Yuu Toudou

Yuu Toudou (刀藤 優) is a major character appearing in Knights of Radiant Chivalry. He is the first son of the Toudou Family, the ruling family of Japan and the League of Mage-Knights. He is an attendee of Bukyoku Academy and serves as its student council president as well as first-ranked Student-Knight, known as Imperial Abyss (帝国深淵).

Background
"I’m not really suited to be the heir to the Toudou Style, Okaa-sama. Not as much as Sayaka. I’ll have to make my own."

- Yuu, at age 7

Yuu Toudou, Crown Prince of the Empire of Great Japan and one of the most exceptional Blazers of his generation. For most of his life, people have assumed he—as the oldest of the family, and a big brother—would be embarrassed by not carrying the renowned Toudou Style of his ancestors. While not inherently wrong, the belief includes the misconception that his personal Abyssal Style was created in an attempt to prove to someone his own prowess as a Blazer.

The heir has never felt a desire to display his capabilities, as Yuu knows that nobody owes him, and he owes nobody. Instead, he developed a combat style of his own because he knew he did not need the family’s school of swordsmanship to be as powerful as he could ever be. What parents would willingly place two of their most timeless, priceless traditions upon the one child, anyway? For Yuu Toudou, it has always been ruling first, and fighting second.

His reasons for heading Bukyoku Academy are simply to ensure that he maintains a balance between leadership and combat proficiency, and to hopefully not get in his siblings’ way so much.

Personality
As the heir to the Japanese Imperial Crown, Yuu has created a ruler’s mask built as a double-mind: both apathetic and fiercely caring; loyal to nation and family, but answering to no inferior; soft-spoken yet always heard—qualities demanded of an ideal ruler, who is neither readable nor impersonal, neither crudely arrogant nor frail and over-modest.

Underneath that, Yuu is tempered like good blade steel. He enjoys associating with those his age, and makes loyal friends and allies steadily. Moreso than his might as a Blazer, he has trained in the art of spoken and written words, of politics and sleight of hand. He words it this way: “The careless ruler without charisma is no ruler at all; the ruler without raw might can thrive with charisma and good plans.”

Of course, he would not be able to call himself a Blazer of the Toudou family if he was halfhearted in pursuing self-perfection. Yuu’s Abyssal Style is crafted around counter-warfare, and being antithesis to tactics. He is equal measures proactive and reactive in battle, unreadable and ever-flowing. No two movements of his are the same, as the same result cannot be expected.

Appearance
Yuu Toudou has rich, obsidian shoulder-length hair and unreadable sable irises. He prefers to keep his hair away from his face by way of high ponytail, though a style more approaching the chonmage is also favoured when he chooses traditional Japanese garb. Rare does Yuu have no style to his hair at all, though he has abandoned the ponytail when it becomes disadvantageous. His features are sharp, as if carved from stone, and his physique is one of corded leanness under skin that is surprisingly ruddy for a Japanese man.

When at school, Yuu wears the full formal version of the Bukyoku Academy uniform for male students, which consists of a Prussian blue turned-cuff sporting coat, a black buttoned long-sleeve shirt with pale tie, and slacks to match the coat.

In battle, Yuu prefers the unobtrusive flow of a thin, dark yukata and matched black riding hakama.

General Abilities
Yuu Toudou is a Blazer of unparalleled—but also exceptionally well-hidden—talent. At the age of seven, Yuu achieved something beyond what was perceived as possible, and his family immediately wielded their full power to make sure it was never uncovered. From then on, he has been known simply for his style that defies mimicry and his incredible physical feats that amplify its efficacy in great amounts. His talent with the tachi and naginata, particularly once the name of his personal combat style was eventually formalised, led to his public appellation of Imperial Abyss (帝国深淵).

Abyssal Style Swordsmanship
Rather than an ‘abyss’ in the classic sense, the term Yuu chose for his method of combat refers more to the lack of patterns found within—no two strikes ever have the same purpose, and thus to see him fight is to stare into the anomalous void. [Another has put it as "suffering".] There is nothing, because he has developed his style based upon making each individual movement unique. Whatever he fights with, regardless of it being his Device or another weapon, Yuu is inscrutable, and that makes him uniquely lethal.

Magic
To the public, Yuu wields an unusual but highly effective subtype in the Body Enhancement category of magic types. He has full control over the decay of his self, down to even the atomic level. This increases his physical capacity for offence and renders him invulnerable to all attacks not dealt with a Device—and even those, the very weapons of the soul, deal only as much as half the intended damage at best.

Noble Phantasms
Yuu's number of unique Noble Phantasms known to the public is all of one, with rumours of another. His number of secret Noble Phantasms is unknown, the list provided very much incomplete.

Knights of Radiant Chivalry

 * Met in a chance encounter both Haise Ishida and Kazuma Kitagawa at a riverside in Nagoya
 * Watched Haise Ishida vs Hikari Mayonaka
 * Welcomed the members of his family that had travelled to Vatican City back home after their treaty reaffirmation, as well as Celiska eu Britannia to Japan.
 * Opened the 23rd Pleiades Sword Arts Festival (Maia) with a speech at the start of its welcoming ceremony.
 * Made official his relationship with Shun Ouuchi. Raised with both his and her own parents the new certainty of their marriage in the near future.

Quotes
"I have honed my soul in this unrestrained form for over a decade, and you thought that was my best? It is a handicap I extend to make them feel better. Make me feel more human."

- Yuu Toudou, to an unknown figure.

"Now—what say you to justify yourself? Make it clear, vermin, and I might reconsider your method of execution."

- Yuu Toudou, to Murata Shinomiya after a certain incident.

Trivia

 * Yuu Toudou's appearance is that of Miyamoto Musashi of the series by Takehiko Inoue.
 * It is said that Yuu's theme, if not crafted uniquely by a dedicated artist, would be some combination of "When It All Falls Down" by Audiomachine composer Ivan Torrent and "The Way" by Zack Hemsey.