Towa

Towa is a laconic 26 year old male with an emotionless exterior. He has scars all over his body, with a large one bisecting his chest. He gives himself scars because he likes them, but the majority of his scars were the doing of others. His hair is short, tousled and dark, with blond tips. He has a single eye on his left side, his right eye covered with an eyepatch. He is a painter who goes by the alias ‘euphoria’ as suggested by his friend Rei who works at Murase clinic with him. He suggested this name because Towa owned a pocket watch with euphoria as an inscription. euphoria was originally the name of an establishment his mother ran. This establishment has ties with his dark childhood where he was made to be a child sex worker alongside another child named Yuzuki Mei. His mother, Maya, was the one behind this. He has forgotten most of his past, his amnesia caused by a fall he had that apparently killed his mother. He somehow survived, and to this day, everyone who knows about his past tries to keep it from him, thinking he’s better off not knowing.

Towa’s trauma is triggered by the words ‘it’s okay’, because his mother used to say those words to him in an eerily soothing voice before he would receive clients at euphoria. Towa is able to see ‘smoke’, which is essentially an aura for each individual. It comes in different colours, and he can tell if someone’s lying depending on the state of their smoke. The more it thrashes and sways, the more likely it is they’re hiding the truth. He can also sense their emotions, like if they’re mad or upset depending on their smoke. This makes him very good at reading people. Towa developed this ability after his mother taught him how to manipulate people. Instead of being raised like a normal child, she read him psychology books and told him to look people dead in the eye and bend their will to suit his own. To interrogate them and make them falter by pressing them for answers. Towa cannot see his own smoke, however.

Presently, Towa works at Murase Clinic, owned by his caretaker Taku. Taku is a doctor who looked after Towa since he was a child. He’s a man in his 40s with kind green eyes and stubble. He’s overprotective when it comes to Towa and hides his past from him. Taku is secretly working with Toono, a member of Shinkoumi’s yakuza to create a drug that’ll destroy the hapless souls of Shinkoumi. He’s making this drug because Toono is blackmailing him. He’s in debt to the Takasato-gumi so he has no choice but to comply. Taku originally became a doctor so he could help his sickly mother but she was killed by Toono. He thought Toono was a good person at first because he offered to pay her medical bills but he later realised he was wrong. Toono just wanted to get on Taku’s good side because having a doctor is a valuable asset to the Takasato-gumi. Toono also convinced Taku to major in pharmaceutical research, hence why Taku has the knowledge to create lethal drugs. He got a master’s in pharmaceutical research and continued his studies to become a doctor afterwards. Toono was seemingly fine with this, because he’d gotten him to learn about drugs already. Towa is acquainted with Rei, a part timer there whose main job is at a bar called Roost. Rei has somewhat feminine mannerisms with pink hair to boot and a sweet tooth. He’s into body modification, receiving all kinds of clients who want work done like having horns put into their heads, piercings all over their bodies and so forth. Rei posts ‘euphoria’’s artworks onto a blog called the Forth Face, owned by the manager at Roost. There, artists and art fans alike gather to discuss and share their works. euphoria’s art is also displayed in Roost along with other eccentric paintings. The manager of Roost has interesting tastes, and only eccentric people visit Roost. It’s not your ordinary bar. It’s located in an alley, and from the outside you could never tell it’s a bar. Some of Towa’s clients are regulars at Roost. The manager himself is a mysterious man with purple hair, circular sunglasses and a poker face. He acts amicable with Towa but he’s a man of few words. He knows Towa’s tastes well, and when Towa wants him to surprise him, he’ll brew a drink that’s strong. Rei’s father has a debt of 300 million yen to the Takasto-gumi as he was addicted to gambling, and this debt has been offloaded onto Rei. In mainland Japan, such an instance was never heard of, but this was Shinkoumi. The Takasto-gumi knew they were wasting their time waiting for someone like Rei’s father to pay up, so they decided to pin it on Rei instead. Rei was contented before all this happened. It turned his life upside down, and he fights in Moneymatches to pay it off. Moneymatches are essentially Deathmatches, only the stakes are higher. The loser dies, while the winner gains a hefty sum of cash from the audience. High-class citizens like to attend these Moneymatches because they have nothing better to entertain themselves with. It’s operated by the Takasto-gumi, of course. In fact, many Takasto-gumi members are former Deathmatch and Moneymatch fighters.

Towa doesn’t really have an appetite. He’ll sip on booze like it’s water and smoke cigarettes in place of meals. Rei cooks him food, forcibly making him survive and Towa will accept it begrudgingly. Towa drinks everyday, his atelier littered with half empty bottles he’ll take swigs from every now and again. His atelier is located on the third floor of Murase Clinic. He began living there during some point in his late teens, and has lived there since. It’s filled with canvases, paint supplies, a bed he scarcely uses and a sofa right by the TV he has on 24/7. For some reason, Towa can’t stand silence. He uses the drone of the TV to stay sane and has learned to tune it out.

Towa’s hobby is considered dangerous. He’s a painter, but his clients are far from ordinary. He’ll only paint somebody if they have a dark desire he finds worthy enough to paint. It has to be borderline life-threatening, because violence is what he thrives on. Besides pleasure, violence is the only thing that can make him feel something at all. He doesn’t know why he is this way, but nevertheless, he’s grown a cult following as ‘euphoria’. When Towa paints, he becomes a single-minded entity with the sole purpose of finishing the painting. He pours his client’s desire onto the canvas while it’s still fresh in his mind, and this process can take anywhere up to two weeks to a month. He doesn’t leave his atelier, and he ignores anyone who tries to talk to him. Taku and Rei have given up interacting with him while he’s painting. He won’t even stop to eat or drink when he’s painting. Due to this, his body is very weak after a painting is finished. Taku usually comes to the rescue immediately after a euphoric episode, taking care of Towa’s bloodcurdling injuries he sustains from the euphoric episode in question. Towa never paints the same person twice. Once their euphoric episode is over, he usually won’t contact them ever again.

Towa lives in Shinkoumi, a city considered separate from mainland Japan. It was formerly a casino resort, attracting tourists from across the globe. Now it’s a shadow of its former glory. It turned to shit ever since the Tokyo olympics. Shinkoumi had invested too much of its resources into it, thus becoming bankrupt. In a desperate move to get on their footing, Shinkoumi began to build high rise condos in bulk, ignoring safety protocols, so if you lived here, chances were you were tight on money. They rented for cheap compared to single storey houses. Shinkoumi has five districts, from district A to E. District A is known as the Deathmatch Area. This place used to be a popular street filled with casinos and whatnot, but it’s now become deserted during the daytime. At night, however, people gather to join what’s called Deathmatches. People here like to test their strength by fighting others, but it’s an unspoken rule that you can’t bring weapons. You’re seen as a coward otherwise. Distract B is a shopping street, always busy. District C is the business district. Unlike the other districts, there’s almost no foot traffic at night and no cars driving by. It’s the most well off district, but it’s also the base of operations for the Takasato-gumi, the big Yakuza of Shinkoumi. The Takasto-gumi has full power over happenings in Shinkoumi. Even the police submit to the will of the Takasto-gumi. District D is a popular street with casinos, hotels, more shops. Then, District E is a residential area. There’s a lot of 20 something storey condos here. It’s where the majority of Shinkoumi residents live.

The Takasto-gumi promised to revive Shinkoumi after the major failure of the Olympic Games, but they betrayed that promise once they gained power and have made Shinkoumi the hellhole it is today. Crime rates are at an all time high, and in Shinkoumi, you could step over a corpse without even noticing. Death has become so normal in Shinkoumi that it’s hardly covered on the news anymore. Originally built on a landfill, there’s no shortage of places to dump a body either. People here tend to stick to their own business, not helping people who are passed out on the street or even immensely injured. Most of those casualties are debtors involved with the Takasato-gumi, so they don’t want to have any part in it. That’s Shinkoumi culture in a nutshell. Debtors can’t leave Shinkoumi. They’re web-tagged, the signals from the towers alerting the Takasto-gumi whenever they try to leave.

Towa’s father, Takasato Ryuujirou, was the leader of the Takasto-gumi. He died of a heart attack at 87 years old, so now the Takasto-gumi is being taken over Sakaki, a man who used to work for Maya, Takasato Ryuujirou’s favourite mistress and also Towa’s mother. Toono, another member of the gang isn’t happy with this and is creating his own faction to tear Sakaki down. The rivalry between these two powerhouses is threatening to pull Shinkoumi into a crisis, and they’re threatening to get Towa involved because he has implicit ties to Sakaki. Towa used to be in the Takasato-gumi as a teenager. He would spend those days with Madarame, a man who was known as a legend for his fighting prowess. He could single handedly take down gangs of men with his fists, even if they were armed. It was Madarame’s bona fide passion for violence that Towa found so alluring. Madarame was also a black sheep when it came to the gang. He didn’t act on anyone’s orders, and sometimes he would beat up other members who didn’t like his ways. It was for this reason that Sakaki and Toono kept him around. He was their cannon. A man to use at their disposal for taking down others. Towa and Madarame were pretty much dating at the time. They would fight together, hook up and hang out all the time. Their relationship was abusive, with Madarame treating him like a pet but Towa didn’t mind. In fact, he liked it. If anything, Towa can’t stand affection. It makes him feel angry. He craves pain. Madarame ‘died’ after Toono shot him in the chest and he fell into the ocean, but he wasn’t really dead. He fled Shinkoumi and plotted to have his revenge on the Takasato-gumi, and more importantly, Toono. There’s been rumours about his ghost appearing in the Deathmatch Area, but it’s no ghost at all. It’s actually Madarame. On the same day Madarame was shot, Towa was also shot because he took the initial bullet for Madarame. His right eye was shot, and he narrowly escaped death as it just missed his vitals. Taku was the one who performed surgery on his exploded right eye. Now he wears an eye patch over his empty socket. Despite his cutthroat personality, Madarame has a soft spot for cats. Towa brought in a stray cat one day and Madarame found it cute, saying it reminded him of Towa.

Towa feels uncomfortable around women and tends to avoid them. He’s not sure why, but it’s most likely because of his sole tormentor being a woman. Despite being her biological son, Maya would go to great lengths to harm Towa. She was fucked up, even acknowledging it herself in her diary. She didn’t know right from wrong. She would eliminate anyone who interfered with her plans, and her manipulation skills made her a revered woman to anyone who knew of her. Maya was the one who made Shinkoumi what it is today. Even after her death, she knew everything would go according to plan as she made a final recording to Towa while she was hospitalised. She wanted her son to become exactly like her, and sure enough, Towa would become like Maya if he didn’t have the help of Fujieda. Fujieda was a lawyer for the Takasato-gumi. He was fired after he began investigating Towa’s past as he was seen as a thorn in their side. If Towa were to rediscover his past, it would be bad news for the Takasato-gumi. Fujieda’s younger sister was Yuzuki Mei, the girl who worked with Towa at euphoria when they were children. Yuzuki Mei was sold off to euphoria by Fujieda’s heartless mother who used the money to spoil herself in designer bags and clothing. When he heard she had died, his world crumbled. He’s spent his entire life working his way up from being an escort to a lawyer in order to pursue the truth. That was when he met Towa who had the same objective. They eventually discovered that they were one and the same, both of them having innumerable scars both on the inside and outside. Beneath his studious polish, Fujieda was just like Towa. They followed a path of healing together when the truth became clear. That Maya-san was the one behind all their trauma. He convinced Towa he was his own person, and not Maya. Towa stopped seeing peoples’ smoke, and everything began to look normal again. He used to see awfully bright colours everywhere, simple objects appearing blinding at times. His world was reshaped by Fujieda. Fujieda’s real name wasn’t Fujieda, but Yuzuki Minato. He stopped using that name because it associated him with his parents, whom he hates. He had a selfish, materialistic mother and an abusive father who left them for another woman.

Because it’s one of the few things that make him feel anything at all, Towa actively searches for hookups at night. He considers himself a slut, yet he doesn’t mind the title. He’s desensitised to being handled roughly and raped. He’s used to taking cock every night so he’s easily prepared when it comes to sex. Towa is a power bottom. He’s used to spreading his legs for men. He doesn’t feel anything if he has vanilla sex. It has to be rough, violent and punishing in order to elicit pleasure for him. Pain turns him on, hence why he craves it and often finds himself inflicting it upon himself. Towa is submissive and he endures extremes in bed. He’s only ever dominant when he’s not himself, but when he’s Maya. When he acts as Maya, his voice becomes breathy, and he’s eerily nonchalant. He’ll say, “I’m glad you’re here.” in a soft, reassuring voice while coercing his partner to fuck him and stay with him forever. He only becomes Maya when he’s lost all hope once he’s rediscovered his past.

Towa seeks companionship in the most gruesome ways possible. He vies for pain, and he’ll go to great lengths to receive it. Sometimes he purposefully drinks until he passes out on the streets so he can be gang raped and beaten the next day. His life revolves around the dark desire to want to be given pain, and to give pain in return.

Towa doesn’t remember his real name, but when mentioned, he feels inexplicable nausea. Taku and Sakaki know his original name, which was Sakuragi Haruto. As he was Takasato Ryuujirou’s illegitimate son, he took on his mother’s name. His mother, Maya, also used a fake name. Her real name was Sakuragi Yuma. He has bad memories associated with that name, hence why he changed it to Towa. Again, he doesn’t remember when he took this name, but apparently he was called Towa because he never said no. In high school, he’d go along with whatever others dragged him into—usually hookups. Towa doesn’t remember his birthday, but apparently it’s March 7th according to his birth certificate. This birth certificate is hidden in a safe in Maya’s mansion, AKA the euphoria establishment.

Past clients of euphoria include Ikuina, a man whose desire was to see peoples insides. He made it happen. Another was Asakura, a doctor who wished to have his own personal angel. He let him cut his back and insert metal wings into his flesh while he was still conscious. Taku removed them when he’d called him after that euphoric episode. Finally, there was Kirihara. A man with an obsession over his older brother who violently beat him. He’d grown fond of the idea of beating people up and being beaten up in return, so Towa made his desire happen. As it turns out, these three clients were linked to Towa’s past, though he didn’t know at first. Ikuina was responsible for giving him the scar that bisects his chest. Asakura gave him the two scars on his back that resemble an angel’s wings. Kirihara gave Towa a puncture on his right clavicle.

Towa has nightmares about his past. He sees scarlet light and usually there’s a woman there, smiling creepily. It’s his mother, and the scarlet light represents the red room she always confined him to in euphoria. Towa takes sleeping pills, but since he hardly eats and takes the pills with booze, it only serves to heighten these nightmares. The nightmares get so bad sometimes that he feels sick when he wakes up and barfs in the toilet. He gets pounding headaches and he doesn’t know why these nightmares plague him. It turns out to be a remnant of his trauma stored deep in his mind.

Towa often finds himself at the whims of a few Takasto goons. Kotarou, Mayu and Eiji all work for the Takasato-gumi and they interact with Towa whenever he explores Shinkoumi. Kotarou is an athletic guy with a bad boy persona, donning a lion chain and leather jacket, exposing his tattooed chest. He has blue eyes, piercings, white spiky hair and tan skin. His smoke is red, and he hooks up with Towa from time to time. He always asks Towa for consent and respects his decision if he doesn’t feel up to it, but when they do have the chance to have sex, it’s rough and degrading. Towa likes Kotarou for this reason. Kotarou is also hot-tempered and says out of pocket things when he’s mad. Then there’s Mayu—a tall, long-haired blond man. His getup is messy, like he found his overalls in a dumpster somewhere. He’s always got a lollipop in his mouth and his laughter is high-pitched and brief, like a villainous chuckle. He’s an otaku, obsessed with a fictional character named Yukimi-chan. He and Towa have hooked up in the past a couple times too, and he’s borderline obsessed with Yukimi-chan to the point where he asks Towa to roleplay as her in bed, putting a blue wig on him and everything. Mayu wasn’t born in Shinkoumi. He speaks Chinese sometimes, saying ‘huí jiàn’ which means see you later. He has exceptional vision, so he’s the sniper of the gang. His smoke is magenta. Lastly, there’s Eiji. He’s an eccentric guy who wears gold shades, has messy purple hair and a beanie. He’s always got a phone in hand and Eiji is asexual. He’s known as the intel collector of the group. He’s a master at hacking, creating bombs and finding out information about all walks of life. He’s kind to Towa and has a happy go lucky personality. Eiji rejects sexual advances and he secretly works with the Tokyo police department as an undercover agent. He was sent to Shinkoumi because all the other mainland guys weee too afraid to take on the job. Truth be told, he likes Shinkoumi for its bizarre character and he doesn’t really want it to change. Eiji’s smoke is turquoise. Eiji owns a newsletter called ‘Shinkoumi Times from A-Z’ where he posts news about Shinkoumi. Sometimes he spreads detrimental rumours about people who are close to Towa like Taku just for the fun of it. Towa doesn’t care, but people like Rei despise Eiji for doing such things. Kotarou and Mayu were recruited to the Takasto-gumi after showing their skill in Deathmatches. As for Eiji, he was recruited when he was playing around by hijacking the social networking accounts and rewriting the webpages of a shop run by the Takasto-gumi. The trio respects Madarame, and they’ve been secretly working with him all this time to tear down the Takasto-gumi. Madarame reached out to Eiji and they established a collaboration from there. Madarame is the only one who lacks subordination when it comes to the Takasto-gumi, and perhaps the trio admires that about him, hence why they agreed to help him achieve his goal.