Aihara Takahiro

Aihara Takahiro
Characteristics
Name	Aihara Takahiro
User	Kenmae
Alias	Dragonfly
Species	Ghoul
Status	Alive
Age	16
Gender	Male
Birthday	March 5
Affiliations	N/A
Relatives	Aihara Kanako, Aihara Haruhiko
Ward	16th Ward
Rc Type	Ukaku
Rating	C-
Image Gallery

Aihara Takahiro is a ghoul and works in a Florist shop.

He currently lives in the sixteenth ward and appears to be the sole guardian of his two siblings.

Appearance

Taka has a light build, and is fairly slender. A large portion of his body toning is located in his legs and shoulders, as those are the muscles he uses more frequently while hunting. He has a semi-pale complexion with various light sprinklings of freckles across his forearms. Atop his shoulders sits a neck, which ends in a head with a slightly angular facial shape. His eyes are slanted upwards at the ends and ‘almond’ in shape. These eyes are a dark cocoa colour with some varying rings of lighter brown and amber, and above them sit neat eyebrows. He has pale and frequently-dry lips, and his nose is of average size with a slightly upturned end.

He has medium-short, raven black, glossy hair that falls in little waves across his forehead and at the sides. The back of Taka's hair halts at the nape. He combs his hair often, but due to its natural waviness it often ends up looking slightly dishevelled despite his efforts.

Taka has an old and faded light-pink scar stretching the side of neck. It is approximately four centimetres in length.

His work clothes consist of the florist shop's uniform: a semi-dressy white shirt, black dress slacks, a black tie (tucked in), and a light brown work apron. He also wears a pair of black shoes as well as the occasional pair of cloth gloves (when handling flowers with thorns, such as roses).

When in his casual clothing, Takahiro might wear a pair of light grey jeans, a light blue tee shirt, a dark grey sweater and a pair of white sneakers. He never wears his shoes at home in his apartment: he walks around in a pair of blue socks. He might also wear a pair of navy sweat pants in place of jeans when at home.

Personality

Takahiro is family-oriented, kind, and fiercely loyal in nature. In the entirety his self-determined purpose in life is to provide for and raise his siblings, and to do so he would do anything within his power (regardless of whether or not his actions in doing this may or may not be against his own ethics).

Takahiro is fond of animals, plants, and children. He has a talent in artistic expression which is how he eventually managed to secure a job at the local florist shop. 

Unfortunately, Taka can sometimes be a little gullible. It is not very difficult to convince him of false information, though he is naturally more suspicious when the situation involves Kana and Haru. He is also curious by nature, and this can drag him into serious trouble. This characteristic of his appears to be hereditary as it also manifests itself in Haru.

Though Takahiro is technically the older brother to Haruhiko and Kanako, his general behaviour towards them is more typical of a mother-figure. Despite being a generally easygoing and cheerful individual, Taka can almost literally worry himself to the ends of the earth over his siblings and has an unhelpful tendency to fret himself to a state of near-hyperventilation when he believes they may be in serious danger. As an example, one particular instance was on Kana's first day of elementary school. Taka had received a phone call from the principal requesting him to come collect Kana early. Takahiro had originally feared that Kanako had gotten afraid or excited and had unintentionally let her kagune out, but it turned out that she had only become ill and had thrown up all over the teacher's desk.

Takahiro has an inclination for humour, and a (usual) happy-go-lucky outlook on life. However, when he leaves for his hunting sessions, it is like he has become another person entirely. Taka will not attempt any unnecessary form of communication with his prey or any other being (human, ghoul or otherwise). Takahiro will also actively avoid eye contact with any individual, despite them not being able to see his eyes through the slits in his mask in the first place. Furthermore, he will remain in the shadows throughout the hunt despite naturally loving the light. This is due partially to a feeling of intense guilt regarding those that he kills: he spends so much of his time around humans that he feels (not inaccurately) that hunting them is a form of betrayal. Even after returning from his hunting, he will prepare the human flesh as much as possible so that it will no longer resemble a human being or taste like how it originally smelled. Even with very limited ingredients, Taka will do this by means of cutting, cooking or even stewing the meat until it is unrecognizable. The meat actually tastes worse afterwards (as it takes on a flavour that is unappetizingly alike human food), but all three siblings prefer it this way.

Takahiro is friendly towards humans, but tries to avoid other ghouls whenever possible due to a lot of them having a territorial nature. Despite this, he frequently finds it necessary to hunt in other ghouls' territories in order to limit CCG suspicion in his area. It is because of this that “Dragonfly” is not a well-liked name among ghouls in the northern wards of Tokyo.

Mask/Kagune

Dragonfly's mask covers the entirety of his face, and pointedly lacks detail- his original intention had been to remain unrecognizable to the CCG and other ghouls, with no alias or means of identification- but this had backfired because others had simply started to recognize his kagune instead. The mask is white in colour and composed of cloth with two small slits to see through. Around these eye slits are purplish-blue scales of shiny luminescent cloth that spread about an inch from the outlines of the eye slits. Otherwise the design on the mask is undistinguishable from any other white cloth mask. Imprints where the nose and mouth are located are visible but Taka’s actual features are disguised. He receives air through small slits on the sides of the mask, atop the jawline. Because the mouth of the mask does not detach from the rest, many ghouls and CCG officers correctly assume that he does not eat at the scenes of his hunts.

Takahiro’s kagune takes the form of sharp feathery tendrils that fan out behind him. They resemble long, fiery, silver and white luminous streaks that jet out from behind his shoulder blades, and their distinctive paired shape gives them the rough appearance of dragonfly wings. Because of their peculiar shape, he is incredibly fast. However, because of their long and wispy composition he is (ironically) incapable of flight (an ability of some ukaku-type ghouls). Because Taka utilizes so much energy attaining this impressive speed, his stamina is even lower than the average for ukaku-users. This also means that he has a high metabolism.

Because Dragonfly’s kagune also serves as his only weapon, a common strategy of his is to launch himself off of surfaces (such as the tops of walls or even the roofs of short buildings) and tuck into a roll- exposing the sharp fibres of the kagune as he rapidly spins. The fierce momentum of his twirling body makes slashes from his kagune more devastating, and presents less of a target for his opponent to hit. 

His unique style and velocity, paired with the odd shape of his kagune, have earned him his alias from the CCG and other ghouls that occasionally spot him.

Development

One-shots

• If Perchance the Crocuses do not Come
• The Walk Home from School
• Heather, Dragonflies, and Forget-Me-Not