Son of one goddess and debtor to another, Kaito Nagano lives his life in search of the impossible: normalcy. The ability to feel others' emotions combined with his inability to mind his own damn business has led to him opening a private investigation firm: The Nagano (Supernatural) Detective Agency. The N(S)DA will take on any case from finding missing pets to settling disputes between humans and demons. And on top of that, they serve clients who are, quite literally, out of this world.

While the NDA is currently a two-person operation, Kaito has high hopes that his work ethic and some well-written reviews will earn him some traction—and, more importantly, a few more employees.

Between his cases, his responsibility as the Nagano Clan's 42nd leader, and the tense political climate of Tokyo's supernatural communities, there's hardly enough time for the empath to breathe, let alone rest. But in the back of his mind he holds out hope that one day he'll finally be able to settle down and achieve his dream of earning a little peace and quiet.

Once a rowdy and defiant troublemaker, the Kaito of today is fairly laid-back once you get past his gruff exterior. He cares a lot for the people around him, but many years spent closing himself off from others has made it difficult for him to be honest about his own feelings—despite being able to openly read everyone else's.

Kaito is a man of contradictions, you see. And if you don't, you will. He pushes those around him to take good care of themselves, yet his own work-life balance is woefully subpar. If there's trouble, he'll tell those he cares about to take cover while diving in head-first. And when push comes to shove, he'll admit that he could use the advice he doles out just as much as anyone else. But he's stubborn, and at the end of the day he strives to make the world a better place for himself and those he loves.

When he isn't roaming Tokyo or other worlds to solve cases, Kaito enjoys staying at home and making meals for his family and friends. He used to be the head chef at one of Shibuya's dingiest ramen joints, Souper Noodle—but the kitchen is behind him for the time being. His more mundane hobbies include riding his bike across the countryside and taking the family's boat out for fishing trips.

Despite having been put through the wringer in terms of traumatic experiences throughout his formative years, Kaito retains a sense of compassion that extends even to (most of) his enemies. And though many have tried to off him for one reason or another, he maintains a strict no-kill policy unless it's for survival (read: hunting) reasons. This policy has bitten him in the rear more times than he cares to admit, but he stands by it.

THE VEIL

Kaito's world is a reflection of modern-day Earth where supernatural elements exist just out of sight from the rest of the human populace. A 'Veil' is said to separate man from myth, allowing them to exist undisturbed by the other despite living right under each others' noses. In olden days, humans and the supernatural openly shared Earth's land, but the avaricious nature of both races led to many bloody wars that eventually led to the formation of the Veil in the 1500s. Since then, both sides have agreed to stay out of the others' affairs, and peace has reigned between the races.

While there have been many attempts to tear down Veil since its formation and while many incidents where the two worlds collide still occur, there are organizations in place on both sides who maintain (a perhaps fickle) order. Yet there remain powerful names on both sides of the Veil who wish to see Earth brought back to a state where man and monster can once again openly coexist—for peace or for conquest.

Although laws and folktales alike deter humans and non-humans from crossing the Veil into the other's space, commerce and conflict exist in regions where its influence is too weak to separate them. High population centers tend to be where the Veil is at its weakest, and Tokyo is home to a great number of tucked-away corners where one can run into humans and yokai mingling with one another...

THE NAGANO CLAN

A family of mystics and onmyoji said to have first appeared during the Asuka period, before the Bureau of Onmyo was established. The Nagano clan's members have long served to protect the livelihood of their homes, whether that meant fending off yokai or their fellow humans. Rumors about them have ranged from the existence of godlike psychic powers to the stories of them laying with demons. When the Veil was raised they chose to live on both sides of the border, migrating to regions where the Veil's influence was weak.

As technology advanced in both worlds, recent generations of the Nagano clan saw less and less of a need to maintain their mystical duties, and by the late 1700s they'd all but discarded their roots and responsibilities. Starting with Patriarch Gennosuke and his son Daisuke, however, the clan has once again resumed their duties. Upon coming of age (and after a few incidents) the current patriarch of the clan, Kaito, has also seen fit to embrace his family legacy.

Though, it is a bit strange that he doesn't engage in any of the sorcery his forebears once utilized.

CHILD OF THE SEA

Kaito is the son of the sea goddess Otohime—and as a result, is also bound to inherit the title and responsibilities of his grandfather, the kami Ryujin. While this is news that he only learned about a few years ago, he is nonetheless happy to embrace both his mortal and so-very-not-mortal heritages. His birthright allows him to freely travel to the ocean's depths and visit his mother and grandfather in their palace, Ryugu-jo. There, he has made no small number of aquatic friends among those who would call him Prince Kaito.

Despite his mother's reassurance, Kaito has pushed himself to stop eating seafood as he finds it a bit awkward to, in essence, eat his people.

HELL'S DEBTOR

While Otohime and Ryujin may be his family, Kaito has been well-acquainted with a different kami for a much longer time: Yomi's queen, Izanami. After conquering a series of ordeals that brought the empath to her, Kaito managed to negotiate a deal with the goddess... The exchange of one life for another that's been extinguished. And as a result of said deal, he has incurred a debt of one (1) soul that she is eager to collect on: his.

Of course, through someone's meddling, Kaito wound up (unintentionally) bamboozling the kami, cheating her out of her end of the deal. Following this encounter, Izanami has cursed his soul, turning it into a beacon whose flame hypnotizes and allures supernatural beings with weak wills. Their minds become filled with a singular desire to kill Kaito, bring his soul to Yomi, and receive a divine blessing.

What an awful misunderstanding!

Anyway.

POWER

There's nothing Kaito hates more than to be powerless. Powerlessness, more than anything else, has inflicted the deepest scars onto the empath. It's what stole away that which he loves most, and now he lives under the firm belief that he must accrue as much power as he can to keep everyone around him safe.

Is that a healthy way to live? Absolutely not, but over the years and across many conflicts, the pursuit of power has done him more good than harm. More importantly, what harm it has done has never been his downfall—only lessons for him to learn from. So he'll continue walking that tightrope, greedily improving his own strength for the sake of others.

FACTIONS

Presently, Kaito has no strong opinions when it comes to the Veil and has no desire to engage in the politics surrounding it... But creeping in the shadows around him are two major players.

First is the Miyashita-gumi, a supernatural branch of the Yakuza. Under the leadership of their current captain, Miyashita Takahiro, they run various protection rackets and are interested in seeing the Veil brought down so that they can disrupt the natural order of Yakuza groups on the human side of things.

On the other side, there's the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Despite claiming a desire to seek peaceful relations with citizens on both sides of the Veil, they have recently become more vocal in advocating for the Veil's dissolution to expand the police's influence into Tokyo's supernatural communities.

Unfortunately, Kaito is starting to find himself being pulled into more conflicts with both factions—and the leaders of both groups seem very interested in pulling him into their fold...

I'M SORRY WTF WAS THAT ABOUT WORLDS?

Sorry not sorry! There exists a means for Kaito and those associated with him to traverse the stars, but I've already fed you a lot of information! Gotta leave something for your characters to discover on their own, y'know?

Kaito's abilities fall under two main categories: psychic powers (empathy and psychometry) and hydrokinesis (which has many applications). Looking up any of the aforementioned powers in the Superpower Wiki can give you some general information, so if you'd rather skip the descriptors here then by all means, go for it!

• Soul Flame: A curse created by the contract made to Izanami and fueled by her jealous desire to claim a soul twice denied to her. Kaito's soul radiates an otherworldly energy that attracts supernatural beings of all sorts to him. Those with weak wills shall find themselves with an inexplicable desire to kill Kaito and feast on his flesh—thus returning him to Yomi, where he will remain for eternity.


• Indomitable Will: Kaito is extremely resistant to supernatural subversion and (for better or worse) can withstand physical and mental abuse like no one's business. What was it that developed this willpower? Well, you'll have to ask him.


• Aura Reading: Kaito can read the auras of all beings around him within a certain distance. Aura is a type of life force that all living beings emit. By tapping into it, he can read their emotions through Empathy.


• Empathy: Kaito's empathy works from a distance, but it strongest when he is making direct contact with another living being. While he cannot read thoughts, he's very good at making educated guesses based off their emotions.


• Psychometry: By tapping into the residual auras in a certain creature, item or location, Kaito can access the memories associated with them. This requires direct physical contact with his hands and triggers his Empathy.


• Divine Bloodline: Kaito's birthright as the son of Otohime and grandson of Ryujin grants him a natural affinity with the element of water. When using these gifts, his eyes take on an ephemeral azure glow.


• Demigod Physique: Kaito's general physical parameters are several leagues above the average human. He's embarrassed to admit it as he's always thought he just trained harder than anyone else as a kid.


• Aquatic Breathing: What it says on the tin. Kaito can breathe underwater as if breathing plain old air.


• Aquatic Telepathy & Aquatic Life Manipulation: Kaito can freely converse with aquatic creatures via telepathy. Due to his birthright he is also granted a degree of dominion over marine life that allows him to command them when needed.


• Hydrokinesis: Kaito has a strong control over the element of water, allowing him to generate and manipulate it as freely as he would his limbs. Combined with his ability to morph his body into the element, that is sometimes a literal statement. Kaito can freely change the temperature and state of water, allowing him some control over ice and mist.


• Cryokinesis & Hygrokinesis: Mentioned above, Kaito is also able to control ice and mist, but the efficacy is far below that of his water manipulation.


• Water Mimicry: Kaito can freely morph any part of his body into water, which he often uses to evade attacks and empower his own strikes. With enough concentration, he can even transform himself into a liquid dragon.


• Liquid Constructs: Kaito can create solid constructs such as weapons or barriers out of water. These objects take on the physical characteristics of sea glass. They're anything but frail.


• Hydrokinetic Cloning: Kaito can create picture-perfect clones of himself out of water. These clones can act independently of their creator and the unaware can easily be fooled into thinking they're the genuine article. They're not nearly as sturdy as the original but can take a solid hit or two beating before going splat.


• Water Warping: By concentrating, Kaito can create a portal in a place he has physically seen or been to in the past. The range of this power spans the length of a few large cities, but the cost and upkeep scale with distance. In battle, he can make use of this ability on a smaller scale to instantly transform into motes of water and vanish, reappearing some distance away.


• Healing Water: Kaito's water can be used to heal injuries, though the process is more akin to accelerating the target's natural regeneration factor rather than outright undoing the damage done.


• The Heritor's Domain: A pocket dimension more than a power. This space belongs to the Nagano clan and is maintained by its leader. The space within is vast and can be shaped to the keeper's fancy, and those who reside within will heal from sickness or injuries at a rapid rate. Inside the Domain exists a library maintained by familiars that contains all the knowledge that has been recorded and collected by the clan's leaders. Time within the Domain moves much faster than the outside world.

^[1]Because time passes much faster in the Domain and Ryugu-jo, Kaito's age is closer to somewhere in the mid-thirties, maybe older. He's lost track of the specifics.

Hi! Hello. If this all looks a little too familiar, then yes, you might remember me from Kaito's other journals: nagano and nightparades. I do revisions to clean up his backstory or progress his personal plot every few months, and this time around it's led to some bigger story shifts.

Those who remember Kaito can rest assured that he's still the same noodle. I've simply adopted a few new worldbuilding elements that I personally find more interesting and refreshing. And a new PB.

To that end, the above journals will be going dark until I can touch them up to match this journal's story beats. I look forward to writing with you again!

• M/F preferred for shipping and smut, but I'm not opposed to talking about M/M content if our muses get along. In case you're curious, he also has a kink list.


• Pictures of real-life or realistic snakes are a huge trigger for me. Please avoid sharing them if possible. Written descriptions are okay.


• Due to his heavy associations with Japanese folklore, Kaito fits in many universes bathed in the supernatural. I also love throwing him into foreign canon environments, and due to his ability to hop from world to world, he's very easy to shoe in as a guest character for a thread or PSL.


• Some canons that are adored include: SMT, Persona, Caligula Effect, Fire Emblem, Arknights, Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, Final Fantasy (all the Final Fantasies, tbh)...


• Thank you for taking the time to read through everything. 💙