Yuma Tsukumo @ Cerealia

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Eq
◎ Journal: dreamofpast
◎ Contact: AIM | equalsuffering / impulsives
◎ Current Character(s): Naruto Uzumaki

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Yuma Tsukumo
◎ Character's Canon: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
◎ Character's Age: 13
◎ Canon Point: Post-Canon
◎ Background/History: Here!
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? ...Yeah! He can see Astral who happens to be a spirit/energy being, so he can definitely see those things. But no, he's the furthest person from a hacker.

◎ Personality:
Challenges! Yuma's all about challenging his own limit! And being enthusiastic about said challenges! Yuma's definitely one of the loudest protagonist out of the five current ones for good reason. He's literally a ball of fiery passion and determination if there ever was one. Whether it's about dueling, sports or anything else, Yuma will go full 100% at them, and even if he fails, he'll definitely succeed at them if he kept on trying. It's this key philosophy that kept Yuma going on through his life, whether through the highs and lows, whether the situation is hopeless or not. Yuma will keep on fighting, because if he does that, he'll definitely achieve the endpoint of his goals.

Naturally, with that kind of loud personality, Yuma's also a really personable person. While a bit dense, Yuma can generally befriend just about everyone he meet, whether it's through his challenges, or just his general friendly air. He'll welcome anyone, and I mean anyone into his circle of friends. Even if they were former enemies, Yuma's always willing to give a second chance or maybe even a third chance to those that wronged him before. As long as you don't keep on antagonizing him, you should be fine in his eye. It's only normal that most associate Yuma with having a heart bigger than his own, as well as being that idiot who will keep on fighting for his friends.

Unfortunately Yuma tends to be a bit dense whenever it concerns the other's feelings for him, as he's still at the age where friendship and love tends to blur together. Of course, if one tends to be overt with their feelings, he can clearly realize it and while he will reciprocate, there are times where even that will fly over his head, leaving people the impression that he's sort of clueless when it comes to anything regarding feelings (of love). In addition to that, Yuma tends to say things the moment it comes to his head, which has the chance of sounding dumb in certain situations, but well, Yuma's not really one to take silence that well.

Determination, as stated before, is one of Yuma's core values. Giving up is rarely an option for him, as he will give everything his all in order to succeed. Whether it's to do something like jumping through a high obstacle or winning against his dueling opponent, Yuma is rather difficult to dissuade from achieving his goals. Stopping him is akin to stopping a truck that keeps on accelerating without stop. It's to be expected, then, that Yuma's friends also tends to have to bail him out when they find that he has bitten off more than he can chew, because that determination itself is a double-edged sword. Not giving up can also mean that Yuma can get tunnel-vision at times and forget his limits, which can be quite dangerous in a world where card games can dance between the lines of life and death.

There's also his bond with Astral, the being that came from the Emperor's Key. Astral's one of Yuma's most important bonds in the series, being two parts of a whole quite literally. They're quite inseparable, and will always be there for each other no matter what. Astral's calm guidance combined with Yuma's boisterous personality makes for an interesting combination that can overcome any situations. Yuma views Astral as his best friend and guide, and always looks up to him. Likewise Astral looks into Yuma to figure out the nuances of the world he's currently in, and to learn even more things about being human he could ever know. In fact, it was their bonds that enabled them to join together to form ZEXAL, one of the strongest duelist within the Zexal series.

Though, it wasn't always like that. Yuma used to believe that most of his fights are his own, and that he's not fond of people intruding on it and giving him advices on how to go. He feels that he's not winning by his own power if he kept being helped during his fights, which is why when Astral first appeared, Yuma disliked him by virtue of telling him what to do for all of his duels. Astral's focus on winning the duels and trying to order Yuma around obviously pissed Yuma off, and thanks to that they didn't go off on the right foot. The first few episodes had Yuma distrusting Astral's advice thanks to his dislike of being bossed around, and outright even ignoring him at first, preferring to go against all of his duel advices.

This would not have an impact if Yuma is a good duelist! Which he isn't. No, Yuma, as far as most protagonist of the series goes, lacks any skill whatsoever in Duel Monsters. Of course, while he doesn't let that stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a Duel Champion, it does hinder Astral's quest in retrieving the Numbers. Therefore, until Yuma was more willing to work together, Astral had to think outside the box in order to get Yuma to follow his advices, using tricks such as saying the opposite on what he wants Yuma to do in order to trick him in doing exactly what he wants him to do. Knowing Yuma's hot-headedness and stubbornness in addition to how gullible he is at times, Yuma obviously fell for it. Of course, this dynamic fades as both of them grow closer to each other.

While Yuma disliked Astral's advice, there's no discounting the fact that Yuma's very own fiery attitude as well as Astral's cool-headed balanced each other. As Astral learned more and more about Yuma through his observations and likewise Yuma as he gets used to his new unwanted routine, both of their teamwork slowly starts to improve. With Yuma growing to listen to some of Astral's advice when the situation calls for it, and Astral knowing when to trust on Yuma with his decisions, the two grew into a pair that supported each other really well, almost as if they're both meant for each other. It was Yuma encouraging Astral out of his fear of losing that enabled Astral to access Chaos Xyz Change for the first time, and it was Yuma getting close enough to Astral that he was willing to risk everything when the door told him that he will lose something important to gain ZeXal's power. At that point Astral's considered one of his closer friends, and from then on their relationship can only go stronger.

...Though Yuma always looks cheerful and determined outside. There's times where he is unsure of himself, filled with doubts regarding both his ability and his desire to keep everyone safe. It's through his "Kattobing" spirit that he's able to persevere through most of his things, and without that it's apparent that Yuma's actually pretty downcast and scared beneath it all. Without his determination, Yuma's just a scared kid who's not even sure he could do the right thing and challenge everything. The fact is that "Kattobing" is, like the Emperor's Key, a treasure that Yuma cherished from his father, and without his precious item, he's not even sure he could do anything as what use could he be if he can't even protect his most precious item?

Naturally, losing Astral produces the same effect. These two had been so close together, that when Astral sacrificed himself to stop Dark Mist, Yuma almost broke from the sheer pain of it. Distancing himself away from his concerned friends, and even blaming the Numbers for causing it to happen in the first place. It's such a hard blow that it took Yuma's friends getting into trouble to get him into a semblance of being serious as he's called to fight for them or lose the Numbers Astral entrusted to him. It's not surprising that when they reunited that Yuma's moved to tears.

And like other people, he's afraid of losing, whether it's a match or his important people, and while he does his best to try to look normal, his losses tends to leave a scar within him. His first defeat of Kaito shook him up as it opened his eyes to the fact that what was a friendly competition could've very well killed him. He was so shaken up that he was unable to focus properly until he got some help from his friends to cheer him back up. While he bounced back relatively fast from certain situations, there are times where even Yuma's doubts were too strong that it incapacitated him from doing anything.

Even Yuma himself admits that he's a contradiction, he tends to be interested about teamwork, but at one point refused advices from Astral to work together. How he wished to be a duel champion thanks to the wish he inherited from his father, and how he almost threw it away at the chance of finding his missing father once more. Yuma's words can be the direct opposite of his actions, but he knows of this flaw and continuously tries to fix it. Burning and yet repressed, Yuma's existence is something that can be as bright as the sun, or as calm as the moon.

*Kattobing: Yuma's catchphrase, it means nothing, and is often translated as 'Bring it to em' or 'Hi-Five the Sky'.

◎ Powers/Abilities:
Shining Draw:
The capability to create cards out of thin air. No, really. As he was once a part of Astral, Yuma has access to this capability. However, he's not able to use this willy-nilly, as he could only do so on certain moments with intense positive emotions or more consistently when he's fused with Astral.

Xyz Change ZEXAL:
The capability to 'overlay' with Astral. By fusing their souls together, Yuma gains access to the powerful form ZEXAL, a duelist that's one of the strongest in-universe. In this form Yuma can access Shining Draws more consistently, as well as the capability of manifesting cards outside the AR Space. However, this can only be done within a specific condition, namely that it has to mimic the Astral or the Barian world for this to even be feasible.

This will be updated with the presence of Astral as Yuma is unable to perform this without Astral, obviously.

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:
-1x D-Pad
-1x D-Gazer
-1x Deck

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Fire
◎ Sense: Touch, as Yuma tends to prefer physical contact than anything else.
◎ Seven Character Traits: { Challenge-seeking, Friendly, Determined } | { Doubt, Stubborn, Dense } + Emotional

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample: Here!

◎ Third-Person Sample: A current player!

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Nope.