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HATORI SOHMA • 草摩はとり • FRUITS BASKET

THE DRAGON 🐉

SPECIES

HUMAN (POSSESSED)

AGE

26 - 28

OCCUPATION

FAMILY DOCTOR

ZODIAC SPIRIT

DRAGON

ZODIAC SIGN

CANCER

NICKNAMES

Ha'ri, Haa-san, Tori, Tori-san

HEIGHT

6'0'' / 182cm

WEIGHT

69kg / 152lbs

ETHNICITY

JAPANESE

CANON POINT

■ ■ On memes and whatnot, I generally just default to playing Hatori during some flexible, unidentified place in the Fruits Basket series, before its ending. In psls or games, I would choose a more specific point (and am happy to roll with something in particular!) I can happily play him post-canon, as well.

■ ■ I also blend the manga / anime reboot, taking characterisation from both. It's pretty much the same except for a few minor differences (for example, I still play Hatori as being a frequent smoker as depicted in the original manga, even though the anime reboot removed that element from his character.)

APPEARANCE

■ ■ Hatori is quite tall and thin. The way he dresses reflects his reserved, clinical personality; he is rarely seen wearing anything but formal and quite expensive attire that boasts the Sohma's wealth (typically Western-style three piece suits, vests, etc.). He often wears his doctor's coat over his clothing, and he uses glasses for reading and driving. His complexion is extremely pale, he has straight black hair with subtle hints of purple, and his eyes are sharp and severe, a sort of purpleish-grey. He is almost entirely blind in his left eye — after the accident which led to this injury, he grew his hair out longer, bangs covering the left side of his face.

Personality

■ ■ Aloof, cold, and distant on the surface, Hatori typically registers as a bit scary or intimidating. He naturally maintains a detachment around others, even around those he is closest to. However, despite his somber and even cold disposition, Hatori is truly a kind person who worries deeply over and about others. His doctor's nature tends to make him fret in his quiet ways; he is a caretaker and nurturer, even if not openly paternal. He is also a sort of silent protector, keeping an eye on things from his position inside the shadows of the Sohma Estate and trying to protect others from being subjected to the terrible darknesses involved there.

■ ■ He certainly carries an immensely guilty conscience as a result of the people who have been hurt by his memory-erasing ability over the years, though he won't often directly address it; Hatori is prone to internalising nearly everything. He rarely takes care of himself the way he does others, often forgetting to eat or sleep properly. In general, he is calm and collected, a very quiet man by nature and one to do more observing than speaking. Though while he tends to take things quite seriously, he is capable of joking here or there, typically in a dry manner.

■ ■ Overall, he possesses scars from the past that run quite deeply and still affect his daily functioning — his left eye a literal reminder of it all — but he has slowly begun crossing the gap between the self who was stuck in the black hole of the past, and the self who now exists in the present.

History

■ ■ Hatori is part of the Juunishi: members of the Sohma family who are cursed to be born possessed by the vengeful spirits of the Zodiac animals; these spirits continually reincarnate into new hosts. Hatori is possessed by the spirit of the Dragon. He lives on the "inside" of the expansive family estate, keeping close to the "god" Akito, whom he devotes nearly all of his time to.

■ ■ He comes from a long line of family physicians to the Sohma who not only attend to its medical needs but also possess a memory "erasing" ability. This has been used to take care of any outsiders who may stumble upon the Sohma family secret, though there have been cases it has been used on the inside, as well.

■ ■ Hatori directly inherited this ability from his father, who died of illness when he was in high school (his mother also died of illness when Hatori was quite young). As such, Hatori is now solely responsible for both doctoring and handling the use of this memory suppression technique within the Sohma. While his practice is a private one designated for the Sohma, Hatori will make housecalls when ordered, sometimes to those outside of the family as well.

■ ■ For years, he coldly obeyed any order by his father or by the god of the family to erase people's memories, even if it ended up hurting others. This granted him a very icy reputation among the other Sohma, and an estranged relationship from most of them.

■ ■ Indeed, over the years he became as "cold as snow". However, when a kind-hearted and loving young woman named Kana was assigned to be his assistant, the ice in his heart melted quickly for her. Fittingly, when she asked Hatori what the snow would become when it melted, (to which he logically replied "water",) she declared it would become "spring", a true testament to her character and positive way of thinking. Even after accidentally discovering that he was possessed by a spirit, she declared she would not leave him, and with that, the last bit of frost was gone from him.

■ ■ When they went to Akito to inform him that they intended to be married, the god of the family lost control and went into a fit of rage which ended up in Hatori's left eye becoming wounded and permanently disfigured. Akito blamed Kana for this, and the poor girl took on the burden, which slowly began to destroy her mental state.

■ ■ Akito informed Hatori that he should relieve Kana's suffering by suppressing the painful memories of him. And so, by his own hand, he suppressed and altered the memories of the time they loved each other, leaving Kana thinking that the love she had briefly felt for him was unrequited. Eventually, Kana found love again and remarried. Since then, Hatori remains a silent sort of protector amongst the Sohma, trying to help keep others from suffering the way he (and Kana) had suffered, or in other ways.

Abilities

■ ■ Hatori has an inherited ability to erase memories. Technically, it's a very powerful hypnotic suggestion that allows him to: a) suppress memories to the point they're buried down so deeply they are forgotten and/or b) alter a person's memories / replace them with false ones / etc. While the details of how this works are left quite vague, it does seem to have some magical property, in that Hatori simply has to put his hands on the person's head, and a sort of supernatural light bursts forth. While quite strong, his memory suppression isn't always permanent, and memories may be restored if the person is around the source of the memory suppression / situation / etc.

■ ■ Less of an ability than.... his existence, but being possessed by one of the "vengeful" spirits of the Zodiac comes with a dose of the supernatural. The Dragon is not usually an "active" resident; in other words, it doesn't necessarily overtake his body and control him. However, it is an ever-constant presence that dictates what Hatori can and cannot do, and how he feels about certain things (for example, he must follow "God's" will — Akito's — and the Dragon's own feelings about its god are impossible for Hatori to overcome). This is not a choice; it's something inborn for him, as for all of the other members of the Juunishi.

■ ■ Another part of the Zodiac Curse is that each member transforms into the animal forms of the spirits possessing them. For Hatori, this is the very powerful Dragon — however, after years of the Curse apparently weakening and "diluting", the Dragon now manifests as.... a seahorse (sometimes they refer to him as a "seadragon", even though I know they're two different things. He's in the Syngnathidae family!!) Members of the Juunishi transform into their Zodiac counterparts when they are very weak, sick, or when they embrace a member of the "opposite sex". Given that Furuba was written awhile ago, and doesn't involve sexes or genders other than "male" and "female", I'm taking liberties to be more inclusive. I play it that anyone whose identity (whether sex or gender) is that of anything other than a cisgender male would potentially trigger the Curse if embracing Hatori. Unless a player is interested in threading out a transformation specifically, I truly don't see it coming up very often, if at all — but I would be sure to communicate oocly. I'm very flexible / open to whatever someone may be most comfortable with, and am also just fine having it not work. The Curse having become weakened and unstable means that there's plenty of wiggle room for this! In games, it can easily be nerfed down / played that the Dragon spirit is "asleep" or suppressed and unable to be activated / etc.

the dragon.

𝑽𝑰𝑺𝑼𝑨𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑰𝑻𝑰𝑬𝑺.

— ❝ ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ᴍᴏɴsᴛʀᴏᴜs. ʟᴏᴀᴛʜsᴏᴍᴇ. ᴄᴜʀsᴇᴅ. ❞

𝑶𝑷𝑬𝑵.

𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑰𝑺𝑺𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺.