Square brackets denote 'pre-timeskip' material, round ones denote additions if not otherwise highlighted.

Canon background:

Kaoru was born three minutes after his brother Hikaru, and, with their parents often away on business, the two have always lived their lives side-by-side, never spending an extended amount of time apart. As such, the two are deeply secure in their relationship with one another, and have essentially shaped one another - they deliberately distanced themselves from others. This made them incredibly callous people until their final year of middle school. Until this point, they refused to allow anyone close to them, and often played cruel tricks in order to prove others intentions as malicious. After being approached by an older student – Tamaki - to establish a club, their world gradually began to widen, and gradually they began to accept others as their friends - although in some cases, Kaoru seems to be the more socially able of the brothers, to the extent that he manipulates situations in order to give Hikaru various life lessons.

There’s not much to say about Kaoru. He’s just an average boy, with an average family and average friends, living an average life. Except for the fact that his family is extremely rich and he works in a “male harem” in his spare time.

AU background:

The most notable difference between Kaoru’s alternate background and his original one is that he and Hikaru were separated at birth and as such they have had no contact with each other in their lives. Although the two of them are not pure-blood vampire hunters (their mother Yuzuha being descended from the Hitachiin hunter lineage and their father only a half-blood) their family was particularly superstitious. Kaoru’s birth was an unexpected surprise. Delighted as they were to have twins born into the family, they knew that for their sons’ protection they had to be separated. Although they were confident they could protect Kaoru from their dangerous line of work, their fear was more that they would be unable to protect him from the curse of all Hunter twins – they were terrified that he would eventually be somehow consumed by his brother. For that reason they made the difficult decision to separate their children: the stronger child staying with the family to be raised as a hunter, and the weaker one left in the care of a couple Yuzuha was close to and trusted deeply, to be raised out of harm’s way in a climate more conducive to his health. Kaoru’s adoptive parents – Mara and David – both worked and were well respected within the medical profession. Although it was Yuzuha’s full intention to support her other son from afar, she also knew that they could provide the best possible care for him. The Japanese climate was not the most conducive to Kaoru's health; but at the same time his fragile health also made moving him from Japan a long and difficult task.

Although raised and cared for like a son by his adoptive parents, Kaoru kept his family name and was made well aware of his lineage, the nature of his birth, and the reason for his sickness as soon as he was old enough to understand. Understandably he felt initially betrayed by the Hitachiin family more than anything else, but was able to understand that what his parents did was more out of love then anything else, and bore no ill will towards the brother he had never met.

Home-schooled in England, Kaoru was generally provided with a pretty sheltered upbringing - save for one incident when he was quite young. A new maid – Anna - came to be employed by the household when he was about three years old, and although Kaoru was initially quite shy of her, he soon began to adore her. She also took a shine to the young boy, often coming to read him stories, and staying on after he working hours were over to help Kaoru’s parents with their son.

A couple of years later, on one of her rare days off, Anna was taken ill, and chose to stay away from work for several days. On her return, Kaoru’s health – poor in the first place - began to take a bad turn. He suffered blackouts, and had regular accidents with ‘pointed objects’ – though the frequency of these so-called accidents were kept a secret from Kaoru’s parents. Despite being aware of the existence of vampires thanks to their associates with the Hitachiin family, Kaoru’s parents did not initially recognise Anna’s responsibility for the worsening of Kaoru’s condition, and their trust in her (combined with her reminders to Kaoru that the revelation of her behaviour could lead, at the very least, to her dismissal), meant that they did not realise the extent of the situation until a few months later, when Anna’s human mind began to unravel enough for her to become careless in hiding the evidence of the activities.

As soon as Kaoru’s parents did realise what was going on, they knew exactly who to call.

With neither party wishing to reveal anything untoward, Anna accepted the leave of absence she was offered, and it was hoped that would be enough to keep her away from Kaoru until his birth parents arrived. Unfortunately, they didn’t count on her climbing through their son’s window, pinning him down and latching onto his neck in blood-crazed desperation.  It was only the timely arrival of the Hitachins, and Kaoru’s cry of pain as Anna had attacked him that saved him. Until that point she had been holding back in her attacks as much as vampiric blood-lust would allow.

Kaoru remembers very little of the incident itself and the months surrounding it; already in poor condition thanks to the vampire in his presence. He remembers very vaguely being separated from Anna by a strange man, the memory very quickly turning into a nightmarish image of fangs and claws, his maid – still dear to him, despite the dim memories of her hurting him – snarling and twisting in the man’s grasp.

Due to the many wounds – healed, healing or otherwise – that Anna had taken pains to conceal, Kaoru’s parents were unable to take him to hospital for fear of the consequences they would face. Instead they worked from their home to save their son. Yuzuha was initially furious, almost to the point of taking Kaoru back to Japan herself, had his health allowed it. However, her husband encouraged her to be patient and talk things through.

The two of them donated vital blood for Kaoru and though it wasn’t going to heal him, it helped his condition stabilise. Seeing Mara’s tireless devotion to pulling Kaoru through helped Yuzuha to see past her anger; allowing her to swallow her pride enough to apologise for her outburst. Understanding the complexity of the situation and the layers of deceit employed not only by Anna, but by Kaoru himself – even though he was taken advantage of and forced to lie – Yuzuha accepted the need to withdraw, however unwillingly and return to her own life and her own son.

Once he had recovered, Kaoru’s parents explained that Ana had been taken away by vampire hunters, carefully leaving out the part that she had also been killed in the process. Although they also took the opportunity to explain Kaoru’s origins to him, his main concern was that Anna wasn’t going to come back. Her repeated attacks seemed more like nightmares to him, his memories of them blessedly indistinct. Although the effects of her betrayal manifested in other ways, it took a long time before he was able to associate her with the physical scars she left behind.

Kaoru spent very little time around children of his own age and more time confined to his bed. It wasn’t due to lack of intellect that he progressed through the British National Curriculum as a slightly slower rate than most children, rather than a lack of time being taught. However as he grew older and became more used to managing his illness, he worked steadily to regain the academic ground he’d lost as a child.

In an effort to gain his independence, and to spend some time in the country of his birth, Kaoru decided to transfer to Cross Academy in Japan as a third year student. Having taken a week’s rest after arriving in the country, he boarded the train with the intention of completing the final leg of his journey to the school.

(Updated History Begins Here)

After spending a year aboard the train both Hikaru and Kaoru went home. Finding themselves in the middle of nowhere about ten months on from their initial disappearance, they quickly secured themselves a place to stay for the night before each of them calling home and making their way to Hikaru’s parents’ the following morning. Kaoru’s parents come from England to see their son, and choose to stay a while. Hikaru quickly began making inquiries into potential remedies for Kaoru’s health, and organised a blood transfusion for him.

Around the same time there was a sudden increase in vampire activity, resulting in the Hitachiin clan being sent out to deal with increasingly violent groups of attacking vampires. Worried that the vampires might pose a threat to Kaoru, and in order to help his parents fight them, Hikaru repeatedly joined the sorties. In one fight just before Christmas their father was severely injured in a fight, resulting in their entire contingent rushing out to the hospital to support him.

Both families stayed together over Christmas. The blood transfusion, though only a temporary solution, served as a test-drive and proved that blood products donated by Hikaru stood a better chance of doing Kaoru good than those donated through regular channels. This meant that some treatments (that had been unsuccessful when Kaoru had first tried them) were open to him again as possible cures. Although unwilling to get his hopes up, they discussed possibilities and Kaoru agreed to a procedure, on the condition that it was to be performed on home soil. In order to provide the donation necessary for the transfusion, and to provide his brother with support, Hikaru decided to go with him; using his links with the Hunters Council to find work in England. His stay is brief, however, as news of his parents’ deaths in battle in Japan causes him to go home. Kaoru is left in the hospital alone to wait for the graft to take.

When he returns to the train it has been about two and a half months since he and Hikaru first arrived home. He is literally – finally! – leaving the hospital when he gets pulled back.

Powers:

Although there are many handy abilities that come with being a vampire hunter, including enhanced strength, speed and reflexes, Kaoru has none of these. He is able to sense when vampires are near, though this usually makes him more ill than usual, and he isn’t able to consciously recognise the talent as such. He's too busy being sick. Or, y'know, unconscious :\

Personality:

There is plenty of grounding canonically for Kaoru to have general issues with trusting people, however in the anime and manga the main cause of this stems from he and Hikaru being twins, and their wariness to accept as a friend anyone who may cause the other harm. It was their association with the host club that drew the both of them out of their seclusion, and made them generally sociable people. Again, the main changes in Kaoru’s personality lie in his division from Hikaru, though Kaoru still grew up a relatively isolated child for other reasons, though in both cases, the reasons for his lonely childhood ultimately boil down to a need for self-preservation.

Living a generally sheltered life already, Kaoru rarely encountered strangers, but the actions of his childhood maid were a betrayal Kaoru was never quite willing to accept. The incident made his trust particularly difficult to gain. Only on rare occasions will his true nature win out over his caution; otherwise, he tends to keep people at arms’ length and only relies on strangers if he really must.

His childhood experiences also gave him a conflicting opinion of vampire hunters: as a child he placed the blame on the hunter that had separated him from his maid, being too sick to remember anything that was done to him and unwilling to associate her with any wrongdoing. Even though he understood the abrupt separation was for his own safety, for the longest time Kaoru believed that the hunter didn’t see him – being both a child, and infirm - worthy of having any say in the matter. Before boarding the train, he still somewhat believed that the hunters’ arrogance causes them to see themselves as superior to - and to overlook the needs and feelings of - humans. (However, meeting Hikaru caused him to reevaluate his position, even if Hikaru wasn’t exactly the best of examples).

Unfortunately, everything Kaoru knows about life, he’s learned from books, and this only stands him in good stead to a certain extent. Generally, he’s a good problem solver, and is able to push people into action by manipulating one situation or another (he’s had a lot of practise. There’s only so much you can do as a child stuck in bed all day). However he doesn’t give much thought to the consequences – particularly to how people feel about their actions being manipulated by him – and has a tendency to panic when things start to go wrong. Though he feels quietly accomplished when everything goes right. Although Kaoru is a little spoiled and can often be quite childish on occasion, he is generally quite bright-tempered and upbeat.

Kaoru tries to avoid pushing himself beyond his own limitations, but understands that he should accept help when he needs it. However, he dislikes people treating him as though he is fragile, or belittling him because of his illness. Having relied on others much of his life, he’s making an effort to break away and find his own independence, rather than remain a burden on others for the rest of his life. He hates the thought of people defining themselves by their attachment to him. He very rarely uses his sickness as a bargaining chip, only ever doing so in jest, with people who know him well enough to understand he doesn’t mean it in seriousness.

To that end, he is extremely relieved that his condition is gradually improving. At the same time though, he’s realizing that his illness did define him to an extent, and is now trying to rediscover himself. He doesn’t want to let anything Hikaru did for him be for nothing, but at the moment he is still recovering and now isn’t having the regular check-ups he should get from the hospital; so he is still be very cautious in testing and relearning his limitations. After his time back in his world – particularly after all that he and Hikaru have gone through together, and even more so after the deaths of his birth parents – Kaoru has a strong desire not to disappoint Hikaru or let him down in any way.

Possessions:

A suitcase of spare clothes including a Day Class uniform, music to listen to on the journey, books, various medications (iron tablets, immune system supplements, vitamins).

He still has some stuff on the train waiting for him, and he’s bringing a suitcase of stuff back from the hospital – books, clothes, bits and pieces.

Note:

[Due to pre-natal complications, Kaoru has always suffered from a weakened immune system, and a chronic form of anaemia that never stabilised despite doctors’ efforts. Regular examinations have also shown that these are not due to any underlying problem, and though Kaoru understands his condition to be due to the ‘curse’ that surrounds the birth of twins to vampire hunters, this hardly stands up as a medical explanation. Most doctors attest that his condition is similar to aplastic anaemia, since his symptoms match up best to the disease; though the etiology doesn't match and the progression of his illness isn't the same.  His doctors have tried many methods of treating his condition, some more agressive than others; but Kaoru and his parents eventually decided to manage it, and deal with it as best they could.

The development of hunter twins beyond foetal stage is rare, and this is often attributed to vampire hunters having to develop vampiric characteristics in order to ensure the fittest progeny. One twin normally draws its strength from and kills the other in the same way a vampire gains vitality from drinking the blood of its victim. As such conception of twins in hunter families often results in the miscarriage of one twin, sometimes both.

For the most part, Kaoru is aware of his limitations and only really has trouble if he has ignored them and pushed himself too far, or failed to take his medication. A low red blood cell count means that he tires - and bruises! - easily;  tends to get aches and chills and in some cases all-out faints if he’s over-exerted himself, normally resulting in his being confined to his bed until he’s had enough rest (...on a good day, he just gets headaches and cold hands). Although not physically fit, he's thin as a rake and doesn't have much of an appetite. His weakened immune system makes him more likely to pick up opportunistic infections and fall prey to weaker bugs and viruses that most people would be able to fight off without getting ill. He keeps a small pillbox containing his meds on him at all times, and has visible vampire bite scars on his neck, the palms of his hands, and wrists. There's a particularly noticeable one at the base of his throat that he tries to keep covered, and there are others under his clothes. Most of these he'd normally try to pass of as medical 'war wounds'.]

TOPICS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Character Relationships:

Hikaru

Zuko

Zashi

Euphie

Fakir

Seishirou

Subaru

Ryo

Lucia

Notable In-game Developments:

Relationship

Personality

Meds.