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Jun. 22nd, 2019 08:07 pmPlayer: Hojo
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Age: 28
Current Characters: N/A
Character: Mabu Akutsu
Age: Mid-20s
Canon: Sarazanmai
Canon Point: Episode 10, pre-zombification
Background:
Long ago, the mythical Kappa Kingdom was at war with the Otter Empire. They fought over the desire energy of shirikodamas, a spherical, physical manifestation of the soul and are found in a fictional organ, and eventually, the Otter Empire came out as the victor. Right before the downfall of the Kappa Kingdom, its prince, Keppi, split his own shirikodama in half just as two of his vassals, Reo and Mabu, came into the room. The force of the split released a dark version of Keppi that careened toward the entryway. Mabu pushed Reo out of the way of harm, taking the hit himself. Dark Keppi burst out of the palace, causing the ceiling beams to fall and pin Mabu to the floor. Holding Reo's hand, Mabu used his final breath to urge Reo to never let go of his desires as the future exists only for those who can connect those desires.
And then he died.
But hope was not lost for him. An otter from the Otter Empire stole Reo and Mabu away from the ruins of the palace. During the time it took for Reo to recover, Otter had fitted Mabu with a mechanical heart. It was more than enough to bring him back to life. When he came to, the first thing he thought of was his final moments with Reo. Upon seeing that this vision turn into an otter, Mabu was quick to ask for Reo. Otter assured him that Reo wanted to see him just as badly, but that there was one condition: Mabu must give up his connection to Reo. Otter went on to say that connections were poison and that if he were to speak words of love to Reo, the mechanical heart he'd been fitted with would explode, leaving no trace of it or Mabu behind. Otter, who wanted proof that Mabu would be able to forsake his partner, told him to say "I hate Reo."
At this point, Mabu wanted nothing more than to maintain his connection with Reo and to be by his side. However, the thought of never being able to be with Reo again was so unbearable that for the sake of having a future together with him, Mabu said the words.
Satisfied, Otter allowed Mabu to meet with Reo, who was more than aware that Mabu had died. Knowing the fragility of his new heart, Mabu dared not speak words of love to Reo. Instead, upon their meeting, Mabu flatly explained to Reo that Otter had revived him. Mabu insisted that although his body wasn't the same, he was still the same Mabu with the same personality. Reo vehemently denied this and pointed out that his Mabu would never look at him with with "those eyes."
Otter interrupted them, suggesting that if Reo was unhappy with the results then he was more than welcome to destroy Mabu's heart with his own hands. He then suggested that if he couldn't bear to do that, Mabu's new heart would need help to operate, implying that it ran on the same desire energy as the shirikodama the Kappas and Otters warred over previously.
Mabu left the decision up to Reo.
Sometime later, Reo and Mabu returned to Asakusa, although their relationship was heavily strained. Mabu, who used to cook and recreate dishes on a regular basis was no longer able to eat. When he tried his hand at cooking, the results were unsavory. Even his ningyouyaki, which he had spent so much time trying to perfect again, came out only half-baked.
That didn't mean he didn't try. Although Reo would deny it over and over again, Mabu's feelings for Reo hadn't changed a bit. The only difference was that he couldn't tell Reo that. To compensate, Mabu would try to act as he had in the past, like eating yakisoba with steamed broccoli and baking ningyouyaki. For Mabu, it was all he could do to show he was still the same person and that his feelings for Reo hadn't changed. For Reo, Mabu's attempts came off as a weak imitation, like a child playing pretend.
After Mabu's resurrection and their reunion, the two of them returned to their police work in Asakusa. During this time, they presumably did real police work from time to time as they could be seen looking for wanted criminals and would often go out on patrol. However, this was just a cover to find corrupted people to turn them into Kappa Zombies. In order to do this, they utilized Dark Keppi, who had been captured by the Otter Empire and was stored deep underground, underneath Reo and Mabu's police box.
They started off small. Their earliest named victim was a man whose kink was getting naked and wearing boxes on his head. Then there was a man who thought his girlfriend loved cats more than him, so he shaved the fur off neighborhood cats and wore the fur to get her to like him more. Then there was a kisu fish store owner who was more concerned with the quantity of kisses rather than the quality. This went on for a while, with Reo and Mabu turning people consumed with desire or obsession into Kappa Zombies while the other half of Dark Keppi and a trio of middle school students stole the shirikodama from those Kappa Zombies. In doing so, the very memory of the victims who were killed and turned into Kappa Zombies were erased from existence.
Eventually, their true goal came to light. They—or rather, Reo specifically with Mabu along for the ride—had been looking for the Dishes of Hope. Only Keppi could create them by consuming shirikodama. As they created more Kappa Zombies, Keppi consumed more shirikodama and created more Dishes of Hope. With five of them, any wish could be granted and Reo planned to use them to bring back the "real" Mabu. Despite being the real Mabu all along, Mabu went along with it. He took the job seriously and kept Reo on task and in check.
As they went through with their mission, Mabu continued to go through the motions of being himself. He baked and he ate. He did what he could to please Reo. But also, due to the mechanical nature of his heart, he need to attend frequent maintenance sessions with Otter. The fact that Mabu needed "maintenance" at all was infuriating to Reo, but Mabu flatly insisted that it needed to be done.
When the trio of middle schoolers acquired four Dishes of Hope, Reo and Mabu sought them out to steal the Dishes away. When Reo not only shot one of them, but also gloated that they now had four of the five Dishes of Hope that they needed, Mabu gently scolded Reo for overdoing it and then told the other middle schooler to call for help as there may be a chance to save his friend.
Later that day, Mabu presented Reo with a ningyouyaki that was baked to perfection for the very first time since his death. It was perhaps this moment that eased the tension between him and Reo, at least briefly. Reo was so pleased that the next time he returned to the police box, he came back with a bottle of wine and a carton of Mabu's favorite pancakes from a cafe. However, when he returned he found that Mabu was in the middle of another maintenance session.
It was at this point that Reo came to witness what Mabu's maintenance sessions actually entailed. In the basement of the police box, he found Mabu with Otter, who was taking on the form of a demonic looking Reo. Otter explained that otters were concepts and that he was simply a reflection of what Reo and Mabu desired most. Otter mocked Reo as he possessively held onto Mabu about how he knew Reo's intention tonight was to be physically intimate with Mabu, despite how vehemently he had been denying Mabu all this time. Seeing the intimacy between Mabu and Otter disguised as himself made Reo realize he'd been wrong, and he believed more strongly than ever that Mabu was a fake and that it was stupid of him to believe otherwise.
From that point on, Reo acted alone, deciding to use his own strength to get the fifth Dish of Hope to bring the "real" Mabu back. As Reo was unwilling to work together with a "fake" like Mabu any longer, Mabu stayed behind in one of the basement levels of the police box. Reo eventually returned, bringing two of the middle schoolers along with him as well as the other half of Keppi who had been leading the middle schooler trio. As Reo mocked Mabu about not being the person he wanted, Mabu interjected to let him know that Otter has been reading his memories and that he knew about the Dishes of Hope. This news of course frustrated Reo, who grabbed him and shook him fiercely and called him a traitor. He told Mabu that he wasn't the same Mabu who found him when he was all alone, and he wasn't the same Mabu who told him the words that he wanted to hear.
And when Reo left, Mabu didn't follow. He stayed behind on the platform that extended over the area where he and Reo had turned countless corrupted humans into Kappa Zombies. Mabu realized that he couldn't live like this anymore. He loved Reo and he wanted to be connected with him, and so he decided without any hesitation that the only way to get his feelings through to Reo was to turn himself into a Kappa Zombie. He knew that there would be no going back, but as long as he was able to connect with Reo before he was erased from this world, he would be satisfied.
Personality:
At the start of the manga focused on his side story, where Mabu is untouched by Otter, Mabu is introduced as someone who is willing to eat pancakes someone left on the ground. Not only was he willing to eat them despite his partner Reo's protests, but he found them so delicious that he wanted to recreate the flavor. In doing so, he ate the pancakes himself, not thinking ahead that Reo would never be able to compare the taste of Mabu's pancakes to the taste of the pancakes they found on the ground because Reo never got to taste them.
Given the sharp contrast before and after Mabu's heart is replaced by a mechanical one, it's no wonder that Reo is so quick to call Mabu an impostor. However, he genuinely is the same Mabu as before and his feelings for Reo burn just as brightly as they did before his death. He is willing to sacrifice his connection with Reo in order to stay by his side, even if it means Reo comes to hate him. He tells himself he's happy to bury his words of love if it means another day with Reo. But, just because he is willing to endure Reo's disdain doesn't mean he doesn't want to connect with him again. In fact, it's because of Mabu's deep desire to reconnect with Reo that he is willing to turn himself into a Kappa Zombie, knowing that his desires will come out into the open before he is wiped from existence.
In some ways, Mabu isn't all that different from how he was before his heart was replaced. In both cases, he is a fairly serious man who can become hyper focused on a single thing and will take extreme measures to achieve success. Whether it's eating pancakes off the ground or wiping himself out of existence, he'll do whatever he needs to in order to achieve what he wants. And, although his mechanical heart forbids him from expressing his love to Reo and most likely to anyone else, he had always been subtler than most to begin with. For example, instead of being straightforward with his love, he might instead comment on how beautiful the moon is, using the phrase as a euphemism.
He can be compassionate, too. This is more evident in the manga where he is very serious about the quality of care he provides Sara when she is an infant. Coincidentally, he and Reo found Sara on a dish just like they'd found the pancakes mentioned before. He fusses over her constantly and wants to make ensure she is happy, going so far as to look for her parents to reunite them even though he doesn't want to give Sara up. Similarly, although past his canon point, he is glad to crown Sara as princess of the Kappa Kingdom later on.
Mabu also scolds a young boy for running away from home and immediately gets his information so he can send him right back home. In the anime, due to his inability to express his compassion without his heart literally exploding, he shows his compassion more subtly. For example, he'll make Reo's favorite foods and will suffer eating if it means that for just a single moment Reo will believe he's the real Mabu. He also showed compassion when Reo shot Enta, one of the middle schoolers, urging them to call for help in case Enta could be saved.
Besides that, he had his sillier quirks before his heart was replaced. For example, his inability to take selfies[Source] or to write legibly[Source] unless it's with food[Source], are both stark, hilarious contrasts to the love and dedication he pours into virtually everything else he does.
In the end, Mabu is Mabu, whether his heart is made of flesh or gears. His emotions are still there, tucked away and subtle, but they still burn fiercely.
Abilities: Like the trio of protagonists from Sarazanmai, Mabu is also a kappa. However, he cannot freely shift between being a human and a kappa. In order for him to become a kappa, Keppi would need to extract his shirikodama. Other than that and his mechanical heart, he's pretty normal. You know... all things considered. Anything else would be technology from the Otter Empire that wouldn't transfer to the game setting.
He also has a gun. He just... never, ever uses it. Its a special gun that can do just about anything, from extracting a person's desires to shooting someone dead. He prefers leaving that to Reo, though. If he's able to bring it, it'll just run on emotions and obviously won't be OHKOing people or destroying buildings. Not that he would use it anyway, really.
Alignment: Given the lengths that Mabu went to in order to show his love to Reo, Elios.
Other:
The placement of the manga in the timeline isn't very clear, and its story is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The same thing can be said of their shared twitter used for promotion of the show. However, both clearly take place when Mabu is free to be himself, rather than bound by the rules of his mechanical heart, and so I referenced them to contrast pre- and post-heart transplant Mabu. Since it's unclear of how canon either of them are, my characterization and portrayal of Mabu will be from the anime.
In all honesty, he shouldn't have taken the job. He knew it would end terribly, but if he was going to make a fresh start here, then he needed to take finding employment seriously. So if someone had requested 100 "desserts" of his choosing, then that's exactly what he was going to do. He'd gone to the library earlier to look for dessert recipes but when he hadn't come across any that seemed savory enough, he decided to just wing it.
Just because he couldn't bake well anymore didn't mean he didn't remember the types of recipes he used to use. He took a glass bowl and filled it with an amount of flour he thought looked good and then a sprinkle of what he thought might be baking soda. Then he cracked an egg, carefully discarding the shells, and spooned in some honey. Mabu stared at the batter and then, deciding that it wouldn't be sweet enough with just one spoonful of honey, added three more spoonfuls to the batter. He poured in some milk, then took a whisk to the batter. Lastly, he added some cooking oil to the batter and whisked it again so it wouldn't stick.
Satisfied, he spooned the batter he'd created into some molds he'd bought with what little money he'd had left. He hoped that these turned out well because if they were terrible, surely he wouldn't be paid for them, right? Then how would he make up for spending the money on these molds? Well, he could use it for himself, but that was besides the point -- he needed to make these desserts edible!
To increase his chances of success, he used berries for the filling, then topped off the molds with more of the batter. After he slid the mold into the oven, he waited with his hands resting on his hips for the entire 20 minutes it took for them to bake. He wondered if he'd made the batter rich enough. Would the old lady who requested this think they were sweet enough? Was 20 minutes enough? What would he do if they were so terrible that she decided not to pay him?
Mabu tried to push the thoughts away as he waited, but they were persistent, making the 20 minutes he needed to wait seem like 2 hours instead. When it was time, he took a deep breath and took out his creation.
They... looked okay. The desserts were a deep golden brown, but they were darker than they were supposed to be. Had he burned them? With his eyebrows furrowed in concentration, he pushed the desserts out of the mold and waited impatiently for them to cool. No, their color was definitely off. He'd wasted the last of his money on the ingredients and the tools needed to make these desserts and now...!
When the steam faded enough so that they were cool enough to handle, he took one gingerly in his hand and hesitantly bit into it. His first thought was that it tasted terrible, but that was how most food tasted to him these days. Since it tasted the same as everything else, he needed to find a taste tester....
So, he packed up the desserts and set out to find someone. He couldn't very well ask some poor unsuspecting soul to taste his foods. But there -- in an alley. A cat. He stared at it hard, and the cat stared back at him. Mabu slowly crouched down and extended an arm, offering one of the desserts to the cat. At first, the cat cautiously approached him, but as soon as it got the whiff of the dessert, the cat hissed at it and ran off.
Dejected, but with his arm still outstretched, Mabu hung his head. He was doomed. Before he could sink in his misery, though, he felt the pitter-patter of rain. Looking up, he saw a very isolated cloud right over his head. It poured over him and only over him, soaking the rest of his desserts in the process.
"They're ruined...!" Now he definitely wasn't going to get paid, not when he had no way of replacing the ingredients to make another batch. How was he going to explain this?
The truth was that they would have tasted all right, if only a little overcooked. The moral of the lesson that Mabu failed to grasp was that he probably shouldn't go around trying to coax stray cats into eating weird food.
Questions:
I had two question about Mabu's heart. Since it's mechanical and runs on desire, I know that the emotion energy of
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empatheias can replace that. Other than that, what I'm wondering is:1. Would the stipulation of his heart literally exploding would still hold true here?
2. Alternatively, would it be possible to bring him in game with his old heart? That seems to be what basically happens to him when he dies (a second time...).
Just asking so that I know the consequences of Mabu's heart!
