Kimotsuki Yorimoto

Yori, as many call him, is a tea master and tea mage. Though, to him they are the same thing. Tea can bring healing, calm, and harmony—from the drink as much as the act of partaking.
  He has a keen mind for strategy, but he gave up being a bushi centuries ago, after he became an imori. Instead he strives to bring peace through serving tea at his tea shop.
  What Yori only tells his most dedicated students is that tea may be like a gate or a portal, transportation to another place. When going to a tea house for the tea ceremony there are certain elements, a journey of sorts, that prepare you for the experience. There may be a stone one has to step on when they cross a babbling brook symbolizing entry to a sacred area or the low doorway one crawls through to humble themselves as they enter a place where everyone is equal. If you know what to look for, even in the drinking of tea, one can be transported.
 
 

Personal History

Life in the Gaia Verse

Yori was born as a human in the Chosokabe Household, to a bushi father and servant mother. He grew up to be a warrior to Lord Chosokabe, like his father.
 
 

Warrior Phase to Imori

Yori is rumored to have had ties with a clan in Iga. But if asked, Yori denies it or changes the subject.
  In the late 1500s, Lord Chokosabe had united the provinces of Shikoku and Yori had served at his lord's side. But in 1585, Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Shikoku and Yori was killed in the battle. Because he was protecting his Lord, upon his death he transformed into an imori.
  Geckos are known as house guardians, and Yori took that to heart. He protected Okou Castle and the Chosokabe clan as best he could until the clan relocated.
  During this time he learned to disguise his gecko nature and appear human. He turned from bloodshed and studied the ways of tea. His studies led him to travel through out Japan where he learned tea magic. Then he reasoned that he'd already given one life for his country. So he used his gecko nature to evade the Tokugawa Shogunate's strict isolation policy. He ventured to China where he learned to combine tea magic with a Qi based medicine study. Finally, he immigrated to the United States.
 

Meeting Shyredfox

In 1851, he was running a tea and Chinese medicine shop in San Francisco. When ShyRedFox entered, he was awed by her beauty, and quickly fetched some of his best teas. He selected a rare yuzu flavored variety and convinced her to stay for a cup and offered advice on how to help her mother's arthritis.
  The two connected over a fondness for tea, learning, and Shy's interest in Japanese culture. He also helped keep her from getting turned around in the growing city. Her family adored Yori for his gentle nature. Later that year the couple married and he gave her a necklace that allowed him to find her whenever she became lost. Little did he know how important that gift would be.
 

Tragedy

After only two short decades together, the pair were torn apart when Shy was kidnapped and enslaved by Black Carl Sasuga.
  Yori, the ever faithful house guardian, spent over a hundred years perfecting tea magic to create portals to trace where she was taken.
 

Arrival in the Tomeverse

In November of 2024—after almost 150 years and a perilous journey, he tracked his wife to the Tomeverse via the necklace.
  The couple’s reunion in Tokyo was a sweet one. Though, while in Japan, the pair discovered many yokai and LitMon needed their help. Yori stayed in Japan, while Shy returned to Meles to try to gather help.
 

Adjustment to a New World

The Gaia Verse, where Yori and Shy were born, is quite behind the Tomeverse in science and technology. So many things Tome Knights take for granted here are new and fascinating, and often frustrating for Yori. Shy, on the other hand, had fifty years in the Tomeverse to adjust before Yori arrived.
 
  After settling in to the Windy Willows, Yori opened up another tea shop. Though, he will wink and tell you it's the same one he opened in 1851.