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Daichi Morozumi
Daichi Morozumi
"Then I'll have to find some of my own." · Militia Instructor and Defensive Tactician
Basic Information
Full Name
Daichi Morozumi
Nickname
The Bell-Ringer
Race (Grade)
Human (D)
Class
Samurai / Fighter
Height
5'10"
Birthday
Rainsong 5, 1273
Age
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Birthsign
Bloodline Ability
Unknown
This Bloodline ability has not yet been unveiled to you.
Physical Description
Daichi Morozumi, about half a second away from shouting "Again!"
Appearance
Daichi is a fit, sun-browned man of thirty-three with a wide, easy grin that almost never leaves his face, a light scruff of stubble, and a shaggy mop of black hair that constantly falls into his eyes. He still wears the armor of his old garrison: a red-lacquered cuirass and broad laced shoulder guards over plain black clothing, with long lacquered tassets, black fingerless gloves, loose black trousers, and sandals. A plain-hilted katana in a black scabbard rides at his hip whenever he is drilling, which is most of the time. He does not look intimidating, and he has never tried to.
Unique Characteristics
Daichi is warm, cheerful, patient, and almost annoyingly optimistic. He likes people, smiles easily, drinks socially, and sings terribly. Children adore him, because he turns every training drill into a game. Professional soldiers sometimes underestimate him because he does not cultivate an intimidating presence, and that usually lasts until training begins: Daichi can go from laughing to a full command voice in roughly half a second. His real gift is not what happens when he fights. It is what happens when everyone around him knows exactly what to do.
Personality & Temperament
Positive Traits
- Warm, cheerful, and almost annoyingly optimistic
- Treats frightened farmers as people, never as losses
- Turns any drill into a game children beg to play
- Patient with beginners, relentless about practice
- Goes from laughter to command voice in half a second
Challenging Traits
- Sings, often and terribly, especially after a drink
- Will run the same drill until everyone hates him
- Openly scornful of officers who spend lives cheaply
- Easy to underestimate, and rarely bothers to fix it
- Plans every month for disasters that may never come
Again! [A groan.] Excellent. You're already learning what disappointment sounds like. Again.
[Told that he is throwing away his family's honor, he bows.] Then I'll have to find some of my own.
Do we need to practice this every month? Hopefully not. [Then why do it?] Because the day we need it is an extremely poor day to begin learning.
Likes
- A drill that everyone finally gets right
- Children who ring the practice bell too loudly
- Sake with friends, and singing badly afterward
- Bakers and clerks who learn to stand their ground
- A clear evacuation route, freshly marked
Dislikes
- Officers who list civilians as acceptable losses
- Panic, and the people who spread it
- Blocked intersections and locked gates in a crisis
- Being told that drills are a waste of time
- Honor that costs other people their lives
Background & History
A Family of Officers
Daichi was born in 1273 in Kuroiwa, a provincial castle town in Pan'Che's northern provinces, in the shadow of the Jade Mountains, where the Morozumi family had served the local garrison for generations. He was expected to become an officer. He did. What nobody expected was that he would discover he enjoyed teaching frightened farmers how to survive a battle far more than dueling other professional warriors.
The Fortress in the Pass
In 1299, when Daichi was twenty-six, the mountain fortress he served, which guarded one of the few passes through the Jade Mountains, came under attack. The standing garrison was badly outnumbered, so hundreds of ordinary townsfolk were hastily handed spears and ordered onto the walls. Most had never fought, and the officers treated them as expendable bodies. Daichi didn't. He spent every hour before the assault drilling his civilians on extremely simple things: where to stand, when to retreat, how to rotate exhausted defenders, how to carry the wounded without creating a second casualty, what each bell meant, where to go if the walls fell, and how not to panic when the person beside you died. The fortress eventually fell. The civilians under Daichi's command escaped it with a fraction of the casualties suffered everywhere else. It became the defining lesson of his life: you do not have to turn ordinary people into warriors. You only have to teach them what to do when everything goes wrong.
Listed as Losses
After the siege, Daichi's superiors praised the professional soldiers. The civilian dead were listed simply as losses. Daichi objected, loudly, and was informed that his concern for peasants was unbecoming of an officer. He decided that being an officer was therefore considerably less impressive than he had been led to believe, and he resigned. His commander told him that he was throwing away his family's honor. Daichi bowed. "Then I'll have to find some of my own." And he walked out.
Towns Too Small for Soldiers
For the next six years Daichi traveled from town to town, choosing the ones too small or too poor to afford real soldiers. He trained their militias, marked their evacuation routes, standardized their alarm bells, and taught market vendors where the children should be taken and which crossroads the guards must keep open. He ran fire drills, flood drills, siege drills, and monster drills. Someone always asked whether they really needed to practice every single month. Daichi always smiled and said, "Hopefully not," and then explained that the day they needed it would be an extremely poor day to begin learning.
A Town That Needed Bells
In Goldenleaf of 1306, Daichi was teaching in a small town on the forest roads south of the Geldergreen when the survivors of Gelderai began coming through. He watched thousands of people who had never once practiced leaving a city try to leave one all at the same time, and he walked south with them. That is how he came to Goodberry three weeks ago: a young town that had just swollen overnight with refugees who did not yet know its streets, its bells, or its safe places. It also has a thousand-year-old fortress hanging in its sky, which is why Goodberry is the first town where his old joke, the "unidentified enormous flying object drill," is now a real drill. Newcomers find it absurd right up until someone points upward.
Goals & Aspirations
Every Bell Means Something
Daichi's first goal in Goodberry is a simple one: that every person in the town, old resident and new refugee alike, knows what every bell means and where to go when it rings. He has already started with the market vendors and the children, because the vendors know everyone and the children tell everyone else.
Nobody Is a Loss
Daichi will never again stand in a room while ordinary people are counted as acceptable losses. His ambition for Goodberry is that, whatever comes to it, the list of the dead is shorter than anyone thought possible, because everyone knew what to do. He does not expect gratitude for this. He expects people to complain about the drills, and he considers the complaining a sign that the drills are working.
Honor of His Own
His family in Kuroiwa has not written to him since he resigned. Daichi writes to them every month anyway, and in every letter he tells them how many drills he ran and how many people now know where to go. He has not decided whether he is trying to change their minds or just keeping count.
Current Status & Relationships
Residence
Role
Militia Instructor
ATTENTION!
Daichi Morozumi is a D-grade samurai and fighter, a genuinely good swordsman, and an experienced battlefield officer who can absolutely hold his own, though he is nowhere near the most frightening warrior in Haven and would be the first to say so. Do not let the grin fool you: he can switch from laughter to a command voice in half a second, and soldiers who underestimate him usually stop doing so at the first drill. His real value is what happens to everyone around him. If the bells ring in Goodberry and people actually know where to go, it is very likely because Daichi made them practice. If he asks you to join a drill, you are joining a drill. And if he offers to sing, decline politely.