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Original: Yes
Origin: N/A
Race/Nationality: 3/4 Japanese, 1/4 Sioux
Age: 20
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 70 Kgs
Build: Slim
Hair: Black, shoulder length. Normally loose, put in low ponytail during fights
Eyes: Dark Brown
Typical Attire: Jeans, T-Shirt, black leather jacket. Wears bandages strapped around torso and kimono designed for complete freedom of movement if in fight.
Facial Appearance and other distinguishing marks: Isamu is quite handsome, in a smooth, almost boyish way. He bears a ritual tattoo on his right shoulder blade denoting his level of achievement in Raikoy Yaiba, a tattoo generally updated as the student progresses in rank. Isamu's current rank is that of Lesser Master.
Strengths: Isamu is a prodigy of the ancient art of Raikou Yaiba, a kenjutsu style which concentrates mainly on the speed and accuracy of the sword in battoujutsu, kenjutsu, and Iaijutsu. Given his extensive training in the art, Isamu's speed is at a level very difficult to surpass, and this is his main strength. When without a sword, Isamu uses a mix of Martial arts to defend himself, mostly Karate and Judo, but he is not without several jiujitsu and kung-fu techniques. The intense training, both mental and physical, involved in the study of Raikou Yaiba allows the user to enter a state of focus (known as Shouten) which, for short periods of time, allows them to cut out all distractions, and dodge nearly any attack, from a bullet, moving just before the trigger is pulled, to an arrow, snatching it out of the air. True Masters of Raikou Yaiba stay in a state of semi-Shouten at all times, having developed the mental endurance to do so indefinitely, but Isamu still has quite a lot of training ahead of him before he can reach this level.
Weaknesses: Despite his incredible speed, Isamu is not that incredibly powerful, only moderately stronger than an average fighter. His speed can also be incredibly draining if used for too long, so he generally must either finish the battle in under 10 strikes or revert to the less efficient techniques developed by the founders of Raikou Yaiba to conserve energy in a long fight, allowing perhaps one lightning-strike in case of a very obvious opening. Use of true-Shouten is also incredibly draining on a mental level. If used for too long, the fighter is so mentally exhausted once out of it that he is prone to make bad calls in judgment.
Bio: There once was a woman, born in Japan to an American Sioux Indian immigrant and a Japanese man, renowned as the greatest swordsman of the Raikou Yaiba style in living memory, perhaps the greatest of all Japan. Her mother left her father, feeling that the man loved his style more than he loved her, and took the baby with her back to her people in Montana. The woman grew up on a native american reservation and, after her highschool sweetheart died of cancer, moved to Las Vegas to try and begin afresh. Her life there was simple, she worked as a waitress in a ritzy hotel, and mostly kept to herself. Until the night when He arrived. He was Japanese video game designer, by the name of Itagaki Tomonobu, he was extremely handsome, and he was charming. She was assigned to serve his table, and his unabashed flirting led from one thing to the next. She awoke the next morning in an empty bed with nothing but a business card and an expensive necklace next to her. Nine months later, Isamu was born. He grew up happily with his mother until the day of his second birthday, when his mother was tragically struck by a car and paralyzed from the neck down. Her mother having died some time before, in desperation she called Itagaki Tomonobu, who, wishing to avoid the scandal and dishonor that would result from his having born a child out of wedlock when he was engaged, sent her just enough money to get her to Japan, and her father, young Isamu's grandfather. Sadly, Isamu's mother caught a cold en-route. Due to the state of her immune system, ravaged from an infection from her recent accident, she lived only a month after reaching her father.
And so it was that Isamu, motherless at the age of two, grew up with his grandfather in the strictest of homes, training in Kenjutsu from the moment he could walk and lift a wooden wakizashi. He had few friends in school, with the notable exception of Akechi Hitomi, a beautiful aspiring Aikido-user, with whom Isamu frequently sparred with for hand-to-hand combat practice. His grandfather, however, would allow no one but himself to train Isamu, recognizing that the boy had the potential to become a greater user of Raikou Yaiba than any before him, ironic in a world where the art of the sword was seen as increasingly irrelevant. Grandfather Chihana was a harsh taskmaster, putting Isamu under incredible amounts of pressure to improve and excel. As a result of this and his own natural talent, Isamu's skills grew at an amazing rate until, by the time he had reached 12th grade, he had obtained a red sword-hilt, and received the first mark in his ritual tattoo, signifying that his tenure as a student was over, and he could now teach others, having obtained the title of Assistant Teacher. For most students this took upwards of 20 years, assuming they had a basic background in Kenjutsu, but it had been less than 12 since Isamu had begun his Raikou Yaiba training proper. Against the wishes of his grandfather, Isamu traveled down from Hokkaido to Tokyo with Hitomi in celebration. It was the first time he had left the rural town where the Raikou Yaiba school was since he had arrived there with his mother. Isamu was astonished by the lights and colors of Tokyo, amusing the somewhat more worldly wise Hitomi. They headed to a small restaurant in order to celebrate, and it was there that Hitomi, who had longed for Isamu to be something more than a friend to her for as long as she had known him, received her first kiss. It was also there, with her, that Isamu felt free from the constant pressure his grandfather had put him under to excel, and also felt the first pangs of love for her. He decided that he would not return to the school, but live in Tokyo with Hitomi. Isamu got a job as a construction worker, and Hitomi worked as a waitress in the very restaurant they had first gone to. It was then that tragedy struck again in Isamu's life.
They went out together to a local sake bar once a week for drinks, and Isamu walked Hitomi back to her apartment before returning to his. One such night, a drunk Yakuza gang tried to mug them. Between the two of them Hitomi and Isamu dispatched the group with ease. Except one. Miyamoto Mitsuhide, Kenjutsu master of an unknown style. Isamu's first strike with his wakizashi was ineffective, parried surprisingly easily by the man. Isamu tripped over a large piece of lumber lying on the ground and fell to the ground. Miyamoto brought his sword up to finish off the prostrate boy, then stabbed down. A blur of motion and the blade pierced Hitomi's chest as she jumped in its path. At that point the police arrived, sending Miyamoto running, leaving Isamu cradling Hitomi in his arms as the life slowly slipped from her. Before he had had no reason to train, no reason to learn how to fight besides the pressure his grandfather put him under. He had one now. He would get stronger, stronger so that he would be able to protect those he cared about. Stronger so no one would ever need die for him as Hitomi had done. Stronger so he could find that bastard Miyamoto and kill him.
Isamu returned to the Raikou school and his training, where his grandfather, who had been deathly worried about him, accepted him back with open arms. For the next two years Isamu did nothing but train, gradually gaining titles until he achieved that of Lesser Master on the eve of his twentieth birthday. It was then that he felt it time to take a short break from the school and training, to see how well he had progressed. And so he set off, back to Tokyo, Dai-Katana and Wakizashi in tow, to see whether he had become stronger.
Edited by Steel Samurai, 29 September 2007 - 06:49 AM.
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