a personal level. Even if Matoba was not at the top of his clan, he would still likely be a loyal and total believer in that moral tenet. It has been shown that even outside of whatever indoctrination his family may have educated him with in terms of his attitude towards ayakashi, he seems to loathe them even on a personal level. In Matoba's first appearance, the powerful ayakashi partner of the protagonist notes that simply walking by Matoba gave him chills due to his bloodlust towards ayakashi. Between the fate his clan has been saddled with due to the "Eye Ayakashi" and the pitiful fate that those in exorcist clans face due to ayakashi's vengeance- especially when those clans begin to die out in spiritual power and can no longer defend themselves- Matoba seems to truly believe in his role, and believe that he must do everything he can to gain and maintain power for the clan, so that they can defend those who are defenseless against the at times senseless and enduring malice of ayakashi. As a stringent Lawful Evil-ass bully, Matoba would make for an excellent youkai cop, considering the Matoba clan considers themselves to be, essentially, the policing body of the exorcist world.

SAMPLES

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