Details

Personality

Aesthetic

Summary

shishi to watch over me

 Having suffered severe physical abuse from his tempered tribal family in the Skatay Range, Sumio escaped certain doom and made way for the Eorzean continent of Aldenard, settling into an inn room at the Carline Canopy as a permanent residence. Keeping his ears out for extra work to move up in this new world, he stumbled into the job of a Hitman, taking contracts from anyone who had the gil, no matter who the target was.  His manager, Dai Bo, a Xaela from the Steppe, after seeing Sumio return undeterred from deadlier and deadlier jobs, decided to sign him up for the Aldenard Assassin Association, a competitive and shady organization that turns hit jobs into a twisted form of blood sport. Sumio quickly climbed the ranks, hitting number 7 in mere weeks.

 On a seemingly innocuous job, Sumio encountered another hitman, a lalafell cloaked in dark green garb. He thought they wanted to claim his bounty before him, unfortunately the rival hitman was actually after Sumio. The lalafell attacked quickly before Sumio could react, and left large lacerations in several critical spots on Sumios body, before leaving behind nothing but Sumios soon to be corpse and a flyer for a combat bootcamp in Shirogane. Dai Bo, getting paranoid having lost Linkshell communications with his talent, left for the location specified in the jobs dossier, only to find Sumio lying unconscious next to his mark, who was also unconscious. Dai Bo rushed Sumio to the nearest medical facility with his unconscious mark, thinking it would make them both look less conspicuous. Unfortunately, news broke of the mark being the missing child to a rather wealthy family, and it was clear her injuries were from an assassination attempt. Since Sumio was left with similar wounds, it was assumed that Dai Bo was the assailant to both Sumio and the mark. Dai Bo left the bootcamp flyer with Sumio in hopes that, in lieu of Dai Bo's guidance, Sumio could seek out his assailant by following this flyer.

 The mark would later be identified as a run-away miqo'te girl with beastly features. Her tribal name is, to this day, unknown, but she answered to "Blue" - which she spelled as "Bloo". The person who had put the hit out on her was her own parents. When asked why, she didn't have an explanation.

 It took some time for Sumio to recover his assassination attempt, but once he was discharged and free to leave, he immediately set out for Ward 24 of Shirogane, as specified on the flyer. His prior mark, Bloo, insisted on joining him. What they found left Sumio confused, as the building occupying the specified plot was advertised as a tavern with an absurdly obscure Twin Adders affiliate company logo in the windows. Upon showing the flyer to the main proprietor, a dwarven Miqo'te woman by the name of Shishiro Sol Shiro, it was explained that the tavern was a front for a vigilante group and combat bootcamp. Upon inquiring about any lalafellin students of the bootcamp, Master Shishiro was quick to explain that she'd never had any lalafells under her discipline, and further warned that if Sumio was to get revenge on somebody, it would be far easier to pay her to do it for him. Eventually a happy medium was struck and it was decided that Sumio and Bloo would both become the militias newest junior operatives.

oh, crystal be good!

 Suns and Moons would go by, and while Sumio was feeling more confident in his ability, even feeling as though he'd surpassed his former self, Master Shishiro seemed firmly unimpressed. During a conversation about possible avenues to furthering his progress, Master Shishiro suggested a method she'd seen another Disciple of hers use, the utilization of Soul Crystals as a method of inheriting the memories and abilities of warriors past. Master Shishiro explained that her disciple Demira Waveheart, believed to be the Warrior of Light, often picked up new weapons quicker by using Soul Crystals given to her by other masters, and that Master Shishiro had a cache of Soul Crystals she had "made" herself. Sumio was unfamiliar with the concept of a Soul Crystal to begin with, let alone the possibility of manufacturing them, and therefore was undeterred. If his master suggested the method, then he would trust her.

 Master Shishiro presented a box of blackened Soul Crystals to Sumio and urged him to only handle one at a time. Sumio cautiously took a blackened crystal in his hand and let it warm up in his palm. Shortly thereafter, his hand involuntarily clenched in pain, as visages of mangled beasts on strange floating islands seared through his mind. Once he regained control of himself, Sumio flung the crystal on the ground and gave his master a ravenously scared and bitter look, but she quickly assured him, and calmly asked for his hand. The two maintained perfect eye contact as he extended his hand downward for his master to grab. She held it for an extended period of time, making Sumio question the purpose of this, before she demanded he looked down at it. It was covered in a thick layer of ice, but he hadn't felt a thing. He was perfectly fine as far as he was aware. It was clear what the crystal had done. In a flash, he was as battle hardened as a seasoned Dark Knight.

Three preludes (Bonus shishiro Chapter)

 Unbeknownst to Sumio even to this day, the Manufactured Soul Crystals created by Master Shishiro are part of the Daishiroma Project, started by her former colleague, Zarg, who had seen such a potential in Shishiro at one point in her life, that he insisted she be cloned or be the basis of a genetically altered offspring to create the Ultimate Sorcerer. Shishi believes her tremendous power in White Magic is because of the pain she endured in her late adolescence as a Dark Knight being consumed by the inner abyss. While she was hesitant to the idea of cloning or breeding, she and Zarg had concocted the idea of Manufactured Soul Crystals for the sake of implanting the memories of being consumed by the inner abyss. While Soul Crystals usually harbor the soul of the dead, Shishi had no intention of dying yet, but by injecting memories of her pain simultaneous to the souls of other living beings, she thought she could create something similar to a Soul Crystal of her own being. When beasts souls didn't suffice, Shishiro knew that human sacrifices would be the only thing that could work, but wasn't ready to resort to that. Not yet. 

 As it is known, Zarg and his wife, Krishna, went MIA long ago, and Shishiro is still unsure if they are alive to this day. Having lost so much man power, and in a desperate need of soldiers equal to herself in skill to survive and make a living, she decided to reopen the Daishiroma Project. She took to Kugane streets in search of an absolute lost cause - someone who she felt she could mercifully and morally take the life of. She eyed the occasional petty bum and narcotic abuser that would wander the streets in search of sustenance, shelter, or their next hit, and wondered who deserved to die the most. If anyone deserved to die. If she, herself, deserved to live, and if this project was even worth the trouble. The man she chose for her first experiment was shockingly willing to die. He said he had lost everything coming to Kugane in hope of opportunity, finding only poverty and pain. That if she didn't kill him, that he'd do it himself, but that he really ought to be of some use one last time, and insisted that Shishi use his body and soul however she felt necessary. The exchange left her sickened, though whether by herself or the situation, she couldn't discern. And so the seal was broken. She'd plunged a dagger into the mans chest and left the Manufactured Soul Crystal by his bedside to channel his soul into. In that moment, she felt the pain of her childhood, the pain of her adolescence, and the pain of the moment, and channeled it into the crystal as it lost all hue and glow. She burned the nameless mans body and tossed his ashes off the nearby shore. She had no way of knowing if the crystal would work, and she had no intention of ever crafting another one in such a manner. The Daishiroma Project was closed once again. She represses her first sacrifice for the project to this day.

 Shishiro took up the moniker Master Shishiro, Goddess of Magic and began vetting new members of the NYAH Company by running a bootcamp, the most successful students of which were rewarded with a job alongside her. This, unfortunately, was not refilling the ranks she'd lost nearly as fast or effectively as she'd hoped, and thus for a third time, the Daishiroma Project was opened. This time, however, she didn't have to kill anybody, herself. She'd heard whispers of an assassination organization back home in Eorzea. High level contracts were open, no paperwork needed. If she could steal bodies from other peoples hit jobs, she felt as though she had a slightly more moral method of manufacturing Soul Crystals. And now, she even has pupils desperate to grow stronger, who would willingly test them after creation. Ideally, she thought, she would recruit one of these high ranked assassins under her own employ, and use the crystals on them for maximum efficacy. Although, the setup would be specific. Most of these hotshot assassins have managers, and don't take kindly to being poached, although on paper this seemed a minor obstacle. All she'd need to do is separate an assassin from their manager, leave them vulnerable, make them think that joining her was their own idea, and then trick them into feeling so weak that they'd need "special help", all without being caught. Difficult? Sure. Impossible? Evidently not.