yuzuru atsuta (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
paraselinae) wrote2024-11-15 09:05 pm
paraselinae) wrote2024-11-15 09:05 pm
Info;
BASIC INFORMATION
Name: Yuzuru Atsuta
Aliases/titles: N/A
Age: 18
Canon Point: Flexible on either Creation or Vengeance timeline. For Creation, I prefer somewhere around the Empyrean. For Vengeance, I prefer during the Shinjuku arc. The protag's alignment doesn't matter.
Race: Human
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Surface personality traits: He usually says what's on his mind and tends not to mince words, so he can end up getting on someone's nerves, though Yuzuru doesn't really care about that unless someone is close to him. He's also quite stubborn and straight-laced, so he doesn't like messing around, or messing with other people. However, Yuzuru tends to have a short fuse when it comes to his sister's safety, ruined plans, or idiots, short enough that he can get physical.
Fashion: We've only ever seen him in his school uniform, but it's clear from it that he leans towards more modern styles than traditional-- his school offers a choice between gakuran and blazer uniforms, and Yuzuru goes with the latter. At the very least he has a sense of individuality in his fashion, with his woven bracelet and the frame color and style of his glasses.
Height: Unknown, headcanon says around 5'8"-5'10". He's at least between the protagonist and Dazai in height, and comes up to somewhere on Koshimizu's face.
Build: Made of legs and lean muscle. He's athletic enough that he can wander around a post-apocalyptic world and be mostly fine if he doesn't encounter demons, and just run away from said demons if needed.
Hair: Black, short and a little wavy.
Eyes: Pale grey
Voice: Ishikawa Kaito (JP) and Mark Whitten (EN). Voice showcase of both. No, I will not get into the "OG vs localization dub" argument, I like both equally.
Language: Japanese. Probably picked up some words of a few other languages, considering his work at Bethel.
Scent: Like easy-to-buy mint shampoo, and a bit of bamboo.
Hand dominance: Right-handed
Literacy: Can read and write well.
Triggers: Kidnap, hurt, or even just mention his sister in a vaguely threatening way and Yuzuru will lose his temper. On the other hand, losing his sister and his partner may cause him to lose his will to continue.
Other: Humans with a sixth sense and actual supernatural beings will note that he has a lot of spiritual power in him and may even notice that he's someone attached to the moon. Those who are Japanese (either human with a strong sixth sense or supernatural being) may note that he has a soul-deep connection to Tsukuyomi-- one could even say he feels a lot like Tsukuyomi despite being human.
SMTV: gods, demons, humans, knowledge and life, and yuzuru's circumstances
Long answer:
Shin Megami Tensei V is odd when it comes to gods, demons and humans, even in a series that's all about odd dynamics among all three. After all, SMT has always made sure that gods, demons and other real-life supernatural beings are the same thing and fall under the banner of "demon", and while SMTV is no different, it adds a new layer of complexity to their relationships.
All the demons of SMTV used to be gods, true gods called Nahobino, warring for the right to become the creator of the new world whenever the current one was eventually destroyed and needed to be recreated. However, when the current Creator won and created Earth, He stripped away a key trait from all the other gods, including his own angelic followers: the "Knowledge" to discern good from evil, leaving only the god's "Life", or their immortality and some of their powers. Without Knowledge, the other gods regressed into demons and lacked their true strength and ability to become the next Creator. The current Creator also bound everyone by the Condemnation, an edict calling Nahobino forbidden, with implied consequences for anyone who disobeyed.
He then sealed what He took in the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. If you know the Bible, you know what happened next-- the serpent tempted the humans to eat the Fruit of said Tree, and the Creator was so enraged that He banished them from the Garden.
What's done was done, as the Knowledge of the gods had been engraved into the souls of humans. Even if they died, the Knowledge would be carried on to their next lives. This was a mercy, as humans with Knowledge had immense spiritual power that made them a common target of hungry demons-- even if they died, that Knowledge would never disappear as long as their soul entered the cycle of reincarnation.
The Creator's loss meant that the other gods could attempt to become Nahobino again if they found the human carrying their Knowledge. It had to be that specific human with their specific Knowledge, but the demon or human felt drawn to their other half if they were physically close enough and could even tell that the demon/human was special to them, which left only the Condemnation as their major hurdle... Though many agreed that it was better to not risk themselves out of greed or impatience.
Over the years, many of the major gods from different cultures formed an organization that would fight against those who embraced their demonic natures and followed Lucifer, the archnemesis of the Creator. When the Creator vanished eighteen years before the events of the game (killed by Lucifer and considered "disappeared" because the angels couldn't cope with the news), they continued their work and protected their countries in their own way. This organization was called Bethel and its head was the commander of the angelic army, the archangel Abdiel, though each branch had their own hierarchy and the one in Japan was headed by Tsukuyomi in his human guise, the Prime Minister Hayao Koshimizu.
It just so happened that one of Koshimizu's human employees, a young but talented devil summoner named Yuzuru Atsuta, was his Knowledge, and he knew this as soon as he laid eyes on Yuzuru from afar. But given that Yuzuru never saw Koshimizu except for on TV as the PM, Yuzuru didn't feel the same instinctive pull that told Koshimizu of their true relationship... Until the events of the game.
It just so happened that the protagonist of the game became the first Nahobino since the Condemnation, meaning that the Creator was indeed dead and His work was beginning to fall apart. It also just so happened that the protagonist was part of Yuzuru's friend group, majority of which was also aligned with Bethel. Bethel Japan took the new Nahobino in and shared the truth about the gods to the friend group. That paved the way for Koshimizu approaching Yuzuru and revealing his true identity as a kami, their relationship, and potential as a Nahobino that could protect their homeland. They have already fused once, and are comfortable with each other.
If you think that the usage of the words "partner", "other half", "pairing", and "relationship" are just exaggerations made through shipping goggles, they're in fact used by the characters themselves to describe their partnerships, another common term being "soul mates". Some of the on-screen pairs are even varying flavors of romantic-- the shippy fanworks practically make themselves.