• Born into a normal family in Japan, his father was a lawyer, and his mother a pharmacist. Ayato is the oldest of three siblings, his younger two being his sisters.

• At a young age, Ayato displayed immense genius in planning and carrying out actions. His talent was so impressive, his father searched for a special school to hone his skills even further. Eventually, he found a school that focused on the brightness and specialty of male students located in Fukuoka, and sent his son there.

• Ayato learned quickly in his classes, oftentimes outwitting his classmates and his peers, gaining both ire and reputation in the same breath. The school was all about repetition, and in the process, was incredibly good at blinding people to the work that was actually being done at the time.

• About a year into the program, Ayato, and several other bright students were put through rigorous and partially horrific training that was outside normal school education- learning the ins and outs of war, how to interrogate and torture for information, how to wield blades and knives in close combat, among other horrible criteria. Ayato took these lessons in stride, despite not knowing any of them before, and excelled in several areas.

• As it turns out, this school was simply a front for a much larger organization working in the background- The New Dawn Initiative (NDI). The NDI is an organization built upon the ideals of military extremists who wish to forcefully take over governments and deny public access to nearly everything to bring about "harmony." They mold children and teens into extremist soldiers who are capable of blending in with society and acting normal until "Operation Zero" is put into action. Operation Zero is the organization’s plan to essentially dominate the world with unexpected military force.

• Ayato stayed with this program and skipped a grade or two, his tactics and wit far superior to his comrades. Unfortunately, his seemingly abundant amount of patience and prominently friendly nature got him kicked out of the school for consistent insubordination. Before returning home, he was taken in by the heads of the program and had his memories of being a part of the NDI’s military regiment suppressed completely.

• Due to being advanced in his learning, Ayato's father had him apply to law school by the time he was 16. He was accepted and began his studies being younger than almost all his classmates, which led to him being left out of a lot of groups as he went through the program. There were very few people who took the time to know him, and even fewer tried to be his friend. He didn't mind this and spent most of his free time taking to haiku, calligraphy, and poetry, finding them to bring comfort and peace in a stressful environment.

• A few years passed and Ayato graduated from law school and his bar examination, leaving him with only his time as a young apprentice at the Legal Training and Research Institute. He began his work as soon as he was able, and in doing so, met someone who had once gone to the same school in Fukuoka.

And that’s when it got weird.

The classmate asked Ayato if he recalled anything odd about the school, and when Ayato admitted he couldn’t, his colleague became more desperate. He was pressed about strategies, interrogations, the ways of battle, how a sword was held in a hand or how you would hold a knife between someone’s ribs. These words struck something in the other upcoming lawyer, and he excused himself, heading back to his living quarters. Once there, things fell apart.

• The reminder of his double-taught life in the school in Fukuoka brought back the repressed memories, causing Ayato to have a nervous breakdown and pause his apprenticeship immediately. He returned home straight after, doing what he could to let his trauma pass and hopefully move on from it. His father was mortified when he discovered what his son had endured, vowing to make things right. He placed Ayato in therapy and began to collect evidence against the school, diving deep into several accounts from other people and their children.

• Over the process of four years, Ayato went to therapy, began to heal from his trauma, and was considering returning to complete his law degree requirements. Despite his father’s protests, Ayato managed to make a compromise with his father to wait until the settlement against his childhood school was finished first.

• Two years would go by before his father had enough evidence to bring the case to court. In the end, the school was found to be at fault and its doors were closed, putting the program and its connections to a complete halt. With this, Ayato returned to finish his apprenticeship as soon as he could, to be the next heir as his father was retiring.

• For a year and a half, things were relatively normal. Nothing seemed to stand out to him, and Ayato continued on his journey to healing and moving on past his trauma. When the second anniversary of the case approached, Ayato’s father took his car around for a leisurely ride, having worked on it several times in the previous month. A few hours later, Ayato’s mother received a call from the police- his father’s car had lost control on the road due to a brake failure, swerved a corner, and tumbled off a cliff, killing his father instantly.

• Suddenly, everything in Ayato’s world seemed to turn upside-down. His mother spent more and more time at work rather than coming home to a house without her husband. As a result, Ayato was left to take care of his younger two sisters. He was given the full responsibilities of running the law firm and making the decisions his lawyers would follow as a whole. Meanwhile, he had the beginnings of doubt as to how his father died- if the brakes on his father’s car had failed, his father would have known and changed them accordingly. Something wasn’t adding up.

• (cw: supposed overdose/suicide) Several weeks after the loss of his father, Ayato returned home to find that his mother had not come home at all that day. She had told him earlier she had a backed-up list of orders that never came through, and needed the extra time to fix the issue so she wouldn’t disappoint her patients in the morning. His two sisters had managed to take care of themselves in the meantime but were concerned as to where she was. Calling their mother’s phone only left an answering machine, and trying to call the pharmacy phone only gave them a constant busy line. Not knowing what else to do, Ayato called the police and asked them to check in on her. After about an hour of silence and no word of anything, he received a return call from his mother’s phone- it was the police. They had found his mother, overdosed on pills, and already dead by the time they had arrived. There was a note left behind, it looked like a clear case of grief leading to suicide.

Ayato, however, wasn’t convinced.

• His world now shattered a second time, Ayato took his grief and his doubts and put them into something useful- using his father’s firm to find answers. With this, he learned two things over time: the first was that he was right, his parent’s deaths were not accidental or planned by them- they were murdered. The second thing he learned was that The New Dawn Initiative, the one he’d believed to be gone and shut down, was anything but. Instead, the organization has roots deep in many places, more than he realized, and one by one, he managed to rat out the moles closest to his remaining family.

• Now left in charge of not only his father’s workplace but also his family, Ayato silently struggled to keep his sisters happy and also remain in their lives. It was a brutal lifestyle to live, one where he barely slept enough on good days, and had pure insomnia on his worst ones. Still, he did everything he could to be with them as much as possible, even as it wore him down.

• On one night after returning home from a stressful case, Ayato could barely keep his eyes open and dozed off on the couch, his lack of sleep finally catching up with him. He couldn’t even make it to his bed due to his exhaustion. This was exactly what the NDI wanted.

Three men had slipped into his home earlier in the day, taking both of his sisters and drugging them to stay fast asleep while they were locked in a closet for the time being. With Ayato now essentially comatose, they made their way to stab his lungs while he slept, every intent of making this into a burglary gone wrong. When they finished with him, they’d go after his sisters next.

Hearing sounds move about, Ayato had managed to at least open his eyes again, struggling to stay awake, only to discover that the edge of a knife was pointed towards him, and more importantly, headed into his ribs.

And that’s when his memories awoke.

• Even now, Ayato doesn’t truly remember how he managed it. What he does remember is the memories of assassination attempts in his past life, where he wasn’t a lawyer but the head of a clan and the entire Yashiro Commission. The memories brought back a flood of adrenaline and Ayato’s exhaustion was forgotten, so he turned the tide on the intruders. Now with three dead bodies in his living room, Ayato quickly searched the rest of the house to find his sisters, relieved to see them alive. He considered the idea of running, of keeping on the move with his sisters so they could never be found again, but decided against it. His life and all his work, his family legacy, it was all here.

So if they wanted to kill him, they would have to come to him first. There was no point in going after his sisters when he kept them close after that.

• Nearly a month later (and after two more attempts at murdering him), Ayato was approached by the Black Order. Already wary of one organization, he was a bit sharp in replying to anything the Order offered. Despite being cunning and clever, Ayato was left with an ultimatum- either join the Black Order and keep your sisters safe, or refuse and lose your memories and powers and try to survive against the NDI on your own. All things considered, it wasn’t a choice at all, and he begrudgingly became a part of their ranks.

• These days, Ayato serves as a mediator in the Black Order’s ranks, helping Guardians find solutions if problems or dislike ever arise. However, if Ayato is sent to a specific place, it’s an important thing: his main task is to settle disputes and find the underlying cause of the discontent and unsettled emotions between parties. From there, he will work as a mediator and the peacekeeper to find avenues that satisfy all ends. To see him out in the field means a mission has gone far worse than the Order cares for.

Unsurprisingly through all this, Ayato only sees his work for the Black Order as "finding solutions to mistakes other members have made." Internally, he harbors no love for the organization he works for and bides his time. For what? Eventually, he hopes, fixing things in the Black Order.

(And by "fixing things," he means murder.)