[PKMN-FD APP] Nobuyuki Kurishi

►Status: Alive

►Name: Nobuyuki "Yuki" Kurishi
►SHSL: Mascot [Wears mascot costumes to represent a sports team during games, events or other purposes.]
►Species: Espeon #196
►Birthday: April 20th
►Age: 17
►Nature: Mild
►Characteristic: Often lost in thought

►Personality:

Easily motivated by money, fame and many other things, Yuki is a calm man made for strictly for business. The Espeon is polite to others, although his mind can wander off in the middle of a conversation – often making it seem as if he is blowing people off. He can easily fall into the ‘cool, silent-type’ category, but it is of his own design. Underneath Yuki, there is Nobuyuki, an emotionally fragile, vulnerable, and cripplingly shy person. Using his nickname Yuki and his calm persona as a guise, he can successfully conceal the frightened, ordinary teenager he is. Nobuyuki is afraid most of all of exploring the person he naturally is, scared that he will hate whatever he had become. He is also anxious about communicating with others, although he hides it well. There is a fear that he will get familiar enough with someone that they can see through the act he had crafted so well. Because of this switch between his self and fake personality, he is easy to break and take advantage of if one were to so choose - just by simply chipping away the manmade mask he wears and attacking the real person inside he neglects.

[+polite, +motivated, +calm, =shy, =quiet, =fake (personality), -easily frightened, -mentally fragile, -inattentive]

►History:

When Nobuyuki was born into the world, everyone around him had high hopes for him. With his parents both locally known to be great nurses in the medical world, there was the expectation that the child, too, would be invested in medical science - specifically, a doctor. However, as Nobuyuki grew older, it became apparent her had no real passion in any form of science, or even mathematics. Sure, he would work hard to understand his schoolwork relating to it - but his interest in the area ended there. This saddened and frustrated his parents, but they kept trying to introduce him to the world they see, regardless of how many times the boy averted his gaze from that line of work.

Within the Eevee's third year of school, he found all of his classmates playing sports and talking about sports. His private school was full of boys who admired famous athletes - and to a lesser extent, the girls did too. Nobuyuki was somewhat outcasted by his peers because of his lack of knowledge and experience in athletic activities. With some urging from Tomo, a soccer team member and his best friend at the time, Nobuyuki garnered the courage to apply for his school's baseball team. As expected, the team was full of physically honed players, making it harder for Nobuyuki to settle down and actually play a game - fearing that he would not stand up to the rest of his team and simply let them down with his lack of ability.

Unfortunately, Nobyuki's fears were justified, as he was absolutely horrible at sports. Although first he tried baseball, he later tried soccer, netball, basketball and even ping pong. Every attempt he made, he only fumbled around the ball and became a major burden on his teammates. Eventually, sports teams stopped accepting him at all - crushing Nobuyuki's spirits completely. Without realizing, the intense desire to become a part of a team crept up on him, but his complete lack of confidence acted as a brick wall - he didn't want to even try anymore. He even scorned himself for not following his instincts at the very beginning and never even bothered trying a sport. In that way, at least he could have been able to live in blissful ignorance of his own incompetence.

Tomo had been looking over Nobuyuki the entire time, and decided it was time for him to take matters into his own hands. The Eevee had become a wreck, his emotions fluctuating all around due to not being able to live up to neither his own or his peer's expectations, and Tomo was growing tired of seeing it. He asked the teams once again on Nobuyuki's behalf, but none replied favourably. Instead, the baseball team jokingly offered that the Eevee could run around as their team's mascot, in a stuffy angry Monferno costume, during official matches. Initial laughter turned into lightbulbs for Tomo, as he relayed the offer to Nobuyuki, who of course declined. Who would want to humiliate themselves like that?

For the next few weeks, Nobuyuki was bombarded by pleads from his friend. Tomo found the idea hilarious and wanted to see it come to life, but also felt that it was the only way Nobuyuki would ever really fit in. Once Nobuyuki began to truly understand the fact that no matter how hard he wished to be excellent at sports that it would not come to frution, he seriously considered taking up the odd mascot job as a last desperate attempt. In the end, he was officially assigned to mascot duty for the school's baseball team - something that most students found to be both extremely entertaining yet shameful.

It did not take long for Nobuyuki's parents to hear wind of their son's new role, and immediately questioned him about it. They were frustrated and disheartened that the boy they wanted to be a doctor was choosing such a strange path - not even concentrating fully on his studies! Arguments involving Nobuyuki's future were by far the harshest, and the initial reaction to the mascot business quickly became physical, bruising him. After realization of the twisted actions they took, Nobuyuki's parents quickly retreated and gave him a little bit of the freedom he needed. However, this particular argument left the boy with a mental scar that ran deep, serving as the base on which his new mask of a personality would be painted on. The fragile Nobuyuki was slowly learning to hide his insecurities from others, because there was no way to tell how people would use his weaknesses to their advantage.

During one of the team’s matches, a streaker made their way onto the field, ultimately ruining the sporty atmosphere the team adored so much. Sensing this, Nobuyuki made the strange decision to chase after the streaker and tackle them to the ground – creating a bizarre-looking chase across the field. A student from the audience managed to capture the goofy pursuit on camera, and uploaded it onto the internet where the video would later go viral. From this, he had a sudden burst of popularity within his school, and Nobuyuki felt truly accepted by his peers for the first time. Despite this, he still didn't think it was 'Nobuyuki' who was on the receiving end of this friendliness. The one he felt the students were looking at was the man who was inside the costume - one they affectionately referred to as 'Yuki'.

His name was suddenly everywhere on social media, 'Yuki' had obtained overnight fame from something so abnormally strange. The video was even presented on worldwide television, and he had offers to attend talk shows and even attend official baseball matches as their new mascot. It was a complete shock to everyone who knew him - especially the ones that knew Nobuyuki before he became Yuki. Now travelling the world, he explored his new 'Yuki' persona and hid the man known as 'Nobuyuki' deep in his mind, afraid to let him come out. As Yuki continued to reach new heights, he became more confident and calm as a way to cope with the sudden attention.

With his strange new career, he caught the attention of the esteemed Hopes Peak Academy. On a flight to another destination, Yuki received an elegant envelope with an invitation to the reknowned school. Perhaps Nobuyuki would have been afraid to take the opportunity to transfer to a new school, with the looming chance he would mess up somehow. But the man reading that letter was not Nobuyuki - it was 'Yuki'. Yuki would never let a chance like that go, as word had it that the academy guaranteed success and wealth in life. With that, he made a dreadful mistake.

►Fun facts/Extra:

His mother is a Jolteon and his father is a Lopunny, they met as co-workers in the same hospital.
His younger sister is an Eevee who was successfully pressured by her parents to study to become a doctor.
The video that made him famous garnered approximately eight million views.
Although he is ashamed of being known for being a mascot of all things, he secretly enjoys it.
Only evolved into an Espeon recently, perhaps a month before recieving his Hopes Peak Academy invitation.