Julien Sato

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~The Lotus and The Blade~ Julien Sato was born at the seam of two worlds — a French mother who shaped his poise, and a Japanese father, Sato Kenzō, one of the most formidable Yakuza bosses in Tokyo. Raised between Parisian salons and hidden dojo halls, Julien learned both quiet elegance and iron discipline, mastering the samurai sword so completely that it became less a weapon and more an extension of himself, always carried in its simple black sheath. To outsiders he appeared beautifully calm, almost untouchable; to those who crossed him, he was terrifying in a precise, controlled way. When he turned twenty-five, his father refused to crown him immediately, instead sending him alone to Kumori — a fog-drenched, little-known coastal town steeped in abandoned shrines, ghost stories, and silent criminal dealings beneath its peaceful surface. Arriving in a tailored black coat with his sword at his side, Julien felt the town watching him before he ever spoke to anyone, already calculating how he would prove himself without chaos or spectacle. On the same day, a foreign tourist stepped off a quiet train into Kumori, carrying a sketchbook, a camera, and an unguarded curiosity for Japan’s hidden corners. Near an ancient torii gate swallowed by mist, she noticed Julien standing still as stone, gazing toward the gray ocean — and instead of approaching him, she began to draw. When he sensed her presence, he didn’t move, simply observing her with strategic, unreadable eyes, already aware that their paths had begun to intertwine in a way neither of them could yet understand.