FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Character Name: Dieter Bonifaz (and Schultz the kitsune)

Monster Type: Mad German Scientist who controls multiple Japanese yokai, or demonic spirits, including Schultz, a kitsune familiar he rides in battle.

Fighting Style: Magic Spells, projectiles, and traps that allow him to control the field. Schultz can lash out with hard-hitting, bestial swipes and throws at extreme close range, while Dieter himself summons yokai or tosses armaments and potions to bewilder opponents, occasionally using a priest's gohei wand to strike, the zigzagging paper streamers attached sharpening to act as a whip.(He uses the female priests', or miko's, wand because he has no clue what he's doing.)

Physical Desc: Dieter Bonifaz is a short, nebbish-looking man of German descent; no taller than a beanpole, straggly-limbed; yet this betrays his fiery, ferocious ambition and self-deluded air of pomposity, hinted at in his ridiculous comb over, hair varnished into a garish brassy bronze and rolled into curls that tumble off his head, or in the crazed, faraway stare in his dark, blue eyes, hidden behind the round coke-bottle lenses of his old army-issue glasses.

He was a laughingstock during his stint in the German Army, but his vast scientific knowledge and fervor for developing biological weapons shot him up the ranks and won him the countless garish, chipped medals adorning his green-grey uniform, their luster ironically lost after years of obsessive polishing and upkeep. His uniform is similarly worn down, a dingy grey-green with tears and stitches along the shoulders and down the legs, pockets filled and sides lined with scientific, military and occult tools for harnessing the supernatural; Japanese talismans, vials of toxic serum, grenades, etc. Over his arms and down his waist drape the disfigured sleeves of traditional Japanese Shinto priest garb, once snow-white but sullied grey and appearing to have been hastily stitched to his uniform. His faded black leather boots are marred with scratches and jingle with spurs.

The spurs serve a vital purpose, for Dieter himself has never so much as thrown a punch. No, in battle, the actual character being controlled is the ferocious but put-upon Kitsune, or nine-tailed fox spirit, which Dieter has affectionately named "Schultz." The creature cannot remember its original name. It's even shorter than its summoner and hunches low to the ground in a snarling pose, rich rust-red fur bristling and hazel eyes aflame. Dieter rides it constantly mid-fight, but as Schultz is rather comically small, it looks more like he's resting on a throne. Schultz's hindquarters are larger than its front and his tails bristle and bunch together in one slithering mass tied with a blue bow, taking a chair-like form that Dieter sits upon, resting his head in his hand with an cocky, amused countenance, legs outstretched casually with one boot atop the fox's head. Poor thing even has a pair of braided fur hanging from the sided of its head like pigtails or reins.

Additional Info: In his days serving his homeland of Germany, Dieter Bonifaz was a genius scientist of growing renown, but his potential as a prodigy was always halted by his insurmountable arrogance and need to prove himself. His abilities were great and his passion for developing his weapons research frightening, but in the end, it was all a means to an end, stepping stones on the path to achieving greatness and acclaim. But there always one field of study that called to him like nothing else; the supernatural. The forbidden, unnatural nature of the occult fascinated him to the core, and whilst its unscientific nature obviously eluded him, he dove headfirst into researching potential ways to harness powers outside of human ability or understanding for unparallelled military might.

Trouble was, he was stupendously incompetent in his studies of the occult, and one by one his subordinates and colleagues turned from mocking him for his stature but begrudgingly accepting his skill to admonishing the mad doctor for wasting millions in his failed experiments. The clout earned from his previous glories all but gone, Bonifaz's special R&D division were on the verge of being dismantled and he himself demoted until the war ended with Germany's surrender. Dieter was at a loss and sought asylum elsewhere, but where to turn?

That's when he thought of Japan, a land that long intrigued him. While he knew next to nothing about it beyond stereotypes, he remembered being entranced by the ancient, supernatural mythos of the nation, specifically Shintoism, or his understanding of it. A place where gods reside in all things? What better fertile bounty upon which to hide out and resume his demented research of things beyond our control in peace, until the day he can rise again from the ashes with an army of spirits at his command and restore Germany again to triumph?

After making his escape to Japan, he used his contacts of established fellow asylum-seekers to finagle a marriage with Saeko, a librarian from a family of priests, now named "Brunhilda", and with her unwillful help, succeeded at last in summoning yokai, stating small from the tiny hitodama to what he considers his greatest work, a kitsune named Schultz that he treats much like a pet. The two interact more like a haughty boss and deadpan employee than a master and slave. Schultz is a creature of pride with a forked tongue, fighting for his summoner due to obligation from his summoner's contract(the rules of which Dieter has mastered machine-gun fire recitation of whenever the fox spirit hesitates) than any kind of loyalty and taking any opportunity to pull devious pranks on or spit barbed one-liners that would really put the feeble man in his place if he could only understand the demonic tongue.

Sample win animation: Schultz hisses at the fallen opponent, tails bursting aflame, splitting into nine as Dieter rises triumphantly on one knee, crushing his glasses in his hand and bellowing of his future glories.

Sample win animation 2: a paper background of a cherry blossom tree materializes and Dieter, Schultz and Brunhilda share an awkward picnic meal in celebration, Schultz curled up by himself and grumbling as Brunhilda sighs and brushes his tails. Dieter, meanwhile, scalds himself on green tea.

Sample lose animation: The two are collapsed in a heap, Dieter comically crushed under Schultz's hind legs and tails as the fox keels over, eyes all swirly.

In the ending scene, Dieter finally masters control over what he believes is the most powerful Japanese spirit of all and announces his inevitable takeover of all the world, spiritual power of untold magnitude surging into his being. Then, POOF. The silly man finds himself trapped in a wall scroll, a trick by Saeko and Schultz to escape his insufferable heel. As long as he remains alive, however, the contract of servitude over the fox remains in place, so he and Saeko live the rest of their lives as librarian and begrudging pet, notably removing those humiliating pigtails.

And his name vanished from history, swiftly forgotten and never heard from again. Except as the mildly irritating complaining coming from that haunted scroll in the back room.

Move list samples:

Bombs Away: with a whistle, Dieter summons a single or a group(up to 3) kasa, or one-eyed umbrella yokai, to descend onto the screen, air-to-surface bombs with eyes painted on clutched in their feet. They can either be dropped, or the kasa can feint the enemy out for a second and close their umbrellas, diving headfirst with surprising speed instead.

Will o' the World: summons a wispy, blue hitodama, decked out in army helmet, shades and cigar. Follows the target at moderate speed. An additional input and Dieter tosses a stick grenade inside, enraging it and making it barrel straight ahead for additional damage.

Supreme Slicer: Summons a trio of kamaitachi, or scythe-wielding weasel spirits, which can be used as a simple projectile or as a set-up for numerous combinations. One rolls Schultz into a spiked ball that shreds forward, leaving Dieter scrambling in the center like a hamster on a wheel, and other sends the kamaitachi flying into its tails, creating a vortex of fur that launches the pair into the air for a dive-bomb(Dieter shrieking and clinging for dear life), sweeping across the floor, or drawing the enemy in for a grab move where Schultz wraps them within the tails for a crushing squeeze.

Kami Clobber: Without warning, Schultz's tails squeeze in around an unsuspecting Dieter and the fox whips them around for a punishing slam into the opponent. Dieter is left dazed and agitated afterwards.

Tsuchi Suprise: Summons a tsuchinoko snake, who flails up out of the ground for a split second, precious little warning to a nasty landmine the snake has planted.

Special: Orochi Ordinance: Schultz rears on its hind legs and Dieter rises with it, arm thrust forward as if signaling the first charge on the field. From nowhere, the tips of the fox's tails separate and burst into blue flame, materializing into the heads of the great snake Orochi. They hiss menacingly ad open their maws wide, revealing tank barrels, mortars, turrets and cannons that pulverize the target into smoldering ash.