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"I've killed scarier than you."
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VA | Johnny Yong Bosch
Name: Nagatoki Sogo
Nicknames: Bright-Eye Manslayer
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Rank: Member of the 11th Squad
Specializations: Single-Sword Combat
Personality: Nagatoki Sogo is an arrogant, rebellious, strong-willed young adult who leads with boundless energy and sterilized enthusiasm. He seeks to gain ever more power, ever-ambitious and looking to move up in the world. This knack for machinations has made Nagatoki rather contemplative and observant, strategic even. Which fuels his seemingly dynamic flow of energy. Only when tapping into his inner hitokiri does his energy fold taunt and sharp, becoming a palpable manifestation of his countless victims. Otherwise, one could just as easily find Nagatoki smiling amongst his enemies as he would his comrades.
Biography: Nagatoki grew up in a fairly peaceful family, ignorant for the most part of his father's dark history. Tomonaga Sogo, father of the eventual Bright-Eye Manslayer, renowned as The Death Hawk of Edo worked tirelessly to cultivated his reputation and swordsmanship. To become famous or infamous during a period of unrest. Unintentionally he found himself under the watchful eye of political powers, people who wanted others dead. The pay was enough to wash away his desires for fame which begun his eventual downfall. Somewhere along his career as a hitokiri he found his mate Sue Sogo and begun a family.
The eldest of which would later become Nagatoki Sogo the Bright-Eye Manslayer. His journey as hitokiri started with his father's innocent ambitions of ensuring his son's growth and ended the day he exacted revenge on his father and brother's killer. The night seemed destined for bloodshed. Tomonaga had sent Nagatoki and his younger brother Tanuki off to collect their mother Sue from her journey that night. Only they had no expected to encounter swordsmen on the path. Nagatoki, a swordsman in his own right drew his weapon but trembled against the thought of slaying someone.
Tomonaga appeared in the knick of time, quickly dispatching the two warriors. He sent them on to find their mother with reassuring words. But Nagatoki had ominous feeling, so they returned back to the small estate before retrieving Sue Sogo; they found a formidable swordsmen standing over their slouched and dead father. Enraged, Tanuki charged the thoughtless hitokiri and paid the price. Finally tipped over the edge, Nagatoki charged too but the swordsman swatted him aside and sly as a fox apologized for slaying Tanuki recklessly. Then he mentioned the eyes of a manslayer having been inherited before giving Nagotoki his name. Sanesuke Mori or The Phantom of Osaka.
When Sue Sogo returned, Nagatoki rested with Tanuki's head in his lap and his father's corpse close by. Reassured by his mother's appearance that his father and brother would be buried and honored, he stood up and stumbled away to began his journey of revenge. Starting at the age of thirteen, it took years of odd jobs, dark coincidences, and training by a lonesome, odd fisherman for Nagatoki to feel ready. At the age of seventeen he begun his twisted career as hitokiri, quickly earning his name "Bright-Eyes Manslayer" during a skirmish between two rival factions. During a typical assassination, he encountered The Phantom of Osaka.
The two battled under a crescent moon. Nagatoki had the advantage but sensed a lack of intention behind The Phantom's sickled blade. In the end Nagatoki felled The Phantom but felt unsatisfied. Seeing the elder man on his last leg, Nagatoki believed he felt regret on Sanesuke's sword. So he asked for the truth of his Tomonaga's assassination. Turns out The Phantom and The Death Hawk had been friends working for the same boss during their later eyes. Tomonaga was assigned to a new mission, one that could have jeopardized his family. He refused and because of his reputation, The Phantom and two others were sent to end him. When Tomonaga found out, he urged Sanesuke to let him check on his boys. Out of respect, The Phantom had allowed Tomonaga to save his sons under the pretense that his life was forfeited in exchange.
In his final moments The Phantom expressed his deep regret for slaying Tanuki, explaining that his reflexes betrayed his intentions and ever-since he's been awaiting for his "manslayer". Nagatoki, steeped in his own darkness returned home dead on the inside. Now twenty-and-a-half, he returned home a mirror image of his former-self. A formerly dressed swordsman stopped him on the way inside, seemingly defending his new home. It was Sue Sogo who recognized her son before conflict broke out but the swordsman who saw the manslayer inside.
Sue broke down the years as she bandaged his wounds that night. She had remarried an officer of the Shinsengumi two years prior. A single spar later and a conversation about regaining his humanity left Nagatoki contemplative about his next steps. It was the self-serving powers above him that caused his family such pain, that caused him such darkness. It took him only that instance to realize that his family was dead. His mother had found another life and it was time he had too. After joining the Shinsengumi off a whim and recommendation, Nagatoki found that he wanted more power, both politically and physically. Two years chipped away at his cold disposition, forging a combination of his former and current selves.
Fighting Style: Nagatoki's specific style of fighting combines Tomonaga's hawk-inspired combat with his mentor's sickle-style art, which somehow curves the slashes of his blow. The fisherman coined it as an illusion projected by orthodox arc of the swordsmen continuous and meticulous swings. This combined with Tomonaga's Hunting God Hawk Style appliesa reflex-induced sequence of strikes, thrusts, and slashes usually aimed for legs, arms, and head. First and foremost, he disregards the quick-kill method, opting to immobilizing before killing. When tapping into his hitokiri, his methods lean towards beheading.
Preferred Weapon(s): Katana
