Tonbokiri (Dropped)

A "Touken Danshi", or "Sword Man", is the spirit of a sword given life. It goes without saying that he and his spear-body are in tune with each other. But beyond that, he is more skilled with a spear than any spearman in his world. Physically, he is capable of withstanding punishment that would utterly break a human body, and, while not the speediest of the Touken Danshi (some can easily keep pace with a horse running at full speed), can keep running or fighting for hours at a time. His strength is such that he can cleave the blade of a normal sword in half with a single swing of his blade. He can leap greater than his own height, approximately the height of a three-story building, in a single leap; he can swing his blade quickly enough and with enough force to create blue-white trails in the air.

Tonbokiri isn't just NAMED after one of the Three Great Spears of Japan. He IS the Tonbokiri of legend. As such, he carries the spear of legend and can fight with it as one would fight with a normal spear. Since he can be separated from his spear-body without ill effect (so long as the blade remains intact), he can fight with just about any polearm type weapon. However, he is indeed most effective when the Tonobokiri spear is in his hand. Whatever his weapon, he fights with a very aggressive style that seeks to utterly destroy an enemy as quickly as possible. His style is, in fact, so aggressive that between the legendary edge of his blade and his own strength, that he can strike and cut objects and enemies about twenty feet farther away than the normal range of a spear-fighter.

Cutting generally requires pressure behind a cutting edge, forcing the sharp edge through the material. Tonbokiri's spear-body is a bit different. The legends surrounding the Muramasa school and its violent tendencies, the legends of how deadly they were to the Tokugawa family, give power to his strikes. Tonbokiri's blade actually WANTS to maim his opponents. And the legend of Tonbokiri's own legendary sharpness -- that a dragonfly was sliced in half by merely landing on the blade -- further strengthens his blade's edge, making him a deadly opponent on the battlefield. Because of this supernatural "boost", he's able to slice things open deeply with a mere glancing touch of his blade, with very little force -- or none at all. With force and intent, he can cut through things that steel shouldn't be hard or sharp enough to cut -- titanium, diamonds, even energy.

A sword warrior's legend tends to affect his personality and abilities. Throughout the life of Tadakatsu Honda, Tonbokiri's wooden haft was changed several times, both lengthened and shortened. Towards the end of Honda's life, the haft was shortened to allow Honda to continue to wield the weapon, both for indoor battles and because his body was weakening. As this is part of Tonbokiri's legend, he is able to adapt to changing situations remarkably well, pick up new technology faster than normal, and come to understand situations that his mind would not normally be able to as long as they're explained. This was, in fact, why the saniwa chose him to explore the World Tree.

The Citadel is a homestead that the saniwa is also in charge of running. While Tonbokiri does have obligations there, he is not the only Touken Danshi, and the saniwa has others to complete the various tasks that present themselves -- tending to the large fields, upkeep of the horses, cooking for the crew, ensuring that the Citadel's house is neat and orderly; etc. The Citadel offers an infirmary for if one of their number is injured, there is usually plenty of food, non-teleport access to the World Tree can be gained by taking a horse from the stables, and finally Tonbokiri has a bedroom that he can sleep in. The area is generally safe from intrusions by demons thanks to the saniwa, and he can mingle with the other Touken Danshi with little threat of harm.

"Wagashi" -- literally "Japanese sweets" -- are small, delicate confections that generally take a lot of time and effort to make. They're generally served with some degree of ceremony, alongside green tea, and are commonly given as gifts and brought back from trips as souvenirs. Due to Tonbokiri's love for daifuku (sweet rice pounded until it takes on a jellylike consistency, wrapped around sweet red bean paste), he has begun to learn how to make these sorts of small confections.

The Touken Danshi simply refer to the saniwa as "aruji" -- an archaic word for "master" -- and follow every command given by this master, to the best of their abilities. The saniwa does not appear often, because most of the day for them is spent searching for signs of the Quantum Retrograde Army's signal on the World Tree, plotting out the best way of defending the Tree against their demonic influence, and overseeing the tasks that keep the Citadel running. Practically, however, the saniwa is capable of bringing more Touken Danshi to life and healing them when critically injured. When the touch of the Retrograde Army is felt, the saniwa has the ability to pinpoint the general location and teleport sword warriors to the location, and then teleport them back to the Citadel when the battle is done -- it deserves to be noted that the power required of the saniwa for this teleportation makes it unable to be used for short-range "blinks", merely for getting the Touken Danshi to the site of the battle and then getting them home afterwards. Of all the things he saniwa has no combat prowess of their own, and must rely on the Touken Danshi for defense. If the saniwa dies, all of the sword warriors' human bodies will cease to exist.

Konnosuke is a kudagitsune, a spirit familiar in the form of a fox. He is, however, an artificial kudagitsune, one of many created by the scientists of the Time Government to aid the saniwa. There are more than one saniwa, and as such, there are more than one kudagitsune. A single saniwa needs a handful of these each, as they send one of these creatures out every time the sword warriors are sent to battle. These creatures act as cameras in battle, recording the battle for the saniwa to watch later. They can also browse their world's internet, and use the bell around their necks to project images that they're capable of receiving from this internet. Finally, the kudagitsune can receive messages from the saniwa and relay them to the sword warriors they accompany. Konnosuke in particular has been assigned to investigate the World Tree, so he often accompanies Tonbokiri on his travels through it.

For Tonbokiri, honor has a place in all things. In battle -- he will not sneak up on an opponent, will not use underhanded methods to fight (throwing/kicking dirt into the eyes, feign strikes, pretending to retreat, etc.), will not strike a downed opponent, will spare those who surrender against him, and will always show mercy when given the opportunity to do so. Outside battle -- loyalty to his master above all else, show kindness to all others, render aid when able, and never break his word. Thing is, while this is good at making him come across as trustworthy, it's incredibly easy to take advantage of such a strict code of conduct. In battle, opponents can pretend to surrender in order to get inside his guard and strike at him. Outside of battle, an opponent can pretend to be in danger or in need of help, extract a promise from him to help, and then he would be bound to do so, no matter what it entailed...

While he's not a hulking, massive mountain of muscle, Tonbokiri is still a pretty big guy. He's well over six and a half feet tall, and the rest of his body is well in proportion to that height. So while he can easily outpace a regular human from his world, he's still not going to be the speediest guy on two feet. This can be a problem with speedier allies, whether other Touken Danshi or offworlders, and he can easily be left behind during a retreat that requires speed, or loose a target when in pursuit. More to the point, a bigger guy is easier to hit in combat. And his size makes it very difficult to blend into a crowd of normal humans.

Let it first be said that Tonbokiri is not arrogant by any stretch of the imagination. He is kind and respects all people equally, until they give him a reason not to. However, the legend of the untouchable Tadakatsu Honda -- the man that Nobunaga Oda, who was very sparse with praise for his followers, called a "samurai of samurai"... that even his enemy Hideyoshi Toyotomi acknowledged as the "best samurai in the east"... that even Shingen Takeda referred to Honda as "a luxury of Ieyasu Tokugawa" -- and his trusty spear Tonbokiri is just as much part of him as he is a part of it. He forgets that his reputation as one of the "Three Great Spears of Japan" was partly because he was being wielded by Honda, who was possibly amongst the greatest samurai of that period. And, more importantly, that he's now MISSING that part of his legend. Now that he is no longer the strongest in the world, his lack of ability to recognize this is dangerous. He just does not believe that he can be defeated, and does not like to retreat, even when the odds are against him. This causes him to act rashly and recklessly on the battlefield, which can easily get him broken.

The more damage his human body takes, the more damage shows on his spear-body. If the blade of the spear is broken, his human body will die. Should his blade be destroyed, no matter how little damage his human body took beforehand, no amount of effort can bring him back.

For most of his life, Tonbokiri has only been the blade of a spear at the end of a wooden pole. With his new master's power, however, his spirit has been given a human body to interact with the world. Unfortunately, while he can easily use his body -- walk, speak, eat, sleep, fight, etc. -- he has no idea what it means to be "human". Understanding of emotions elude him, and he often doesn't know how to interpret his own complicated feelings. This could lead to him hesitating when experiencing these mixed feelings.

They say that everything looks like a nail when all you've got is a hammer. Tonbokiri isn't just only trained on a spear. He IS a spear -- literally the physical embodiment of an ancient Japanese spear. To say that he excels at using one is an understatement. Unfortunately that also means that it's hard for him to use anything BUT a spear. Training in anything else is destined to fail. Not only that, but when he's using a spear other than his spear-body, he fights at diminished capacity, even with another spear.