War Prince Nataku

War Prince Nataku
Fandom	Saiyuki
Gender	Male
Age	13
Aliases	The Puppet Prince, The Killing Doll
Place of Birth	Heaven
Occupation	war god, prankster
Known Relatives	Li Touten (father)
Significant Other	none
Known Abilities	Holy seals, weapons summoning (sword), increased endurance and healing rate as compared to a human
First Appearance	Welcome to the Dollhouse

A pawn who is learning he has a will of his own.

Appearance

Nataku is a young Asian boy with long black hair he keeps tied up in a bun to stay out of his face and the golden eyes that mark him as a heretic. For all intents and purposes he looks like an average but athletic young boy. The only hints to his true nature is the blue chakra on his forehead that denotes him as belonging to Heaven and that his major joints are similar in nature to that of a doll's. These joints are normally covered by the exquisite set of robes he wears; partially because he's considered part of the upper echelons of society and partially because Nataku himself is ashamed of being so different.

Personality

Nataku wants nothing more than to simply be a child. Unfortunately this is easier said than done with the environment he grew up in. He spent his life surrounded by adults with only the tentative affection of his father and the rest either using him for their own purposes or scorning him for his very existence. This resulted in Nataku acting out whenever he could by pulling various pranks in Heaven or sneaking off to the lower world to enjoy himself. Being only a child, he likes to play pranks and explore new places (without adult supervision) and has mastered the art of Escaping From Chaperones.

The War Prince is also lonely. As if being the only child in Heaven wasn't bad enough, Nataku was also born a heretic and thrust into the position of the War Prince during a time of conflict. He's the only one in Heaven allowed to kill, but being forced to be Heaven's personal assassin has left him with a bitter view on what it means to be an adult and to be a god. Unfortunately his love and fear of his father keeps him from ever trying to run from this position altogether; even when it's what he really wants the most.

In battle he's the picture of seriousness even if he can get a little cocky at times. Battle is what he was made for and if he's ordered to the battlefield he will stop at nothing to complete the mission. If his father ordered the kill then he has no choice but to do so. He doesn't like this very much, but it's all he's useful for and he knows that he'll just be replaced when he dies. He just wants to be useful for something and to be cared about someone.

Isn't that all any child wants?

Strengths/Abilities

Being the War God, Nataku spent his life being trained in armed combat-most notably with a sword he is able to summon at will-and has access to various holy magics related to enhancing his strength and sealing demons. His experience in battle has also taught him the value of strategy and using your head and, while still honing this particular skill, he has become pretty good at thinking five steps ahead at a moment's notice while in battle.

Weaknesses

Gods in his world work differently from the gods in most fandoms—they do not age or get diseased, but they are killable, and while Nataku is strong, he is by no means the absolute best fighter out there. He barely managed to return to Heaven alive after his battle with Gyumaoh and had to spend a considerable amount of time recovering. Since Nataku isn't even a full god he's also as prone to infection and disease as a normal human and will heal from injuries at a comparatively slower rate to other gods.

He's lonely, too, and eager to please those he deems friends. Despite being rather smart for a child and having experience with being used, he can easily be manipulated by someone he comes to care about to the point where he will become self destructive. Once he's your friend, if you know how to use him, he will do anything you ask to remain your friend and keep your affection.

He can also get little cocky at times and that can cause him to make mistakes in battle, but what do you expect at his age?

Fears

Nataku's major fear is his own father and, through this, himself. His conditioning under his father's care means that no matter how he feels about it or who interferes he has to do as his father says. His ultimate fear is to be forced to kill someone dear to him. An extreme measure is the only reason he snapped out of this state in the past.

Adults are something he has been conditioned to fear throughout his life. His father uses him and Nataku realizes he was nothing more than a political tool for the upper ranks to use in order to control the lower world. Since an adult never stepped forward to question what was going on in Heaven's higher ranks or were always trying to get power in some form, he grew distrustful and fervently wished he would never grow up.

His most personal fear is a fear of rejection. Nataku spent most of his life being hated by the adults around him and when someone shows him any kind of honest kindness he is quick to attach himself to them and fears that person coming to be afraid of him or hating him.

History

Nataku's story begins with his father: Li Touten. No, it begins a little further back than that. It begins with a conspiracy to overthrow the Jade Emperor. To do this the conspiracy needed someone to visibly be positioning himself to become the Jade Emperor's successor. This came in the form of the man who would be Nataku's father. In order to become successor to the throne he would need some kind of leverage and what better leverage was there than the one thing Heaven lacked?

In Heaven, dear reader, gods are not allowed to kill. Only those who are considered born unclean, who are born of a union between a god and a mortal, are allowed to take a life. These heretics are marked by being born with eyes the color of gold; not yellow, the color of the actual metal itself. Li Touten and all others involved in the conspiracy considered themselves above coupling with a mortal. Besides what guarantee would they have that a child born of such a union would be strong enough and obedient enough for the task at hand? No. What they needed was something that they could shape, something they could mold to their will.

So, in secret, they began experimenting in laboratories to create the perfect killing puppet. All attempts couldn't seem to grow into a human form, much less something intelligent.

Then one did. And the War Prince Nataku Taishi was born. Li Touten took him in and raised him as his own, training and brainwashing the boy and modifying him into a strange mix of organic and mechanical until even he himself was unsure of what exactly Nataku was. All that mattered was that the boy only thought of pleasing him and was a skilled fighter and nothing more. When he presented his "son" to the Jade Emperor, no one thought anything of it. After all, affairs with mortals were normally kept secret and Li Touten's wife had been murdered by rebels some years ago. Many thought in his grief he had snuck down to Earth and had an affair with a demon woman. Whatever his origin the Jade Emperor needed a War Prince to impose his will on the lower world to destroy the demon race that sought to oppose him.

Nataku did not enjoy it. While he loved his father as he had been raise and conditioned to he was still a child and an intelligent one at that. He knew his father was playing politics and more was going on behind the scenes than anyone knew. However he couldn't say anything without risking his father's life and he slowly grew to despise the adults around him. He didn't want to grow up, he didn't want to kill people on the Jade Emperor's orders, he wanted to be an ordinary boy with friends and frolicking in the lower world.

So he acted out, as most children do. The Jade Emperor's palace was not a peaceful place. Pranks were pulled on a regular basis and Nataku often snuck to the lower world to play by himself or to avoid hearing news of a summons. His conditioning would not allow him to ever say no to his father or the Emperor so his small moments in the lower world were his only moments of true happiness.

Then, he met a boy; another heretic like himself from the lower world who was shackled in chains and had no name. He'd been brought to Heaven as an offering to the Merciful Goddess and was put into the care of her nephew.

The two were instant friends, their first meeting cut short by an attendant discovering where Nataku had been hiding from a summons for another mission to seal the demon Gyumaoh who had taken a liking to eating humans and had declared he would one day take down Heaven itself for their war on demon kind. To show Nataku's prowess in battle and to ensure that his puppet would only trust him Li Touten ordered the battalion accompanying him to merely stand there and watch. Nataku won the fight, but was severely wounded. He passed out almost immediately upon his return from the lower world and awoke to find the boy watching over him. The two then made a promise that Nataku would show him his favorite place in the lower world once he was better before they both fell asleep.

He didn't see the boy again until a few days later at the celebration for the Jade Emperor's birthday. Normally the occasion was a mandatory show of loyalty to the Jade Emperor but this year someone caused a riot. This riot was caused by the boy Nataku had befriended and his friends defending themselves from the crowd. They were ordered to leave and Nataku vehemently wished he had the willpower to join them instead of standing by his father's side.

The boy made a third appearance in his life upon arriving back from another successful mission with his father. The boy had cried out to him through the procession to welcome him home and Nataku had been ready to go over to ask him if they wanted to play together.

Only his father leaned in and whispered into his ear:

"That is the heretic born in the lower world, correct? Kill him."

Nataku was unable to disobey a direct order from his father and his own training kept him from attacking anyone in Heaven. The smart thing to do if he wanted to keep the boy he cared so much out out of harm's way was to avoid his friend at all costs.

On the fourth meeting with the boy, all hell broke loose.

The War Prince was being assigned another mission by the Jade Emperor when the boy had burst in, completely terrified and in denial. Somehow he had heard of Nataku's orders to kill him. His father then said it aloud and then the boy attempted to strike Li Touten for ordering his son to do such an awful thing. Nataku's conditioning then kicked in and suddenly he was fighting his friend and the people who came to defend his friend. It came to the point where Nataku had his sword at his friend's throat and was poised to behead him when -

"My name is Goku. Nice to meet you."

That, said in such an honest and cheerful tone, was enough to draw Nataku out of his berserker state. With only a few moments to act he chose the quickest and surest solution:

He drove his own blade into his body, intending to commit suicide. Instead, a grievously injured Nataku lost his footing and fell into the Dollsy House.

Timeline

• Coming soon!

Quotes

• "But I don't know anything you can make without a stove," he said, his shoulders hunching a little at what Larxene said. -hungry little doll all stuffed with fluff
• "It's better than back home: I don't have to do what Father tells me here," he replied happily, swinging his feet beneath him as he looked up to the sky and tried to pick shapes out of the clouds. -Sunrise
• "I do not look like a girl!" he said, his voice going a couple octaves higher and not helping his defense at all. -Something to Read

Relationships

• Zetsu: A father figure
• Courtney Crumrin: Antagonistic friend
• Jonouchi Katsuya: A friend

Trivia

• Until Courtney, Nataku had never met a girl in the same age range as him.
• Nataku likes salty foods, not sweet, despite the stereotype about what kids his age should like.
• Despite his insistence he's "not a girl," Nataku doesn't understand why it should matter if someone was a boy or a girl.
• His default language when the house's ability to translate is down is mandarin.
• Due to the sensitivity of the related issues the mun is playing him as if he wasn't molested by his father despite the canon's heavy hinting.