Answering with less funsies for better insight into Arano and how he came to be one of the power players of the RP.
1) Do you remember the moment you became aware of your spiritual powers? If so, describe the experience. If not, what changed about your life afterwards?
I was six...or eight...the memories are always hazy. Maybe I always had them, and they never wanted me to know it. Maybe I discovered them in one of the few sessions I wasn't held prisoner. It's hard to say. I remember the black shroud, the mask that haunted my nightmares for years to come. Maybe that's why I came to call them what they were to me...Nightmares.
2) If you could be stripped of your spiritual powers and live a normal life, would you? Why? If you were forcibly stripped of your powers, how would you react and what would you do?
I still remember it. It's like ripping off your own fingers, one by one. When that man stole my power, stole a very portion of my soul, it felt less like loss and more like having to say goodbye to someone you had known all your life.
3) How would you describe your life before joining your current organization? Is it better or worse than before?
For better or worse, Cerberus is as much a part of me as I am of it. Chimera found its roots in it, I found the beginning of my grasp on the spiritual in it. Maybe I'm worse off for it morally, but that was my own decision, not Cerberus'.
4) What did you want to be when you grew up? Would you change your profession if you could? If yes, why?
When I grew up...? I...never got to choose. It was never my decision, nothing was. Now? I...I wouldn't mind being a musician. Setting your own hours, working off your own inspirations and experiences...true freedom, I guess.
5) If a Shinigami, describe your overall experience in your time at the Spiritual Arts Academy. In which areas of Zankensoki did you excel and struggle in? If an Advent Human, describe your feelings on your inception and early tenure with your organization.
Though the Hollows no longer haunt my dreams, I still wake up shaking at the memories of my early days in Independent Contracting. Imagine a place where your feelings, your misgivings, all of it is irrelevant in the face of the mission. The mission being that someone, somewhere, has to die. For what's sake, you don't know, but they have to die either way.
6) Where did you learn most of your skills and other abilities? If any, list those who you give credit to for your abilities.
My abilities...? They are my own, at least now they are. Once upon a time, I mutilated my body with the experimentation forced upon me by Chimera, but now? Now I am one with the shadow's, the same dark place that all corruption thinks it can hide. Now I live in it, and I don't like guests.
7) Why did you choose your current division/organization? Were there any other divisions/organizations you were considering enlisting into?
Between the school that treated me like a fourth-grade idiot, the trigger-happy gunslingers who shoved their ideals of justice at you whenever given the chance, and the morally gray professionally organized and internationally funded business? Seemed a pretty obvious choice at the time.
8) Describe your feelings on your organization leader. If a captain or an organization leader, describe your feelings on your subordinates.
I...don't know at this point. Having been at the top, I won't say I envy him. All that planning, that manipulating, that coordinating...I don't know if it's for his sake or the Corporation's anymore. I don't know if it's his volition or his obligation, and that's what scares me. That I'm beginning to accept Ciro's habits and tendencies as commonplace alone makes me question what my time as Chairman did to me.
9) Describe your feelings on your division/organization and your colleagues.
Cerberus: My favorite shithole. No place has ever steeped itself so much in corruption, then dragged itself out. I complain and I criticize, but something about this place...it draws you in. I can't say I'd be anywhere else, if only because this place truly feels like home now.
10) Have you ever been reprimanded by your division/organization leader? How lenient were they? DId you deserve it?
Heh. Hahaha. Ahahahahahahaha. If only you knew, if only you knew.
11) What do you feel is required of you with your occupation? Is it fair? If at all, in what areas are you lacking in?
Oh man, this is a tough one. Required? Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue. I do basically what I've always done: take care of the loose ends Ciro can't be bothered to, and I hunt down and destroy anybody that tries to step in on Cerberus territory. It's not hard, and it's pretty straight-forward when you don't have to deal with cryptic bullshit...which is fairly often.
12) How seriously do you take your occupation as compared to others?
Oh man, hard to say. Once upon a time, it was the only thing that mattered. Another time, I abandoned it entirely for a personal vendetta. Now? Hell, I don't know. I don't think any of us know.
13) What goal do you most want to accomplish in your career? Are you on track to complete that goal?
Been there, done that, tried everything, sucked at some of it. Right where I am now? I'm good.
14) What does ranking mean to you? Are you under- or over-qualified for your current rank? Do you have any ambitions towards a higher ranking? If a captain or organization leader, why did you seek out your current status?
Rank? I'll tell you what a rank is. A rank is a number, a letter, a title, a sequence. It's whatever some pompous, hoity-toity asshat decides he wants his arbitrarily class-based system to be based out of. It's a crutch to lean on, a wall to hide behind, and the day I yield to 'rank' is the day I swallow my eye-patch.
15) Do you feel comfortable in your current division/organization? Is there another division/organization in which your abilities would be utilized more fully? If you have transferred divisions/organizations voluntarily, what was your reasoning for transferring?
If I built my life on what-if's, there'd be too much to talk about. Am I comfortable in Cerberus? No, and I don't ever expect to. If you do, that's probably a bad thing, and you should stop that.
16) Who is your closest colleague? Why? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses?
Ugh. This is a question I hate to answer, but Ciro. No matter how hard I try, how much I hate to admit it, he's everywhere my own interests are, and that involves me with him. By now? We've fought so many horrors, so many monstrosities greater than him or me...hell, I guess he's the only other person I trust in this world to get shit done.
Strengths? Same as always. Memetic manipulation combined with a ruthless streak rolled into a ball of super-strength and the ability to create anything he damn-well wants to.
Weaknesses? Arrogant to a fault, loves to underestimate others.
17) Is there anyone you are eager to meet that you haven’t yet? Why?
If I don't know them, how can I be eager to meet them?
18) Who has made a lasting first impression on you?
...Sayis Inuzuri. I don't feel like I should have to go into details, but any man that can size you up at a single glance and deconstruct every little thing you've said or done...It doesn't sit well...
19) In respect to the tasks of your occupation, do you prefer to work as a part of a team or on your own? Why?
On my own. Why? Because people are dumb. People make mistakes, mistakes I can blame them for. Me? I make plenty of mistakes, but then I'm not blaming someone else for my fuck-up, now am I?
20) If a Shinigami, which do you prefer: Seireitei or the Rukongai? If an Advent Human or Vizard, do you like Tokyo or Japan in general?
What kind of shitty question is that? So much crap happens in Tokyo that it's almost perpetually on fire, yet every other square inch of this country seems to hide some sort of dark, hidden past or a local lightning-breathing all-powerful monster.
21) What are your favorite activities when off-duty?
Oh man, with my job? Sleeping. So much sleeping. All the time. When I can manage it, I try to get the old gang back together. Mouko and Natsumi...we've all lost so much by now. Most of the time meeting up just feels like we're trying to remember the ones' we've already lost.
22) If a Shinigami, how do you feel about the shihakusho? Does it fit your fashion sense? If an Advent Human or Vizard, do you maintain a professional appearance when on-duty?
I don't maintain a professional appearance at all! When you've suffered as much battle damage as I have, your capacity for giving a fuck tends to go out the window.
23) What do you like about your occupation? What do you dislike about it? Is it ethical?
I like the hours, the pay, and the benefits. I dislike the working conditions, disregard of proper protocol, and the paperwork. Also, human experimentation...yeah.
24) If a Shinigami, what does the nature of your Zanpakutou say about you? If an Advent Human, what does your Awakening say about you? If a Vizard, describe your experience when taming your inner Hollow.
Ugh, why do we always have to read so deeply into shit? I can teleport, which is fucking cool. I can control shadows, which is fucking cool. I don't care what it says about me, I just enjoy having cool-ass fucking powers!
25) What is the most evil thing you have ever done?
Uhh...huh. Yeah let me think for a second, this is a genuine toughie...
...Probably snapping my mother's neck while torturing my little sister.
26) What is the most selfless thing you have ever done?
Well if losing an eye to save someone's life isn't selfless...I probably have the wrong definition of it.
27) Who has had the most influence on you? Did they change you as a person in any way?
*sigh*...It's hard to say, really. Just about anyone who manages to challenge my beliefs on something makes a lasting impression. Sayis, Ciro, Ilsa, Mouko...all of them have challenged me in some way or another, and that's influenced me. Has it changed me...? History will decide that.
28) Do you have any rivalries? If yes, how did your rivalry begin? If not, is there anyone whom you are striving to surpass? Why?
I'm not entirely sure when, but somehow this whole "I will fucking kill you" thing between me and Ciro became sorta friendly at some point. Who knew. Also, I think Masato hates me. Just a little bit. Probably the finger thing, and no I won't let him live that down. Was fucking hilarious even if he won't admit it.
29) What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?
When Ciro dragged me into that God-forsaken hell that Tokyo had turned into...too much happened at once. I don't think I could pick any single event out of it, but that whole smear of an event pretty much 180'd my life.
30) How do you feel about fighting? When faced with a potential enemy, how long will you explore diplomacy before action?
Look, I'm not an unreasonable guy. I'm really not. It's just that I'm not patient. So if I want something, and you have that something, and you're not willing to give that something? I will not wait around to ask pretty please with sugar on top. No, I asked for that shit nice once already and if you're going to be a jackass about it I will beat it out of you.
31) Have you ever killed before? If yes, describe the experience and your feelings. If no, how do you feel about killing?
A kill is like ice cream. You can't describe any single one the same, simply because there are too many things that could be different. Me? Killing has this unfortunately easy place in my heart...but yeah, I know. It tends to just...blur all away into this place where I don't have to think about it...until I start thinking about it. That's when it gets bad.
32) When was the time you were the most frightened? Has your life ever been in danger? If so, what crossed your mind at that moment? Which was the most powerful?
Nothing terrified me more than my return to Fukushima, and I do mean nothing. As for danger? My life is always in danger, constantly, all the time. Every day is a fight for survival, whether from shinigami or Hollows or some crazed pschopath high off Cybercell again. Most powerful? Meh, I've never really been in that sort of situation...
...Well, there was this one thing recently. So, say that you and those around you just had a nuclear bomb thrown at you. As the only one capable of removing every single one of those people from the proximity of that nuclear bomb, what do you do? Same thing I did, save them all with one fell swoop. That was pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
33) If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be? Why?
The part where they decided to make me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to the whole 'living' thing. Proven to be quite worth it so far. Just saying, coming into this world the proper way would've been appreciated.
34) What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered of you after your death?
I keep a tally of how many times I've saved Ciro's life. The first line in my will states to reveal that tally in a publicly issued statement. Asshole should know how many times he owes me so he has to pass that onto someone I care about.
