Application @ cerealia

[raidraptors]

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Icey
◎ Journal: iceyly
◎ Contact: AIM – Fortunelady Icey | plurk - iceyly

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Shun Kurosaki
◎ Character's Canon: Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V
◎ Character's Age: unknown but I headcanon 15(-ish)?
◎ Canon Point: Episode 38, after being stonewalled by Nakajima in regards of Yuuto's fate and Reiji's knowledge of it
◎ Background/History: “You bastards would always laugh while you continued to attack my comrades. But we are no longer submissive prey for you to hunt!“
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Neither, probably. It's always hard to tell what YGO kids are capable of while the series is ongoing? And sometimes even after? But yeah, until canon actually says otherwise I'm going with "No." to both.

◎ Personality:

One of two mysterious duelists to assault the students of Maiami City’s most prestigious Duelist School LDS (Leo Duel School), Shun is introduced as primary antagonist of the first story arc of the series. He is rude, he is aggressive and he does not appear to have any sense of holding back. There is a sometimes more, sometimes less underlying sense of tense rage in the majority of his interactions, the impression of a temper that seems just steps away from unloading.

Canon so far has implied that he hasn't always been like that, that once upon a time he lived peacefully along with his best friend Yuuto and younger sister Ruri in Heartland, a city where duel was the "greatest show" meant to make people smile, and duelists were celebrities adored by the public. Presumably he knew how to smile.

But everything changed when the Fusion Nation Dimension attacked.

Sometimes in-between the destruction of his hometown and the kidnapping of Ruri, Shun has become intense and battle hardened, a soldier who will absolutely go as far as he must in order to destroy his enemies and take back his sister, which appears to be his primary drive and motivation. He carries himself with an element of cold confidence, iron determination and steeled strength, only talks when he feels it appropriate – and in that case sometimes monologues through quite a few sentences about his own experiences, unbothered of whether his audience has any inkling of what he is talking about – and doesn’t care to reply or react much when his opponents attempt to provoke him with actions or trash talk.

Shun will absolutely always do what he thinks he must without holding back and no matter how far he is forced to go for it (be it hurting others, be it sealing their souls away, be it razing the mirror image of his hometown into the ground – and become, in a sense, just like the very thing he hates), but even so he never appears to hold enjoyment or regrets towards that. Duel - as far as he is concerned - is an act of battle, a matter of hunt or be hunted. Every Duel is a battlefield and anyone who enters it without the "iron determination or steeled strength" it takes to survive, deserves the defeat that's coming towards them and is not worth of his respect.

It's questionable in how far Shun still subscribes to a concept of polite code of conduct - he has never been seen asking for an opponent’s name, and when reminded of his first victim Marco by Marco's student, he is quick to insult him and everyone else in LDS, almost insulted by the fact that none of them came even close to being a challenge to him ("It wasn't just Marco. Every one from LDS was flimsy and pathetic.").

Apart of anger or irritation, Shun rarely ever truly expresses his emotions outside of tense gestures, clenching hands or twitching expressions. His temper, when invoked, usually shows himself through tense shaking or raised voice, but at very least during his duels it never translates into his actions. As a duelist, Shun tends to act cautious and usually appears to be at very least one step (if not more) ahead of his opponent; he almost always has some kind of counter lying in wait to either render any action taken against him to uselessness or even to take advantage of them himself.

Despite the single-mindedness that he sometimes approaches his objectives with, Shun does have a pragmatic streak – he is quick – though maybe not particularly eager – to agree to enter the Maiami Champion Ship as member of LDS at Reiji’s suggestion (and promise to duel Shun, should he win – though it’s unclear whether Shun still has any desire for that) once it’s established that they share a common enemy in Reiji’s father Leo.

Ultimately it would be wrong to call Shun uncaring though; despite its destruction, he is fiercely rooted to his homeland; he is visibly affected when Heartland is chosen as action field for his duel against Sora and appears caught in-between anger and distress through the first few minutes of the duel. He is close to and protective of his sister and most definitely loyal to anyone he considers his comrade; declaring that even though his comrades may be taken away, he (as well as all of the Resistance) will never abandon them and absolutely take them back.

◎ Powers/Abilities: Shun has two major supernatural abilities:

a.) The ability to materialize card effects into reality and cause real life damage in his duels
b.) The ability to seal any defeated opponent into Duel Monsters cards – though while he notes this as sealing away a soul, unlike Pegasus in Duel Monsters, Shun's method also seals away a person's body rather than leaving behind empty shells

As of right now we have absolutely no idea how either works, or if Shun has any idea of how to undo the seal once he's put someone into a card (though it's implied that he does not). Former ability has been suggested to be related to his signature card Raid Raptors – Rise Falcon by Yuuya, but given that our dear protag has only recently started to get clued into what is going on beyond tournament times his guess is probably just as good as yours and mine and both may or may not be mechanisms of his duel disk. As said. WE DON'T KNOW. IT'S A MYSTERY.

And this is Yu-Gi-Oh! so lmao maybe we'll get power explanation as canon progresses, but really who knows orz

But yeah, Shun's best friend Yuuto has been shown materializing cards beyond his own ace, so it's like 99% likely that Shun can do the same.

Aside of that, as a member of Resistance, Shun is rather physically fit – he's an absolute master of fancy acrobatics that are super advantageous during Action Duels. Considering his own (and also Yuuto's) knock-out speeds as well as the world he comes from, it's probably not wrong to assume that he can handle himself somewhat when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.

Shun's Duel Disk model is the same as Yuuto's, which has been noted as strange and modified and therefore has more capabilities than the standard model of Arc V. Beyond above mentioned possible materialization/sealing abilities, Shun's Duel Disk appears to double as telescope that may or may not have heat sensors. Like the standard duel disks, it also functions as communication device.

He is also a master duelist, who has been commended by Reiji and his minion Nakajima for his skillful use of Spell and Trap cards and surprised them both with his ability to use Rank Up. In any case, he seems to have a keen eye for his opponent and how to anticipate their moves.

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:

– Duel Disk
– Duel Monsters Deck (Raid Raptors)
– Sunglasses
- Standard Outfit (kerchief, pants, boots, coat and whatever he wears beneath that)

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Fire
◎ Sense: Sight – It fits his Birds of Prey theme.
◎ Seven Character Traits: ( Loyal, Pragmatic, Resilient ) | ( Impulsive, Blunt, Irritable ) | ( Intense )

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample: “ Our interests might align as of now, but don't read too much into that. I have no intentions of playing nice.“

◎ Third-Person Sample:

It’s hard to sit still and just watch as the Maiami Championship goes on, to hide in the shadows of the side entrance of the Center Court’s duel arena and keep keen eyes on the duelists gathering for battle.

(Nothing more than children, all of them – none of them know the agony of death and despair Duel becomes when it is fought with one’s life on the line).

There is little else he can do though – there are no traces of Academia to follow given the Fusion Brat’s forced return, and neither Akaba nor any of his minions deign to answer any question or demand to information in regard of Yuuto’s fate, and at this point Shun is forced to consider the worst. The uncertainty of it nags on him – for all that he wants to believe in his friend, for all that he wants to be confident in Yuuto’s victory – he remembers their last encounter with the Synchro-wielding pawn of the Fusion Dimension only too well. He remembers how unsettled Yuuto had been by that encounter, by the dragon that was a mirror to his own.

And by now, if Yuuto had come out victorious of that encounter, he would have made contact. Shun would have found him down at the docks. He’d went there the second he had managed to escape the notice of Akaba’s minion, had found the warehouse that Yuuto had stayed around empty and abandoned, had left with dissatisfaction and anxiety twisting in his stomach.

As much as he dislikes to even consider the thought, by now he has to assume that Yuuto has been taken by their enemy.

(Like Ruri, like their parents, like teachers and classmates and too many friends to count. Yuuto is gone and there is no telling when – never ever if – Shun will see him again.)

His hands clench at the thought, as he barely keeps himself from shaking in anger and lets his eyes drift towards the duelists below and he can’t really help the frown when he catches sight of the Pendulum kid and the girl from the docks, eyes lingering on the way she fusses over him, while he tries to wave her off.

He closes them then, because he can’t help the way their image overlays with that of Yuuto and Ruri – of how they used to be before that day, before their world and lives had gone straight to hell. Back when duel was something to be enjoyed and Shun remembered what careless laughter felt like.

(The memory used to taste bittersweet on the back of his tongue, but that was before Ruri had been taken, before Yuuto had utterly vanished. Now it’s just painful.)

Shun turns away abruptly, jaw set with determination as he moves to leave the arena. He has not been slated to duel today, and none of the participants beneath is much of a threat to him. There is no reason to stay.

However, if he spends some more time on haunting Akaba, maybe he’ll finally get the confirmation he’s longing and dreading alike, and ultimately it won’t matter. One way or another, he will destroy Academia, if that’s what it takes to take his comrades back and that is the only certainty he needs.

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? n/a