Basic Info
NAME - Moritaka, Hotaka ("Tall Grain, Forest Falcon")
ALIAS - Sagi ("Swindler")
GENDER - Male
AGE - 21
RESIDENCE - Karakura Town: Moritaka Manor
NAME - Moritaka, Hotaka ("Tall Grain, Forest Falcon")
ALIAS - Sagi ("Swindler")
GENDER - Male
AGE - 21
RESIDENCE - Karakura Town: Moritaka Manor
Background Outline
DODGING BULLETS
Many generations ago, two infamous Quincy clans existed in Western Japan: the Moritaka and the Takemiya. Both families were notorious swindlers in Japan; the Moritaka were called Akasagi, Red Swindlers, by their victims, for their style involved preying on their victims' emotions to steal their money. The Takemiya were more traditional Shirosagi, or White Swindlers, using their intelligence and use of resources to con money off their targets.DODGING BULLETS
Of course, this has nothing to do with anything right now, as 'Dodging Bullets' doesn't really equate to the history of two swindling families. Both the Moritaka and the Takemiya were prominent figures in the Quincy world, and thus were big targets during the Tri-Brother war . Fortunately, being professional criminals by default, the two clans were more than adept at covering their tracks and disappearing off the maps, which is exactly what they did, hiding in various islander countries until the war had faded out, at which time they returned to the mainland, their entire family branches unmarred.
TAIKOSAGI
For as long as the Moritaka and Takemiya have existed, they have always been very antagonistic towards each other. As swindlers with differentiating styles, each clan was often trying to get the upper hand on the other, often choosing the same targets just to see who would get their money first. It should have been obvious that this ongoing rivalry between the two clans would eventually lead to a Romeo & Juliet-esque love story, which of course, it did. The two current heads of each clan, Moritaka Akira and Takemiya Kaoru, wound up creating an extremely cliched love saga for themselves which we really don't need to go into any detail about. All that's important is that this occurred, and the two clans merged into one from that day forward, taking up the Moritaka name and expanding their swindling industry to international levels.OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION
Moritaka Hotaka was born twenty years ago to the main branch of the Moritaka clan, under the first son of the previous generation. His father, Ichiro-, was the CEO of the Moritaka Credit Union, one of the few legitimate organizations owned by the Moritaka clan. As the son of the current head of the Moritaka clan, only one thing was expected of him: he would be trained like all of his family members before him in the art of swindling, and if successful, he would go out and expand the Moritaka industry even further than it already was.So, growing up, Hotaka knew how to cheat his friends out of their candy before he could form a proper sentence. He played the sterling student in class, earning the adoration of his teachers and the envy of his friends. Oh yes, and of course, the animosity of his enemies. Moritaka Hotaka was the untouchable devil, and you would just have to count your blessings if he passed you by and nothing unfortunate happened to you the next day.
WHITE ROSE
It was plain as day that Hotaka, growing up, preferred to play the Shirosagi rather than the Akasagi, putting professionalism over his play on emotions. However, it was the duty of the next-in-line of the Moritaka clan to be a master in both styles of swindling, and so in his mid-teen years, Hotaka was given more assignments suited toward Akasagi. And of course, like any other cliched history, this is where Hotaka came across his first love interest.Her name was Hanekawa Ayuri, the daughter of a prospering bank owner. Hotaka had already laid out a plan: get her to swoon, convince her his mother was hospitalized and his father's company was going bankrupt, and wiring all her money away in weekly increments. He played the awkward, infatuated boy here, and it seemed to work like a charm; he had her wrapped around his thumb like it was nothing, and he was slowly losing sight of his assignment for his own feelings...
RED THORNS
The relationship between Hotaka and Mikumo went on for many months, during which Hotaka not only squeezed money out of Ayuri, but also began steadily, genuinely falling for her. At the age of fifteen, it looked as if their relationship was so strong, they would perhaps pursue marriage between the two families, something Ichiro advocated strongly, though he never expressed his reasoning.It was on a hot, July afternoon, and Hotaka and Ayuri were relaxing under the shade of a tall oak. It was on that day that he first felt their presence. It was something extremely disturbing, a sight Hotaka would never forget. His first Hollow, standing right before the two teenagers.
Now, Hotaka had never been one to back down from a fight, nor was he one to lose a fight. But he still retained his common sense, and common sense told him to jump to his feet and get the hell away. Which he almost did. As he'd jumped to his feet and prepared to turn tail and run, Ayuri's voice cut in, sounding quite disappointed.
"Ahh... Ta-kun, that's a shame."
Ayuri was standing up, holding a bow seemingly made out of sapphire energy at the Hollow. She drew back a single 'arrow' and fired it, blowing an enormous hole into the monster and disintegrating it. The bow had disappeared as quickly as the stunned Hotaka had seen it, and she placed her hands on her hips, facing the boy.
"Oto--san said it would be most beneficial to marry into the Moritaka family because it would help restore the status of our dying race, but if you haven't even felled a Hollow by now, you probably don't know how to summon your bow..."
Hotaka threw a puzzled look at the girl, affirming her suspicions. "A Hollow? Bow? 'Our Race'? What are you talking about...?" Ayuri just shook her head and turned away, waving her hand in the air as a farewell.
"Go ask your father, Ta-kun... Yeesh, I even played along with your silly scheme to convince you to like me for this..."
"...Wait, what?!"
And just like that, Hanekawa Ayuri disappeared from Moritaka Hotaka's life forever.
WHITE ROSE
Moritaka Ichiro was not prepared for his son to barge into his office, a slew of questions related to "Quincy" at the tip of his tongue. Judging by how he was wording the questions, the elder Moritaka figured that the plan had been a failure. He supposed it was high time to finally enlighten his son about his race.It took a good hour to explain the history of Hotaka's family, and his status as a Quincy. In the past decades, the Moritaka clan found it less and less necessary to employ their skills as Quincy to get by in life, and the Quincy blood in them was rapidly fading away. In fact, Hotaka was the only pureblood Quincy of his generation with in the family. And of course, the boy was hardly pleased to hear this information having been withheld from him. After taking a good verbal beating from his son, to pacify him, Ichiro promised to teach Hotaka the way of the Quincy.
FALCONINE
There was something about archery that just clicked with Hotaka, even more than his ability to lie, cheat, and steal. He was given his Quincy Cross by his father on his first day of training, and created his bow within the first hour. Playing with a real bow and a real quiver of arrows turned out to be child's play for Hotaka, and forming arrows with Reishi was hardly more difficult. Hotaka displayed brilliant potential in precision, and could strike a target from over 100 meters away dead-on.A year into his training, Ichiro presented his son with a worn, pocket-sized book. Its pages were yellow, the ink was faded, and it looked as if the book would fall apart at the spine with the slightest breeze. It was his grandfather's pride as a Quincy, a detailed handbook mapping out everything there was to know about the Quincy, their powers, as well as Hollow and Shinigami during the war. Swindling took a sudden back seat to the Moritaka Lexicon, and Hotaka gobbled up all the information within its pages. Soon enough, he was asking for a Quincy Bangle, and began playing with the artificial bows created from the artifact. He learned pretty early on that they weren't toys after almost losing his arm from overloading his first one.
TRANSITION
Life seemed to stabilize once more for Hotaka after discovering his heritage as a Quincy, and he continued on through the rest of his high school days. He was a swindler of renown throughout the Moritaka clan, as well as a Quincy with a lot of talent and potential. Hotaka graduated from Karakura High School, and decided to take his chances at life, turning down his father's request to send him overseas for school, and enrolled into Karakura University with a half-baked plan to major in music theory. He also moved out of his family's estate and into a foreign-owned apartment complex, Gunning Livings. There, he met Blake Gunning, son of the owners, a formidable underground figure, and a Quincy to boot. Roots had been established already.Of course, wherever Moritaka Hotaka traveled, power and superiority soon followed, and in the span of five weeks, he had built up a massive reputation in the school, riding on that popularity to become the president of the student council. The next day, Karakura University succumbed to the Moritaka clan, becoming Hotaka's new home and domain. Over the course of a year, Hotaka dominated the school, spending his off days honing his skills with Blake. Soon, the duo crossed paths with one Higane Aureusi, a meddlesome girl who'd been hassling Hotaka for some time. Turned out she was a Quincy too, and had a reputable name in the black market. Hmm. The three had their share of adventures, but at the end of his second year at Karakura U., Hotaka's father stepped his foot down, and the swindler disappeared without a trace, flown off to America to pursue a degree in business management... Whatever that was.
WORLD AFFAIRS
Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Hotaka had bigger things in store for himself than to stick around and go to school for four whole years for a degree. One hasty swindle brought him a very clean-cut degree which was promptly shoved in a folder of miscellaneous documents. Either way, Hotaka was stuck in America, and he knew his father had more than just education in store for him. He chanced upon a famous underground dealer in Oakland, Reizan Kyrie. Though hesitant about his Quincy powers, Hotaka was able to goad the stoic man into a business agreement, with some training on the side. Another year had passed like the wind, and the man had established a strong reputation for the Moritaka in California-- soon, the family could expand out West, a dream Ichiro held in mind for most of his adult life.It's too bad he never got to hear the good news.
IN THE SHADOW OF VICTORY
Dead, they told him. Gunned down outside his own estate. Moritaka Ichiro had been murdered, and while the family had a hunch as to which of their enemies would dare attack them, Hotaka was left on the other end of a phone call, devastated. His father, who he had always been close to as a child and student, gone before Hotaka had hit twenty-five. For the second time in his life, he was at a loss for words, a loss for how to recover...That didn't last long. Steeling his resolve, Hotaka put his plans in America on hold, booking a flight to Karakura immediately (under an alias). Everything looked just the same, but the man knew that his hometown, his home, would be far emptier with the loss of his father. Now, Hotaka has taken over for his father as the head of the clan, his mother acting as an advisor while he acquaints himself with the finer points of being a Sagi. His days are busy from sunrise to sunset now, and it feels as if the days with his friends are now ages away... He can't think of that, though. The man has a mission, after all.
To track down and erase those who would dare stand against the Moritaka as the new Quincy Elder.
