jigoku app [please mind the CW's i'm so sorry]

[frogmarched]

[cw: physical abuse of a child, heavily implied sexual abuse of a child (and adult), other abusive relationship dynamics, suicidal ideation, patricide (committed by a child) and murder, pathologic germaphobia/mysophobia, mentions of grooming]


PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Plus
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yea
CONTACT: oleseiyah or Plus#1261
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Eiichi "Kawase" Segawa
CANON: Hashihime of the Old Book Town
CANON REFERENCE: VNDB and van's summary of the game's events. I am so sorry you have to do this again.
CANON POINT: End of 2nd Route/Kawase Route
CRAU HISTORY: N/A
AGE: 21
APPEARANCE: bad decisions and more bad decisions. | In-game sprite as well.
CONTRACT PAYMENT: In lieu of being able to contract his own murder (given he's already in Hell and everything), he'll request the guaranteed and unconditional protection and safety of the five boys in the Irregulars Regiment-- Naoshi, Katou, Kudou, Toba and Sanjou, a gaggle of orphans that work around Jinbouchou. If not forever, he'll specify through the Kanto earthquake of 1923 and World War 2.

QUESTIONNAIRE:
How important is loyalty to you? What does it take to earn your loyalty? What extents are you willing to go through to maintain loyalty, and respect the loyalty others might have invested in you?

Kawase himself is fiercely loyal to the people he cares about; when it comes to little things like lending money for a meal, or letting someone stay the night he can seem like a bully. However, when it's truly a matter of life or death, or someone's safety and happiness, he will fight tooth and nail. Though he will complain and speak brashly, he would do anything for them without hesitation. His loyalty is hard to obtain, abrasive and unfriendly as he is-- but, he doesn't do anything by halves. If a person has won whatever qualifies as friendship to him, then they've earned his almost absolute devotion. He seems to end up easily endeared to people that are the opposite of how he sees himself; good, honest, caring people, or simply people he perceives that way. They're the kind of people he's scared of harming the most-- but also the people he'd most readily assist, even while speaking about them with disdain.

But, when it comes to his own actual opinion, Kawase cares little about loyalty and trust. When it comes to reciprocity, he simply doesn't consider it a thing that could be reciprocated-- he's certain he's untrustworthy, and he's been abused and dehumanized so much that he barely considers himself a full person, much less one you would owe loyalty to. Rather than mutual, he sees it as another function he can serve, and thus people will still need him and keep him around. If someone's managed to earn his loyalty, then regardless of how they feel about him, it is still absolute. Someone could utterly despise him, betray his trust, try to hurt him, and still-- if he felt any kind of obligation or affection toward them, he would easily let it go. He'd still do anything they wanted of him to keep them safe and happy (This is in fact his canon relationship with Hanazawa, and what he wrongfully assumes is the case with Minakami). If he were to be beaten or betrayed, he would accept it easily; if there are any hard feelings, it's clearly because Kawase felt entitled to more than he had any right to expect, and no one else's fault.

An enemy of your faction has asked for a meeting, proposing a truce of sorts to deal with a greater threat. On one hand, there is indeed a threat at hand, but on the other, this person double-crossing you is just as likely an outcome. Do you agree to the meeting? Do you trust them?

He would agree to the meeting-- but he definitely wouldn't trust them. Kawase is naturally distrusting, and he'd be more likely to assume it's a trap than a genuine offer even if things weren't so dire in the moment. He would take the meeting, but take every measure he could to try and anticipate the form of their deception, and make sure no one else got hurt in the crossfire. He'd accept the meeting, on the condition that it would be on his own faction's territory, or at least a familiar place. Anywhere else he would refuse, and there's not much out there that could change his mind once it's been made. Check for any vulnerable spots, plan for any escapes-- he likes to be in control of a situation.

Even during the meeting he would refuse to yield an inch; it's straight to the point, without letting any other unneeded information slip, even in a bargain. He likes to be in control of a conversation, too, and prefers to have his conversation partner on the backfoot-- he's a convincing liar, even for having a naturally suspicious countenance. Maybe it would even be a chance to seed some other lie to the enemy... though usually he would rather poke them with personal insults, rather than actual espionage.

What is your favorite diversion? Hobbies, indulgences, vices? Would you put off important things for that diversion, or would you be more strict about how you spend your time and/or money?

Kawase enjoys reading-- he's mainly interested in romance and melodrama, though he also seems to be a fan of surreal poetry-- and has a penchant for coffee, and the atmosphere of their local cafe. He enjoys going to the theater, though he doesn't go very often. He does smoke regularly, but it's done more out of stress, rather than any actual enjoyment.

Other than that, Kawase doesn't allow himself many indulgences or hobbies-- currently studying to be a medical student, he spends most of his time at the Imperial University, attending classes, studying, or doing coursework. He's far too dedicated to his goal of becoming a physician to ever think about letting minor 'nuances' like entertainment or diversions to get in his way. Reading is something he does casually (compared to his friends, at least)in his downtime, like at the cafe or on the train... and only during his downtime. He's the kind of person who has a huge mansion all to himself, and inherited a fortune from his adopted father, and yet barely spends any more money than needed. Most of the rooms in his mansion lay empty, he cleans the entire place himself, and only spends his money on books, transportation, or food-- Even then, he lacks any kind of taste for luxury, or even much of an appetite (mostly he's paying for Tamamori's food when he leeches off his wallet). He comes off as strict and disciplined because of it, but it's more like he believes he doesn't deserve those sorts of things, and so refuses himself-- or, he simply doesn't have the time, and so the thoughts never cross his mind.

You've worked with your Faction awhile now and you feel like the reward of your contract is within reach. But at the last moment, you are told you have even more service to pay beforehand, an obscure clause in the contract being exploited to keep you under your boss's thumb even longer. Your Faction Leader hasn't spoken on this, and might be able to dispute it. Do you go to your leader? Do you argue the dispute yourself? Do you begrudgingly accept the additional work? Something else?

He would rage, disputing the claim right there and then with his own venomous words. Kawase cares little about authority, or even formality-- the matters of factions and rank means little to him, unless that respect is learned. When faced with such an egregious attempt of taking advantage of their authority, he would argue right there and then, even threatening a fight. Not because Kawase has any desires about leaving Hell, but because he direly needs to assure the safety of the five boys in the Irregulars Regiment, lest they die in the Great Kanto Earthquake. Not only would reneging on the contract potentially risk the boys' lives, but someone willing to take advantage of such underhanded tactics would easily be happy to exploit other people with it; people who don't deserve it.

Of course, a part of it is simply a reaction of his own temper, and his penchant for violence. But if nothing agreeable could be reached-- or really, even if he did end up getting his way-- he would go to the Faction Leader right afterwards, informing them of their underling's behavior. Maybe even dig up some dirt on the villain too to force them into a corner. Killing someone is a last resort... but he's always willing to put that on the table if they're despicable enough.

POWERS & ABILITIES:

Hashihime
Like his other two terrible compatriots, Kawase has been host to the Hashihime of Juuroku Bridge-- the bridge in their hometown. A yokai tied to the old bridges, they possess their host and grant them the power to travel to the past. It can only be done during rainy days, and how far you can go back depends on what water you use-- In a normal situation, you'd only have puddles that take you to the start of the rainfall, but if you had old enough water, you could potentially go back in time hundreds and hundreds of years. They mark their hosts with bright blue eyes, only visible to other people that have been touched by a hashihime as well. The spirit is deeply jealous, and if you act in the interests of others during the rainfall, the hashihime will punish you with whatever punishment you're most scared of-- unless something else is given in compensation. They'll leave their current host, and take up residence in the closest person nearby. It can also be transferred by killing its host.

Unlike his two friends, Kawase had little spiritual sensitivity before he got the Hashihime, and only played host for a very short time. The way he'd obtained the Hashihime was by killing its previous host; when it transferred to him, it also transferred the man's memories and a small portion of his other spiritual attributes, implying the Hashihime has the ability to transfer things like that between hosts as well.

Luckily for everyone, the Hashihime ends up going back to Tamamori by the end. Practically this doesn't affect much given we are all 1000% down with nerfing its powers, but it does leave him with a burgeoning new spiritual sense; though it's about as well developed as a newborn child's.

Hallucinations
The most important thing he gained from the possession was the same hallucinatory power as Tamamori; the ability to essentially project your own imagination on your perception of reality. It's possible it's a glimpse into the spirit world just like Tamamori's, though Kawase's hallucinations are much more simplistic-- changes in the scenery, vibrant colors, and maybe a different outfit for the setting, though it's unclear if it's a limitation of his own imagination, or the fact that he has less spiritual sensitivity than others in the game. Or both. He does interact with Tamamori's creations much more thoroughly than others (which happens before he even inherits any spiritual senses), and while he doesn't have the ability to conjure spirits or figments, he seems to be able to interact with them very easily. Incidentally, his willingness to engage and new sensitivity has somehow made him able to host Tamamori's Frog Man without Tamamori even being around.

So, in a practical sense, he can just barely glimpse the edges of the spiritual realm, but can interact with whatever comes out a bit more. His hallucinations are more in entwined with his need for control and escapism, so he's much more eager to accept things. Even more practically, this would probably be nerfed in the same fashion as Tamamori's; being only visible to himself, and having no actual effect on reality. He doesn't get lost in them as easily as his friend, so it'll essentially be his own personal set dressing.

Medical & Surgical
Much more grounded in reality, Kawase is a student of the medical college at the Imperial University. Although their advances aren't up to 21st century standards, they have established the Institute of Infectious Diseases, one of the buildings where Kawase has studied. He's spent the last two years studying pathology, most likely focusing on the spread of diseases, infections from injuries or otherwise, and in-depth knowledge about live tissue and the human body's reaction to it all. In the past three months, he's been strongarmed into changing his focus of study to general surgery (not that he's particularly happy about it).

SUITABILITY:

To once again re-iterate the whole, "coming from an 18+ rated visual novel with content warnings for things like violence, assault, abuse and mental illness" shtick, violence, crime and sex aren't things he's unaccustomed to. Kawase is far less sheltered compared to his friends, growing up with an abusive father that beat him often, and likely sexually abused him after his mother left them. When the local doctor tried to intervene, he was front and center for the arguments between him and his father that led to the doctor's murder. It was Kawase himself that retaliated, killing his own father in revenge at around the age of ten.

When they moved to the capital, he ended up staying with a man named Ikeda, an important figurehead in the department of medicine at the Imperial University. He used his connections with the man to guarantee his admittance into the medical college; after two more years of abuse at the hands of Ikeda, he murdered the man as well, taking charge of the man's considerable fortune for his own purposes. Kawase is prone to using violence as his first solution to many problems, and has no qualms breaking the law to get what he wants; whether it's some under the table deal, the murder of a... particularly unsavory kind of person, or simple stealing a book of records from an acquaintance in order to figure out what they're up to. He'd be perfectly at home in a city ruled by violence and crime, a setting that would make it much easier for him to do what he pleases and get away with it.

Not to mention he's pretty convinced that removing his own existence from earth was the best option for everyone, so being quarantined off in a literal Hell is a pretty good solution to him.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten

Regularly referred to as a "brute" or a "thug," or even a "demon" in the game's narration, Kawase does-- in a way-- end up presenting as a yakuza thug. His manner of speech is rough and uncaring, he resorts to threats of violence quickly, and he gives the impression that he thinks he's better than anyone he's talking to. He has little respect for law and order, or strict right-or-wrong morality, more than willing to get his hands dirty in order to get something done (he does view himself as a bad guy, for all the wrong he's done, but that thought certainly doesn't stop him). The way he smiles give the impression that he's a bit sadistic, eager to frustrate or humiliate other people. He's not exactly a hard partier; he dislikes being so close to so many people, and he's plagued by a pathological aversion to dirt and germs, and party scenes aren't exactly... clean. So maybe he'd be a reliable cleaner, at least.

Unfortunately, Kawase has one problem here, and it's the fact that most of him is just one big lie. He has a natural strength that he knows how to throw around (and will), but in reality he's pretty thin, barely able to swing a sword properly. His rough exterior is mostly a feint to keep people at a distance or keep control over a conversation, and most of his acts of meaningful violence are in defense of others; his father was murdered in revenge for a friend whose own father had been murdered by the man, many of the fights he got into as a child were against other kids that were making fun of his friend, and he murdered Ikeda to protect a kid in Jimbochou, who Ikeda was attempting to groom and prey upon. In a way he does believe in the 'might makes right' philosophy, though he doesn't see exactly see himself as the person with power; whatever power he scrapes together, he uses it in defense of those without.

He lies casually, just to keep his thoughts to himself or just because he doesn't want to tell the truth, and would eagerly manipulate others to hide the truth of his own actions. It does mean he could probably go along long enough by not getting caught, but he doesn't really have much of a sense of honor; rather, it's more like a sense for survival. Of course, it'd be good to make him start being honest, even if it just starts with not lying about being happy to see a friend looking for him. ...But he's also pretty damn bull-headed and set in his way, so the possibility of losing a finger before he even considered bettering himself is extremely high.

Tamamo
(if it's alright, I'd like to opt out of him getting sorted into Tamamo; while I love the potential, given his history of abuse I don't think he'd function very well in an overtly sexual environment with brothels and host clubs and the like. I know participating in that is optional, but the stress would make him Even Worse to deal with, and I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable with that particular trigger being at the forefront.)

After a lifetime of exacting standards-- trying to avoid his father's temper, trying to appease the person he admired most, committing himself to a study that trips a little too close to his phobias in order to make himself useful to the people he cares about, and navigating a life among the old money in Tokyo, as well as a rigid coursework-- it's made Kawase pretty decent at guessing what's going on in certain situations. He can read peoples' behavior, and is always considering the consequences of what to do or say, and how a situation will turn out.

However, that pragmatic awareness is characteristic of how Kawase's... pretty much the opposite of any of Tamamo's ideals. He has little taste for vices and pleasure, and sees things like going to the movie or to a fancy restaurant as boring and frivolous. He has little imagination of his own, and has dealt only in the aspects of hard reality his entire life. While he's a fan of a good cafe-- brothels, bars and clubs are far too dirty and messy for him to bear; and while he speaks very crudely and much more suggestively than other characters in the game, he's also carrying the monumental baggage of at least a collective seven years of sexual trauma at the hands of his father and his patron. His view on it isn't exactly... healthy, to say the least, not to mention how much prevalence of sex and intimacy would trigger his own germaphobia.

However, by the end of his route, after being shown Tamamori's hallucinations and obtaining a bit of that power himself, he seems to take some amount of genuine joy in the illusions. In a way, it's a much needed method of escapism, so he's certainly not immune to wanting simple things like that. He's critically unable to acknowledge any indulgences of his own, so learning to at least allow it would be a hell of a lesson.

Sutoku

Kawase is by far one of the smartest characters in the game; Minakami and Tamamori both refer to him as a genius and a prodigy, and he passed the entrance exam for the Imperial University on his first try, something that's extremely hard for most people to do. He's observant and thoughtful, able to guess at the answer to many of the game's mysteries on his own (he's just rude and doesn't actually share any of it). He can put on a nice face and some kind of words to trick people into think he's actually pleasant, and can easily weasel information out people if he pleases; and failing that, he's not above just stealing it from someone's bookshelf. He seems to keep particular tabs on the people around him, knowing Minakami's movement habits at the university, showing up unannounced on Tamamori's first day at work, and being aware of his adoptive father Ikeda's movements and acquaintances in Jinbochou, accumulating substantial knowledge about the situation of a kid the man was meeting that Kawase's never met. Even with all the evidence of Ikeda's unsavory interests stored in the basement of their manor, he keeps all of the possible evidence place, rather than destroying it after the man was dead.

Compared to Minamaki's legitimate strength and swordsmanship, Kawase looks for the advantage through emotional manipulation. He can't take out an entire military base on his own, but he can keep all the cards of a situation to his chest, diffusing a problem with the local kid detective group, inciting a friend that never gets angry, or tricking one into leaving him alone through the cruelty of his words. He has a need to maintain some kind of control on the reality before him, committing cruel or seemingly impulsive acts that he's in fact already thought all the way through; degrading a waitress at a cafe so she'll lose interest in him, or acting disgusted with his friends' presence in his home to keep them away from a predator. He doesn't always have as much control as he would like, but that's certainly never stopped him from trying to take it back anyway; though it's situations like that where he'll more likely default to violence.

Again, he'd stay far away from any kind of bars or night clubs out of revulsion, but he does enjoy going to the theater, and plays games like Go or Mahjong without the gambling aspect. He doesn't really believe in tribal ideology, or the good of the group over the individual-- that sort of thing back home in their rural town of Aizu only caused him grief, as no one was willing to rock the boat until someone died for it. But, he does believe in putting those he cares about before himself, and is more likely to have a small group of people he'd do anything for, his own well-being be damned. Though, maybe that's taking it a little too far. There's multiple mentions of him immediately giving up his seat on the tram when an old woman or a mother boards, so he at least has awareness of the people around him, and prioritize their comfort when he can.

Enma

"Order" is something complicated when it comes to Kawase. On the outside (before he opens his mouth), he comes off as straight-laced and disciplined, making his friends study and prioritizing his studies over most things. In another time he joined the military eagerly, and served faithfully for the sake of country-- though in reality, it was only because of their friend Hanazawa, who was in a way his superior. On the inside, he's simply wound-up tight, and he doesn't care for authority at all. No police or authority had ever helped him when he was in trouble, and he's unwilling to report things like potential burglars or murderers to the cops no matter how serious it seems.

He does believe in a sort of justice; for all his own wrongdoings-- lying, violence and murder-- he knows himself to be a criminal and a villain, someone that deserves whatever punishment may come. But rather than be beholden to any sort of central authority, he seems to believe in personal justice; when he was told someone was coming to kill him, he was more than willing to allow the perpetrator to have their revenge, and never puts up a fight in the timelines where the murderer does come. He knows peacekeepers or social workers will never come to help, so he knows you have to defend yourself and your loved ones on your own. The order he believes in is something more like karma; the inevitability that you will get your comeuppance for your sins, and you will deserve it (though he has a bit of a skewed view on who would deserve it). The karma he believes in is that of a balance between punishment and those who cause suffering.

When it comes to enforcement though, he wouldn't give a lick about doing that. Karma would come calling eventually, and he doesn't believe himself to have the right to dole out that kind of judgment-- the person who was wronged does. Though, if actually convinced to do anything about the duties in the department, he's sly and ruthless enough to enforce that balance and order against those who might not respond well to official avenues. He can be intimidating to extort cooperation, and can cover up any problematic situations thanks to how many times he's had to cover his own tracks. Though he wouldn't exactly be very happy about it, and it's doubtful if his willing participation could even be obtained without threats.

SAMPLES

TDM top level and thread with Leviathan