Profile
A scion of the affluent Ōba family in the Nest of District 3. Yozo was the youngest child of his generation in his family. Since childhood, he's always felt so alienated from everyone; not in a way that he demanded attention or anything, but he felt that people always put on masks. He doubted anything he grew up with. He couldn't understand why things were just the way they were. He thought of it all only to come out with no answer. He felt the way he acted was unreal. Calculated. So, if he was going to put on a mask, he'd put on a funny one!
And yet despite acting like a stupid child, it did little to mask he was a very talented child. He was artistically talented, and incredibly intelligent to boot. Yet he grew up feeling all this talent was just a part of his act. They were not innate. He was an outstanding student, and yet he felt that it was just "formality" that he had to achieve in order to be "accepted" among people.
Throughout adolescence, he continued to excel, but he never felt any better about his place in life. He had to keep up mis "mask", but what was he underneath? Something... Evil? Inhuman? What? Why did he have to keep it on? His acting the way he does led him to meet many different kinds of people, many of which took advantage of him in more ways than one. People would say he had a... "Distant charm" or whatever. He didn't understand that. He only knew that people just easily talked to him.
He was on his way to art school when an associate of his suggested he would make a great Fixer. He had a look in his eye that could get him far. He was also talented in many things other than art. Without much of an ambition and just going with the flow really, Yozo studied to become a Fixer. His family did not know about it. He didn't feel like they would care to know.
True enough, he was able to shine as a Fixer. He easily took to learning the blade, and it was a little scary for his coworkers because of how... different— he was from the rest of the Ōba family. Even when he started killing people, his face was blank all the same. They thought he would be scared, want to run, but no. He just weirdly took it all so easily.
As he rose in rank as a Fixer, he knew that the way people looked at him started to change. He had to change the way he acted, the mask he showed to people. But equally, he came to learn more about how he viewed people. He wasn't really jaded, but more, enlightened. He actually started to develop some empathy the wider his world view became, and the more he interacted with his coworkers.
He became respected, and it was a burden.
But it was to keep up the mask, after all. He felt estranged from everyone around him, and he felt that his empathy could perhaps help him understand his place in the world better. It helped him reach the deepest parts of people but not out of the goodness of his heart. He would lie if he said he felt nothing. Because for once in his life he felt something other than emptiness. Yet it still wasn't happiness. It was complex. He had to think about it. What did he feel with others?
Eventually he came to a conclusion that his empathy is just his new face to the world, the one that would get him far. It was because of his nature that he came to learn and understand the world better and he started knowing what to say to others. To himself, he was just acting. To others, he was wisened.
He was only surprised when he was named Director of Shi Association South Branch Section 3. It was... something. But that was when everything started to become a burden to him. He kind of went through an existential crisis after years of becoming a Fixer and coming to know the nature of people and the City. They were all just beasts in human skin. And yet it still hurt. He was still abused and taken advantage of. It began to hurt. His indifference caught up to him, and whatever higher power was above him kept using and abusing him.
He was the Director Yozo. Talented, can get the job done, he was outstanding. Simply a shame that he didn't get a higher promotion, no? But still, he had the attitude where he took everything with a smile and never complained once. Now that he was getting tired, he started thinking about the purpose of his life.
Was he always born to be used like this? He recounted his childhood. His teen years. Everything. While it was only natural to be in someone's shadow for the rest of your life, was he always going to be an animal? Was he always going to be a commodity? Is that what it meant to be human? Is this what he was destined for?
So he tried to take his own life. Numerous times. If he had no true purpose, what then was the importance of his existence?
But, people from above always found him, resuscitated him, repaired him.
Your job isn't done, Director Ōba. It’s what he always heard.
Job. Of course. He had no purpose but to be fodder. What job? Director? No.
After the White Nights and Dark Days, Yozo felt... no different, really. Did he feel any more despair for his own life? No. He just began to see the world change around him, while he in his heart remained the same. Bleak, hopeless, tired. And yet in the chaos he finally saw a way to escape it all.
The Blue Reverberation came to him, asking him for a favor. Knowing the person he is, Yozo simply smiled and asked "What can I do for you?"
"Give me Thelma." Was the reply. Simple and jovial, too. "That's all I ask. They trust you, don't they?"
Yozo felt no attachment to the job. Not until he came to learn Yujin was sent to the Library and died there. Did he have a connection to her? Well, Director to Director. There was, of course. That was the extent of it. Anything beyond that, Yozo felt it was all formality. Yet something came over him that gave him the resolve to surrender Thelma to Argalia.
And so he did. Argalia did let him go, but he said he would keep in touch. It's just business. To see Thelma get filleted into fine slices moved him. For the first time in his life (he believed), he felt satisfaction. If he was satisfied, it surely would be enough right? So in this temporary bliss he felt, he went on a killing spree as his last hurrah before he truly tried to die.
Only for him to wake up in a K Corp facility, faced by the Purple Tear telling him he only had one more job to do.
And yet despite acting like a stupid child, it did little to mask he was a very talented child. He was artistically talented, and incredibly intelligent to boot. Yet he grew up feeling all this talent was just a part of his act. They were not innate. He was an outstanding student, and yet he felt that it was just "formality" that he had to achieve in order to be "accepted" among people.
Throughout adolescence, he continued to excel, but he never felt any better about his place in life. He had to keep up mis "mask", but what was he underneath? Something... Evil? Inhuman? What? Why did he have to keep it on? His acting the way he does led him to meet many different kinds of people, many of which took advantage of him in more ways than one. People would say he had a... "Distant charm" or whatever. He didn't understand that. He only knew that people just easily talked to him.
He was on his way to art school when an associate of his suggested he would make a great Fixer. He had a look in his eye that could get him far. He was also talented in many things other than art. Without much of an ambition and just going with the flow really, Yozo studied to become a Fixer. His family did not know about it. He didn't feel like they would care to know.
True enough, he was able to shine as a Fixer. He easily took to learning the blade, and it was a little scary for his coworkers because of how... different— he was from the rest of the Ōba family. Even when he started killing people, his face was blank all the same. They thought he would be scared, want to run, but no. He just weirdly took it all so easily.
As he rose in rank as a Fixer, he knew that the way people looked at him started to change. He had to change the way he acted, the mask he showed to people. But equally, he came to learn more about how he viewed people. He wasn't really jaded, but more, enlightened. He actually started to develop some empathy the wider his world view became, and the more he interacted with his coworkers.
He became respected, and it was a burden.
But it was to keep up the mask, after all. He felt estranged from everyone around him, and he felt that his empathy could perhaps help him understand his place in the world better. It helped him reach the deepest parts of people but not out of the goodness of his heart. He would lie if he said he felt nothing. Because for once in his life he felt something other than emptiness. Yet it still wasn't happiness. It was complex. He had to think about it. What did he feel with others?
Eventually he came to a conclusion that his empathy is just his new face to the world, the one that would get him far. It was because of his nature that he came to learn and understand the world better and he started knowing what to say to others. To himself, he was just acting. To others, he was wisened.
He was only surprised when he was named Director of Shi Association South Branch Section 3. It was... something. But that was when everything started to become a burden to him. He kind of went through an existential crisis after years of becoming a Fixer and coming to know the nature of people and the City. They were all just beasts in human skin. And yet it still hurt. He was still abused and taken advantage of. It began to hurt. His indifference caught up to him, and whatever higher power was above him kept using and abusing him.
He was the Director Yozo. Talented, can get the job done, he was outstanding. Simply a shame that he didn't get a higher promotion, no? But still, he had the attitude where he took everything with a smile and never complained once. Now that he was getting tired, he started thinking about the purpose of his life.
Was he always born to be used like this? He recounted his childhood. His teen years. Everything. While it was only natural to be in someone's shadow for the rest of your life, was he always going to be an animal? Was he always going to be a commodity? Is that what it meant to be human? Is this what he was destined for?
So he tried to take his own life. Numerous times. If he had no true purpose, what then was the importance of his existence?
But, people from above always found him, resuscitated him, repaired him.
Your job isn't done, Director Ōba. It’s what he always heard.
Job. Of course. He had no purpose but to be fodder. What job? Director? No.
After the White Nights and Dark Days, Yozo felt... no different, really. Did he feel any more despair for his own life? No. He just began to see the world change around him, while he in his heart remained the same. Bleak, hopeless, tired. And yet in the chaos he finally saw a way to escape it all.
The Blue Reverberation came to him, asking him for a favor. Knowing the person he is, Yozo simply smiled and asked "What can I do for you?"
"Give me Thelma." Was the reply. Simple and jovial, too. "That's all I ask. They trust you, don't they?"
Yozo felt no attachment to the job. Not until he came to learn Yujin was sent to the Library and died there. Did he have a connection to her? Well, Director to Director. There was, of course. That was the extent of it. Anything beyond that, Yozo felt it was all formality. Yet something came over him that gave him the resolve to surrender Thelma to Argalia.
And so he did. Argalia did let him go, but he said he would keep in touch. It's just business. To see Thelma get filleted into fine slices moved him. For the first time in his life (he believed), he felt satisfaction. If he was satisfied, it surely would be enough right? So in this temporary bliss he felt, he went on a killing spree as his last hurrah before he truly tried to die.
Only for him to wake up in a K Corp facility, faced by the Purple Tear telling him he only had one more job to do.