Kiyoshi Yamasaka

Appearance
Kiyoshi is of an average build, although he is a bit on the short side, standing at 5’ 5”. His chocolate-brown hair, which matches his eyes, is short on all sides of his head save the front, which covers his forehead in a reverse curtain. His face, however, have very distinct tan-lines which mark where goggles are worn frequently. He also have tan-lines over his body, however, they are not visible until the summer when he wears shorter-sleeved clothing.

FASHION UPDATE: Kiyoshi is about to have a wardrobe change.

Persona
Yan, short for 'Yanluo Wang', the one who the Chinese believe to judge the souls of deceased before they make their way further into Hell. It is clothed in black robes with red rims and its face covered with a red plate of steel that is split down the middle into two sections. Its eyes, however, are yellow and bulging slightly out of the openings in the mask. For its hat, it is the traditional judge's cap, complete with the golden '王' symbol in the middle. Yan is always seen sitting down with a brush in its right hand and floating in front of him is a brown book, said to list the time of death for every soul. When Kiyo wants to analyse something, Yan will run its brush over a page of the book and it will detach. Kiyo will then try to decipher from the page. When Kiyo is finished, the page will vaporise.

Personality
If you are a stranger approaching Kiyoshi, expect to receive the most formal, unsympathetic talks you will ever have with a person. It is common to see him with a thousand yard stare and it happens so often that it looks like there is always something on his mind. He is quiet and cautious towards people that he is not familiar with, to the point that you suspect that he is constantly judging you. Armed with a repertoire of knowledge steadfast enough to challenge the expertise of the teachers in the school, he knows his way out of tricky situations and rarely do you see him panic. If you do happen to be in his circle of friends, he will be very warm, friendly and have a generally cheery aura around him, although he may be awkward at times. His bank of knowledge is always open for business and if you ever wanted your personal counselor, he will always be free to lend a listening ear.

Background
His Chinese mother and Japanese father settled down in Inaba when they had their first and only child. The town of Inaba knows that Kiyoshi's mother suffered a spinal injury when the boy was at 6 years and while she recovered since, she was forced to walk with a crutch for the rest of her life. However, nasty rumors floated about, talking about how Kiyoshi was the cause of his mother's condition. Kiyoshi, suffering from the combined trauma of the incident and the humiliation from the neighbours, championed a crusade of silence. Even with the knowledge that came from working as the resident psychiatrist of the local hospital, Kiyoshi's father has not been able to coax his son out of his shell.

Plot
Kiyoshi has been trying to unite the different factions investigating the Midnight Channel under a single banner and at the same time, work out the murder of Kazuo and the various kidnappings. However, it is difficult to do so with the different groups purposefully withholding information and throwing up walls between themselves. Repeated failures have taken a toll on Kiyoshi's mental health: he is having trouble keeping his destructive impulses down.

Kiyoshi works at the day-care on the hill every Friday after school until evening.

Kiyoshi is now suspicious of everyone that has been in the TV, save those in his own Investigation Team. Kiyoshi is beginning to hate all Persona-users, including people in his own investigation team.

With Mikoto, Ji-woo leaving, repeated roadblocks in investigating the Midnight Channel and less-than-satisfactory results (which are rather high) in academics and swimming, the boy is being slowly driven to apathy.

Kiyoshi was kidnapped and thrown into the TV world, though he doesn't have much against the kidnapper.

He was rescued, though a lot of people went through a lot of pain to get to him. Kiyoshi has reflected and is likely to attempt to make it up to these people.