[attr="class","apptrait"][attr="id","hydracol"]hydra

[attr="class","apptrait"][attr="id","hydracol"]36

[attr="class","apptrait"][attr="id","hydracol"]he / him

[attr="class","apptrait"][attr="id","hydracol"]fuck around

[attr="class","apptrait"][attr="id","hydracol"]fallow deer

[attr="class","apptrait"][attr="id","hydracol"]pyros / alchemy

ruka doesn't look back on his youth with fondness. there was little to remember, because he had so little. there were moments in his earliest memories, where the predicament didn't seem so bleak. they were the moments his parents looked upon him and reassured him that everything was going to be okay, which at the time was all he needed to hear to become a little more content. he was a remarkably simple child: foolish, naive, and full of wonder, as all children are.[break][break]

"it'll be over, soon." he was promised. he firmly believed it, too. his sister looked on impassively, something burning behind her eyes, but he couldn't ever understand the way she looked at him.[break][break]

he thought maho was a cool older sister, but she was always mean to him. she would call him useless, a stick-in-the-mud, and a no fun weakling when he would cry at her cruel pranks. their parents would chastise her, then coddle him sweetly. as he grew older, he learned to tolerate her, but their spats would ignite bitter flames, as he wondered why she hated him so much. she would never tell him, of course, when he asked. maho would sneer at him.[break][break]

"to be stuck with a second-rate person like you for a brother; it's a total tragedy." was a popular quote of hers. it fueled his desire to be better than her— better at everything. ruka wasn't a natural prodigy like her; maho was a gifted enchantress and alchemist like the rest of the sekigaharas, and he, so far, had nothing to show. he loathed that he still looked up to her, despite her mistreatment and near constant degradation of him. he still felt like if he showed her what he was capable of, he would finally feel the warmth of a sister proud of his accomplishments.[break][break]

understandably, these feelings were far too intense for a child such as himself to recognize. as such, he wasn't able to properly work with them, or exhibit his emotions well. instead, he bottled them up, and acted out when he felt he was being inconvenienced. the flames licked hot at even his parents, and coalesced into a messy explosion of magic, one day, when maho pushed him too hard. the fire swelled and ate up the air, only quelling when exhaustion and weariness set in. the accident caused his sister to look at him differently, then, but the look on her face wasn't the one he had dreamt of seeing. it was worse, somehow. suddenly, he didn't have a sister.[break][break]

with maho all but ignoring his existence after her injury, the sekigaharas finally moved on from the cliffs of the windswept ravine.

with some struggle, ruka and his small family move into the vale. in the vale, the generous took pity upon the needy. the belle ladeurs took pity upon ruka and the sekigaharas; the young boy, whose eyes shone brightly, deserved a chance at a equally as bright future, no?[break][break]

they gave the family a place they can breathe in full, and not worry about not having a roof over their heads — the exchange? charity work. work hard, and he will find himself in good graces.[break][break]

and so he did.[break][break]

his reward was a sponsorship by the head of the church. the valencian academy he was placed in, which was renown for its marks, is where he excelled in his courses. he was praised for his good work among his peers and teachers, so his sights eventually turned toward completing his medical degree, and improving upon his magic. after he completed his studies, he returned to delphi to officially join hydra's ranks. it was about time he provided for the coven his family devoted their lives to.[break][break]

and so he did.[break][break]

he was given a part to play, and he thinks he played it well. for his first long-term assignment, he was placed in a delphi university. he seemed like an everyday civilian. ruka was believed by his local community to be a practical young man, knowledgeable, and invariably kind. he carved a personality out after observing traits of others people seem to beholden to — the image sold itself better as he developed a deeper relationship with one of his underclassmen while attending the school. sickeningly honeyed, sickeningly sweet; they got married not too soon after they spent a couple years together in idyllic, cotton-candy dream happiness.[break][break]

ruka did as he was told, always.

and then something slipped.[break][break]

it wasn't his fault, mind you. someone was actively sabotaging him. he had risen to sentinel rank throughout the years of good work he had put in, rising just as expected — and apparently someone did not like that. hydra's internal system snuffed out the issue, but barely without revealing ruka's identity to the public. but to be safe, he had to terminate his identity. he had a vague idea, but the way it happened was unplanned and painful. it worked out in his favor, though.[break][break]

ruka sekigahara assumes a new identity. so who is he, this time?