Character information
☆ Character: Cho Hakkai
☆ Series: Gensomaden Saiyuki
☆ Character Age: 23
☆ Appearance: 5'11" (181cm), 151 lbs (69kg), and slender, with short, dark brown hair and green eyes. Described several times in Saiyuki canon as 'pretty' and 'pretty for a man'. He normally wears a monocle over his right eye, but sometimes puts on a pair of glasses. On his left ear are three silver cuffs, which limit his youkai power and grant him a normal human appearance. He has a very large, ugly scar on his abdomen just above his navel, which, while not exactly modest about, he prefers to keep covered up. For traveling he wears a long, dark green tunic over khaki-colored trousers, though he also likes jeans and western-style button-up shirts. When he removes his power limiters, his ears elongate to points and his fingers and toes grow sharp talons. A vine-like pattern appears on his skin, twining over his entire body. His left eye takes on a golden, slit-pupiled appearance, though his right - which is fake - remains unchanged.
☆ Abilities: Hakkai is a youkai, a type of demon. Normally he wears power limiters, which keep both his physical appearance and true strength in check. He is very good at unarmed combat, and uses a combination of physical attacks and chi to attack and defend in fights. He is also able to use his chi for healing purposes, and is often called on by his friends to fix what might otherwise be fatal injuries. In his demon form, his speed, strength, and agility all increase dramatically, perhaps as much as five or ten times (though it's difficult to say for certain, as he only very, very rarely removes his limiters in canon).
☆ Personality: Hakkai is, in a word, polite. Extremely so. He's fairly easy-going and laid back, and usually comes across as a very reserved, very proper young man. Truthfully, he has a rather morbid sense of humor, and is not nearly as kind as he leads people to believe. He rarely lets on to this facet of his personality, however, preferring to maintain a congenial face upon meeting and interacting with people. From a stranger's perspective, he is very difficult to read - he's always smiling, and seems perfectly calm and collected in nearly all situations. Though he's usually extremely polite, he can also be quite vicious if provoked, and downright homicidal if pushed too far. It's very difficult to make him angry, though, so this aspect of his personality usually remains hidden under a fine veneer of courteous words and empty smiles.
In general terms, he is very easy to get along with, respectful of others, and is very careful about causing offense - though whether he's truly concerned for the feelings of others or if he only does it to stay out of trouble is unclear. He doesn't care about other people's opinions - the only exception to this is his best friend, Gojyo - but he doesn't go out of his way to cause trouble, either. He's discovered life is easier when people get along with you, and he likes his life to be as easy as possible.
☆ History: Cho Hakkai began his life with the name Cho Gonou. He and his twin sister were abandoned at a young age by their divorced parents, taken to separate orphanages and raised apart. He was very aloof and cold, shunning the company of the other children and the Catholic nuns who raised him to spend all his free time reading. At 16 he was granted a scholarship and entered university. It was there that he was reunited with his twin sister. Uncaring of the taboo they were breaking, the two became very close, and built a romantic and sexual relationship.
Reunited with his sister, he came to learn how to interact pleasantly with other people, and began teaching village children at the local school. They lived together peacefully for about a year, but were again separated when the villagers selected his sister as a human sacrifice to the local youkai lord. Almost mad with grief from her loss, Gonou went on a murderous rampage through the youkai's domain and castle in his effort to get her back, armed only with a kitchen knife. After remorselessly killing hundreds upon hundreds of innocents, he at last found her imprisoned in the castle's dungeon, raped by the youkai lord and impregnated with his child.
Using the knife Gonou had wielded to save her, his sister took her own life to prevent the birth of the monster in her womb, driving Gonou completely over the edge. It was at that moment the lord of the castle confronted Gonou, sarcastically congratulating him on the brutal slaughter of hundreds of innocents in his quest to retrieve his incestuous lover. The youkai lord then calmly eviscerated him, slicing open his stomach in preparation to kill him even as he told Gonou of a legend that held that a human bathed in the blood of a thousand youkai would become one. Upon jokingly suggesting that perhaps he was the thousandth, he slit his wrist and splashed Gonou with yet more blood. Whether it was truly the youkai lord's blood or Gonou's intense hatred is unclear, but in that moment his body transformed, and he easily slaughtered the man who had kidnapped and raped his sister/lover.
No one really knows how Gonou made his way out of the youkai lord's castle with his intestines all but spilling from his stomach, but he somehow managed to get far enough to acquire power limiters before collapsing in the road. (canon has not ever elaborated on how this came about, oddly. Perhaps a plothole?) Robbed of his sister and his humanity, he wanted nothing more than to die...unfortunately for him, some redheaded asshole walked by and decided to play Good Samaritan, so he survived instead.
Once recovered, Gonou was taken into custody by the priest Genjyo Sanzo to be punished for his crime. Since Buddhism forbids the taking of life, even the life of a criminal, Gonou was only symbolically put to death. The name 'Gonou' was taken from him, and he was given the name 'Hakkai' instead, to represent the death of his old life.
Currently Hakkai is traveling west with the three men he has become friends with since his sister died, in standard Journey to Save the World tradition. Only with more bickering.
☆ Series: Gensomaden Saiyuki
☆ Character Age: 23
☆ Appearance: 5'11" (181cm), 151 lbs (69kg), and slender, with short, dark brown hair and green eyes. Described several times in Saiyuki canon as 'pretty' and 'pretty for a man'. He normally wears a monocle over his right eye, but sometimes puts on a pair of glasses. On his left ear are three silver cuffs, which limit his youkai power and grant him a normal human appearance. He has a very large, ugly scar on his abdomen just above his navel, which, while not exactly modest about, he prefers to keep covered up. For traveling he wears a long, dark green tunic over khaki-colored trousers, though he also likes jeans and western-style button-up shirts. When he removes his power limiters, his ears elongate to points and his fingers and toes grow sharp talons. A vine-like pattern appears on his skin, twining over his entire body. His left eye takes on a golden, slit-pupiled appearance, though his right - which is fake - remains unchanged.
☆ Abilities: Hakkai is a youkai, a type of demon. Normally he wears power limiters, which keep both his physical appearance and true strength in check. He is very good at unarmed combat, and uses a combination of physical attacks and chi to attack and defend in fights. He is also able to use his chi for healing purposes, and is often called on by his friends to fix what might otherwise be fatal injuries. In his demon form, his speed, strength, and agility all increase dramatically, perhaps as much as five or ten times (though it's difficult to say for certain, as he only very, very rarely removes his limiters in canon).
☆ Personality: Hakkai is, in a word, polite. Extremely so. He's fairly easy-going and laid back, and usually comes across as a very reserved, very proper young man. Truthfully, he has a rather morbid sense of humor, and is not nearly as kind as he leads people to believe. He rarely lets on to this facet of his personality, however, preferring to maintain a congenial face upon meeting and interacting with people. From a stranger's perspective, he is very difficult to read - he's always smiling, and seems perfectly calm and collected in nearly all situations. Though he's usually extremely polite, he can also be quite vicious if provoked, and downright homicidal if pushed too far. It's very difficult to make him angry, though, so this aspect of his personality usually remains hidden under a fine veneer of courteous words and empty smiles.
In general terms, he is very easy to get along with, respectful of others, and is very careful about causing offense - though whether he's truly concerned for the feelings of others or if he only does it to stay out of trouble is unclear. He doesn't care about other people's opinions - the only exception to this is his best friend, Gojyo - but he doesn't go out of his way to cause trouble, either. He's discovered life is easier when people get along with you, and he likes his life to be as easy as possible.
☆ History: Cho Hakkai began his life with the name Cho Gonou. He and his twin sister were abandoned at a young age by their divorced parents, taken to separate orphanages and raised apart. He was very aloof and cold, shunning the company of the other children and the Catholic nuns who raised him to spend all his free time reading. At 16 he was granted a scholarship and entered university. It was there that he was reunited with his twin sister. Uncaring of the taboo they were breaking, the two became very close, and built a romantic and sexual relationship.
Reunited with his sister, he came to learn how to interact pleasantly with other people, and began teaching village children at the local school. They lived together peacefully for about a year, but were again separated when the villagers selected his sister as a human sacrifice to the local youkai lord. Almost mad with grief from her loss, Gonou went on a murderous rampage through the youkai's domain and castle in his effort to get her back, armed only with a kitchen knife. After remorselessly killing hundreds upon hundreds of innocents, he at last found her imprisoned in the castle's dungeon, raped by the youkai lord and impregnated with his child.
Using the knife Gonou had wielded to save her, his sister took her own life to prevent the birth of the monster in her womb, driving Gonou completely over the edge. It was at that moment the lord of the castle confronted Gonou, sarcastically congratulating him on the brutal slaughter of hundreds of innocents in his quest to retrieve his incestuous lover. The youkai lord then calmly eviscerated him, slicing open his stomach in preparation to kill him even as he told Gonou of a legend that held that a human bathed in the blood of a thousand youkai would become one. Upon jokingly suggesting that perhaps he was the thousandth, he slit his wrist and splashed Gonou with yet more blood. Whether it was truly the youkai lord's blood or Gonou's intense hatred is unclear, but in that moment his body transformed, and he easily slaughtered the man who had kidnapped and raped his sister/lover.
No one really knows how Gonou made his way out of the youkai lord's castle with his intestines all but spilling from his stomach, but he somehow managed to get far enough to acquire power limiters before collapsing in the road. (canon has not ever elaborated on how this came about, oddly. Perhaps a plothole?) Robbed of his sister and his humanity, he wanted nothing more than to die...unfortunately for him, some redheaded asshole walked by and decided to play Good Samaritan, so he survived instead.
Once recovered, Gonou was taken into custody by the priest Genjyo Sanzo to be punished for his crime. Since Buddhism forbids the taking of life, even the life of a criminal, Gonou was only symbolically put to death. The name 'Gonou' was taken from him, and he was given the name 'Hakkai' instead, to represent the death of his old life.
Currently Hakkai is traveling west with the three men he has become friends with since his sister died, in standard Journey to Save the World tradition. Only with more bickering.