Ezekiel Ito

Cast » Ezekiel Ito

Ezekiel Noboru Ito

Portrayed By	Toma Ikuta
Gender	Male
Species	Kitsune
Date of Birth	11/11/1990
Age	19
Aliases	The Demon Fox of Hokkaido, E-Z
Place of Birth	Hokkaido, Japan
Current Location	Los Angeles, CA, USA
Occupation	Japanese translator, Ninja
Known Relatives	Noboru Ito the 5th(father)
Significant Other	Mr.Bones
Special Powers	Shape shifting, some magical ability
First Appearance

(Click to hide Background information.)

Genesis:
Tatsuya Ito was a powerful samurai around the early Edo era, based just outside of Hokkaido. He was a fearsome warrior, who was apparently no kinder to his family than he was to his enemies. So it was no surprise that ninja were to find a lucrative contract in the assassination of Tatsuya, though perhaps it’s a little less expected that his own wife ordered the hit. Noboru the first’s dear mother had feared her husband’s wrath for many years but after he’d nearly killed her and badly injured her five year old son she saw fit to take action.

The assassin was late. When the young ninja arrived, she found Tatsuya standing over the body of his wife in the preparations to murder his son. True to her contract she dispatched the Samurai, and then indulged in a rare act of compassion. She took Noboru with her, to be raised by her own clan. Women of this clan were not allowed to take a husband or have children until they had retired so the adoption of orphans was far from unusual. Truly Noboru had a bright future ahead of him, as it was expected he would emerge from seclusion to take his father’s station when he became of age.

Noboru had seen enough of the royal court however, and chose to honor his upbringing rather than his bloodline if only to further himself from his father still. Noboru the first would develop into a ninja of significant renown in short order. Gifted with a unique somewhat theatrical sense of stealth, he utilized Noh masks of Kitsune to unnerve those unlucky enough to catch sight of him. His success brought him to the unlikely conclusion that the Goddess Inari herself approved of his trade, and so he saw fit to pay tribute to her in return. Every penny he ripped off, found its way to temples to the Goddess Inari.

Noboru would eventually come to believe that his actions displeased the goddess, thinking it the only reasonable explanation for tangible approval. So he destroyed the Noh mask he wore, and cast his tools to the ocean. He settled down to tend a small shop and attempting to live life as an honest man, which did not come easy. Whilst the Goddess Inari had never tacitly approved of his actions, she could find merit in his attempts at honest living. He would find a wife, and began the preparations for their first-born child. Word would come however, that Inari had use of him after all.

It spread like fire in the underworld, that a local crime boss had captured one of Inari’s messengers and was making preparations to murder the Kitsune in attempt to steal his magic through some elaborate ritual. Late that very same evening, Noboru would hurriedly fashion crude implements of his trade and procure a Noh mask through less than honorable means. On the eave of his son’s birth, he set fourth to rescue one of Inari’s own.
Noboru however was clearly not the ninja he had once been in youth, and so dulled by age and lack of practice things would sour quickly. After successfully finding the cellar where the Kitsune was kept, and unlocking its cage he was discovered. In the chaos that ensued the Kitsune was able to escape, but Noboru would not be so lucky. After fighting to exhaustion, he was captured and tortured to death.

The Goddess Inari was not unthankful however, and indeed had been aware of both Noboru’s handsome tribute and the gravity of the sacrifice he offered to secure the safety of one of her children. She would secure for Noboru and his children a divine honor, a blessed bloodline and the souls of foxes in place of those meant for men. Noboru the second would grow to become a business success, and know nothing of his father’s world. Eventually he would sire a child with his wife, before passing into the next world.

('The Demon Fox of Hokkaido:')

(Click to hide Background information.)

The Demon Fox of Hokkaido:
Noboru the third, and fourth would remain successful businessmen who kept their bloodlines a thing of rumor. World war two and with its end saw the fox’s fairy tale end, as wickedness crept stealthily into the family. Noboru the fifth was a quiet introspective man, prone to bouts of severe alcoholism and drug use in an attempt to unlock the mystery of his existence. Eventually he would find one who had lived long enough to remember the story, and so he learned of Noboru the first. He learned what his ancestor had been before he was a shopkeeper, and so he learned that his bloodline had been bought with as much blood as it had been with gold.

Being unstable to begin with, it was really only a matter of time until someone discovered the weakness. It would come in the form of a cursed Noh mask, and while its rumored to have held the souls of ten actors who’d died in a tragic theatre fire nobody is certain exactly what curse the mask actually held. Noboru found it in a small shop in southern Hokkaido, and in a daze, he purchased the mask. The transformation that followed, was one that would shape how the fairy tales of his ancestors were told.

Noboru devolved rapidly into a homicidal monster, justifying his actions as the continuance of his noble ancestors he played himself off as an assassin and later a thief. Quickly, rumors began to spread that a fox tailed demon was prowling the streets of Hokkaido and there are plenty of police reports to support that rumor for sure. It was with unnatural pleasure, that he did his work. Unafraid and uncaring of the pain he inflicted onto others, it was thought that Noboru was lost. It was thought, that his soul had been entirely consumed by the mask. By the time those with knowledge of such things realized what had occurred, it was far too late to stop him.

After awhile, the big scores in Japan all became old news and Noboru sought a real challenge abroad. He felt a change of scenery, would clense him of his boredom so he booked a flight to California and never looked back. It wouldn’t be a change of scenery that would purge the filth from Noboru’s soul though, that would take love. Ingrid Ozerov was the daughter of Russian immigrants, and in a time when a thick Russian accent was decidedly un-cool she was just as much the outsider as Noboru.

The two fell madly in love shortly after their first meeting, and in one another found a strength neither had ever known on their own. Noboru told her everything, about the murders, his bloodline and even about the mask. Over time Noboru felt the pull of the mask less and less, and as his love for Ingrid grew the power the mask had over him would diminish until eventually Noboru would destroy it. As his ancestor before him Noboru would settle down to become the good father, or at least he’d make an honest effort. He donated loot he’d accumulated to the temple of Inari, and attempted to become an entirely lawful provider for his family.

Noboru had spent so long as a ‘sure thing’ for various criminal entities in Japan that his absence was sorely missed, so they went looking. It was deemed that Noboru was far less useful in America, and his attempts to leave crime were downright offensive. They found Ingrid, pregnant with Ezekiel before they found Noboru and it was decided she would make sufficient motivation. So they took her, and threatened to end the family line there if he refused their bidding. So Noboru, would return to Hokkaido and once again he would become the demon fox.

Three years Noboru had been clean, and he had clearly lost the taste for what the job required. The target of his assassination however was the young son of a Hokkaido detective, and when the time came to put his sword to the child Noboru faltered. Narrowly escaping capture, he fled the scene knowing the price of his failure already. Quietly he returned to his hotel room, and began the preparations to purge himself of the dishonor and commit seppuku. A phone call would bring him to pause.

The second Demon Fox:
With Noboru’s failure, the fate of Ingrid and her unborn son was thought to be certain. A young Shrine maiden trimmed in red delivered young Ezekiel to a local police station wrapped in fine red silk. She claimed rough men had abducted the infant’s mother in front of her very eyes, but she knew where the father could be found. After passing along the contact information, she stepped outside all but vanished into thin air.

Noboru would collect his son, and immediately flee back to the US under an assumed name. Eventually he would make contact with Ingrid’s parents, and relate to them the story of their daughter’s death as well as existence of their grandson. In Brighton Beach, Noboru would settle down for the second time and attempt to raise Ezekiel the best he could.

Ezekiel had a debt to pay however, the family owed Inari two fold now. For the gift of their bloodline and now for the life of Ezekiel, so training started early. From ten years old, Ezekiel knew his place in the world. His father had dishonored the very Goddess who saved his life, and brought shame to the legend of his ancestors. It would take Ezekiel to repair the damage that had been done, a task he welcomed with open arms.

The first sightings of this second Demon Fox, wouldn’t be in Hokkaido however but rather in Chicago. Ezekiel had already begun a steady pattern of ripping off the local Mafioso and was frankly rather pleased with that level of involvement in this whole Ninja business. The funds he stole, ended up split between temples to Inari and local soup kitchens but Ezekiel didn’t keep a penny of it.

Doctor Lance Beck, had been a phenomenal physician some years earlier who tended to the city’s less than fortunate. Somewhere along the line however, Dr. Beck had been bitten by one of his patients. He would try to maintain the goodness in himself he had once known, but eventually Beck faltered and fell into darkness. Beck was generally disliked pretty much by everyone, not because he was blood sucking evil incarnate but largely because he was also stark raving mad. Beck probably would have gotten staked years before, even if by his own kind but Beck had a knack for the great get away.

The murder of Beck, immediately generated all manner of gossip essentially over night. Now granted Beck was a controversial enough figure that if he had died in any manner people would have talked, but being hacked apart by a swordsman in a mask that identified himself as a Demon Fox? That was positively sensational, and pretty much overnight word spread to all the dark places. The Demon Fox of Hokkaido, had returned seemingly from the dead.

Skills yo

Ninja skills: He can fight with his hands, fight with his paws, fight with swords or like something out of a Jackie Chan movie fight with whatever is at hand. He can climb walls, he can sneak into places, he can spy, he can steal and he can kill 40 pirates with just a whisper.
Motorcycle skills: Some people have dogs or cats, Ezekiel has a motorcycle. He's an above average rider but he'd greatly benefit from formal instruction. He's also pretty good at the care and feeding of a motorcycle, and while he can strip a CB750 down to its last nut and bolt that certainly doesn't always apply to other bikes.
Languages: Ezekiel speaks and reads English and Japanese fluently, and knows just enough Russian to get himself fed at a Russian restaurant.

RP hooks

Due to his father's actions, the Demon Fox tends to suffer a particularly nasty reputation as a blood thirsty killer.
If your old enough, perhaps you fought against the original Demon Fox?
Do you need something stolen from a bad guy, who better to ask than a ninja?
Being a Ninja does not pay the water bill, so Ezekiel makes a living translating documents. His bread and butter is legal and medical documents, but anything with Japanese is fair game.
Mr.Bones is not a typical example, of the now somewhat rare CB750. It doesnt take much to get Ezekiel talking about Bones, or to get him asking questions about whatever anyone else is riding.