upcycling APP

[worldbent]

Name: Kit
Contact info: kitsoru

Character: Matoba Seiji
Canon: Natsume Yuujinchou
Canon Point: post-chapter 94
CRAU, Canon AU: n/a
Character age: 22

Canon Abilities/Powers:

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 the attacks of ayakashi (youkai, or Japanese folklore spirits and demons); eventually, they grew in influence to amass the power of the 11 most powerful exorcist clans under their leadership, with themselves as head. As the current head of the clan, he inherited the clan head's curse, which grants the clan immense spiritual powers at the risk of his life. Even before inheriting the position, Seiji had been considered since his youth to be a particularly strong heir with very sharp spiritual perception. The following are some notable skills and abilities that fall under the umbrella of his spiritual abilities:

The Right Eye of the Matoba: A curse that is passed down through each head 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 promise to 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 beast who is missing its right eye- will attack Matoba, who distracts the beast using eye-patterned parasols and other distractions in order to ward it off; each time its attack is warded off, 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.

Knowledge of ayakashi, spells, and exorcist history: Having been raised in the clan with the intention to inherit, he's been raised with access to books, scrolls, and other stores of information that give him a wide variety of spells and information of exorcist techniques; for example, even upon his first meeting of Natori Shuichi, a fellow teenager and heir to an exorcist clan, he's more aware of the Natori clan's paper specialty and reputation in the exorcist community than Natori is. In general, this gives Matoba an edge in the exorcism business, as he generally has a lot more knowledge about what he's dealing with than most others, in a world that is generally quite opaque. He is shown able to produce spell circles, incantations, and written spells on the fly without any reference.

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 has been shown to be 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 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.

What is their greatest negative emotion towards an object, situation, or person in their past?: Ayakashi have shaped Matoba's life from the start, and not in a good way. Matoba truly, strongly believes that ayakashi are 'the shadows that cast doubt on people's hearts', beings of negative energy which humanity must be protected against at all costs. At least partially, these are the teachings of his clan which he's been indoctrinated into; however there is definitely some personal influence in the strength of his beliefs- his own interpretations of the history of his clan and the exorcist community, as well as his own fate. If not for ayakashi, who chase down human families to see to their ruin even after they've ceased being able to see or communicate to them; who try to trick and deceive and feed on humans; who threaten to bring ruin to the entire life he knows- the burden of his clan's way of life would not be on his shoulders, or on any future Matoba heirs, in the way that it is.

When faced with viewpoints that challenge this, he becomes hostile, and even violent; he is incapable of understanding the viewpoint of Natsume Takashi, the main character, who has found himself able to befriend youkai and is willing to help them as readily as humans. Matoba finds this will to be the corruption of ayakashi and an idealism too dangerous to allow, even warning Natori not to be tricked into softness by Natsume's influence.

It's clear that in particular, his hatred of ayakashi stems from the one that haunts his family. The ayakashi which seeks the eye of the Matoba has been implied to at least once have appeared to Matoba in the form of someone he's close to, which was the likely cause of the scarring of his eye beneath the eyepatch. Even before he inherits, he's shown to be somewhat distant and aloof; it's clear that ayakashi are to blame for Matoba feeling unable to let his guard down even in the presence of those he considers himself fond of or close to- his failure means the downfall of all those under his protection- the Matoba, as well as the remnants of the 11 clans that remain in their care.

How strongly do they feel about the negative subject matter, on the scale of one to ten?: Is there a yikes% on this scale? Matoba is a strong 10 in this department. His distaste of ayakashi and his desire to avert the ruin they could bring on his clan is his driving force, and his bloodlust and murderous intent towards them is even noted by Nyanko-sensei, an extremely powerful inugami ayakashi who serves as Natsume's protector- who can sense the strength of it even just from passing by the man before they've properly met.

Several members of the exorcist community mention that the current head of Matoba is a much more proactive leader than the previous one, taking many measures to consolidate and strengthen the power of the Matoba clan. Given Matoba's conversations with Natori and Natsume, it can be seen that his intent in seeking out powerful ayakashi to control and eliminating possible enemies is to never let the Matoba be caught off-guard and come to ruin, as past exorcist families have. Forced into a life of bitter loneliness by the curse on his clan, it seems the way in which he's decided to allow himself to care for others is in his pursuit of what he sees as their safety- even if it's against their wishes.

What is their greatest virtue?: Despite his, gestures, everything, Matoba is quite serious about his role as a protector and leader of his clan. More than once, he's mused on previous clan heads' failures to protect families under their care, or how other exorcist families have died out due to their foolish desperation to stay relevant. In part because of the burden of the clan curse, he makes a point to strike out on his own sometimes, and specifically not rely on the strength of others in order to accomplish tasks, even if he doesn't admit to it. He makes a point to repeatedly tell Natsume that he should make use of others that can be used, but it becomes clear as time goes on that he himself does not always take that advice.

How aware are they of their virtue, on a scale from one to ten?: If he's aware of it, he sure wouldn't show it. I'm going to give him a generous 6; Natsume a few times has called him out on not bringing others in his clan along in order to keep them from harm, and Matoba has balked and made casual excuses in response. Despite this, it's also notable that he'll frequently make a throwaway comment about keeping casualties down when guilt-tripping Natsume into helping him, so I don't think he's entirely unaware of his desire to protect his clansmen (at the expense of sacrificing... others). As a teen, he also went out of his way to help Natori a few times out of what seemed to be entirely personal desire, and although even then he always formulated an excuse about wanting to test his own strength of capture a useful ayakashi in the process, scenes where Natori's POV isn't entirely lucid show that Matoba isn't quite as good at masking his personal feelings or biases in these cases.

Items: Matoba will arrive with: a small tanto dagger, a single exorcist's sealing pot, and the collapsible bow and quiver he carries around in a very innocuous-looking long nylon travel bag (looks similar to a fishing rod case).
You know; just normal things one carries around when you're ready to welcome (or exorcise) a protector god.


Samples: TDM toplevel here!

Special notes
It's possible, since Matoba may reason that the world he's been transported to is a world of ayakashi, that Matoba would continue to expect the eye ayakashi haunting him to follow him here and attack on schedule once a month. Just saying!!