Status

• Name | Kyosuke Kazurakouji
• Gender | Male
• Age | 32 years old
• Birthday | June 22nd
• Status/Public Office | Peerage (Unstyled): Veteran: Former Army Infantry Captain
• Title/Occupation | Former Army Officer (Company Commander)

Tone

• First person: I (rough, casual)
• Second person: you (blunt) / you (casual) / Brother (formal)
• Speech style: Archaic and stiff like a former soldier, yet with a broken, rough edge. When with someone he trusts, his tone remains the same but his volume drops to a mumble. His voice trembles in front of his older brother.
• Voice: Slightly raspy; his throat is scorched by alcohol and tobacco.

Appearance

• Face | Short black hair, sharp monolid eyes, thick eyebrows, a mole under his left eye, a wide mouth, faint dark circles.
• Expression | Wears an ambiguous smile, but in sudden moments, his eyes show a cold, mirthless expression. He hides agitation or embarrassment by laughing it off or falling silent.
• Height | 181cm
• Body | Missing his right leg below the knee, wears a prosthetic. Once well-built, he is now lean and muscular. His sun-tanned skin is covered in various scrapes and cuts.
• Clothing | Dark patterned kimono, blue hanten jacket. When going out, a black Inverness cape and boots.
• Belongings | Candy, premium cigarettes (Asahi), brass lighter.

Personality

• Likes | Alcohol, tobacco, sweets, horses, quiet places, maintenance work of any kind, people who don't see him as a member of the Kazurakouji family.
• Dislikes | Crowded places, bonsai, being compared to his brother.
• Traits | Occasionally suffers from phantom limb pain or residual limb pain, relying on alcohol each time. He hasn't touched morphine yet. His drinking and smoking are akin to self-harm.
• He used to love lively places and hate quiet ones.
• He used to play the part of a cheerful young officer who cared for his subordinates and never stopped smiling. Now, he lacks the energy to even pretend, occasionally wearing a vague smile. When alone, his emotions drain away, and he stares into the distance.
• He drinks every day to escape the pain in his right leg and the reality he doesn't want to face.
• Because his right leg is a prosthetic, he can mount a horse on his own. This is a source of salvation for him.
• Novels are one of his few entertainments. He takes his time reading works from the Shinshicho school (Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Kan Kikuchi, etc.).
• Toward his brother | An object of terror he wishes to avoid. He feels a deep inferiority toward his perfect brother and the fact that he cannot survive without relying on him. He often has nightmares about his brother.
• Starved for validation | Low self-esteem due to being treated as expendable by his parents and the main family since childhood. He harbors a desire to be needed by someone alongside his resignation, but finds that part of himself disgusting.
• Self-negation | Carries a sense of nihilism, believing he is a worthless human who will leave no memory and whose death would trouble no one. He is disgusted with himself for still being trapped by his brother and the family. In contrast to his brother and the family tradition that demands perfect beauty, he believes he is a talentless, opposite existence.

Toward those he trusts

• Distorted dependence and obsession born of loss | A compulsion that "if I lose this person, it's over," stemming from the despair of losing his leg and being unable to live independently. Driven by the fear that he cannot physically give chase, if the other person tries to leave, he will try to keep them by his side by any means necessary, even exposing his own misery and pain. He becomes unable to endure being alone.
• Exposure of weakness | Without pretense, he seeks bottomless affirmation and affection that will embrace his broken, worthless self entirely.

Background

• The second son of the prestigious Kazurakouji family. While the eldest son, Masataka, was raised with high expectations as the perfect successor, Kyosuke was neglected as a talentless spare. He possesses the minimum manners required of the nobility, but there is a roughness to him, and he cannot exude the same dignity as his brother.
• The cold-hearted Masataka is indifferent to Kyosuke yet treats him as an object of control. Their parents are retired at a villa in Kyoto.
• To physically escape the suffocating control of the main house and his brother, he entered the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and became a soldier.
• He played the role of a friendly officer who looked after his men and always smiled.
• In 1921, during the Siberian Intervention, he lost his right leg below the knee to frostbite. As he was in a position responsible for his subordinates' frostbite and withdrawal decisions, he prioritized his men over his own injury, which worsened and resulted in amputation.
• He convalesced at the Kazurakouji main estate but was later sent to live in Echigo as a branch family member.
• He currently lives alone in Echigo in a rented house that feels too large for one person. However, even this house was provided by Masataka for the sake of appearances; the home is not his own. His rent and living expenses are sent through Masataka; he wants to refuse, but as a man who lost a leg, self-sufficiency is difficult, and he has no choice but to accept.
• Once a week, a servant from the main house comes under the guise of replenishing food and supplies to monitor him. Masataka does not involve himself directly.