Characters: Zarou Ichihara

## **Character**

Zarou Ichihara is a member of Team Resonance in the Colin Series and occasionally heads into battle whether with them or not. Zarou was the first person to find out about Red's Return and was going to warn Colin Takeda himself, but he instead let Rose Haruki do it and sacrificed himself to the Police so that she could freely escape. Akira Ichihara is Zarou's father even though he doesn't like to admit it because he's the reason why his mom, Callie Yharmamin died. He instead often hangs out with his older brother Yashiro Ichihara as Zarou finds him to be more of a parent than Akira.

### **Traits-**

Yashiro taught Zarou about the many Legends of the Underworld and the one that Zarou was most interested in was The Light Warriors because of Red and his decent into madness. He researched Red for a long time which has proven to help significantly for Team Resonance.

Zarou has been relatively shy and quiet for most of his life however when he meets Team Resonance in full for the first time in Part III: War of the Stone, he becomes braver and more heroic than he previously was, risking his life for humanity's sake. Despite if people find him reckless or not, Zarou has always protected his friends and family including Akira Ichihara. His day is to one day become a hero and join the United Nation of Warriors to surpass his father.

## **Story**

### **Backstory/Early Years-**

Zarou Ichihara was born on Rei 31st, 75 A.D. in Ghest and is the son of Akira Ichihara of the United Nation of Warriors. Zarou's mother Callie Yharmamin died due to the Dark Corruption that Akira has when she gave birth to both Zarou and his older brother Yashiro Ichihara. The Dark Corruption caused Callie's heart to practically collapse in on itself killing her almost immediately. This has led to Zarou and Yashiro being distant from Akira though he was already quite busy at work in the UNW. There are times where Zarou wished he was never born so that his mother could still be alive, but Yashiro assured him that nobody knew it would happen therefore it was her fate. Yashiro was more of a father to Zarou than Akira.

One day Yashiro taught Zarou about the Legends of the Underworld and the one that stuck out to him the most was The Light Warriors as he was fascinated by Red and his plunge into madness. And so, he researched Red and what happened to him. During his research he saw a video that people were spreading as a joke showing low quality camera footage of a man walking behind a store that looked like Red. People didn't believe it was actually him, but Zarou found it fascinating and studied the video. He came to the conclusion that it truly was Red and decided to contact Corin Takeda, there was no answer. Zarou eventually gave in and separated from his brother and stowed-away onto a plane headed for Astia.

### **Part I: The Return-**

While Zarou was sneaking onto the plane, he met another girl attempting to also sneak on. He sat next to her once they got on and he learned that her name is Rose Haruki. Rose snuck on because she wanted to find her Elizabeth Salthun in order to have someone to live with since Rose was homeless at the time. Zarou told her that he found footage of Red's Return and had proof of it too. He wanted to take it to Corin's son, Colin Takeda because he was the only other option. Rose was shocked at the fact that Red was still alive and hardly believed it at first until she eventually sees him for herself later. Once the two landed in Astia they had to escape their last line at the airport, so they snuck into the bathroom and crawled into the vent in the ceiling, what they wouldn't immediately know is that somebody saw them crawl through and they alerted security. Zarou eventually saw that security was informed and told Rose to find Takeda for him and he turned himself in, distracting the guards, and so Rose got away. And so Zarou spent a few months in jail.

### **Part II: Hollow-**

Zarou was suffering in jail, and he still had many more months to go. Instead of waiting, Zarou used all of the tools he had access to and broke out of jail. He then changed his identity to Rouzal Yharmamin a mix between Rose, Zarou, and his mother's last name while being an anagram. He also changed his hairstyle into a ponytail and dyed his hair blonde. Rouzal would stay quiet for some time until he attended school at Ceran. (Read Rouzal's page for in-between story)

### **Part III: War of the Stone-**

Rouzal finally revealed his identity to Kaya, and Rose.

## **Trivia**

- Like Kaya Famar, Zarou Ichihara is the name that I name my male character in many games with a character creator. It wasn't until I started thinking of a backstory that they were both added into the Colin Series. This is why Kaya and Zarou are often seen with each other.

- Zarou originally wasn't related to Akira Ichihara and was supposed to be a new character bloodline that would have been introduced in the scrapped school-arc.

- Upon Zarou's creation, I intended for him to have his own series, but moved him over to the Colin Series to flesh-out Team Resonance.