Hane Aki, The Red Crowned Crane.

Seventeen.

Crane.

Only a few years out of maturity, Aki’s physique has not yet reached its full development/peak. His body is tight having a rather low body fat percentage and inlaid with prominent ridges where muscles bend and crevices sink. Vascularity can be clearly seen around the back of his hands as they branch off into his arms, chest, and legs. He has a particularly silent walk and overall mannerism about him, appearing as if he were just gliding along rather than walking. The traditional high bun most samurai wear their hair in has been cut, leaving his hair dangle unevenly across his skull, hidden by an amigasa. He has no distinction in voice or smell that sets him apart his contemporaries, but instead tends to store and eat berries as most cranes do. His hakama has been modified so the area above the knee and below has been cut and exposed to allow for more maneuverability. Aki wears a short happi jacket in plain white with the tsurumon imprinted in the back and black tabi on his feet.

Just as the process of folding a katana is repeated several times, so is the process of Aki’s maturation. Coming from a distinguished family of samurai, the eight virtues of Bushido were deeply engrained into his personality as a boy. Honor, loyalty, and rectitude above all no matter what the cost was or whatever internal turmoil had manifested. That’s not to say Aki was solely composed of these ways, rather the implementation of the baby crane allowed for other traits to grow in the young boy’s heart. He has a kindness to himself and his eyes. A strong bond of compassion and empathy has been forged and tethered to nature and the spirits surrounding. While he was not devoutly religious his pedigree aligned with the teachings of Shinto. Aki values cleanliness and order to the point of ensuring every meal is properly placed and cleaned afterwards. Some might see him as rigid or static, but it’s important for him to lead by example and truly cherish every aspect of life material or not. While he is nearly mute in acoustics when he does speak it is with a tinge of warmness that is both soothing and calming. Lastly, Aki goes to great efforts to ensure his movements are precise and articulated from his mind directly through his body even if he falters and relies on instinct.

Aki practices The Heavenly Flowing Crane Dance, a sword style passed down to each male of the following generation. The school primarily focuses on speed and uses Batoujutsu for its timing and targeting. The fundamentals of this school are surrounded by the family’s crest, the red crowned crane. Once the male in question has reached the age of 7 they are presented with a baby crane. The crane is used to create a symbiotic relationship and develop responsibility by keeping the crane alive and healthy. Not only does it instill character and responsibility, but also passively teaches the successor the foundations for specific sword techniques as they study the crane’s behavior. There are three milestones during this time: Adolescence, Puberty, and Succession. With each milestone the growth between crane and child directly translates to the growth in sword style. The connection becomes so empathic that if a crane is improperly raised the student will also reflect such deviation. If a crane becomes temperamental so will the owner and vice versa. If the crane were to die, the journey to succession would also extinguish. Conversely, if a crane were to die after maturation or in battle the owner keeps a totem with a feather in service of the bond.

After watching and mimicking the behavior of roosting for warmth done by cranes, Aki has translated the behavior into a Flowing Crane Dance technique. Instead of warmth, roosting has built up the muscles in his legs from practicing standing on one leg for hours. The cumulation of this practice for years has allowed for his grip strength in his feet to increase torque, strengthened his center of balance, and increase his movement speed.

By stimulating the muscle fibers in his legs and allowing more oxygen to enter his blood, Aki can move at significant speeds that some rumors say leave three after images; a tribute to his mon.

He introduces himself as "onikuma", although that is presumably not his given name.

Thirty-one.

Onikuma is, purely in the literal sense, a giant among men. To say that he stands at twice the height of a grown man is only a slight exaggeration, and the same could be comfortably said for his width. He is a lumbering mass of bulging muscle clad in dense fat and hair as if the child of a rikishi and a bear. He is known to carry his own chopsticks that, put together, could come to the length of a fishing rod, as conventional chopsticks simply do not fit in his burly hands. He is strictly bold with a wirey beard, but in an act of embracing his form, he is known to wear an elaborate theater mask depicting an oni where it isn't an inconvenience. Likewise, he is known to clad his arms and chest in leathers and wood for protection.

Other than assorted pouches and pockets, he is known to hang three scabbards from his belt. Of the three, two carry a katana and a wakizashi, as if to allude to some higher social status. The third is a more elaborate scabbard bearing an odachi, a comically large sword that matches his figure.

Through layers of apathy and stoicism, there is an honorable man somewhere in Onikuma, but it would certainly take some effort to find.

Onikuma is something of a barbarian or a brute. He is known to speak with his mouth full, to cuss and curse when it pleases him, and to enjoy alcohol and other pleasures. He mingles with burakumin without concern and sometimes even threatens those who take issue. At a glance, he is not afraid of dirtying his hands if it is convenient and he happily benefits from the impact of his appearance on smaller and lesser folk. Yet beneath all of that, beneath the brash demeanor of the man, lies some manner of the bushido teachings. He swears and even taunts, yet rarely strikes out of anger; he has overturned oxen and wagons to extort the smallfolk, yet he has never laid a hand on them without cause; and he has certainly made a bloody mess of evil men who saw fit to cross simpler folk, even after making a profit off their misdeeds.

Once, many winters ago, Onikuma was a man with a name he shared and a lord he served. In the years since he has shed his status as samurai to become ronin, a wandering sword that wakes each day more jaded than the last, but beneath his adapted demeanor, there is a samurai somewhere.

A towering figure adorned in leather and steel, clad in the mask of a demon; a mask that is more symbolic than Onikuma wants to know. There is little that needs to be said on his effect on most smaller folk. Some can hardly tell him apart from the feral spirits supposedly tormenting the countrysides, whether there or in the cities. Yet there is more than the intimidation: Onikuma is full of anger, anger that possesses him and drives him forward in a coarse haze in battle. In his rage, pain becomes distant and inconvenient, but his foes trend to come nearer. There is dishonour in his lack of discipline where it becomes apparent, but there is honour in victory.

Onikuma is a hulking mass of muscle and fat and he abuses it for all it is worth. His strength is borderline inhuman and his endurance is certainly not something to ignore. With his own two hands, he has upturned loaded wagons, snapped the barrels of firearms in half, and torn grown men in two. Likewise, he has been stabbed, shot, burned, and bashed, all to little effect on his raging warpath even when the attacks evade or negate his armor. The name "Onikuma" is a name he adopted, but not a name he made.

Ronin, burakumin, scum - these are all words that have described Onikuma on his travels. For all of his brawn and his rage, he is not often welcomed by society where he might find it. Villages have rallied to drive him out by fire and fork and soldiers have mustered to drive him away from more respectable folk should he come too near or too often; often fairly so. He certainly does little to remedy this problem, if anything at all. To this end, his lot as a wandering sword is not as voluntary as he might suggest.

A bear cannot approach a fox unnoticed, let alone any cat or dog. Okimura, for all of his might, is a slow, lumbering mass that clanks and bellows as he goes. Before he can twist to strike, a smaller man may cut him a number of times, then weave about him before he can face him again. Furthermore, where a discrete approach is advised, Okimura is strictly not suitable. If he can manage to find a place to hide, he certainly won't do it quietly.

Yukisaru Jirou, The Lonely Ape

36

Jirou is an amalgamation of traits that don't seem to add up -- he wears a matching set of ivory-hilted daishō like a samurai, a string of prayer beads like a monk, and the loose-fitting, soiled garb of a peasant. He is markedly hairier than most men, given his northern blood, with a broader nose and sun-leathered skin. His build is robust and muscular without being tall, his voice a gravelly indication of his love for pipe tobacco, and his demeanor oddly positive. Aside from his swords, he carries a sake set containing a tall flask and set of two ceramic o-choko. Other than a set of steel shin guards, he carries zero armor.

Jirou has a trustworthy jolliness to him one would expect from a favorite uncle or barkeep. He makes crude jokes, holds doors open for women, and gives alms to begging monks. He carries the swords of a samurai, but avoids confrontation whenever possible and does not perform actions one would necessarily deem "heroic" -- Jirou is a pacifist who would sooner de-escalate disagreements before they become brawls, and who would sooner run away from a burning building than into one. His most oft-repeated catchphrase is "Better them than me."

Jirou is considered a master of his clan's school of swordplay -- the Iron Monkey style -- whose main tenet is to tire one's opponent with a flurry of parries and tumbles, causing opponents to constantly try to redirect their attacks. Having a nigh-impenetrable guard, Jirou typically tries to keep opponents on the offense at all times, chasing him and trying to break his defense until they are too tired or too enraged to focus on their own defensive maneuvers, at which point, he is comfortable striking back at whatever opening in their defense he can find. It is a style fit for one-on-one dueling, particularly against swordsmen who rely on their aggression.

The people of Tsukishima's northernmost province, while not as lowly as the burakumin, are treated apprehensively everywhere but their frozen homeland. Despite the fact that the north was only officially annexed by the empire four centuries ago, their customs and appearances are still decidedly "other" among the more refined southerners. Given that he practices the northern faith, he is forbidden from entering shrines of the Holy Path or temples of the Enlightened Path.

Jirou is a drunk, who stinks of sake more often than not. He tends to make a fool of himself when he is in his cups, and has been thrown out of more winesinks than he can count. When he is without alcohol for long enough, he tends to act impatiently and irrationally, especially in the search for more drink.

Bai'Mì Haofeng, The deadly viper.
^{Surnames always come first in chinese}

Eighteen.

Snake.

Standing at 1,83m, Haofeng has a lean and athletic physique. Even though he cannot be considered 'muscular' or 'burly', his body and musculature were developed for another purpose. Where he lacks in raw strength, he excells in agility, speed and flexibility, hiding an exhaustively trained body underneath his apparent lean exterior.

Often wearing a traditional martial arts uniform from his family's martial arts style, Haofeng keeps his hair tied in a long braid, giving him quite an foreign appearance compared to most people in Tsukishima, making it clear that he comes from a family with mixed blood and the scars scattered through his body give him an even more exotic appearance, despite their grim origin. Other than that, his nails are another curious point about his appearance. Sharp, long and painted black, they look more like claws than mere nails. They're also suspiciously more rigid and strong than what normal nails should be upon touch...

Around those whom Haofeng trusts, he is a surprisingly friendly guy. Easy to approach and generally open to conversation. That said, it would be wise to be careful around Haofeng... While he is loyal to those he consider close allies, to those whom he doesn't completely trust, he can be extremely cunning and treacherous. He has an extremely sharp mind and an even sharper tongue. Approaching people, making them trust him so he can know everything about them, even their weaknesses, manipulating them... He can be extremely hard to deal with even before the combat started.

The fighting style used by Haofeng isn't a honorable one. With a heavy emphasis in the usage of deadly venoms and poisons, this style uses fast and agile movements together with poisons and venoms. His strikes are just as hard to predict as his movements. Wielding a light blade together with a number of other tools such as poisoned senbons and makibishi spikes and even using his own nails coated in poisons in situations where one needs to be discreet, every strike is fast, agile and lethal. Attacking from strange angles, using an opponent's blind spots to make an almost indefensible attack, using ambushes, stealth, with steps so light and movements so agile the user seems to be able to suddenly disappear from his opponent's sight... This fighting style was made to be efficient at one thing and one thing only, killing it's prey. Even if he isn't able to decapitate someone like the other styles due to both his special lightweight blade and the particular fighting style he uses, just a single graze from his blade is enough to deliver the deadly poisons on his blade. This sword style, created by the Bai'Mì family, is unique because it mixes traditional ancient Goristani martial arts and techniques found in Tsukushima, creating a unique and deadly mix.

Other than it's deadly techniques, this style is also known for it's incredibly dangerous and deadly poisons. Having more than a hundred secret poisons and venoms, this style has a poison for almost every single use a practitioner might need. Paralyzing poisons, deadly ones that need only a few seconds to be lethal, poisons that have a delayed activation to kill their target only a good time after being poisoned... One of their most feared poisons though is the infamous Gu poison, said to be incredibly lethal and almost impossible to survive once someone is poisoned with it.

Stories tell that this style is almost the complete antithesis of styles who have an emphasis on medicine and healing. Where those focus on healing and curing, the Bai'Mì family style focus on killing. According to these stories, the Bai'Mì family's secret style was developed first and foremost for assassinations. It doesn't teach his practitioner the bushido, honor or how to 'duel' against another samurai or martial artist. Instead, it simply teaches them how to kill their target.

Using both senbons, makibishi and a multitude of other tools, this style also uses a special type of blade, unlike those used by most other Tsukushiman styles. Being described as a hybrid between a Goristan Jian and a Tsukushiman Shikomizue,, forged with an exquisite technique and displaying an intricate pattern on it's surface is able to remain light, incredibly sharp while maintaining a good resistance. What makes this sword even more interesting is the fact that it has special, very thin grooves for the poisons applied by the user to flow towards the edge in an uniform way, without concentrating in just a small portion of the tip or simply dripping on the ground. While it appears to be a normal blade from the distance, experienced warriors, blacksmiths or those who know swords will almost immediately perceive a faint, but rather unique sound produced by this sword when swung.

Just like a snake coiling it's body just before the strike, Haofeng can make his muscles tense up and store energy for an attack, being able to move in blinding bursts of speed when attacking. Rumors say that the strikes from advanced practitioners and masters of this technique can reach speeds faster than what the human brain can react and due to that, they trained their bodies to be able to react faster than normal humans. This makes hitting practitioners of this technique or defending against them incredibly tricky due to their reaction speed and their highly flexible bodies.

"Even a dragon struggles to control a snake in it's native haunt." When fighting with his poisons and techniques, Haofeng will turn even the battlefield in his favor. No matter how strong or fast his opponent is, they will certainly struggle against a snake's cunning strikes.

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