Nakamura Yuudai

Character's Full Name: Nakamura Yuudai [Last, First]
Aliases/Nicknames: Yuu-kun (family and close friends only), Karate Prince
Date of Birth: May 15th, 1985
Place of Birth: Kasugai-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan
Currently residing in: The Lake District
Education: B.A., English Language and International Communications, Tokyo University
Profession: Nationally-ranked karate champion training to take over the family dojo


Character type: Magic user – the Gifted


Special abilities:

• Non-magical: Karate champion, fluent in English
  
• Magical: Assorted spells – helpful, 'around the house' types and some nature-based ones that Yamamoto-san taught him; aggressive spells, which he secretly picked up on his own; a working knowledge of the magical language(s)
  

Strengths:

• Karate: Following in his father and grandfather's footsteps, Yuudai is a nationally-ranked karate champion in Japan who is looking to compete against other national champs from around the world. His family takes pride in their status as descendants of ancient warriors and feudal lords, and so from the time he was able to walk his father and grandfather have been training him intensively in the martial art. Yuudai's father currently runs the family dojo where all the men in his family have grown up training and which has been passed down for generations. It is here that Yuudai expects (and is expected) to end up as the next head.
  
• Princely good looks: For good or for ill, Yuudai's looks have earned him many a(n overly) dedicated fan(girl). They helped his fame skyrocket and have given him a few cute girlfriends. His looks combined with his quiet, distant personality and tough-guy attitude have seemed to increase his desirability among the ladies.
  
• English: While having to take English in middle and high schools, Yuudai found he had a natural affinity for the language. He selected it as his college major because he knew it was a subject he could pass (and because nothing else interested him.) Even though he's only defending his national title while waiting around to take over the family dojo, his family still expected he go to university and earn a respectable degree. Now, if need be, Yuudai can work as a translator, which, combined with his looks, the girls seem to dig.
  

Weakness:

• Anger management: Though he doesn't set out to look for trouble, if someone says the wrong thing or looks at him the wrong way, a flip will get switched. If he's in the middle of what was a decent conversation, someone who knows him well could see the smile on his face fall, watch the annoyance suddenly replace any pleasant gleam that was in his eyes, and feel the anger bubbling underneath the surface. On a good day, Yuudai can withhold his anger for all of three minutes, giving all nearby an instant to escape whatever verbal or physical lashing outs are inevitably to follow. On a bad day, the unfortunate victim has about ten seconds before he gets a punch to the face. If Yuudai is unable to control his anger, he also risks attacking the offender with magic.
  

Appearance: Yuudai is 178cm (5' 10") tall and weighs 71kg (157lbs). His ink black hair, which makes his extremely dark brown eyes appear just as black, has been known to be other colors, primarily various shades of brown. Though he generally keeps his locks at a length somewhere between his ears and his shoulders, he will sometimes wear it shorter. If he doesn't straighten it, his hair likes to flip out at the ends. Though it depends on how long they are, his bangs will usually hang right near or just slightly over his eyes. Yuudai has a fairly light skin tone, though he does have a nice subtle tan to him, particularly in the summer. His fashion sense is like that of most other Japanese males – wonderful! He can wear any outfit and pull it off, and, boy, does he wear a variety of outfits! His style one day may be a nice shirt and vest with a dark pair of jeans and some nice shoes, and the next day he might be seen wearing a white tank top with some design on the front, a black and silver scarf, a tan jeans jacket that looks worn and bleached by the sun, black jeans, a studded black belt, and some converse shoes. Yuudai always wears some type of necklace, even when training or competing.


Personality: Princely tough guy. That sums Yuudai up in a nutshell. He's a generally likeable guy, but he just happens to have a few strong… personality quirks that can get him into some trouble.

For the most part, Yuudai is quiet and distant, and that plus his dashing good looks lead many of his fangirls and female classmates to, with dreamy sighs, call him a prince. He doesn't speak much, and when he does he usually keeps his sentences short, sweet, and to the point (and coated in sarcasm if you're lucky enough to have annoyed him). Yuudai is polite but only in as much as the situation dictates it. He'll say the right thing at the right time, but will say only what needs to be said to state his idea or to reply and still be considered a polite young man.

That's not to say, though, that he's trying to be distant or cold or that he dislikes people. In fact Yuudai has a handful of really close friends, and he tries to at least be cordial to everyone he meets. Unfortunately he doesn't always succeed. Yuudai doesn't set out to look for trouble, but one wrong word from someone and he can go from likeable conversation partner to a man-eating beast. He can lose his patience with someone in an instant, and then it's only a matter of time before he explodes into a barrage of insults or simply throws a well-trained punch right to the unfortunate other person's face. If he's not careful and in control of his emotions, then he can accidentally unleash a spell against someone in a fit of rage, as has been known to happen during his youth. And for as fast as he can flip the anger switch on, it can take him an hour or two to wind back down. Yuudai also doesn't get a lot of sleep most nights, and this doesn't help his anger issues in the least.


Background:

General history

Yuudai was born and raised in the city of Kasugai in Aichi prefecture, not far from the major city of Nagoya. His family owns a well-renowned karate dojo which he will one day inherit. As a child, Yuudai grew up training with his father and grandfather, as is their family tradition, and was taught to be respectful, humble, and always willing to help those in need. But even as a child he found all of those lessons difficult to follow. Yuudai had anger control issues and frequently got into fights – first little first grade schoolyard fist fights then more serious in-school fights and street brawls. His father punished him for these incidents and lectured him on dishonoring the family name. He told him that he needed to learn self-control and reminded him of the moral lessons impressed upon him from childhood. So Yuudai tried, and his fights lessened slightly. However, his reputation as the toughest kid in school meant he had to constantly defend that title and defend himself from fellow classmates with angry complaints about something Yuudai once did to them or their friends. So the fights continued. These fights and his star performances in the ring earned him the nickname"“the Karate Prince", a name which he enjoys and that has stuck with him ever since.

Yuudai became famous in and out of the martial arts community in his high school years, and his fame, particularly in Japan, has continued to increase ever since. Though he learned to control himself more over the years, his anger management problem did not resolve itself, and so Yuudai was prone to bursts of verbal abuse and physical violence. Still, this didn't stop him from competing and earning the national title, and it didn't, despite plenty of negative press, slow his ever-increasing ascent to stardom.

However, Yuudai’s father had had enough of his son's issues. He decreed that if Yuudai ever wanted to take over the dojo, he must learn to control his anger. He must stop getting into arguments and fights and stop sullying the family name, so long respected in the community. To this end, he sent his son to the United Kingdom. A family friend in the Lake District agreed to let Yuudai stay there provided he get counseling and actually put his university education to some use by working as a translator. Presently Yuudai is doing so, and he is also working as a martial arts instructor as a lesson in controlling his anger and as a way to keep up his martial arts.

Magical history

Yuudai's magic first manifested itself in his elementary school years. At first his parents – both perfectly unacquainted with magic – didn't know what to make of their son. How could a boy of seven stop a falling knife before it hit his foot merely by looking at it? How could he make doors slam when he was angry if he was sitting all the way across the room? So his mother began researching and eventually came across the name of a neighbor who claimed knowledge of similar abilities.

As it turned out, Yamamoto-san, a woman in her sixties, was also gifted with magic and agreed to teach Yuudai when he wasn't in school or training with his father. As he studied with Yamamoto-san over the years, Yuudai learned new spells and how to control magic. He asked her many times why they both had these powers, and she always told him that she believed they were gifts from the gods. This is what Yuudai has grown up believing, but he still can't figure out why the gods would choose him and for what purpose he is supposed to use his magic.

By the time he left for university, Yamamoto-san had passed away. She left him all her books and anything else she thought he would be able to use. She had taught him so much, but the one thing she had never been able to help him with was his anger and the damage he could cause magically because of it. From childhood to the present, Yuudai has had this problem. If he gets angry enough, Yuudai will (accidentally or not) use magic against whoever is the focus of his wrath, and this is yet another reason why his father wants him to learn to manage his anger before returning home and assuming his place at the dojo.

Secrets:

• Yuudai both loves and hates the attention he gets as a "prince", a karate champion, and the heir to his family dojo. When he's on an adrenaline high or is in a particular mood to romance and enjoy the spotlight, he can hardly get enough of his fame. Often times his father must remind him to be humble and not let the attention go to his head. On an average day Yuudai is neither here nor there in regards to his popularity. It can get him what he wants, and he's fine with that. If he has to walk past a group of fangirls shouting his name to get to the front of a line, he'll do it. If the fangirls are lucky, they might even get a smile or wave out of him! However, Yuudai is often sleep-deprived and on many occasions angry, and it is then that he wants everyone to back off and find someone else to bother! If the fangirls receive not a single glance on those days, they should consider themselves infinitely lucky.
  
• Yuudai isn't quite ready to return home and take over the family dojo. As much as he loves karate, he's particularly interested in tournaments and always competing. Additionally, he loves the freedom he currently has and doesn't want to give that up to manage a school just yet.
  
• Though no one else knows it, he's on a mission to figure out what purpose his magic serves. Thus far it has only ever been used in one of two ways: for petty, selfish tasks like finishing chores quickly; or against someone in anger. Yuudai believes there has to be more to it than that and that maybe this short stint in the UK will shed some light on it. Additionally, Yamamoto-san was the only other magic user Yuudai had ever known, and so he is always on the lookout for others like him.
  

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Roleplay Sample

"Yuu-kun!!" dozens of high-picthed, overly sweet female voices screamed as he walked out of the building to his awaiting car.

After yet another successful tournament, Yuudai loved the attention he was getting. With a brief wave of his hand and quick flash of teeth, the women – teens and full-grown adults alike – squealed and called his name again. Some congratulated him on his victory, and he grinned and replied with a (pseudo-)humble word of thanks. A small bow of his head went along with his words as a matter of politeness.

Photos were being snapped from every direction, and Yuudai occasionally honored the photographers with his attention. Still on an adrenaline high, he smiled, bowed, and waved some more. In the back of his mind, of course, he was still conscious of his public image. His father continuously reminded him not to disgrace their family, and Yuudai was in too good of a mood to scowl or ignore people as he often did. All too aware of the many times his fights had garnered him negative press, especially those resulting from Yamamoto-san's recent passing, the karate prince also decided that since he was in the mood to deal with the large crowds and attention he might as well work to mend some of the bad press he'd earned himself.

Reaching his car, the fans screamed their final words of love and congratulations, and the cameras snapped their last pictures. As soon as the door shut, the sounds muffled, and Yuudai grinned.

"Congratulations," his father said. He'd watched the tournament but afterward headed to the car with Yuudai's mother who had been feeling ill that day but wanted to attend the matches anyhow. "Pleased with yourself?" As if he had to ask. He knew his son was still running on adrenaline, and the fame those outside the car honored him with only increased his good mood.

"I just did my best," Yuudai replied. He couldn't keep the confident, pleased grin off his face, though, and his father knew his son was making a point to be humble in front of his mother and him. Ever since Yuudai had stepped into the public eye, his father had to keep reminding him not to get a big head, to be polite to the fans, to keep in mind his public image, and not garner negative press.

With a knowing sigh, his father didn't press him on the matter. Instead he smiled and asked their driver to take them home. Yuudai relaxed into his seat, exhausted but too pleased and hopped up on adrenaline to sleep. He could still hear the fans cheering for him.

As they drove, his father said, "I saw what happened with Sato."

Yuudai's smile instantly became a scowl.

"You were close to being disqualified! If you'd-"

"I know, Father." Way to ruin his mood! "But nothing happened." Yuudai would hear of this for days. Sato had been asking for it. If Yuudai hadn't gotten control of his anger in time… Well, Sato had better be thanking his lucky stars he wasn't being hospitalized.

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Final Information

Player Alias: Brock
C-box name: Brock354
Years of experience: 8
Character Play-by: Yamashita Tomohisa
Other characters on TO&FK: None