P L A Y E R; NAME: Sam AGE: 29 PLAYER JOURNAL:dekaja TIMEZONE: MST CONTACT:estamir OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: none yet
C H A R A C T E R; NAME: Toshizou Hijikata (he's used to using family name first, though, so he'd be introducing himself as Hijikata Toshizou) CANON: Hakuouki POINT IN CANON: Late chapter 9 in Hijikata's route of the video game, just before the battle of Hakodate. As per here, however, I will also be taking some anime events into account that don't conflict (namely, Souji's death scene). AGE: 33 APPEARANCE:Here - wait, no.
This is his usual look; his hair and eyes change when his powers are active, leaving him looking like this.
CANON HISTORY: I find the Hakuouki wiki to be pretty insufficient, so I'm just doing this from scratch. Also trying not to go overboard and keep it at least reasonably brief, so I can elaborate on things if it's needed. /o\
Hijikata comes from a family of farmers, but from a young age he was never satisfied with his place in life. Not wanting to be a farmer for the rest of his life - and knowing he didn't stand to inherit anything as the youngest son anyway - he undertook an apprenticeship to become a merchant, but he wasn't satisfied with that, either, and left home to sell medicine from his family's recipe on the road - stopping in dojos to request matches on the way, because what he really wanted was to become a samurai.
As far out of reach as that seemed, everything changed when he met Kondou Isami.
Kondou came from origins as humble as Hijikata, but had been moved up in rank through being adopted by Hijikata's brother-in-law, the master of the Tennen Rishin-ryuu sword style, and seeing that gave Hijikata hope for himself as well. He began frequenting the Shieikan dojo, and he and Kondou became very close. Although Hijikata hadn't really accomplished anything with his life thus far, Kondou insisted that he simply hadn't found the direction that suited him, and that his dream to become a samurai wasn't ridiculous at all.
Kondou inherited the dojo when the previous master retired, but they fell upon hard times, and keeping the doors open was a constant financial struggle. A hatamoto planned to nominate Kondou as an instructor at the shogunate's military academy, but the offer fell through because of Kondou's low-class origins. It was a harsh blow to Kondou's confidence, but then they heard about the Roshigumi - a group of ronin being gathered to serve as protectors of the shogun, an honorable enough excuse for them to close up the dojo without attracting gossip, and that would pay enough money to provide for Kondou's family. Hijikata talked Kondou into it, swearing that he'd push Kondou up in the world and get him the recognition he deserved, and they left for Kyoto.
Their early time in Kyoto was difficult. The Roshigumi was small, underfunded (as they didn't receive the pay they were originally promised), and reliant on Serizawa Kamo's connections to Aizu to get them any kind of authority to police the streets - however, Serizawa was ruthless and abusive, and his actions did little to endear the Roshigumi to the people of Kyoto. From the beginning, the group was clearly falling into two factions, under the two main leaders of the Roshigumi - Serizawa and Kondou. And it was during one of their disagreements that Serizawa said something that would stick with Hijikata for the rest of his life: that if he wanted to raise Kondou up, Hijikata needed to become a demon, and not hesitate to make an enemy of everyone, if that was what it took.
During this time another issue was arising, behind the scenes - the shogunate brought them a substance called ochimizu, which would supposedly present a solution to their manpower problems - but although anyone who drank it increased their physical abilities far beyond that of a human and gained the ability to rapidly heal from wounds, they lost their sanity in the process, becoming a mindless, bloodthirsty monster. Although Hijikata was opposed to experimenting with the ochimizu, he was overruled by Serizawa, and Niimi took charge of working behind the scenes to try and mitigate the side effects and come up with something more suitable for widespread use.
Although the Roshigumi eventually received better official recognition from Aizu, and renamed to the Shinsengumi, their other problems persisted. Serizawa's behavior became more intolerable, and Niimi disappeared with the ochimizu and all of the research on it. Hijikata led the rest of the Shieikan faction in hunting down and eliminating Niimi, and planned Serizawa's assassination - which was successful, although things got a bit more intense when planned after Serizawa drank the ochimizu during the fight.
Some time after Serizawa's assassination, however, another problem fell into their lap - while hunting down and disposing of a few of their men-turned-rasetsu that had gone rogue, the Shinsengumi found they had a witness. Hijikata decided to bring the boy back to headquarters and decide what to do with him, but the boy was in fact a girl - Yukimura Chizuru, the daughter of the doctor who was responsible for developing the ochimizu, and who had come to Kyoto in search of her father after his disappearance. As this was also a goal of the Shinsengumi, they decided to keep Chizuru around, giving her protection in exchange for her help with their search, and making her Hijikata's page as a cover.
Although they were initially disinclined to trust her, Chizuru proved her loyalty time and time again, going from simple chores and errands to acting as a messenger to give them the warning they needed when they won their reputation in the Ikedaya incident, and accompanying them to the front during the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion - battles that introduced them to a trio of highly formidable opponents, first among them Kazama Chikage, a man apparently working with Satsuma. She also was let in on their most closely guarded secret - the ochimizu - when Sannan decided to test the new revisions to the formula on himself, spurred on by feelings of uselessness from a crippled arm.
More pieces of the puzzle came together over time - Kazama revealed himself to be a demon, in pursuit of Chizuru because she too was a demon and there were few pureblooded females of their kind. The demons were working in tandem with the Satsuma and Choushuu rebels, and claimed that Chizuru's father was doing the same, having abandoned his former shogunate ties.
The situation was steadily getting worse for the Shinsengumi, as well. The political situation began to shift against the favor of the shogunate. Heisuke was mortally wounded in the fallout from an internal dispute and had to drink the ochimizu to survive. Kondou was shot in an assassination attempt and sent away from headquarters to recover. Things came to a head when the battle of Toba-Fushimi broke out, and despite having three times the rebels' numbers, the shogunate forces were quickly pushed back by their opponents' superior weapons and tactics. Hijikata sent Inoue and Chizuru to bring reinforcements.
Instead, they found Kazama.
Hijikata arrived just in time to find Inoue dead and Chizuru being overpowered; enraged, he attacked Kazama, but while he was able to force Kazama to reveal his true form, that form proved too much for him to handle, and in a moment of desperation, Hijikata turned to the ochimizu and became a rasetsu himself. The fight intensified, but Kazama found the upper hand again, and Hijikata was saved when Yamazaki took a blow meant for him - and gave him a much needed reality check, bringing him to his senses to oversee the retreat to Osaka Castle...and then to Edo, when the shogun pulled out first and ordered his troops back.
From there the war became a frustrating dance of trying to get the support they needed to wage war from the higher-ups, eventually leading the Shinsengumi to be ordered to Koufu Castle - where they suffered a devastating defeat that decimated their numbers, crushed Kondou's confidence, and proved to be the final straw for Shinpachi and Sanosuke, who left. Hijikata pushed on, trying to organize them and bounce back, sending Saitou to take most of the troops to train with new firearms, trying to bolster Kondou's confidence again - and then their position was surrounded, and when Hijikata tried to take a stand alone to let Kondou and Chizuru escape, Kondou refused, ordering Hijikata to escape while he stayed. No amount of yelling, arguing, and pleading from Hijikata was enough to change his mind.
Hijikata was a barely restrained wreck, for a time after that; after regrouping with Ootori Keisuke and the remains of the shogunate's army to continue the retreat north, he took Utsunomiya Castle with a handful of soldiers and a manic energy that suggested he didn't have much interest in continuing to live. Kazama was there on business of his own, with a sword that inflicted wounds a rasetsu's advanced healing could do nothing for, and Hijikata was forced to leave the front to recover - and was shouted down by Ootori, who inadvertently echoed Yamazaki's parting words, providing Hijikata with another much needed reality check; when they received reports of Kondou's execution, Souji managed to drag himself out of his own sickbed long enough to punch Hijikata in the face - and then die protecting him before his wounds had finished recovering, because despite their difficult relationship, Hijikata's life was what Kondou wanted more than anything.
The retreat north continued, with Saitou choosing to stay behind and fight with the rear guard in Aizu while the remains of the Shinsengumi continued on to Sendai; Sannan and Heisuke went ahead to see what support they could secure while the main army caught up, but when Hijikata and Chizuru caught up, they were nowhere to be found. Chizuru was kidnapped by a group of rasetsu commanded by her father, who brought her to the castle, where Sannan was also waiting. Hijikata soon met with Heisuke and caught up; one standoff later in which Sannan revealed he'd been playing both ends against the middle, the rasetsu were wiped out, Chizuru's father died to protect her, and Heisuke and Sannan had burned out their lifespans, and turned to dust, leaving Hijikata all but alone - save for Chizuru.
As the alliance made one last retreat, north to Ezo, Hijikata forbade Chizuru to come with them. Chizuru said "to hell with that" and made her own way after them, with a little help from Ootori, and her appearance on his doorstep forced Hijikata to realize just how poorly he'd been functioning without her - and to admit that maybe he was in love with her.
Of course, the enemy's still got overwhelmingly superior numbers and they're right on Ezo's doorstep, so he might not have a lot of time left to think that over further.
toshizou hijikata | hakuouki (1/2)
NAME: Sam
AGE: 29
PLAYER JOURNAL:
TIMEZONE: MST
CONTACT:
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: none yet
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Toshizou Hijikata (he's used to using family name first, though, so he'd be introducing himself as Hijikata Toshizou)
CANON: Hakuouki
POINT IN CANON: Late chapter 9 in Hijikata's route of the video game, just before the battle of Hakodate. As per here, however, I will also be taking some anime events into account that don't conflict (namely, Souji's death scene).
AGE: 33
APPEARANCE: Here - wait, no.
This is his usual look; his hair and eyes change when his powers are active, leaving him looking like this.
CANON HISTORY: I find the Hakuouki wiki to be pretty insufficient, so I'm just doing this from scratch. Also trying not to go overboard and keep it at least reasonably brief, so I can elaborate on things if it's needed. /o\
Hijikata comes from a family of farmers, but from a young age he was never satisfied with his place in life. Not wanting to be a farmer for the rest of his life - and knowing he didn't stand to inherit anything as the youngest son anyway - he undertook an apprenticeship to become a merchant, but he wasn't satisfied with that, either, and left home to sell medicine from his family's recipe on the road - stopping in dojos to request matches on the way, because what he really wanted was to become a samurai.
As far out of reach as that seemed, everything changed when he met Kondou Isami.
Kondou came from origins as humble as Hijikata, but had been moved up in rank through being adopted by Hijikata's brother-in-law, the master of the Tennen Rishin-ryuu sword style, and seeing that gave Hijikata hope for himself as well. He began frequenting the Shieikan dojo, and he and Kondou became very close. Although Hijikata hadn't really accomplished anything with his life thus far, Kondou insisted that he simply hadn't found the direction that suited him, and that his dream to become a samurai wasn't ridiculous at all.
Kondou inherited the dojo when the previous master retired, but they fell upon hard times, and keeping the doors open was a constant financial struggle. A hatamoto planned to nominate Kondou as an instructor at the shogunate's military academy, but the offer fell through because of Kondou's low-class origins. It was a harsh blow to Kondou's confidence, but then they heard about the Roshigumi - a group of ronin being gathered to serve as protectors of the shogun, an honorable enough excuse for them to close up the dojo without attracting gossip, and that would pay enough money to provide for Kondou's family. Hijikata talked Kondou into it, swearing that he'd push Kondou up in the world and get him the recognition he deserved, and they left for Kyoto.
Their early time in Kyoto was difficult. The Roshigumi was small, underfunded (as they didn't receive the pay they were originally promised), and reliant on Serizawa Kamo's connections to Aizu to get them any kind of authority to police the streets - however, Serizawa was ruthless and abusive, and his actions did little to endear the Roshigumi to the people of Kyoto. From the beginning, the group was clearly falling into two factions, under the two main leaders of the Roshigumi - Serizawa and Kondou. And it was during one of their disagreements that Serizawa said something that would stick with Hijikata for the rest of his life: that if he wanted to raise Kondou up, Hijikata needed to become a demon, and not hesitate to make an enemy of everyone, if that was what it took.
During this time another issue was arising, behind the scenes - the shogunate brought them a substance called ochimizu, which would supposedly present a solution to their manpower problems - but although anyone who drank it increased their physical abilities far beyond that of a human and gained the ability to rapidly heal from wounds, they lost their sanity in the process, becoming a mindless, bloodthirsty monster. Although Hijikata was opposed to experimenting with the ochimizu, he was overruled by Serizawa, and Niimi took charge of working behind the scenes to try and mitigate the side effects and come up with something more suitable for widespread use.
Although the Roshigumi eventually received better official recognition from Aizu, and renamed to the Shinsengumi, their other problems persisted. Serizawa's behavior became more intolerable, and Niimi disappeared with the ochimizu and all of the research on it. Hijikata led the rest of the Shieikan faction in hunting down and eliminating Niimi, and planned Serizawa's assassination - which was successful, although things got a bit more intense when planned after Serizawa drank the ochimizu during the fight.
Some time after Serizawa's assassination, however, another problem fell into their lap - while hunting down and disposing of a few of their men-turned-rasetsu that had gone rogue, the Shinsengumi found they had a witness. Hijikata decided to bring the boy back to headquarters and decide what to do with him, but the boy was in fact a girl - Yukimura Chizuru, the daughter of the doctor who was responsible for developing the ochimizu, and who had come to Kyoto in search of her father after his disappearance. As this was also a goal of the Shinsengumi, they decided to keep Chizuru around, giving her protection in exchange for her help with their search, and making her Hijikata's page as a cover.
Although they were initially disinclined to trust her, Chizuru proved her loyalty time and time again, going from simple chores and errands to acting as a messenger to give them the warning they needed when they won their reputation in the Ikedaya incident, and accompanying them to the front during the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion - battles that introduced them to a trio of highly formidable opponents, first among them Kazama Chikage, a man apparently working with Satsuma. She also was let in on their most closely guarded secret - the ochimizu - when Sannan decided to test the new revisions to the formula on himself, spurred on by feelings of uselessness from a crippled arm.
More pieces of the puzzle came together over time - Kazama revealed himself to be a demon, in pursuit of Chizuru because she too was a demon and there were few pureblooded females of their kind. The demons were working in tandem with the Satsuma and Choushuu rebels, and claimed that Chizuru's father was doing the same, having abandoned his former shogunate ties.
The situation was steadily getting worse for the Shinsengumi, as well. The political situation began to shift against the favor of the shogunate. Heisuke was mortally wounded in the fallout from an internal dispute and had to drink the ochimizu to survive. Kondou was shot in an assassination attempt and sent away from headquarters to recover. Things came to a head when the battle of Toba-Fushimi broke out, and despite having three times the rebels' numbers, the shogunate forces were quickly pushed back by their opponents' superior weapons and tactics. Hijikata sent Inoue and Chizuru to bring reinforcements.
Instead, they found Kazama.
Hijikata arrived just in time to find Inoue dead and Chizuru being overpowered; enraged, he attacked Kazama, but while he was able to force Kazama to reveal his true form, that form proved too much for him to handle, and in a moment of desperation, Hijikata turned to the ochimizu and became a rasetsu himself. The fight intensified, but Kazama found the upper hand again, and Hijikata was saved when Yamazaki took a blow meant for him - and gave him a much needed reality check, bringing him to his senses to oversee the retreat to Osaka Castle...and then to Edo, when the shogun pulled out first and ordered his troops back.
From there the war became a frustrating dance of trying to get the support they needed to wage war from the higher-ups, eventually leading the Shinsengumi to be ordered to Koufu Castle - where they suffered a devastating defeat that decimated their numbers, crushed Kondou's confidence, and proved to be the final straw for Shinpachi and Sanosuke, who left. Hijikata pushed on, trying to organize them and bounce back, sending Saitou to take most of the troops to train with new firearms, trying to bolster Kondou's confidence again - and then their position was surrounded, and when Hijikata tried to take a stand alone to let Kondou and Chizuru escape, Kondou refused, ordering Hijikata to escape while he stayed. No amount of yelling, arguing, and pleading from Hijikata was enough to change his mind.
Hijikata was a barely restrained wreck, for a time after that; after regrouping with Ootori Keisuke and the remains of the shogunate's army to continue the retreat north, he took Utsunomiya Castle with a handful of soldiers and a manic energy that suggested he didn't have much interest in continuing to live. Kazama was there on business of his own, with a sword that inflicted wounds a rasetsu's advanced healing could do nothing for, and Hijikata was forced to leave the front to recover - and was shouted down by Ootori, who inadvertently echoed Yamazaki's parting words, providing Hijikata with another much needed reality check; when they received reports of Kondou's execution, Souji managed to drag himself out of his own sickbed long enough to punch Hijikata in the face - and then die protecting him before his wounds had finished recovering, because despite their difficult relationship, Hijikata's life was what Kondou wanted more than anything.
The retreat north continued, with Saitou choosing to stay behind and fight with the rear guard in Aizu while the remains of the Shinsengumi continued on to Sendai; Sannan and Heisuke went ahead to see what support they could secure while the main army caught up, but when Hijikata and Chizuru caught up, they were nowhere to be found. Chizuru was kidnapped by a group of rasetsu commanded by her father, who brought her to the castle, where Sannan was also waiting. Hijikata soon met with Heisuke and caught up; one standoff later in which Sannan revealed he'd been playing both ends against the middle, the rasetsu were wiped out, Chizuru's father died to protect her, and Heisuke and Sannan had burned out their lifespans, and turned to dust, leaving Hijikata all but alone - save for Chizuru.
As the alliance made one last retreat, north to Ezo, Hijikata forbade Chizuru to come with them. Chizuru said "to hell with that" and made her own way after them, with a little help from Ootori, and her appearance on his doorstep forced Hijikata to realize just how poorly he'd been functioning without her - and to admit that maybe he was in love with her.
Of course, the enemy's still got overwhelmingly superior numbers and they're right on Ezo's doorstep, so he might not have a lot of time left to think that over further.