[img=http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b271/dposcuro/Other/oni_zps7c1eb327.jpg]

Appearance: 
[indent]Standing 6'9" (206cm) in height, and weighing 243 lbs (110kg), with skin as red as Carmine, with a bright metallic silver design of swirls and dots winding up his right arm onto his shoulder, matching his mid-length, brilliant silver hair, while wearing a silver mask with elongated red horns, Yuu tends to make a somewhat imposing first impression. Behind the mask however, hides the face of a young man who was savagely attacked and left for dead. From the front half of his nose ending abruptly to elongated nostrils after it was cut free, to the thick scar tissue, traced with silver that spreads out in thick ribbons of where "DEMON" was engraved in his forehead. His eyes however, have managed to stay the same, unique selves; amber, with the right eye having a section of the iris spanning roughly three-eighths of the upper right side being faded to pale blue. It's known as sectoral heterochromia caused by mild type-II Waardenburg Syndrome.[/indent]

Name: 
[indent]Yuu "James" Miyata, Yuu-Oni, Yuoni, The Red Archer[/indent]

Age: 
[indent]22[/indent]

Gender: 
[indent]Male[/indent]

Personality: 
[indent]Yuu has a strong conviction in the right to personal freedom, with all of the personal responsibility that it entails. He personally does not believe that he has the right to impose his will on others, and that those who do, and act upon their will, he generally does not get along with very well. He views tolerance as an almost paramount virtue.

Tending towards being warm and welcoming on first meeting, Yuu seems to however keep himself reserved as people he has met begin to express themselves more, leading some to consider him perhaps a bit cold or aloof. The problem for Yuu is, is in many cases, he simply does not feel much of anything to what many others feel strongly about. The main reason behind this, is that Yuu tends to think objectively, naturally removing himself from the situation to try and see as many sides and facets to a conflict, or problem, and solve it in the most rational sense without much thought to the emotions of others. The things he is passionate about however, are fairly obvious as he practices with dedication that few of his friends seem able to comprehend.[/indent]

Background:
[indent]To understand Yuu, one must look to the beginning; His Parents. His mother, Musaki Susumo, and his father, Miyata Ryota. Ryota came from a family proud to be able to claim that they were the decedents of the Samurai, Miyata Kiyogi, and continued to serve as noble warriors, defending Japan to the modern day. Ryota himself, had joined the JSDF when he was young, becoming a notable soldier within the 1st Airborne Brigade. He met Susumo, falling in love and they began trying to start a family, only to find out that Susumo had extremely low chances of conceiving a child. Yet, with advances in fertility drugs, the pair were able to conceive. Six months into the pregnancy, Susumo was devastated when she went into labour. The child, who would have been their daughter, did not survive three days. Three years later, however, a miracle happened; Susumo was pregnant again, and all signs were showing a healthy boy. He came early by a month, but managed to live. He was diagnosed with Waardensburg syndrome quickly, a genetic disorder that left him with being unable to hear high pitch tones, and his unique eyes. A year later, and Susumo was pregnant again for her third time, joy and elation gave way to despair, sorrow, and agony as Susumo suffered an infection that killed the fetus and nearly took her as well. This was a turning point for the woman who wanted three children; her dreams, her hopes were ripped from her on that operating table. In her own way, she felt ashamed that she could not provide the family the two lovers had dreamed of. Yet they had Yuu, precious little Yuu.

As Yuu grew older, and began taking martial arts classes at the age of four, Susumo and Ryota began talking. Talking that led to heated words. A year later, and the arguments exploded with the news that Ryota's brother had died in a training accident when his helicopter lost power and crashed to the deck of an American aircraft carrier, leaving his wife with no children of their own. Susumo could not bear to see her one and only child grow up to join the JSDF, with the world climate as tenuous as it was, the possibility of her son, her precious son joining the military and dying before his time tormented her. Ryota however, could not fathom being the father who let the family line of honorable warriors end with himin such a fashion. Yet his love for his wife, and seeing the pain she had gone through, finally forced him to relent, five months after the death of his brother. Yuu was withdrawn from the martial arts class, and was soon enrolled in a music club for his afternoon activities which he was not pleased with, but soon came to accept.

On Yuu's seventh birthday, his father came home with surprise news; He'd been promoted to act as Liason with the American military in the development of Japan's own Special Forces division. The result of this news, meant that Ryota would be moving to America to get settled in, and then Susumo and Yuu would follow a few months later. Susumo was torn between happiness and sadness of having to move, while Yuu was resoundingly unhappy with the idea. Susumo managed to get Ryota to agree to push the move date until the summer break, to at the very least, let Yuu have the full school year with his friends.

On arrival in California, Yuu and his mother were greeted with a surprise, Ryota had taken up Archery and bowery in the garage of the house that they were moving into. He explained that he had felt something missing within him during the months away from home, away from his family, and that this hobby was a connection to his ancestors that he found relaxing. At first Yuu seemed indifferent to the idea of his father's archery, but as he acclimated, and began growing connections to the other kids in the neighbourhood who were fascinated by the fact that Yuu's ancestors were real Samurai, Yuu began taking interest as well. His father even made him his first bow. For the first time since he was five, he was connecting with his father and his ancestors again, and Yuu enjoyed the growing bond.

When school started, Yuu lost contact with several of the friends he had made in the neighbourhood; some having to move away with their fathers, or others just being in different schools, Yuu became a little depressed, and started reading most of the time, partly to work on his English, and partly because he wanted to escape. It was on a field trip to an Orchard when Yuu first really met Kim, a tom-boy of the class who "accidentally" hit him over the head with a peach. When he recovered and bit into it, Yuu had a minor, childhood, existential moment of surprise and delight. Yuu loved peaches. It was better than anything he could remember from back home in Japan, better than Kazuragi's mothers sweet rice balls, which he never thought would be topped. Combine his love of peaches and his awkward name in America, and it wasn't long until Yuu earned the nickname that would follow him for the rest of his life, James; like the titular character of the book Kim got Yuu as a birthday present later that year, "James and the Giant Peach."

However, Yuu's home life was slowly getting strained, as his mother started objecting to Yuu's practice with archery, his less than perfect grades, and his mother and father having small arguments again. It wasn't long before Susumo claimed that archery was too dangerous for Yuu to practice, after Ryota made a mistake while de-stringing his bow, and caught the tip running up his cheek, requiring twenty three stitches to close it. Yuu cried at first, and then grew quiet. Repressing his resentment to his mother for taking away something fun. As his grades began to slip further, Susumo got angrier, and his father became more distant.

With his parent's fighting weekly, Yuu relished any chance he got to get out of the house, and began confiding in Kim more and more at school as they became almost inseparable. Life carried on until is father realized that the was no love left between himself and Susumo. Not ready to divorce however, and with a promotion to a senior office in Japan beckoning, Yuu's father returned to Japan, while his wife and child elected to stay in America, soon after gaining their citizenship. Without the tempering influence of his father, Susumo came down hard on her son, punishing him for getting less than 99% on his tests, berating him for his music teacher not praising him enough, any small fault was a an opening for a torrent of belittling contempt. Secretly, he wrote letters to his father, begging Kim to send them for him, while Kim supported him, keeping him from breaking under the stress of a mother who expected more than he was capable of giving.

A week after his sixteenth birthday, a long slender tube arrived from Japan, through Kim. Inside was a beautifully crafted, laminate bow, with his father's Kanji engraved in the lower bow limb, Yuu's Kanji in the top limb, and the crest of Miyata Kiyogi flanking the grip. On the belly of the bow, was engraved a poem by Basho;

Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into water-
A deep resonance

It took Yuu three days to summon the courage, but he broke the silence, and stood up to his mother. The repercussions of the incident significantly affected his life; he was thrown out of the home. He stayed with Kim for two days before his father took him back to Japan. He surprised his father when he chose to continue with his piano lessons, in addition to resuming his archery practice, learning the craft of bow making from his father, and keeping his grades high in school. When he revealed to his father that he was thinking of going into law, or politics instead of joining the military, his father nodded, and understood. His son was going to be a different form of warrior, but a warrior all the same.

After highschool, Yuu was accepted into the University of Berkeley, and meeting again with Kim. She surprised him again, by introducing Yuu to her girlfriend, Tricia. It would be a lie to say he was entirely happy for her, a part of him hoping for more from their friendship now, but he realized that he never really had much of a chance. He was the brother she needed, as he was the person she came out to first. Through his time at Berkley, Yuu kept himself quite busy between classes, he participated in a Philharmonic Orchestra to continue his piano work, practiced his archery and bowery after joining a small DIY group workshop, and began taking part in a debate group to work on his skills to supplement what he learned while studying law. 

The day he found the Vellum letter, he was puzzled. He almost decided not to bother with it, as there was no real reason to go to some random address, except that it was just a block away from the indoor archery range. Just get off the bus and go the other direction to see what this was about, if he didn't like it, just carry on to archery a minute or two later than normal. With his two staves in their leather wrapped, cardboard tube slung over his shoulder, and the mysterious letter in hand, he left his dorm room. Arriving at the location just as Kim arrived at the same time caught him off guard, hugging while trying to figure out what the letters were about, Yuu found himself suddenly blinded by the flash of light emitted by the letter. 

Awakening alone, barely covered by his stretched and ripped clothing, the young man faced several shocks fairly quickly; from his skin now being deep red, with a strange silvery tattoo-like design on his right arm, and an instant growth in height by roughly a foot, Yuu had some adjusting to do. He found his bow case, and used the remnants of his clothes to tie around his waist as some form of concealment. By the time he made his way out of the orchard to a road, Yuu was able to walk almost normally. Shortly after however, his welcoming to Fantasia was less than benevolent as three men in armor, riding horses approached him and encircled him. Calling him a demon, and telling him to hand over whatever it was he was carrying. Bewildered and stunned, Yuu complied, handing his bowcase to one of the men. The bandit opened the case and pulled out both bowstaves, looking them over and flexing them while looking thoroughly confused, as they were too well crafted for a commoner to afford, but lacked the draw weight of a bow made for a Lord or Knight, and much too large to be the bow of a Knight's squire. They quickly made the decision to sell the bows, and take the stranger to be sold into slavery.

Yuu objected. During the fight, Yuu grabbed onto the stave his father had made for him, and in trying to wrench it from the hands of the bandit, broke the man's arm. The other two responded with drawn blades, on instinct, Yuu tried to block one of the swords with the stave, only to have the sword smash it in two and leave a graving cut down the left side of his chest. The second man's sword met his face, even as he tried to escape the blade's reach, slashing down through the bridge of his nose and out. The rest became a blur that faded between life and death.

Luckily, his second coming to the world was far more hospitable. Saved by a travelling caravan of traders, makers, and healers, he came to realize that he had been unconscious for the past several days, fighting off infection as his wounds healed. He found himself a home on the road, working as an apprentice bowyer, and caravan guard, where his height and rapidly improving ability with the bow lend him an imposing figure that helped the caravan move with less difficulties that before. With working as a guard while travelling, he has been studying the melee arts as well, and while many years behind those of his own age, his physical power lends him some forgiveness with his lack of skill. One of the most notable things of Yuu, is the mask he has carved from wood; a homage to the Oni demons of his ancestry, that fits well with his current appearance.[/indent]

Skills:
[indent]Archery - Yuu is a fairly skilled archer, good at estimating range, accurate, and able to bend a powerful stave that will drive a heavy shaft through most forms of armor. He is however, not a master by any means, and is not the most accurate of those in his age group, as he hasn't grown up depending on archery as many have for their own safety, or for food. Yet, he seems to have a knack for it, and has learned much in his short time in this world.
Bowyer - As well, he is a competent bowyer of his own right, though currently considered an Apprentice, there is little more his master can teach him in the art of bow-craft.
Melee Combat - His training in melee combat has given him a cursory knowledge of how to handle various close range fighting implements, that he trains at for a minimum of two hours every day to improve his skills. He knows his strength alone is not enough against some of the bandits and criminals who love to prey on caravans.
Pianist - An accomplished pianist in his own right, although slightly out of practice after two years on the road, Yuu is still able to play a solid repertoire when the caravan stops near a town with a piano. Although, many seem to have no understanding of the music he plays, he has learned a handful of "local" songs.[/indent]

Misc: 
[indent]Yuu fashioned a six inch span of the bow his father made for him into a necklace he wears constantly. A leather thong attached to both ends holding it horizontal across his chest. 
While his strength and height have been augmented substantially, Yuu has grown to have an allergic reaction to beans and holly.[/indent]