[hider=Ōishi Kasumi]
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Name: Ōishi Kasumi

Gender: Female

Age: 54

Previous Alignment(s): The Association, but only by convenience; her kind keeps to itself, far away from petty political squabbles.

Motivation for the Holy Grail: "Bring my land back to what it was." Remove the influence of secular logic from the governance and people. Return the nation to what it was before; a land where her kind were required, and respected.

Personality: An existence at the knife's edge. The split between 'the caretaker of a small town' and 'a cold blooded huntress' cannot actually be said to exist in her mentality - they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the latter is considered component of the former, and that it would be impossible to manage the spiritual needs and protect them from restless spirits without that cold iron at her core, to push her so. Kasumi's life is that of one spent making herself continuously necessary and reliable, but this is not out of a sense of obligation, nor a sense of genuine good-heartedness. Her ideals are hollow; her ambitions selfish. She wants to be necessary because she loves the look in the eye, and the tone the people use when they say, "I need your help, Ōishi-sama." And, always, she would smile without fail, as largehearted as any hero would, and reply, "Of course. What do you need?" Her entire life is spent garnering the respect, the adoration, of people around her, but only ever for herself.

In this way, she's a rotten person, who really only cares for herself, but takes care of everyone else, anyway. And, so, she forms a strange twinned nature in herself. On one hand, a reliable, upbeat, helpful woman, capable of handling anything put to her - a pillar of her community, and a friend to everyone. On the other, a self-centered narcissist, working in the light only to fulfill her ego. No one can argue that the results are largely negative; she does, in fact, help people and make their lives materially better, but it's also natural to be repulsed by that nature. In all honesty, she's as disgusted by herself as you ought be. When every smile is a lie, when ever promise is self serving, when your entire nature is a facade --- well, that's what being a magus is. Even with all the praise she gets, it isn't enough. Still, she wants for more - there are enough stories of the old days she heard in her training that she couldn't help but wish for those days. Those days when her kind would have the ear of kings. Things in those days, she's sure, were better.

Biography: It is wholly improper to discuss mikoism and the families involved in the practice without also discussing the influence of Buddhism and the slow erosion of the rights and traditions of the practice in the mid 1700s. Our story, of course, does not start there; the legacy of this family stretches back century, administering and protecting a small village, and advising the local warlord. They were a permanent fixture on the land, as immovable as the mountains. Lords would come and go, but the Ōishi would stay. It couldn't last forever, though - for hundreds of years since before her family was established, the Buddhists were, gradually, shifting the political and religious landscape. It was a glacial process, but over time, the lords turned away from her family, as they turned away from mikos across the nation. The emperor fell from heaven, and became a mere mortal, only to be briefly restored directly before a cataclysmic war, where he promptly fell from grace again. In the end, it was always damned; the influence of Western thought, the arrival of Buddhists, the steady decline of their magecraft. All of these and more would lead to the decline of their tradition, bringing them from a center point of daily life to a mere curio - a sideshow.

This state of affairs, obviously, disgusts Kasumi and her family. It is the shame and disgust of lost pride, of status denied, and of power stripped away. It is not, however, a loss in regards to wealth; this family was never particularly wealthy, so one cannot blame their frustration on greed of that kind. This is entirely based on their pride. Modern society has little need of them, compared to those long gone days.

But to focus more tightly on what, rather than who, this family is, an analysis of their magecraft tells much of the story. They are an 'animal family' - respected, but feared, and rarely mingled with. They serve a dog god, a hunt goddess, and thus are hunters themselves, their entire lives focused on the destruction of 'the profane'; these days, that mostly means wraiths, but they have hunted Dead Apostles at some points of their history, as well. It's possible that, once, some of there number were genuinely noble protectors of the weak, resolving trouble just for the sake of it, though this is no longer the case. In modern nights, the hunts are more simple than before. In modern nights, the praise is thinner than before. In modern nights, there is less and less need for those who stand in that darkness to protect the everyman, and the everyman does not believe in them in the first place. For a family that has always focused on protecting the affairs of the modern world, instead of entirely self enrichment, the reason to go on seems ever more distant as time goes on. In other words, by dedicating their lives to humans, they have been absolutely left behind and made irrelevant. Eventually, they're sure, they will simply burn out, the last echoes of a dying kind, with nothing to mark their place in history, their only memory played out by those who dress and act the way they do, but are not them.

Such is the life of a magus.

Elemental Affinity: Average One

Magic Circuit Switch: (We shall grant you this knowledge.)

Number of Magic Circuits: D

Quality of Magic Circuits: C


Magecraft:
Mikoism - A genuinely common and widespread cultural phenomenon even in modern day Shinto temples - the women attendants of the thousands of shrines across the nation. This is a role that's fairly common; some families do it as a part of a long family tradition, some women do it as a short job to help get through their mundane education. This is, however, not the implication that they are all secretly magus. Instead, it should be understood that they are 'miko, but do not practice mikoism'. In the days long since passed, being a miko was to be mystical - to practice the secret magic arts of the Shinto faith. To commune with the gods, to speak to the dead, to cleanse sin and impurity, and to annihilate evil spirits that clung to the world. For hundreds of years, this was the understanding of the world; miko were those who spoke to gods, and that was that. This, obviously, could not hold - though it did hold here relatively longer than most other 'civilized' nations, it could not last forever. Regulation began, and slowly, the understanding of the role of miko would disappear, remaining mainly in the aesthetic, and not in function.

Of course, this collapse is mirrored in nearly every other place in the world, so it isn't really that special.

Mikoism is fundamentally a shamanistic practice, largely component of communing with gods and spirits. To this end, Kasumi is skilled in various possession techniques and the investment of spirits into physical objects. Further, the Ōishi family is tied to dog spirits, and makes use of them in much of their magecraft. Miko are also known as those that manage sin and impurity, and so she can be considered an expert in washing away sin. It is also possible to invoke parts of gods; that is, to utilize the name and power of the various Shinto gods to evoke a related effect. This should not be misunderstood as something so grandiose as 'a fragment of Authority', but rather merely a reference to them.

Curses - An unspoken truth of miko and shaman generally is their relationship to witchcraft and black magic; that vile art of cursing a man to misfortune or death. This would seem to be a complete turn from the rest her nature; how can one who goes hand in hand with gods dirty oneself with curses? But this is a human misunderstanding - in the first place, they were always the same. Miko, and especially those belonging to 'animal family', and especially those with ties to inugami - dog spirits - were always feared, and with good reason. With knowledge of purity, comes knowledge of sin. With understanding of the divine comes understanding of the profane. This must be understood. Thus, it should be considered natural that even one who wishes to destroy evil spirits might find this capacity. Generally speaking, these curses are performed and exercised by the means of her animal spirits as a delivery mechanism, but this can go as far as ordering them to outright possess a person to drive them mad and make them ill. In the old days, it was said that those killed by this method were found with dozens of bite marks across their body. These days, it's just that they got sick and died.

Magic Crest: The Ōishi crest is approximately five hundred years old, and mostly contains the secrets in regards to communicating with their family spirits and kami. The formation was done to help compete with the western tradition, if the case arose - this is one way that they went well out of their way to 'keep with the times', so to speak. The crest was formed around an old set of stone-etched purity seals, but that is no longer relevant.

[hider=Mystic Codes]
Equipment:
Empty Palm Soulsnatchers - A pair of leather gloves woven together with her own grandmother's hair. The quality of these gloves is exceptionally high, but they are otherwise unassuming; at least, without deeper analysis. They are not, however, for common glove tasks. Instead, they are made entirely for the purpose of combat. Each glove has a inugami resting inside; the right hand is possessed by a purified dog spirit, making it superlative for the purpose of sublimating spirits and curses. The left glove is possessed by a profane dog spirit, making it a superlative cursing tool. In other words, the right hand is 'for defeating spirits', and the left hand is 'for defeating humans'. This is, obviously, a relation to the common understanding of 'right and left hand paths', but it can't be said that the relation goes particularly deep. Being invested with spirits of this nature give way to generally enhanced reaction time and punching strength. Additionally, owing to their nature as 'hunting dogs', after a target is sublimated, the spirits inhabiting the gloves consume the spirit, enriching them.

Mobile Shrine "Kyoiku"  - A small stone statuette in the shape of a dog. This statuette is hundreds of years old, and was created as the shintai of the Ōishi family spirit - an inugami, naturally. The nature of this particular family kami defines the rest of the spirits used by her family, and it's nature is that of hunting. The core of this spirit is hunting others and consuming them to grow stronger, and thus all of the other spirits are the same; it is a line of hunting dogs, after all. Materialization of this spirit is not normally possible owing to the era, but it is possible to invoke it for various purposes, and through the process of kuchiyose, it may even possess Kasumi for various purposes, such as divination or increased senses. This is not one of the cruel 'cursing gods' found in some tradition, but it is still a vicious creature meant for hunting and killing, rather than giving blessings.

Woven Stone - The outfit she actually wears out is haunted; it has a dog spirit living inside of it and is aligned to stone, granting it armor like qualities while only slightly effecting the weight. Mundane weaponry is somewhat mitigated, but not outright obviated. It is also flame retardant.

Swiftfoot Treaders - Her shoes are possessed by a dog spirit aligned with the wind, and grant improved swiftness and agility when worn. Additionally, though the affect is vastly inferior to her gloves, they somewhat improve kicking ability.

Gehobako - A red lacquer chest which she keeps her belongings within. It contains a Bounded Field which obscures the inside by way of making it appear 'entirely pure', such that anything within is overshadowed. It is also the domicile of most of her spirits, and if it is opened without her permission, they will attack and attempt to curse whoever opened it to death.

Azusa Bow - A bow strung with her own hair, for use in various purification and sanctification ritual. The bow is well made and sturdy, and its primary use is in purifying a space or an object within it, and can be used to serve as the centerpiece of a temple, or 'the domicile of a god'.

Purification Equipment - An assortment of seals and substances which are used to ward off and cleanse impurity - this is distinct form the bow, which is a more specialized tool. This is mostly to absolve herself of the taint related to curses, but can also be used to cleanse a cursed object or defend oneself from hostile curses.
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