Kano Masamune

The new boy who gets to join my PMD-G babs!  I love him so much, and for whatever reason I got the idea and inspiration to start this when I got him >w<

Background

     In one of the mountainous areas of the Shinwa region, a small village of pokemon resides.  The people there are wary of anything unfamiliar and are quick to avoid or dismiss that which they do not trust.  Unfortunately for one unlucky Totodile, he was born with a cursed name surrounded by superstitions that caused the villagers to avoid him like the plague.
     Born into the Masamune family, Kano was unable to really get to know his family.  As a baby, his family was said to have been nearly completely killed off, the child managing to escape the crime.  Because of the superstitions and wariness of the villagers, the child was not taken in to anyone's home, though they kept him safe from a distance until he could fend for himself out of a sense of pity for the boy who had lost everything before he knew it was gone.  He grew up on the streets, completing odd jobs for the villagers in exchange for basic necessities like food and clothes.  The one article of clothing that never left his side, however, was the yellow cloth that he had been wrapped in as a baby.  How he managed to keep track of the cloth throughout the years is a mystery even to himself, but he was glad to have at least something connected to his family, feeling a slight warmth from it.
     As he completed odd jobs for the villagers, he began to feel a bond with the local blacksmith who was the only one to not grimace at the sight of his bright blue hair.  He became friends with the man and saw him as a mentor of sorts, being allowed to train with the swords the man forged and even being shown a few pointers about how to fight.  There was something about holding the finely crafted weapons that felt natural to Kano and he quickly became a skilled swordsman.  For the first time, it seemed as though things weren't so bad and the upbeat boy thought that perhaps by being a swordsman, the villagers would see him in a different and more friendly light.  He thought that maybe whatever grudge they had against him would eventually go away.
     That's what he thought.
     On a particularly cold night, the village was raided by bandits.  Kano took his weapon, prepared to lose his life to protect the village that had rejected him his whole life.  He joined the blacksmith's side as he seemed to be facing against the bandit leader, prepared to assist him in battle.  But the blacksmith wasn't fighting the man.  Instead, when he saw Kano he offered the boy as payment in exchange for the village being spared, talking about how the Totodile was skilled with a sword and would do whatever they told him to.  Kano was so shocked by the words that he didn't even offer any resistance as the bandits took him away from the village, feeling something in his mind shatter.  Perhaps it was the illusion of friendship he thought he had with the blacksmith?  Perhaps it was the hope of someone truly caring about him?  Whatever it was, he felt he lost a piece of himself and clutched the cloth he now wore as a scarf to remind himself of the warmth that he now felt like he could never obtain.
     Working for the bandits was rough on the teenager, following their commands but refusing to use his blade to end a life.  This led to several nights where he went to sleep battered and hungry, the harsh punishment of being treated as nothing more than a tool.  While living in these conditions, he learned just how cruel people could be to each other and how few people there were in the world who were willing to protect others.  He felt powerless, unable to overcome the bandits due to their numbers and cumulative strength.  He had nearly given up on hoping for someone to help him, knowing that he himself had committed a multitude of crimes under the commands of the bandits.  That is, until he heard a story that rekindled the flame of hope in his heart.  A story about a family of samurai that had lived in the mountains in some remote village.  The story goes that the family had been assassinated for protecting someone that was supposed to be eliminated by a royal family that had control of nearly the entire mountain range.  That family of samurai, known for their terrifying power that was rumored to be the gift of demons, went by the name Masamune.
     Hearing this story, Kano believed that the samurai family was *his* family.  It had to be and explained many things about his time in the village.  Why the villagers were so afraid of him, why it felt so natural for him to weild a blade, and why the name Masamune resonated so strongly in his mind.  At that moment, he felt a renewed sense of purpose; to track down his family's killers and take revenge against those who stole his family from him.  Mustering up as much strength and courage as he could, he ran away from the bandits and barely managed to escape.
     After his escape, the young man travelled from town to town, trying to learn as much as he could about the story and anything that might relate to his family.  His upbeat personality returned to him during his travels as people treated him like another person, nothing more and nothing else.  This simple act of not being treated like a curse helped to restore his belief in others.  While travelling and gathering information, he was told that Shinwa City was the place he wanted to be.  He made a beeline for the city after hearing that if there was anyone who would know more about the story of his family, it would be someone in that massive cluster of people from all over the region.
     Arriving in the city was a shock for Kano, as he had no money and had only been surviving off of the kindness of others and exchanging his services for goods as he had done as a child.  After a whole day of trying to find a business that he could make such an exchange, the Totodile meandered through the streets unsure of what to do.  As he mused over his options, he bumped into a small girl.  Apologizing profusely for not watching where he was going, he learned that the girl's name was Reiko after she managed to stutter it out and that she was on her way to enroll in the police academy.  Finding out that the police had access to an abundance of information, he rolled with it and said that he was going to be doing the same thing.  While his ultimate goal for joining is to find more information about his family's assassins, he decided to do his best as an officer to protect the people of Shinwa City.

Trivia

- Proclaims that he is a samurai, although no one believes him
- No one has ever seen his swordsmanship
- His bandana is the cloth that he was wrapped in as a baby, which was the only time his mother held him.  He still remembers her warmth through the bandana and becomes paranoid if he doesn't know where it is
- His tail wags when he's happy
- His desk is across from Reiko's
- He gets scolded often for goofing off
- He enjoys Alastair's stories from his past with Freya
- Got special permission for his uniform to preserve his "samurai spirit"