Kaito Mori

**Kaito Mori** (森 海斗, *Mori Kaito*) is a ghoul residing in the 15th Ward. He is currently a college student studying Computer Design, and works as a cashier for Date's Grocery. He has two alias; **Cyclops** (サイクロプス, *Saikuropusu*), and **Shade** (蔭, *Kage*).

## Appearance

Kaito has medium length, usually straight black hair that occasionally hangs over his face. His features, such as his dark brown eyes and short nose, are usually behind a pair of sleek glasses with a thin metal frame. He is usually clothed in a thick blue hoodie with clear signs of age and stains, simple black jeans, and dull grey sneakers. A small silver necklace hangs around his neck with a tiny charm depicting a snake curled in an 'S' shape.

As Cyclops, he favours wearing plain and inexpressive attire, such as grey track suits. A round metal mask with a single red LED 'eye' in it's center completely obscures the front side of his head, while his hair is tucked into his shirt, and covered by a hood.

As Shade, he wears a sleek black helmet with two long pointed 'ears' at the top, that also features a grey visor to hide his eyes and most of his upper face. His upper body is clothed in black body armor, with raised abs and pecs, with a red kanji symbol (報) indented on his chest. A padded black gun holster hangs underneath his left armpit. His forearms bare long, rubber gauntlets with a small raised compartment on each wrist, and a touch screen on the top side of the left gaunlet. On his waist is a belt packed with pouches, a set of knives, lidded compartments, and a portable electric storage unit. The round buckle on the front features a stylized red 'S' symbol. He wears black leggings, and hard shelled boots with pointed rims.

## Personality

Kaito is a rather lax, go-with-the-flow kind of guy. He tries to make light of most situations, and does his best to see the good side of things. Though he can be a bit stubborn when someone speaks ill of his beliefs, he mostly keeps his problems to himself, not wanting to drag anyone down with his issues. He is also a bit of a risk taker, performing rash and dangerous acts despite very possible outcomes. This sort of rash mindset developed due to his growing doubts of his parents teachings to avoid all confrontation and interaction for the sake of maintaining a quiet human persona.

With his rather sheltered early life, also came some issues in developing his social skills. Though he is friendly to most that he encounters, he occasionally misses social ques even from those he is close to, or not understanding the boundries of personal space. His time living in Tokyo has made these quirks lesser, but they still manifest occasionally.

When donning mask and cape as Shade however, Kaito becomes much more outspoken, snarky, and at times, mean spirited to those he disagrees with morally and idealistically. His outlook on the world becomes brutally honest; acknowledging the differences between humans and ghouls, but believing certain struggles against one another to be needless and over-dramatic at times, as he believes a middle ground can be reached at some point. He also takes on a rather mocking tone to those of each party that have a radical view of the other side, poking fun at the vengeful and self righteous enemies he encounters.

His moral code also plays a large part into his decisions while in costume, protecting human civilians from each other, and ghouls simply looking to feed depending on the circumstances of the would-be victim. He also steps in to shut down any petty crime he comes across, knocking human criminals and leaving them to their fate with police. When against immoral ghouls however, he is quick to jump to the lethal solution, knowing that disabling a ghoul and leaving them for the CCG to take care of would be cruel and unnecessary, as well as pose a risk to Investigators themselves. On some occasions, Kaito will still attempt to talk a ghoul down from their current violent course of action, with a belief that with the right circumstances, some are capable of change.

The Shade in particular also faces controversy for his view on the CCG, believing that some Investigators are only in their line of work because of their beliefs that killing violent ghouls will make the world a better place, much like his own views. He tends to assist honest CCG agents in certain scenarios, but on the other side of the coin, will act aloof and mocking towards Investigators that view all ghouls as a number in a body count. However, while he maybe more lax to assist the self-righteous, he refrains from killing them.

## Background

Kaito was born in the city of Takayama, located in the Gifu Prefecture of Japan. He and his small family of his two parents, Anzu and Bunta, and his elder brother Junki, lived in relative peace within the city, but also led rather sheltered lives. Both Kaito and his brother were not initially told about their status as ghouls; their parents only telling them that they were 'different' from other families. Their odd weekly family dinner of a meat platter being just one of those odd differences that were reason for them not being able to interact with other children, or attend elementary school. This didn't seem to bother the brothers much, as they instead used the time to bond with each other over TV superheroes, books, and eventually, video games. However, as both of the boys aged, they became more and more curious about what made their family so strange, eventually leading to them spying on their father coming home late one night, carrying a large sweet smelling garbage bag. To the siblings horror, they seen their father pulled a mutilated human corpse out of the black plastic.

Young Kaito took the reveal rather poorly, crying out and running to hide inside of his room, leaving Junki alone with their now extremely guilty father. Bunta and Anzu both agreed that it was time they told their children everything, and sat both brothers down in their room to have to finally explain why they were 'different'.

Junki seemed to take the news rather well, as both he and his brother had been theorising for months, and felt that he had to remain strong for his Kaito, as he took the news, and the survive training their parents began to give them, extremely negatively. The concept of being a ghoul frightened Kaito immensely; his young mind racing with the belief of himself being no better than the monster that hid underneath a bed or in a closet. He began to neglect his mother's homeschooling, and flat out reject his father's combat training for fear of himself hurting humans, or his family. The boy spent many sleepless nights sobbing, Junki having to sleep in the same bed as him to comfort his depressed brother. Junki took it upon himself to help Kaito understand and accept their nature as ghouls, showing him that there can be a good side to every bad situation. He began to compare their superhuman abilities to that of the fictional heroes they obsessed over, and that someday, they could use their powers to fight crime and benefit the world around them.

Years went on, and as the two young ghouls aged, they grew more confident. The Moris also began to feel a bit more comfortable with their children having a bit more freedom, and choice in their lives. Through connections gained from her job as a high school teacher, Anzu was able to set up her children with bridging courses in a local junior college. Through three years of schooling, both Kaito and Junki were able to obtain associate degrees. Junki, wanted to pursue an apprenticeship with their father in carpentry. However, Kaito wanted to continue his academic studies in design, leading to him telling his family that he wished to attend college in Tokyo.

Both his parents and his brother immediately disapproved of the idea, repeatedly warning him of the dangers that would come from living in the large metropolis; especially with said metropolis housing the Commission of Counter Ghoul's main office.

Despite the worry of his family, Kaito remained headstrong and set on his path. With a heartfelt goodbye to his parents, and a parting gift from Junki in the form of a rough metal mask made by his own hands, the young ghoul left the comforts of home at the age of eighteen to start a new life on his own in the capital of Japan. However, the boy neglected to tell his family the other purpose of leaving for the capital; to live his dream of becoming a super hero.

His first day in the spiralling city was a wake up call, the boy getting lost among the sea of people and buildings that reached high into the sky. His wandering and loose navigation eventually leading him to the school he would be attending; Suginami School of Design and Trades. During his visit, Kaito encountered a future classmate in the halls, a soft spoken young man named Tadatomo Ejiri. The two bespectacled boy's struck up a short and awkward conversation about their plans after graduation, before parting ways, with Tadatomo having to pursue Kaito across the campus after the ghoul had forgotten his bag. Seemingly feeling pity for the clearly new student, 'Tomo' offered to guide the ghoul around the school once the semester started, which Kaito took with gratitude, and a bit of anxiety.

As the sun was beginning to set on the 15th Ward, he left the school grounds to meet with the landlord of a complex of apartments he had contacted before leaving home. On his way to the specified address, a shout of pain and a sweet scent from a nearby alleyway peaked Kaito's curiosity, causing him to don his brother's gifted mask and investigate the narrow street.

The scene the boy encountered was one that was almost entirely new to him. Having his meals brought him to him by his father, and scavenging corpses for his entire life up to this point didn't prepare him for the sight of a hungry ghoul striking a young girl with a bladed kagune caused him to freeze like a deer in the headlights. The fearful sobbing of the woman brought Kaito back into the moment, causing him to swallow his fear and engage the demon masked ghoul with his own kagune at the ready in attempts to rescue the injured human from her fate.

The battle was barely able to be called as such, with Kaito easily being overpowered by the demon ghoul's swift and deadly blows. The encounter coming to it's climax as the defeated boy found himself pinned in the shadows between the buildings with the long since bled out girl, and the taunting predatory ghoul mocking him for his weakness and questioning his motive for intervening on his meal.

A loud noise and a blinding flash painted the boy's blurry vision in white as he attempted to refocus on the situation, soon finding the demon masked ghoul laying in a bloody heap next to him, with a large hole in the side of his neck. Kaito soon realized that another had entered the alleyway, and turned his head to be met with the shaking barrel of a smoking gun, and a rather pale and nervous man in a suit holding the weapon tightly.

With his mask having long been lost during the fight, Kaito found his bloodied black eyes locking with the nervous gunman's own, who soon turned his weapon on the defenceless ghoul and let out a rather meek threat. The clear levels of fear radiating from the Investigator caused the boy to question his hesitation, admitting that it would be easier for both of them if he were to 'get it over with'. The armed Investigator replied with more shaken words, admitting that he had never taken a life before, and was still deciding if it would be fair to kill what he observed as an innocent youth.

Kaito was shocked at the man's words, unbelieving of the fact that he would let him live, even with the chances of him gaining fame and adoration from his peers. The man simply replied with his disdain for promotion and praise, and lowered his weapon before exiting the scene without another word.

After dragging himself to the address of his new apartment, the defeated ghoul was saved by the owner of the complex, who happened to be a ghoul himself, and assisted Kaito in his recovery over the next few weeks.

Once his injuries had healed, the boy's perspective of Tokyo and the people that inhabited it had changed significantly from what he had envisioned, and drove him to continue pursuing his goal of using his powers to become an icon that people could put their hope into; a hero that fought for the rights of both human and ghoul.

## Kagune

**Type:** poop

**Appearance:** Kaito's kagune manifests itself as two red, wavy, wide 'arms' with a row of sharp 'claws' at the end of them. As Shade, he tends to keep the two appendages close together; reaching down towards his feet to simulate a long red cape.

**Strengths:** His kagune excels in both it's flexibility, and the firing rate of it's projectiles while crystalized. The 'wavy' nature of the limbs while not crystalized allowing them to easily curl up or squeeze close together to fit most technical situations.

**Weaknesses:** Like all Ukaku type kagune, Kaito's kagune is extremely fragile and is easily shattered while in it's crystalized form, and it's high rate of fire has a trade off for high amount of RC cell usage, with constant use of the ability tiring out the boy rather quickly. The strange shape of the limbs also limit pinpoint accuracy, only allowing for use of an inaccurate 'spread shot' rather than any sort of exact aim.

**Mechanics:** Kaito tends to utilize his kagune in situations with multiple opponents, using the wide spread of his shots to both distract and disable his foes efficiently. He also has a preference for using it's standard uncrystalized form as a second set of unorthodox arms, using the sharpened endings to awkwardly swipe at targets or to pierce nearby objects or ledges.

## Relationships

 Shiki Ikari
 Kaichi Ono
 Ibuki Tanaka | A green CCG Investigator that Kaito ran into during the Sumida TV Tower raid. Her rather lax and disturbingly malicious attitude amuses the wise cracking Shade, but only for so long when more pressing matters are at hand. Her lack of care for those weaker than her both angers and frustrates Kaito. She seems to hold both contempt, and respect for the ghoulish hero's fighting abilities.

## Quotes

* To Yurei during the events of *Meddling Kids*: "When I look in a mirror, I don't see the power to kill. I see the power to change perspectives."

* To Ibuki during their fight in the *Spotlight* Arc: "You know, it's really ironic that ghouls are the ones being called bloodthirsty killers, when the CCG let freaks like you join the team!"

## Gallery

A photo of Kaito created with Rinmaru Avatar CreatorThe original drawing of Kaito
## Trivia

* Mori (森) means "Woods", and Umi (海) means "Ocean".

* The variant form of the name Kaito, "Kaitō", is the term for "Phantom Thief" in Japanese non-fiction. It's spelling in kanji (怪盗), means "Theft".

* The kanji featured on the front of Shade's chest piece, Hō (報), means "retribution" or "punishment".

* Kaito is neither far-sighted or near-sighted; His glasses are purely cosmetic.

* The Shade suit draws inspiration from Batman's Batsuit featured in *The Dark Knight* films, and Black Panther's Light Armor. The helmet's visor was inspired by the one worn by Raiden in *Metal Gear Rising*.