Like all Go Kamisori Gama, Shusen's style is a mixture of religious devotion and the martial arts. Shusen believes he is a chosen agent of the Heavens and the kami and goes about all duties and sorceries with a religious devotion. But unlike most Go Kamisori Gama, Shusen feels like he is half a priest and half a warrior. His duties to the Reiryu Clan compel him to more ritualistic tasks, after all. Nonetheless, he adheres to the common flavor of all ninja. He operates from the shadows in all things, and the shadows conceal those operations in kind. Understanding of the worldly elements, devotion to the kami, honoring the ancestors, and martial prowess are all extensions of this true awareness. Shusen extends his will through such mediums, for he was chosen to do so for the gods.
Indeed, Shusen is the medium between the living and the dead, for the forebears of the clan who died in its service but whose ties kept them in this world. It falls to Shusen to insure that these persons are honored for their continued sacrifice, and that they continue to in fact sacrifice. He is like a policeman of the dead, making sure the hungry ghosts do not betray the hyper-secretive Go Kamisori Gama to their enemies. To that end, Shusen developed many techniques to further that willful extension to many different aspects of the universe, illusory as it may be. Paradox descends when he fails to fulfill the desires of the gods appropiately: divine wrath.
To enact the will of Mado ("Windows" -- Correspondence), Shusen is required to utilize a mirror. This mirror is octagonally-framed, and he prefers the frame to be made of cherry wood. The mirror itself he desires to be of the highest-quality glass and of course to be clean when he uses it. Peering through the window of the universe, the mirror serves as his looking glass to anywhere possible. He especially uses this Art to locate prodigal spirits in combination with Yamabiko, or future returns of damned ninja in combination with Shukan. In time, he may learn to step through that mirror (in which case, he'll need a bigger mirror). For now, Shusen uses Mado to extend his awareness a fair distance away, and sometimes to steal or acquire (apportation) small objects from where he scries.
Knowledge of Ummei ("Doom" -- Entropy) guides Shusen's hand in everyday life. He depends on this esoteric wisdom to survey the future accurately, discern weaknesses, and note destinies. Battle is a metaphor for life -- or is that the other way around? There are patterns in all things. Reality is a web construct: intricate patterns with loose threads here and there. Knowing those loose ends allows more precise manipulations to give Destiny a nudge in the right direction by summoning good or bad joss (luck). Yet this all comes from the same ancient origins of nothingness. And as this Art teaches, all things inevitably return to nothing. Nothingness is epitomized by the lack of light. A journeyman in this Art, Shusen need not remain in the shadows and dark to exact Entropic will. But so long as he is concealed in the darkness, the inevitable will come to pass, for he blends his Tamashii's essence with the world's shadows.
Iki ("Breath" -- Life) is representative of the Element of Wood. Strength, vitality, growth, and change are all part of this Sphere. Likewise, weakness, sickness, pain, and death can be used in turn. Shusen draws upon his own reservoirs of ki -- sometimes more costly than others -- to affect other life around him. His means of delivering the extension of his own ki is through the extension of his martial arts -- acupressure and acupuncture. Acupressure, though normally for healing, also includes atemi attacks. Likewise, weapons can be jabbed into pain points instead of medicinal needles slid into healing points. It all depends on what aspect of the person or himself that Shusen wants to affect. He's grown skilled enough that mere force of will combined with experienced memories of what those points feel like once stimulated that acupressure and puncture are not necessary.
The specialty of the Go Kamisori Gama, Iko ("Designs" -- Mind) is one of Shusen's strongest magicks. Through its enlightening reach, he can most directly influence the illusions of reality, that framework upon which the gods based the entire drama of Destiny. By touching the consciousness of men, shen, animal, demon, and himself, Shusen can command wills, distract for that moment of attack, and become a shadow in the back of the mind. Due to his combat training and extensions, Shusen often manipulates the minds of others through the art of hypnosis. Once a person's mind is open to suggestion, anything is possible. However, Shusen is powerful and veteran enough to affect minds with concentration of will, which is hypnotic enough in the possession of the Awakened. Going through the process of hypnosis is not necessary.
Ki no Nagarette ("The Flow of Life-Force" -- Prime) is the great connector between the five elements of reality. All things flow with ki. Knowing this Art permits the mystick to directly affect that flow instead of touching the form of its elements. However, seeing past the form of physical reality to the base energy that lies behind requires a great deal of insight. This insight is only gained when one has meditated in the proper ki-channeling positions for an appropiate amount of time. To summon a bit of that raw fabric into form ("conjuring" with Prime 2) requires but a few moments of meditation. Ripping the stolen Chi from a sinful vampire's body (Prime 3 "Quintessence-draining") would require a few good minutes. Dispersing the fabric of a given form, such as a building or boulder, back into the great pool of unformed ki (Prime 4 "Flames of Purification") requires much, much more. However, Shusen has not developed this Art as far as any of that yet. He does not comprehend the true nature of this raw building block of reality enough to avoid meditation either. For now, meditation is a required part of casting these spells.
Yamabiko ("Echoes" -- Spirit) is sometimes hailed as the sixth element. It involves for Shusen all things not material. All spirits, Yin and Yang, all spirit worlds, dark and bright, pure and corrupt, near and far, are part of the celestial bodies that surround and perhaps center upon the material world. He knows that although these things are of spirit and not flesh or stone, they are all part of the Ten Thousand Things (the Tellurian) the gods created. All -- except to the boundaries of the Deep Umbra. That is an unknown realm with perhaps limitless potential. However, Shusen theorizes, it may be correct in saying there never was any Ten Thousand Things, only the Infinite Things. Perhaps Mastery will shed more light as the way to travel these distant realms becomes far more possible. In the mean time, this Art provides Shusen a way to revere the kami and ancestors as well as summoning them for their guidance and prowess for holy retribution. Indeed, in his tasks as a priest to the dead, this Art is absolutely indispensable. He employs Yamabiko to locate, attend, and -- when necessary -- restrain or punish the spirits of the dead or undead. No ghosts escape his notice, whether Restless Dead or hungry gaki. It is the skills of men like Shusen that keep even ancients like Kuro-sama no Koga-myo in check. In spite of the influence he can wave over the heads of the dead, Shusen demonstrates only propriety, honor, respect, and even reverence. His only concern is to make sure all do what they must and should. His prayers to the ancestors, to the dead, rarely go unhead when he employs this Art. As his specialty, he can invoke Yamabiko without taking the time to pray properly. Prayers are not mandatory. But even if an emergency occurs that gives him no time to pray, he always takes time out to pray later.
An important element of Shusen's magickal repertoire is the Art of Shunkan ("The Moment" -- Time). Through it, the road to final Destiny may be mapped and discerned. Shusen believes that a single Fate commands the world: the world is far greater than any man, even a mage. But each man commands his own Fate, and though how it feeds the world's Fate cannot be changed, how that singular Fate unfolds is up to the individual. Some walk the road betting on blind luck and faith because that's all they have. But the Awakened can learn to pierce the illusions of space and time like any other aspect of reality. To this end, they can affect their own Fate so that they can improve their celestial directives. While some pitiful mages use this magick to make vacation money or avoid every battle so that they can grow more powerful, Shusen uses it to map out his -- and therefore the gods' -- enemies' actions and movements. Demons are hard-pressed to ambush this dark priest, and the return of damned Reiryu souls never goes unnoticed. Like its brother Art, Ummei, Shukan can be seen as a set of web-like patterns with a host of loose threads that one can tug here and there. Of course, like the opposing laws of Yin and Yang, the inevitable Doom is more mutable than the river-like flow of the Moment. It cannot be reshaped so much as merely charted and predetermined. To that end, Shusen employs techniques of divination: I-Ching, feng shui, and similar omen-reading. At this time, Shusen cannot see the whole of this river of time, but still finds divination techniques to not be necessary.
Avatar
When Shusen witnesses his Tamashii (Avatar), there is nothing but pitch black darkness. Shusen observes no visual content and never has during Sagashite (Seekings), dreams, or other mystical events in his life. His Tamashii communicates with him solely through impressions that are partly auditory and partly just felt deep in his heart and soul. Words filter through that ancient nothingness. These words carry wisdom and truth to Shusen, encouraging him to continue walking his unknown Path and let Destiny carry him to fulfillment and Ascension. His upbringing instilled such a sense of giri (duty) that he does not question his Avatar's ways. Naturally, to insure he understands it all Shusen analyzes and considers and solves all the enigmatic visions he receives from this Voice or Dark, both of which are terms by which he names his Tamashii.
Shusen is certain, due to the wise and benign (or at least non-diabolic) nature of the Voice that it is communication from the omikami that created the world, that sit above even Amaterasu and the other kami. The duties with which the Go Kamisori Gama are charged are sacred and go beyond all sense of righteousness and morality as men know it. Shusen knows his Path is right. He just doesn't know precisely where his Path will lead just yet. But faith balanced by intuition and curiousity sustains him.
Resonance
Dynamic (Nebulous)
Mysterious, unpredictable, and inscrutable: this essence pervades Shusen's entire persona. As quiet and unaggressive as he may seem, the Reiryu is only masking the whirlwind of ki energies within. Those energies charge what actions he takes, from walking to fighting, giving him a sense of being charged with unknown power. This makes him a hard man to read in social situations; +3 difficulty to related Empathy and Subterfuge rolls. The disadvantage Shusen faces in conversation is the disquiet he provokes in others. They can feel that supercharged energy no matter how well he acts otherwise (though magick can still help). This can cause a range of effects, from attracting unwanted attention from shen to making Sleepers generally uneasy and distrustful.
Mystickally, Shusen receives a -1 difficulty to rolls for any subtle (coincidental) Prime Effects. But blatant Prime Effects ride against his nebulous essence, and inflict a +1 difficulty to those spells.
Entropic (Miasmal)
While his Dynamic Resonance evokes a sensation of concealed and charged power, his greater Entropic essence discolors that nebulous air. It saps the color from that sense of power, giving him a gray, shadowy sense. The ethereal content does not fade. Instead, it becomes darker and more frightening. The man is touched by the icy breath of death clearly. And his living body spins it forth as a tornado of oblivion. This makes Shusen's Intimidation rolls much easier, for he terrifies the living and undead alike with his unspoken promise of oblivion (-3 difficulty to such rolls). But at the same time, Shusen's essence condemns him to a lonelier life. Only the truly damned would appreciate his company, and since he regularly castigates demons right back to hell... Yeah. Shusen can enjoy his solitude: +3 difficulty to all positive or friendly first impression Social rolls.
Spells cast to clarify a person, place, or thing suffer a +1 difficulty. Spells cast to hide or camouflage a person, place, or thing receive a -1 difficulty.
Static (Wintry)
Cold as the winter, hard as the ice, Shusen's multi-faceted persona also includes an element of static power. Though driven like the snow, Shusen's wintry attitude makes him seem cold and aloof. So even if people can get past the uncomfortable effects of his other Resonance forms, they will continue to find it difficult to find him a pleasant person. He comes off as cold and heartless; +3 difficulty to Social rolls in which he must impress his consideration and compassion for others. However, Shusen has little trouble convincing others that he is fixated and determined to bring about a certain end, especially if it involves death and deprivation (-3 difficulty to related Social rolls).
Spells that directly deal with the loss of life, health, or wealth receive a -1 difficulty bonus to the roll. But spells involving the gain of any of these factors receive a +1 difficulty penalty. Winter is the season of loss and death. Shusen is not warm enough a man to adequately provide salubrity.
