Yukitoshi Shimizu (
Appearance
Yukitoshi was a young man with a pale complexion and freckles, black hair in an unkept fashion, black eyes with diluted pupils and black bags underneath them.
His outfit after arriving in Tortus consisted of a purple-navy robe that had a light-gray hood, a large red ring with thin black lines and yellow trim around the collar with a matching pentagon on the torso pointing down, large sleeves with vertical slits and was light gray around the cuffs, the lower half divided into six flaps from the waist the the hem with a long yellow arrow pointing up on each of them with a red round gem on the end of each flap, a black lined robe worn underneath with tight sleeves that was silver around the cuffs, a white collar with a brown stipe in the middle and was red from the waist to below the knees, a ring with a large dark gem on his right middle finger, a black waist band, a blue belt with a matching blue waist pack over his right hip, and black pointed boots.
After abandoning his classmates, Yukitoshi wore a black hooded robe over his outfit with a long red scarf and a metal mouth plate to hide his identity.
Personality
Yukitoshi was an isolated person who didn't have any friends. He was always reading books in his seat while never talking to others in anything louder than a mutter. This is in part due to the fact that he was bullied in junior high and did not want to experience that again. Due to his hobbies and anti-social personality, he became a habitual truant and would constantly have dark thoughts floating around in his mind about his family and classmates.
Yukitoshi had always wanted to be special, as well as to be the only one who was special among his peers. When he thought he got his wish after being transported to Tortus, he learned he wasn't the only one who was special and wasn't even the 'hero' he wanted to be, which didn't sit well with him. Even when he thought he could prove that he was better than everyone else, things didn't go the way he wanted and became depressed. These desires grew into insanity when the demons offered to treat him as their hero if he killed Aiko.
Despite wanting to be a hero, Yukitoshi was not a brave or altruistic person, because he never cared about anyone but himself. Yukitoshi also never had the courage to actually fight and always left the fighting to his allies, while he hid himself away from confrontation. He was also unable to recognize and learn from his mistakes, preferring to blame others when things didn't go his way. His cowardly and selfish nature was further exemplified when he begged Hajime to save him from death, despite having tried to kill him moments before.
Background
Yukitoshi was a closet otaku who was bullied throughout his junior high school life. With special interest in other-world fantasy adventures he numb his real-world pains with fantasizing himself as a world saving hero character winning ladies left and right. When he entered high school, he hid his interests to avoid the kind of harsh treatment that would come from it, having seen how his classmate Hajime Nagumo was constantly bullied for it. His anti-social behavior got to a point where even his family was concerned about him.
Chronology
One Monday during his second year of high school, Yukitoshi and his entire class was summoned to Tortus by its god Ehit, in order to help humanity's war against the demons. Over the next two weeks, he and his classmates trained in the Heiligh Kingdom, under the supervision of Knight Commander Meld Loggins. Afterwards, they traveled to the Great Orcus Labyrinth, in order to fight the monsters that dwelled inside it until they were strong enough to fight the demons. At first, Yukitoshi was excited that his long-time dream finally be realized, only to have his spirit crushed when he found out he was no more than a side character due to the limitations of his dark magic.
During their first trip to the labyrinth, Yukitoshi and the others were transported to the 65th floor due to a trap that was accidentally set off by Daisuke Hiyama. It was there that they were all surrounded by an army of skeletal traum soldiers on one side, and a large behemoth on the other. After a fierce battle, almost everyone managed to escape, but Yukitoshi's classmate Hajime Nagumo was believed to have been killed when he fell off the bridge the behemoth stood on, after he helped keep it at bay in order for the rest of his class to escape. The supposed death of Hajime hit him hard, he withdrew himself and buried himself in books related to dark magic. It later dawned on him that his affinity with dark magic could allow him to control an army of monsters. At first, he'd sneak outside the palace walls at night to test out his magic on low-tier monsters, since such magic was difficult to affect on beings of higher sapience, such as humans. He took up the opportunity to travel as a guard for his teacher Aiko, in order to further experiment with his dark subjugation magic on higher tier monsters that were typically found in the mountainous region.
While Yukitoshi and the rest of Aiko's guards were at the lakeside town of Ur, he was approached alone by a demon named Reiss, who made a deal with Yukitoshi: He would destroy the town and kill Aiko, and Yukitoshi would be invited into demons' ranks as their hero. Gifted with a small cadre of powerful monsters, he then sneaked out of town and traveled to the Northern Mountain Range to gather more monsters for his army. While there, he encountered the dragonman Tio Klarus who was sleeping in her dragon form. He managed to control her after a day of using his magic and tasked her to kill all approaching adventurers in the area, so that no one could warn the town of his plans.
Yukitoshi managed to assemble an army of 60,000 monsters and headed for Ur, while riding on one of the flying monsters. When his army arrived at Ur, however, they were confronted by Hajime Nagumo and his party (including Tio, who Hajime freed from Yukitoshi's magic). During the battle, Yukitoshi had hid himself in the rear of his monster army. As Hajime and his companions were quickly annihilating such a large swarm of monsters, Yukitoshi quickly grew scared after seeing such an unbelievable sight. He quickly dug himself a makeshift trench and hid behind as many defensive barriers as he could muster. As the remaining monsters began to retreat, Yukitoshi yelled at them to resume fighting, but to no avail. Yukitoshi then began to cast a spell, but Hajime shot his magic staff from his and before he could finish. The force of the shot sent Yukitoshi reeling back into his hole. As Hajime was approaching Yukitoshi, he was confronted by a pack of four-eyed wolf monsters. Although Hajime managed to quickly eliminate them, Yukitoshi used the opportunity to escape while riding one one of the wolves. However, Hajime fired two shots at Yukitoshi's wolf mount to stop it, he wolf quickly leaped to the side and dodged the first shot, causing the second to strike it directly in the femur. The wolf collapsed to the ground and threw Yukitoshi off, as a result. Unfazed, Yukitoshi quickly got up and ran over to the wolf and started yelling hysterically at it to get up. When it didn't respond, he kicked it in the head, to no avail. He then placed his hand on its head and started chanting a spell to forcibly make it stand. Before he could make it move, Hajime fired another bullet at the wolf's head and killed it. The force of the shot knocked Yukitoshi down again, but he got up again and began to run away, while trying to blend it with rest of the retreating monsters. He soon heard a noise and turned to see that Hajime was pursuing him while riding a motorcycle, much to his shock. He ran even faster, all while constantly cursing at his failure, but Hajime quickly caught up to him and hit him with his prosthetic arm. Yukitoshi faceplanted into the ground and slid a few meters before coming to a stop. Hajime then tied him up with wire from his prosthetic arm and drove him back to the city.
Hajime brought Yukitoshi back to Aiko, as per her request, in her hopes that she could rehabilitate him. Aiko had Yukitoshi untied, in order to have a proper conversation with him. As Yukitoshi regained consciousness, he quickly realized that he had been captured. He desperately tried to stand up, but the concussion hadn't worn off, so he fell back to the ground. Terrified, he tried to crawl backward. Aiko tried to calm Yukitoshi down and wanted him to explain the reason for his recent actions. Yukitoshi unremorsefully explained that he did to prove that he was the best member of the Hero Party. This caused his classmates to lash out at him, but Aiko managed to stop them. She then asked why he resorted to such brutal methods to prove his worth, to which Yukitoshi revealed his newfound allegiance to the demons, all while acting more deranged during his speech. He then demanded that Hajime explain how he managed to defeat him with his powerful artifacts, unaware of who he was (even going so far as to call him a chuuni). Aiko then approached Yukitoshi and grabbed his had, while trying to talk him back to his senses. Yukitoshi desperately tried to free his hand, but Aiko refused to let go, and he had no choice but to listen to her as she continued to try and reason with him. After Aiko finished her speech, Yukitoshi began to tremble. At first, everyone thought that he was feeling remorseful for his actions, with Aiko even moving closer to pat him on the head, but he quickly tightened his grip on Aiko's hand and pulled her forward and then wrapped his arm around her neck and started squeezing. He pinned her arms behind her back and pulled out a short poison needle that originated from one of his monster minions and pointed it at her neck. He demanded Hajime to give him all his artifacts, as well as his companion Shea, in order to spare Aiko. Unfazed by Yukitoshi's threat, Hajime rejected his ultimatum. As Yukitoshi continued to rant about his desire to be a hero, Aiko tried to reason with him, but he refused to listen to her. A moment later, Shea jumped in to try and save Aiko. Panicking, Yukitoshi tried to stab Aiko with the needle, but Shea pulled her free and dived out of the way. A second later, a torrent of water slammed into Yukitoshi's chest to where Aiko's head had been before Shea freed her, and was mortally wounded. The culprit was Reiss, who hid away in the distance and attempted to kill Aiko using the water spell "Rupture." Reiss managed to escape using a flying monster, but not before being maimed by a gunshot from Hajime.
After Reiss fled, Hajime approached the dying Yukitoshi and told him that he could heal him, but he first needed to know if Yukitoshi was his enemy. Yukitoshi replied by promising Hajime that he would serve him and use his powers to grant him whatever he wanted, be that an army of enthralled monsters or brainwashed women. Hearing this only confirmed Hajime's belief that Yukitoshi was beyond redemption, and proceeded to kill him by shooting him in the heart and the head. Hajime then left Aiko, who was distraught by the incident.
Sometime after Yukitoshi's classmates returned to Earth, Aiko and Hajime visited his family and told them about his death. However, his parents and brothers were instead concerned about how his death would impact their family's reputation. They tried to convince Hajime and Aiko to lie about Yukitoshi by claiming that he died a hero, with the parents even going so far as to try to get them to sign non-disclosure agreements. This caused Aiko to lash out at Yukitoshi's family for their lack of concern, but Hajime eventually calmed her down and then used his Intimidation skill to pacify them. He would then keep tabs on them to make sure that they wouldn't try anything against him.[2]
Powers & Abilities
Magical Abilities
- Immense Mana - As one of Ehit's summoned heroes, Yukitoshi had more mana than most people in Tortus.
- Magic Master - Yukitoshi had an incredible aptitude for dark magic and was able to influence the target's thoughts and perception with it. In combat, his main purpose was to debuff enemies. Yukitoshi quickly grew proficient at creating illusions to disorient foes, interfering with their ability to cast magic, and even making them hurt themselves in confusion. His talents in the art grew to a point that he could control the minds of monsters, even thousands of them. Despite his aptitude for it, however, he couldn't control the minds of any intelligent beings unless he cast magic on them for a day and without any resistance. When he could, he was able to take control of the powerful dragonman Tio Klarus. Even Hajime acknowledged Yukitoshi as a cheat-level genius for this feat.
Skills
- Dark Magic Affinity (闇属性適性, Yami Zokusei Tekisei?) - It allows the user to use dark magic at a capable rate.
- Improved Proficiency (回復効果上昇, Kaifuku Kōka Jōshō?) - It can use dark magic more effectively.
- Reduced Mana Consumption (消費魔力減少, Shōhi Maryoku Genshō?) - It decreases the rate of mana being run out.
- Speed Casting (発動速度上昇, Hatsudō Sokudo Jōshō?) - It increase the speed of the dark magic.
- Improved Mana Efficiency (魔力効率上昇, Maryoku Kōritsu Jōshō?) - It can use dark magic efficiently.
- Increased Spell Duration (持続時間上昇, Jizoku Jikan Jōshō?) - Duration in using dark magic raised.
- Language Comprehension (言語理解, Gengo Rikai?) - A base skill granted to all those who got summoned. It gives the user the ability to understand any language and be proficient in it.
Weapons & Equipment
- Staff (
杖 , Tsue?) - An artifact that was given to him by the Heiligh Kingdom, in order to help him better channel his dark magic. It was destroyed after Hajime shot it with his handgun while capturing Yukitoshi.
Quotes
- (To Aiko): "Why? You can’t even tell why? That’s why you’re all a bunch of incompetent losers. You all always look down on me... and go on about hero this, hero that. Even though I’m way better than that prick Kouki... none of you ever noticed. You always just pretended like I wasn’t even there... You’re all a bunch of retards! That’s why I wanted to prove my worth to all of you..."[3]
- (His last words to Hajime): "I-I’m not... I-I don’t know what came over me. I promise... I won’t do it again. If you save me, I-I’ll do anything you ask. I’ll make you... an army... I’ll even brainwash any girl you want... I-I swear... I’ll be loyal to you forever. Please... I’m begging you... save me..."[3]
Etymology
- The name "Yukitoshi" means "good luck" (幸利).
- Yukitoshi's surname "Shimizu" means "clear, pure" (清) (shi) and "water" (水) (mizu).
Trivia
- Yukitoshi was the first member of his class to be killed and first to be killed by another classmate (Hajime).
- Yukitoshi's wound from Reiss' snipe was so serious, he would have died even if Hajime hadn't shot him. The reason Hajime killed him was for Aiko to not blame herself for Yukitoshi's death.
- Hajime has speculated that the reason why the demons first recruited Yukitoshi was because they actually viewed him as the greatest threat within the Hero Party, since he had the power to control monsters and could potentially steal their own monster army if he remained loyal to the humans.[4]
- This also ironically proves that Shimizu is indeed special, as his unique job class and skills could have had a major effect on the outcome of the Human-Demon War depending on which side he had chosen to side with.
References
- ↑ Episode 9
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 14
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Light Novel Volume 03
- ↑ Web Novel - Chapter 361