Shinichi Yukimura

Overview
Shinichi Yukimura is the elder brother of Jirou Yukimura, and the current Court Wizard of the Jade Court of Vampires. He is the second oldest of the current magical generation of Yukimura's.

Character Aspects
High Concept Trouble Phase Name Meaning: Spirit/Spiritual (信), first (implied 'son' or 'child') (一)
 * Driven Magician of Jade
 * Pressure to succeed
 * You can never go home again
 * Brothers and Best friends
 * Second is just first place loser
 * Me first
 * Two wrongs sometimes make a right

Early Life
Shinichi was born the eldest of two brothers in Tokyo, 1997. Even from a young age, Shinichi consistently proved that he excelled. He spoke before he was expected to, walked before he was expected to, read, wrote, understood, the list went on. Shinichi's parents expected from the start for him to be exceptional, and always treated him as such. Especially after he started school, and with ease always came out the top of the class.

When Shinichi was almost two, his brother Jirou was born, and Shinichi loved him immediately. He's not the best at showing it, but he cares considerably for his little brother. Still, the power dynamic that the two shared for sixteen years was set up very early on. Shinichi was always shown off to others, and Jirou was consistently coddled. Shinichi realized very quickly that he was considerably better in every way than his little brother, and consistently aimed to keep it that way. Of course, he did still press for his brothers success (after all, Shinichi cares very deeply for Jirou), but he was also always there to remind Jirou of his failures.

Without his brother
A few months after his eighteenth birthday, his cousin came for a visit in Japan. Kaki Yukimura gained Shinichi's respect almost instantly when she showed up with a gray cloak and silver sword, the sign of being a Warden of the White Council. It was then Shinichi saw his opportunity - if he could be Kaki's apprentice, the world would certainly see his greatness much sooner. He begged her for the opportunity, very unbecoming of himself, but Kaki didn't sway. Until, of course, almost a month later when she suggested a contest. Shinichi was very confident that he would come out victorious - after all, it was him, a very experienced practitioner who had been using magic nearly ten years, versus his brother and two younger cousins. However, things didn't go as expected. Kaki's contest dictated that whoever could last the longest against her would win - and Shinichi went rushing right in. He made a grave mistake, by overestimating his own abilities and underestimating Kaki's.

She took him down without even breaking a sweat.

Shinichi felt a wide array of emotions he wasn't sure he ever would when it wasn't him, but his brother Jirou, who had taken the victory. Shinichi became angry, incredibly angry, though realistically only with himself. Still, he accidentally started to take this anger out of his brother, who had stolen his victory from him. Despite his anger with himself, there was a part of him that was incredibly proud of his little brother, for finally making his own.

Jirou leaving home was incredibly difficult for Shinichi, for many reasons. Mostly, he had never been away from Jirou since he was born. They shared a room, spent their lunch hours together, and trained together for years. The two were incredibly close, and Shinichi didn't want him to go away. Not just that, Shinichi was worried for his brother. Would he get hurt? Would he be okay? Shinichi worried for some time about that. And finally, of course, because Shinichi felt it should be him travelling to Canada, not his brother. Still, he allowed it to happen with gritted teeth, and a quiet promise he would surpass Jirou again one day.

Shinichi fell into a heavy seclusion. He had always had his brother, so he didn't bother making many friends - no good ones at least - and their shared friend, Atsuko Himura, went to a different school than him. So, he quickly became very lonely. He dedicated himself to his studies, keeping himself at top of the class, and spent hours in the family dojo practicing magic and combat alike. His strive to be on the top again pressured him very strongly.

Things got both harder and easier for Shinichi when Kaen Yukimura showed up. On one hand, the old man gave him a solid and practical training regiment for his magic. On the other, he was a very hard and strict teacher to Shinichi, which he both appreciated and hated. Things got especially hard for Shinichi when Jirou came home again, only weeks later. He was the talk of the wizarding world lately, having taken down two lawbreakers in two weeks. The deep anger that started when Jirou won the contest started to grow, though it started growing towards his brother, as well as himself. Things only got worse when Jirou was officially named Wizard of the White Council, and went away again. The anger within Shinichi was allowed to fester, and he kept hearing about all these mazing things his brother was doing. Eventually, Shinichi put in his own request with the Council to be a Wizard, which was temporarily approved... Until Kaen Yukimura stepped in, and decided Shinichi wasn't ready to be a Wizard. Shinichi became filled with rage, all of his anger finally expressing itself towards his master, and after hurting Kaen beyond repair, Shinichi ran away, to eventually become the Jade Court Wizard.

Personaity
Shinichi is brash, arrogant, conceited, and even somewhat narcissistic. Despite all of this, he's dripping with charisma, and usually tries to come off as confident instead of arrogant. Shinichi is also exceptionally intelligent with academics, and finds most things in school very easy and quick to learn. However, he often does things without thinking, figuring that his opinion was always the right one.

Shinichi is a very ambitious, very motivated person. There's almost nothing he wouldn't do to achieve his goals. He very frequently runs off four or six hours of sleep, skips meals, and works until he's out of breath or dead tired. He refuses to be anything less than perfect, and does what he can to achieve that.

Shinichi also has a fairly hard time expressing his emotions, especially if he's not expecting them or they're negative. In a way, he can be a little volatile with his emotions, but in a very passive aggressive way. He had a tendency of taking out his bad feelings on Jirou or his parents, though he really never meant to.

Jirou Yukimura
"'Two things would come of this - Shinichi would accept Jirou as an equal eventually, or, Shinichi would tip and go down paths where his brother would never follow him. In the end, it would be the bond between the brothers which would decide Shinichi's actions. Either he loved his brother enough to lose, or he didn't.' - Kaki, pondering the relationship between her deputy and his brother"Shinichi and Jirou always had a very strange relationship. Shinichi cared deeply for his brother, and was always very protective of him, as he figured an older brother was supposed to be. Shinichi was still very active in upholding their power dynamic, though, whether or not he meant to. He enjoyed to some extent being the best, and liked the control he got from it. For years Shinichi held up the dynamic with no faults, without even realizing he himself was doing it. As such, his childhood with his brother was much brighter than their future relationship. They would always play together in the big yard of the Yukimura estate, their favourite game being 'Wardens and Lawbreakers', of course, and Shinichi was always the Warden.

They would consistently express their problems to one another, and usually help each other solve problems. They complimented each other in personality rather well. Shinichi could recommend the harsh things Jirou would never think of, and Jirou was always good at coming up with a softer, more diplomatic solution. They used to get into all sorts of mischief together, usually Shinichi's idea. When Jirou discovered his ability to move the earth when he was twelve and Shinichi was fourteen, Shinichi took it upon himself to help his brother learn, and they started training their magic together.

Things changed a lot when Jirou won Kaki's competition. Shinichi still loved his brother, of course, but things were different in a way neither could explain. Now things were especially different, since Jirou started to realize he could change the power dynamic, and Shinichi didn't like it at all. It started to push the brothers away from each other a little, and began to cause arguments and problems.

Kaki Yukimura
Shinichi's first impression of Kaki was utter respect. The last time he had seen her since before she showed up as a Warden, he was only twelve, and Kaki had grown tremendously from what he remembered her being like. She was a Warden now, with the full intimidation of one. Though when Shinichi started talking to her, she was still the same old Kaki. Shinichi had always liked Kaki - she was his favourite cousin - considering their personalities were so similar, minus the overwhelming arrogance. However, after Kaki denied him apprenticeship and chose his brother instead, Shinichi's opinion of her began to change a little. The respect was still there, of course, but he blamed her a little for pushing him away from his brother and forcing him to accept a failure. He was rather frustrated with her for her little contest, and the frustration still stays with him.

Others
Kaen Yukimura:

Shinichi also had great respect for his new master when he showed up out of nowhere. Not only was he a Warden of the White Council, but an old Samurai from centuries. Shinichi felt he had a lot to learn from him. Still, Shinichi never was the best student in the world. He was much too arrogant for that. But Kaen gave him a 'my way or the Highway' type of teaching, which forced Shinichi into a certain type of complacency. Shinichi didn't like the old man deciding he knew what was best for Shinichi, however. He wasn't sure he would ever forgive Kaen's mistake of not allowing him to become a Wizard of the White Council.

Atsuko Himura: 

Following much of their life, what Shinichi did so too did Jirou, and vice-versa. So, when Jirou made a new friend with his desk-mate Atsuko Himura, it was only a matter of time before she became friends with Shinichi as well. Shinichi rather liked Atsuko - she was calm and collected, but could keep up with the banter that Jirou and Shinichi threw at each other. Not to mention, Shinichi was glad that his brother had made such a good friend. Now that Shinichi was in University, Jirou was away, and Atsuko was going to be attending a University far from his, he didn't get many chances to talk to Atsuko. They saw each other from time to time - generally he found they spoke about Jirou - but usually Shinichi found himself too busy for it. He did, however, make a point of saying goodbye to her before he left Tokyo when he attacked Kaen.