Deyama Koji

A man of complex mindset Koji can easily be described as morally gray, but more often than not looking out to help out the unfortunate. A peaceful and friendly guy by nature he can be compared to the wind, he casually floats around social situations talking to people with ease and moving along to the next. His composure sticks with him in everything he does, without a care for the world around him he does things at his own time and seems to be relaxed in most things he does. This doesn't mean Koji is incapable of speaking harsh words as many debtors have come to know from dealing nothing is more frightening than a man casually addressing you after handicapping your boss with his hands. Despite this brutality, this shows another contradiction in Koji as he prefers to stay away from violence. Although he recognizes it as a part of life and at times necessary he prefers to restrict himself, deferring combat when necessary, incapacitating people first, and using heavy force only when absolutely required. While a kind and gentle man he also seems to be marred by experiences with a shadier side of the world. He doesn't always agree with what he does, but he does what he must and more importantly, he tries to enjoy life. All in all, Koji is simply a man wishing to enjoy the breeze in a harsh world.

Being an above-average height Kinan Human at 192 cm tall Koji is made only to stick out more with long white hair that sits on his head like clouds with topaz eyes that peer from between the locks. It might be from this that he tries to make himself not overly intimidating as he stands in a relaxed position. He generally keeps his feet spaced apart with joy to his step, he keeps his body loose but holds himself up to appear upright and inviting. He is a very hand involved talker, often moving his hands around to exaggerate, point or make shapes of things as he talks with others. His skin is pale like snow but has tinges of pink that are hidden underneath callouses and cuts that are found around his hands, feet, back, and face, one could say he looked like weathered fine china, beautiful but taken quite a beating over the years. He dresses in traditional Kinan robes most of the time, but at times likes to try on the apparel from other nations when given the chance, though he is always seen wearing his golden Tori Gate necklace.

In a small hunting village called Aoyuki in the Kazeharu Clan lands there exists a temple called Raiji Aoyama-Ji, and there every year they hold the Blue Snow festival around the winter solstice. Due to a rare weather phenomenon around the temple as the snowfalls during the night it and the sky around it glow a peaceful blue. During this festival people drink hot sake, play games, eat treats, and make prayers to the supposed enshrined spirit. While not a large village it is a lively festival some people make the trip to enjoy, most likely due to the climax of the night. As midnight neared and the lights reached their brightest the Shrine's sole and head Priestess would sing as she floated amongst the light. Her family had always run the festival for generations, but she was the first to add a performance before the ceremonial dance in which the shrine head would dance and drink sake to represent the moon's cycles through the seasons.

It was one year different than the rest when the Shrine Head, Deyama Hisayo's life changed, after her performance she found herself looking for a man who had been courting her for months. Everyone was in masks and she wasn't sure where to find him, but after a few more drinks and wandering around she had found him in his Oni Mask drinking underneath a tree, and while he had seemed more aggressively flirty she was sure it was him and spent the night drinking and embracing him underneath the tree. It was in the middle of the night when she had reached up to kiss him and saw piercing yellow eyes instead of warm brown eyes that she knew and she froze up falling sleep again thinking it was a nightmare.

In the morning she learned it was indeed another man and in her shame, she tried to apologize and forget about it, but the man had harassed her and stalked her for days. Without going into graphic detail she was bothered by him for a while until he learned that she was pregnant and disappeared. This was how Koji's mom had to start off her mid-twenties and the height of her career as Shrine maiden.

Unfortunately for Koji and Hisayo the village and their family were hit with a string of bad luck in the early years of Koji's life. Not only did he lose both of his grandparents who were helping support the temple, but their wealth had been swindled away by a blacksmith who promised to refurbish the temple's artifacts that he had also run off with half of. Besides this major devastation to his family, the village was suffering from a food shortage and unfortunately timed boom in population following the largest festival in which Koji was also conceived.  In a domino effect of people losing jobs and fewer donations to the temple, a young Koji found himself on the streets often.

His mother would never force him out of the house but he hated seeing her have to beg for donations from people who were already suffering themselves. It was from the merchants who passed by but never spent wealth on goods from the town where he saw to direct his ire. Koji by the time he was four years old was putting on little acts for people for small bits of coin or food which he would save up and take back to his mother, within six months of doing this he had learned that he earned more from whistling and singing. He had never thought of singing for people for money till then, it had just been something his mother did with him at night. Now it had become a part of his daily routine as he sang with his mother in the morning, for the merchants in the afternoon, and with his mother after dinner.

It was when he was around eight years old that his life really began to change, with the village starting to recover with help from the Kazeharu clan Koji found himself in a tight spot. He had neglected his temple training and wasn't of much help to the new visitors, but he had become skilled in earning money, saving money, and using that money. He had bought the tools to build a mini oven and a stand near the entrance to the temple, selling hot-buns and hot-sake year-round and a song with each tip. Feeling proud of himself one day he put on an encore for a charmed customer, which charmed him only more as he invited him and his mother on a trip through the mountains. It was winter and the mountains were known to get icy, but he had a home there where he hunted, fished, and even had a hot spring.

They never even made it there though, the roads on the mountain were too icy and they stood no chance once they were hit with a surprise blizzard. Koji barely remembered what had happened, but when he came too he saw his mother's head bleeding and turned facing away from him, the man their mounts had all died. At first, he tried to move as he called out for his mother, but as he felt his skin tearing he looked down to see that he was impaled on an icicle, it was through his side and likely went through his lung. He cried and cried as he tried to help himself and his mother, but finally, he succumbed to the cold.

Unexpectedly he came to next to a fire pit inside of a cave, they had been rescued by a hunter who lived in the mountains during this time of the year. He had bandaged up the hunter and his mother had been as well, who had awoken and used her magic to bring Koji back from death's door. He wasn't awake for long, but the image of his mother crying and thanking the man for saving him was burned into his mind from then on.

The rest of his youth was nothing too exciting in comparison to his formative years, or maybe that was just how it felt to him as he got older. The man who had saved them was named Haru, only Haru, and he came back with them after growing attached to both of them. Over the span of ten years, Koji got better at music and cooking bringing in more customers, and the three of them were able to fix up the temple with the money to return back to how things were before the horrid years. Haru eventually married his mother and they had twins together, and Koji had started earning money regularly playing his flute or singing at the local inn and at times of festival with his mother.

However, it was as he became of age and his mother started to talk to him about taking over the shrine that Koji felt like it was time for his life to shift once more. Despite his love for his step-father, his mother, and his twin half-siblings he wasn't sure he wanted to be a priest, he wasn't a magician like his mother after all and he had never really stuck with their duties all that well. Before he could even give his mom a proper answer he ran away with just his flute and his gourd.

Without a word he had left to travel Kina and figure out who he was and what he wanted to do with his life and if the shrine really was what he was supposed to do with it. For six years Koji went through each of the different lands of Kina, learning their specific ways, their foods, and their music. He would share his stories, his scar from the ice, and a drink or two before singing and making his way to the next town. There was joy in his hobbies, but he found the most joy when he bought a meal for a saddened person or was just able to do something for someone else. It was as he was becoming unbearably homesick that he came across an idea.

At twenty-four Koji had earned some money from a few small concerts and was booking a long trip carriage to return home, he had overheard someone at the office complaining about raised prices and how someone had to get to his village. It was a family, and they apparently had to visit their sickly grandmother, and it happened to be a lady that Koji had often helped out and enjoyed the sweets she made. He paid for their trip and they all rode home together, and as they were thanking him and he said it was no dent in his cash that a lightbulb went off in his head. If business was to work as intended more money would always flow in then spent, and with that money, you could gain insane amounts of money, if you invest properly and have endless access cash you have endless power, and that endless power can be used towards things like helping others. Money was power, and power was the only way to help people, so to help the most amount of people you had to get the most amount of money.

Over two years of schooling under a university-level private tutor from his own savings Koji learned as much about business theory and how to capitalize on his skills and ideas. Now as his country has started to open to the outside world a sea of gold has become visible to the singer and his repressed greed sung to him as he began to prepare for his and Kina's future.

When spring came it was a joy to behold, though most people waited for the warm days to become constant before celebrating. The gentle winds and the blossoming cherry trees were perfectly peaceful as they graced anyone's day with their presence. It also worked for the perfect muse as a certain snow-haired musician walked through the tall grass with his flute in hand and his lips pressed to play.

The soft gentle sound of his flute would whistle and lull as he played along with the sounds of the birds around him, his fingers dancing along the holes as he fingered each note as naturally as one would breathe. Serenity had taken over Koji's mind as his feet moved him up the hill and underneath the tallest cherry-tree in the field. He stopped played briefly as to sit down and the wind slowly stopped as did the birds but soon enough he had resumed and nature began to breathe once again as the wind danced along with his hair and the birds tweeted louder than before.

As his song started to reach its end a falcon had come circling down as it heard the sweet sounds and wished to hear them up close. Without a moment's hesitation, Koji had opened his eyes and moved to sit up as he finished the end of the song and reached out to touch the bird's face.

The bird moved into the petting lightly as they both smiled and soon enough Koji had let out a soft chuckle as he got out some jerky to feed the falcon and even spoke to it. "Anyone can enjoy spring, just as anyone should enjoy music and a nice snack every now and then."