Name - Mark Hirose a.k.a Josefumi Hirose

Alias -
Devil Fist in the US
Akuma Ken in Japan

Age - 28

Powers -


Weaknesses -

• Blindness: Mark is totally blind. While his abilities help him overcome this, it becomes a problem for him to navigate and fight when his heightened senses are scrambled or can't detect anything.
• Sound and Smell Peak: Mark's superhuman senses render him extraordinarily vulnerable to odours and/or excessive noise, which can temporarily weaken his Radar Sense. Under extreme circumstances he can be easily immobilized, suffer great pain and/or left disorientated.

Previous Affiliation - New Avengers

Personality - Attentive, Friendly, Persistent.

Appearance - Mark is a 5ft 7in male with a muscular physique and an olive complexion. His hair is a dark black and matches to some extent with his dark blue eyes. As he is of biracial descent his facial features are a mix of Caucasian and East Asian, with the majority being the latter.

Not So Brief Bio - Not So Brief Bio - Mark Hirose was born in Tokyo to a Caucasian American mother, and a Japanese father. Apart from the occasional childhood teasing about his heritage, Mark lived a relatively normal life up until the age of nine. As a young Mark was crossing the street with his mother, a Roxxon Oil & Chemical truck caused a traffic collision. The accident resulted in hazardous chemicals splashing into his eyes, with Mark's mother losing her life. Soon the chemicals began to affect his eyes, rendering him blind, with the last thing he saw being his mother.

Mark later woke up in a local hospital to a deafening orchestra of crying infants, thunderous heartbeats, and stomping feet. Immediately, Mark attempted to croak out for his mother, only for the dry, sandpapery texture of his own voice to make him cringe in pain, the incredibly loud sound forcing his eardrums to strain spectacularly. It was, at this time, that he realized something. Something that he hadn't noticed in the initial panic of waking up in an unfamiliar place. Everything was pure blackness. He could not see a single thing around him, and despite his young age, Mark knew what 'blindness' was. He read about it in Science class not too long ago. He couldn't see. He was...He was...

He was being held by somebody, as tears struggled to escape the snug bandages wrapped around his eyes. Soft murmurs of Japanese was being sung into his ears, and although he could not see, Mark automatically knew it was his father. The man's scent was familiar - a deep, metallic tang that came from the man's constant working in the industrial districts. The slightly faster than normal breaths the man took due to the slight damage his lungs had taken from smog and rust. It was all familiar, and as he cried over things that a child should never have to experience, Mark clung to his only lifeline.

Time passed, and Mark never spoke of his heightened senses - some would even say that he had a good handle on the enhanced hearing, smell, and touch, and it even helped him out within life. Once, he was in the bathroom at school, and heard, from practically a mile away, the sound of Shiro, a schoolyard bully a few years older, planning to give him a swirlie. As soon as the loud boy 'quietly' snuck into the bathroom and was about to grab him from behind, Mark turned, slamming his walking stick into the boy's ankle, sending him to the ground, before swinging wildly in the direction he heard the sounds of breathing coming from - hopefully the bully's backup. They all ran away, yelling about the crazy blind kid, and Mark sighed, finishing up with his handwashing.

In this day and age, however, good things came to an end. His dad had taken out a lot of shady loans due to the economic failure within Japan during the 1990s, and the high budget losses his industrial company was beginning to suffer. It caught up to him, and Mark could still remember the day that they busted into their apartment with a shotgun and katana, before stabbing his dad through the heart. "The K'un Lun-kai pays their dues." The man with the slicked back hair stated calmly, and gave Mark, shell-shocked and gripping his walking stick, a wink. The boy waited until they left, before peeling off towards his dad's cold, bleeding body, sobbing as he collapsed over the man's corpse. First, his mother, and now his father.

This tragic incident forced Mark into an orphanage. His father's death also pushed his control over his enhanced senses into a downwards spiral. While at the Orphanage, he was visited by an old man named Orson Randall passing through Japan.
The Old Man promised to train Mark to control and master his "gift" and took Mark under his wing. Orson began a harsh training regime with Mark, often pushing an emotional response from him to teach him to control his anger. Over the next few months and years, Mark became a powerful fighter with almost complete control of his blindness and enhanced senses. Striking out a name for himself, Mark became Akuma before leaving the side of Orson Randall.

Believing that he was capable of taking on the Yakuza clan that shattered his already broken life, he went after them dressed as a bright red demon, starting with the lowly gangs working in the K'un Lun-kai's territory and working his way up. Though he did not stop there. Posing as a rough, able-sighted street orphan with a more 'traditional' Japanese name, he joined the very organisation he despised, and with that, Mark started his two-pronged attack against the K'un Lun-kai.

Eventually Mark's assault on the Yakuza came to a head, when he was personally contacted by the boss of the family, who offered to meet with him one-to-one, face-to-mask. The next night, Mark snuck into the prestigious offices of the K'un Lun-kai's boss, to see the man himself alone. Mark quickly fought expecting the boss to be a pushover, that he would go down easy, but not only was the boss keeping up with him, but Mark was actually having trouble keeping up with him. Eventually Mark slipped up, what felt like a hot sledgehammer hit him in the jaw, nearly shattering it. He looked up to see the boss standing there smiling, his fist glowing a bright yellow. Mark then realised that he was vastly outmatched as he received a vicious beating, nearly ending his life there.
Barely able to stand, Mark just managed to grab a large stapler off of the desk and smacked the boss in the eye, distracting him long enough for Mark to tackle him onto his back. As he knew that the K'un Lun-kai boss would not let him leave here alive at this point, Mark whispered to him "The Devil pays his dues." before he took his life. At this particular moment, as the boss lay there dead, Mark's chest felt like it was burning, as he undid the top of his costume, he noticed a thin black dragon tattoo in the centre of his chest, and his fists glowed with the same golden energy he saw earlier.

Too injured to care, Mark escaped before any of the boss' underlings cornered him and staggered his way home. As he healed from his brush with death, he came under the care of Ms. Daiyu, an elderly Chinese immigrant he had come to know as his neighbour, and his friend. While he waited to get back up on his feet, he heard news that the K'un Lun-kai's boss had been replaced by his more youthful son, that news filled Mark with dread. Would he have the same abilities as his father? Would he better stronger than him?

Mark returned fully healed to both his vigilante work, now with the name Akuma Ken, as well as his position in the Yakuza, he himself now a shateigashira, a supervisor of sorts of the local gangs in the region, and still continues to leak information about the K'un Lun-kai's activities to the police.

Recently, Mark has become proficient with his new found ability and has moved his activities to the United States in order to track down a branch of the K'un Lun-kai. Since coming to the States Mark was offered membership in the New Avengers Academy and aided the premiere Avengers on several defence missions against the likes of Ultron, and AIM. After Captain America was aged several decades it looked like his Avengers Unity Squad wouldn't last, but Mark was one of the first heroes to actually volunteer to join the now struggling program.

Sample Post - Mark laughed as he ran his fingers over the newspaper on the table. Its headline read a simple "DEVIL FIST IN THE STATES". The voice from the other end of the table spoke up. "'Akuma Ken' doesn't quite fit us, I guess." It was the rough voice of Benjamin Urich, who, to Mark, smelt strongly of smoke and disinfectant. "It's ok... More threatening than Akuma Ken, I'll admit that." Mark smiled. "Though, I will say, it doesn't have a better... 'flow', to it."

"Enough about your new name, Mr. Hirose." Urich sat looking impatient. "We should be discussing what your... organisation is up to here in New York." Mark's smile quickly faded. "I told you before, Urich, I'm not actually with them." Ben grinned at that. "Sure, whatever... Now, where is this arms deal supposed to be at?"
Mark sighed before taking off his glasses. "I've been told that the weapons are supposed to be delivered at The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at Pier 12 in Red Hook. They'll be stowed away on a cruise ship, I don't know which one... The weapons will then most likely be taken into vehicles, from there on, I have no idea." Ben nodded approvingly before continuing. "Ok, not that I'm ungrateful that you came to me, but I've seen what you can do from the news coming out of Japan. Why aren't you going after them yourselves?" Mark took his tinted glasses and placed them back on, before giving Ben a good-natured smile. "I'm a little busy at the moment, Ben."