Home
Characters
Fiction
Artwork
Timeline
Nandai wo?!
Join
FAQ
Updates
Get in Touch
Links
Forum

The Kagetai Home

Name: Shirobana Setsuna (aka Setsu, or Soushi)
Birthdate: July 1, 1858
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 120 lbs

Appearance:

Setsuna is one of the youngest of the Shinsengumi Kagetai. Possessing a light frame, he wears his long black hair in a ponytail that reaches down to the small of his back. Some hair usually escapes his ponytail a few strands of hair float in front of the left side of his face. His bangs are brushed to the right side of his face over his eye, sometimes hiding it from view, sometimes shadowing the right side of his face. His clothing usually consists of a darkly colored hakama and a keikogi or gi. His dark brown eyes hides his emotions when he becomes serious. When he becomes stressed too much, or is under too much pressure, his emotional control starts to crack, which you can see begin in his eyes (the color of his eyes begin to fluctuate, turning from brown to silver). He looked remarkably similar to Okita Souji/Soushi, and ever since Saito accidentally called him that, the name stuck. But over the years he's begun to look like his own person, although he does still bear a remarkable resembalence.

Background:

Born into the Oniwabanshu, he was sent to train with a retired weapons master when he was four. The master was an old hermit, retired from the Oniwabanshu. Setsuna was trained in ninja fighting skills, which included poison, stealth, hand-to-hand combat and weapons training. In addition, he was taught sword making, and multiple sword styles, including Nodachi, Kodachi, Katana, Wakizashi, Tanto, Saya, and two-sword styles. (however due to his faulty memory, he forgets and remembers things at the oddest times)

His master took him to Edo, where he trained under former Shinsengumi Captain Okita Souji. Surprised by the young boy that looked so similar to him, and had an odd feel. Souji nicknamed him Soushi-chan, and became friends with him. He taught him some powerful techniques before he became too ill, and was unable to continue training Soushi.

By the age of ten, Setsuna could make swords, had learned Souji's "Three Piece Thrust", and many other sword styles he was taught. He was taught many lethal, and non lethal weaponless combat styles by his master back in Kyoto.

A multitude of events left him broken, with a torn mind. A visit to his parents ended in him watching them die to a hitokiri with a flaming sword, being beaten senseless by drunk Ishin on his return to his master. Compounded by the news of Okita Souji's death, Soushi fell into a great depression and shock. His master sensing a flame begin to burn within his pupil, began to teach him the Shinsengumi principle of "Aku, Soku, Zan"

When he was thirteen his master died from old age. Setsuna buried him, and moved into Kyoto. He ran into a boy named Seta Soujiro whom he became friends with (partially because he looked like Okita Souji as well), though he didn't know Soujiro was allied to the man with the fiery sword (yes Shishio...). Later that year he lost contact with Soujiro, and while hunting for the Ishin from years ago, he broke into the Kyoto Police department and stole some files pertaining to former Ishin.

He just turned fourteen when he finally found some of them, it was raining hard. Watching them bully a child, he relived the experience of his run-in with them, snapping his control. In a bloodthirsty rage he killed them all. After standing in the rain for a while, he slowly regained his senses, and decided to leave the scene. Saito watched the entire thingfrom the shadows, being that he had been following the former Ishin. Seeing the boy as talented and an unstable element in the city if left alone, Saito offered to take him in and help him out, in exchange for Soushi's service from time to time. Soushi accepted, and proved to be a valuable addition to the Kagetai.

He took a liking to Takashi his behavior, being shy sometimes, but also a very good friend. Midori and her calm silence always made him calm down a little bit when around his friends. He met Jinko around the same time he met Takashi, and became good friends with them both. Often times teaming up with her to show the kagetai their own brand of affection (namely practical jokes, and playing with Takashi's mind). Shirobana Ukyo is an old friend of his, from before his parents being murdered (although she was disguised as a boy at the time), after a long story they met again and became friends (although why she has taken the name Shirobana isn't conmpletely clear, she was taken in by his parents but...).

Undergoing many missions which required stealth, he also proved his worth in assassination, and fighting. He hunted down and assassinated various people suspected to be terrorists by the police, which were either former Ishinshishi or corrupt Shinsengumi. Soushi was one of Saito's numerous informants/messengers during Shishio's planning and initiation of his Kunitori.

Due to an incident, he's taken a strong dislike of Sagara Sanosuke, and does little things to make Sanosuke's life uncomfortable. Realizing that Shishio was his parents' murderer, Soushi decided that fighting the man that defeated Shishio would be the same as fighting Shishio himself. There for he wants to fight and kill Himura Kenshin (much to Saito's amusement/annoyance).

Techniques:

He uses a long katana called Nagareken "flow blade", due to the wave pattern on the blade, that makes it hard to judge the true length of the blade. His short katana is called Gatsuki "fang moon", almost a wakizashi with a katana handle. He can use partialy Shukuchi, and can only use full Shukuchi when he snaps or during an emergency. His sword style is Shiromizu Nagareryu "whitewater flowstyle", a style that stresses speed and agility, also a lot of revised techniques.
Sankire-totsu : "Three-fragment thrust"- Soushi's version of Okita Souji's signature attack. A stab at the right shoulder, left shoulder, and neck/head. He has different ways of executing the technique.
Nikire Gatotsu : "Two-fragment fang-thrust"- A two way attack Soushi developed with the help of Takashi and Jinko. The gatotsu with a saya in the other hand, using either saya or sword to attack, or chaining them together into a two hit attack (Soushi always has a metal saya for his swords, which he uses very viciously).
Tsurara-tsuki : "Icicle moon"- a reverse grip battoujutsu that is immediately followed by a two handed sword stroke after he flips his grip on the blade.
Shiro Honoo : "White Fire"- Soushi splashes his opponents with some flammable liquid, then scrapes his saya against something causing the sparks to ingite his opponent. The other version, rather than using anything flammable, he causes the near tip of his saya to heat up, burning his opponent with the heated metal.
Kaitotsu : "revolving thrust"- a hirazuki derivative. A slashing stab attack, coming in at an angle.

Soushi also tends to forget a lot of the techniques he was trained in, although he remembers the main important ones. Therefor his training hasn't been such a good thing, but he makes up for his memory loss with devising and creating new techniques to make up for forgotten ones.

Personality:

A quiet, polite young man. He began to learn pleasentness from Seta Soujiro and Jinko, and their influence has brightened his personality when around friends. However he has a dislike of associating with people outside of the Shinsengumi Kagetai, with the exception of a few people because of his shyness. Setsuna is much more than friendly with his fellow Kagetai friends, and likes to spend time (on or off missions) with Jinko, Takashi, and Yuriko. He also likes to spend lots of time with Shirobana Ukyo (more on that later on). He sees Tokio and Midori as a sort of parentlike figures. He acts distant or shy around women, with the exception of Jinko, Yuriko, Ukyo, Midori, Tokio, and a few other women who he has associated with (due to the fact that he hasn't had a very good social life).
He is extremely playful with his friends, and has teamed with Jinko, Takashi, and Ukyo to play many tricks on kagetai members, much to their dismay. Although pleasent and cheerful around friends, when he is alone he becomes quiet and depressed. There are few people that he obsessively hates, but there are a few. When someone angers him, he can become extremely vengeful, and can be very bloodthirsty. When he snaps, his eyes turn silver, and he becomes really hateful, tending to scream a lot and viciously try to kill his tormentor or enemy (however he still has a little sense left and won't attack his friends and some of the Kagetai). He refuses to treat women as weaker, which as gotten him into a little bit of trouble, but nothing to big (the kagetai women have mixed reactions to that, but get good sparring sessions with him).

Likes:

Shinsengumi Kagetai, friends, washing blood off in the rain, rain by itself, overcast days, improving his sword skills/fighting skills, cooking for friends, Kakesoba (introduced by Saito), developing or perfecting techniques, protecting those he considers friends or family (Saito, Tokio, Jinko, Midori, Takashi, Ukyo, Soujiro, Kamatari...). Relieving stress through violence. He loves sparring with the Kagetai members, and especially likes sparring with Jino, Takashi, and Yuriko. Also spars with Ukyo a lot.

Treasured possessions- Tsuba given to him by Okita Souji. His specially designed weapons. He had made a sakabatou for himself and Soujiro, but broke his own killing a robber with it, and scrapping Soujiro's (decided just to give him a new sword).

Dislikes:

Corrupt Shinsengumi, terrorists people he considers bad, Sanosuke, losing contact with friends, the fact that he couldn't kill Shishio, having troubles in making a new sword/weapon.

Rivals:

Some cerrain Kagetai members. Soujiro whom he wants to finally see who the better swordsman is one day. Himura Battousai/Kenshin, because he is the one that defeated Shishio, therefor he wants to fight and kill him one day, so in a way he can put his parents to rest himself.
Sagara Sanosuke is more of an annoyance that he tends to make life miserable for when he passes through Tokyo. Ichijo Kuroyuki, once long ago they were childhood friends, but due to a tragic incident and a betrayl they are now bitter enemies. A former Oniwabanshu, and an unstable ninja.

Current sketch:

Owns an apartment in Kyoto, located in the same complex as Jinko, he spent half his time there and the other half in Tokyo, however now he stays mainly in Kyoto. He spent time traveling around attempting to find Soujiro, and sending useful information to Saito and Jinko. He traveled around with his nagareken disguised as a curved walking staff, and a long tanto hidden in his gi. He believed he found Soujiro, finding traces of his presence around one Kamiya Dojo, and catching glimpses of him in crowds sometimes. However he lost Soujiro's track, but found enough evidence to show Jinko that Soujiro is still alive.