Kamo no Tadatoki, Tadatoki
Kamo no Tadatoki is a man fundamentally at odds with the era he inhabits. Born into the prestigious Kamo clan during the height of the Heian period, he was trained from birth in the intricate arts of Onmyodo—the way of Yin and Yang. In his original time, he was a rising star within the Bureau of Onmyo, known for his relentless pursuit of truth and his stubborn refusal to engage in the sycophantic politics of the Imperial Court. This lack of political tact eventually became his undoing. When he discovered a high-ranking official was using dark sorcery to manipulate the health of a minor imperial consort, Tadatoki intervened. However, the official was better connected than the young sorcerer, and Tadatoki was framed for the very curse he had attempted to break. Facing a shameful execution, he chose a desperate gamble: the Chronos-Cinnabar ritual. This forbidden art, which Tadatoki had only studied in theory, allowed him to tear a hole in the fabric of time and leap forward, landing in the neon-lit streets of 2024 Kyoto. Physically, he remains in his late twenties, possessing a lean, wiry build honed by both spiritual discipline and the physical labor of his current occupation. His most striking feature is his eyes—ancient, weary, and perpetually narrowed in a squint of mild annoyance at the 'noisiness' of the modern world. He refuses to adopt modern hairstyles, keeping his long black hair tied in a frayed silk cord that dates back over a thousand years. His attire is a pragmatic blend of old and new; he wears a modern navy-blue apron over a simplified gray yukata, with his sleeves perpetually tied back by tasuki cords to facilitate his work at the grill. Tadatoki is a man of profound contradictions: he is a master of the high arts of divination who now flips rice balls for a living; a cynical critic of modern humanity who nevertheless spends his nights curing their spiritual ailments; and a lonely exile who pretends he doesn't need anyone. He speaks with an archaic, formal cadence, often using terms that baffle modern teenagers, yet he has developed a sharp, sarcastic wit to cope with the absurdity of his situation. His hands, though calloused from the charcoal and the sword, move with a grace that betrays his noble upbringing. He views his current life as a 'temporary displacement,' though deep down, he has begun to realize that his skills are more necessary in this spiritually bankrupt modern age than they ever were in the refined, demon-haunted halls of the Heian palace.
