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[nemuru]

Player Information
Name: Bella
Age: 25
Contact: galaxydestiny
Other Characters: n/a

Character Information
Name: Ritsu Sakuma
Canon: Ensemble Stars!
Canon Point: During Halloween, while on stage with Rei. (Dark Night Halloween - Epilogue)
Age: 18
History: Character page | Appearances on wiki | Summary page

As the wiki doesn't quite cover the Sakuma family in general, I'll give a small summary here! They're a family with an unknown lineage that traces back a while yet; and they all have a vampiric constitution, though without all of the perks of being a vampire. Ritsu and Rei both have it, but Ritsu's is a more severe case, to the point of this year (in game) being the first time he's able to travel overseas for their family's annual meeting in Romania. Additionally, their family is secretive to the point of seeming cult-like, with odd rites and rituals on top of their strange styling after vampires.

Two key points as a result of this condition:

• Nocturnal.
Ritsu finds it incredibly hard to stay awake in the day, and sunlight is genuinely not that great for him; pushing himself too hard to try stay up can seriously make him sick. He tries anyway, considering most of his idol work takes place during the day and pretty much all of his friends are diurnal too, and with careful effort he can manage to do it for a little while before he passes out. It's still not recommended, but despite his fears and anxiety, Ritsu does want to join everyone in the sun; he doesn't want to stay just a creature of the night forever.
• Drinking blood.
While this doesn't have to be their only source of sustenance, they can drink blood, and Ritsu partakes it in quite often from the transfer student in order to gain "energy"... If it isn't available, however, he can do the same thing from eating roses. Drinking blood is an instinctive thing, but it also just seems to be something Ritsu genuinely enjoys doing and teasing about doing.

Personality:

• lazy / analytical
Beneath his sleepy and unassuming personal image - something that disappears on stage, naturally, given Knights' image of a chivalrous fanservice unit, especially once they begin to restore their image after the DDD - lies an incredibly smart mind. It isn't like he isn't genuinely lazy though; between work and sleep, he'd probably choose the latter by a landslide unless it was actually important, and he finds the most efficient ways to deal with problems without expending too much energy and effort in the process. Call it playing smart or being deceitful, Ritsu fully believes those that work hard and slow are total idiots - fast and with as little energy spent as possible is the way to go... Not that he doesn't love people who are that type of idiot though, given he counts people such as Mao and Knights as his "family." Aside from inventing new, exciting ways to do more in less effort, Ritsu also puts his analytical skills to good use in forming strategies for Knights; he covers their weaknesses and figures out the best course of action to help them proceed as effortlessly as possible, for as clean a win as possible - whether or not that win is actually through clean methods.

• poor people skills / importance on bonds
Ritsu was born with a more severe form of their family's condition; this is stated by Rei (who's traveled outside of the country to try and find something to remedy it), and is evident in Ritsu's being a foil to the other local sickly rich kid, Eichi. Similar to Eichi, Ritsu grew up staying mostly inside and not attending school - though where Eichi found resolve in his life-threatening condition and strove to climb mountains beyond his reach, Ritsu decided his condition - his being a vampire - was just something he had to live with. It was only natural he wouldn't be able to go outside and enjoy things like a normal kid, or attend family gatherings, or be understood by anyone; essentially, using his excuse of being a "vampire" as a defense mechanism and emotional crutch. As a result, his people skills are lacking to the point he's plain unsociable, claiming not to like dealing with others despite his desire to live out in the sunlight. For people who do manage to form a bond with him though, he becomes fiercely protective of them; he casually comments about hurting or killing people who've hurt them more than once, and genuinely seems to mean it - he doesn't flinch in saying it. He makes promises he intends to keep with people he loves too, and feels outright betrayed when those are forgotten or broken, turning childish and throwing a fit because he has no idea how else to express how frustrated and hurt he is at such a slight. It's the main reason he has a fight with Mao in Band Ensemble (and later again in Horror Night Halloween), and it's the main reason why he has such a complicated with his older brother Rei - who promised he wouldn't leave, but left him alone anyway.

• loyal / possessive
Following that line of thought from the point above, Ritsu's loyalty to people he loves - as friends, as family, as more - is an endless devotion... and, on the other side of things, can turn incredibly possessive. In a similar vein to Leo about Izumi, Ritsu's possessiveness comes in the form of something more emotional and raw, born out of a pure love and twisted by trauma and circumstance. The only reason he doesn't act out the same way about Mao that Izumi did about Makoto is because he cares more for Mao than he does for himself, even if early on he did hold the belief that Mao is his; that Mao should focus on him and only him, take care of him, because he (Ritsu) is the only one in the world who won't ever come to hate him. During Horror Night Halloween, he states that if Mao doesn't leave him alone while he's trying so hard to hold back, he'll stab his legs so he can never leave him, period - but prior, he'd been throwing bottles and the like at him, and urged him to just get lost because while it's a sentiment so raw and real in his heart, it isn't something he can do.

• self-centered / self-aware
Which leads nicely and neatly into Ritsu's struggle of his needs and wants, and what he knows is best for his friends. Ritsu is, in a word, a baby; he's needy and clingy and acts much like a spoiled child, with no help from Mao, who (while complaining) keeps spoiling him and doing things for him. At the same time, Ritsu's fully aware that it isn't good for Mao, or for either of them, to keep being so fiercely dependent on each other... and Mao is dependent on Ritsu to the same extent Ritsu is on him - it only takes a different form. There's nothing unclear about this: Ritsu loves Mao more than anything in the world, short of maybe family; but even then, he states he considers Mao the only family he's ever found in his lifetime. His best friend isn't "like" family to him, he is, and... that's why Ritsu begins to change. With the help of his unit becoming more family-like as well, and him more officially adopting them as part of that family, he slowly loosens his grip on Mao; he decides he'll work hard to stand beside him, to stand with everyone he loves, instead of just clinging uselessly. He still struggles though - it isn't easy to reverse years and years of learned helplessness - seen well even in his future interactions with Knights during Repaymentfes, where he freezes at the chance of being "king" and ends up making too safe of a choice of Live, not wanting to let go of the Knights he had found a home in.

Abilities & Skills:

• Band Ensemble; being a student in the idol course at such a prestigious academy like Yumenosaki means Ritsu, despite being a chronic procrastinator and master of ensuring he uses as little effort as possible, is really good at things like singing and dancing. He's also an expert at playing piano, having started playing when he was younger in sessions with his older brother and continuing it due to the comfort it gave him. Settling his hands on the keys calms his heart, his mind, his anxieties... or it usually does.

• Duel; while he might look sleepy, unassuming, and act a lot like a spoiled child - and yes, he's most of that - Ritsu's also proven himself to be incredibly observant of others. He reads people well, even if he sometimes lets his mind catch up with him and overthinks things into a self-centered oblivion, or he makes decisions for other people thinking it would just be best for the both of them... He's clever and intelligent as well, having no issue with keeping his grades up despite his more truant-like behavior of taking naps in class, and he's considered Knights' strategist - the one who knows the most about each of them, who can dictate their moves and make plans to maximize their strengths.

• Sweets Patisserie; outside of music and idol activities, Ritsu's also a surprisingly good cook, and a particularly excellent baker - he likes sweet things, this was only natural. While his visuals could use some work (he loves making things look as grotesque and ghoulish as possible, though he can decorate them normally as well), they're good enough to win school-wide competitions and even become the school's specialty, as is what happened during the school festival! As long as you close your eyes, it tastes absolutely amazing.

• Dark Night Halloween; Ritsu claims to be able to smell the flavor of people's blood; this is usually dependent on their diet and how much energy they use. For example, he tells the transfer student that if she works too hard, her blood will get a bad taste; he comments on Hajime's blood smelling like it doesn't have a taste too due to his garbage eating habits, after which Hajime mentions he'd been eating fried bean sprouts. He's also capable of falling asleep just about anywhere, and has a surprising amount of strength, enough to hold Tsukasa down to use as a blanket and to unbalance Arashi.

Inventory/Companions:

Just this outfit!

Choice: Monster - Puca
Reason: Ritsu is, by habit, a creature of the night with very little energy otherwise, and someone who doesn't fall in with others very easily - his character voice, Daiki Yamashita, theorized it's because he doesn't know how to interact with people, and given he was a sickly kid with one whole friend growing up and a family that wasn't around very much, that's probably not too off the mark. Pucas, like most rabbits, are very energetic and very social!! It'll be interesting to see how he deals with his new excess energy and desire to hang out with all kinds of people instead of his like six friends and cuddle. Also, bunnies are cute and can die from loneliness if they're apart from their bonded, and Knights have rabbit rights thanks to the Sanrio collab.

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