Kaedehara Kazuki (楓原和樹 Kaedehara Kazuki)
Lord Kazuki Kaedehara
Kaedehara Kazuki is a Japanese-born alumnus of Teyvat Academy. He is the current head of the middle-class Kaedehara family and the father of Kaedehara Kanae and the J-Pop idol and member of the band 5WIRL (read as SWIRL). He married Nishihara Kanaha, the daughter of the Nishihara family. He is the grandson of Kaedehara Kayami, and Niwa Yoshinori, who was adopted into the family due to Kayami having no brothers.
Pre-Roleplay
Early Life
Kazuki was born the eldest son of the head of the Kaedehara family, and the grandson of Kaedehara Kayami. Growing up, he was aware of his parents' connections to the Yukimura family, and how that, publicly, the Kaedehara family had nothing to do with the Yukimuras anymore. But he also knew that his mother still cared deeply for Yukimura Kuri and was even aware of the fact that his mother would occasionally send Kuri things she needed - especially to help her take care of her daughter as Kuri was now a single mother. Unbeknownst to most, besides his parents, Kazuki was even introduced to Yukimura Saori when they were children being that they were the same age. They saw each other and played together as children a few times, but this lessened when they both started at Teyvat Academy and, for the sake of public appearances, had to pretend not to know each other. Despite this, Kazuki continued to be irritated by anyone who spoke ill of Saori.Education at Teyvat Academy
While at Teyvat Academy, Kazuki was in the Inazuma Dorm and was part of the Tri-Commission, specifically a part of the sub-unit, the Yashiro Commission, as a member of their kendo team. He was on the team alongside Shimamura Kayo, Kamisato Takeshi, and Yukimura Saori. He was in the same class as Kamisato Takeshi, Nishihara Kanaha, Shimamura Kayo, Fujimori Jun'ichi, Nakahara Akari, Hino Naozane, and Yukimura Saori, and was in the same year as Alice Neuner - a Mondstadt Class student. He was best friends with Shimamura Kayo, Kamisato Takeshi, and Hino Naozane. Through Naozane, he got to know Alice well, but her explosive and pyromaniacal tendencies tended to put Kazuki off when it came to being close friends with her. Despite that, he supported Naozane and Alice's relationship. He would occasionally secretly spend time with Saori, only telling Kanaha about the meetups. But his and Saori's meetings were few and far between. Despite pretending not to know her or be friends with her in public, Kazuki did, unlike most of his peers, treat Saori neutrally and even sometimes friendly. Like Takeshi, he also showed Saori the respect due to her as a daughter of a noble family, but he tended to show more respect for her than Takeshi and displayed a slightly more positive opinion - even in public. In 2007, he competed in the 2006-2007 season of the Japan Schools' Kendo Competition in the Under 19s category, alongside Takeshi, Kayo, and Saori. He made it all the way to the Nationals with the three of them, and faced off against Saori in the semi-finals. In previous competition matches or practice matches, Saori would hold back as a show of gratitude for his subtle friendship with her, but that time didn't hold back at all and completely overwhelmed him. She apologised afterwards, saying that she had to make it to the finals and face off against Takeshi. Unbeknownst to Takeshi, she had actually hinted to Kazuki that she would let Takeshi win, saying that she had to atone for what she had done to the Kamisatos and help Takeshi make his ancestors and Kamisato Aisa proud - and she could only do that by facing off against Takeshi and losing to him, once and for all. Kazuki, however, didn't understand what she meant by that - unlike Takeshi. Before the nationals' competition, Kazuki was also present during a conversation about the fall of the Yukimura family, and was the only one of the group who tried to get a noble boy who was insulting Saori to stop talking as he was talking about how Kamisato Aisa's death affected the Kamisato family, without knowing that Aisa was Saori's grandmother and that her death had also affected Saori and her mother. After witnessing Saori snap and walk off, Kazuki went to go after her but was halted by Takeshi, to the surprise of both Kazuki and Kayo, going after Saori instead. The next day, Kazuki faced off against the boy who insulted Saori in the bronze-match. Fuelled by his anger over what the boy had said, Kazuki almost managed to beat him, but was defeated by a single misstep, and the other boy claimed third place instead. While Kazuki was annoyed, he was still happy for both Saori and Takeshi, who claimed second and first places respectively. In May 2007, he started dating Nishihara Kanaha, his fellow Inazuma classmate and a couple of months later, Kazuki graduated in July 2007 alongside Kayo, Kanaha, Saori, Jun'ichi, Akari, Naozane, and Alice. Shortly afterwards, he attended Takeshi and Kayo's wedding as Takeshi's best man, and a few weeks following the wedding learnt that Naozane had proposed to Alice and Alice had accepted, and that Alice would be moving to Japan to be with Naozane. Kazuki expressed his sympathies to Naozane, saying that he would have his hands full with living with Alice and her pyromania, but was also very happy for his friend, and congratulated the couple. When they then got married in December 2007, he attended their wedding as well, and was also Naozane's best man.Marriage and Birth of Kanae and Kazuha
In February 2008, he married Kanaha, choosing to have two best men and giving the positions to Naozane and Takeshi. He invited Saori to the wedding, and was happy to see that she chose to come, although he was a little disappointed that she chose to only stay for the ceremony - as she didn't want Kazuki to be plagued too much with rumours concerning her presence there. Seven months later, in September 2008, Kanaha gave birth to their first child, a daughter they named Kanae, and two years after, she gave birth to the second child, a son they called Kazuha, in October 2010.Yukimura Kuri's Death
In 2013, Saori's mother, Yukimura Kuri, died. At the time, Kazuki didn't speak much to Saori, busy with raising his two children, who were turning 4-turning-5 and 2-turning-3 at the time. However, he learnt of Kuri's death from his other mother, Aemi, who was visiting Kamisato Takehide, Takeshi's father, often alongside Kazuki's own father, Hisamichi, as Takehide was secluding himself out of grief. Aemi expressed concern about Saori, and Kazuki and Kanaha both made the decision to go and visit Saori, spending the day of Kuri's funeral with Saori. After the funeral, Kazuki learnt that Saori had lost the Yukimura Estate and the Yukimura fortune to a distant family member who possessed Yukimura blood but not the family name due to being the descendant of a female members of the Yukimura family who married into another family. He tried to contact Saori again, but couldn't reach her as it appeared that she had disappeared from society completely.The Fujimori family and Yukiko's birth
Four years after Yukimura Kuri's death, it was revealed amongst the noble families that there was a rumour of Fujimori Jun'ichi's wife, Nakahara Akari, being infertile. While some of the families that the Kaedeharas were affiliated with, like the Kamisatos, were deaf to the rumours that circulated the society of the Japan's aristocrats unless they could affect the family in some way, the Kaedehara family were a family who acted as blacksmiths for the other noble families and therefore often heard many of the rumours that circulated the aristocratic society while doing business with the other nobles. As such, Kazuki heard these rumours about Akari, but initially didn't pay much attention to them. However, not long after, his interest was drawn to them as revised versions began to spread, saying that her infertility was a result of the fact that Jun'ichi had made the cursed daughter of the Yukimura family his concubine. As this was the first Kazuki had heard of Saori in four years, he paid attention to the rumours this time, even more so when they were joined by the knowledge that the Fujimori family had been hit by a devastating drought and had lost almost their entire fortune - another thing that was attributed to Saori's curse. Nine months later, in December 2017, it was revealed that Fujimori Jun'ichi had sired a daughter by Saori, who Saori had name Yukiko. While the society of the nobles were not aware of the reason for why Jun'ichi got Saori pregnant, although most thought it was done in hopes of Saori giving birth to a boy who could be the family's heir - not that there was much left to inherit anymore, it was well known that the daughter possessed the classic pale appearance that most members of the Yukimura family inherited - and also that the child was not allowed to use the Fujimori name. Kazuki once against tried to contact Saori after Yukiko's birth, but Saori refused to talk to him.Marriage Arrangement between the Fujimori family and the Kamisato family
In March 2018, Kazuki learnt that Fujimori Jun'ichi had gone to Kamisato Takeshi and asked Takeshi to accept an arranged marriage between Takeshi's now nine-year-old son, Ayato, and Jun'ichi three-month-old daughter, Yukiko, back in January, when the girl was barely a couple of weeks old. Kazuki learnt of this when Jun'ichi told him about it after his fellow noble went around asking the other noble families to not say anything to the Kamisatos about Yukiko's illegitimacy or the Fujimori family's bankruptcy. Despite Kazuki's close friendship with Takeshi, he agreed not to say anything as he understood that Jun'ichi was doing this to save his family from ruin and nothing that Jun'ichi was hiding would be irreversibly damaging to the Kamisato family. However, seven years later, in 2025, Kazuki was visited by Takeshi on a matter other than just wanting to see a friend. Takeshi told him that he had asked the Fujimori family if he could meet Yukiko, now that the child was seven - especially as Jun'ichi had chosen to homeschool the girl, only for Jun'ichi to tell him that he would rather Takeshi didn't. Takeshi agreed, out of respect for the debt his family owed the Fujimori family, that Jun'ichi was using to keep this arrangement going as he knew his family had nothing to offer the Kamisatos, but couldn't help but be curious as to why he wasn't allowed to see Yukiko. As such, he went to Kazuki, who knew all the secrets of the aristocratic world. Kazuki was reluctant to say anything but Takeshi promised him that nothing Kazuki said would make him go back on his agreement with Jun'ichi, as he was repaying the debt his family owed Jun'ichi's, unless what Kazuki said was something unforgivable. Despite this, Kazuki was still reluctant as he knew that, while the news of Yukiko's heritage wouldn't be anything particularly negative in any other situation, learning that Yukiko was Saori's daughter might ruin the arrangement due to the relationship between the Yukimura family and the Kamisato family. After some more pushing, however, he caved. He told Takeshi about the near-bankruptcy the Fujimori family were facing, and also that the rumours about the girl (confirmed by the small glimpses the other nobles had manage to get of her over the years) said that she was Saori's daughter. Kazuki told Takeshi that he had not been able to talk to Saori and confirm it with her, but that he had also seen Yukiko with his own eyes - albeit briefly - and confirmed that she had the exact same white hair, pale skin and silver eyes that all Yukimuras had. And that he had also heard the girl use the name Yukimura Yukiko to refer to herself, as Jun'ichi didn't let her use the Fujimori name. Takeshi was surprised by this, as he expected some kind of secret, but not that. However, he surprised Kazuki by thanking him for the information and then never bringing it up again, denying the conversation ever happened and allowing the arrangement to continue on. When Kazuki questioned him, he later admitted to only having spoken about the Fujimori family's bankruptcy, which he had only told his son about and no one else and told Ayato that they would not discriminate against the Fujimori family for when they owed the Fujimori family a debt in the first place because the Kamisato family's reputation was on the edge of ruin and the Fujimori family helped them. However, he continued to deny that the conversation about Yukiko's heritage ever happened, and subtly hinted to Kazuki that he was turning a blind eye to it because Yukiko was an innocent party. After picking up on this hint, Kazuki dropped the subject and never brought it up again.Kanae starting at Teyvat Academy
In September 2020, Kanae started at Teyvat Academy. Although Kanae chose to stay in the dorms, in order to be closer to her so that she could visit if she ever needed to, Kazuki and Kanaha bought a house in America within walking distance of the school, where they would live during the school year. When Kazuha started at Teyvat Academy two years later, they extended the same offer to Kazuha, telling him that he could visit whenever he wished. While Kanae didn't visit often, Kazuha would spend most of his time there when he wasn't studying or practicing with the band.Takeshi's Death
In April 2027, Takeshi and Kayo passed away from an illness, leaving the family in the hands of his young son, Ayato. Kazuki attended the funeral with his old friends Naozane and Alice, although he noted that Naozane also didn't look well and worried about whether Naozane was well enough to attend. Following Takeshi's death, he was finally able to get into contact with Saori, and told her about what happened to Takeshi. But also that Takeshi knew about Yukiko being her daughter. Saori was, at first, scared, because she was relying on the marriage between Yukiko and Ayato so that her daughter could live a life where she was protected from the rumours about Saori's family. But Kazuki then told her that Takeshi had known for two years by then, and had had no plans of telling any of his family or breaking off the arrangement. Saori thanked him for telling her before asking him to never contact her again, if he knew what was good for him as it was even more damning to be seen with her than it was when they were younger, and she was also starting to believe that she was cursed herself and didn't want her curse to affect Kazuki or his family. Kazuki protested at first but eventually agreed when Saori kept insisting that he focus on protecting his own family.During Roleplay
Meeting Aether
In December 2027, Kazuki and Kanaha were introduced to Aether Collins, Kazuha's new boyfriend, who was also in the 4NEMO (read as ANEMO) band at Teyvat Academy with Aether. Kazuki almost immediately approved of Aether and Kazuha's relationship, find Aether to be a respectful and kind young man, and a much better person for Kazuha than Kazuha's previous boyfriend, Raiden Kunikuzushi - better known as Scaramouche. Aether would often spend a lot of time at the house Kazuki and Kanaha stayed in during the school year as his own parents were unaware that Aether was gay and Aether was one of the few students who would commute to the school and therefore didn't have a dorm of his own. Kanaha and Kazuki grew to treat him like a son and it wasn't unusual for Aether to not knock before entering when he visited.Taking in Aether
A few months into Aether and Kazuha's relationship, Aether's parents found out about Kazuha and Aether, with help from his twin sister, Lumine, left home and returned to the Kaedehara's place with Kazuha. As Aether was only just seventeen, Kazuki and Kanaha allowed Aether to live with them until he was eighteen. The next year, in February 2029, Aether moved out of the Kaedehara's home and moved in with his twin sister now that they were eighteen. Kazuki and Kanaha helped them to find a small apartment and also helped them to move in.Naganohara family
Around the same time as Aether moved out, in March 2029, the Kamisato family fell into some trouble, and their family was once again on the brink of ruin. In order to save the family, Ayato planned to marry Ayaka to a member of a family that would be able to provide them with some support for a while - as he was already engaged and unable do so himself. Ayato turned to Kazuki for help, as Kazuki had connections with all of the noble families. Kazuki in turn introduced him to the Naganohara family, lead by the family head Naganohara Ryunnosuke. Not long after, Ayato had arranged with the Naganohara family for Ayaka to marry Ryunnosuke's daughter, Yoimiya. The marriage went through and the instability in the Kamisato family settled, and it was later revealed that Ayaka was also attracted to women, and had genuinely fallen in love with Yoimiya.4NEMO's Rise to Fame
In July 2029, Kazuki's son, Kazuha, graduated from Teyvat Academy, and, not long after, the band Kazuha was in that was started during his school years quickly gained international traction. They were soon picked up by a record label, and a management company. Kazuha was given the option to start training as a J-Pop idol, being that he was from Japan, and Kazuki supported his son when Kazuha took the opportunity.2033
After Kazuha's debut as a J-Pop idol and the end of his education in Japan, Kazuha relocated back to America, and moved in with Aether, who had finished studying in Britain himself. Like with when Aether moved in with Lumine, Kazuki and Kanaha helped them find a good apartment and helped them to move in.2036
In May 2036, Kazuki and Kanaha learnt about Kazuha unintentionally ignoring Aether following the accident of Kazuha's friend, Tomo, and expressed their immense disappointment with their son, as they couldn't believe that Kazuha had done something like that to Aether, especially when Kazuha had said he was in love with Aether. In June 2036, Kazuki and Kanaha have Aether, Kazuha, Kanae and Kanae's new boyfriend Thoma, over so the family could properly meet Thoma. Although remaining sceptical of Thoma at first, Kazuki quickly approved of him - especially when he realised that Thoma was the son of Kazuki's old school friend, Hino Naozane. It was also during this meetup that Kazuki learnt of Naozane's death nine years previous, the same year that Kamisato Takeshi had died.2037
In June 2037, Aether and Kazuha finally have their engagement party, almost a full two years after they got engaged, and Kazuki attends the party with Kanaha, Kanae, and Thoma.
Species
Ethnicity
Age
48
Date of Birth
10th of March, 1989
Birthplace
Mihara-shi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Chūgoku, Japan
Family
Children
Pronouns
He / Him
Gender
Male
Eyes
Red
Hair
Platinum blond, with a single orange-red streak
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Fair
Other Affiliations
Cisgender
Sexuality
Heterosexual