Name: Sato Yamato/The Nameless Swordsman
Age: 17.
Gender: A dude.
Appearance: Yamato is a giant among other people, easy to pick out from a crowd with his athletic build and towering 6 feet of height. Towering in Japan, at least. His skin is pale, and he has dark brown eyes that shine with an unsettling intensity at times. His hair is a very dark brown, almost black, and he wears it in a short ponytail. Out of school, he wears jackets, jeans and t-shirts, showing no preference for any color, or, indeed, knowledge of what colors he wears. He smiles often enough for a tiny smirk to take permanent residence on his face.
Transformed, Yamato's hair is let down to reach down to the base of his neck, but also looks somewhat tangled, like he hasn't brushed it in a while. His already tall 6' is increased even further by a pair of geta sandals, granting him another inch or so of height. He wears a dark gray hakama-haori combo over a kimono, all of which looks very old and, in fact, is, as proven by how easily it tears. During fights, the haori has a tendency to be torn open even when Yamato has yet to be wounded. This all replaces whatever clothes he wore prior to transforming in a bright flash of blue light. To stop people from instantly recognizing him, Yamato also carries a cheap domino mask around to put on his face while transformed. This is not due to wanting to protect his identity so much as because he views walking around in clothes like this, or, more specifically, walking around without them, as embarrassing.
His sword is a tachi, with a handle covered in white fabric and with a silvery ornament. The guard is somewhat larger than is the norm for a tachi, limiting movement somewhat in exchange for defense of the hands. The scabbard is wood, painted dark gray and wrapped in a light red cord.
Personality: Yamato likes to think he's a nice guy. It's even true a lot of the time. Unfortunately, it's brought down by his unfortunate tendency of thoughtlessly insulting people in normal conversation, then finding something inexplicably funny in their shock. Due to this, the closest 'friendship' he's had with anyone is with his sword. Most friendships he manages to gather are very shallow as a result, and don't last for very long. He also likes to speak in metaphors and cryptic riddles from time to time, and has trouble expressing his true feelings on much of anything. He likes the philosophy of 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst'. He's also stubborn to a fault.
This all manages to combine in such a way, however, that if he thinks something isn't right, there's not many ways to stop him from doing something about it. Even while expressing opinions, he's very vocal about his views.
He enjoys giving others nicknames, even to people he barely knows, and has, in all his life, only used honorifics for his parents. These two are also factors in Yamato's, erm, difficulties with keeping friends. That and the insults. Those contribute too.
Not so deep down, he feels intense guilt over not heeding the sword's calls from the moment he had gotten it, not that he'll ever admit it. On a deeper level, he also enjoys the thrill of battle against stronger opponents, but that is several steps above on the list of things he won't admit regardless of who asks.
As someone who already spends a lot of time on both the Kendo Club and fighting Zoanthropes, he prefers to spend his spare time on quieter hobbies, though that doesn't mean they'll always be unrelated. He particularly enjoys gardening, keeping several plants in his room and throughout the house. He also likes to sit down with some tea and have some quiet time. Studying older history is another interest of his, though that stems back from his interest in swordsmanship. There are all kinds of things one can learn about swords from older texts, and he likes to try to recreate older techniques, especially ones that were never fully recorded.
He's also genuinely glad to be as obscure as he is. If nobody was around to see him fight a Monster or a Zoanthrope, that means nobody was around to be hurt by one, after all. It also means he doesn't really have a fan club, which is also a plus - he's seen the depths fans of other people could reach, and he wants no part in it. As it is, he hasn't managed to avoid one entirely, but his following is incredibly small, and he's fine with it staying that way.
Backstory: Born on the 20th of January, Yamato’s early life was pretty peaceful and ordinary. He grew up in Touto with his parents. They weren’t rich, but they were still well-off enough to have a happy life, even if his parents did tend to argue from time to time. The most remarkable thing, really, was that even that early in life, Yamato relentlessly pursued training with a sword. He joined a kendo dojo at the first opportunity, eventually leaving it for his school’s kendo club instead. Training even in his free time was a common occurrence, and Yamato joined a great many tournaments when possible. He wasn’t sure what drew him to swordsmanship other than fun, but then, what other reason did he need? However, even early on he had been abnormally skilled, surpassing people a decade his senior in the short time-frame between him first officially taking up kendo and his fifteenth birthday.
His fifteenth birthday was, as it turned out, his introduction to the world of the supernatural – the world of magic. It wasn’t anything as blatant as a Hogwarts letter or being caught up in an attack, of course. On his son’s fifteenth birthday, Sato Hiroto, proud of his son, decided to gift him the closest thing the family had to an heirloom. An old sword that had belonged to Yamato’s maternal grandfather (they don’t speak to or of his father’s parents), that had been passed down when Sato Makoto had passed away. It was an old thing, but Yamato was obviously interested in swordsmanship, and this was quite possibly the best thing they could have given him.
Only… The sword wasn’t normal, far from it, and from the moment he touched it, Yamato felt like he was going insane. Thoughts, feelings and images that weren’t his own invaded his every waking moment. It had been difficult just to keep his composure around his parents. Above all else, there was an overwhelming desire to be somewhere else, somewhere he couldn’t point to on a map but felt that, if he were to simply let himself wander, he would definitely end up at.
Three months passed before he decided to test that theory, growing more and more bedraggled as the sword’s insistence that he should go to this or that location escalated. In the end, it was simply to get it to shut up, not that he let anyone know – saying that the voice of the sword only you could hear was telling you to go somewhere seemed like it would be grounds for getting sectioned more than anything else.
As it was, he took a walk late at night, and eventually ended up in a park in one of the less pretty parts of town, just in time to see a great quadruped monstrosity, with oddly angled limbs and covered from head to toe in black fur, take another swipe at a young child. Everything after that was a blur for Yamato, more acting on instinct than anything else. The sword wasn’t in his hand one moment, and the next it was in his hand and mid-swing towards the beast. The first strike was a shallow wound; upon seeing the state of the young child and the numerous cuts that covered his body, the second went considerably deeper. The creature tried to retaliate, forgetting about its prey entirely as it tried to defend. Yamato was skilled, however, and far too skilled for its defence to any more useful than rice paper. It was still a difficult fight, however, as even a single swipe making its way past his guard could result in a fatal injury. In the end, though, the monster died, and Yamato was alone in the park. He understood a few things now. For one, he probably wasn’t insane. And for another… How many people had died? That was the thought he inevitably focused on. How many had died before he just listened? How many were in hospital, even?
Since then, he has been using the sword’s pseudo-GPS to aid those he can. In the two years he’s been active, he has fought numerous monsters of all kinds, and had to deal with a great many things, like people attempting to imitate him. Not many did, and he thanked whoever was listening for his relative obscurity, but even the two teenagers that did pop up trying to do what he did were two too many, in his opinion.
Since the Zoanthropes have started appearing, his sword’s sense for trouble has been growing less and less reliable, a matter of worry for him, and one he intends to do something about.
Battle Theme: Till When?Character Theme: SusanoohAdvantage: Sharpened Counterforce: An overly dramatic name for Yamato's very well-honed skills at countering other attacks. It would not be inaccurate to say that, as countering attacks with a sword goes, he's one of the best. In effect, there isn't a single attack in the world he can't counter with just his blade and his wits, and even regular parries and counters are very strong.
Stats: Melee: 8. While in terms of brute force, Yamato isn't that much better than an ordinary person his age, what he lacks in strength he makes up for in sheer precision and technique. Every single strike is backed by an accuracy most swordsmen can only dream of. Also, while he may not have much strength, cutting things he has no right cutting has basically become second nature by this point, mostly by aiming at weakpoints and faults, and he cuts pretty damn fast.
Ranged: 0. He only has his sword. Even if he had a ranged weapon, though, his accuracy would be so low it might as well be non-existent.
Mobility: 4. Yamato is merely decent with both running and dodging away from attacks, though the former relies primarily on his hyper.
Defense: 7. He prefers to rely exclusively on his sword and countering with it over taking hits. He's also really rather good at it. However, mental effects, and to a lesser extent pain, are also pretty ineffective against him - the sword helps in that regard, but he's pretty resistant on his own too.
Skills:
1.
Initial Sword: Cut the Distance Between [3]
This isn't anything special. Just run at the target with the sword pointed directly at them. Angle the sword so they can't see how long it is, and can't dodge as easily. Not much else to it.2.
Hidden Sword: Turning Swallow Cut [4]
Truth be told, this ain't even my technique, just somethin' I tried out from the few descriptions of Sasaki Kojiro I could find. A fast downwards cut followed by an even faster slash up, in a kind of V shape. Aim for the vital areas, and this becomes REAL good at crippling things.3.
Countering Sword: Prediction Cut [5]
Just barely dodge an attack, and, if you manage to do that, retaliate while the opponent's left an opening. I don't go at it with with all the force I've got, because that's not much to begin with. But they've already left them themselves wide open. If you've done it right, they'll remain nice and vulnerable for a little while longer, thrown off balance as they should be.4.
Hidden Counter: All Things Can Be Cut [5]
Not gonna lie, I don't like using this. You've really gotta empty yourself of all thoughts, and the sword has to FEEL empty, too. But if you can manage it, and focus everything on the Cut... even things like explosions or flame will part before the blade. And with how empty the sword is, it's just waiting to be filled by whatever you've sliced. It'll devour and make fire its own, or consume blasts of all kinds to turn them against their wielders. Doesn't seem that much more effective on living things, but, well... A clean cut IS a clean cut. And this always is.5.
Cut The Distance Between (Sword) [Passive]
Is this even the appropriate name? Well, whatever. Basically, the sword moves where needed faster than before, seeming to almost warp there. Great for blocking attacks, either big ones or lots of small ones, but trying to use it for offense is easy to misjudge. Supers: If I must
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Topic: Rise of the Magic Girls: Rebirth [OOC] [9/10 Players] (Read 12678 times)