Ronin

Name: Fujiwara Yasu

Family: Born to the renowned Fujiwara clan, Yasu does not speak with his family. 

Position: Second Ronin (Although 'Representative of the Shogun' could also be used here.)

Gender: Male.... Maybe? no one is actually sure. They just use male pronouns.

Age: 34

Appearance: Yasu has undeterminable looks. With long hair and androgynous features, no one is sure whether Yasu is male or female, only that he/she usually allows the pronouns "him" and "her" to be tossed about equally. He has dark eyes, nearly black in color. He is taller than the average Japanese citizen, standing at 5'11", and weighs only 144lbs. While not being wiry, Yasu is very slender, with an air of elegance in the way he carries himself.

Personality: Although a samurai, Yasu is truly a peaceful person. This was not always the case, but he has lived just long enough to understand that violence is not always the answer. He is soft spoken, generally, and always serious. He has great compassion, especially for the people of the province. He carries a heavy burden for the lives he takes, present in the form of guilt and a deep etched sorrow. Although he has been known to rise up and strike those who oppose him with a ferocity otherwise unknown, he prefers to be diplomatic. He, at the Shogun's behalf, has helped to form many alliances among the provinces.

At his core, he is a very fierce person, but he wields an iron fist over his fiery temper. He exudes knowledge and experience, so much so that many fall quiet when he approaches. When he speaks, it's with a great intensity, however soft it may sound. He is torn, in his soul, between his duty and his desperate need to preserve lives.

Weapon: Yasu wears the traditional daishō, a matching katana and o-wakizashi, despite his rare use of them. He prefers to settle matters as amicably as possible. Both of his blades are

Armor: Due to his extensive travels, Yasu has forged his own unique armor, in a combination of both traditional samurai armor and European armor. It's made of a lightweight metal, and beneath it, he wears

Years of Service: 18

History: Yasu was born into the Fujiwara clan, a prominent social climbing family. His family was constantly marrying off his sisters and cousins to prominent members of society, even to the previous shogun at one point. Even at the young age of six, Yasu disagreed with his family's way of life, positive that there was some other way to live. He spent many long and lonely days in the family library as a child, reading scroll after scroll until he stumbled upon one about samurais. At the time, he was ten years old, and had discovered that he possessed a deadly temper and an unmatched strength upon children his age. Finding this scroll felt like a sign to the boy, and he approached the subject with his grandfather, who at the time ran the clan. 

With an anger rarely displayed by the elder, Yasu was sent away with a single answer: he would never be allowed to become a samurai. He was to be wedded to someone of noble birth and carry on the family line, and that was the end of it. With a fire burning deep inside him, the young Fujiwara ran back to his room and packed his things. By the end of the night, with two bags, the scroll bearing his family's crest, and some basic provisions, Yasu had disappeared from the family's residence. 

He had to travel for many days, keeping mostly to the major roads, and he slept through many nights in the forest's edge. Soon enough, and not too shortly as he had run out of water that morning, he arrived at the then shogun's estate. This shogun had taken over at the previous' death, rejecting the sister that his family had tried to marry off to him. He was uncertain how the man would react to his appearance, to the request he was to make, but it was better than the alternative. By then, Yasu had become obsessed with the thought of becoming a samurai. Everything about it felt right to him, and the only person he needed to convince now was the shogun.

Upon inspection of his scroll, the shogun had become suspicious, asking if Yasu's grandfather had sent him to do this. Upon hearing that the boy had left home upon his grandfather's dismissal, the shogun had smiled, cruel and vindictive. He gladly accepted the boy into his service, despite his youth. He knew it would still be six years before the child would be of use as a samurai, but the sooner his training started, the better a warrior he would become. The shogun ordered the boy to be given a place to live, as well as for his education in the art of the samurai to begin.

By the end of his first three years of training, Yasu proved to be gifted both in the art of war and in the art of diplomacy. A gifted speaker, a thoughtful adviser, and a gifted warrior at only thirteen, the shogun took great interest in the boy. By the age of fifteen, Yasu had far surpassed the expectations of everyone around him, displaying a ferocity rarely seen in battle and life. Everything that he took on, he did so with belief that he would excel in it, and that belief brought him many victories in his life. He was charismatic, fierce, and merciless.

At sixteen, he pledged his blade and his life to the shogun and became his personal protector and servant. Somewhere during his training, Yasu forgot why he had became a samurai. He, just like his master, was cruel and unyielding. It remained this way for years. The shogun would send him to other provinces, to far reaching corners of the kingdom, with orders to execute entire families. His master would throw him into the ring with other accomplished samurai and he would always win, taking victory after victory. 

Then, everything changed for Yasu. Shortly after he turned nineteen, the shogun called him forward with special orders. He was to go to the south, to a family who had begun to rise in power. And he was to execute the entire family.


Hunting the child down, knowing he had to kill him, was a slap in the face for Yasu. This was not what he had envisioned doing as a child. He had chosen a path that lead only to death, both those of the people around him and his own. He had not set out to become such a cruel and despicable person, someone whose sole purpose was to kill or be killed. He had wanted to protect people, to serve the land he lived in. Instead, he had become a monster, cruel, arrogant, and vicious.

In a split second decision, Yasu let the child go free. It wasn't as though the child could hurt anyone at such a tender age. He returned to the estate and went straight to the shogun. Until then, he had yet to ask anything else of the man, knowing he'd been gifted enough with being allowed to serve. This, his second request, was far more extensively. In fact, it was absolutely illegal, and had anyone else asked, the shogun would likely have had them executed on the spot. As it was, the only reason the shogun did not have Yasu put to death was because he was overtly fond of the boy. His request was granted: Yasu was to travel away from the shores of Japan. The reasoning he gave the shogun was what allowed it; that he wished to learn of the way that other peoples waged war. He wanted to learn new techniques and ways to kill.

In truth, Yasu wanted to learn how others lived, how life worked in other countries. He felt guilty to the core for his actions, and felt he needed to learn of life as a whole until he understood why killing was to be a last resort, as he was to make it. The shogun granted Yasu two years time to live among outsiders and to learn new fighting techniques. 

Yasu spent his two years wondering through China, the middle east, and finally through Europe. He was fascinated by the different cultures he encountered. He learned ways of life that he wasn't aware could exist, and to satisfy his shogun, he picked up a form of fighting from each country he visited. By his return to Japan, he knew how to forge western weapons and armor, how to speak eight languages, and how to cook many exotic meals. He learned the special fighting style of many countries, and he learned the use of their region specific weapons. Truthfully, Yasu did not want to return to the shogun just yet, but if he refused to return, he would become exiled, never allowed to return to his home.

Now twenty two, the young man was more experienced than many of the elder samurais. His sense of guilt for the countless deaths he had brought about at the beginning of his service to the shogun haunted him like nothing else, weighing down his heart and mind. He began to practice meditation in the evenings as a way to cope, to find himself once more. During the day, he began studying strategics more closely, began to find ways to claim lands, to win battles, with the fewest deaths possible. 

Despite his extracurricular activities, he continued to serve the shogun. Now, however, he more compassionate, and the shogun referred to him on occasion as to the fate of political adversaries. Occasionally, the shogun would listen to him wholeheartedly and spare the men. For the most part, he still sent Yasu to execute them, and Yasu began to memorize every name and face he took from the world. 

For the next twelve years, the man became more compassionate, more gentle and soft spoken. Regardless of what he thought of his shogun's methods, he obeyed. Citizens frequently came to him, behind the shogun's back, for assistance with bandits and feuds. He helped those who he could, defending lands and settling arguments. He became widely known for his wisdom and his compassion for those around him. The shogun began to rely on him more, commanding him on raids and sieges with his army, referring to him on political and domestic issues. The two were hardly seen in public apart.

Upon the shogun's death, he was so immensely relieved, he almost broke into tears. He immediately began preparations to commit seppuku, but before he could act, the citizens of the province came before him with a request.
They wanted he, alongside his three fellow ronin, to take the province under their combined protection. He was torn inside, for all this time, he had wanted to die, to be forgiven the pain he had caused, and now the people came before him to be saved. He had no choice.

He called forward the other ronin, and forged an alliance with them, with the agreement that they would commit seppuku as a whole once the province had a new shogun.