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Subject Line: Application | Name of Character IN WESTERN ORDER | Canon

♛ IC
Name: Kaito Kuroba
Canon: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito
Canon Point: Post-Chapter 864 of DC, Post-Chapter 33 of MK
Age: 17 all around
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Appearance: Boop

History/Background: 1 2 3 wiki links

Personality:

Talented magician Kaito Kuroba can be summed up in two very simple words: class clown.

. . . okay, so things may actually be a bit more complicated than that. To the casual observer, however, that phrase seems to describe him right down to the very core. On an everyday basis, Kaito is a cheeky, impudent and fun-loving troublemaker with a thirst for the spotlight. He has the demeanor of a casual slacker: his shirts are untucked, his jacket unbuttoned, his shoulders slouched, and sometimes he'll opt to nap during his lectures rather than listen to the teachers. He's also the kind of joker who would pick on someone just to get a reaction out of them, and occasionally his jokes may be horrifically timed. . . such as when he flips Aoko's skirt right in the middle of a math lesson, flustering their teacher and distracting the rest of their peers. As a performing magician, he also enjoys pulling elaborate pranks in an effort to show off his skills in front of his class, which has earned him a reputation for being quite brazen (and has made him quite popular with the ladies of his class). Like most teenage boys, he's a bit of a pervert. . . he flips the skirts of his childhood friend and has documented admissions of sneaking into the girls' locker room for a peek. Unsurprisingly, these incidents usually end with him getting smacked in the head-- and rightfully so, though you'll find Kaito grumbling and grouching about it for hours afterward. As jokey as Kaito can be, he is awful at taking his own medicine, and his bright demeanor is sometimes marred by the grumpiness of a magician who hates it when others get the best of him. On that note, he also has a debilitating fear of fish that tends to produce very comical reactions from him. Nobody knows where this fear comes from.

That's what people who only know Kaito casually would see, anyway. In truth, Kaito is an individual of many masks, layers, and secrets that he tends to keep tightly against his chest. For instance, although he may come off as a casual slacker who spends his days dropping sarcastic remarks rather than doing anything productive, his cheeky nature actually hides a highly intelligent and observant individual. Kaito is always carefully watching the world around him, and although he might not be a detective he's capable of picking up on the smallest and subtlest details with just a quick sweep of his gaze. According to canon, his IQ is about 400, which (of course) is totally impossible but it gives you an idea of how smart he's supposed to be. Taking this fact alongside his trouble-making behavior lends itself to only one conclusion: Kaito is a bored intellectual who isn't challenged at all by his class material, so he plays pranks and acts out during class in order to challenge himself and keep his mind busy.

Occasionally, his pranks and jokes might cross the line from lighthearted fun to unnecessarily cruel, such as when he called Aoko flat-chested and upset her in the process. But even though Kaito is a prankster at heart, his observant nature makes him highly attuned to the effects of his behavior. He is not uncaring-- on the contrary, he's the kind of guy who wants to cheer someone who is down in the dumps up, no matter what-- and he's more than capable of realizing when he's crossed a line. He knows how to rein in his snarkiness to give someone kind and encouraging words when they need it. He is also the type of guy who will go out of his way to help someone if he can, no matter what the burden on his shoulders might be. You might call him the typical "Jerk with a Heart of Gold". . . the seemingly careless trickster who may play a prank on someone one minute and then perform a simple magic trick in order to make that same person smile the next. He will push himself past his limits in order to cheer someone up, and may even find himself going to incredible extremes to make someone's day when they're down, proving that the one thing he hates the most is a frown. One prime example of this is when he upsets Aoko by missing her birthday party. Instead of just showing up at her door with an apology, he performs an elaborate fireworks show that wakes up most of the city to make her happy. That's one of the key lessons he took away from his father, after all: heart and smile are the most important things, and he lives up to that philosophy in the fullest.

In addition to being an energetic and bright (in more than one way) high school kid, Kaito is an exceedingly talented magician. He picked up his magic skills from his father and worked his entire life to perfect them in order to live up to Toichi's legacy. As such, he has a tremendous amount of confidence in his skills. He's referred to himself as the "world's greatest magician" before, and sometimes his confidence even teeters across the line into arrogance. Like any performer, he knows how to command a spotlight, and he has a great amount of stage presence and excellent skills in how to work an audience. He's a people person through and through. It also helps that he has a huge imagination churning in that brain of his, so he's capable of coming up with elaborate tricks on the spot. Like most performers, he's also highly mercurial and adaptable, capable of adjusting to the whims and needs of his audience. . . which is a handy trait to have when it comes to his less legal hobbies. Despite his talent, Kaito isn't perfect. Like any human, he makes mistakes, and they're often highly comedic ones. Despite his arrogance, Kaito's observant nature also means he is very aware of his limits. He's just quite stubbornly determined not to let anyone know what they are, and he does have a tendency to recklessly push himself past them if he feels like he has to. Heart and smile may be the most important things, but his father also firmly reminded him to never forget his poker face, either.

All that describes the layer of Kuroba Kaito quite well, but it barely even scratches the surface of Kaitou Kid. Kid is Kaito's biggest secret, and one that he'll do almost anything to keep hidden up his sleeve. The mask of Kid is also a testament to how good of an actor Kaito can be, because the lines between Kuroba Kaito and Kaitou Kid are sharp, bright, and very, very purposeful. Kaitou Kid is a character the young magician dons in order to protect his identity, and as such he finds himself playing up the personality traits of a typical phantom thief to the extreme. While Kaito may be mischievous, casual and teenager-y, Kid's behavior is much more controlled and formal. Kid often speaks in poetic terms and riddles, and he rarely (if ever) gives a straight answer. Kaito is a casual flirt (like most teenagers his age can be), but Kaitou Kid prides himself on being a gentleman through and through. Judging from Kid's behavior, one might think that Kaito enjoys the challenge his alter ego presents, and they wouldn't becompletely wrong about that. Kaito is an adrenaline junkie who enjoys challenging himself-- the rush of danger and the thrill of an audience keep him energized-- and Kaitou Kid is the perfect way for a bored intellectual to really put his mind to work.

Of course, just because Kaito keeps the lines between himself and his alter ego sharp and clearly delineated doesn't mean there isn't bleedover. Kaito is Kaitou Kid after all, and when the spotlight isn't shining on the phantom thief he's prone to slipping back into his usual teenager-like behavior. When no one's looking, he might mumble a sarcastic comment or two to himself. Sometimes it's just difficult to keep his cheeky commentary to himself.

But there's another layer to Kaito that rests hidden underneath Kaitou Kid's charms and tricks. Kaito picked up the mantle of Kaitou Kid from his father after learning that Toichi's death was not an accident, but murder. He acts as the phantom of his father's legacy out of a desire for revenge and justice, not because he actually enjoys stealing. Kaito might be cheeky and rebellious when it comes to authority, but he has an incredibly strong internal moral code that he'll stick to no matter what. For instance, he knows that he is not acting as a good guy no matter what his intentions are. He refuses to allow others to refer to him as a modern day Robin Hood in canon, and he's acutely aware that his stealing is hurting people-- namely, Aoko. He won't delude himself into thinking he's some vigilante, and he approaches the situation with a realistic viewpoint and knowledge that he'll have a lot to atone for one day. He also just knows that for the greater good, sometimes a few laws need to be broken. To him justice is not black or white-- it's shaded heavily gray, and it cannot always be sought by going through legal channels. Occasionally, it takes a criminal to catch a criminal, and Kaito is more than willing to be that criminal. His focus on his mission sometimes means he's prone to tunnel-vision. Even after observing how hurt Aoko was by his actions as Kid, he muses to himself that although he doesn't enjoy thievery, he can't stop being Kid until he finds the people who murdered his father.

Although he knows his actions hurt others, the good-heartedness inside of him won't let him continue on callously. He tries to make up for it as best as he can by making sure to stick to a very strict moral code when thieving. He absolutely hates it when people get hurt during his heists, which is why he does all that he can to minimize risk and keep the police and his audience safe. When he fails, he often takes it personally, blaming himself for being unable to stop the inevitable. He also stubbornly refuses to (seriously) hurt anyone himself, likely because his father was murdered and he refuses to lower himself down to the levels of his killers.

Any parts of Kaito that have to deal with Kaitou Kid or the death of his father are the parts of himself that he locks away the deepest. If they come up, he's likely to treat them with a casual shrug of his shoulders that belies his true feelings on the matter. It isn't impossible to get Kaito to talk about these secrets seriously, but he would have to trust the other party tremendously to do so. And seeing as Kaito tends to keep people at a distance by only exposing them to his cheeky, sarcastic, fun-loving and good-hearted teenager side. . . well. That trust is definitely not easy to come by.

Carrier: an arctic fox

Magic Weapon: An intricately crafted yo-yo, slightly larger than a normal yo-yo, made out of wood to encourage mana absorption. Has the clubs symbol (the card suit) carved on both sides. Perfect to use as a grappling hook or, you know, just something to bean enemies in the head with.

Allows the user to cast simple illusion magic which is activated by either swinging the yo-yo back and forth like a pendulum or spinning it in a circle, i.e. making oneself invisible, conjuring up small light shows, making people see things that aren't there, etc. Illusions can affect all five senses, not just vision, so in theory it could make someone smell or hear something that isn't there too. Illusions require a constant stream of mana to remain perceivable, so it can only be used for short periods of time (around one minute at first, up to ten minutes with practice and training). Can only cast small illusions affecting areas no larger than the size of a single person, so this spell won't be nearly as potent as a Queen's illusion magic could be.

Sample: Test Drive Link