unwittingbarian | ✯ Character Notes

"I'm nobody's leader. I'm just a thug with a bad attitude. But I won't pretend I'm not involved in this. This is my fight too."

★ History

A long, long time ago, Kishinuma Mako was born Benetnasch, heir to the throne of the United Nations of Poseidon. He was a brave and beloved Emperor to his people, always doing his best for them. His closest friend was a knight named Durbe, and he was also close to his younger twin sister as well.
Their nations were attacked one day by King Vector, who was well known at this point as a destroyer of nations. His ocean fleet was considered unstoppable, especially since he utilized gorgons. Benetnasch came up with a quick solution to deal with those, arming his men with mirror shields that were used to reflect their powers and turn them to stone instead.
With the Gorgons defeated, Benetnasch's army gained confidence and were able to barrage the ships with flaming projectiles. However, Vector sacrificed one of his men as payment to the ocean god, Abyss, who was actually one of the scattered Numbers whom Astral had not managed to find. Abyss laid waste to the kingdom at his request, and was only stopped by the sacrifice of Benetnasch's sister. She gave her life to summon another ocean god, the goddess embodiment of another Numbers: Crystal Zero, the Princess of Polar Ice. Crystal Zero was able to purify Abyss, who switched sides, forcing Vector to retreat.
Overcome with rage, Benetnasch issued a counterattack, attacking Vector's kingdom in turn. Along the way he adopted a small child who resembled his dead sister, a girl named Iris who had barely escaped Vector's destruction of her town, keeping her as safe as he could as their armies pursued Vector.
As the flames of war spread, Vector was steadily pushed back. Despite that, Benetnasch could tell that things would only get worse if they kept going. Seeing that his army wouldn't be able to overcome Vector without massive losses, he slipped out during the night to go challenge Vector one-on-one. Charging his way through their forces, he found Vector's castle, surrounded by a massive mechanical labyrinth that he'd built for his own amusement. When he called out to him, Vector opened a path for him, leading to the center of the Labyrinth of Screams where his victims were tortured or killed.
There, Vector had set up the only Dark Game in Zexal... A game where, though Benetnasch didn't know it, their armies were the penalty, and though he won, not only did Vector escape...
...but Benetnasch's entire army lay dead, save for Durbe. And so did Iris.
While Benetnasch went after him, Durbe was sent home, where he discovered a plot to usurp their ruler. This plot was engineered by Don Thousand, who was controlling the knights there. Durbe was reluctant to fight his own comrades, leading to his death - and leaving Benetnasch entirely alone.
When Benetnasch managed to catch up to Vector, it was to find with horror that Vector's own people had been wholesale slaughtered. He was never to get his revenge, however... because Vector was killed before his eyes by the vengeful spirits of the people he killed.
Having nothing left to live for, having lost everyone he cared about and being alone and exhausted in a land full of nothing but corpses, not even having gotten his revenge, Benetnasch gave up his life to be with the others in the afterlife, and was reincarnated as a Barian.
Asch was later torn apart and eaten by the spirits of the sirens after being injured and thrown into the Barian Sea by Vector.

Personality

Despite coming from a good family, Mako sounds more like a street thug than anything else.
To strangers, he's fairly abrupt, not liking to be approached and regarding everyone who does with an intense distrust. He's less suspicious of other teenagers, though he's still quite distant with them because... well. Teenagers can be shits. It's just that they're usually less dangerous than adults.
People that're important to him matter the most. He'll do whatever he can to protect them, and when they get hurt, he tends to get vengeful.
Like his past self, if it feels like it'll put people important to him in danger, he'll fling himself at it without giving them a chance to opt in.
His temper is a nasty one. He spent a lot of time badly dealing with a ton of buried anger, and even now that that's mostly over, he still has some violent tendencies to work through.
After his sister was hospitalized and he was subsequently branded a cheater due to IV, he became bitter and harsh for a time, turning to bullying. However, after meeting Yukuro, he began to question his own actions, something that continued to progress as time went on. He carries many regrets about that time, but he's promised himself that he'll be a better person.
The reason he risked his soul to try to rescue the Key from Kaito is because it was precious to Yukuro. Even at that early stage, he felt indebted to him for smacking some sense into him.
By now, he's warmed up considerably, and is always willing to offer support and advice to Yukuro. Yukuro's friends, less so, but he's still willing to be "part of the group" sometimes.
He feels uneasy in large crowds, but Yukuro's little friend group doesn't bother him much. He's getting used to it.
He likes learning things, but he's not fond of school itself.
One of the things he dislikes is seeing people cry. It doesn't make him angry unless he's already pretty upset himself, but it bothers him a lot. He's much more likely to be made to agree to things if it'll calm down someone crying.
He hates being called a cheat, especially since he despises cheating. Bringing up his past expulsion from the Duel Circuit is grounds for a beating unless someone can hold him back.
When he needs to think, he prefers to go look out at the ocean.
The idea of being the Barians' leader bothers him the most because he feels like he's made too many bad decisions to be reliable.
He feels uncomfortable being compared to his past self, though he's the one most likely to do it.
One of the few rebellious acts he's never committed is smoking - mainly because Mizuko stopped him. Instead, he picked up a habit for candy cigarettes, initially because it was annoying to people.

Lifestyle

He has a fondness for karaoke that tends to surprise people. He's never gonna be the world's best singer, but he's got passion and he doesn't sound bad. He could be in a few school musicals and nobody'd complain.

Appearance