Yuichi Okanao

Backstory:

• Yuichi grew up halfway tied to the city, halfway to the country.
• He feels similarly at home in both because his home city (Fujinomiya) is where he spent most of his time in, but the mountainous and remote region his grandfather lived was just as comforting.
• As for how he grew up…
• While in the city, he was mostly taken care of by Hatsu, his older sister by seven years. Their parents are pretty uncaring of them both, yet conversely, have pretty high standards for how they should behave and proceed in life.
• Hatsu and he aren’t looked after by really anybody, as their parents are more focused on outwardly appearing nice and well put together, instead of actually taking care of the family. This leaves them in a lot of debt since their parents buy past their means in order to appear more wealthy than they are.
• Since they’re left by themselves a lot of the time, Yuichi and Hatsu run amok in the streets and get into a lot of trouble for petty crime. They both have trouble trusting authority and especially cops due to this since there was an incident in which a cop harassed them both when Yuichi was still 8. As well as multiple incidents much later in which police brutality was a huge issue.
• Since Fujinomiya is a huge tourist attraction due to it’s proximity to Mt. Fuji, Yuichi got to meet and start learning different languages from a very early age. Hatsu only learned a little bit since she was past that important language development period.
• As for living in the actual mountain, Yuichi was taken care of by his grandfather on his mother’s side. Saying that he was taken care of is a stretch, really.
• As much as Yuichi idolizes his grandfather, the man was not kind in the slightest. He was gruff and rough, and very traditional. He’s the reason why Yuichi is so emotionally repressed and stunted. But, he’s also the reason why Yuichi has such strong survival instincts and is so independent when it comes to living on his own.
• A common practice for Yuichi was when his grandfather would take him up in his truck up the mountain and deep into the forest. Yuichi would then have to get out, wait until he couldn’t see his grandfather’s headlights anymore, and then try to make his way back to the cabin before sunrise. These were very traumatic moments for Yuichi, as they’re when he felt the most alone like no one would miss him and he’d be lost in the forest forever. This was only accelerated by the fact that he was so young at the time. His only solace from this was when he would get back to the cabin to find Hatsu waiting for him with food and water.
• One year, once Yuichi hit 11, his parents don’t send him to the woods to stay in the cabin with his grandfather. He asks about this and makes a huge fuss because they won’t tell him why they won’t let him and Hatsu go there. Eventually, they crack and tell him that his grandfather died, but not in a very kind way. He asks if they’ll get to go to his funeral, but his parents brush him off and say that it already happened.
• After that bombshell was dropped, he ran out of their house and to an abandoned building he and Hatsu used to hang out in all the time. Hatsu finds him, gives him food, and tells him that she didn’t know until today either. He thinks that she’s lying to him because she never liked their grandfather, but he still accepts her hug and her comfort.
• From here, Yuichi spends his time in Fujinomiya. He skips school a lot because he’s constantly bullied by his peers and can’t seem to find a way to cope with it. He continues talking with different kinds of tourists and learning their language, and this sparks an interest in him. So he begins to research things more actively and begins sharing the buildings he explores on the internet.
• Hatsu goes with him and joins in his series initially but ends up busy due to the fact that she’s trying to get into medical school.
• After middle school, due to the incessant bullying (most notably an incident where his and a French boy’s face were pasted over pornography and shown around the school) and the lack of interest he has in school, he chooses not to continue on to high school.
• When his parents find out about this, they flip into a rage. They deem him worthless, useless, and a disappointment and proceed to kick him out of the house. Hatsu is absolutely stunned by this and tries to fight their decision, but ultimately isn’t able to stop what they’re doing.
• Yuichi is so upset by this he just tries to take off. He takes his backpack and rides the train for as long as he is able with the money that he has. Unfortunately, this leaves him with no money to buy food and other necessities. This is the point in his life where he nearly dies of dehydration and ends up drinking sewer water. It’s unpleasant for everyone involved.
• This is also the point of his life that he’s most ashamed of, as he would use his talent of breaking into buildings in order to steal from people and keep himself fed. This his how he lived his life for around half a year and to this day he doesn’t like to talk about it. It’s something he’d much prefer to cover up.
• After about a year or so since getting kicked out of the house, his birthday rolls around. Somehow Hatsu manages to get back in touch with him and have him come to her apartment in Kyoto (since she’s now going to medical school and has several roommates).
• When he arrives, they have an awkward first reconciliation before things end up in tears. They’re both pretty big cry babies and missed each other a lot. Hatsu then gives him a high-quality camera as a gift that he covets dearly. He promises to pay her back for it, but she insists that its a gift and that he doesn’t have to. He still resigns himself to pay her back, since it was an especially expensive thing to buy due to the fact that it’s reinforced so that it can take a fall and not break.
• From here, he begins selling the things he finds in the abandoned places he visits. Most notably, the things he finds in Chernobyl and other such places. This makes his online following grow much bigger, and also graces him with a little bit more disposable income, but not much.
• He’s still homeless and traveling the world and doing his best to stave off the feeling that he’s going to die alone in a ditch somewhere and the only person who’ll care or even know about it is Hatsu his older sister who’s a general surgeon and too busy most of the time to be able to call and talk with him.
• And then he gets shoved into a killing game lmao.