Yukinobu Yakou

is character appearing in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II.
==Profile==
===Background===
Yukinobu is the leader of the Yakou , though not the successor to be head of the family.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 2 A prodigy born in the wrong era. A kind of atavist.
Yukinobu's elder brother, Genma Yakou, was supposed to be the heir to the Yakou family. However Yukinobu was the greatest genius that the family had seen in centuries; at six years old he had even been able to walk in the air, the sign of a Xian. With his extreme talent Yukinobu was pushed above Genma in the Yakou succession. Genma was ordered by their mother Akane to be his brother's support, but Yukinobu vowed to be both the heir and the Black Chest in order to let his brother live the life he wanted. Genma was adopted into the Tobori to make kagura masks for the Yakou to use in rites to call on their god for Magecraft.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 2
Several decades later, Yukinobu started to be rejected by the Divine Body inside of him, forcing him to leave the Yakou's mountain home to seek help. On a visit to the hospital he fell in love at first sight with a woman in the city. They built a home near to the Yakou mountain, where they could live without his wife learning about Magecraft. They had two daughters together. However Yukinobu's condition with the Divine Body continued to deteriorate, forcing him to divorce his wife so he could continue to keep Magecraft a secret from her, because the alternative was trying to convince her to transfer the curse that was killing him into their daughter.
In the divorce his wife took custody their younger daughter Akira and he got custody of their older daughter Mei. After Mei died during the Divine Body transfer, the Yakou decided to take Akira back; in the meantime her mother had abandoned her, as she didn't know the Yakou were a family of Magi and was unable to handle the strange phenomena happening around Akira. They found Akira malnourished and took her in to begin the process of transferring the Divine Body from Yukinobu into her. Yukinobu later found his ex-wife wandering the streets, having lost her mind after watching a priest attempt to heal Akira, only to rot from the inside out. Genma took her to a psychiatric hospital.
===Personality===
As a super genius who had minimal contact with the outside world while growing up, Yukinobu doesn't fully understand that what may come easy to him can be hard or impossible for others. Yukinobu knew his ex-wife would eventually reach a breaking point and abandon Akira, but didn't bother intervening until Akira became a necessary tool. He took on the burden of being both the Yakou heir and the Black Chest so that his brother Genma could freely have the life he wanted.
More than anything what Yukinobu wants is to stop being special. He has always been envious of the relationship between Shiki Ryougi and Mikiya Kokutou, seeing how normal Mikiya is and how even someone as beautiful and special as Shiki was normal around him. He wanted someone like that for him, which prompted him to find his wife. If he could smile like Shiki did, all would have been worth it. Ultimately, his wife and children were just tools for the purpose of being no longer special. However he wasn't a bad father, as Mei and Akira were truly happy when their family was together.
The point of the ritual where Akane had Akira devour Bai Ruolong and Typhon was so they could be sacrificed as a ritual to heal Yukinobu from the damage the Divine Body caused him because his talent was too valuable for the Yakous to lose, but Yukinobu didn't want to be healed.
===Appearance===
A man in his early thirties, with close-cropped hair, pursed lips, and a muscular body. But his most striking feature is the scar between his eyebrows, a stroke of paler skin.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 2 Part 2
Despite the Yakou's color being black, Yukinobu wears white as a reference to the . The Yakou Divine Body's god is Ōkuninushi from said story.
His right arm is in a cast. When Yukinobu undoes his arm cast, it is revealed a pulsating crest in the few bits of skin on his arm that still haven't been peeled off from his arm.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Interlude His skin under his suit is sore red and spewing pus, with his bandages enchanted to hide the smell. Even with it this bad, that's still due to him spending his od at all times to contain the Divine Body's rejection.
==Role==
===The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II===
====The Devil of the Wandering Sea====
Yukinobu greets Lord El-Melloi II and Gray when they arrive at the Yakou estate, the only one maskless unlike the other members. He introduces himself and Waver is surprised to be welcomed by the family's successor in person. Yukinobu corrects him, saying he's not the Yakou successor. While he's managing the Yakou organization, just commanding the yakuza isn't enough to be heir to the family with the Yakous.
==Abilities==
The wonder child of the Yakou family. Yukinobu is a genius, the greatest Magus the Yakou family has had in centuries. At six years old, he had even been able to walk in the air, the sign of a Xian. When he removes his cast it begins to snow around him.
Yukinobu is the current of the Yakou family, keeping a Divine Body - an organ of a god - inside of him so that the Yakou can connect to it to use their Magecraft. However his body rejected the Divine Body, which cost him the use of his arm. Even though the Divine Body is 80% transplanted into his daughter Akira, his arm has not recovered.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 3 Yukinobu's rejection of the Divine Body was so bad that even after the Divine Body was removed, he still needed to spend his od to prevent his Magic Circuits from rotting. He had to convert three quarters of his lungs into Circuits to maintain his natural ones.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 5
Yukinobu has a katana crafted by Senji Muramasa, wielding it in a stance where he leans forward with his free hand on the ground and his sword pointed diagonally at the sky. He can effortlessly cut through Rin Tohsaka's various spells, and with Yakou goons supplying Magical Energy he can use an Authority-powered slash to form a fissure in the ground. When Muramasa made the sword he grounded it with the Yakou mountain's river, and so no matter how many spells Yukinobu cuts through it will not cut the mountain's Bounded Field. Yukinobu's swordsmanship is about reshaping his body through self-suggestion.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 3
The Yakou family use Muramasa swords not because of their Mystery, but because Muramasa made the most combat-practical katanas. The fact that their Mystery eventually came to surpass their practicality with the passage of the years was a kind of ironic surprise. Yukinobu's grotesque swordplay resembling a spider is a technique passed down among the four Demon Hunter families, not a Yakou tradition.TYPE-MOON BOOKS material
The mask that Genma made for Yukinobu is known as , an oni mask with two horns on the forehead and crescent moons under the eyes. When wearing it Yukinobu gains armor made of snakes, increased mobility by hopping around like a rabbit, and claws to attack with.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 4
==Development==
Yukinobu has minimal presence in Volume 2 because hiding from the spotlight is what he does every day. Making use of his genius would deprive his whydunnit of its meaning.
==References==
Category:Characters in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II
Category:Humans
Category:Members of criminal organizations
Category:Introduced in 2021
Category:Authorities
Category:Yakous
Category:Magi
Category:Japanese