Shin-Ah

Name: Shin-Ah

Age: 18 years old

Gender: Male

Height: 180 cm (5'11")

Weight: 67 kg (148 lbs)

Birthday: January 3 (Capricorn)

Occupation: Dragon Warriors

Background: Shin-Ah was born into a broken world without a family; his mother committed suicide after seeing that her child was the next Seiryuu, or Blue Dragon, and his father most likely fled as well, not having been revealed to readers. The rest of the villagers immediately put a mask on him for fear of his powers and made him remain nameless, only being called "the new Seiryuu". As the village law instructs, Shin-Ah was put in the care of the previous generation's Seiryuu, whose name was Ao. They both lived together apart from the rest of the village so that the villagers didn't have to live in fear of them. Despite this, Ao, and little Shin-Ah tagging along behind, would protect the village whenever bandits or soldiers with ill intentions came near. Ao told Shin-Ah that he must learn swordsmanship to protect the village and never use his dragon ability, for it reflects its power to a lesser degree back on the user. Being forced to live apart and being hated by the villagers, Shin-Ah wondered as a child if he could ever have any friends. When he attempted to befriend other village children on one occasion, Ao yelled at him, saying that it was impossible since he was a Seiryuu. As time went on, Ao starting losing his powers and becoming more and more blind as his incredible sight abilities transferred to Shin-Ah. Eventually, Ao became completely blind. He was incredibly happy, falling to his knees and crying out that he was finally a regular human. As they were leaving the battlefield they were in that night, Shin-Ah found some bells dropped by bandits and wore them because he realized that he could guide his mentor with their jingling, which he found very pretty. However, having lost his abilities, Ao died, before which he cried and apologized to Shin-Ah because he was going to leave him all alone. In his complete loneliness, Shin-Ah continued to wear the bells on his mask, hoping to be "found". Soon after, a large group of soldiers approached the village. Being only four years old at the time, Shin-Ah could not protect the village yet. Despite Ao's warning, he had no choice but to use his dragon ability, not having learned any skills with a sword yet. He annihilated the entire troop all on his own, but collapsed in their midst - paralyzed - as a result of his power's curse. From this horrifying realization of the small child's immense abilities, the villagers soon feared him even more. They moved their village to the mountains of the Fire Tribe and isolated Shin-Ah in the deepest corner of it. Shin-Ah lived for many years like this, only having a small squirrel as company, which he named Ao to pay respects to his late mentor and only friend.

——————————————————————— Appearance: Shin-Ah is a fairly tall, handsome and attractive young man who wears a horned skull mask over half of his face. Before departing on his journey with Yona, he had two bells attached to the left horn of his mask. He also has a big detachable white fur piece that he usually attaches to the back of his mask, which covers his short blue hair. Without the mask, he has beautiful golden dragon eyes, the source of his dragon ability, that are highlighted by red facial markings, both of which come from being the Seiryuu. He also has particularly pale skin, even compared to Yona, likely due to his living the majority of his life in a cave. He wears a black robe with white fur trimming over a blue turtleneck shirt along with two decorative necklaces. He also wears finger-less black gloves and carries his sword across his back. He is also very unique. When going to places with a lot of people, he tries to atleast blend in more by using a whit cloth to cover his eyes rather than his skull mask.

Personality: Growing up in complete isolation, he suffers from Social Anxiety. Shin-Ah has almost no social skills whatsoever. He is very quiet, shy, sensitive, self conscious, timid, apathetic, and hardly ever speaks, usually replying to questions with nods and gestures, or just blank, awkward stares. Because of this, he is often misunderstood by other people, thinking he is suspicious and even frightening. However, he has an extremely kind and caring personality, even towards those in his village who hate and fear him. He deeply cares for Yona and the rest of the group, and has a unique bond with a squirrel that he named Ao. He also absolutely hates the cold, often using his fur head-piece to keep himself warm. Shin-Ah fears his powers and refuses to use them, calling himself "cursed" and a monster. He is afraid of the destruction they could cause and the people that could be hurt, including himself. He always keeps his mask on to prevent people from looking into his eyes and being affected by his "curse". However, it is suggested that some girls can see his eyes. One of the girls asks her friend if she had "seen the eyes of the man in the mask?" She went on to say that 'They're so beautiful they suck you in." Shin-Ah can also be very protective of Yona and his fellow warriors. During the Water Tribe Nadai crisis, Yona is assaulted by a nadai addict when being used as bait. Shin-Ah struggled with keeping calm over this, wanting to cut off the man's arm for grabbing Yona's arm. Kija had a similar reaction, but Shin-Ah showed way less restraint. People harming Yona in any way seems to trigger a sudden fit of anger and causes him to occasionally outburst. However, these outbursts seem to be rare, and only happen when Yona is in danger or is being disrespected. Yona, herself, helps him express himself more. He is determined to protect Yona and her honor. He doesn't tolerate disrespect towards Yona and would gladly kill if harm comes to her. Shin-Ah shows extreme loyalty to his fellow Dragon Warriors, as well as Hak and especially Yona. Additionally, Shin-Ah is a forgiving person and didn't hold any grudge against the people of his village after all of the heartache he through. This shows his strength in character for which it means that even though he became a victim of circumstance, he decided not to let it consume him, but instead moved past it. ——————————————————————— Abilities: • Dragon Eyes: With the eyes of the blue dragon, he has the ability to see long distances very clearly, being able to see people and objects miles away. When using the eyes' ability, he has the power to paralyze people when he looks directly into their eyes. His victims are then subject to fatal hallucinations. In extreme cases he can cause their entire bodies to stop functioning, including their hearts. However, he does not have full control over this power and will lose himself to the blue dragon's murderous willpower. When he finishes using this ability, he himself becomes paralyzed as a result, making the power a double-edged sword. In order to avoid unintentionally hurting others with his ability, he wears his mask to cover his eyes. After being possessed by a previous Seiryuu in the hidden cave underground, Shin-Ah gains full control over his dragon eyes. However, he continues to wear the mask (or bandage his eyes) because he feels uncomfortable without it.

• Swordsmanship: Since his dragon ability is so dangerous, Shin-Ah has trained himself to become an extremely capable and skilled swordsman so that he doesn't have to use his powers. He is able to keep up with Hak and Kija easily. Shin-Ah has been seen to cut through a medium sized tree trunk with relative ease.
• Education: It appears that Shin-Ah may not be able to read. he draws the symbol for an onsen to show Yona and her companions, rather than tell them the sign he has seen with his dragon sight in the distant forest. This could be a result from being isolated in his village, and also the villager's fear surrounding Shin-Ah, causing no one wanting to get to close to him.
• Craftsmanship: Afraid of enemy attacks on his village and not wanting to use his power, Shin-Ah taught himself how to craft various weapons such as bows, arrows, and arrowheads made out of wood and stone. This talent was exceptionally noticed by Hak, who praised Shin-Ah's work on a few arrowheads and said that he would go make them into arrows, which makes Shin-Ah glow with pride at being complimented. It also seems that Kija helps Shin-Ah gather materials, as seen when just as Hak leaves, Kija comes back with a large log of wood, and then proceeds to cut it into smaller pieces for Shin-Ah to craft.

Relationships:

Ao: Ao is the one who was put in charge of Shin-Ah the day after he was born and he is the closest thing that he had to a father. Even though Ao is grumpy and is always pessimistic on him in having friends, he always looked out for him and acts as a backup whenever he is fighting. When Ao died, Shin-Ah was greatly saddened over his death and wished to be together with him again. Despite this, he continued Ao’s duty of protecting the people of his village and always keeps himself on check to never to use his dragon powers. Even though many years have passed since their separation and with the gradual forgetting of Ao’s physical appearance, Shin-Ah still remembers him for the most part. He even wonders if he would be laughing at him as he'd already found the friends that he had been yearning for when he was still a child, when he joins Yona’s journey.

Yoon: Whenever someone needs to guard the fort, Shin-Ah is someone Yoon considers to take the position due to how his mask attracts attention. Even with that gag, Yoon knows that making Shin-Ah take off his mask will probably take a long time because his fear will take a long time to get rid to as it is something permanently embedded in Shin-Ah’s mind. That is why whenever a stranger tries to take off Shin-Ah’s mask, he tries to stop them to not make Shin-Ah get nervous.

Ao (Squirrel): Ao is Shin-Ah's pet squirrel that he named after the previous Seiryuu and was his only friend before meeting the others. They met when he was trying to shelter Ao from the rain with a large leaf, which in turn was eaten by the squirrel. She seemed to have followed Shin-Ah after that, even staying with him underground in the complete darkness. She continues to stay with him even after he left the village with Yona.

Jae-Ha: Jae-Ha has the habit of bullying Shin-Ah when he tries to look at the latter’s eyes. As the dragon’s eyes are an unimaginable beauty to be seen, he has the urge to see what it looks like given his personality. To achieve this, he tries to take away Shin-Ah’s mask or to look quickly to his eyes when he is not wearing his mask, though, his every attempt is going to waste as Shin-Ah hastily covers his eyes by reflex and is even helped by his pet squirrel Ao at times. At one point, Shin-Ah is possessed and leaves his mask off. Zeno tells him that now is the time to look into Shin-Ah's eyes. Jae-ha admits that he mainly tried to look at his eyes because he liked seeing Shin-Ah's reactions. However, both him and Jae-Ha share a similar insecurity over their respected dragon physical features like Shin-Ah' eyes and Jae-Ha's right foot and doesn't want people to see them except for their friends.

Yona: Yona is the first friend Shin-Ah ever has and also the first person who thinks of his eyes as beautiful and not terrifying. Because of this, Shin-Ah cherishes the name he got from her, and seeks to be someone befitting of his given name for Yona someday. Be it because of the dragon’s blood or his will itself, he cares deeply for Yona and always looks out for her safety, but, for this reason as well, he becomes against the idea of teaching her swordsmanship as he fears that she will get hurt after seeing the first time he lend her his sword. He also refused to let Yona help him regain his body when he was possessed by the soul of a previous seiryuu, fearing for her safety. Yona of course refused to leave him behind, and vowed to free him because he was important to her. When worst comes to worst, he will not hesitate to break his promise to Ao and will use his dragon eyes even if he loses himself in the process just to protect her. He was shown enraged multiple times whenever Yona was hurt, showing just how much he cares for her and how protective he can be of her like the others. Shin-Ah is also the most open towards her, and talks the most around her. He sees Yona as family.

Hak: Though they don't share many interactions, Hak considers Shin-Ah a capable person. Hak also thinks that as long as Shin-Ah wears his mask, no one can approach Yona easily. When in need of alternative clothing to hide his identity, Hak takes Shin-Ah’s fur and puts it over his head. Hak has never given Shin-Ah a nickname, perhaps because of Shin-ah's more gentle social presence and anxiety. Later, they seem to be quite close, often being shown having casual chats together. Shin-Ah is easily able to tell that Hak is upset following a misunderstanding between him and Yona.

Zeno: Shin-Ah is probably the closest to Zeno aside from all other dragons as they are always seen together (mostly because Zeno loves to snuggle in Shin-Ah's fluff) and Shin-Ah seems to feel calm around Zeno. Like the rest of the group, Zeno is heavily protective of him and seems to show a subtle older-sibling-like fondness for him. He continues his habit of nicknaming all of his companions with Shin-Ah, as he only ever refers to him as 'Seiryuu'.

Kija: Kija deeply cares for Shin-Ah and considers him as a younger brother. Their bond grew stronger over time as they traveled alongside Yona and lived by their will of protecting her. Kija's attachment towards Shin-Ah is furthermore highlighted when the latter got possessed by the soul of a resentful seiryuu. He showed no hesitation in coming forward and protecting Shin-Ah; he fiercely told the soul to "return [his] younger brother". The two are, without doubt, ready to put their lives on the line for each other.