Kouichi Aizawa

Appearance
Kouichi is odd looking for someone his 'age'. White hair at fourteen isn't exactly typical, not to mention his piercing crimson eyes. He's very thin, and on the small side. If he uses his shape-shifting ability, his hair looks like feathers for a short time after ward, and his fingers take a while to stop looking like talons.

Abilities
Because of the nature of his creation, he is incapable of dying. This has been his torment through centuries of searching for a way to regain his mortality. Kouichi can also shape-shift into a snowy white owl, which may or may not be his true form. On top of that, Kouichi is an extremely skilled ninja, having had several centuries to hone his skills. He knows many jutsus and has more chakra than most due to his age and the amount of training he's done.

Personality
Though he normally has an energetic attitude when around others, he is serious and relentless when it comes to his ninja duties, and is apparently fascinated with death. It is later revealed that his love of death is a result of his own inability to die. Kouichi rarely does anything to make those around him think that he is anything beyond a fourteen year old student obsessed with Ninja manga and anime. Underneath this facade, Kouichi is a deeply serious and emotional person with a strong heart. He longs for nothing more than to find the Shinrabansho and to have his immortality revoked. His tendancy to joke and laugh with people will rarely give way to a fiendishly dark side who can watch even the most heinous acts with mere curiosity.

The duality of his character is something that can throw anyone who might get to know him for a loop. Most people will never see his darker side, and only know him as the cheerful junior high student. For any who dig deeper than that, they will have to try and comprehend a mind that is centuries old and tired. His true opinion on people is up in the air: Does he like them or hate them? In the end, his own desires seem to dictate that.

History
Kouichi is a 14-year-old junior high student who studies nindo under Kumohira-sensei. He is first seen endlessly pestering Miharu Rokujou to join the club that he and Kumohira have started for 'Ninjas'. Miharu repeatedly refuses him, assuring him that such things as Ninjas don't exist anymore and that he's being silly. Several days later, Miharu is attacked unexpectedly near his home, and he finds a hidden power deep within himself, a Hijutsu called the Shinrabansho. It's Kouichi that shows up in time to stab him with a dagger, putting him out of commission so that he won't activate the ability. Miharu is of course upset by this later, until Kumohira and Kouichi explain that this Hijutsu has killed everyone of its previous owners when they used it because the human body cannot contain its power. They also explain to him the concept of the hidden world of Nabari, where the secret ninja arts have been passed down through the ages and live on in secret societies.Through the first part of the Shinbaransho's journey, Kouichi serves as support, protecting Miharu fiercely and apparantly cheating death more than once. During the Banten ninja's first mission, Kouichi is the one who completes their objective, easily killing a corrupt polititian who was their target despite the fact that he was unarmed. The younger memers of the group, Miharu and Raimei particularly, were extremely disturbed by how easy it was for him.

It's not until after Miharu has vanished, running away to be with Yoite, that Kouichi's true nature is revealed. The two groups from enemy clans, the Banten and the Kairoshu, meet each other while trying to find a way to steal the Kouga clan's secret scroll. During this time, Kumohira-sensei finds that the group from Kairoshu is there as well, and they are all shocked to see that Miharu is with them. In the end, everyone finds that they have been lead into a trap by the Kouga ninjas and the enemies are forced to work together for the first time. Kouichi is apparantly killed, sacrificing himself for Kumohira-sensei. His dying words were strange and left the teacher feeling very disturbed. Later that night, Kouichi showed up unexpectedly to put and end to the mastermind behind the betrayal, again killing like it was nothing to him.

At this point, he was forced to reveal his secret, and stated that he was protecting the Shinrabansho to ensure two things: That something like him would never be created again, and to try and persuade him to grant he and Shijima's wish: to be freed from wandering for eternity. His immortality is attributed to the holder of the Shinrabansho during the Edo Period, who was a medical practitioner, experimenting with placing the wisdom of the Shinrabansho into animals, since humans usually died. There were only two survivors of the experiments, both of whom gained immortality as a result. Kouichi's ultimate goal is to find a way to die, as well as ensure that "monsters like [himself] are never created again." The two survivors were Kouichi himself and Shijima, who had disguised herself as Miharu's pet cat in order to watch over him. Recently to find Miharu and Yoite in order to protect them from an enemy pursuit, he was forced to transform into his owl form. This reverted him to his actual physical age when the experiment was performed on him, making him look several years older. This is the state he will be in when he appears in the facility, just before Yoite was erased.

Facility Facts

 * Kouichi tends to be friendly, he often greets people, but rarely maintains contact.
 * He's got a very close relationship to Shikamaru from Naruto.
 * The Immortal tries to get alone with the Shinobi from Konoha, and help when he can.
 * During touch swap week, Kouichi tried to kill himself out of morbid fascination.