Cantomancer (Kashi Utau)

name: Kashi Utau
nickname(s): Birdie, Siren, Alien boy
alias: Cantomancer

   ENGLISH: canto
One of the chief divisions of a long poem; a book.

   LATIN: cantō 
- I sing (all senses).
- I enchant, or call forth by charms

   -mancer
A practitioner of a specific type of divination.

age | birthday: 15 | 12th of July

gender: male
height: 165 cm
weight: 61kg
blood type: A
unusual features: 
- Green skin
- Black sclera with white iris and pupil
- Pointed teeth
- Unusual ear shape

quirk name: Lyrics

quirk description: 
Uses song lyrics to make things happen - this can summon objects, give him additional powers or effect his surroundings.
The elements he summons are active and real as long as he's singing that particular song.

• His quirk is not always active and he can be very selective with what part of the lyrics he wants to bring out.
• A song can be about love, but if it mentions fire he can use that to summon fire.
• A song that demands more from the singer is generally much more powerful in it's delivery.

quirk type: Emitter

quirk drawbacks: 

• Even a subtle mistake in lyrics completely cancels out his power, his lyrics have to be absolutely perfect. The strength and function of the quirk also greatly depend on him being able to hit the right notes as he sings. The more off-tune he is, the more useless his attacks are. 
• The amount of emotion with which he sings also effects the power level. A more powerful summon would require a lot of force and feeling in Kashi's song delivery in order to be summoned properly. This takes a toll on his voice and energy, and he usually needs to take a break from singing after such an attack.
• He can't start singing mid-verse in order to get to the desired words faster, however he doesn't have to start singing at the first verse. He can't mix up verses or it counts as wrong lyrics.
• He also needs to be aware of where his summoned things are - however he doesn't necessarily have to see them. This mostly prevents him from summoning a creature to chase down an escaping villain.

weaknesses: 

• Does not have limitless voice. His voice can grow weak the more he uses it, and a raspy voice makes his attacks much weaker.
• A short lapse of memory when it comes to lyrics can be deadly if it happens in a bad situation.
• If the lyrics aren't exactly right, his attacks disappear.
• He can only summon things that really exist.
• All effects and summoned objects disappear as soon as the song ends.
• He can't create his own songs - he must use songs that were published by other people.
• He often has to decide between skipping ahead to a certain verse or singing the entire song - the former allows him to use the power he needs faster, but shortens the song, while the latter takes longer for him to reach the desired power, but he can utilise other lyrics that occurs up until that point.
• Getting physically exhausted makes his singing poorer, meaning he has to balance his quirk and his fighting carefully.

fighting style: 
Due to the nature of his quirk, Kashi had to build up where it couldn't protect him. He has excellent martial arts skills that he uses for both assault and defence.
He can even enhance his physical abilities if he sings a fitting song - for a limited time he could have incredible strength or fire powers if he could find and memorise the song lyrics that could give it to him.

If it's possible, he tries to stay away from physical combat and sing to fight his enemies with his quirk only, however it would usually take another hero or two to give him a good cover so that he doesn't get interrupted. Sadly he can't use this quirk alone and expect to stay unnoticed, due to obvious reasons.

His regular approach to battle is by starting to sing from a far enough distance to be able to strike at least a few times before his opponent got to him, and then proceeding to either fight them off or run to a different place to get more time and sing more attacks.

He prefers using English songs for his attacks, at it gives him an advantage over his opponents due to the element of surprise - if they don't know what he's singing, they don't know what to expect.

special moves:
The Iron Horseman- Kashi is generally opposed to summoning living things as he questions the ethics of it, however he thought that this particular song sounded like an ally. When he first summoned him, he greeted him with written sings to communicate - such as "Are you okay with me summoning you?" and "Would you fight for me?", which is very reminiscent of what his father would do.
The Iron Horseman is an extremely powerful and fast physical attacker, using guns, lasso and, of course, his giant iron horse to take down villains.

stats:
Power 3/5 C
Speed 4/5 B
Technique 5/5 A
Intelligence 5/5 A
Cooperativeness 4/5 B

personality: 
When entering UA, Kashi at first came across aloof and a bit pretentious, but quickly grew more relaxed and approachable in the school environment.
However, he was still very stubborn and had a hard time settling on a compromise. He was quick to anger when it came to disagreements, as his pride didn't allow him to back down, which didn't make him aggressive but incredibly condescending.
Eventually he has learned to adjust and correct his behaviour to fit in better after spending some time with others. While previously he would present his strategies and solutions as indisputable and expecting everyone to follow them, he learned to instead present them in an appealing and tempting manner, as opposed to outright demanding others to follow. He also learned to let loose and shed some of the shell he was raised into by his mother, letting his more relaxed and kind nature show with time.

He is an extremely intelligent person and is very willing to help out his classmates with school work or any other practice they might need. He tends to show great generosity from time to time, as well as active loyalty. Despite being of a fairly short stature and not even remotely the strongest kid in class, he will often be the first to stand up for his own, feeling a great deal of honour and alliance - especially if he gets to be the leader. The more admiration he gets, the more loyal he is in return, as he feels it to be his duty.

Being a class rep, he feels great responsibility to his classmates and shows true care, but it's often mixed up with his somewhat bossy attitude. If he sees a classmate in distress he will generally see if it's in his power to help them. While the snobby approach of his high class upbringing can annoy some classmates, they also can't help not to at least a little admire him and all his achievements, and acknowledge his warm and genuine personality.

Kashi likes attention and he gets a lot of it from girls, as not only is his quirk gorgeous, but he himself is a good looking boy, as well as polite and high class. Despite being charming and occasionally responding by flirting, which pinned him as somewhat of a womanizer, he doesn't hold any actual interest in starting a romantic relationship, as he doesn't have any feelings for any of the girls he meets - much to his dismay.

His personal development started rapidly after he gained a group of his first friends at school and it filled him with joy and peace. He became less and less like his stifling mother, and more like his friendly father, being very attentive and compassionate to his friends, and eventually all classmates.
This has helped him let loose and truly embrace his own nature, as opposed to the one that was pushed upon him since birth.

positive traits: Casual, intelligent, generous, loyal, charismatic
negative traits: Stubborn, proud, condescending

history: 
His father is locally a fairly popular pro hero, while his mother is successful in some other profession.
Kashi shares his quirk with his mother, but she never polished it and feels somewhat ashamed for it, so she projected her insecurity on Kashi. She had him polish it as much as possible and as soon as possible, in order that he wouldn't 'waste' the quirk like she did. This resulted in Kashi having every week full of classes, training and clubs ever since he could remember - all of which he had no choice in. He was essentially groomed into becoming a perfect son for his mother, as opposed to being able to make his own decisions.
Because of this, he always felt somewhat disconnected from everything he learned, as he never had a choice in it, which made singing a chore for him, and made him hate it when people would ask him to sing, or give him song requests. As a child he liked to sing, but his mother would continuously jump in and correct him until it became so frustrating for him, that he stopped singing in front of other people (except his dad).
On one hand, Kashi is glad that he learned to control his quirk and body well thanks to this extreme training, but on the other hand he hates the fact that the reason for his training was someone else's insecurity, and that he was essentially treated as a doll. This was the reason he adapted a more rebellious persona later on, wanting to pave his own path.

His father's quirk - the summoning of ghosts - can be perceived as villainous, but he is a very jovial person and spends a lot of his home time with Kashi (he knows that his mom stresses him out and 'steals' him away), so Kashi learned from early age that scary quirk does not a scary person make. Knowing his dad made Kashi very accepting and understanding of people with 'villainous' quirks. The times he spent with his dad in his younger years are his best childhood memories.

The way he spends his time with his parents is very different. His mother, who was raised rich, likes to enjoy the finer things in life and takes Kashi with her to live theatre or fancy ball parties, while his father likes to maintain contact with the normal world and wants Kashi to do so as well, as it would be best for a hero to not have his head clouded by only knowing the worldview of a rich child. He takes Kashi to movies, conventions, amusement parls or other social events he thinks could be fun. Kashi greatly treasures their time together and is always excited to be able to spend time as a normal kid, but due to his mother's strict and fancy upbringing, he often doesn't come across like he enjoys 'common life' much.

Being raised rich and sheltered, he never had friends until he got into UA.
He's extremely excited about finally having friends and being surrounded by new people, but he tries (and succeeds) to play it cool.

He was homeschooled and raised in a very proper manner, provided with best education to boost the effectiveness of his quirk.
The exceptional preparation he was given before entering UA has made him a bit of a stuck up person at first, but like many of his mindset, he was quickly put in his place and shown that he has a ways to go before he can call himself a pro.

While his first impression made some students a bit wary, the relationships he had with his class quickly turned normal and casual.

Once 'released' from his mother's arms, Kashi is extremely determined to create his own path and succeed in his own way and on his own terms. This tenacity served him well as an additional boost, as it was somewhat hard for him to compete with many other students with more physical quirks. He's very proud and wants people to remember his name, which led him to studying and memorising bigger and greater songs that showcase both his vocal range and the variety and adaptability of his quirk. 

For him to eventually accept his friend's invitations to karaoke was a huge breakthrough, as he finally really felt like he could do with his gift as he pleased, and no one was standing in his way anymore. That was part of the the reason he wanted to go to UA as well - to distance himself from his previous lifestyle and claim his quirk.

hero career/origin:
Kashi never really chose to become a hero - instead, ever since he was little, he was groomed to become one. That ever occurred to him, as he liked the idea of becoming one, but that idea didn't sprout from his own mind, but was planted by his mom. 'Training to become a hero' became such a core part of his growing up that, should someone ask him WHY he wants to be a hero, he probably wouldn't be sure what to answer.
Once asked about it, he gave it a lot of thought is that and questioned his life choices for some time. While he was groomed into it, he probably would've chosen this career either way, because he always looked up to his father, and when they walked around the city, people always seemed at ease to know that a hero was in the area.

Remembering that, he realized that what he strives for is, to help make people feel safe and calm even in a bad situation. Being a very protective person by nature, he wants to keep innocent people safe from harm. During his hero career, Kashi does a LOT of patrols because of that, and is always happy to interact with people, to make sure that they are aware that heroes are here, kind and gentle and ever watchful.

When All Might retired, Kashi partook in and helped organizing several free concerts to raise people's morale, and did plenty of charity work and general community service to do all in his power to remind people that hope, peace and justice are not going to fall just because the Symbol of Peace stepped down. He was a fairly popular local hero by that time, about 21 years of age, but his going above and beyond to keep the public feeling safe had greatly raised his popularity and hero status.

The entire Utau hero line (consisting thus far from Kashi's father and his two sons) puts a lot of effort into making the civilians feel safe and reminding them that heroes are watching over them. They are very big on public relations, and the Utau hero office is very accessible, as long as someone doesn't go in just to disturb the work process.

place of birth: Tokyo
nationality: Japanese
ethnicity: Japanese

🌟 MORE INFO: 29 CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS

trivia: 

• Unsurprisingly, Kashi is an excellent singer. He can sing tenor, bass and everything in between.
• When speaking he's generally quiet, however he has a very full and melodic voice which demands attention.
• He drinks a lot of water.
• He's fluent in English and French, which helps him with pronunciation of foreign lyrics and gives him a bigger arsenal of songs to choose from. He hardly ever uses Japanese songs in combat, as he prefers using songs that his opponents won't understand.
• Hitting puberty has greatly sent back his quirk progress, as his voice broke and dropped, putting him on unknown grounds.
• He's very careful not to eat or drink things that could hurt his throat. He avoids cold foods and drinks, and very spicy foods.
• His casual attire is generally punk in nature.
• He wears a surgeon mask in public so that he doesn't catch other people's germs
• He spends a lot of time on music-related forums, looking for new songs to add to his arsenal
• He kind of likes it when people have assumptions about him or underestimate him, as it allows him to blow their mind. (People often assume he can't sing as well as he claims, that he can't hit certain tunes or notes, etc)
• While he loves punk rock (because it's easy for him to sing) he doesn't actually have a musical preference. He claims he can't afford limiting himself within a genre he just listens to everything.
• He has a song for every occasion.
• He is artsy and loves to look good.
• He often switches up his battle playlist in order to remain unpredictable.
• He usually chews mint gum, which stimulates his vocal chords.
• Kashi loves musicals (animated as well) because they always have themed and catchy songs that he can quickly recall if he's in a bind. (He is a fan of Disney and Broadway)
• He also really enjoys watching anime and cartoons in general but is embarrassed to admit that.
• He LOVES duets.

hobbies: 

• Singing (clearly)
• Internet surfing
• Travelling
• Karaoke

likes: musicals, punk rock, praise, the internet, lizards, soup, body mods, mint
dislikes: smokers, yelling (non-singing), auto-tune, people bugging him to showcase his quirk, forgetfulness, dancing

outfit info:
His outfit was one of the few things that Kashi got to create all on his own, without his mother's input, and because of that, it holds very important sentimental value to him. He designed it in secret and didn't show it to her for approval before sending it in. He gave it plenty of thought, and designed a very fun and upbeat costume with his favourite colours. The design he came up with speaks greatly about his inner nature, which was greatly oppressed by his strict upbringing.

• Because his quirk doesn't work well with stealth at all, he decided to don vivid colours for the hell of it.
• He has music players on both his arms, just in case one gets broken. He has a playlist of his favourite combat songs on it.
• The outer part of the music player bracers is made of an extremely hard material and is used to deflect attacks.
• He has an ear piece to hear himself sing. This helps him hold a better tune.
• He wears thick skin-tight black shirt and pants below the vest and shorts for some extra protection, it doesn't rip easily.

Kashi did not like Brio at all when they first met, as the boy would never give him peace. Being two kids in class with a music-based quirk, Brio was decided that they will make a great team and instantly wanted to be Kashi's friend. However due to their personalities clashing (which Brio didn't mind at all), Kashi originally couldn't stand the American.

Brio continuously treated him as a friend for months until Kashi finally gave in and decided to return the affection, albeit in teeny tiny doses. His interest was piqued when he realized that Brio was a man very willing to follow orders, which suited Kashi's leader-type personality a lot, and with that the begrudging acceptance of his friendship turned more willing.
This 'not on equal levels' kind of 'friendship' didn't last very long through, as the more time he spent with Brio, the more Kashi genuinely warmed up to him. Despite being nearly polar opposites and many of Brio's qualities still irritated Kashi, the latter eventually started considering Brio a very close friend.

Early on in their growing friendship, Kashi offered to tutor Brio for the final exams, as his bad grades could cause him to fail the class, and at that point Kashi didn't want to lose him.
He expected it to be really hard, as he assumed Brio was dumb and won't learn well, but was pleasantly surprised when Brio picked up on things pretty smoothly.
This also helped a lot with their friendship, as Kashi became immensely more open to it once he realized that Brio wasn't stupid as he previously assumed. He actually felt a bit bad about underestimating his classmate so much.

After graduation and when receiving their pro hero licenses, the two did in fact make that great team that Brio predicted on their first meeting, and they remained very close friends, saving each other's lives numerous times.
They also have regular gaming nights, and before he got a girlfriend, Kashi often crashed at Brio's place, as he hated being home all alone.

Shinrei is Kashi's beloved and popular father. Kashi had always absolutely adored him and always looked up to him, and proceeds to do so even as an adult. Shinrei and Kashi are quite similar by nature, and they get along wonderfully. The days Kashi got to spend with his father were the best in his over-worked childhood.

Due to his job as a pro hero and paranormal investigator, Shinrei doesn't get to spend much time at home, but he generally devotes a big chunk of his free time to catch up with Kashi and do all he can to take part in his son's life.

WIP relationships:
Tero Shiryoku
Aya

(GROWN-UP) Ganbareko Utau
(GROWN-UP) Hibiki Utau
(GROWN-UP) Tenshi Utau
(GROWN-UP) Setsuko Utau
(GROWN-UP) Sierra Socorro