Botan Inuyama

[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Botan Inuyama (犬山ぼたん) the Chronobreaker gained his title more as an accident than through any feat of skill or display of awesome power. Indeed, his grandiose-sounding title was first adopted in public use when he somehow he managed to psionically dislocate his own timestream when first learning to use his gift. Much how a young man or woman might dislocate or break a leg when first learning to ride a horse. This young Hengeyokai finds himself leaving his home village of Tien and following the Journey of a Thousand Minds and it is the pursuit of this journey that guides him through the world and life itself.

## Appearance

Botan is a young hengeyokai belonging to the inu bashi - he's a shapeshifting dogman - who stands just barely 1.5m high. His body is covered in choclate-and-cream coloured fur with brindling around the snout and face. He wears a hachigane, a type of headband with a metal plate attached to the front to protect the forehead, with small horns poking from the front. Around his neck is a thick chain with a golden crystal attached to a socket at the end that he refers to as 'Takeshi'. Over his torso he wears a high-collared vest styled with asymetric ties going from one side to the other, and over his legs he wears a pair of baggy pants that are tucked into his tabi. His shoes are simple wooden sandals that have seen their fair share of travel by the wear on them.

On a thick white rope he wears as a belt are a pair of stone hourglasses of differing sizes that he routinely use to measure time in ways significant mostly to himself. Strapped to his back is a type of longsword, well crafted and well cared for with a black sheath and golden filigree decorating the hilt. Finally, strapped to his right arm is a crystalline vambrace that catches and almost seems to store the light as it passes through its lattices.

## Personality

Botan is an earnest young man with a fondness for interesting stories and who likes hearing the thoughts of others. Deeply compassionate, he assumes the best of people and likes to think he's good to get along with. Despite his initial impression of naivete, he can be surprisingly worldly and perceptive, offering insightful advice when given it and proving a talented instructor.

## Tien

Tien, Botan's home village, is located on an isolated island called Ashigara that is covered a thick forest known as the Spiritguard Forest. Somewhere within the depths of this immense pine woodland is Tien, one of the few hengeyokai villages located on the island. A common belief held by the villagers is that the Spiritguard Forest is the primeval birthplace of all kinds of nature spirits and the hengeyokai themselves. Most outsiders scoff at this assertion, usually dismissing it for the arrogant statement it sounds like, but there might be some amount of truth in it. At the very least, the nature spirits have a strong tie to the forest and will defend it with every ounce of their power.

So zealous in their defense are they that the Tien hengeyokai rarely have visitors with most non-spirit intruders on these sacred lands perishing quite quickly on the edges of the forest, disappearing without a trace as their corpses are used to feed and grow the thick pines. Because of this Tien has two majour traditions in the village, the Journey of a Thousand Minds undergone primarily by the Seijukatsu and the Jade Guard.

#### Seijukatsu

The Seijukatsu is a member of the Inuyama family that takes on the role of the entire village's diplomat, symbolic warrior, and wiseman. Uniquely to their village, the Seijukatsu is the only person with the spark of psionic ability crystalized within their minds. This psionic spark is passed down from generation to generation, never intentionally and never the exact same for each inheritor; when the current Seijukatsu dies, this spark is released and the next of the Inuyama line to be born and in the somewhat common case of twins, the power is shared between them at a somewhat diminished capacity.

When the Seijukatsu's powers first manifest, they undergo martial training adapted to suit their particular suite of abilities. Some focus purely on their psionic might, some blend their psionic capabilities with martial prowess, and some focus their power inward to passively increase their power as a purely physical combatant. The end result, nonetheless, is a warrior worth a dozen fit men who is devoted to the protection and survival of Tien. In order to attain this power in full, and to learn to fulfill their role as wiseman and diplomat, the Seijukatsu undergoes the Journey of a Thousand Minds to learn and to grow into the role they were born for.

#### Journey of a Thousand Minds

The Journey of a Thousand Minds is the first duty fulfilled in service to Tien by the Seijukatsu, but it is not only they who perform this ceremonial task. In layman's terms, any of the Inu Bashi who wish to learn more of the world and to speak with the wisdom of a thousand different minds leave their forested home to travel the world. They have no set goal in mind, only to travel, to speak with many, to see all they can, and gain the knowledge of foreign places so that t hey may return to Tien better than when they left. This allows the small village to learn new tricks, keep somewhat in touch with the events of the world, and avoid stagnation.

There is no given end date to this Journey, but the participant is forbidden from returning for a year and a day unless they bring dire news in regards to the village's safety or a serious injury would prevent them from continuing their journey without extreme risk of death. These two restrictions serve the dual purpose of giving the ceremony gravity when it is undertaken, and ensuring the erstwhile participant cannot simply wait somewhere nearby off the island for a month or two and return claiming to have completed their own Journey and gaining the acclaim that comes with it.

#### Jade Guard

The Jade Guard is a traditional organization members of Tien elect to join. Their purpose is a simple, but noble one - at select, hidden outposts on the edges of the Spiritguard Forest, members of the Jade Guard reside. They don't patrol the borders, they don't turn people away in any overt manner, they simply observe and offer their services as guides to those that know to ask. Many who have been claimed by the forest never to be seen before have ignored the warning signs. If one ever finds themselves walking past the same series of small stone statues getting more and more worn out as they wander the forest's mercurial depths or feel like they've been walking for far longer than the distance they've covered, one should turn back immediately.

If one wanted to seek the Jade Guard to petition their protection in the Forest, they would simply have to find one of the marked stone pillars and leave an offering to the spirits of jade or coin before making the journey. Soon they will be joined by one or more of the Jade Guard wearing the face of a canine who will not speak, and will not abandon their new charge so long as they remain among the trees. It would be ill advised to mistreat these companions for they do not forget and should an attempt to petition their aid again be made, it will be ignored.

## Adventures

#### Meita Conflict

The hengeyokai took a deep breath in through his nose as he stood on a the flat rooftop of the merchant's shop he had paused in his patrol on, his canid ears twitching slightly as he took in the stream of sensory information he was being fed from a number of his temporal selves as they scattered through this city. It was a quiet early evening, most of the citizenry going about their business as the sun begins to put on her nightdress and prepare for bed. Still some time left in the day, but not enough for a serious invasion. That was good, it was another day Dorian's declaration goes unacted upon in any majour capacity. But the lack of response was starting to get to the young Botan; he couldn't see why there wasn't a much more significant force threatening Meita just yet. He wasn't completely familiar with the religious customs that weren't his own, but surely a declaration from a high priest stating a particular person to be anathema who is to be punished would illicit a greater response. Wouldn't it?

Botan was about to voice his concerns to his ever-present friend Takeshi when a particular strand of information flowed into his mind and he snapped his jaw shut. Without hesitation, he mentally reached out and overcame the unique experience of pushing through the chronal inertia most people aren't even aware they're experiencing. With a mental action that can be best described as a grandiose flick of the wrist, he was suddenly elsewhere. No longer was it a mere possibility that Botan would explore this way on his patrol, it was the reality of the world and his pause on the rooftop was the possibility now. He had three of these explorations of the possible futures going at the moment, but he could feel his power to maintain these threads of time in this singular reality fading soon. Oh well, it served him well now, and that's what really mattered. He turned to face what had alerted him - a woman dressed in golden and white armour that gleamed like a fire in the light of the setting sun. Botan had overheard her demanding to know about 'That devil-woman' of a tradesman and she was getting angry at his oblique denials of her inquiries. Even though Matron-san definitely knew by now, Botan decided to send a possibility her way to let her know he was handling things. Due diligence done, he stepped forward and addressed the armoured woman. "Konbanwan!"

It was a tiring conversation, and one that was much longer for Botan than this woman he eventually found out was called Marianna. Righteous, brass-necked, and cloth-eared, this woman was not a pleasant one and Botan had tried very, very hard to get her to listen to reason, to get her to empathize, or to get her to just listen to anything he said. But no matter how many times he tried, splintering the world around himself into infinitesimal shards of glass-like bits of reality as he broke through the temporal bindings of the world to go back and try again, he was forced to concede that this woman's mind could not be changed. Not in the small windows of time he could control to reliable try again. Before Botan could find a peaceful way to deescalate the situation, Marianna the firebrand lashed out at him, righteous indignation in her eyes. He dodged easily, having already seen the attack coming before weapons had been drawn, and began to wonder if this woman's pride and sense of duty were something he could keep intact while keeping things under control. After all, she believed she was on a crusade against a villain, did she not? True, she had been lied to, but the onus of responsibility for her actions ultimately fell on Dorian for lying to her and countless others. At least some of her actions, anyway, she was still responsible for exactly how she proceeded after the false truth.

In the end, though, Botan decided it was for the best if this woman was incapacitated before she could hurt someone with her wild swings at his person. He set his jaw and was about to strike back at Marianna, who had been making very sure he knew precisely what she thought of him and his devil-harboring ways in this blasphemous city, and paused. Every thread of time he could see where he struck back with serious intent, the woman was fatally or near-fatally wounded. This threw the young hengeyokai for long enough for her to land a blow along his chin and send him stumbling backwards. Not only had Dorian lied to the populace over what sounds like a petty grudge, not only was he willing to abuse the trust of the people below him in his religion, but he was willing to allow or send young and impressionable people across the country to fight what he says is a god-stealing demon woman. To send them to their assumed death; how despicable can you get?

Foreseen is forearmed. The fight was taken out of this woman in one solid punch to the solar plexus and with a nod towards the elderly tradesman she was harassing, he hoisted her onto his shoulder and carried her away without a word. He glad he had found a way to incapacitate without serious or permanent injury and almost didn't notice when his grip on the threads of possibility slipped. He didn't get to Matron-san in time it seems, oh well. He's headed towards her now anyway, he can give her a summary of the events when he gets there.

As expected, Matron-san met him on threshold and politely allowed him to explain the situation. Together they disarmed Marianna and found a bed for her to recover in. There would be time to attempt a de-radicalization later, for now there was nothing doing until she woke up. It was nearing time for his practice with Arshea on their failsafe should an overwhelming force be brought against the city, so Botan decided to spend the time talking with Takeshi until he must meet with her.

It's a curious thing having your mental landscape suffused with the power of a deity, brushing past limitations you didn't even know you had with casual ease to allow you to reach power previously unknown. All Botan had to do was maintain control of his power long enough to weave the net. Ironic that the chronokinetic felt the pressure of a ticking clock as it sliced away at the present to turn it into past for now and forever. All he has to do is keep the balance, don't push too hard, don't pull to quickly, he's never had an accident since his first. He's come so far, he's learned so much, this should be easy, he's got this. Breathe in, breathe out, gather the sands into your hand and work it into the shape that suits you. Bit by bit, carefully, *carefully* . . .

Oh crap.