loose cannons app;

[immortowls]

OOC INFORMATION:
Name: Megan
Time Zone: Mountain Standard/Arizona Time
OOC Contact: mercurialfelines

IC INFORMATION:
Character Name: Kouichi Aizawa
Character Canon: Nabari No Ou
Timeline: Chapter 69, after remember his and Shijima's promise to protect Miharu and why they can't use him to end their immortality. And also after being betrayed by their ally who really was a huge asshole.
Character History:The wiki is woefully sparse on this and here is the general wikipedia page.

During the later part of the Edo period (1700s/1800s approx), the user of the Shinrabanshou (in short, an incredibly powerful jutsu containing all the world's knowledge and used to grant wishes, highly sought after but only one person at a time is born with it) of the time was a medical practitioner who delved into experiments, including experiments with immortality. At this time Kouichi was an owl. He was one of many used in these experiments, and was given a human heart. Only he and one other (Shijima the cat) survived these experiments. It also caused them to become immortal. Needless to say, their lives were changed forever. They couldn't exactly go back to being regular animals since they had human feelings and thoughts and couldn't die.

While they couldn't use human speech, they learned how to use human writing. Eventually they found the young Kotarou Fuuma in their travels, and spoke (wrote) to him after observing his use of Tenpenka, the ultimate technique of the Fuuma clan. Tenpenka is essentially a shapeshifting technique, reshaping the cells into the user's desired shape. Kouichi and Shijima wanted to use this so that they could gain human forms. They came to greatly trust Kotarou Fuuma in this time, an alliance that would last some sixty years or more from the time they met him.

During their everlasting lives, they came to despair at their immortality. They watched people die all around them, unable to die themselves. It became their greatest desire, to die. They came to believe the only way was to find the user of Shinrabanshou and have that person uncreate them. They traveled for years more, and the gift of Shinrabanshou was not born into the world again until ten years before the events of Nabari No Ou. It resrufaced into a woman named Asahi, the mother of the protagonist Miharu. Before this, both Shijima and Kouichi just so happened to be in the area-- Kouichi was adopted into the Aizawa family as a little boy, and Shijima was adopted as a cat into the Rokujo family dubbed "Shiratama". Miharu's father Akatsuki, who was a ninja who's family was skilled at animal stuff, asked both Kouichi and Shijima to promise to protect Miharu if anything happened to Asahi and Akatsuki. The bird boy and cat both agreed to this, which is of important note.

And because nothing goes well, battles and things happen and Akatsuki dies. Young Miharu gets shot, so Asahi uses Shinrabanshou to save her son, and it ends up transferring to the small child after the use of it kills Asahi. Tobari, future teacher of Miharu (and Kouichi) and friend to the now super dead protag parents, they are cornered and Miharu uses the Shinrabanshou unconsciously to erase everyone's memories of this time, with the exception of Tobari. This effects Kouichi and Shijima as well, and is noteful since if it hadn't happened they wouldn't have done the things they did next if they were able to remember their promise to Akatsuki. Since their goal returned to "get user of Shinrabanshou to get rid of our immortality" and that uh kind of conflicts with protecting said user, Miharu, since using it is incredibly dangerous.

The manga proper begins, and we're introduced to Kouichi as frankly a nerd who's trying to get people to join his ninja nindo club at school. He just appears as an average, well-mannered boy and who isn't revealed to be an immortal bird for some 30 chapters. In particular, trying to convince classmate Miharu Rokoju to no avail. Indeed, Kouichi and their teacher Tobari make a valiant effort to get Miharu to join the nindo club. Long story short, Stuff Happens, including Kouichi stabbing Miharu and attempting to use a nindo seal on him, and this all is how Miharu finds out he's the most special snowflake in the world of nabari-- the world of ninjas. Miharu still doesn't seem particularly interested in joining the nindo club, basically walking off whenever Kouichi and Tobari try to talk him into it. But finally after a bit more stuff happens, Miharu agrees to join the nerd club and learn some nindo techniques so that he can protect himself since everyone in the world of nabari is now out to get a hold of him.

The ninja team in Banten grows one more member in the form of Raimei Shimizu, a katana-wielding shinobi from another ninja village. Who, for some reason, Kouichi very quickly seems to form a crush on though she states he "isn't her type" early in the series. These four unlikely heroes are our beginning main characters, and together they plan to work to gather all the ninja villages' secret technique scrolls and strip the Shinrabanshou from Miharu. ... Keep in mind that during all this time, Kouichi is planning behind the scenes to get Miharu to use the Shinrabanshou to rid himself of his immortality. A Lot of Stuff Happens during this time-- including Kouichi nearly murdering their history teacher for discovering who Miharu is, and murdering a guy during an assassination mission while everyone else spent a few chapters being dramatic instead of getting it done. And Miharu casually sort of ditches the Banten team to go hang out with their enemies, the Kairoshu ninjas.

We finally learn about Kouichi's immortality near in time to when we learn about Miharu chilling with the other ninja team. During a battle at the Alya ninja school which could be summed up as a battle for the school's own secret technique scroll, Kouichi is shot through the heart. With what appears to be his dying breaths, he uses his last moments to tell Tobari to basically stop being an inactive dipshit (not in those words, though). It appears that the 14-year-old boy is either dead or dying while the Good Guys (both the Banten ninjas and the Kairoshu ninjas, and even Shijima who acts as a student of Alya) are trapped in the school's basement. But he reappears to rescue the school's dying headmaster, and he reveals that he's immortal while his hair sheds white feathers. So, typical teenager stuff.

After the headmaster of Alya's death, Kouichi and Shijima discuss death and it's clear they desire a "good" death surrounded by people who care about them, as well. Or just death in general, though Kouichi complains that getting shot was not a very good death. Their full histories and whatnot isn't explained at this point, but after a bit more stuff happens, Kouichi reveals much of it to Tobari and Raimei, basically stating that he and the other immortal are "in love" with death and their ultimate goal is to have Miharu use the Shinrabanshou to undo their immortality... which rather goes against Tobari's goal of not letting Miharu use it ever at all, and Raimei is rather appalled at the idea of letting Kouichi die.

Some more stuff happens. A fairly big battle occurs, which includes Miharu using Shinrabanshou to erase his friend Yoite from existance and from everyone's memories, and Kouichi gives up his human form to turn into an owl so he can search for the briefly kidnapped Miharu. Raimei states that even as an owl, "Kouichi is Kouichi" which means a lot to the bird boy. A month later when Miharu wakes up from the ordeal, Kouichi looks like a small child since all of his human growing was undone. Kouichi stays like this for a short while until a dramatic conversation with Raimei that amounts to Raimei yelling at him for wanting to die (she does this a lot) while his human form degrades again, but he backlashes into a teenager again which he basically says "hey cool thanks" to while Raimei stomps off.

More stuff occurs, Raimei goes to hang out with her brother who is an ex-Kairoshu and basically decides that Miharu can't be allowed to use the Shinrabanshou ever again, which Kouichi works with the others to figure out how to destroy the Shinrabanshou while... also planning on having him use it to grant his and Shijima's wish. As all things do, things go sideways. It's revealed that Kotaro Fuuma, the leader of the Fuuma ninjas and until now has been working with the Banten ninjas against the Kairoshu ninjas... is in fact cavorting with the leader of Kairoshu. And Kouichi and Shijima have been working with Fuuma, sooooooo, awkward. Raimei and her brother face off with Shijima and Kouichi for what appears to be h o u r s until Shijima non0fatally stabs Raimei's brother and Kouichi breaks Raimei's family heirloom katana and then... basically confesses his love to her after her begging him not to die and before she passes out.

Then is the chapters that finally reveal the backstory history that I've already described, Kouichi and Shijima both listen to Tobari tell the tale. And because of Miharu and some weird bullshit magic release of the memories of ten years ago, they remember the promise they made to Miharu's father about protecting him... which basically push the kibosh on their plans. They want him to use the Shinrabanshou to free them, but also don't. They also learn that Fuuma, their ally for years upon years, is kind of a huge douchebag who only wants the Shinrabanshou for himself... and also is not agreeable which Kouichi and Shijima's wishes to die, like everyone else. Literally no one lets them die. So rude.

That is Kouichi's canon point, but for the sake of completion: After Fuuma is killed while trying to take the Shinrabanshou from Miharu, Miharu has to choose whether to use it or not to save Tobari. He decides not to, to not ever use the Shinrabanshou again, and Shinra's (the fairy-like woman who is the essensse of this ultimate wisdom) reaction is basically... "ok". Shinra decides to let itself be seperated from Miharu and go to the edge of eternity. And Kouichi and Shijima decide to go with her, as they cannot die but do not wish to live. They go with their "mother" and that is their end.

Character Personality:

When Kouichi is first introduced, it's as a nerdy looking kid who energetically tries to get the protagonist to join the ninja club that literally consists of said nerd + a teacher. He just seems genuinely nice, but beware the nice ones-- Kouichi has a darker, colder side to him that is in deep contrast to that of a friendly student. He is a-ok with murder as a problem-solving technique. In summary he: stabs the protag, nearly murders a history teacher just for realizing who the protag is, casually shoots the target of an assassination mission while everyone else spent over a chapter being dramatic about whether or not they should go through with it and smiling as he mentions things need to be cleaned up/brain wipes a guy into taking the fall for the murder. He even purposely gets himself shot in the heart just so he can die in front of his teacher to scare the man into action. Kouichi is not human, not mortal, and that eventually shows when he drops his facade (which is much better than that of his counterpart, Shijima's). He's an immortal owl with a human heart, and in his own words is "in love with death" and greatly desires the ability to die. While he's comparably the "nice" one between him and fellow immortal animal Shijima, he's just as willing to kill and whatnot to achieve his goal (of dying). Kouichi is chaotic neutral. He does genuinely care for others, but he doesn't fuss with morality when it comes to getting things done. He's better at playing human and being nice than Shijima, not that that's hard to do.

Character Strengths:

Kouichi is an intelligent, well-spoken young man. He's good at rationalizing and problem solving. Particularly problem solving with murder, but that counts as problem solving. Kouichi is very good at getting things done, even if at first it doesn't seem like he would be due to his easy-going facade. When he sets out to do something (like murder) he doesn't screw around. He's able to put-aside personal feelings for the sake of his goals-- or perhaps is just less likely to have strong personal conflicting feelings in general, since he is an... owl and generally trusts his intuition. He's far more diplomatic than his cat counterpart, and actually puts effort into interpersonal relations (again UNLIKE A CERTAIN CAT).

Character Weaknesses:

Really bad at dying, yet really wants to die. He doesn't give much of a hoot about his personal well-being, since he doesn't really... need to, as an immortal. He does give some hoots to other people's well-being, but not for the sake of morality and will disregard them if it suits his goals. Can be manipulative (see: dying in front of his teacher to prove a point) at times when it suits him. Being genuinely good is not something he excels at, mainly because it's hard to do when you're an aloof immortal asshole owl at times.

Character Powers and Abilities:

► Immortality. Kouichi is, well, immortal, despite his efforts to stop it. He can die, but he just... gets better. Like Shijima, this also amounts to fast healing. After getting shot in the heart he's back up within minutes, though it leaves a scar for a few days afterward.

► Shapeshifting, or rather the ninja art tenpenka. He isn't a human that can turn into an owl, but rather an owl that has turned into a human. He prefers his human form to that of an owl, though, and only uses that form when it's absolutely necessary. He cannot speak human when an owl though he can understand it being spoken. Technically he should be able to use tenpenka to shift into other forms, but he's never bothered nor has any interest in doing so. Tenpenka also has a habit of degrading the cells of the body due to the cells becoming misaligned due to reshaping, and can kill the user (though this... isn't a problem for Kouichi since immortal). There are a few times when it appears that Kouichi's human form is degrading, such as when he sheds feathers after being shot.

► Kouichi has mastered a variety of ninja skills. Along with disappearing in a cloud of smoke and trading his body for a double item ala Naruto, he seems able to do minor element attacks. Other ninjutsus include seeming teleportation (arguably just flashstepping and misdirection, since Shijima is shown blurring in the process of flashstepping at one point and there's a fair amount of overlap between the two aside from Kouichi's jutsus) and a hypnotism jutsu that likely wouldn't work on anyone particularly strong willed and so can be capped, nerfed, or explained away.

► Fighting style wise, he knows Kendo, Karate, and Aikido.

► Kouichi is more nimble than your average teenager-- he does a lot of perching and jumping around, especially in the later chapters. He's light and agile, like most shinobi.

► Animals also seem to flock to him in his human form, and he presumably can understand them since he understands Shijima when she's a cat.

Character Inventory: Cellphone. Clothes. Kunai. Probably a ton more kunai, he's always whipping out those things in a fight.
Character Item Wishlist: Kouichi's true desire is to die, but uh that would take him out of the game so that would be... bad. Beyond that he doesn't really want anything. What I want for him: Some tea?? Some more clothes? Rabbit meat sandwiches? I just don't know. Lots of dumb trash items. Some dorky owl figurines.
Character Feasibility: Kouichi is easygoing enough to work in a team and as long as the goals are reasonable, he's happy to work towards those. While he isn't a team player when push comes to shove and his death is on the line, he will be motivated enough to want to get himself and his compatriot home so they can continue their quest for death, and he'll be a lot better at smoothing things over than Shijima is. He's capable of playing peacekeeper and also getting things done through murder if that fails.