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"What kind of response is that? You could run at the Red Ribbon Army with nothing but a piece of fruit, but you whine and cry when I hit you with a stick? What’s wrong with you?" |
| Harotu | |
|---|---|
| character image | |
| ハロツ, Harotsu | |
| Detailed Information: | |
| Appearances: | Spindlerun: The Tale of Yajirobe |
| Species: | Human |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthplace: | Orange Star City |
| Birthdate: | October 17, Age 733 |
| Date of Death: | n/a |
| Birth Power Level: | 0.0001 |
| Maximum Power Level: | 66 |
| Personal Pronouns: | 私 |
| Height: | 5'3" |
| Weight: | 101.7 |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Rank: | Samurai recruit |
| Organizations: | Iboinoshishi School (January 14, Age 749 - May 10, Age 749) |
| Favorite Food: | Salmon sushi |
| Favorite Vehicle: | Bicycle |
| Hobbies: | Swinging yo-yos, running, setting fires, collecting fireworks |
| Family: | Yajirobe (friend) Brian (friend) Anders (friend) Nameless Child 1 (friend) Nameless Child 2 (friend) |
Harotu (ハロツ, Harotsu) is a human native to Orange Star City. He joined the Iboinoshishi School and became one of the more impressive recruits. He was one of only three to last long enough to get a forged katana.
Overview[]
Appearance[]
Harotu is a short boy (for his age) with brown eyes and somewhat dark skin. His hair is short and spiky. He is relatively skinny. He tends to wear more traditional clothes until he joins the Iboinoshishi School, at which point he wears the standard orange gi.
Personality[]
Harotu has a somewhat more forceful personality than Brian. He still keeps to himself for the most part. He is a logical thinker, and he is more future-oriented than either Brian or Yajirobe. He can be quite courageous when defending his friends, as seen when he saved Brian from General Blue. He is a pyromaniac, being obsessed with flames and burning things. He has a large collection of illegal fireworks that he likes to shoot off to entertain himself. Harotu is somewhat of a coward, but he might describe himself more as a realist. He wanted to flee the Iboinoshishi School when Makare's Band showed up outside. Because there were hundreds if not thousands of samurai in that group, he correctly stated that it was unlikely that any of them would survive if they stayed there. Still, the other boys did not appreciate that. When Elijah sent Brian and Yajirobe to Daniel's house to give him the seven-star Dragon Ball, Harotu was outraged that he would have to defend the school by himself. While it was cowardly for him to abandon the school at that moment, his actions are at least understandable.
History[]
Spindlerun: The Tale of Yajirobe[]
Harotu was one of the children who came to the Iboinoshishi School hoping to train to become a samurai. He, along with the rest of the recruits, attempted to complete the first test, which was maintaining a pose for several minutes without moving (until Kumo, their instructor, returned). About ten minutes into the test, Brian introduced himself to Harotu, who was on his right. The two talked about how they had trained for weeks for this test.
After fifteen minutes had passed, Kumo returned, telling the remaining thirteen children that they had completed their first test. She told them that it was now time to commence the second test. They would need to steal the hat of General Blue when he and his legion of Red Ribbon Army soldiers entered Orange Star City later that day. Seven of the recruits refused to do so, for they thought they would be killed, but Harotu agreed to attempt the second test.
The group of recruits soon returned to Orange Star City, finding it to be a ghost town. They wandered about, searching for the army. Eventually they heard the sound of marching soldiers approaching. Brian pointed out a house nearby that was owned by Mr. Parroda, who had several jabillo trees. He explained to the others that the jabillo fruit would explode if thrown at somebody and thought they should use that against General Blue in order to knock off his hat.
The group quickly agreed to this strategy, and so Brian, Anders, and the two nameless children ran over to Mr. Parroda's house, jumped the fence, and grabbed some jabillo fruit. Yajirobe and Harotu remained behind, waiting for an opportunity to run out and grab the hat. After Brian and the others threw their jabillos at Blue, they were forced to retreat into a nearby house. The Red Ribbon Army soldiers attacked the house, blowing it to pieces, causing the four to flee (with Anders and the two nameless children fleeing out the back door). Brian, however, dove out of a side window and threw the last jabillo at Blue. It exploded nearby, which knocked off his hat. Yajirobe ran to go get it. The irate general unloaded a magazine of his pistol at the boy and ran after him, but missed every shot. Brian pled for his life, but Blue would not hear it. Before Blue could reload his pistol, however, Harotu attacked him from behind. After a brief struggle, the boy opened his lighter in Blue's face, which damaged the general enough to allow him and Brian to escape.
The six boys regrouped several blocks away, and Yajirobe proudly presented Blue's hat to them. They returned to the Iboinoshishi school soon after and gave Kumo the hat. She did not congratulate them, but ordered her servants to show the boys to their dormitory so they could sleep. Later on, the Daimyo Elijah went to the dormitory to look upon the sleeping recruits with his own eyes. They each had a bunk bed, and all of them sans Brian were sleeping on their bottom bunk.
In chapter 2, Yajirobe, Brian, Harotu, Anders, Nameless Child 1, and Nameless Child 2 began their training at the Iboinoshishi School. When they woke up, the attendants took them to the dining hall and served them breakfast. As they ate, the group conversed about their harrowing mission the previous day. Harotu proudly recounted how he had saved Brian from General Blue. Brian gave Yajirobe credit for running so fast to get his hat. Yajirobe found bacon and thought it was the most delicious thing in the world. He asked everyone what it was. Harotu told him and was shocked that Yajirobe had never encountered it before. He asked if Yajirobe's mother had ever cooked it before, but the boy did not respond. Later, when Harotu asked Yajirobe to back him up, as Yajirobe had seen him save Brian from General Blue, Yajirobe ignored him.
At that moment, Elijah entered the dining hall and everyone went quiet. The daimyo introduced himself and after Brian told him that they were expecting the man to train them, he told them to follow him outside for their first session. Once outside, Elijah ordered them to show him how skilled they were in the art of sword fighting already. He gave them wooden sticks that had been carved in the likeness of katanas. He told them he could not trust them with real swords yet, which was disappointing to the recruits.
Harotu was paired with Brian. Harotu managed to disarm Brian rather quickly. Brian tried to get his bokken back, but Harotu sidestepped him, pushed him to the grass, and cut open his calf with a slice of his wooden sword. Brian was furious with Harotu for doing that. The older boy kept him pinned to the ground and gave him the nickname "whiny Biney". Elijah told them to stop after that, calling forward the three best duelers in his opinion - Brian, Harotu, and Nameless Child 1.
This outraged Anders, for Brian had lost. He challenged the daimyo to a duel to show off how good his sword fighting skills were. Elijah accepted, telling them that he was always obligated to duel when challenged, no matter the competition. Anders then charged down Elijah with his bokken, but the daimyo jumped over him and then kicked him in the chest with a single toe. The boy dropped to the ground, not even able to scream, and appeared to have been severely wounded. He did not make another sound, but blood flowed from his mouth. At that moment, Elijah's attendants appeared and, in panic, took the boy away on a stretcher. Nobody at the Iboinoshishi School ever saw Anders again.
Elijah then told the remaining five recruits that he would not tolerate arrogance from them. He told them that none of them were exceptional yet, or more skilled than he had expected. His training would make them exceptional, but they should not have any false beliefs about their abilities so early into their training. Then, he walked off, their training for that morning having been completed.
The next night, Elijah took his recruits to the crumbling southern bridge in Orange Star City to train. He ordered six attendants to clear some rubble from it before they began. Once his attendants had done so, he dismissed them. Then, he told the children that their task was simple: reach the other end of the bridge without dying. The bridge, with so many holes in it, the gusting winds, and the roads crumbling, was a treacherous obstacle course to navigate. Brian said that he thought they would fall. Harotu told him that it wasn't as bad as it looked, because Elijah would never let them die. The daimyo gave no reply to that. Brian was incredulous, reminding Harotu of the dangerous mission to get General Blue's hat.
Then, having heard enough of their talk, Elijah began the training by leading them across the bridge. Everyone waited a few seconds before following. Harotu, Nameless Child 1, and Nameless Child 2 were the first to begin the obstacle course. When the explosives that Launch had rigged to the bridge went off, Harotu was able to dodge most of them, although the pinky and ring finger on his left hand were badly burned by one of the explosions.
This allowed Yajirobe to catch up to him. Harotu caught back up to Yajirobe when the other boy was hit by an explosive and thrown to the ground. The two continued on together. They eventually caught up to Nameless Child 1, Nameless Child 2, and Elijah, who had stopped near the end of the bridge and turned around to wait for his students. He witnessed the bullet Launch shot, hoping to kill Elijah, tear through Nameless Child 1's throat, which killed him. He staggered for a few moments before falling through a hole in the bridge to the waters below. Yajirobe, Nameless Child 2, and Harotu all dropped to the ground, fearful of being shot at. When no more shots came, they raised their heads and saw that the daimyo had been hit.
Yajirobe ran over to him and noticed he was unconscious. He picked the man up, slinging him over a shoulder. Just then, the bridge started to completely collapse. Everyone ran as fast as they could to the end of the bridge. though only Yajirobe and Elijah made it off the bridge. The other three - Brian having caught up to them - were on a small section of the bridge that had fallen ten feet below the road Yajirobe was standing on. They were clinging to pieces of bridge, trying not to fall off. Yajirobe ran off into the city to search for help.
In chapter 3, Yajirobe, Brian, Harotu, and Nameless Child 2 continued their training in the Iboinoshishi School. They used their bokkens on stuffed dummies. Not long into their training, Elijah appeared. All of the recruits huddled around the man, but before he could say anything, they demanded to know who had shot Nameless Child 1 and Elijah. He told them it was Makare. He had not expected Makare to attack his recruits and promised the four of them that he would not allow the man to hurt them in the future. Then, he told them that they were going to do some new training that day and bade them follow him out of the school.
The daimyo and his samurai recruits went to Daniel Parroda's vineyard in Cardan where they met Mark, his younger brother. Elijah asked the boy for 157 barrels, for he planned on rolling them down a hill. Elijah paid for the barrels, handing Mark some zeni, and asked the boy to give that to his brother. Mark demanded to watch their training and Elijah agreed. Then, the daimyo and the recruits tied the barrels together and pulled them through the forest. While they were going, Brian asked Elijah what they were going to be doing with the barrels. He told them that he was going to roll them down a hill at the recruits, forcing them to dodge the barrels. This shocked Brian, who said that they could die if they weren't fast enough. Elijah did not care, stating once more that they could leave his school at any time if the training got too intense for them. He also revealed that this barrel training was the first test his master had given to him at the school. Harotu complained about how many barrels they would have to dodge.
It took the five of them more than five hours to move all of the barrels to the chosen hill. Mark accompanied them, but did not help, instead incessantly talking to Elijah the whole time, which irritated the recruits. He boasted that he had filled two hundred barrels with wine that day - including the 157 Elijah had bought. The recruits didn't believe him, but Elijah confirmed it. When they finished moving all of the barrels, the sun was setting. Brian asked Elijah how he had completed this test back in the day, and Elijah showed them the seven-star Dragon Ball, stating that he had found that ball as a kid and the master let him use it during his training. None of them, even the daimyo, knew how it was sturdy enough not to shatter against the barrels.
Afterwards, they began their test. Elijah cut some barrels loose and rolled them down the hill at the four recruits, gradually increasing the pace over time. Brian thought that they should use their bokkens to stop the barrels from hitting them. Harotu was decent at that strategy until his bokken got stuck in a barrel and was lost. He asked Nameless Child 2 to help him climb into a tree so he wouldn't have to dodge anymore. The boy agreed to help him up there. The training session finally came to a close with all four recruits succeeding in never getting hit by the barrels.
That night, Yajirobe lay in bed, unable to sleep. When he got up to go on a walk, he noticed Harotu was up too. The other boy and him talked outside of their dormitory, with Harotu putting forth the notion that the four recruits should have fun sometimes by going into the city some nights. Yajirobe was not really up for that, but Harotu did not want to go into the city by himself. Yajirobe suggested Harotu take Nameless Child 2 and Brian with him. Their talking caused Brian to wake up. Harotu told him the plan and the two of them began working out the best places to visit in the city. Soon after, Nameless Child 2 work up and joined in on the fun.
Their first idea was to sneak into a movie theater to see a movie for free. Then, they talked about getting food at some restaurant. Thirdly, they thought about going to Harotu's house to see his family. Finally, they decided to go back to the place where they had stolen General Blue's hat. They also wanted to steal a car. This piqued Yajirobe's interest, for stealing cars was one of his few passions in life. He agreed to go with them to Orange Star City.
They reached the city by two in the morning. Yajirobe found a car, hot-wired it, and drove them down the streets. He almost hit several pedestrians as he drove. He crashed the car in the town square after he hit a tent. When they got out of the mangled car, they heard General Blue singing a Justin Bieber song horrendously nearby. As the car had crashed into his karaoke machine, he grew angry at the device malfunctioning. He shot it four times with his pistol, demanding it to turn on again. When it did not, several of his soldiers consoled him.
Then, he noticed Yajirobe, Harotu, Brian, and Nameless Child 2. In a rage, he raised his pistol at them. He fired once, hitting Nameless Child 2 in the head and killing him. The other three fled, with Yajirobe and Harotu running into a department store where other pedestrians were hiding after hearing the gunshot. The adults, seeing the bloody children, came up to them and offered them aid. Yajirobe and Harotu did not know if it had been Nameless Child 2 or Brian who had been shot by Blue, for it had all happened so quickly.
In chapter 4, as he descended Igaron mountain, Daniel looked towards the distant Orange Star City. He thought about how some kids had recently broken into his yard and stolen some of his jabillo fruit, which annoyed him greatly. Later, Yajirobe and Harotu were still in the same store that they fled to in the previous chapter, though the store was half-ruined on account of the Red Ribbon Army destroying much of Orange Star City on their way out. Harotu was peeling the paper off of cans of soup and setting them on fire with his lighter. Then, he threw a can at Yajirobe to wake him up, but Yajirobe was too tired and refused to get up.
Harotu ventured outside by himself, noting the devastation. He estimated that a third of the city had been destroyed by Blue and his men. There were many bodies in the streets, too. Horrified at what he saw, he took a firework out of his backpack and lit it, trying to get his mind off of the horror that had befallen the city. He threw it into a nearby window of a half-collapsed building, where it exploded it. This caused Brian, who had been knocked unconscious underneath a pile of rubble, to wake up and reunite with Harotu.
He noted that two Red Ribbon Army soldiers were dead nearby him (they had been killed by Launch the previous night). Brian asked Harotu for a firework so that he could have a little fun too, and Harotu gladly obliged. The two of them returned to the grocery store where Yajirobe was at. Yajirobe woke up at about midday, noting that Brian had returned with Harotu, who had gone out while the boy had slept.
They decided to go to a restaurant to get breakfast. There, Harotu and Yajirobe ordered an exorbitant amount of food, while Brian ordered nothing (for he was still traumatized from the events of the previous night). Since they didn't have enough money to pay for it all, they agreed to sneak out of the restaurant before the bill came. When the bill came, Brian wrote a check for over Ƶ11,000, which was far more than Yajirobe and Harotu had spent.
Soon after, Brian noticed that two men were watching them. He thought it was a serious issue, as they looked like soldiers in his estimation, though Harotu was unconvinced. Nevertheless, the three exited the booth because they felt threatened. As they returned to the Iboinoshishi School, they noticed that one person was following them. They hid inside a half-ruined building in order to catch a glimpse of who was following them. They realized it was Mark, the boy who had been at that winery.
Yajirobe was enraged and attacked the boy, beating him into submission. He wanted to set off a firecracker in Mark's face, but Harotu thought that was too violent. Mark then revealed that he was walking home, having just come from a karate class his brother had been teaching. He demanded a rematch with Yajirobe, confidently stating that he would punch the older boy in the face.
Harotu watched Yajirobe fight Mark, and once it had gone on long enough in his opinion, he ran up to Mark and smacked him in the back of the head with his backpack, sending the boy flying to the sidewalk, where he landed in a pool of blood. Just then, Yajirobe and Harotu noticed that Brian was holding a broken shard of glass, staring down the two men who had been in the restaurant earlier. Now those men made their move on the boys. Now those men made their move on the boys. They drew katanas and attacked the boys. Brian was wounded by one man, although Yajirobe saved him from certain death by throwing his body at the man. The samurai calmly knocked Yajirobe out with the hilt of his blade and then went after Brian and Harotu. They attacked him with fists and a backpack, causing the other man, who had slunk off down a side alley to come up behind them, to return and help his comrade overcome the children. He picked up Brian by the hair, but the boy stabbed him in the arm with a piece of glass, causing him to drop him and his katana. Brian scooped it up and stabbed him, but it didn't go in very far, and the man was able to wrench it loose from Brian's control immediately after. He drew a dagger and charged the boy, but he stepped on Yajirobe on his way over.
This woke the bigger boy up. He kicked the samurai in the shin, causing him to fall screaming. Meanwhile, Harotu was chased into a building by the other man. The two other boys questioned their prisoner on who he was and why he was attacking them, but just then the second samurai returned from the building, holding Harotu by the hair. Brian attempted to duel him, but before he could, Makare appeared and beheaded the samurai who was holding Harotu after he refused to let him go.
Makare introduced himself to the three boys, stating that he was an old friend of Elijah's and that he wanted to replace the man as the daimyo of the Iboinoshishi School, focusing its training on the art of ki control as well as swordsmanship. He also disparaged Elijah's leadership, stating that the previous master of the school had been brash to make Elijah his successor. Makare noted that only Elijah and Kumo were capable of wielding a sword and that all other recruits had dropped out, retired, or been removed from the school, which Makare thought was far too strict. He also revealed to them that Elijah had opened the Iboinoshishi School up three times prior, but no recruits had survived or passed all of the tests any of those times. He told them that he would be taking over the Iboinoshishi School and would be using his army to do so. Then he revealed his katana to the boys and told them that he was relishing the opportunity to kill them himself. Brian begged to join Makare's army instead. Makare refused.
Yajirobe and Brian, using the imprisoned samurai's weapons, attacked Makare while Harotu rolled around on the ground crying. Makare easily disarmed Brian, cutting his arm. He toyed with them for a while before withdrawing and telling them that he would kill them soon, cursing the luck that they were being let off lightly today. The boys did not understand.
Immediately after, Elijah appeared, attacking Makare in a fearsome display of strength and technical prowess. The two samurai lords traded blows, but Elijah clearly dominated his foe. He kicked Makare into a wall, where he crumpled like a ragdoll. The daimyo demanded that the man stay away from his students. Makare mocked them as being taught by an inferior teacher. Elijah revealed that he knew about the solipsist monks teaching Makare (though it had actually been Naigo who they had taught), calling their philosophy delusional and their ki attacks cheap tricks. At that moment, Makare pushed Elijah's blade out of his face (cutting his chin in the process) and ran off.
Elijah ordered the boys not to pursue him. Then he told the boys that they would begin training with real swords the next morning, as Makare's threats were becoming too difficult to ignore. Harotu asked the daimyo what they were supposed to do about their samurai prisoner. The man attempted to run off, but Yajirobe and Brian stopped him. Elijah threw his knife to them and told them to deal with the threat however they wished. Then, he walked off, returning to the Iboinoshishi School. Brian and Harotu refused to kill the man, leaving the task to Yajirobe. They returned to the Iboinoshishi School, not wanting to watch him do it.
At the start of chapter 5, Makare and Naigo prepared to assault the Iboinoshishi School. Naigo believed that having roughly two hundred thirty samurai would be enough to swarm the place, but Makare believed they would need at least seven hundred to overwhelm Elijah, Kumo, the students, and the attendants.
When Yajirobe returned to the Iboinoshishi School the next morning after being left in Orange Star City to execute the samurai prisoner, he was greeted by Elijah, Brian, and Harotu. The daimyo explained that he was going to start teaching them how to use a katana, as Makare would be attacking soon. He did not know how long it would take Makare to attack, and so did not know how long their training would go on for. He gave them their newly-forged katanas (each had their name inscribed near the hilt) and then began teaching them how to use the blades.
They learned how to parry first and then were taught the Sabaki defense form. They were told to slice, not to poke with their katanas. Additionally, they were taught slowly at first and taught not to use flashy moves, as patience and energy conservation were more important than looking cool. As days passed, they began noticing the school being surrounded by a large army, for fires were being lit all around them on the surrounding mountainside. At that point, Elijah began teaching the trio offensive moves.
Late one night, Harotu offered up the idea that they could all flee before the army attacked, as there appeared to be anywhere from five hundred to several thousand samurai waiting for them outside the gates. Yajirobe and Brian refused to leave, which made Harotu quite unhappy. However, when Brian and Yajirobe got to talking, the fatter boy admitted that he would probably run when the battle started, which shocked the other recruit. They went to bed shortly after.
The next morning, the attendants brought the three boys out to the training grounds where they found Kumo and Elijah fully adorned in their armor. The samurai dueled for the students to show them what a real fight looked like. The fight was relatively short, with Elijah winning easily. Afterwards, Yajirobe correctly guessed that Elijah's strategy had been to allow Kumo to wear herself out before going in for the killing blow. Then, Elijah and Yajirobe dueled while Kumo took on Harotu and Brian at the same time. Brian and Harotu only sparred with Kumo briefly before she ordered them to fight each other. Harotu spammed a lot of the same moves over and over again, making his form not very beautiful. Brian was able to punish him for that and won the duel.
The group continued their intense training session for four more weeks until on one fateful, rainy day, a servant rang the bell at the front gate. Elijah, Kumo, and the students ran to see what was the matter. They beheld a black horse and a rider, who was one of the servants. He was headless. This signaled Makare's attack. As the samurai began marching towards the school, spilling out from the mountainsides, Elijah taught his students one final technique: the Iaigiri (the act of killing someone by running at them, and at the last second drawing the katana from its scabbard and slicing).
Then, he gave the seven-star Dragon Ball to Brian and instructed him and Yajirobe to run to Daniel's house and give it to him as well as tell the man that Elijah no longer required his services. This pissed off Harotu, for he believed that he would have to defend the school by himself. Elijah and Kumo left. After they had gone, Harotu declared that he had had it and decided to leave the school. He ran off to the dorms before Brian or Yajirobe could stop him.
When Brian and Yajirobe returned to the Iboinoshishi School, they found Harotu's backpack by a porter-gate. There were a few dead attendants lying about, but there was no sign of their friend.
In chapter 7, Yajirobe returned to the Iboinoshishi School to find it overgrown with weeds. Nobody had been there in a long time. He thought about how he had been the only one to graduate - Anders (Yajirobe was mistaken about Anders, as Anders did not actually die), Nameless Child 1, Nameless Child 2, and Brian had died, and Harotu had quit.
Trivia[]
- Harotu's character design and personality was lightly based on Hyper Zergling.