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The Kagetai Home

Name: Sawagejo "Katanagari" Cho
Date of Birth: February of 1859
Height: 5'11" + 14" of hair
Weight: 155 lbs
Blood Type: B

Appearance:

Tall and lanky, and garbed in red silk kimono, the right sleeve is missing, the left is designed with purple flame design at the cuff, a similar design on the bottom few inches of the kimono. Black custom wrap-gloves which almost reach the elbow, purple hachimaki. Usually seen with an arrogant grin, and the left of his two blue eyes is usually shut. And of course, the most obvious, straight spiked up blonde hair.

Background Info:

Though Cho was born into a family of samurai, he was the half English. Cho's father had relations with a foreign woman, even though he had a family. This ended up in causing quite a scandal, and Cho's father killed himself over it.

Though he never got to really know his real mother (she had suddenly disappeared), he was raised by his surrogate mother, and older brother and sister.Though his brother Yoshi respected his mothers wishes to keep Cho in the family, he still resented Cho in a way of not being full Japanese, and refused to teach him swordsmanship, though Cho would usually sneak around to spy on his training. His only weapon he ever had was a whip he had stolen from a Portuguese ship at a dock, which he practiced diligently every day when no one was around.

When Cho's mother became ill, and representatives from the Ishin revolution came to Yoshi to ask him to join their cause, their reasoning that it was the governments fault that his mother became ill and was the cause of his fathers death. Yoshi was persuaded. Cho saw this as an act of treason against what their father fought for...

Too young and undertrained to join the samurai, Cho took it upon himself to prove he could carry on his fathers name. One night he snuck in to a camp of Ishin assassins after they had a party of drinking after their latest victory and planned to steal all their weapons, alert the samurai, and have the weaponless assassins killed.

His first acquisition was the Hakujin no Tachi, a sword forged to be as thin as possible while maintaining the strength of the blade. The tip is weighted so the slightest flick of the wrist can direct it. In awe of such an odd weapon, his presence was spotted by someone who recognized him right away, and the owner of the Hakujin no Tachi- his brother Yoshi. Angered, the drunken Yoshi grabbed a katana from a comrade and came after Cho. The young Cho laughed in fear and anger that it would be Yoshi he was facing, snapping the blade wildly in front of him, the Hakujin no Tachi flying all about. He paused when the Hakujin no Tachi flew by his own face, slapping across his left eye, injuring it. He paused as he started to bleed- and he was covered in blood. Cho though he had killed himself- but it was only a niche at the eye that Cho received. It was Yoshi's blood, Yoshi was dead.

The heavily drunk assassins drew their weapons, and Cho taunted them, not caring if he died anymore, because he had killed Yoshi. Blinded by anger and booze, and facing the young boys whip training and adrenaline, they all ran into the wild and sporadic death that was the flailing of the Hakujin no Tachi. Cho killed them all. And it wasn't great skill or knowledge of fighting that gave him victory. It was the sword, the sword made the fighter- at least that's how Cho saw it.

He couldn't return to his family in his own mind, for the fact that he killed Yoshi, but he did stay in Osaka to train and grow older so he could become a samurai, in which he ended up joining a group of gangsters. Cho quickly became the top assassin with the Hakujin no Tachi by killing off the rival gangs top rival fighter, who wielded the Renbatou sword. Cho took the Renbatou as his prize, lauding it as fate that this blade was made by the same maker as the Hakujin no Tachi. Indeed, the path of collecting the 'blades of fate' would be his calling.

Studying all he could about swords, not only did he become an efficient killer, he became smart, and obsessed with swords. And when he was 15 years old, he went to investigate a new 'gangster' in town, one who was apparently building up some sort of army to overthrow the Ishin government that was established. He was curious in their cause, but more importantly, this Makoto Shishio apparently had some cool swords too.

From his growing up in the underworld he had come to know a lady by the name of Yumi Komigata. Cho had an infatuation with Yumi when he first met her, but the future Katanagari ended up being a good friend with her more than anything else. They had both met Makoto Shishio together, and when Yumi fell in love with Makoto, Cho decided to give up on his hidden feelings for her and just focus more on collecting swords. Shishio was impressed by Cho's knowledge of the underworld, of blades and bladesmiths, and his natural talent, and he offered Cho, along with Yumi, to join his Kuni Tori quest. Cho himself was impressed by one certain Soujiro Seta, a powerful youth that was traveling with Shishio. He found it utterly humorous that Soujiro would always be smiling, and that having that permanent smile would help hide his intent of attack in a battle. Cho always tried in private to keep a still face, but he couldn't stop laughing at himself. So through that he ended up forming a habit of covering his mouth or face with his hand while fighting. Having joined the 'Kuni Tori' quest, Cho found this as an easy way to kill people and collect their swords, not to mention he could still hang around with Yumi (who was amused by the sword-crazed teen). He also made it a point to befriend everyone in the what became the Juppon Gatana, which became like his new family. And it was when he was 19 years old when the Juppon Gatana was called into action...

Katanagari Cho was the first of the Juppon Gatana to go up against the 'Kenshin-gumi', fighting Kenshin himself. He didn't see an unarmed Kenshin as a threat, after all, by now he figured that a warriors weapon is everything. But the odds were evened quickly after the sword Cho was searching for was used against him. After getting trounced by Kenshin and being arrested, Cho didn't have much to do besides cooperating with the police- besides, jail was boring, but it was safer than being let go and killed by Soujiro (though you'd never hear him admit that!). After the defeat of Shishio, Saitou came to Cho to offer him a position as his assistant. Cho proved to be knowledgeable about the underworld, plus the fact he could tie up some loose ends involving the arming of Shishio's army, and the 'black ship'. So, our friendly neighborhood Katanagari was now under Saitou's command in the Meiji secret police, mostly sent on reconnaissance missions- he wasn't allowed to kill anyway for now.That was Saitou's job.

Personality:

Arrogant and brash, who loves to taunt his opponents to make them mad, but can equally frustrated and angered himself. He feels that as long as he has a weapon he has the advantage, but the instant he doesn't have the advantage his spirits fall and he looks for another way out. He's a brave and cocky fighter but smart enough to know he doesn't like to be killed. He is also quite easy to get along with and charismatic, and even through a hard life his youthful personality is still easily seen.

Likes:

Taunts (to others), rare swords, his hair, showing off, having a nice and quiet time with people he knows, being the 'hero'

Dislikes:

Taunts (to him), being ignored, soba noodles (because of Saitou)

Rivals:

He has no rivals- there may be people that don't like him, but he figures it's a waste of time to hold a grudge. The only person that would come even come close would be Sanosuke Sagara, which their verbal war of the rooster-broom fight still continues...

Current Info:

Currently investigating criminal weapons deals for the secret police, though he doesn't have a permanent residence, since he is always on the move. He's also keeping tabs on Jinko, since he knows she is Soujiro's sister. Cho's sister is supposedly looking for him, but her motives or whereabouts are unknown.