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Out-of-Character Information

Name: Raidou Kuzunoha XIV (Jouhei [surname unknown])
Game/Series: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Canon Point: Post DS2 (chaos ending)
Age: 18

Personality:

There are a few words that can describe Raidou Kuzunoha XIV. Quiet, observant, resourceful, unflappable… He’s the sort to take in all information available, thoroughly analyze it, and think of all possible consequences of his actions before doing anything. He does this all in a fraction of a second.

Raidou is a man of few words, speaking only when absolutely necessary, and almost never about himself. He believes that actions speak louder than words, and barely speaks even to those close to him. When he does, he’s up-front and to the point, completely honest about what he thinks of the situation. Because of this, he may seem tactless and a bit cold at times, but that’s just his way.

He showed the potential to become a Devil Summoner from a very young age, being one of the few humans that could see demons, and thus was taken in by the Yatagarasu to be groomed to take on the mantle of Raidou Kuzunoha. He has few memories of his life before the Yatagarasu took him, partly because he was so young when it happened, and partly because he was encouraged to cast away his old self to become “Raidou,” Protector of the Capital.

He was a prodigy, quickly picking up everything the Yatagarasu taught him, and improving upon it twofold. Swordplay? Mastered in a few short years. Gunplay? He could hit a moving target at 100 yards nine out of ten times. There was little the Yatagarasu could teach that he didn’t master almost immediately. At seventeen, he became one of the youngest people to ever take on the official title of “Kuzunoha.”

The harsh training Raidou was put through by the Yatagarasu shaped who he would become. He was discouraged from expressing his emotions outwardly, and he became desensitized to even the most horrific of sights, rarely granting them more than a blink of acknowledgment. His social skills suffered as a result, and has trouble making (human) friends. However, this was considered advantageous to the Yatagarasu, who wished him to become “Raidou Kuzunoha,” and throw away his unique identity. He did as he was ordered, dutifully protecting the Capital while attending Yumizuki Imperial High School by day (though we never actually see him do anything school-related)…

In the world of normal humans, he is apprenticed to one Shouhei Narumi, a former officer in the Japanese Imperial Army, who retired after becoming sick of the corruption of the military to open the Narumi Detective Agency. Only the most unusual cases are taken at the agency, most often those involving demons or other things best kept secret from the general public. As it turns out, Raidou was perfectly suited for detective work thanks to his impeccable observational skills. And when push came to shove, he was perfectly suited to slaying demons as necessary as well.

After a fateful encounter with a mysterious Blond Young Man, Raidou gradually began to think more for himself rather than solely for the sake of the Yatagarasu. He occasionally doubted their methods, and found others to be more effective than the unchanging law of his superiors. Where he used to forcibly capture and detain demons for his use, he found that simply talking to them and negotiating usually yielded better results, something that no Kuzunoha had ever tried before. It didn’t take long for him to become an expert at diplomacy as well. With humans, however, he still prefers to let others do the talking. It’s not that he dislikes humans, he just finds talking to demons to be much easier, and has a tendency to be brutally honest with people when he does talk to them.

Being from the early 1930s, Raidou was surrounded by the lingo of the changing era. However, his own speech is much more formal as a result of being raised by the Yatagarasu.

Even though he does pick up most skills unusually quickly, he is mechanically inept, and though he probably could fix your bike, it’d most likely break again in fifty feet. He can clean a gun, but that’s about it as far as mechanics go. He’s better at killing things with his sword than being a handyman.

Backstory:
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Raidou_Kuzunoha_the_XIV
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei:_Devil_Summoner:_Raidou_Kuzunoha_vs._The_Soulless_Army
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei:_Devil_Summoner_2:_Raidou_Kuzunoha_vs._King_Abaddon

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, upon taking on the official title of Kuzunoha, was assigned a partner named Gouto-douji; a black cat with piercing green eyes and the power of speech. This was to be his companion and mentor on the course of Raidou’s journey, and an invaluable ally. Only Devil Summoners could hear him speak; normal people would just hear meows and purrs.

One day, the Narumi Detective Agency received a call from a desperate-sounding young woman named Kaya. She begged Narumi and Raidou to come meet her at the Ushigome-gaeri Bridge. Upon doing so, she requested that they kill her. As soon as the words left her mouth, however, Raidou was promptly attacked by men in red military uniforms, and Kaya kidnapped. Clearly, there was more to this woman than met the eye. Upon further investigation, it turned out that her full name was Kaya Daidouji, daughter of the wealthy Daidouji family.

The head of the Daidouji appeared to be in poor health, and Kaya was to succeed him. Strangely, it seemed that the women of the Daidouji family were cursed to turn into demons as soon as they reached sixteen years of age. Perhaps Kaya feared this fate, and that was the reason she asked Raidou and Narumi to kill her? This would require a bit more snooping on the intrepid duo’s part. (The ‘Intrepid Duo’ being Gouto and Raidou. Narumi was off being his lazyass self elsewhere.)

After a bit of running around and getting involved in a number of vaguely-related subplots (including a naked brawl in a bath house with a Yakuza boss, finding out that Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine, was actually a robot, and getting a giant turtle wasted so he’d provide a ferry service), Kaya was eventually tracked down to a secluded ship-building facility. Inside, there were a shitton of obnoxious magical barriers to be knocked down and pad the length of the game, and Kaya in bondage at the end.

Er… bandages. The weird military dudes were performing some kind of perverse ritual that required her blood, and clearly, the best way to do it was to tie the girl up and soak the bandages in her blood. Oddly, this didn’t seem to have much of an adverse effect on the girl, and after a rather irksome boss battle, Munakata (the leader of the military dudes) just… let her go. Keeping the blood, of course.

Immediately jumping on the opportunity to do even less work, Narumi enlisted the girl to be his secretary, which she didn’t seem to have any objections about. She did proceed to go and give herself a terrible haircut, though, and a new outlook on life. Namely, one that involved tracking down an artifact of limitless energy. Why? Because she heard that Munakata was after it, so, clearly, they should find it first. Seriously, this plan was perfect, what could go wrong?

Except that when they did finally track it down, Kaya spouted some cryptic nonsense about the year and up and vanished right in front of Raidou and Gouto’s eyes with the artifact. Did anyone not see something like that coming a mile away? The girl was clearly not herself.

Well, with the girl they were supposed to be protecting MIA yet again, Raidou and Gouto decided to check out the bizarre-looking radio tower in Sakuradayama. Because this is 1931 and radio waves are scary, or something. Yet another obnoxious dungeon later, the duo found Munakata, who summoned an oddly phallic demon (not Mara!) to kill them before making his escape. Raidou, naturally, dispatched the demonic dong just in time for Robosputin to appear and fuck shit up… By sending Raidou hurtling through time and space... to an alternate dimension!

There, we met Raido Kuzunoha. He’s kind of like Raidou, but his face is all scarred up, and there’s one less ‘u’ in his name. Oh, and he talks. He’s kind of stuffy and a bit of a jerk, but he helped our dynamic duo get back to their own world, so he can’t be that bad. Plus, he’s got a pretty slick hat.

All seemed to be hunky dory back in the correct world, but, surprise surprise! Robosputin appeared in the Narumi Detective Agency to inform the fearsome twosome that he quit working for Munakata, and will now exist solely for comic relief. Oh, and Munakata’s super-soldier thing was done. That too.

Once again, Raidou and Gouto returned to the shipbuilding facility, running into Narumi in the process. How he got through the magic barriers and droves of demons when he’s just a normal dude is left unexplained, but obviously, it just means Narumi is a secret badass. Narumi, Raidou, and Gouto stared down Munakata as the man gave ye olde standard villain monologue about vengeance against humans and how they must be wiped out, yadda yadda. Narumi called him out on his bullshit, and the old coot revealed something. Something, frankly, quite disgusting.

As he opened his mouth, a tiny demon crawled out, identifying itself as Sukuna-Hikona, the mastermind behind the super soldier project. Munakata had been dead for quite some time, meaning the demon had been driving around his corpse like a robot suit made of meat. He then pulled up an incredibly anachronistic holographic monitor to show the trio a warship. But this wasn’t just any warship. No, it was a fucking transformer, powered by the same artifact bizarro-Kaya had been looking for before she went poof.

The “Soulless God,” as Sukuna called it, then proceeded wreck shit by leveling a district of the Capital. But it wasn’t a district Raidou could actually go to, so this wasn’t too big a deal. Still, Raidou was the protector of the Capital, so he couldn’t just stand by and let the freaky little mouth demon do what he wanted. So he killed it. Unfortunately, this did nothing to stop the giant robot wreaking havoc outside. Whoops.

Despite having access to demons and some kickass sword skills, attacking a robot the size of a skyscraper directly wasn’t going to do jack shit, so the obvious solution was to launch themselves into space to destroy the satellite/ancient artifact of doom. Or rather, launch Gouto into space. And so they did, and the satellite went boom. Unfortunately, so did Gouto, who, in his last moments, revealed to the player that he was the first Raidou Kuzunoha, and that our Raidou was the best darn Raidou he’d ever had the pleasure of mentoring. Aww. And then he died. Or did he?

In one of Raidou’s few shows of actual emotion, the young man quietly mourned the passing of his friend by covering his eyes with the brim of his hat. As the debris from the destroyed satellite rained down upon the Capital, the Soulless God finally stopped moving, and the day was saved.

Wait, weren’t we forgetting someone? Oh right, psycho-Kaya. Suddenly, a portal appeared in the river, and through it climbed another Soulless God, this one with Kaya as the pilot. Turns out, she’s possessed by a Raidou Kuzunoha from THE FUTURE who came back in time to change the past and stop Shin Megami Tensei II from happening. Wait, what?

Well, Raidou chased her into a corridor between worlds and showed her that no one messed with Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, not even a future Raidou, and gave her giant robot a thorough beatdown. Then he beat the psycho out of her, and brought the real Kaya back home, and they all lived happily ever after.

Interestingly, the future Raidou actually accomplished what he’d set out to do. The Megaten timeline split at this point, and the world of Devil Summoner directly led to Persona, while the main Megami Tensei series happened in an alternate reality.

Oh, and as it turned out, Gouto lived, and gained a shiny new crow body, so everyone’s happy, the end.

At least until the sequel, that is. Which brings us to….

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon

Three years later (yet still inexplicably the same year), Raidou returned to Kuzunoha village to receive some follow-up ~~tutorials~~ training by the Yatagarasu. Proving himself worthy yet again, he was assigned a partner in the form of a ca- Wait, Gouto? Didn’t you go boom in the last game and turn into a bird?

But the game didn’t bother to explain that giant, glaring plot hole, and decided to move on with its life.

The Narumi Detective Agency, ladies and gentlemen! Remember this place? Well, apparently, everyone seemed to think Raidou had an acute case of amnesia, because they kept asking if he remembered things. Probably for the benefit of players who jumped right in without playing the first game, but it still struck ~~the player~~ Raidou as odd. But! Moving on. Seems there’s been a lot of talk about luck in the news lately. I’m sure that’s not important to the plot in the least.

Another Devil Summoner game means another mysterious young woman seeking the Narumi Detective agency. This time, however, she didn’t want them to help her commit suicide. Rather, Akane (said mysterious dame) asked Narumi to locate a man named Dahn, and provided him with a photo. She couldn’t tell him why, however, only that it was important. Looks like it’s time to do some good old fashioned snooping!

In the midst of collecting info on the man in the picture, Raidou encountered a strange-looking (read: foreign) young man who spouted some cryptic lines about sparks, and directed Raidou’s investigation toward Fukagawa-cho. Before our hero could say anything in response (not that he would anyway), the man vanished without a trace. Hmm, he’s probably not important either, just like all that luck nonsense.

Eventually Raidou tracked down a guy named Goro Tatsumi, who supposedly knew something about this ‘Dahn’ fellow. Catching up to him proved tricky, however, as the man seemed to be unnaturally lucky about slipping past the summoner (and Raidou had apparently been unnaturally unlucky about slipping on banana peels).

Suddenly, ninjas! For some reason, ninjas were protecting Tatsumi. They cast a spell on Raidou forcing him to trudge through a (blessedly simple) dungeon, culminating in kicking the shit out of said ninjas. But the spell had left its mark, and Raidou’s luck stat had been reduced to 1. Sensing the now abysmally unlucky main character, a Fiend appeared to harass him, resulting in a hopeless boss battle, and Raidou passing out, where he hallucinated another him in a watermelon mask droning about luck and sorrow.

After no small amount of running around like a chicken with its head cut off, a few things were established. 1; This Dahn guy is Akane’s brother. 2; The reason Akane asked Narumi and Raidou to track him down was to stop him from doing whatever it was he was trying to do. 3; Akane and Dahn were actually from a remote village called Tsukigata far from the Capital, and 4; Dahn was a ninja. Specifically, a ninja assassin from a village of ninja assassins who killed people by draining their luck via a luck-eating grasshopper. The reason Tatsumi kept getting away was because Dahn had given him one of those luck-stealing locusts.

Dahn’s ultimate goal was to save his sister from the cruel fate of becoming the bride to the mysterious Lord Tento. “Lord Tento,” as it turns out, was the collective name of a race of bug-like creatures that lived in tunnels beneath Tsukigata village. Because they couldn’t reproduce on their own, they had an arrangement with the Tsukigata clan. The clan provided a “bride” to play brood mother, and in return, they provided the Tsukigatas with the Luck Locusts.

Understandably, Dahn was less than pleased that his beloved sister was to be sacrificed to the horrible beasts, and concocted a plan to save her. He would become the fabled “King Abaddon” and run the Tento Lords out of Tsukigata village forever. Naturally, this clashed with clan tradition, and he was branded a traitor sentenced to execution.

How did he plan on accomplishing this, you ask? He would use the locusts to drain the Capital of its luck until the people began to despair enough to open a portal to a realm of infinite sorrow. Despite Raidou’s attempts to stop it, Dahn succeeded.

With the gate to the Abysmal Realm opened above the Capital, giant demonic locusts began to pour through, and though he tried, Dahn couldn’t control them. He realized what a horrible mistake he’d made when the monsters indiscriminately began to slaughter the citizens of the Capital, and Dahn himself began to sink into despair.

This was not the first time something like this had happened. Centuries ago, the gate to the Abysmal Realm had opened over Tsukigata Village, and had been closed by combining the collected luck from the Luck Locusts with the gate, canceling each other out. Obviously, the solution was to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the gate was over the Capital, not Tsukigata Village, where all the collective luck was stored. Somehow, they had to move the gate.

And so Raidou returned to the village to enlist the help of ~~Fluffy the Terrible~~ Taotie in moving the gate. The demonic sheep obliged by literally eating the space between the gate and the village, successfully moving it. The collected luck automatically rose to cancel out the gate, closing it and banishing the remaining giant demon locusts.

All was not well, however, as the moon-like sphere that had sat ominously in the center of the gate came crashing to earth. If that weren’t bad enough, the peoples’ despair was only growing worse. They all began to have the same dream, where they were being talked to by a watermelon-masked version of themselves, informing them that there was no future. Eventually, their despair turned to anger, and the people grew violent.

The sphere was the true “King Abaddon,” home to Shinado, the local deity of Tsukigata Village, and the one who had been speaking to everyone in their dreams. Raidou knew what had to be done. He had to stop Shinado from allowing the people to sink into despair and ultimately destroy each other. Leaping headfirst into the depths of Abaddon, Raidou set about the business of kicking a so-called god to the curb. Oh, and Dahn came with him, too, since he felt guilty about being the cause of all of it.

As he traveled through Abaddon, Raidou encountered a number of people lost to their despair. He helped them sort out their emotional problems with the small amount of remaining crystallized luck, and with each person he and Dahn saved, the farther into Abaddon they could advance. Toward the end was Akane herself, and, properly saved, she and Dahn shared a tender moment. Raidou, less than impressed with this show of sibling affection, pressed on.

At the very center waited a seemingly impassable barrier in the shape of the mask of Shinado preventing Raidou from advancing to the god. The Blond Young Man, who had appeared periodically on Raidou’s journey, once again appeared before the intrepid summoner. However, unlike almost every other occasion, he actually told Raidou exactly what he needed to do. Raidou could not advance alone. Someone would have to help him.

With that message delivered, the man vanished again, leaving Dahn and Akane in his place. Akane, understanding what had to be done, and having already accepted her fate of being a sacrifice, thanked Raidou and her brother for everything they had done, and stepped forward to touch the mask. She, along with the barrier, vanished before their eyes.

And then she reappeared as a 50-foot version of herself in a Shinado mask. Or, rather, the personification of her sorrow. Raidou defeated this bizarre boss, and the way to Shinado opened.

As expected, Raidou thoroughly trounced the so-called god, and though it didn’t die, Shinado was left with a better understanding of humans, and a more optimistic view toward them and their ability to take control of their own future. He decided to lay off and give humans another shot, the people were restored to normal, and Raidou was sent back to the real world.

Dahn seemed to be a bit better after that. He came to terms with his sister’s decisions, and eventually left the village with the Mushibito (Tento Lords who were outcast from the main group by virtue of being pacifists) to find them a new home. Raidou and Narumi returned to the Capital, and they all lived happily ever after.

“But who was that Blond Young Man?” you ask? Well, you can just call him Cyphre, first name Louis.