Cikapasi/Story

Overview
**Story**
Gallery

## Background

Cikapasi was born in Hokkaido, near Otaru. Cikapasi's parents and older siblings all passed away from smallpox sometime in the past, so the older people in the village decided to look after him. Before his parents died, they were able to give him his real name "Cikapasi".

## Plot

### Edogai Arc

One day, when Makanakkuru and Genjirou Tanigaki were heading back to the kotan, they spotted a deer and prepared to hunt it. Cikapasi watched them from nearby, but made a noise that alerted the deer of the men's presence. However, Tanigaki was able to shoot and kill it, which Cikapasi was amazed by. While the men were about to carve up the deer, Tanigaki called out to the boy to help them. He spotted a dead fawn nearby, and noted that it was just like him. When Makanakkuru asked Cikapasi for his name he introduced himself, proud of the name his parents gave to him. The next day, Cikapasi along with Tanigaki and Makanakkuru's daughter, Osoma, went out to see a crowd surrounding a fortune-teller named Inkarmat.

After hearing her fortune, Cikapasi went out to harvest with Tanigaki and Makanakkuru, but they were too concerned about Inkarmat's prophecy to do any productive activities. Cikapasi asks if Huci is gonna die, recalling that smallpox took his whole family's life. He turns to Tanigaki and asks him how his own family is doing.

### Con Artists Arc

When Tanigaki and Inkarmat leave the village to find Asirpa, Cikapasi quietly follows them all the way to the town of Barato. He is pointed out by the barber Yamamoto and tries to flee only to be caught by Tanigaki. Tanigaki tells Cikapasi that he knew that he was following them and tells him to go home. However, Cikapasi responds by saying he has no one waiting for him at home and asks to let him come along. Inkarmat comes out and agrees to let the boy join them, saying that they should pretend to be a family to appear less suspicious. Upon hearing this, Cikapasi gets excited and begins to fantasize about how the three of them could role play as a family.

They stop by the town of Iwamizawa where Inkarmat is offering her fortune-telling services to the local women. They are then approached by a couple of merchants and Cikapasi asks Inkarmat for some money to buy bean snacks. The other merchant tells them he saw Sugimoto's Group in Yubari which catches everyone's attention. As Tanigaki pulls out a map and attempts to narrow down Sugimoto's Group's possible route, Cikapasi mishears him and thinks he is saying breasts. As they make their way towards Tokachi, Tanigaki scolds him for repeatedly yelling breasts and tells him not to look at Inkarmat with lust in his eyes.

### Journey to Karafuto Arc

Cikapasi, Enonoka, and Ryu follows the chatty Russian back to his house where they find him taking food out to the storehouse. They try to grab the key next to the man who is now sleeping but accidentally wakes him up instead. After the chatty Russian falls into their trap and is knocked out as a result, the Ainu kids blow off the lock with Tanigaki's gun and rescues Enonoka's dog.

On their way back, they run into Sugimoto and Cikapasi, immediately recognizing something is wrong, tells Enonoka to keep going. The dog leading them is spooked by a wolverine chasing them, causing Cikapasi to fall off the skis. Sugimoto is able to grab the wolverine's attention long enough for Tanigaki to arrive and help Cikapasi kill the wolverine. Once the ordeal had finished, Enonoka began to praise Cikapasi for killing the wolverine, but he said that he had Tanigaki's help and Enonoka admitted that his eyes were closed when he shot the wild animal.

### Youichirou the Manslayer Arc

As they travelled, Sugimoto's group comes to a Karafuto Ainu village and they decided to stay there for the day. Within the village, Enonoka gives an ornament called a *hohciri* to Cikapasi, asking if she could put it on him. Cikapasi does not know what it is and Enonoka explained that it is an object that boys in Karafuto wears until the age of ten and that she wants Cikapasi to wear it. As Enonoka helps Cikapasi put it on, she tells him that once he has taken down a wolverine by himself, he can cut his *hohciri* off.

### Karafuto Circus Arc

Sugimoto's group reaches Toyohara where Cikapasi and Tanigaki separates from the others in order to find Kiroranke. When Tanigaki asks Cikapasi if he is tired, he shakes his head and says that he cannot forgive Kiroranke for stabbing Inkarmat and that he will try his best to find Kiroranke. Tanigaki says that Inkarmat is fighting for her life with everything she's got and that he has no right to complain about being tired. He then turns to a local man and accidently shows his own picture before admitting that he is indeed tired. They rejoin with the others and meet Yamada and Choukichi of the Yamada Troupe, where Sugimoto requests to join their act in order to send a message to Asirpa by having the whole town talking about him.

Initially, Yamada refuses Sugimoto's request but eventually relents after Sugimoto threatens him and Choukichi's suggestion. Sugimoto's Group are then led into the troupe's tent where they see some of their performances and are invited to try them out for themselves. While Koito excels at these acts, Sugimoto, Tanigaki, and Tsukishima performs horribly but Cikapasi gives words of encouragement to Tanigaki, which only ended up angering Sugimoto for being too loud.

### Border Crossing Arc

Sugimoto's group takes Enonoka's dog sleds to travel up north towards the national border but they are hit by a heavy blizzard. Due to the immense snowstorm, they are unable to see clearly in front of them and so Cikapasi, Sugimoto, Tanigaki, and Ryu are separated from the others. They hear a gunshot which was fired by Tsukishima and they wonder where it came from, with Cikapasi pointing in its general direction. Tanigaki fires off a gunshot too but they quickly give up as they need to find shelter quickly. However, they soon realize that they are in big trouble as they wander aimlessly in the snowstorm.

While Sugimoto and Tanigaki try to dig up the ground, Cikapasi and Ryu braces themselves through the cold wind. They were able to create a makeshift shelter using pieces of their sled and Cikapasi huddles under it with Sugimoto as Tanigaki starts up a fire. Saying that the fire won't be enough, Tanigaki gathers up all the dogs and has them huddle around them, with Cikapasi wondering if the dogs will be alright. As they lie in the shelter, Tanigaki gives Cikapasi and Sugimoto some of his mochi, saying that eating is important in regulating their body temperature. The three of them struggle to stay awake and warm until they see a light off in the distance. Sugimoto wonders if it is the moon, but Tanigaki says that it shouldn't be that big. When they see the light flickering, they realize that it is not the moon, but a light from a lighthouse.

### Pet Monster Arc

Cikapasi and Enonoka play outside together but Enonoka is suddenly taken by an Ainu man who had escaped after killing a villager. In the middle of the chaos, Cikapasi is able to quietly slide his makiri pouch onto the killer's knife which allowed Sugimoto to save Enonoka without getting harmed. Once the incident had died down, Tanigaki praises Cikapasi for his actions and Cikapasi tells him that he got a boner.

Sugimoto's Group heads out and comes across an Orok settlement where they are able to get clues about Asirpa and decides to rest in their tent to talk about their next course of action. Within, Cikapasi and Enonoka notices some carved statues and they ask Tanigaki what it is. Sugimoto's Group then begins to argue about what kind of animal it is before heading out for Akou Prison.

### Akou Prison Break Arc

As they got closer to the prison, they hear a loud explosion and sees smoke flowing in the distance. Using his binoculars, Tsukishima tells everyone that the smoke is coming from Akou Prison. Upon arriving at Akou Prison, they find that they were too late as Asirpa's Group has already left, so Sugimoto has Ryu sniff out Asirpa's scent. Suddenly, an Amur tiger emerges from the hole in the prison's walls, causing both Cikapasi and Enonoka to scream, drawing the attention of the adults. Tanigaki and Tsukishima both shoots at the tiger, managing to scare it away.

Sugimoto's Group attempts to look for Asirpa's Group but their sleds are unable to maneuver across the drift ice as it has become too rough and uneven and Tanigaki warns that the weather might get worse, saying that it would be too dangerous to go after Asirpa's Group. However, Sugimoto is adamant that Asirpa is close and cuts Ryu's leash to go look for her. Tanigaki, Tsukishima, and Koito also leaves to find Sugimoto and Cikapasi waits for them to return with Enonoka and her grandfather.

### Return to Karafuto Arc

Once Sugimoto's Group and Asirpa's Group reunites, they return to a Nivkh settlement near Akou where some of the Nivkh children shows Cikapasi, Enonoka, and Asirpa around their home. When they see a group of dogs, Cikapasi notes that the Nivkh also keeps dogs just like the Karafuto Ainu. Upon learning that the Nivkh, Uilta, and Karafuto Ainu makes their own summer homes, Cikapasi is impressed, saying that the Hokkaido Ainu only makes one house. Afterwards, he and Enonoka plays with Gansoku before he leaves for the continent.

In a *to ryv*, a Nikh winter home, Cikapasi listens to Enonoka tell a Nivkh legend about a man who put charcoal on his buttocks in order to scare a monster away. After hearing it, Cikapasi claims the story to be scary. He and Enonoka then watches as Sugimoto and Asirpa attempts to emulate the story in order to prank Shiraishi who had left to use the bathroom, but found that Shiraishi had thought of the same trick to use against them as well.

The Nivkh women makes some of their *mos* dish for Sugimoto's Group which they eat with pleasure. They also make medicine for Tsukishima and Ogata's wounds but found that it won't be able to save Ogata's life so Sugimoto decides to bring in a doctor. The Russian doctor examines Tsukishima and Ogata, finding that the latter's life is in critical condition and so needs to be brought back to his hospital. With this, Sugimoto's Group prepares to head out into the snow on their dog sleds.

### Return to Hokkaido Arc

Once the Ogata incident had finished, Sugimoto's Group heads across the national border and decides to stop by a Karafuto Ainu village in order to rest. They are given some of "grandma's chewed dango" to eat, which Sugimoto and Shiraishi gets drunk off of it. Some time later, they enter the town of Shizuka in order to do some shopping for necessities. Shiraishi goes to look for Sugimoto who had disappeared, but he is suddenly shot in the leg by a sniper. Reacting to the shot, Tanigaki pushes Cikapasi and Enonoka to the ground and tells them to head into the store but is stopped by the sniper before they could enter. Once again, Tanigaki covers Cikapasi and Enonoka with his own body as he tells Asirpa not to move.

When Sugimoto manages to defeat the Russian sniper Vasily and brings him outside with the others, Cikapasi and Enonoka only stares at him angrily from the dog sled as Shiraishi tells Vasily to hurry up and go back to Russia. Later as Sugimoto's Group heads to the Russian couple's lighthouse, Shiraishi notices that Vasily is following them.

Upon reaching Toyohara, Sugimoto's Group decides to stay there for a while so Cikapasi, Tanigaki, and Ryu go out hunting. They are approached by two Karafuto Ainu men who ask about Tanigaki and Cikapasi tells them that he is his uncle. After the Karafuto Ainu men leave, Tanigaki expresses relief that Cikapasi came along since they have been able to get by in Karafuto without raising any suspicions.

Cikapasi comments that they did a great job pretending to be a family back in Hokkaido and wonders if Inkarmat is feeling better. Tanigaki says that he is sure that Inkarmat is doing well and that they should meet her once they get back to Hokkaido. They are then approached by Enonoka who overhears their conversation and asks Cikapasi if he is going back to Hokkaido.

## References

1. ↑ Character profiles from the Golden Kamuy fanbook