Bai Hu Chao

"The path of a warrior involves many a stops to develop your spirit."
"Well I'm about to stop to satisfy my stomach."
"...good start, Chao."

Voice: Jonathan Young

Musical theme: Survivor - Eye of the Tiger (cover above)

The full of life and impatient master of martial arts - Chao is a full package that mixes composure with chaos and somehow makes it work. Having a tiger for his spirit guide (and a name that means literally white tiger's claw), he's an intelligent and majestic creature, who can however snap and go full ferocious if triggered to. His surface behaviour may give an impression of him being dumber than he actually is. Constantly talking back to Wang in a seemingly disrespectful way, calling his sisters and friends names - he often comes off as harsh and careless. He, however, has great feelings for all of his nearest and dearest, revealing a compassionate and tender side, and is extremely protective of their well-being. He needs their love more than anything, to the point he casually comes up to his people just to demand some attention and a portion of snuggles. He's also a sucker for an adventure, or just some good time in general. He's constantly driven to experience and achieve, and when presented a good idea, he's often the first person to say "let's do this!". 

Wang is a teacher through and through. Emanating an aura of respectability, he naturally collects people's attention and convinces them to follow his instructions... Unless those people are called Hu Chao and currently have better things to do. Wang, however, never lost his temper with the man - and that's both for the reasons of his blameless demeanour... And that he has grown very fond of his human host over the years. Humans in general are quite a soft spot of his, and all of their ways keep fascinating him. His states of curiosity are usually the moments when his mask of grace and royalty cracks, and when it's the easiest to break the ice with him.

It all began when certain Ancient creatures began looking for their own, new path in their world. And so, the Tigers decided to befriend mortals rather than fight them, and share their knowledge about the spirit world. They became a sort of royalty among the ancient ones, at least in people's understanding - admired and celebrated rather than feared. Soon enough, they began being widely associated with the Hu family - guiding them to achieve higher spiritual understanding and become known and respected as martial arts masters. One of the Tigers, Wang, became especially invested in the training - believing that humans, despite their fragile and mortal vessels, were actually capable of great things. He was fascinated by their ways, cultures and patterns of thinking. His particular interest was eventually captured by a young man named Chao... Although it wasn't exactly for his outstanding performance in training.

The man was indeed a skilled warrior. He had the strength to outforce the fiercest enemies, the smarts to embrace tactical thinking, and the drive and determination to become better and greater each day. However, focusing on improvement of his body and mind, he had lost the balance between them and the spiritual aspects the Tigers were aiming to teach him in the first place. Wang didn't want such potential to go to waste - and began personally training Chao, forming a strong friendship between them in the process.

Chao understood his mistake and acknowledged how much he had missed out on - still, the training kept being a struggle for him and his impatient nature. Wang refused to give up on him, however. Eventually, he offered the man a new kind of agreement; a fusion of sorts: a much closer connection to the spirit world in exchange for a better insight into a human's mind. Wang gave up on most of his powers - having most of them collected by the other tigers into an orb - to instead experience an actual life through Chao's eyes.

This union didn't go unnoticed, as soon Chao was invited to personally serve his royal cousins, the Haninozuka family. He became a personal guard to the young princess Michiyo... Even though, as it turned out, she didn't need all that much. His occupation quickly changed to simply a friendship and mutual support. He was there when Michiyo was summoned to become the Anchor - and it was at this point when they decided to part ways. With no hard feelings, and with Michiyo's approval, he left the court to travel and find his own, new adventures.