Name: Ren Mizushima
Nicknames: The Apprentice
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Height/Weight: 162cm/55kg
Master of: Rider
Command Seal Location: Upper arm; Command Seals are blood-red in the approximate shape of three snakes forming a caduceus
Wish: To become an excellent magus.
Personality: Ren Mizushima is a kind, polite and well-intentioned young man, but sadly also a complete doormat. The kind of person you'd love to meet at a company outing or have as an employee, but not exactly the outspoken, confident type you'd want to take charge of a situation. Critically aware of his own limitations, Ren can come off as shy or unsure of himself, but possesses an intense desire to improve himself. He loves to learn and read books, especially books on history, and is a responsible student and apprentice (some might say to the point of ass-kissing, but that brings us back to "doormat"). While it may look at times like he lets people walk all over him, he is in fact fiercely intelligent and witty, and will sometimes satisfy himself with petty-but-harmless pranks or a well-placed barb spoken under his breath (but never anything overt enough to be noticed or taken seriously). If asked what desire he has of the Holy Grail's power, he could give you nothing but vague platitudes, although one senses the presence of buried ambition even he is not aware of...
Biography: Imagine waking up one day to find that the world no longer holds any secrets. Anything and everything is an open book before your prying eyes, dumping encyclopedia's worth of information directly into your brain like they're reciting their life's story to you. Everything talks. There's no escape from the non-stop barrage of information. The noise hurts your head, you lose your ability to focus on anything, and you end up learning and hearing far too many things you shouldn't. You think you're going mad. So does everyone else. Maybe they're right.
That was the life of Ren Mizushima after he awakened to his magical gift of Pure Eyes. A rare mutation in an otherwise non-magic family, Ren's ability first manifested in his freshman year of high-school, leaving him practically paralyzed and laid down in bed for days during his first week of school. As his condition worsened, he was moved from hospital to hospital in the hopes that someone would try and figure out what was wrong with him. His
mother, a single parent, worked overtime to pay the medical bills, and yet there was no end in sight. No matter what they did, no one could seem to identify what was ailing him so.
Then, one day while he was alone in his hospital bed, his eyes screwed shut as he tried to sleep, he was visited in the middle of the afternoon by a suspiciously youthful-looking man who claimed to be a professor from a school calling itself "the Clocktower". Moreover, he called himself a mage. Even after he explained the situation to Ren, the teen refused to believe it. Magic? Give him a break. Obviously something was just screwed up with his head. It was explainable, and that meant it had to be
fixable. That's what he hoped, anyway. That even though modern medicine was quickly running out of tests and diagnoses to use on him, they'd eventually find something that'd work, and relieve him of this never-ending assault on his mind, this data-dump of things he couldn't and didn't care to know.
It was only when he offered him the glasses that Ren's opinion of the fake professor changed. Simply slipping on the glasses gave him instant relief. The barrage of information ceased, as if well and truly by magic. His mind opened somewhat, Ren was willing to hear the professor out now. What he told him shocked him, but also excited and relieved him. His condition was explainable, and treatable. Just not by modern science. The professor could teach him how to better control it if he so wished, so one day he might be able to live without the glasses. He even offered to teach him some magic if, in exchange, he agreed to take a position as his apprentice.
What followed were four years of higher education in an almost literal sense as Ren traveled the globe with the professor, learning more about magecraft and the hidden world it concealed (as well as finishing his regular studies; never let it be said that the professor neglects his students' need for a classical education). He learned a lot from the professor, and taught him a lot as well, even if he wished he'd been taught more proper spells instead of magical theory. They shared many adventures, though not always willingly, and eventually it began to look like there might be a place for Ren in the world of mages after all. Maybe even in the Clocktower.
Now, with the professor ready to tackle yet another hurdle placed before him in the name of earning more fortune and prestige, Ren has been dragged along once again to assist him in the matter of the Holy Grail War. Because he already has a home and a family in Fuyuki, bringing Ren along as an assistant and local guide made perfect sense to the professor, even if it exasperated Ren. Sent ahead to prepare a place to stay at his house and gather the necessary materials for the professor's arrival, he has little idea what kind of excitement and chaos is about to enter his life and bring danger to his hometown.
Origin: Exhumation
Element: Water
School of Magecraft: Undeclared (similar to declaring a major in college)
Spell List: - Pure Eyes: Ren possesses an unusual and potentially rare type of Pure Eyes that allow him to retrocognitively determine the history of people, places, and objects. Normally manifesting as a sort of "intuition" about any object within his field of view, the eyes can only "see" the precise trajectory an object has taken through time and space when Ren is touching it, allowing him to determine not only its previous location but its precise physical attributes past and present, as well as giving him a brief vision of any significant events the object was involved in and anyone or anything who may have touched or used it in the past. While not life-threatening, the vast libraries of information conveyed by the Pure Eyes simply through sight can be quite disorienting and thus they require the use of Mystic Eye Killers in every day life.
- Mana Dowsing: Locates objects and people within a 50m radius and gives the caster a crude mental image of the local terrain within 200m based on the flow of mana. Useful for mapping local leylines, and requires a two-line incantation. Can be used eight times a day.
- Panacea: Saturates water with the mana of the caster, imbuing it with healing properties that rejuvenate the cells, stimulate bone growth and promote healthy skin and smoother hair. Requires direct skin contact with the altered water as well as a five-line incantation. Can be used six times a day.
- Curse of Desiccation: Removes water and fluids from the targeted body, be it animate or inanimate. Larger volumes of fluids will take longer to dry out. Activated by touch plus a ten-line incantation. Can be used twice a day.
- Curse of Boiling: Raises the temperature of the fluids inside the targeted body, be it animate or inanimate. Larger volumes of fluids will take longer to boil. Activated by touch plus a five-line incantation. Can be used three times a day.
- Curse of Freezing: Lowers the temperature of the fluids inside the targeted body, be it animate or inanimate. Larger volumes of fluids will take longer to cool. Activated by touch plus a five-line incantation. Can be used five times a day.
- Mystic Code: Flow Manipulation Glove: A Mystic Code gifted to him by the professor that allows for basic control over the flow of small bodies of pure water (creeks, brooks, puddles and ponds). Targeted bodies must be either immobile or in direct contact with the glove for control to be established, and the magic ceases to be effective if the glove is removed. Living beings cannot be affected, as the water inside them is diffused within their bodily tissues. Activated with a one-line incantation.
Mana Capacity: C+
Other: Possesses multiple pairs of spare Mystic Eye Killer glasses and contacts (courtesy of the professor) so he'll never have to live for long without the instant relief they grant him in the event a pair is lost or broken.
