利根川幸雄 // Tonegawa Yukio (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
12second_orz) wrote2011-01-24 08:32 pm
12second_orz) wrote2011-01-24 08:32 pm
Entry tags:
ooc: app/ information
Player Information
Name: Claire
Age: 18
AIM SN: None!
email: toriodoshi [at] hotmail [dot] com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? I’ve been playing at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
damned for the last few years.
Currrently Played Characters: N/A
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Kaiji
Canon Format: Anime/ manga
Character's Name: Tonegawa Yukio [last/first]
Character's Age: Unstated- I put him at around 54
What form will your character's NV take? A big old ‘90s laptop- something like this, just a little more light weight.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: No supernatural powers (even if he does pretend he’s psychic), but Tonegawa is a shrewd businessman with at least twenty years working in a yakuza-run financial consultancy firm. On top of this, he’s very good at figuring people out and accordingly can be incredibly persuasive- he easily shames ten men into agreeing to a gamble in which failure would mean certain death. Also, he has mad pachinko skills.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? I’d like to run with the talk-his-way-out-of-a-paper-bag talent and give him the ability to utterly convince someone of something without question, working as a form of mind-control or mind-bending. If he told someone that the sky was purple they would accept it as though they’d known it all along- the better he got at it, the longer it would last and the more likely he would be to convince someone of more obvious lies. Tonegawa wouldn’t be able to give orders- he wouldn’t be able to force someone to do something through words alone- but he could convince them that everyone was out to get them and they’d be better off trusting him if he so chose. Once the effects wear off, the affected person would be able to recall being told the lie and believing it, though they wouldn’t necessarily understand why. Obviously, this wouldn’t be used without express player permission, and for at least a while I’d prefer it to remain dormant.
Weapons: None.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Tonegawa’s past is never elaborated on in-canon. All that can be taken from canon is that he is an educated man (probably graduating from a prestigious university with a business degree) who rose up the corporate ladder and through the yakuza, landing a position in the yakuza-based financial firm Teiai and becoming a business tycoon- he controlled a large portion of the company, in terms of both financial and yakuza activity. At some point he was awarded the position of second-in-command (or third-in-command; the manga is never clear), Chief Executive and right-hand man to the company president- Hyodo Kazutaka, a rich, sadistic old man with a penchant for torture. It is implied that he has faithfully served Hyodo as an advisor-cum-personal-assistant for a significant amount of time before the series starts in 1996.
His first canon appearance is as the Hall Master on the gambling ship Espoir, hosting a yakuza-run gambling tournament based around rock, paper scissors for those owing large amounts of money to Teiai. Here, his duty is to explain the rules of the tournament to the participants: each player receives a number of cards that representing Rocks, Papers and Scissors, which they use to play against each other and win chips in the shape of stars and a certain amount of money. The aim of the game is to use up all of one’s cards and win three stars. On being challenged by Itou Kaiji (the series’ main character) and the other participants as to what happens if they lose, Tonegawa promptly drops the mask of politeness and flat out tells them he could kill them all if he wanted to and that he’s not going to tell them anything. He then leaves, returning to Hyodo’s side until the end of the tournament, at which point he heads up the buying and selling of stars afterwards (extra stars could be sold by winners for more money, or traded in to rescue losers who failed to collect three stars of their own).
Tonegawa doesn’t appear again until Teiai’s next gambling tournament at the Starside Hotel, and even then not until the second act. After the first round of what is called the Brave Men Road- in which participants, again including Kaiji, are made to race across narrow beams a great height off of the ground for the amusement of rich onlookers and a twenty or ten million yen prize- he appears to congratulate the winners (and those who simply haven’t fallen and been badly injured) and announce the second round. The concept is almost the same, but for a few changes- the men are taken up hundreds of feet in an elevator and shown that the beams are now much longer, narrower than the width of their foot and electrified. Falling means certain death, but they will not be able to redeem their cash prize tickets from the previous race without crossing it.
The men are understandably reluctant, but after a speech from Tonegawa telling them that they’ll never get anywhere close to having as much money as they’ve won ever again and that their lives are worthless without it, they are gradually persuaded to try- Kaiji first. Tonegawa promptly sits down, gets one of his men to light him a cigarette, and watches to make sure no one turns back. At one point, halfway in and terrified, Kaiji begs him to turn off the electric current; he refuses out loud, but secretly has the electricity turned off without informing the participants. He leaves soon afterwards.
Kaiji is the only one to survive. On reaching the other side, Tonegawa is among the first to greet him, congratulate him- and then inform him that the prize tickets he took from his friends before they died are no longer valid, as the electricity to the beams was shut off. Before he can properly dismiss him, however, Hyodo appears; to Tonegawa’s surprise, he agrees with Kaiji, saying that it was unfair and suggesting that he take part in one final gamble. Kaiji agrees.
This time, Tonegawa is directly involved: the game is E-card one of Hyodo’s invention and one that Tonegawa has played many times against various rivals. The premise is again similar to rock, paper scissors and is played with three types of cards: the Civilian, the Slave and the Emperor. Each player receives four Civilians and takes turns with either the Slave or the Emperor as well. The players choose a card, place it face down, then open them at the same time. When played the Slave can be defeated by the Civilian, the Emperor can be defeated by the Slave, and the Civilian can be defeated by the Emperor, whilst two Civilians mean a draw. Essentially, the game hinges on when the Slave and Emperor are played. While Kaiji has the opportunity to win big money, Tonegawa explains, he must also bet something: in this case, he has a device strapped to his ear containing a drill. Kaiji must bet millimetres; each time he loses the drill moves further into his ear, eventually perforating his ear drum. Tonegawa additionally promises to get on his knees, apologise and do whatever Kaiji wants him to do if he wins.
What Kaiji doesn’t realise is that the device on his ear contains several sensors that monitor his blood pressure, perspiration levels and pulse and send the readings to Tonegawa’s watch; each time he plays either the Slave or the Emperor, game-breaking cards, his vital stats soar and Tonegawa is able to successfully counter his play. While allowing Kaiji to win the first couple of rounds, he eventually uses this cheat to utterly destroy him. Then, after making a decision to bet so many millimetres that the drill would pierce his brain and kill him, Kaiji notices that when he changes his mind on what card to use at the last minute (thus confusing his vitals and Tonegawa’s reading) he wins. Kaiji leaves the room for a moment and heads to the bathroom. Tonegawa hears a smashing sound and figures that Kaiji is trying to remove the device- which is impossible- and when he returns with a bloody towel to the side of his head for the penultimate round, he doesn’t think anything of it- until Kaiji wins the round and reveals that he cut off his own ear to remove the device, preventing Tonegawa from monitoring his vitals before playing his own card.
Hyodo, furious at Tonegawa for the oversight, beats him with his walking stick and spends several minutes slamming him verbally. Whilst Tonegawa is distracted, Kaiji splatters several of the cards with blood from his injury, knowing that Tonegawa will notice. When Tonegawa returns to the game, he plays right into Kaiji’s hands: he notices the blood and immediately suspects Kaiji of placing the blood deliberately to throw him and cheating by swapping the cards around while he wasn’t looking. Accordingly, he plays the Emperor and prepares to win- then loses. Kaiji didn’t swap the cards- but he knew that Tonegawa would think he had and used it against him. Kaiji wins the match with millions of yen and Tonegawa is left in disgrace.
Hyodo is yet again furious- robbed of his chance to see blood shed, he isn’t willing to give Tonegawa another chance. He orders Tonegawa to fulfil his promise to Kaiji and perform the Roasting Kneeling: he must kneel on a metal surface heated to hundreds of degrees centigrade, hands and forehead pressed down, and stay there for 10 seconds to prove that he is truly sorry. The entire performance is solely for the purpose of satisfying Hyodo’s thirst for violence. At first Tonegawa is hesitant, but when Hyodo suggests they bring out the Forced Kneeling device- a piece of equipment which reluctant victims are strapped to so that they can be forced into kneeling- Tonegawa’s temper flares and he angrily refuses. He steps onto the plate and kneels for 12.47 seconds before fainting- thus becoming the only person ever to have performed the Roasting Kneeling unaided. He is tended to by Hyodo’s men until he wakes up, and then he is able to walk out with the help of two men.
What happens to Tonegawa afterwards is unknown; all that is that is said is that he is removed from his position, causing a power vacuum in Teiai that results in his portion of the company falling out of favour and into chaos.
Point in Canon: After he loses E-card to Kaiji and is taken away from the Starside.
Character Personality:
Tonegawa isn’t what you would call a typical business executive. True, a first impression might give you the usual calm, clever air you’d associate with a businessman- he comes across as the kind of man who’s always in control of the situation and who has his ‘people’ on speed dial in case of ‘accidents’- but very few businessmen have quite the swagger that Tonegawa has. Like most characters in his canon, he has a mild penchant for elaborate metaphor and symbolism, but it’s more than that. While he can act the executive, for the most part everything about him, from the way he talks to the way he walks, reads as casual arrogance; his default expression is a smirk, and whenever he can get away with it his speech is peppered with slurring and nonchalant cussing, even more so when he’s angry (in the original Japanese, he goes out of his way to say "Fuck you" in English to the contestants on the Espoir). It isn’t just an act. As far as he’s concerned, he’s better than just about everyone- he’s smarter, works harder and has better instincts.
And for the most part, that’s true. Tonegawa can easily back up his words for the most part, with even Kaiji respecting him for his intelligence by the end of the series and his portion of Teiai collapsing entirely without his leadership and skill. He’s also very good at reading people and, most importantly, getting under their skin- no one can taunt quite like he can, targeting his opponent’s weak spots with startling accuracy whilst simultaneously talking just about anyone into doing just about anything. He knows exactly how to get under people's skin. It’s no coincidence that he is usually the one to introduce unfortunate gamblers to Teiai’s more insane games. The silver tongue goes even further than that, though. Tonegawa is also a born liar, and can bullshit with the best of them- even when he can’t back up his attitude he can usually convince people otherwise. He has few qualms with cheating if it means winning and even manages to convince Kaiji that he’s psychic during their match. After all, the only people in life who matter are winners, right?
The only people he drops the arrogance for are his superiors- which, during the series, amounts to just the one man, Kazutaka Hyodo. And when it comes to his boss, Tonegawa knows exactly how to behave himself: with a man like Hyodo for a boss he’s lucky if kissing ass is all he has to do to stay in favour, given the penchant the man has for humiliating and dominating his underlings (a particular favourite of Hyodo’s is to force those under him to drink wine that he’s bathed his feet in- it’s very likely that Tonegawa’s done this too). But even if he’s silently cursing the old man in his head and hating every moment of it, he’s still willing to be outwardly polite, courteous and even sycophantic for the sake of his job. The means justifies the ends, and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty if it means he’ll get paid for it- even if the resentment continues to build just under the surface. Not that it fools everyone; Hyodo is sharp enough to see through it, flatly accusing Tonegawa of being insincere at the end of the series.
That resentment isn’t just reserved for those above him. It’s also aimed at the people he sees as the dregs of society, men like Kaiji. While he isn’t nearly as sadistic as Hyodo- he’s shown to look away when the Forced Kneeling is enacted and doesn’t exactly relish being there while it is in use in flashbacks- he did take a certain amount of pleasure from his work. Part of him saw it as a way of punishing unruly, sub-human scum, who are offered in each gamble vast sums of money for what seems to Tonegawa to be very little work, all whilst he slaved away for all of his life to get where he has. He had nothing but casual contempt for the people who died on the Brave Men Road- they failed to use their lives properly, so they were taken away from them. For Tonegawa, either you’re on top or you’re dead: as good as, or literally.
This can result in him severely underestimating people as he did Kaiji. He didn’t expect him to be so tenacious or clever purely because he saw himself as outclassing him by miles. While not guilty of a lot of Hyodo’s angry tirade, Tonegawa did fall in several areas; he failed to show any insight or creativity in thinking ahead of Kaiji during their match and let himself be goaded into losing, all thanks to this mistake. Suprisingly enough, one of Tonegawa’s greatest flaws despite his generally cool head is his lack of patience for people like Kaiji. He doesn’t see why he should have to waste his time on small fry, and it frustrates him that he still has to deal with them. Being insulted by them is even worse- it’s overstepping their mark and, while he can generally deal with being insulted by those above him on the surface, being insulted by those beneath him when he's already under pressure is guaranteed to set him off slamming his fists. This can blind him to more immediately obvious problems. In addition to this he’s gotten lazy in his thinking. Even though he is genuinely intelligent he’s grown far too comfortable with cheating and lying to get what he wants, leaving him thrown when he’s forced to work for himself- he’ll end up second-guessing himself and becoming more and more stressed and even hysterical.
But since his defeat, he’s been thrown completely. With his reputation in tatters and without the job to which he’s devoted his life, he’s been forced to reconsider his entire outlook. Begrudgingly, he’s been made to see an equal in Kaiji, and in doing so has also been made to reflect on the people he used to send to their deaths. It isn’t something he likes to think about- he’s used to seeing them as vermin that needed to be put down rather than people, and thinking about them any other way unnerves him entirely. And if he’s suddenly fallen down to their level, what does that make him? He’s spent so much time convincing himself that they were almost entirely different races that the idea that they could be alike terrifies and disgusts him. As if that wasn’t enough, his belief that Kaiji would cheat in their match was rooted in his own cynical view of the world; he’s finally realised how few people there are that he trusts, all because he himself would take advantage of them if he were in their situation. He calls Kaiji a “deceitful snake”, one who “takes any means necessary to win”; the truth is, it’s him who’s the snake.
The one thing Tonegawa has left is his strongest asset: his pride. For all his arrogance and schmoozing, a genuine sense of pride and determination runs through everything that he does, and it’s what keeps him going even after his dismissal. His final act, to stay kneeling entirely unaided for several seconds longer than the required ten, wasn’t made out of obedience but spite aimed at Kaiji and, even more so, at Hyodo. It was his way of overcoming what he saw as a betrayal by Hyodo, a way of proving that he was still far stronger than his boss realised and that he wouldn’t allow himself to be dehumanised even in defeat, not after he’d forced himself to swallow his pride for so long during his stint by the man’s side. In doing so, he took an act of submission and turned it into an act of defiance.
Character Plans: One of the first things Tonegawa’s going to want to do is find a bigger fish to latch onto and make himself useful to, whether that means AGI, SERO or another character. Making money and moving back up the food chain will be his first priority, but I’d like to stretch out his time at the bottom for as long as possible. He’s not used to living in anything but luxury, and being stuck back at square one won’t just be the cherry on the insult sundae after having been fired in canon, it’ll also be a good opportunity for development.
Appearance/PB: here!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[A man suddenly appears on screen, focusing hard on the computer screen as he types. He doesn’t appear to have noticed that he’s switched the video function on at first. Casually he takes a cigarette out of his pocket and lights it up, and suddenly the picture is filled with smoke.]
Now, let’s see what’s he- hmm?
[He blinks, peering at the screen closely as he realises that he’s on camera, but then shrugs it off. He can delete it later.]
Hmph.
[Jamming the cigarette into his mouth, he starts typing, apparently looking for something. Something he can’t find, because he immediately gives a sigh of frustration.]
Is everything completely sub-par around here? Useless damn thi...
[Then it clicks that the laptop isn’t just videoing him, it’s also broadcasting it. He stops, stares at the screen for a couple of moments- and then the first thing he does is straighten his tie and put one of his specialty fox-with-razor-blade-teeth smiles on.]
Tonegawa Yukio, Chief Executive of Teiai speaking. I want an explanation. Now.
Third Person Sample
This was completely unacceptable.
Tonegawa breathed a long wreath of smoke into the morning air and the city beneath him blurred into the haze of grey. There truly was a first time for everything, it seemed- he’d never smoked out of a window with bars on it before.
No, wait. That wasn’t true. He had probably stayed in some worthless, two-bit hotel at some point in his life before he’d passed the seven digit salary mark, the type that bolted lamps to the tables just in case, but that was so long ago now it wasn’t even worth the effort of remembering. Besides, who needed memories when the present was doing a fine enough job replicating them? Never mind hotel rooms, this room was like something out of a bad dream: dark mould clung to the corners like sweat patches, there was dust everywhere and to top it all off he had to take the stairs.
He hadn’t used the stairs in years. Decades. Tonegawa knew bullshit when he saw it, and this- this was Grade A Bullshit, make no mistake of that.
Agitatedly, he put the cigarette back to his lips and took a long, deep drag, making it last. As if things weren’t bad enough already, if he wasn’t careful he’d run out of them within the first two days from stress alone- or the effort of keeping calm enough to form a plan.
But it wasn’t just this place, was it? Yes, it had been a shock to find himself here, but then he still wasn’t entirely sure that he wasn’t dreaming, or in a coma. If that was the case... frankly, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to wake up. What did he have waiting for him, anyway? The chances that he still had his job were nil, he was sure, even if his last memories were still a little hazy. He remembered the heat, and the searing pain, and then, most lingeringly of all, the Chairman’s eyes following him out of the room. Tiny, leering holes bored into the back of his head and through his skull. He had seen Hyodo roast men alive with that look before: pathetic men, weeping men, pleading men, all prostrate. For all the boot-licking he’d done, somehow he'd never dreamed he would go down kneeling.
He stubbed the cigarette out on the ledge a touch more aggressively than was really warranted and dropped the butt out of the window. His hands were tensed. It didn’t matter where he was; wherever he turned up he was, to put it prosaically, utterly fucked for now.
Hands clenched to fists, tighter than ever. It wasn’t acceptable that he suffer. It wasn’t fair. Had everything he’d worked for really brought him here? Was this really "defeat"?
No. It wasn’t a question of whether or not he should give up. It was a question of whether or not he could take giving it all up even one more time.
With a sharp turn from the window he stalked back to the living room and flipped his laptop open. While it booted up he made a few adjustments: he made sure his tie was knotted perfectly, his shirt collar straightened, the crumples smoothed out of his suit jacket. The only suit he had now, he remembered with a twinge of irritation. No matter. It was one of his best, at least, and he would buy more when he had the opportunity. People were, after all, so shallow; working in business was part talent, part sycophancy and part hard-sell, and what he needed to do now was hard-sell himself into relevancy again.
There. An opening. Snapping his laptop shut the second he'd copied the address of the store down- looking for a manager? Please. That's child's play- he leapt to his feet and stalked out the door, bowling down the stairs without any heed for anyone who might be coming up in front of him. All he needed to do was charm his way into the store and breeze through an interview, and then he'd have one foot back on the ladder. Simple.
And if he couldn't even manage that, what good was he?
Name: Claire
Age: 18
AIM SN: None!
email: toriodoshi [at] hotmail [dot] com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? I’ve been playing at
damned for the last few years.Currrently Played Characters: N/A
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Kaiji
Canon Format: Anime/ manga
Character's Name: Tonegawa Yukio [last/first]
Character's Age: Unstated- I put him at around 54
What form will your character's NV take? A big old ‘90s laptop- something like this, just a little more light weight.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: No supernatural powers (even if he does pretend he’s psychic), but Tonegawa is a shrewd businessman with at least twenty years working in a yakuza-run financial consultancy firm. On top of this, he’s very good at figuring people out and accordingly can be incredibly persuasive- he easily shames ten men into agreeing to a gamble in which failure would mean certain death. Also, he has mad pachinko skills.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? I’d like to run with the talk-his-way-out-of-a-paper-bag talent and give him the ability to utterly convince someone of something without question, working as a form of mind-control or mind-bending. If he told someone that the sky was purple they would accept it as though they’d known it all along- the better he got at it, the longer it would last and the more likely he would be to convince someone of more obvious lies. Tonegawa wouldn’t be able to give orders- he wouldn’t be able to force someone to do something through words alone- but he could convince them that everyone was out to get them and they’d be better off trusting him if he so chose. Once the effects wear off, the affected person would be able to recall being told the lie and believing it, though they wouldn’t necessarily understand why. Obviously, this wouldn’t be used without express player permission, and for at least a while I’d prefer it to remain dormant.
Weapons: None.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Tonegawa’s past is never elaborated on in-canon. All that can be taken from canon is that he is an educated man (probably graduating from a prestigious university with a business degree) who rose up the corporate ladder and through the yakuza, landing a position in the yakuza-based financial firm Teiai and becoming a business tycoon- he controlled a large portion of the company, in terms of both financial and yakuza activity. At some point he was awarded the position of second-in-command (or third-in-command; the manga is never clear), Chief Executive and right-hand man to the company president- Hyodo Kazutaka, a rich, sadistic old man with a penchant for torture. It is implied that he has faithfully served Hyodo as an advisor-cum-personal-assistant for a significant amount of time before the series starts in 1996.
His first canon appearance is as the Hall Master on the gambling ship Espoir, hosting a yakuza-run gambling tournament based around rock, paper scissors for those owing large amounts of money to Teiai. Here, his duty is to explain the rules of the tournament to the participants: each player receives a number of cards that representing Rocks, Papers and Scissors, which they use to play against each other and win chips in the shape of stars and a certain amount of money. The aim of the game is to use up all of one’s cards and win three stars. On being challenged by Itou Kaiji (the series’ main character) and the other participants as to what happens if they lose, Tonegawa promptly drops the mask of politeness and flat out tells them he could kill them all if he wanted to and that he’s not going to tell them anything. He then leaves, returning to Hyodo’s side until the end of the tournament, at which point he heads up the buying and selling of stars afterwards (extra stars could be sold by winners for more money, or traded in to rescue losers who failed to collect three stars of their own).
Tonegawa doesn’t appear again until Teiai’s next gambling tournament at the Starside Hotel, and even then not until the second act. After the first round of what is called the Brave Men Road- in which participants, again including Kaiji, are made to race across narrow beams a great height off of the ground for the amusement of rich onlookers and a twenty or ten million yen prize- he appears to congratulate the winners (and those who simply haven’t fallen and been badly injured) and announce the second round. The concept is almost the same, but for a few changes- the men are taken up hundreds of feet in an elevator and shown that the beams are now much longer, narrower than the width of their foot and electrified. Falling means certain death, but they will not be able to redeem their cash prize tickets from the previous race without crossing it.
The men are understandably reluctant, but after a speech from Tonegawa telling them that they’ll never get anywhere close to having as much money as they’ve won ever again and that their lives are worthless without it, they are gradually persuaded to try- Kaiji first. Tonegawa promptly sits down, gets one of his men to light him a cigarette, and watches to make sure no one turns back. At one point, halfway in and terrified, Kaiji begs him to turn off the electric current; he refuses out loud, but secretly has the electricity turned off without informing the participants. He leaves soon afterwards.
Kaiji is the only one to survive. On reaching the other side, Tonegawa is among the first to greet him, congratulate him- and then inform him that the prize tickets he took from his friends before they died are no longer valid, as the electricity to the beams was shut off. Before he can properly dismiss him, however, Hyodo appears; to Tonegawa’s surprise, he agrees with Kaiji, saying that it was unfair and suggesting that he take part in one final gamble. Kaiji agrees.
This time, Tonegawa is directly involved: the game is E-card one of Hyodo’s invention and one that Tonegawa has played many times against various rivals. The premise is again similar to rock, paper scissors and is played with three types of cards: the Civilian, the Slave and the Emperor. Each player receives four Civilians and takes turns with either the Slave or the Emperor as well. The players choose a card, place it face down, then open them at the same time. When played the Slave can be defeated by the Civilian, the Emperor can be defeated by the Slave, and the Civilian can be defeated by the Emperor, whilst two Civilians mean a draw. Essentially, the game hinges on when the Slave and Emperor are played. While Kaiji has the opportunity to win big money, Tonegawa explains, he must also bet something: in this case, he has a device strapped to his ear containing a drill. Kaiji must bet millimetres; each time he loses the drill moves further into his ear, eventually perforating his ear drum. Tonegawa additionally promises to get on his knees, apologise and do whatever Kaiji wants him to do if he wins.
What Kaiji doesn’t realise is that the device on his ear contains several sensors that monitor his blood pressure, perspiration levels and pulse and send the readings to Tonegawa’s watch; each time he plays either the Slave or the Emperor, game-breaking cards, his vital stats soar and Tonegawa is able to successfully counter his play. While allowing Kaiji to win the first couple of rounds, he eventually uses this cheat to utterly destroy him. Then, after making a decision to bet so many millimetres that the drill would pierce his brain and kill him, Kaiji notices that when he changes his mind on what card to use at the last minute (thus confusing his vitals and Tonegawa’s reading) he wins. Kaiji leaves the room for a moment and heads to the bathroom. Tonegawa hears a smashing sound and figures that Kaiji is trying to remove the device- which is impossible- and when he returns with a bloody towel to the side of his head for the penultimate round, he doesn’t think anything of it- until Kaiji wins the round and reveals that he cut off his own ear to remove the device, preventing Tonegawa from monitoring his vitals before playing his own card.
Hyodo, furious at Tonegawa for the oversight, beats him with his walking stick and spends several minutes slamming him verbally. Whilst Tonegawa is distracted, Kaiji splatters several of the cards with blood from his injury, knowing that Tonegawa will notice. When Tonegawa returns to the game, he plays right into Kaiji’s hands: he notices the blood and immediately suspects Kaiji of placing the blood deliberately to throw him and cheating by swapping the cards around while he wasn’t looking. Accordingly, he plays the Emperor and prepares to win- then loses. Kaiji didn’t swap the cards- but he knew that Tonegawa would think he had and used it against him. Kaiji wins the match with millions of yen and Tonegawa is left in disgrace.
Hyodo is yet again furious- robbed of his chance to see blood shed, he isn’t willing to give Tonegawa another chance. He orders Tonegawa to fulfil his promise to Kaiji and perform the Roasting Kneeling: he must kneel on a metal surface heated to hundreds of degrees centigrade, hands and forehead pressed down, and stay there for 10 seconds to prove that he is truly sorry. The entire performance is solely for the purpose of satisfying Hyodo’s thirst for violence. At first Tonegawa is hesitant, but when Hyodo suggests they bring out the Forced Kneeling device- a piece of equipment which reluctant victims are strapped to so that they can be forced into kneeling- Tonegawa’s temper flares and he angrily refuses. He steps onto the plate and kneels for 12.47 seconds before fainting- thus becoming the only person ever to have performed the Roasting Kneeling unaided. He is tended to by Hyodo’s men until he wakes up, and then he is able to walk out with the help of two men.
What happens to Tonegawa afterwards is unknown; all that is that is said is that he is removed from his position, causing a power vacuum in Teiai that results in his portion of the company falling out of favour and into chaos.
Point in Canon: After he loses E-card to Kaiji and is taken away from the Starside.
Character Personality:
Tonegawa isn’t what you would call a typical business executive. True, a first impression might give you the usual calm, clever air you’d associate with a businessman- he comes across as the kind of man who’s always in control of the situation and who has his ‘people’ on speed dial in case of ‘accidents’- but very few businessmen have quite the swagger that Tonegawa has. Like most characters in his canon, he has a mild penchant for elaborate metaphor and symbolism, but it’s more than that. While he can act the executive, for the most part everything about him, from the way he talks to the way he walks, reads as casual arrogance; his default expression is a smirk, and whenever he can get away with it his speech is peppered with slurring and nonchalant cussing, even more so when he’s angry (in the original Japanese, he goes out of his way to say "Fuck you" in English to the contestants on the Espoir). It isn’t just an act. As far as he’s concerned, he’s better than just about everyone- he’s smarter, works harder and has better instincts.
And for the most part, that’s true. Tonegawa can easily back up his words for the most part, with even Kaiji respecting him for his intelligence by the end of the series and his portion of Teiai collapsing entirely without his leadership and skill. He’s also very good at reading people and, most importantly, getting under their skin- no one can taunt quite like he can, targeting his opponent’s weak spots with startling accuracy whilst simultaneously talking just about anyone into doing just about anything. He knows exactly how to get under people's skin. It’s no coincidence that he is usually the one to introduce unfortunate gamblers to Teiai’s more insane games. The silver tongue goes even further than that, though. Tonegawa is also a born liar, and can bullshit with the best of them- even when he can’t back up his attitude he can usually convince people otherwise. He has few qualms with cheating if it means winning and even manages to convince Kaiji that he’s psychic during their match. After all, the only people in life who matter are winners, right?
The only people he drops the arrogance for are his superiors- which, during the series, amounts to just the one man, Kazutaka Hyodo. And when it comes to his boss, Tonegawa knows exactly how to behave himself: with a man like Hyodo for a boss he’s lucky if kissing ass is all he has to do to stay in favour, given the penchant the man has for humiliating and dominating his underlings (a particular favourite of Hyodo’s is to force those under him to drink wine that he’s bathed his feet in- it’s very likely that Tonegawa’s done this too). But even if he’s silently cursing the old man in his head and hating every moment of it, he’s still willing to be outwardly polite, courteous and even sycophantic for the sake of his job. The means justifies the ends, and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty if it means he’ll get paid for it- even if the resentment continues to build just under the surface. Not that it fools everyone; Hyodo is sharp enough to see through it, flatly accusing Tonegawa of being insincere at the end of the series.
That resentment isn’t just reserved for those above him. It’s also aimed at the people he sees as the dregs of society, men like Kaiji. While he isn’t nearly as sadistic as Hyodo- he’s shown to look away when the Forced Kneeling is enacted and doesn’t exactly relish being there while it is in use in flashbacks- he did take a certain amount of pleasure from his work. Part of him saw it as a way of punishing unruly, sub-human scum, who are offered in each gamble vast sums of money for what seems to Tonegawa to be very little work, all whilst he slaved away for all of his life to get where he has. He had nothing but casual contempt for the people who died on the Brave Men Road- they failed to use their lives properly, so they were taken away from them. For Tonegawa, either you’re on top or you’re dead: as good as, or literally.
This can result in him severely underestimating people as he did Kaiji. He didn’t expect him to be so tenacious or clever purely because he saw himself as outclassing him by miles. While not guilty of a lot of Hyodo’s angry tirade, Tonegawa did fall in several areas; he failed to show any insight or creativity in thinking ahead of Kaiji during their match and let himself be goaded into losing, all thanks to this mistake. Suprisingly enough, one of Tonegawa’s greatest flaws despite his generally cool head is his lack of patience for people like Kaiji. He doesn’t see why he should have to waste his time on small fry, and it frustrates him that he still has to deal with them. Being insulted by them is even worse- it’s overstepping their mark and, while he can generally deal with being insulted by those above him on the surface, being insulted by those beneath him when he's already under pressure is guaranteed to set him off slamming his fists. This can blind him to more immediately obvious problems. In addition to this he’s gotten lazy in his thinking. Even though he is genuinely intelligent he’s grown far too comfortable with cheating and lying to get what he wants, leaving him thrown when he’s forced to work for himself- he’ll end up second-guessing himself and becoming more and more stressed and even hysterical.
But since his defeat, he’s been thrown completely. With his reputation in tatters and without the job to which he’s devoted his life, he’s been forced to reconsider his entire outlook. Begrudgingly, he’s been made to see an equal in Kaiji, and in doing so has also been made to reflect on the people he used to send to their deaths. It isn’t something he likes to think about- he’s used to seeing them as vermin that needed to be put down rather than people, and thinking about them any other way unnerves him entirely. And if he’s suddenly fallen down to their level, what does that make him? He’s spent so much time convincing himself that they were almost entirely different races that the idea that they could be alike terrifies and disgusts him. As if that wasn’t enough, his belief that Kaiji would cheat in their match was rooted in his own cynical view of the world; he’s finally realised how few people there are that he trusts, all because he himself would take advantage of them if he were in their situation. He calls Kaiji a “deceitful snake”, one who “takes any means necessary to win”; the truth is, it’s him who’s the snake.
The one thing Tonegawa has left is his strongest asset: his pride. For all his arrogance and schmoozing, a genuine sense of pride and determination runs through everything that he does, and it’s what keeps him going even after his dismissal. His final act, to stay kneeling entirely unaided for several seconds longer than the required ten, wasn’t made out of obedience but spite aimed at Kaiji and, even more so, at Hyodo. It was his way of overcoming what he saw as a betrayal by Hyodo, a way of proving that he was still far stronger than his boss realised and that he wouldn’t allow himself to be dehumanised even in defeat, not after he’d forced himself to swallow his pride for so long during his stint by the man’s side. In doing so, he took an act of submission and turned it into an act of defiance.
Character Plans: One of the first things Tonegawa’s going to want to do is find a bigger fish to latch onto and make himself useful to, whether that means AGI, SERO or another character. Making money and moving back up the food chain will be his first priority, but I’d like to stretch out his time at the bottom for as long as possible. He’s not used to living in anything but luxury, and being stuck back at square one won’t just be the cherry on the insult sundae after having been fired in canon, it’ll also be a good opportunity for development.
Appearance/PB: here!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[A man suddenly appears on screen, focusing hard on the computer screen as he types. He doesn’t appear to have noticed that he’s switched the video function on at first. Casually he takes a cigarette out of his pocket and lights it up, and suddenly the picture is filled with smoke.]
Now, let’s see what’s he- hmm?
[He blinks, peering at the screen closely as he realises that he’s on camera, but then shrugs it off. He can delete it later.]
Hmph.
[Jamming the cigarette into his mouth, he starts typing, apparently looking for something. Something he can’t find, because he immediately gives a sigh of frustration.]
Is everything completely sub-par around here? Useless damn thi...
[Then it clicks that the laptop isn’t just videoing him, it’s also broadcasting it. He stops, stares at the screen for a couple of moments- and then the first thing he does is straighten his tie and put one of his specialty fox-with-razor-blade-teeth smiles on.]
Tonegawa Yukio, Chief Executive of Teiai speaking. I want an explanation. Now.
Third Person Sample
This was completely unacceptable.
Tonegawa breathed a long wreath of smoke into the morning air and the city beneath him blurred into the haze of grey. There truly was a first time for everything, it seemed- he’d never smoked out of a window with bars on it before.
No, wait. That wasn’t true. He had probably stayed in some worthless, two-bit hotel at some point in his life before he’d passed the seven digit salary mark, the type that bolted lamps to the tables just in case, but that was so long ago now it wasn’t even worth the effort of remembering. Besides, who needed memories when the present was doing a fine enough job replicating them? Never mind hotel rooms, this room was like something out of a bad dream: dark mould clung to the corners like sweat patches, there was dust everywhere and to top it all off he had to take the stairs.
He hadn’t used the stairs in years. Decades. Tonegawa knew bullshit when he saw it, and this- this was Grade A Bullshit, make no mistake of that.
Agitatedly, he put the cigarette back to his lips and took a long, deep drag, making it last. As if things weren’t bad enough already, if he wasn’t careful he’d run out of them within the first two days from stress alone- or the effort of keeping calm enough to form a plan.
But it wasn’t just this place, was it? Yes, it had been a shock to find himself here, but then he still wasn’t entirely sure that he wasn’t dreaming, or in a coma. If that was the case... frankly, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to wake up. What did he have waiting for him, anyway? The chances that he still had his job were nil, he was sure, even if his last memories were still a little hazy. He remembered the heat, and the searing pain, and then, most lingeringly of all, the Chairman’s eyes following him out of the room. Tiny, leering holes bored into the back of his head and through his skull. He had seen Hyodo roast men alive with that look before: pathetic men, weeping men, pleading men, all prostrate. For all the boot-licking he’d done, somehow he'd never dreamed he would go down kneeling.
He stubbed the cigarette out on the ledge a touch more aggressively than was really warranted and dropped the butt out of the window. His hands were tensed. It didn’t matter where he was; wherever he turned up he was, to put it prosaically, utterly fucked for now.
Hands clenched to fists, tighter than ever. It wasn’t acceptable that he suffer. It wasn’t fair. Had everything he’d worked for really brought him here? Was this really "defeat"?
No. It wasn’t a question of whether or not he should give up. It was a question of whether or not he could take giving it all up even one more time.
With a sharp turn from the window he stalked back to the living room and flipped his laptop open. While it booted up he made a few adjustments: he made sure his tie was knotted perfectly, his shirt collar straightened, the crumples smoothed out of his suit jacket. The only suit he had now, he remembered with a twinge of irritation. No matter. It was one of his best, at least, and he would buy more when he had the opportunity. People were, after all, so shallow; working in business was part talent, part sycophancy and part hard-sell, and what he needed to do now was hard-sell himself into relevancy again.
There. An opening. Snapping his laptop shut the second he'd copied the address of the store down- looking for a manager? Please. That's child's play- he leapt to his feet and stalked out the door, bowling down the stairs without any heed for anyone who might be coming up in front of him. All he needed to do was charm his way into the store and breeze through an interview, and then he'd have one foot back on the ladder. Simple.
And if he couldn't even manage that, what good was he?