heartofasamurai: (083)
Date Seiji [Korin no Seiji] ([personal profile] heartofasamurai) wrote2030-08-26 08:29 am

[OOC] Character Background

So it's been years and years and sadly time does not favor the old on the internet. Many links to YST related fansites and wikis have fallen by the wayside, many links no longer leading to anything. So I decided to consolidate information here where I can (with links to what sites I can still find) and add in other shit as I go.

FanPop Information
Name: Seiji Date
Age: 14 (TV series), 16 (Gaiden), 17 (Kikoutei and Message)
Height: 167 cm/5'5" (TV series), 175 cm/5'9" (Message)
Weight: 58 kg/128 lbs (TV series), 61 kg/134 lbs (Message)
Birthdate: June 9 1973
Birthplace: Miyagi
Astrological sign: Gemini
Blood Type: B
Favorite Sport: Kendo
Interests: Avant Garde Bonzai, Bamboo Flute, Repairing Swords, and anything sword-related, F1 Racing, Cycling.
Dislikes: Talking with girls.

Family:
# Father: Also a practitioner of kendo but is part of the police force. He married into the Date family.
# Mother: Second only to Seiji's grandfather in the dojo.
# Grandfather: Unusually strict, the walking precepts of the Date house. A very hearty old man, he is largely responsible for Seiji's upbringing. He was educated as a Bushi (warrior) of the Eido period and taught Seiji to be the same.
# Yayoi: Seiji's older sister by five years. During the TV series she was a medical school student. She uses formal language like Seiji, and is said to be a talented kendo practitioner as well. Yayoi has and does teases Seiji so much, that it makes it very hard for him to talk with girls.
# Satsuki: Seiji's younger sister by two years. She speaks normally, unlike her older siblings, and doesn't seem to have much interest in kendo. She calls Seiji "ni-chan."

Seiji's family, Date, is descended from Date Masamune. He is a famous general who built a castle in Sendai, the prefectural capital of Miyagi. He only had one eye and was often called the 'One-Eyed Dragon.' Touma asks Seiji about that in the second TV episode. Seiji may live on the outskirts of Sendai, in the family dojo, which he will one day inherit. He is known as the 'young master.'

Seiji was quite rebellious when he was younger. It wasn't that he didn't like kendo, he didn't like all the etiquette. To teach him restraint, his grandfather made him study bonzai and the bamboo flute in order to teach Seiji how to calm himself. For generations, the Date family has passed down the story of a yoroi, actually Korin.

Seiji received his yoroi after he demonstrated that he understood the concepts of 'REI.' In the summer of his second year of junior high, Seiji was challenged at his dojo by another famous kendo practitioner, Kazamatsuri Shingo. Seiji had won that year's spring kendo tournament for Northeast Japan but Shingo hadn't attended. He wanted to try now. Seiji's grandfather forced him into the fight. During the fight, when Shingo was losing, he threw something into Seiji's eye. However, only Seiji's left eye was affected, his right covered by his hair. Angrily, he knocked off Shingo's face protector(HUGE breach of etiquette) and knocked him out.

No one else noticed what Shingo did. Seiji's grandfather, furious, sent Seiji down to the basement for punishment. It wasn't till later when Shingo woke up did everyone learn the truth. By drawing shame to himself, Seiji 'saved' Shingo because if Shingo's deception had become known he would have been forever banned from Kendo. While in the basement, Seiji found Korin.

Seiji's green yoroi is Korin, Halo, and draws power from any light source. He has a no-dachi with a shuriken at its hilt, Korin Ken, that can be hung on his back. Seiji is a master with a blade, he can wield his no-dachi with one or two hands. His special attack is Rai Ko Zan, Lightning Cut, which is either a ball of light thrown from his blade or a focused on his blade as he jumps and slashes.

Seiji is very proper, and speaks a very formal version of Japanese. He hates lies and evil. Though often in control and calm, Seiji can be driven into a nearly blind rage. He is identified as the pretty boy of the group.

It caused quite an uproar among Trooper fans when Seiji drove Nasuti's car when he was only 14. The legal driving age in Japan is 18. He also won a race car race when he was sixteen.

When Seiji was very young, his health was very fragile. His family dressed him up as a girl, a belief that girls are easier to raise than boys. Seiji doesn't remember this.

During Seiji's rebellious childhood, he once took the family's sacred sword and played with it in the courtyard. While playing, he broke one of his grandfather's bonzais. His grandfather never noticed because a tulip was placed there but Seiji dreaded the punishment that would come if his grandfather ever found out.

In elementary school, Seiji's friends usually cried whenever they saw both of his eyes, saying it looked scary. Seiji's eyesight is very sharp and the paleness of his eyes makes them look hard. Yayoi suggested Seiji cover one of his eyes so his friends wouldn't be scared.

Also during that time, Seiji's sister would use him like a toy for dress up. Yayoi has a picture of him with ribbons in his hair.

Seiji was vice-president of the Kendo club at his junior high in seventh grade and the president in eighth grade.

Because of the battle with Arago which occurred in the spring of 1988, Seiji did not attend the kendo tournament. Shingo won the championship that year and later wrote a letter to Seiji, hoping that they'll meet at next year's tournament. It was in this letter that Touma and Shuu got the idea to cut Seiji's hair. Shingo had written that Seiji didn't look bad with both eyes, why didn't he cut his hair? Touma and Shin chased Seiji with scissors. They didn't read the postcript where Shingo speculated that maybe Seiji's victory were due partly to how intimidating Seiji looks with both eyes showing.

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Seiji-focused Canon Summary, Ongoing
When the attack by the Demon Emperor Arago and his army happened during summer break when Seiji was fourteen, he immediately traveled to Tokyo, because it was the duty expected of him and his armor, Korin, called for him to act. He found four other boys his own age there also having been called upon by their armors to fight and defend the people. They didn’t get along at first and were bickering left and right, which almost cost them the war before it had truly started, as the Troopers need to be in sync with one another to be able to use their armors and strengths effectively.

Thankfully Nasutei and Jun, two civilians caught up in the chaos of the attack, helped them to get over themselves and they pushed back against the who they thought was a higher-ranking soldier they were fighting and managed to win. Only to find out the soldier was pretty much a grunt and was only managing to fight them equally due to their lack of cohesion and borrowing the weapon from one of the Masho, Arago’s generals.

When they finally faced said Masho, Shuten Doji, himself, they got their asses handed to them. It took Ryo pulling out the stops to secure a bare victory and then Arago stepped in, trying to kill them all in one fell swoop. This didn’t work as even by separating them, their armors protected them, and each of them was sent to the place in Japan that the armor’s soul was most closely connected with.

For Seiji this was the Caves of Autumn at Akiyoshidai in Japan where there was a deep limestone cave. Ryo came to first in an active volcano and went about trying to find the rest of his friends, traveling to the Caves to break Seiji free of the stone. Seiji awakened in time to save Ryo from Naaza, another of the Masho, even then using the Sword of Korin to heal Ryo's eyes that had been blinded by venom from Naaza. Then he and Ryo went their separate ways to find the other three Troopers. Seiji and Nasutei traveled to the site of the largest iwakura (sacred rocks) where Shuu was trapped inside. He had to fight the Darkness Masho, Anubisu, to reach Shuu, pushing him to deepen his connection with Korin so that he had the strength to push Anubisu back before Seiji was killed.

They travel together to meet up with Ryo and Shin who are still looking for where Touma is and almost get their asses beat by the Illusion Masho, Rajura, but Seiji figures out he’s using illusions to make them fight each other and refuses to fight Shuu. Seiji gets injured, but Shuu realizes what happened and sends Rajura into a retreat before he can do anymore harm. They figure out that Touma is actually floating around up in highest level of Earth’s atmosphere and try to combine the power of their armors to send Ryo up to get him before Arago can blast Touma out of the sky. It works, Touma is saved, the team is reunited and they travel together to finally deal with Arago once and for all.

They continue to fight their way through Tokyo to get to Arago’s demon stronghold, at one point even being separated underground where Seiji has to protect Nasutei and Jun from Anubisu (again, because opposing themes), and manages to beat him. They reunite with the others and keep pushing onward towards Arago's castle for the big showdown. Kaos, the ancient monk who has been helping them in the Vaguest Way Possible, shows up again and tell them the only way to beat Arago is fight him on his own turf, in the Demon Realm, which they can't get to without a bridge of some kind. Kaos proceeds to go off on his own and die, sacrificing himself to create said bridge in truly epic martyr style.

When the Troopers finally think they will be able to beat Arago in the Demon Realm, the truth that their armors are five pieces separated from the whole that was once Arago’s own demonic armor comes to bite them in the ass, as he calls the armors back to him. Seiji, Shin, Touma, and Shuu are caught and Ryo fights until he is absorbed as well. It takes the five of them together to burst out from inside of Arago and merging their powers together to create Kikoutei (The White Armor) to beat Arago. This had never happened before, but they weren't questioning it in the moment when it was helping them kick imperial demonic ass. Then they think things are over.

But nope, of course not. Instead in the vacuum of power created by Arago’s defeat and his army's temporary fall into disorder, another guy, Sarenbou who is a demon warlord seeking the white armor for himself shows up and starts fighting them. He wants to take the armor for himself and use it to crush Arago for good in his own realm (not that the Troopers know this is his exact reasoning for wanting the armor at the time). They beat Sarenbou after a hard fight, only to have to deal with Ryo’s swords belonging to his armor, Rekka, being broken from too much power being funneled through them from the summoning of Kikoutei/The White Armor. The swords just weren't meant to be used with that much raw power.

They seek the Swords of Fervor which are said to be the true swords meant for the White Armor (you know the armor they don't even know the backstory of and won't for another two and a half years) and end up having to deal with Kenbukyo, another warlord who is an enemy to Arago, but definitely not an ally to them. He has honor and his own moral code, but isn’t above beating the crap out of the Troopers to get the swords. So they have to call on the White Armor yet again when fighting him, which lead to Rekka's swords being completely destroyed and Byakuen, their white tiger companion, sacrificing himself to save Ryo, being seriously injured in the fight. Ryo, being the logical shounen leader type that he is, decides he's going to go off on his own to fight against Kenbukyo, but Byakuen saves him and dies in the process to help him regain the Swords of Fervor. Byakuen is revived when Kokuen-oh, his black tiger counterpart who has served along side Kenbukyo, merges their souls together.

The power the White Armor draws out of the other four Troopers is immense and taxing. It leaves them feeling exhausting, drained, and even in pain. They struggle with reconciling the need for it (if there is a need) with the consequences on their minds and bodies. Seiji seeks to center himself, only during his travels, he’s attacked by Anubisu (as is the theme). He refuses the armor, afraid it might be corrupting him, only to recognize that the armor cannot corrupt, only be used by one who has been corrupted. And that is when he’s attacked by Arago himself, who hadn’t been defeated last time as they had thought, but merely pushed back to his true stronghold. He captures Seiji and takes to the Demon Realm.

He’s kept there, trapped with Shin and then Shuu, being tortured as their power and the souls of their armors are drained away from them until they are barely left alive inside the shells. Ryo and Touma manage to revive them and they break free from Arago, but they’re in the Demon World and have to figure out how they are going to beat Arago who is a lot stronger here in his true form than he was in the Mortal Realm. It ends up being Ryo who makes the sacrifice, allowing Arago to take the White Armor, while using his own soul to trap him. The Troopers have to attack Arago while he’s weakened, knowing doing so will kill Ryo as well and it works, Arago is defeated. Thankfully there is a deux ex machina by way of the Jewel of Life that Jun taps into and saves Ryo from dying too. In the process of this fight, the Masho are also freed from Arago's influence, recognizing the lies and manipulation he had been using against them and they decide to work with the last descendant of an ancient clan, Kayura, to defend the Demon Realm and keep it from bleeding over into the Mortal Realm again.

Happy endings for everyone! You know, except Shuten Doji, who had become a good guy at the end of the last fight against Arago and then died saving Kayura in this one.

Things return to normal for them for a while, the Troopers go their separate ways to their families and school and for a year or so things are calm. That is, until Seiji is kidnapped while on a visit to Columbia University in New York City to inspect swords at an exhibition that a collector claimed belonged to his ancestors. He’s taken to an underground lab run by a scientist working for a demon spirit, Shikaisen. Shikaisen is old and powerful, but wants to gain the power of the Armors after having witnessed them in action during the war against Arago.

They pump him full of psychotropics and use electro-shock therapy to draw the armor out of him, outside of his control. He refuses to call on the armor to bring on its full power, so they try to break his spirit by using what control they do have to make Korin kill people. He spends weeks trapped by them, not sure what is reality and what isn’t except that he’s not himself. Finally the other Troopers see reports that show Korin killing people in the streets of New York City and travel there to find out what’s going on.

They meet a girl named Luna, who is out to get justice for her brother, who was killed by Korin. She helps them find their way around New York City after the Troopers were ambushed and Touma was injured and then travels with them to Los Angeles when they learn that Jun and Nasutei were kidnapped and likely taken to where Seiji is. They do find them beneath the city, and break Seiji and the other two free, but only after Luna is killed trying to fight Shikaisen on her own. Seiji is so angered by what happened to him (and you know, still drugged) that he calls on his armor and attacks Shikaisen immediately. Shikaisen knows enough about Seiji's armor that he's able to beat him easily and then uses that knowledge to capture the other troopers as well, trying to gain control of all of them.

So Seiji tells Ryo to call on Kikoutei, the White Armor, as Shikaisen has no data on it to use against them. They do this and beat Shikaisen, but Luna's dead and Ryo mourns her before they return to Japan.

And did I mention they only figured out Seiji was in trouble because he didn't show for Ryo's birthday party and suddenly Korin was killing people in America? Good job staying in touch there, guys.