Established Status: He's spent one full year working for the company.
Canon: Gintama
Canon Point: Immediately before the Shogun Assassination Arc
Citizenship: Leith
Job: Hijikata works as a company official, highly ranked enough to have his own squad of men. While he's very skilled at what he does, his background leaves a bad taste in the mouths of his superiors, so he's often charged with less than desirable jobs.
Abilities: ✘ Swordfighting — Hijikata's job is to arrest terrorists, and often things come to blows. Hijikata's style was defined by life or death fights, so he takes every conflict seriously. He once cut a bullet in half (shortly after being blown up way to go champ). He's responsible and dedicated, practicing every day and keeping his equipment in order.
✘ Follow-Up — Hijikata is absurdly skilled at writing formal paperwork or letters, probably from the even more absurd amount of practice he's had with it. As the vice-chief of the Shinsengumi, he does a lot of his own paperwork on top of correcting everyone else's blunders.
✘ Smoking — This man is never seen without a cigarette between his lips. Hijikata is literally constantly chain smoking. He's so addicted that he actually for real left Earth when a smoking ban was placed so that he could get his fix. Fun fact: he can fit at least two whole packs of cigarettes in his mouth at the same time.
✘ Mayo Eating — Hijikata will just drink it out of the bottle. Sometimes his need is so great that he'll get out of bed in the middle of the night to slurp some down. It's embarrassing. It's disgusting. Everyone wishes he would please just stop.
Personality: Hijikata Toushirou is the sort of man who seems cool. He's always found with either a cigarette or a sword in his hand. If it's the latter, then the cigarette is in his mouth. He's widely respected and feared by his subordinates and the citizens of Edo. The former due to his dedication and strict rules, and the latter because they don't know he subsists on mayonnaise and anguishes if he misses his evening TV drama rerun.
He may seem like he's not concerned with his image, given his habit of eating 'food' comprised of 80% mayonnaise and flailing his sword around in the street yelling death threats, but Hijikata is incredibly prideful. He holds himself to the same standards that he holds others, if not higher. While this deep sense of pride helps him accomplish tasks both menial (directing traffic) and large scale (busting terrorist HQs), it also makes him incredibly stubborn.
Losing isn't an option for Hijikata. He'll fight until he can no longer physically move, lie through his teeth, or get weird surgical implants from a shady dentist before he'll admit defeat. The man's stubbornness typically gets him into both dangerous and absurd situations. More seriously, he isn't the sort of person who will ever ask for help, preferring to shoulder every hardship himself instead of burdening others or showing vulnerability.
As a busy police officer with many important things to do, Hijikata isn't a friendly man. He has an incredibly short temper and flings threats freely. They're not usually the most creative, instead getting straight to the point where he kills whoever is being a shit. The man takes his rage out physically, displaying a temper so strong that when he was possessed by a demon otaku sword, he broke free only to slam Gintoki's head into the dashboard of his cop car in anger.
Living the long suffering life of the straight man to many of the other characters' outlandish personalities, Hijikata has a no nonsense aura. As the enforcer of order within the Shinsengumi, Hijikata is strict, even ruthless. He's insistent on not only practical procedure but paperwork being completed properly. The threat of 'commit seppuku' hangs over everyone in the force, with Hijikata bearing down on anyone who breaks one of the 45 regulations he's set. He takes his work incredibly seriously, and is frequently makes the mistake of trying to get something done.
To say that all Hijikata cares about is fighting isn't entirely untrue. He holds the members of the Shinsengumi, and a handful of others, close to his heart, and it is because of his desire to protect them that he fights. The more powerful he is, the more he can do to keep others safe. Bloodlust, however, isn't completely absent from Hijikata's fighting, and he does enjoy himself when he's crossing blades with an enemy.
Hijikata is extremely tight lipped, and almost never speaks about his feelings. He simply experiences them and comes to terms with them internally. Really, he doesn't like talking about himself at all. For example, he is incredibly dedicated to his training, but doesn't advertise it. When Kondo confronts him on practicing in their country dojo, Hijikata argues that he simply got his hand stuck in a convenience store door. Which is apparently somehow cooler and less embarrassing than admitting he'd gotten blisters practicing.
Engaging in self-sacrificing acts of violence is Hijikata's typical method of problem solving. The man doesn't want to die, but he doesn't fear death and typically has little regard for his life when it comes to charging bazookas blazing into a dangerous situation. Despite all of his angry outbursts, Hijikata is nicer than he lets on. He prefers to let people live their lives, and will butt into attempted interference if necessary. Protecting is important to him, but he doesn't want to let it show. He'll take no credit, and will often play off any helpful acts with irritation.
Hijikata has a very set and narrow idea of manliness. By that same token, he has a stupidly vague idea of womanhood. For a man who boasts that he cares for little other than strength, he is quickly thrown off if faced with a female opponent. When fighting Kyubei, upon finding out she was female, his attacks declined in ferocity and he was defeated. It isn't that Hijikata expects women to be subservient to him, he's simply grown up surrounded by men, so his idea of femininity is fairly limited.
When it comes to love, Hijikata has stated that it is both an illusion and for other people. The first conclusion arose from the fact that he is generally popular with women - whom he treats casually if not a bit coldly - until they observe his strange eating habits. Their subsequent appalled reactions have hardened him against believing that affection so readily expressed is genuine. As for considering love to be out of his domain, Hijikata doesn't consider himself an eligible man. His career and dedication to fighting, throwing himself into any dangerous situation that arises, could rob him of his life at any moment. When faced with his budding dangerous position and his love interest, he pushed the girl away intentionally. He was convinced that his lifestyle could never give her happiness.
When Hijikata cares for someone, he'll get his hands dirty so that they can live a clean life. When he found out that the girl he loved's fiance was dealing in illegal smuggling, he went after the man's life alone. He was willing to be marked as a heartless killer so long as he could prevent her potential heartache. He'll sacrifice his personal relationship with someone to secure their safety without hesitation, even if his presence was something they desired.
As strict as Hijikata is determined to be, his attitude can switch on a dime if he is under enough duress. Unfortunately, he's trying to get work done in a comedy anime, so his life is frustrating. When a situation gets ridiculous, he ardently resists being dragged into absurdity or juvenile banter by his peers, but will typically crumble and deliver something dumb anyway. As for experiencing fear, Hijikata will always attempt to play himself straight and even until the last moment, when running and hiding is unavoidable. Even then, he'll attempt to explain it away with something 'cool', like looking for a mythological figure in a vase.
Some people like mayonnaise, some people love mayonnaise, and some people are Hijikata. He's nothing short of obsessed with it; all of his meals consist of more mayonnaise than actual food. To put Hijikata's love for mayonnaise in perspective, he once made the entire Shinsengumi - people he purportedly cares about - eat nothing but mayo for days so he could win a tour of the mayonnaise factory. What he thought would be a thrilling w*lly w*nka experience ended up to be an absolutely normal boring factory tour. He collapsed on the sidewalk afterwords. It was embarrassing.
Muramasha, Hijikata's blade, is terribly cursed with the soul of a vengeful otaku. This curse forced a personality known as 'Tosshi' to develop. An avid anime fan, Tosshi was a coward and even more socially inept than Hijikata's original flavor sparkling personality. More importantly, Tosshi's desire to not fade away without accomplishing anything reflects Hijikata's own lifestyle of carving his own path out to leave behind a mark of his existence.
The Shinsengumi are Hijikata's family. When he is about to fade away, succumbing to his sword's curse, he puts aside his pride to ask the Yorozuya to protect them. Having people to protect who accept all of his violent tendencies is central to Hijikata's being. While Kondo considers him the glue that holds the Shinsengumi together, Hijikata considers this position to be Kondo's - the man's attitude and kind nature binding them all together as something that could be called a family. Hijikata is fiercely protective of Kondo in every way. Though, he has slipped into calling the man a gorilla or taking other pot shots at the man.
The bane of Hijikata's existence lives in the form of Okita Sogo - the super sadist who makes his life a living hell. Hijikata suffers an obscene amount of abuse at the younger officer's hands, and takes it with varying amounts of grace. At times, Hijikata is able to ignore Sogo's attempts on his life, but more typically he'll yell and fight back. Despite all of the potential tension between them, the two do work very well together when necessary.
To Hijikata, Gintoki is an annoyance. They typically compete with one another when it comes to who breaks and abandons their pride first. Usually, neither of them does, and they both end up in an exceeding amount of physical or emotional anguish. However, Hijikata knows that he can rely on Gintoki, albeit always begrudgingly. Mostly, he wants to either not hear from him or fight him. Despite all of this, they synchronize well when push comes to shove.
AU History: Born a bastard child to a farming family on Leith, Hijikata's prospects to be anything beyond a worker weren't strong. A solidly middle-class family, with no ties to the nobility, they didn't care to adopt him as one of their own. However, Hijikata's oldest brother was a kind man, and due to his father's death before his birth, and his mother's death when he was a toddler, he was taken in to the family proper. His brother raised him as one of their own, and until the age of eleven, Hijikata live a peaceful, rural life.
Whether the group that attacked his family's farm was a mere isolated entourage of criminals or tied to a greater political ideology is unknown, but their assault resulted in the crops and infrastructure of Hijikata's family being razed to the ground. His brother was blinded in the incident, putting himself between the attackers and Hijikata himself. In response, Hijikata attacked the aggressors in a flash of rage, slicing their eyes out one by one until they were all writhing on the ground.
And then he left, blaming himself for his brother's injury. Hijikata boarded the first ship he could stow away on to Westerley. There he grew up, roaming the streets and taking petty jobs - and eventually fighting in bloodsport - to maintain himself. After seven years of thrashing in the filth of society, someone saw fit to take him from the streets, clean him up, and present him to the Company for 'honest' work.
That man was a saint, and Hijikata's loyalty is to that individual, or anyone associated with him, rather than the Company itself. However, he's very dedicated to doing his job, and doing it right. In the nine years he's been working for the Company, Hijikata has managed to move up the ranks, and now has a squad of his own men at his command. This isn't to say his position is one of prestige - his ancestry and his upbringing don't sit well with his superiors, and he often has to work doubly hard to win their trust.
This includes undertaking prerogatives that may he may morally disagree with. He needs to keep his position no matter what, even if he's committing atrocities that don't sit well with him. Ultimately, he's a strict and feared member of the Company's active force, readily capable but not often given jobs of major significance. His typical station is Westerley, where he lives in Company quarters, but as any disliked member of an organization will be, he's sent all over the Quad to work where no one else wants to.
Inventory: ✘ Samurai Sword - modified with a special coating to withstand far greater impact than regular folded steel ✘ Mayo Bottles - at least one at all times ✘ Cigarettes - replaced cigs made from local tobacco ✘ Lighter - shaped like a mayo bottle)
Hijikata Toushirou | Gintama | Not Reserved
Player
Name:Elise
Age: 25
Contact:
Character
Name: Hijikata Toushirou
Age: 27
Memory Option: Partial AU - Deteriorating
Established Status: He's spent one full year working for the company.
Canon: Gintama
Canon Point: Immediately before the Shogun Assassination Arc
Citizenship: Leith
Job: Hijikata works as a company official, highly ranked enough to have his own squad of men. While he's very skilled at what he does, his background leaves a bad taste in the mouths of his superiors, so he's often charged with less than desirable jobs.
Abilities:
✘ Swordfighting — Hijikata's job is to arrest terrorists, and often things come to blows. Hijikata's style was defined by life or death fights, so he takes every conflict seriously. He once cut a bullet in half (shortly after being blown up way to go champ). He's responsible and dedicated, practicing every day and keeping his equipment in order.
✘ Follow-Up — Hijikata is absurdly skilled at writing formal paperwork or letters, probably from the even more absurd amount of practice he's had with it. As the vice-chief of the Shinsengumi, he does a lot of his own paperwork on top of correcting everyone else's blunders.
✘ Smoking — This man is never seen without a cigarette between his lips. Hijikata is literally constantly chain smoking. He's so addicted that he actually for real left Earth when a smoking ban was placed so that he could get his fix. Fun fact: he can fit at least two whole packs of cigarettes in his mouth at the same time.
✘ Mayo Eating — Hijikata will just drink it out of the bottle. Sometimes his need is so great that he'll get out of bed in the middle of the night to slurp some down. It's embarrassing. It's disgusting. Everyone wishes he would please just stop.
Personality:
Hijikata Toushirou is the sort of man who seems cool. He's always found with either a cigarette or a sword in his hand. If it's the latter, then the cigarette is in his mouth. He's widely respected and feared by his subordinates and the citizens of Edo. The former due to his dedication and strict rules, and the latter because they don't know he subsists on mayonnaise and anguishes if he misses his evening TV drama rerun.
He may seem like he's not concerned with his image, given his habit of eating 'food' comprised of 80% mayonnaise and flailing his sword around in the street yelling death threats, but Hijikata is incredibly prideful. He holds himself to the same standards that he holds others, if not higher. While this deep sense of pride helps him accomplish tasks both menial (directing traffic) and large scale (busting terrorist HQs), it also makes him incredibly stubborn.
Losing isn't an option for Hijikata. He'll fight until he can no longer physically move, lie through his teeth, or get weird surgical implants from a shady dentist before he'll admit defeat. The man's stubbornness typically gets him into both dangerous and absurd situations. More seriously, he isn't the sort of person who will ever ask for help, preferring to shoulder every hardship himself instead of burdening others or showing vulnerability.
As a busy police officer with many important things to do, Hijikata isn't a friendly man. He has an incredibly short temper and flings threats freely. They're not usually the most creative, instead getting straight to the point where he kills whoever is being a shit. The man takes his rage out physically, displaying a temper so strong that when he was possessed by a demon otaku sword, he broke free only to slam Gintoki's head into the dashboard of his cop car in anger.
Living the long suffering life of the straight man to many of the other characters' outlandish personalities, Hijikata has a no nonsense aura. As the enforcer of order within the Shinsengumi, Hijikata is strict, even ruthless. He's insistent on not only practical procedure but paperwork being completed properly. The threat of 'commit seppuku' hangs over everyone in the force, with Hijikata bearing down on anyone who breaks one of the 45 regulations he's set. He takes his work incredibly seriously, and is frequently makes the mistake of trying to get something done.
To say that all Hijikata cares about is fighting isn't entirely untrue. He holds the members of the Shinsengumi, and a handful of others, close to his heart, and it is because of his desire to protect them that he fights. The more powerful he is, the more he can do to keep others safe. Bloodlust, however, isn't completely absent from Hijikata's fighting, and he does enjoy himself when he's crossing blades with an enemy.
Hijikata is extremely tight lipped, and almost never speaks about his feelings. He simply experiences them and comes to terms with them internally. Really, he doesn't like talking about himself at all. For example, he is incredibly dedicated to his training, but doesn't advertise it. When Kondo confronts him on practicing in their country dojo, Hijikata argues that he simply got his hand stuck in a convenience store door. Which is apparently somehow cooler and less embarrassing than admitting he'd gotten blisters practicing.
Engaging in self-sacrificing acts of violence is Hijikata's typical method of problem solving. The man doesn't want to die, but he doesn't fear death and typically has little regard for his life when it comes to charging bazookas blazing into a dangerous situation. Despite all of his angry outbursts, Hijikata is nicer than he lets on. He prefers to let people live their lives, and will butt into attempted interference if necessary. Protecting is important to him, but he doesn't want to let it show. He'll take no credit, and will often play off any helpful acts with irritation.
Hijikata has a very set and narrow idea of manliness. By that same token, he has a stupidly vague idea of womanhood. For a man who boasts that he cares for little other than strength, he is quickly thrown off if faced with a female opponent. When fighting Kyubei, upon finding out she was female, his attacks declined in ferocity and he was defeated. It isn't that Hijikata expects women to be subservient to him, he's simply grown up surrounded by men, so his idea of femininity is fairly limited.
When it comes to love, Hijikata has stated that it is both an illusion and for other people. The first conclusion arose from the fact that he is generally popular with women - whom he treats casually if not a bit coldly - until they observe his strange eating habits. Their subsequent appalled reactions have hardened him against believing that affection so readily expressed is genuine. As for considering love to be out of his domain, Hijikata doesn't consider himself an eligible man. His career and dedication to fighting, throwing himself into any dangerous situation that arises, could rob him of his life at any moment. When faced with his budding dangerous position and his love interest, he pushed the girl away intentionally. He was convinced that his lifestyle could never give her happiness.
When Hijikata cares for someone, he'll get his hands dirty so that they can live a clean life. When he found out that the girl he loved's fiance was dealing in illegal smuggling, he went after the man's life alone. He was willing to be marked as a heartless killer so long as he could prevent her potential heartache. He'll sacrifice his personal relationship with someone to secure their safety without hesitation, even if his presence was something they desired.
As strict as Hijikata is determined to be, his attitude can switch on a dime if he is under enough duress. Unfortunately, he's trying to get work done in a comedy anime, so his life is frustrating. When a situation gets ridiculous, he ardently resists being dragged into absurdity or juvenile banter by his peers, but will typically crumble and deliver something dumb anyway. As for experiencing fear, Hijikata will always attempt to play himself straight and even until the last moment, when running and hiding is unavoidable. Even then, he'll attempt to explain it away with something 'cool', like looking for a mythological figure in a vase.
Some people like mayonnaise, some people love mayonnaise, and some people are Hijikata. He's nothing short of obsessed with it; all of his meals consist of more mayonnaise than actual food. To put Hijikata's love for mayonnaise in perspective, he once made the entire Shinsengumi - people he purportedly cares about - eat nothing but mayo for days so he could win a tour of the mayonnaise factory. What he thought would be a thrilling w*lly w*nka experience ended up to be an absolutely normal boring factory tour. He collapsed on the sidewalk afterwords. It was embarrassing.
Muramasha, Hijikata's blade, is terribly cursed with the soul of a vengeful otaku. This curse forced a personality known as 'Tosshi' to develop. An avid anime fan, Tosshi was a coward and even more socially inept than Hijikata's original flavor sparkling personality. More importantly, Tosshi's desire to not fade away without accomplishing anything reflects Hijikata's own lifestyle of carving his own path out to leave behind a mark of his existence.
The Shinsengumi are Hijikata's family. When he is about to fade away, succumbing to his sword's curse, he puts aside his pride to ask the Yorozuya to protect them. Having people to protect who accept all of his violent tendencies is central to Hijikata's being. While Kondo considers him the glue that holds the Shinsengumi together, Hijikata considers this position to be Kondo's - the man's attitude and kind nature binding them all together as something that could be called a family. Hijikata is fiercely protective of Kondo in every way. Though, he has slipped into calling the man a gorilla or taking other pot shots at the man.
The bane of Hijikata's existence lives in the form of Okita Sogo - the super sadist who makes his life a living hell. Hijikata suffers an obscene amount of abuse at the younger officer's hands, and takes it with varying amounts of grace. At times, Hijikata is able to ignore Sogo's attempts on his life, but more typically he'll yell and fight back. Despite all of the potential tension between them, the two do work very well together when necessary.
To Hijikata, Gintoki is an annoyance. They typically compete with one another when it comes to who breaks and abandons their pride first. Usually, neither of them does, and they both end up in an exceeding amount of physical or emotional anguish. However, Hijikata knows that he can rely on Gintoki, albeit always begrudgingly. Mostly, he wants to either not hear from him or fight him. Despite all of this, they synchronize well when push comes to shove.
AU History:
Born a bastard child to a farming family on Leith, Hijikata's prospects to be anything beyond a worker weren't strong. A solidly middle-class family, with no ties to the nobility, they didn't care to adopt him as one of their own. However, Hijikata's oldest brother was a kind man, and due to his father's death before his birth, and his mother's death when he was a toddler, he was taken in to the family proper. His brother raised him as one of their own, and until the age of eleven, Hijikata live a peaceful, rural life.
Whether the group that attacked his family's farm was a mere isolated entourage of criminals or tied to a greater political ideology is unknown, but their assault resulted in the crops and infrastructure of Hijikata's family being razed to the ground. His brother was blinded in the incident, putting himself between the attackers and Hijikata himself. In response, Hijikata attacked the aggressors in a flash of rage, slicing their eyes out one by one until they were all writhing on the ground.
And then he left, blaming himself for his brother's injury. Hijikata boarded the first ship he could stow away on to Westerley. There he grew up, roaming the streets and taking petty jobs - and eventually fighting in bloodsport - to maintain himself. After seven years of thrashing in the filth of society, someone saw fit to take him from the streets, clean him up, and present him to the Company for 'honest' work.
That man was a saint, and Hijikata's loyalty is to that individual, or anyone associated with him, rather than the Company itself. However, he's very dedicated to doing his job, and doing it right. In the nine years he's been working for the Company, Hijikata has managed to move up the ranks, and now has a squad of his own men at his command. This isn't to say his position is one of prestige - his ancestry and his upbringing don't sit well with his superiors, and he often has to work doubly hard to win their trust.
This includes undertaking prerogatives that may he may morally disagree with. He needs to keep his position no matter what, even if he's committing atrocities that don't sit well with him. Ultimately, he's a strict and feared member of the Company's active force, readily capable but not often given jobs of major significance. His typical station is Westerley, where he lives in Company quarters, but as any disliked member of an organization will be, he's sent all over the Quad to work where no one else wants to.
Original History: Don't look back just carry on
Inventory:
✘ Samurai Sword - modified with a special coating to withstand far greater impact than regular folded steel
✘ Mayo Bottles - at least one at all times
✘ Cigarettes - replaced cigs made from local tobacco
✘ Lighter - shaped like a mayo bottle)
Samples:
NETWORK | LOG | IN-VERSE
Miscellaneous Notes:
( source )