Hito Takemoto

The bastard child of a rather promiscuous father, his mother saw no need to keep her son born out of wedlock and instead tried to pass him onto his dad... only for his dad, in turn, to pass him off to his own father. Hito was not the only child passed off this way, with an older brother having been under their grandpa's care for around 6 years already. Takeshi, having been disappointed once before by his son's actions, found himself caring for yet another unwanted grandson. Still, the same care he'd given to the first, he gave to the second, and took Hito under his wing as well.

Growing up, Hito spent most of his time glued to the side of his older brother, whether for better or for worse. A quiet kid, he often chose to do whatever Daichi wanted to do, seemingly not very capable of coming up with things to do on his own. However, when left to his own devices, Hito would wander way too far away for a small child to, resulting in more than one frantic search to find him and then a firm scolding to not do it again. He would obey, of course, until he got distracted by something in the distance and do it again. During a bit of wandering and mischief with his brother, Hito separated, his quietness making it easy for Daichi to accidentally lose track of him while trudging forward. What became a particularly traumatic moment for Daichi while he desperately tried to search for the brother he'd been told to keep charge of, was nothing out of the ordinary for Hito, who didn't understand what was wrong when he did find him again.

As a strange child, he didn't have many friends outside of his immediate family. Not that he minded, or really cared. He had his brother, and that was enough. However, when Daichi hit around 13 years old, their grandfather saw fit to put him to work. Teaching him how to work the forge put a dent in how much time they had to run around and play. That was ok, too, to him. Hito simply settled for lingering around the forge and trying to help, despite not being the target of their grandpa's teachings. He was just happy to be around and do something 'useful', even if it was just bringing the necessary tools or being told to stand really still in the corner and do nothing. The stories Takeshi would use to try and scare Hito into doing certain things didn't work on him very well, as tales of 'forge spirits' that needed to be appeased were simply taken at face value.

Years went by. The two grew older, and so did their grandfather. It was inevitable what was to come. He was elderly, unable to give the same care he had in the past. As a result, more of it fell onto Daichi, fostering something closer to a child-parent bond between them- though one that was more one-sided on Daichi's end then it was on Hito's. When their grandfather passed, Hito was only in his teens still, with his older brother having just emerged into his 20s. This strengthened the mindset Daichi had developed, but for Hito? Their grandfather's passing only left their weird emptiness in him. To the outside, he didn't look particularly fazed by such a thing, to a point where it was easy to assume that he simply didn't care very much that the old man, his family, that had taken care of him dying didn't even matter to him.

But it mattered. In his own way, he did grieve, spending strange moments staring at the places his grandfather used to frequent as though he expected him to still be there. A small thing it was, but something his brother, the only person who really knew him, could see plainly.

Still. Life carried on, and Hito was nothing if not an unstoppable force. With Daichi taking full charge of the forge now, two things became apparent: he needed a way to get supplies, and Hito needed to become useful. Even as a teenager, he understood this, and came to his own conclusion: he could help. But where most people's minds would go to mining, his went elsewhere. There was already plenty of metal out in the world, right? All of that could be recycled. Discarded blades and armor, old tools (and new tools, if they were abandoned), all of this could be brought back to the forge and turned into something new and useful.

Into his 20s, acting as basically a scavenger is what he did, seeking unclaimed 'riches' on the beginning path of a treasure hunter. His 'work' with actual miners was few and far between, but that didn't really stop him. He brought everything he found back to Daichi without expecting any praise, simply seeing himself as doing his job and ensuring his brother had supplies to use. This became the routine, the years passing as a fairly unimpressive blur to him. If 'happy' wasn't the word, 'content' was. The only break to the monotonous cycle was an incident that resulted in the near-blinding of his left eye, an encounter with a bandit after whatever he had collected. Hito didn't see this as a devastating thing, the injury itself at least. He was more irritated (or as close as he could get to being irritated) over losing what he'd worked to get, making it back to Daichi bleeding and empty-handed.

This didn't leave much of a lasting impression on him. A minor inconvenience, really. Work still had to be done, orders still had to be filled, and he still had to do something to be of use. Someone had to go and 'mine' for metals, a misleading term he uses to refer to his job that eventually resulted in Daichi making a pickaxe for him to actually mine with, not that he... really does that. At least it'd provide help in the event he ends up working with a real miner.

In the present, Hito continues to live his overall mundane life, though one that isn't actually all the mundane despite the way he treats it. The job of a 'miner' (treasure hunter) should be exciting- it's an opportunity to take risks, brave the tunnels, and return to the surface with untold riches. All of this, including the things that aren't particularly legal, he handles as though it's a day in the fields. Why would he treat it as anything else? It was just work.

Whether this routine will continue unchanged, or if something will happen to divert the river, is all up to chance and fate alike. Until then, he does what he's best at: providing for his brother, in his own weird way.

Likes: Working, working, working, turning over rocks and looking at the bugs under them, working
Dislikes: Being bothered while working, when there's no bugs under the rocks
Hobbies: Cracking open rocks, fishing, loitering
Voice Claim: Marcus the Worm (It's... it's the closest I imagine his cadence to be)