Basic Info
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Name
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Nichibotsu Ayuju (formerly Rai Remi)
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Age
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20
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Role
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Errant ‘Demon Slayer’, historian/researcher
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Breathing Style
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Breath of Reflection
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Personality
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At a passing glance Ayu generally comes across as polite and amiable. Regardless as to which gender she presents as, she will behave similarly - though she does show a touch more bashfulness when operating as a woman and more open confidence when dressed as a man. She is extremely curious and eager for intelligent debate, and while she is generally respectful she can also be a bit of a know it all due to her confidence in her memory. Rattling off facts (often ominous or weirdly personal things she’s observed about others) with a calm expression is commonplace for her - she thinks of facts as useful icebreakers and has a hard time not injecting herself into a conversation if she hears a fallacy. New information that is demonstrably accurate and challenges her own perception of things can incite almost feverish behavior from her. When she is shown kindness she returns it ten fold, but it is difficult to get to this point with her being that she is very firm in her refusal to accept handouts or indebt herself to anyone needlessly. If her shoes break it’s her own fault for not buying sturdy ones, and as such a stranger should not feel the need to give her theirs for free. If the other person insists, she will go as far as to excuse herself to escape their hospitality (if this does not work, she will return the favor as quickly as she can) If she voluntarily allows herself to be indebted to you, it’s a sign that you’ve made a really good impression on her and she trusts you. Similarly, she does not like for others to feel indebted towards her, and will take great care to hide her unprompted acts of kindness or attribute them to other people. Ayu typically does not do anything drastic without a great deal of consideration, making her seem callous in certain situations. She has great compassion for those whose point of view have not been considered and takes her father and mentor’s teachings very seriously. She will become upset if you insult her genuinely horrible poetry and reacts with comedic bashfulness and discomfort if she is ever called ‘beautiful.’ She delights in being called ‘handsome,’ though.
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Gender
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Female but with a fluid quality, she takes no issue being referred to as a man when in disguise as one in order to move about the world, and in fact often prefers this.
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Appearance
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Ayu looks a great deal like her mother, who had been considered a beautiful woman, but like ripples in a pond alter the sky reflected upon it, so too is Ayu different. Her thick eyebrows, tan skin and unusual dusky pink hair are a point of insecurity for her - not because there’s anything inherently wrong with them but more because these are what differ from her mom (as her mother’s features- lovely almond shaped eyes and full lips, are a point of pride.) She has wide hips and a smaller bust, a reasonably muscular body and a smattering of scars littering the parts of her body that she keeps covered.
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Height
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5’5
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Likes
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Reading, debate, tea made with soba water, sunsets on water and cloud gazing, reciting haiku, elegant women and staunch men, “fun facts,”
Profile
Act I : Childhood
Ayuju was born to a once prominent samurai family of the Hiroshima Domain and originally given the name “Remi” by her parents as a way of decreeing their great expectations for her. Her father, Rai Shunsui, was a respected teacher of Buddhist philosophy. Her mother, the beautiful Rai Baisi, was a poet of some note, in particular talented in the art of haiku ( fond of the theme of ‘reflection.’)
Surrounded by such figures, the child began her studies of the humanities from the moment she could first form sentences. Though she was young, her ability to thrive in the academic world was tremendous - something she credited to her unusual ability to perfectly recall (at least on a visual level) anything she had seen - be it a page of a book or a scene she had watched play out.
Unfortunately this talent did not aid in her ability to create poetry.
Though she could quote a vast library of haiku, anything that she devised herself would always be technically correct but tragically bad. Her reputation for this and her penchant for staring off into the distance while recalling a memory led to a number of schoolyard fights. The girl became sensitive about these subjects, her desperate wish to be like her awe inspiring mother and embarrassment over the things that made her different always a needle in her side.
Still, life was good. Her father was demanding but kind. Her mother endlessly optimistic about her daughter’s potential (perhaps to the point of delusion - but Remi would never speak of that.)
Their home was a constant revolving door for visiting scholars. One frequent visitor was Adachi Chiaki, a traveling historian and philosopher as well as a peculiar man who stuck out in the young girl’s memory for the way he only ever seemed to visit at night.
As the gap widened between what she could remember and what she could actually understand - Chiaki (or as she affectionately called him, ChiChi-sensei) offered to tutor her, intrigued by her photographic memory and what fruit this talent might bear.
He was patient and wise, and she respected him greatly.
When she fell deathly ill in the midst of a mysterious plague that hit their village, he retrieved a doctor for her - a devastatingly beautiful woman with large lavender eyes that possessed no pupils. Dizzy from her fever little Remi still had enough presence of mind to feel a little jealous of the woman’s elegant femininity, but even more than that she was in awe of her incredible tenderness. She thanked her for being the last thing she saw before she slipped into unconsciousness.
That was all that she could recall of that evening - along with the lovely burnt hue of the sunset prior to Tamayo’s arrival. A hue which matched her previously black hair once she awoke - perhaps a side effect of the strange medicine.
Healed, Remi and her parents were incredibly grateful - but her miraculous recovery drew attention to the family, and furthermore attention to the visitor who only came at night.
That was the first time she learned of the concept of a ‘demon’ - the word spoken in hushed tones around the town as she passed by clutching her mentor’s hand.
When she asked ChiChi-sensei if demons truly do exist, he responded honestly that yes, they do, they do eat human flesh and many do cause terror. He waited a beat before confirming that he himself was one, but with Tamayo’s help he was able to subsist on merely blood and harm no one.
The girl reacted to this information in shock, recoiling from him in terror and running back to her family home as fast as her feet could carry her.
When she arrived she found a gruesome sight. Her parents had been brutally murdered - but not by a demon.
A man from the village stood over their unmoving bodies - already spinning some story about the suspected demon Chiaki committing the murder when he spots her, but she could see the knife still in her father’s back and knew it to belong to the man standing over him.
In a fit of anger and desperate grief (she had lost so much in one night), she grabbed the knife. She didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to hear his reasons - In the scuffle she should have been killed but found herself capable of perceiving and mirroring his movements in a way that prevented him from overpowering her despite the fact that she was a small child. In the end, a faulty step on his part led to him falling and being driven into her outheld blade.
When Chichi-sensei finally arrived, he found her drenched in blood and tears, still holding the knife as she threw herself over her parents bodies.
When she had calmed enough to hear and understand his words, he explained to her that this man had been the father of another child that Tamayo unfortunately was not able to save. In his hysterical grief the man must have blamed demons for the illness that befell them - specifically chichi-sensei, and the ones who accommodated him. Her parents.
As she processes this and the wave of clashing emotion threatens to crash against her, he offers to take her with him. To make amends and give meaning to her parents untimely demise by abandoning her name and becoming a tool to record history without the dangerous touch of bias that leads to such pain and impulsive behavior. To make the future better through recording the present untainted. She had the gift of a photographic memory, she was perfect for the role.
Still haunted by the image of the dead man’s face in his final moments, she agrees.
Act II : Adolescence
