Profile

Character name: Oishi Shuichiro
Age: 18
School year: 3rd year HS

House: Pine - Oishi was easily be a toss-up between Mulberry and Pine for his combination of a nurturing (read: mothering) personality and knack for getting himself into situations of unbridled responsibility and stress, but ultimately landed in Pine for his Taurus-like stubbornness. Despite appearances, he can also be more selfish than self-serving when convinced he's right. (Additionally he might have had a personal inclination towards Pine since Tezuka had already been sorted into the house and though he hadn't known him long, was the sort of person Oishi tended to admire– this may have had some effect on the Sorting Hat's choices.)

Familiar: An Asian small-clawed otter named Hokuto.

Wand: 11 inch willow with Konak-jiji hair core. (What better creature than one that beckons you with sympathy for crying babies and then intentionally falls on you to cause you harm…?)

History: Oishi was a muggle-born, having been raised by two ordinary, completely non-magical parents with no knowledge of magical beings and a rather cut-and-dry attitude toward anything that could be considered "supernatural." Though they carried on what would be considered traditional Japanese rites and practices (shrine visits and the like when Oishi was younger) their combined practicality and frankly, lack of imagination, led them to regard anything beyond what could be physically seen as nothing more than superstition. To add to their internal quarrel, their son's "symptoms" of his abilities were a little less than exhilarating, or convincing. The first memory Oishi had of causing anything out of the ordinary happened at a summer festival when he was twelve years old. Despite only being an onlooker at the goldfish-scooping booth and never actually playing, Oishi curiously found himself in possession of at least a dozen fish whose water-filled bags had found themselves tucked into his yukata by the end of the night– the same fish that had earlier been carelessly jumbled about by less considerate children. Children which by the end of the night, were noticing their waistbands were empty. Of course Oishi took them each home and provided immaculate care for them. It was only when he paid visit to the pet store for additional supplies and display fish were leaping out of their aquariums to squirm into his pockets and under his shirt to go home with him, did he (and by extension, his parents) realize something I'm not going to say "fishy was going on" else was at work. He received a visitor from the school shortly thereafter who explained Oishi's abilities to his family, and the nature of the non-muggle world.

Though the explanation was more than anything they could currently come up with, his parents were still dubious about allowing him to attend a school of that nature, rather than follow the easier, more traditional path of schooling at their home in Tokyo. ("Something that might actually procure (him) a job someday." - as they put it.) Eventually the news of Oishi's abilities found their way to his uncle Akitaka, whose stance in supporting his nephew's magical abilities was the hardline opposite. As Oishi would learn, his uncle also possessed magical abilities which his parents (Oishi's grandparents) dissuaded him from pursuing, even keeping from his own brother (Oishi's father) ignorant of in the interest of remaining "normal." Thus, Akitaka's abilities had gone unnurtured.

After some lengthy talks with his uncle, both Oishi and his parents eventually came to an agreement about pursuing magic. Though Oishi would have been content with leading an otherwise normal life in the "muggle" world, the tangible regret of his uncle was enough to push him forward. To help him adjust to this new life, Oishi moved away from his parents (and little sister) out to the countryside with his uncle, to pick up what little knowledge he did have. This of course resulted in a collection of misunderstandings and cluelessness when Oishi did first arrive at Tohoku, and most of what his uncle had taught him had been… incorrect, or at the very least, a little fuzzy. Because of his upbringing, he also tends to associate himself more with the non-magical world than the opposite, always feeling a bit foreign on campus, even after five years at the Academy.

While possessing no particular unique skill with them, Oishi does have some kind of draw for aquatic creatures, a trait apparently passed down by genetics as Akitaka possesses the same. Naturally, while Oishi was gathering his supplies for his first school year and the exotics shop had in stock an aquatic mammal… the setup was inevitable. (Oishi may have spent a good portion of his allowance for the semester on him.)