Keitarou Kazama

Keitarou Kazama (otherwise known as the White Hand of God when doing work for Arcadia) is a character in the roleplay. He is thought to be the last surviving member of the Kazama Family of assassins. After Arcadia destroyed his home and his people, he sought them and joined their ranks.

Personality
Keitarou is very much an assassin through and through. He enjoys doing his job in the best possible way he can. While he would have preferred not to be compared to others or vice versa, he finds pride in being one of the best -- if not the best -- assassin that Arcadia has ever acquired. Keitarou likes to be a completionist in the work he does, not wanting any faults in the assassinations he needs to do with his partner. He is extremely analytic, being able to find the truth in most things that come his way. He also has a very mysterious demeanor as he hasn't shared anything of his past with his partner and yet, still gets along with her very well. Keitarou prefers to keep his relationship with his partner extremely confidential and professional, although he has been known to slip sometimes. Secretly, he wants them to be recognized all across the land as some of the greatest assassins ever. However, regardless of how serious he may seem, when out of work, he treats his partner and everyone else around him like close friends. He cracks jokes, plays games, and does other fun things. When it comes to "work" though, Keitarou has no chill.

Background
Long ago in the kingdom of Kakyou, a mysterious woman appeared in the royal city. At first, no one really paid much attention to her. However, after she appeared in the royal court one day, everyone saw was immediately enamored with her. The emperor of the kingdom himself allowed her to stay on the royal grounds for as long as she wanted. She introduced herself as none other than a certain "Tamamo-no-Mae" and while this seemed to have struck a chord with the emperor, he brushed it off as a passing thought.

Over the weeks that passed after that, Tamamo-no-Mae began to get closer and closer with everyone there. She earned their trust and made sure to do so before anything bad happened. Once this was set and her trust was well earned by even the emperor, her plan began. Out of what seemed like nowhere, the emperor started to become sick. No one seemed to know what was going on and when Tamamo-no-Mae was questioned about it, she didn't seem to know what was going on either. She played the fool until her cover was eventually blown by a highly trained exorcist. They revealed the culprit was indeed Tamamo-no-Mae herself. She turned out to be a malicious fox spirit that went from kingdom to kingdom to destroy them from inside out.

Tamamo-no-Mae managed to escape from their grasps until a general of the royal army caught her. Wasting no time at all, he did away with her right then and there. Tamamo-no-Mae did not pass on and instead, became a Wraith, upset for how she was caught. Unfortunately, she did not reawaken as a Wraith until many centuries when the world had grown and changed very drastically.

Kotaro was born in Kakyou a long time ago about 25 years ago. He was born into a family of assassin, ninja, and otherwise samurai. Over time, it seemed their occupation had changed depending on what the family prided themselves on the most at the time. Kotaro was born into the Kazama family of assassins. The family itself was quite large and even continues to grow to this day. The Kazama were a well renowned family that spread their name like wildfire across Kakyou. Over the years, people who needed to be taken down requested the Kazama family. Despite his family being the long standing "true" assassin family, there was an even older family that seemed to compete with them as rivals.

This family was called the Yamamoto. The Yamamoto and the Kazama had been rivals ever since the dawn of time, but were only revealed to Keitarou as such in his early childhood. It seemed that both families seemed to follow the same trend of changing their focus as time went on, the Yamamoto were competing for supremacy with the Kazama throughout the years. There was a point in time where the Yamamoto were called upon as well but the Kazama simply refused to let themselves fall behind. Eventually, the Kazama started to be called upon more than the Yamamoto until their rival clan eventually completely lost work over the years.

Keitarou started his training as soon as he realistically could, wanting to make his family proud with what he could do. Believe it or not, Keitarou was not very good at the art of assassination when he was younger. It seemed that he was trying too hard to become the best, and this made his "work" falter. Keitarou knew that he needed to calm down and find some sort of balance. He needed to focus on the smaller picture, because it was clear that the bigger one was distracting him.

When he was able to do this, he quickly became extremely impressive in his own right. His mother and father trained him rigorously from that point on, wanting him to truly become the best he wanted to be. It didn't take long for him to get the point where he was comfortable enough to be called the "best of the Kazama". By the time he was 17, he was able to achieve such a feat. His killing technique was truly impressive and thorough. He only got better and better from that point on, and he would have become ruler of the family, if Arcadia hadn't come along.

It came as no surprise that Keitarou would have to do everything he could to help his family out in their time of need. He had to make sure the Yamamoto weren't planning anything stupid. Keitarou didn't know how it happened but the Yamamoto did, in fact, try to do something stupid. From what Keitarou could remember, the Yamamoto called upon some "extra help" to take down the Kazama. Even though the Kazama were strong and powerful, they could not hold their own very long against the Yamamoto and their "extra help". This was the first time Keitarou heard of Arcadia. They were a secret group of assassins or something similar that went around doing whatever they were paid to do.

Arcadia, the "extra help", wasn't on his mind until much later, however. He knew he had much bigger fish to fry. He decided to use the fighting as a scapegoat, quickly telling his mother and father that he was going to finish this once and for all. He rushed over to the Yamamoto household, managing to push aside anybody that dared try and fight him. With little injuries, he came to the room that the leader was hiding in. They immediately began an epic battle of climatic proportions. The battle raged on for at least a few hours. Even though this leader was powerful, Keitarou's determination was able to finish him off, taking the head back as proof that he had defeated the Yamamoto.

Once outside, however, it seemed that he had been the one to lose more than he had hoped for. Keitarou saw that a good majority of the Kazama had been wiped out. Traveling back to the Kazama household, he also found that his mother and father had been killed because Arcadia had finished them off. Something went wrong and they were forced to kill everybody, including their previous employers. His victory against the leader of the Yamamoto mattered so little now and it instantly changed the battle-hardened assassin from that point on.

Instead of resenting Arcadia for what they had their hand in doing, he eventually decided to seek them out. It didn't take long for him to prove his strength or loyalty to them, sending him out on a few precursor missions. When he had truly proven himself, Keitarou was eventually paired up with one of their other assassins. At first he was apprehensive about their decision but knowing that this would be a good idea to see how other members in their "field of work" operated, he accepted this. Going out on missions with his partner was actually exhilarating, something he hadn't felt in a long time. They not only got along but they worked so well together. Together, they were rumored to be better than even some of the toughest assassins within Arcadia. They took care of their missions without fail and in a short amount of time as well. Unfortunately, once again, fate had things in store for Keitarou. This time though, fate seemed to give him some sort of blessing.

He was out on a mission with his partner and just as they were finishing it, Keitarou found a beautiful woman lying on the ground. She wasn't moving and appeared to be unconscious. However, as he went over to try and wake the woman up, he suddenly heard a voice in his head. She spoke in a language that he hadn't been able to speak in quite some time. It was from his homeland, Kakyou, but it seemed this woman was fond of the older tongue. The woman eventually revealed she was something of a "legend" that even Keitarou had heard of before. Tamamo-no-Mae was her name and when Keitarou touched her, it seemed that was the catalyst to awake from her slumber. Keitarou instantly felt something like a connection between the two of them and before long, the young assassin agreed to allow her into his body. If he didn't do that for her, she would have faded away into nothingness.

After the bond was set, Keitarou felt his body change in the strangest of ways. Something like an otherworldly gauntlet was wrapped around his left arm now and he could hear Tamamo-no-Mae speaking deep within his own mind. Apparently, their fusion ended up giving them the consciousness. They could speak to each other without anyone else knowing, but he knew very well he would have to reveal this to Arcadia and his partner as soon as they got back. When his partner and him returned to Arcadia, he explained to them that he was now fused with a kitsune named Tamamo-no-Mae. It didn't really seem to matter to Arcadia, as long as he did his job right. His partner apparently knew what was going on and explained that, in the next few weeks that passed, a lot of things would change for him.

His partner was very right. In the next few weeks that passed, he began to learn more and more about his spirit and the new magic he was now bestowed with. Magic was a rather simple thing to learn and for someone who was already pretty well versed in the art of killing, the illusions he had gained added quite the intimidation to his repertoire. Finally, as he was spending some time alone to speak with Tamamo-no-Mae, the gauntlet around his arm suddenly began to change. In what seemed like an instant, the gauntlet changed to show off a bright shimmer and turned golden in color as well. The words "God Hand" passed through his mind and for whatever reason, Keitarou understood what this meant. Since that point, Keitarou has started to deviate from working with Arcadia.

Although he still does work with his partner, he's spent a lot of time going back to his roots. Wanting to rebuild the Kazama household to its former glory, he eventually heard of a certain tournament taking place in Khairu. Despite the time and effort he put and the money he would have gained through Arcadia, it still wasn't nearly enough to rebuild such a place in the kingdom of Kakyou. The Khairu tournament, though, would give him a chance to get enough money to last him a lifetime. Calling upon his partner to meet him there, he wishes to claim as many riches as he needs to rebuild his home. Even though he doesn't have the greatest control over his spirit, Tamamo-no-Mae believes in his cause as well, allowing her powers to grow with him.

Powers & Abilities
Keitarou actually didn't have magic beforehand. However, after he bonded with the spirit Tamamo-no-Mae, he was allowed to use a special brand of magic she had at her disposal. In the Kakyouian language, the type of power she had was called "Gensou", which was the power over illusions. Keitarou has since learned how to call upon the powers in smaller increments but doesn't have superb control over it. He uses these illusions mainly for the purposes of distracting his enemy or as a sort of "afterimage" to confuse them. The illusions don't really have much proper usage, length, or stability but they're enough to make it look like he's moving too fast for people's eyes to see. At the moment, since he's only at Tier 1, he can't do much more than that. However, when this is used in combination with his already extremely proficient skills as an assassin, this seems to be more than enough to overwhelm them.

Trivia

 * Although not mentioned in his backstory, Keitarou has had lucid dreams of something concerning him in another universe ever since he was quite young. The dreams aren't actually all that extensive, but the dreams themselves can interrupt other dreams he's having mid-dream. The dreams themselves come back every once in awhile. He often says things about a "wife" he may have had out of nowhere or a "team" he used to be a part of, but he has no idea why he does this.
 * Keitarou believes that every other member of the Kazama family are dead but that's not true. His little sister, Aiyoku Kazama, who wasn't at the Kazama household at the time of its destruction is still alive and trying to find him. He has never encountered her.
 * Tamamo-no-Mae actually found spiritual peace in her fusing with Keitarou. Although she originally planned to take Keitarou's body for herself, as soon as they became one, she felt an immense release wash over her. Even though Keitarou was a little bit distressed when he heard this for the first time, he expected it and was going to allow it, if that's what ended up happening. Keitarou and Tamamo-no-Mae both believe that this is part of the reason the "higher power" allowed them to become a God Hand instead of a Devil Hand.
 * Keitarou still doesn't really know why Arcadia did what they did all those years ago. At this point though, he could honestly care less.