UPDATE: Decided to do a major story overhaul for this guy to better tie him into the overarching story. Also changed Jinchou’s spirit companion’s name as due to story reasons “Kyouran” made no sense to me anymore.
More details below:
Name: Jinchou/Homura, depending on which one is in control.
Age: exact age is unknown, appears somewhere between 20-30 but is definitely older due to being turned into a Soul Eater partially.
Love interest: Konjou Nakano, son of a witch
A failed Soul Eater experiment with a ‘Soul-born-spirit’ inside him; they suffer from memory loss and wander aimlessly, trying to remember what happened in hopes of fixing it.
Soul Born Spirits:
Jinchou is the original owner of the body, and 'Homura’ is what people in this world refer to as “soul-born spirit,” I.E a being who was originally part of one’s soul, but has now become a separate person/existence entirely.
SBS’s can ONLY be created through magic, it is not a trauma-based response to something that happened to a person (so, not something akin to split-personality).
How the newborn SBS’s personality is, tends to depend on the reason they were created/the original soul’s nature. They often do end up hostile or struggle with mental health, which is why their creation is typically often seen as forbidden and something cruel.
This controversial/dangerous ritual was sometimes used in the past for several different reasons, some good, some bad;
To give a lone child a sibling/bore more children if the mother was no longer able to give birth/the parents did not wish to adopt. This typically included sacrificing an animal to provide the “material” for giving this newborn soul their own body. (sometimes human sacrifices were used, hence this tends to be frowned upon - to put it mildly)
To save a newborn infant who died at childbirth; this is the less condemned practice of the ritual as it does not require the sacrificial death of something or someone, but there were still people questioning the practice given the original soul of that body essentially had their vessel stolen after leaving it, instead of letting it rest
To create a personality that could use one’s body to its fullest potential, because the current “host” was deemed too weak for it. (this is essentially why Homura was created)
To create companionship for somebody who was lonely and struggles to connect with people. Often times in these cases they did not even need to give this entity their separate body.
Friends: He and his internal spirit companion were mentored/big-brothered briefly by the corrupted Moth Spirit Chouma while Jinchou was a teen, and the two still vaguely remember him.
Both sides of him are also nice to the Water Healing temple head priestess Erena and her adoptive daughters, Moth spirit Mari and wind dragon Karuna.
Later on they move in alongside Konjou to live with Konjou’s half-brother and his family.
Abilities:
Close combat; They are inhumanely strong and durable due to Jinchou’s soul’s broken condition, reflecting in his mortal body not functioning “normally” and allowing it to regenerate at insane speeds, which does make it very painful each time. They also got super fast reflexes, with Homura being a bit faster.
Melee: They’re good with knifes and blunt weapons, as well as throwing things like spears, and even crossbows.
Survival: Jinchou generally has good survival skills, which indicates his people might’ve been nomadic travelers, and also skilled hunters. This means stuff from being able to sew, treat wounds, good knowledge about what is and isn’t poisonous to eat, etc. Homura isn’t the best at these (apart from hunting) but he’s learning overtime while observing Jinchou.
Soul eating: They can yank people’s souls off their bodies like Soul Eaters, but because the transformation to a SE was not completed properly with him, neither can really consume them and often just end up damaging the soul, making it difficult to return it to the body. (Basically Insta Death)
Dual Soul Separation: Because of the fact Homura is a SBS, he can sometimes separate himself from the body to turn into a more of a literal vengeful spirit. This makes him far more powerful and dangerous, but does leave their body and Jin very vulnerable, as he often can’t stay conscious for long during this due to being weaker.
Personality:
Jinchou is mostly very quiet and seemingly extremely introverted (or shy) who avoids people for the most part. He mainly does this because he's terrified of what Homura might do if someone pisses him off or harms him even accidentally. The first impression he usually gives is that he’s very kind and confrontation-avoidant. (if you manage to meet him in his default state)
Homura in turn, can be very brutal and easy to trigger into violence, a terrifying foe to fight for most. He often has the habit of rambling out and lamenting his condition during these moments, taking his frustration out on whoever he’s fighting. Where Jinchou wants a cure/way to separate himself from Homura, the latter wants revenge for being born the way he was, initially anyway.
Homura does have a sense of humor though, where he can acknowledge if his opponent makes a funny quip, or if he finds something ironic. He can also be chill if he wants to, though still acts like kind of a brash asshole.
When something does stick in this birdman’s memory, it’s typically something both of them share, such as their fondness for penguins, tendency to wander to a specific water healing temple for sanctuary, and love for Konjou. They both also greatly respect and adore Chouma for looking after them when they were younger. This respect still clearly visible later once they all live with Konjou’s half brother and his family, as the pair looks after the shaky, recovering moth spirit the most.
Weaknesses
Homura: Each time he has to regenerate more, it hurts like hell. Often times in a more brutal fight he tends to be in pain throughout most of it, which tends to make him fight even more sadistic, because he takes his pain out on his opponent, even if it is someone he absolutely wouldn’t want to fight/hurt if he was in control of himself at that moment. He’s very awkward with kids, unlike Jinchou who’s good with them, and Homura tends to freeze if he’s in control while interacting with Konjou’s nephew and niece.
Jinchou: Homura’s brutality causes him a lot of mental distress, and makes Jin very afraid of getting angry or upset in any way as that’s typically when Homura can take the body over, thus tendency for conflict avoiding behavior/being a recluse to not give him the chance.
Both occasionally struggle to remember things that happened/people’s faces and names, or if they’ve ever met them before.
BG story in a Nutshell:
Based on his vague memories, Jinchou originates from an island off the coast of the mainland he now resides in, that had penguins. At some point he was kidnapped by an unknown figure while playing alone on the beach.
He doesn’t remember much of this time, other than the man who kidnapped him was some sort of occultist and was trying to perform a ritual to turn himself into a soul-eater without the usual side-effects associated with artificial ones. He first wanted to test his magic theories on test subjects, finding kids the most suitable for his purposes.
As Jinchou puts it he was only one of many trapped in there for years as a servant essentially, though as far as he knew, he was the only one who lived through the failed experiment once it was his turn. waking up in a ditch after immense pain, as the occultist had thought he’d died like the others. Confused, scared and alone he’d wandered off but unable to remember where he was or where he came from.
(At the time he was not yet aware of the Soul Born Spirit the occultist had created inside him as part of the experiments, as Homura was still too weak to make his presence known.)
He was taken in by a circus for a while due to his now unusual appearance and ability to read people’s auras and tell a lot about them just by looking. This circus also had a Moth Spirit only known as Chouma, whom taught him how to use his blades. Jinchou still had vague knowledge from his birth family hunting methods, but learned a lot from the unstable yet strangely kind - to kids - spirit. Chouma was also the one who gave both of them their names as at the time he was just known as the nameless kid. (Chouma was the one who told him about the SBS he had in him after Homura briefly took full control during a fight Jinchou got dragged into.)
Then, one evening he left the tents for an errand to the circus director, returning to the whole place decimated with everybody massacred. He soon finds the culprit, realizing it was his friend and mentoring figure, Chouma whose corruption had suddenly become worse, triggering a dangerous fit. (He knew about the Moth Spirit corruption as Chouma had actually told him about it somewhat)
The two have a fight, where Jinchou receives his crescent shaped scar, but Chouma manages to stop himself from killing him, ordering him to leave with his last bits of clarity, before fully succumbing to the final stage of corruption.
Without a home now, Jinchou & Homura wander for years, becoming kind of a travelling hermit/urban legend about a man with two minds that would either help or harm you depending on his mood. In truth, this was just Homura’s personality slowly becoming more hostile and violent overtime due to the hatred he felt over the way and reason he was born. It got so bad Jinchou began to avoid people, fearing his spirit companion would go on a rampage randomly with no way for him to stop it.
Then, one night they run into Konjou who’d managed to escape home, but had collapsed due to extreme exhaustion. Mistaking him for a local forest spirit, Jinchou decides to bring him to the cabin he’s staying thinking the “spirit” needs help somehow and had shown up to him to ask for that.
After a VERY awkward morning where Konjou - after devouring most of the food he currently has - reveals to him that no, he’s not a forest spirit at all, the two bond due to being able to sympathize with each other’s conditions. Jinchou and Homura agree to help him find a person he’s looking for, also because they’re curious whenever this moth-spirit in question was the same one as their mentoring friend from years ago...
Extra Facts
The two have different voices and speech pattern due to being separate people and therefore utilizing their vocal chords differently. (Basically, Homura sounds like Gyutaro from Demon Slayer, and Jinchou’s voice belongs to Nagumo from a show called ‘Deaimon - recipe for happiness.’ My friend showed me that one and figured it fits)
Jinchou often carves wooden penguins out of wood as a hobby.
His mask is from his circus days, Homura wears it because he enjoyed the show lifestyle and is generally more of a show off. The canvas around his face he wears is typically there to make wearing the mask more comfortable.
Konjou often just sits in his lap and rants about his mum while he’s just sitting there cuddling him with Shoujo flowers and bubbles around him (As Jinchou, Homura is rarely in control during cuddle time)
The scar on his back actually saved his life; when Chouma slashed him there, he snapped out of it enough to realize what he was doing, telling his little friend to run. Homura at the time was not yet strong/aggressive enough to intervene in the fight, as otherwise he probably could’ve injured Chouma or even killed him (which would’ve been a bad idea anyway)
They mainly eat the food Jinchou gathers/hunts himself, so both are always super curious if Konjou brings them something to try.
They call Konjou a “Forest spirit” because that’s what they thought he was at first.
