Kunino-to

## About

**Kunino-to** is the Storyteller of Universe 023-R.

## Appearance

Kunino-to is a 5'11 tall man with black hair, grey eyes, and usually wears traditional Japanese clothing which originates from the Sengoku Period.

## Personality

Kunino-to, or as most people call him as "Kuni", or as "Kaito" (An alias he usually adopts), has a somewhat serious yet carefree and wild personality that is reflective on his actions. At times, he can be a calm-headed strategist, while in others he can become a ruthless avenger, and in most other cases he would be as free as the wind itself. He tries to not let his emotions get the best of him and tries to stay neutral, but that's somewhat impossible when people he knows get involved somehow.

## Relationships

### **Ran**

They had met only after Kunino-to had arrived in the Small Kenonin Village, and yet he considers her a good friend.

After the defeat of the Water Ice Slime, Kunino-to became more overprotective towards Ran, which the latter though of as mostly insulting to her pride as a capable warrior. Thus, a rift between the two had formed at this time.

Though this rift would seemingly mend easily after his short, but honest apology towards her before they began setting up camp for the night.

### **Rias**

He considers her to be reliable, as he can tell from a glance that she's the kind of person who'd lend a hand, if she were not busy with her duties as a chief, that is.

After the failure that was the first fight against Yukimura, he'd somewhat felt responsible towards abandoning her near the end of the fight. Lucky for him, however, he was given a second chance to make it all up to her.

### **Anavel**

To Kunino-to in the first time meeting her, he didn't really want to bother her at all. After meeting and getting to know her a bit more, he soon realized she was a very vital asset; someone who needed to be protected. He also saw her as a "little sister" type of character, so his brotherly instincts kick in most of the time whenever she'd be in imminent danger.

After the encounter with Yukimura, he also became overprotective towards her as well, but not as much as towards Ran.

### **Holom**

It's mostly a first impression, but Kunino-to feels like she's very reliable.

### **Itsumi**

After meeting her near the lake, he paid her 10 seashell coins to help with a mission that involved Ran. To put it simply, they have a "Contractor and Contracted" kind of relationship, but Kunino-to considers her a good friend who has very good taste in music.

He had followed her when he last spotted her wandering away, but lost sight of her after a while. He's never heard from her after.

### **Fenr**

Kunino-to's savior after being downed by a Wind Elemental, Kunino-to is thankful to her. He considers her someone who he can reliably get "the best deals" from.

For a while, they became partners-in-work, with Kunino-to being an escort for Fenr, while the latter was the diplomatic one. Kunino-to himself thought this relationship to be "Professional Only".

After the defeat of the Water Ice slime, Kunino-to slowly started to lose confidence in himself, with Fenr having to snap him out of it from time to time.

It seemed as if Kuni gained Fenr's trust, enough to at least have her reveal to him that she has a father. He had, and continues to have, a foreboding sense coming from her words when she mentioned him.

### **The Black Mirror**

He's a bit... skeptical about even being near... whatever it is. He's gained a slight disdain towards it after knowing more about what it did to those who didn't choose to take it's help.

### **Yui**

He'd met her during his first arrival in the dream world. He, her, and one more person would form a party that would climb the left pillar all the way to floor 4. It was with the first interaction after the climb with her that sparked a sort of... protective brotherly side that wouldn't be too apparent.

Once he'd returned to the dream world again, he would meet up with her as she was being pestered by somebody. He'd only come to greet her the first time around, but the second time around he'd help her by making the person she was then talking to walk away. Though in that person's place would be him, who would act more of a friend rather than a brotherly figure, as he then realized that he had to at least set some boundaries, seeing as she's very emotionally unstable.

He would then declare to be Yui's first friend, which would mean a lot to him as being somebody's first friend reminded him of a memory of a bygone time, and to her as she "didn't have any friends" in her world. Though this friendship would be shaken up due to his then nature of wanting to know more about Yui, or rather, the truth in general. He'd ask her the forbidden question, which would lead to Yui being kicked out of the dream world and back into her own world. This poor decision of his would affect his own psyche for a while, until he would come to find her and apologize to her for his lack of tact

## Background

Kunino-tokotachi is, or rather was, a former deity who decided one day to "live life like a mortal does" due to him not understanding them, and thus sealed away his divinity and descended. He eventually died in the first world and his soul was picked up by his granddaughter, Amaterasu. Not knowing that Kunino-to was her grandfather, she had promised him that he would get to return back to the living. After completing his mission in the second world, he had returned to where Amaterasu was. Satisfied with his work, she decided to put him through more worlds to either fix or save them. It was only after Kunino-to arrived in the second world he would meet with his would-be mentor of dimensional travel, Kaizer Izanagi.

Kunino-to and Kaizer Izanagi are usually at odds with each other (And when I say "at odds", really it's just Kunino-to being mad at Kai's frantic antics), but due to Kaizer Izanagi not being around, he mostly badmouths him. Even still, he considers him a mentor-type after traveling around other worlds with him (Or rather, both of them ending up in the same worlds coincidentally). If they were to ever meet again, Kunino-to would, word for word, "Kick his ass and send him straight to Yomi if I ever got the chance to see him again" Eventually, after crossing many different worlds, He had settled down in a familiar world where he had finally united the country. However, peace would soon break down as one of his retainers, Takio Mikazuchi, went wild in the capital. Takio Mikazuchi and Kunino-to were General and Retainer. Takio was a former general in Kunino-to's army, as the last world was "Warring States Japan~esque" world where Kunino-to was one of the warlords.

Eventually, Takio had to be sealed away as, in Kunino's own words: "I did not have it in me to kill my best friend, or rather... It's more like I'd rather he'd atone in solitude than die with vengeance in his heart". Tragically, Kunino-to's life would be put to an end yet again in that world. He, along with the rest of the people he cared about, were mercilessly killed. And what's worse, it was at the hands of his second closest retainer, too. He himself swore vengeance if he were to ever return to that world, ignoring the very words he said for Takio. Eventually, he ended up in the current world without the intervention of Amaterasu. How he'll go about in this world is unknown.

**"... Although, this is all just a cover-up. his real backstory is something... more interesting than once thought of."**

**"Warning. The Information ahead is classified only to authorized members only. Continue at your own risk."**

In truth, The reality of Kunino-to's past, the reason he was sent to other worlds... everything was all lies. Well... almost all of it. Yes, he had traveled across many different eras and worlds... but his past is an entirely different story altogether.
The year it all began was the year 2050.

Once a nameless child, KH-405 as he was called at the time, was born in an unknown ward in Tokyo, Japan. His mother and father are unknown to him, and to everyone else. He was abandoned at birth, forsaken from the very get go. One day, a kind stranger passed by. His name was Lucius Margatroid, who later would be revealed to be a researcher at Zetsume Labs. He found the baby Kunino-to lying in the cold rain in a basket, with only a small towel being the barrier between the baby and the rain. Without hesitation, Lucius picked up the baby and comforted it as if it were his own. He'd bring the baby back to his apartment, but realized that he wasn't able to take care of him that well due to already taking care of a daughter of 2 years. Eventually, he brought him back to the lab. They were in need of test subjects... and an orphaned baby was the perfect one.

Kunino-to would become the first ever, or rather the only experiment of Zetsume Labs. The experiment itself was part of a bigger project dubbed "Project: Neo Messiah", a plan to create a "God-like entity" that would help the world return to some sort of normalcy after the discovery that there was indeed no "God" that existed, which sent the world at large into a mass panic and slow but sure decline. The first phase of "Project Neo Messiah" was transplanting the K.U.N.I.N.O System computer into the child's mind, which would be done so when he was 4 years old. The next phase was nurturing the system alongside the child so they could get a better grasp of the situations humans have, and to find the solutions for them. Why did they need to do something like this? Simple. Only the human mind can know what is best for humanity, and not a computer alone. Having a computer do all the work will not calm the masses who still hold on to their ideal of a "Messiah".

The third stage, however, was the stress test. Once they activate the full code which would do the majority of the work, while Kunino-to would be the the simple "Moral Compass", it would mean the full completion of the project, and thus would begin the final phase... which was the release of this newly created messiah out onto the world to take care of the rest. Things were going smoothly, as the research team calculated... that was until a small bit of malicious code got injected at the same time the activation happened, which caused the tragic deaths of the entire research team, and Kunino-to only knew of the events that unfolded only afterwards.

After the tragic accident, Kunino-to escaped the facility he was raised in, and was found by unlikely passerby named Kaito Motonari, who was the son of the head of the research lab, Kaizerius Morrigan. In the end, he would be taken in by him as a sort of adopted brother, to which Kaito himself would name him with the name he has currently. They would be very good friends for a few years, spending their days together like brothers. This wouldn't last for long however, as Kaito decided to leave Kunino-to to go and look for a possible alternative solution to the crisis the world was facing, leaving a simple note stating that he also knew about the project his father was up to, and how he didn't intervene at all while it happened. This would lead to Kunino-to having to fend for himself which, combined with the bullying he'd receive and the many terrible rumors spread about him, made him slowly grow a hatred for the world at large.

And things would only get worse after finishing education, as he began to see the world at large for what it is: a slowly dying world on the brink of absolute destruction. Although he had negative experiences in the past, he would resolve to help the world in any way he could, seemingly deciding to go across the world to help the many people, to which the K.U.N.I.N.O System responded to his resolve with it helping him along the way. Eventually however, he saw the futility of his actions as everything he did could not save the world at last. It was certainly a herculean task, and he was no Hercules. Defeated, he returned home and decided that there was no point in helping the world recover, as it was beyond his help to do anything. This last bit of negativity was the last straw, as the K.U.N.I.N.O System itself had also deemed the world as irredeemable, to which it told Kunino-to to "Do the World a Service and use everything in his power to destroy the world, as death was a better mercy than living in the current world."

And so He embarked on a mission: To destroy the current world and eradicate all life on the planet as a last act of mercy for all of humanity who continued to suffer. As he had no power himself, he first began to recruit those who were desperate for salvation, tricking people into becoming his followers so he would have an army to back him up. Then he would use that army seize all the nuclear devices that were left in the world as to prepare for the final phase of his plan. Afterwards, he would return home, to take a good look at everything one last time before it all was gone. This however was his biggest mistake, as a familiar face would face him down in the very alleyway he was left in... In the now decrepit ward of Shinjuku, Tokyo. One final battle would take place, leading to the death of Kunino-to and Kaito at the same time. Both would perish, not knowing the fate of their world.

It would be only then he would be found in the in-between of the afterlife, to which a stranger would take his lost, now amalgamated soul and reform him. Seeing that there was nothing left in this world, The Stranger took Kunino-to and left the entire world up to itself. After Kunino-to came to, The Stranger would explain everything to him, to which he would shudder. He would ask The Stranger a small favor of sealing away his memories, if they could do something like that, to which The Stranger would reply that they could, but was not guaranteed that his memories would stay locked forever. He accepted the offer anyways as a way to start clean slate. Using a device hooked up to a supercomputer on their ship the "Sol Determina", The Stranger would reprogram Kunino's memories and would generate new ones as to not let him be alarmed about said situation. Once Kunino-to came to again, he scolded The Stranger while calling them "Kaizer Izanagi" for doing something weird to him, to which they laugh it off and continue their adventure across worlds.

And that is where his story really begins...

## Storyteller's Combat Skills

### Storyteller's Traits

Support - Trait
 **System Log #002 - Lack of Indifference.**
Offense - Trait
 **System Log #003 - Unwavering Resolution.**
Support - Trait
 **System Log #00X - Duality of The Paradoxical.**
Offense - Trait

### Storyteller's Passives

Offense - Passive
Omega: All Stats UP by 1 Stage. AA% UP by 30
 **X Protocol: "Paradoxical Duality"**
Offense - Passive
Alpha: All Stats UP by 1 Stage. Removable Debuffs are nullified.
Omega: All Stats UP by 1 Stage. AA% Up by 60%

## Trivia

* Kunino-to's full name is Kotachi Kuninoto
	+ Kunino-to's name of origin comes from a deity of shinto of the same name.
* Some of Kunino-to's skills are references.
	+ His First Skill, "Kuji-in: Mantra of Power" is a reference to the real life practice of Kuji-in.
	+ His Second Skill, "Nihon Shoki" is a reference to the real life book of the same name.