Jigoku app

[allmenare]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Maple
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yes!
CONTACT: husbando
CHARACTERS PLAYED: Lalli Hotakainen (silentscout)

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Fukuzawa Yukichi
CANON: Bungo Stray Dogs
CANON REFERENCE: right here!
CANON POINT: Chapter 91
CRAU HISTORY: N/A
AGE: 44
APPEARANCE: a good and proper man. He's very handsome, appreciate him.
CONTRACT PAYMENT: "Stop Fukuchi and the strange ability that is mind-controlling the armies of the world". Basically, Fukuchi is trying to take over the world via a parasitic infection that turns people into vampires, and Fukuzawa very much does not want that to happen. But he needs some outside help achieving that.

QUESTIONNAIRE: I'm answering these OOCly by the way. Fukuzawa does give explanations of his actions, but he keeps a lot of his personal feelings locked down for the sake of diplomacy. OOC answers are going to be more honest and give a better visual of what he's like.

1. How important is loyalty to you? What does it take to earn your loyalty? What extents are you willing to go through to maintain loyalty, and respect the loyalty others might have invested in you?

Loyalty is EXTREMELY important to Fukuzawa. He runs his own detective agency, and as the leader he has to command the loyalty of the men and women working under him. He only accepts people to work for him once they've demonstrated that they are of the right personality to fit in with the Agency's values, and one of those values is indeed loyalty. Members of the Agency need to be able to rely on each other, and Fukuzawa will not waste his time on someone who isn't devoted to the Agency. But it's not just that he demands that respect from them, oh no. Fukuzawa believes that loyalty is a two-way street, and that if he's to be given loyalty from his subordinates than he better make damn sure that he deserves it. He is in turn loyal to anyone who works under him, and he will always prioritize the safety of an Agency-member over the completion of a mission. To him 'loyalty' isn't just "respect the boss", it's "respect each other". And he earns the loyalty of his people time and time again by being the first to step up and do the difficult work needed to protect the city. He wouldn't ask his subordinates to do anything that he himself wouldn't do, and loyalty has to be earned for it to mean anything.



2. How do you define "failure"? How do you deal with the consequences of failure, from light to severe?

'Failure' isn't an immediate thing to Fukuzawa. For him, no one action can be considered a failure. People can make a mis-step or a miscalculation and struggle because of it, but an actual 'failure' only happens when all options have been exhausted and there is no way forward. You can break your leg and keep moving using crutches instead, after all. As long as there is still a path to success somewhere, then it's fine. However, because Fukuzawa takes a much broader definition of 'failure', the consequences for said failures are much more extreme. Angering a politician isn't a failure because the incident can be smoothed over and bridges can be repaired, but if that politician is assassinated then that's a failure because there's no way to save that person anymore. In that sense, all consequences of failure are 'severe' to Fukuzawa. And as long as that consequence isn't his own death, Fukuzawa deals with the consequences in largely the same way each time: accept defeat, learn from his mistakes, and move on. There will always be failures, but as long as you learn something from them then it will be alright.

As a note though, since Fukuzawa is the leader of the Armed Detective Agency, he tends to take failures of the Agency as personal failures. If one of his subordinates fucks up so badly that people die, Fukuzawa is the one handling the consequences from that failure. Usually it's with humility and remorselessness too, Fukuzawa doesn't half-ass his attempts to make up for failures.



3. Your Faction leader, not just your boss but the leader, has asked you to carry out a hit. The target is a non-affiliated public leader, well-liked by the people of the city. Do you carry it out? Why or why not?

It depends. Fukuzawa has a very strict moral code that he holds himself to, especially when it comes to assassinations. (Something something he used to be a government assassin and he REALLY does not want to go back to that life.) Upmost care for his subordinates and loved ones, a duty of protection to the city and its inhabitants, a responsibility to keep the more dangerous ability-users in check and keep them from harming people, an obligation towards diplomacy wherever it can be used in place of violence, an expectation to extend his hand in cooperation first before raising it to kill. There's other virtues too that he follows, but these are the most important ones. Violence against others typically has to come only to protect oneself, and only after talking it out hasn't proven successful first.

In most cases, an assassination order would violate Fukuzawa's moral code, and he would instantly refuse. He would explain if asked, but he does not kill people for the crime of 'working for a different faction'. That said, if his faction leader offered up information that showed that this well-liked person was actually a terrible person hiding their horrible actions behind a charismatic smile, and Fukuzawa is able to determine that this person staying alive would be harmful to the city, then Fukuzawa would carry out the hit. He's a former-assassin, taking someone out quietly is well within his job experiences. He just doesn't want to do it unless it's for the greater good.



4. An enemy of your faction has asked for a meeting, proposing a truce of sorts to deal with a greater threat. On one hand, there is indeed a threat at hand, but on the other, this person double-crossing you is just as likely an outcome. Do you agree to the meeting? Do you trust them?

Fukuzawa values diplomacy and cooperation, but he's not an idiot. He knows that shady people will always double-cross you. So, he would go into the meeting fully expecting to be betrayed the moment it suited the enemy. Fukuzawa isn't the best planner in his canon (that honor goes to Dazai, probably), but he's crafty and has nearly 30 years of experience with being betrayed and fighting unhonorable people. He's definitely lived out this exact situation several times in the past, so he knows what to do by now.

First, study the opponent carefully and figure out exactly what it is they want from this deal. 'For the greater good' is a good reason to align, but not if he's going to be immediately betrayed and murdered. Knowing what the enemy wants means Fukuzawa can find a useful tool to keep the enemy in line for the length of the alliance. Sometimes this means extortion and blackmail, but he does try to use it sparingly. His morals tell him that underhanded tactics are bad, but sometimes you have to fudge the details slightly to get a good outcome. So the important thing to have, when going into a negotiation with a potential backstabber, is some kind of leverage to keep that person from backstabbing him during the cooperation phase of the plan. Not necessarily "mwahah we have your lover, behave or we kill her" or anything like that, but it's more like a "don't pay until services are rendered" kind of deal. The enemy will be getting their end of the bargain last, thanks. That ensures their cooperation to the end.

Beyond that, make sure the deal is fair and that both sides understand what they are offering and what they will get in return. Fukuzawa isn't one to spit in the face of someone offering cooperation, so he'll at least try to make it fair. But he's realistic too: if the deal sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Hoping for the best but expecting the worst is the smartest way to tackle the situation. Fukuzawa's entire canon runs on 'extreme 5-D levels of chessmastery' so this isn't unfamiliar to him. What's most important is to get the benefit of the deal while also being protected from the backstabbing.

POWERS & ABILITIES: Fukuzawa's ability is called "All Men Are Equal". Once a person has passed an entrance exam (basically a high-stress situation which shows that said person is of the right moral fiber to fit what Fukuzawa considers to be 'an acceptable person', examples of this from canon are "diffuse a situation with a kidnapper without harming anyone" and "prevent an airplane from crashing into a city"), they become Fukuzawa's subordinate. Anyone who is considered 'Fukuzawa's subordinate' is automatically linked into "All Men Are Equal". This ability is 'always on' (unless it is blocked by another ability), and it offers a few benefits.

First off, Fukuzawa is always aware of the general state of being of his subordinates. It's nothing super complicated or invasive, it's more of a "Are they alive? Are they physically well?" kind of thing. He's just Aware that they are there.

Secondly, Fukuzawa's ability acts like a power stabilizer. It takes the strength of every member and averages it so that everyone is about the same strength, as much as 'strength' can be measured and equaled out. Those with really weak abilities will end up stronger because of it, and those with really strong and uncontrollable abilities will find that their powers are a little weaker but also much easier to control. (example: Atsushi is one of the most powerful members of the Agency strength-wise, but his ability is normally impossible for him to control and he transforms randomly. Under 'All Men Are Equal', he's not quite so ridiculously strong, but the transformations are much easier to control so he can use his ability with much more finesse than before, which is a better result overall.)

SUITABILITY: Honestly, Fukuzawa's canon isn't too different from how Jigoku-cho runs. He runs a faction of his own that protects the city and has a shaky alliance with two other factions to keep everyone's power and control in check. Violence is frequent, danger is frequent, and all in all this is just another day to Fukuzawa. The only real difference between Jigoku-cho and Yokohama is that Fukuzawa isn't a faction leader in Jigoku-cho.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten - Honestly Shuten would suit Fukuzawa pretty well. While he's not as much of a party animal and he actually prefers to honor the intent of the truth rather than just the exact wording, he otherwise fits pretty well. He dislikes shadiness, he stands by hos code of honor, and he will fight to prove that his moral code is the right way to live. The one hurdle is that Fukuzawa would have to rise through the ranks quickly, because he would not like being told to do something that goes against his strict honor code (and he probably wouldn't do it lol). For specific jobs he could do here, he would make a pretty good bodyguard (despite his age, he's still pretty physically fit!), or he could do some kind of background work that's important within Shuten (like accounting or middle management or errand boy or something).

Tamamo - It's not something that immediately clicks with him like other factions do, but it could work. Fukuzawa can make a place for himself in any faction, as there is always a need for an honorable person who isn't afraid to do the difficult work. He could be a bouncer at a club, or protection for an entertainer, or something like that. Fukuzawa does care about his people, and he is all about using his strength to protect the vulnerable. Protecting people whose skills lie in entertainment and cooking is a worthy pursuit to him.

Sutoku - The basic structure of the alliance clicks really well with Fukuzawa's personal values. He's a man who came up from nothing, a young soldier from a poor town who made a name for himself as an assassin, only to turn around and use his skills for the good of the people rather than for killing. A scrappy alliance of yokai trying to use their numbers to have their opinions heard is the kind of thing Fukuzawa respects. And as far as intelligence goes, Fukuzawa is skilled at both negotiating intelligence exchanges and in keeping secrets himself. He could work as a bodyguard, an information broker, or anything along those lines.

Enma - Enma really isn't a great fit because, while Fukuzawa will cooperate with the government in Yokohama as needed, he's made it very clear that he dislikes their methods and will make his own path. That holds true here too: he would work with the Enma where his morals align with the Enma's, but he would refuse to do work that doesn't match up with his morals. He's just a bit too chaotic to do well within the order demanded by the Enma, and he has little respect for 'The System' as that same System failed him several times in the past. That said, he could be shoved into a job like 'librarian' or 'ferryman' and find a way to make it work. Just keep him away from the cops, he would argue with the cops.

(Also, if it's possible, I'd like to keep Fukuzawa out of Enma because Lalli is already in Enma and I don't want two characters in the same faction.)

SAMPLES

from the Jigoku TDM

A thread from a murdergame he was in

Another thread from that same murdergame

A PSL