Tatsuya Koga (The Second)

the newbie || male || homosexual || legal
representing squad 2 || appears 16 || actually 16

APPEARANCE

PERSONALITY

HISTORY

The newly minted member of Mayuri Kurotsuchi's "Crisis Core" Substitute Shinigami, Tatsuya Koga, has got to be one of the most unlikely candidates for such an illustrious position. Thoroughly mocked throughout the Soul Society on his first few days that involved meeting his "coworkers", and having garnered the title of "The Newbie" (at times shortened to just "Newb" or "Newbie"), just how did someone like Tatsuya get picked to be a member of the Crisis Core anyways?

For most of his life, Tatsuya has lived the typical life of a Japanese male born and raised in Fukuoka, the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture situated on the northern shore of the Japanese island of Kyushu. Well, as typical as a spiritually aware human born to a family of spiritually aware human beings can be. Tatsuya enjoyed every last perk he could possibly get from being born into an upper class family, from getting every last toy that he wanted to being allowed to wear whatever clothes he wanted. It wasn't so much that Tatsuya's parents accepted his way of life as being both a crossdresser and a homosexual male, but they were so inattentive due to focusing so much on their careers that Tatsuya was allowed to do whatever he pleased. Tatsuya was only born with one other sibling, his elder brother Kyousuke, so while he was allowed to enjoy the upper class perks he never had to worry about being groomed as a heir. Those responsibilities were left to Kyousuke who, although on the outside despised his brother's lifestyle and choices, still loved him as family and did his best to compensate for the lack of familial connection their parents showed to him.

Due to his brother's tutelage, Tatsuya was introduced to the world unseen by others around them, a world only they could interact with: the spiritual world. With his knowledge limited to spirits and Hollow, due to one dicey encounter that involved Kyousuke defending Tatsuya, Tatsuya began to put a large amount of his focus into the abilities granted to him as a spiritually aware human. Preferring to outright avoid combat, Tatsuya, unlike his brother who appeared to focus on direct combat revolving around strength, focused on agility and speed. Eventually Kyousuke's free time was spent with Tatsuya as, among other responsibilities granted to ordinary humans such as schooling (which, naturally, Tatsuya slacked on due to his naturally lazy nature), the pair would combine Tatsuya's taunting and running away with Kyousuke's counterattacks to completely destroy any Hollow they came across. Due to these activities, the pair attracted the attention of the Soul Society and eventually a Shinigami holding jurisdiction over the capital city of Fukuoka was sent to deal with the problem.

Mistaking the Shinigami as an enemy and overwhelmed by the difference in power, Tatsuya was struck frozen in fear and Kyousuke, as usual, aimed to try and bail him out. Attacking the Shinigami and pushing himself to his utmost, Kyousuke depleted his spiritual reserves and ended up on the brink of death. Absorbed with fear, rather than follow in his elder brother's footsteps Tatsuya pleaded with the Shinigami to help his brother. The Shinigami, completely overwhelmed by the talents displayed by both Tatsuya and Kyousuke, brought this information back to his superiors. Kyousuke was also brought back with him, and Tatsuya was left to explain to his parents of Kyousuke's disappearance. Blaming Tatsuya for his brother's supposed "death", and not believing a single word of the true story he had given to them, the Koga family became even more distant and, fearing an inevitable retaliation and completely heartbroken, Tatsuya fled his family's estate, leaving the capital city of Fukuoka at the young age of fifteen.

Now living in an apartment complex within Karakura Town, a small city within western Tokyo, and having settled into the city (including enrolling into Karakura High), Tatsuya is suddenly approached by the very same Shinigami that had taken his brother and, without any explanation, knocks him unconscious and brings him before the Captain of the Gotei 13's Twelfth Division, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Mayuri explains to Tatsuya that his brother, unfortunately, had died, and now his eyes were set on the younger Koga sibling. Unsure as to why Mayuri wanted him and not his brother, and surprisingly underwhelmed over the news of his brother's death (no doubt due to believing that he had been dead for quite some time), Mayuri explained that he saw a great amount of potential within the young Tatsuya. Initially believing his actions of training his powers even further, yet ducking any interactions with any Shinigami or Hollow, had gone unnoticed, Tatsuya was shocked to find out that he'd been watched ever since he came to reside in Karakura. Rather than goad him into becoming the newest member of Mayuri's "Crisis Core", Tatsuya was instead given an ultimatum: Become the newest Substitute Shinigami representative of the "Crisis Core", or be killed. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Tatsuya reluctantly underwent the process.

Initially Tatsuya couldn't deal with the torturous process and came very close to dying the same way his brother had. Kept in a comatose state, Tatsuya's "dreams" involved being forced to face the very same Hollow beings he had been running away from all his life. The difference was that he did not have access to the powers he had used to run away, and was about to be killed before an apparition version of his brother showed up. Imbued with a will not his own, and effectively inheriting Kyousuke's own, Tatsuya emerged from the pod. Wondering why he hadn't died during the process, Mayuri theorized that, due to using the very same pod for both brothers, the deceased's spirit had somehow fused with Tatsuya's. In a year's time, Tatsuya became acclimated to his brand new body and the powers granted to him, and was soon sent out on his first few missions as a Substitute Shinigami representative. Unsure of where he was going to be placed, Mayuri instructed him that he was going to take the newly opened spot as the Second Division representative.

The time spent between his emergence from the pod and present time was spent meeting other members of the division, though not yet meeting the other Crisis Core representatives. Most of the members of the Second Division were blown away by this reveal and enraged, wondering how such a "weak, fragile" looking boy could have any ties to them, let alone a "human using a Shinigami's body." Despite their scorn, Tatsuya refused to allow his naturally kind and compassionate nature to falter, and though he made a few friends around the Soul Society his lazy, nosy, easily nervous personality was practically an affront to the militaristic, draconian Gotei 13. Now, having excelled enough to the point that he has a decent grasp on his abilities but is effectively the "weakest" of the Crisis Core in body and mind, Tatsuya resumes juggling his life as a human and his life as a Substitute Shinigami, still having an aversion to direct combat as per usual but, when the time calls for it, able bodied enough to act within the capacity of his occupation.