Name: Yatsujima Akio
Age: 18
Appearance:
"Let's finish this."At an above-average 176cm, Akio doesn't really stand out from his peers at a glance. More often than not, it's the fight wounds that cause him to stick out like a sore thumb; hard to cover up bloodstained clothing and bruises from fighting, after all.
Personality: Stubborn at heart, Akio is the type of person who refuses to back down in the face of danger. Regardless of how many times he is beaten down, he rises again and again to face what is in front of him until his body physically cannot support him in doing so. This is not to say that he is persistent to the point of being suicidal, though; so long as he feels that there is a
chance of victory, he will not give up. That persistence does not only apply to fights, of course; when given a line of action or a promise to keep, Akio will hold to it until the job is done, regardless of the toll it might take upon him.
That being said, he
can be a bit blunt at times and often wears his heart on his sleeve—a combination that has led to him getting into more than a bit of trouble with those more inclined to solving problems with than him. With that said, Akio is the type of person more inclined to fight for the sake of others and not his own. It just so happens that all of these things bundled together often leads to his mislabeling as a delinquent in his own right.
Abilities: Beyond the parameter boosts that his Contract bestows him? Nothing of note.
Skills: Akio is fairly proficient at swordplay—a talent which would not have been cultivated had Fumi not decided to train him on a whim. Coupled with the ability to 'read' the flow of a battlefield and his own nature as a person, though, and Akio is a force to be reckoned with.
Equipment: The only real thing of note is the katana he wields in combat. Though it
is a normal katana forged with modern methods, the magical energy that flows into it from Fumi means that it is rather durable compared to an unaugmented blade of the same make.
History: Growing up in a fairly unassuming middle-class family, Akio lived his life fairly free of problems for most of his early childhood. The young child had spent his formative years as many a child would—reading manga, playing video games, and slacking off between classes—and as he entered his final year of middle school, he had assumed things would remain much the same.
They did not.
A freak incident at his school had led to a Grudge wreaking havoc on the building and it's surroundings—to say nothing of the other students and staff there. Though
he had come out of the mess uninjured, the barely-too-late arrival of emergency forces to settle the incident coupled with what he had seen had left a deep impression on the boy. Counseling was a given, but given how there were children who seemed to be more shaken than him about the incident, the young Akio was left to the side in favor of the people who needed it more.
High school, then, began no better. News of the incident had long since made the rounds around the city, and a gang of delinquents thought it funny to press-gang a few of the incoming students more shaken up by that gruesome past into "helping them out", as it were. Stepping
in, though, only served to put him on the receiving end of a rather unceremonious beatdown.
Time and time again, the young Akio would try and step in, only for the routine brawl to break out to try and put him in his place. Eventually, though, Akio began to be able to
fight back rather than be placed permanently on the back foot. One or two people being knocked out of the fight was a great improvement from none, of course, but against the overwhelming odds he pitted himself against, even that much could be considered progress.
It was at this point, though, that one of his
senpai—a tengu by the name of Takenohara Fumi—stepped in and offered to teach him. Akio had blown her off at first, of course; this was
his problem now, and getting other people wrapped up in them was the last thing he wanted to do. But the tengu replied in turn; this was not an offer made of pity, but of honest belief—belief that was rather absent, given his apparent reputation as the local punching bag (that was occasionally fighting back). She wouldn't help him fight herself, of course, but being taught how to fight was different from that, no?
And so the lessons began. Compared to leaving bruised and battered and possibly with a lighter wallet than when he had left, training with Fumi was far more palatable—even if that training left him feeling far worse for wear afterwards. Learning how to use a sword was incredibly straightforward to him, who had only ever picked up a makeshift weapon in those brawls to try and defend himself with, and the constant drills and training exercises had left his body in a far better shape to fight in than before.
Three months had come and gone in the blink of an eye, and Akio soon found himself in yet another brawl with those same delinquents, who at this point had moved on from their initial scheme and only wished to pick a fight with the plucky idiot that served as their stress relief. This time around, though, Akio came armed with a bokuto and experience in fighting beyond that of the simple street fights his opponents were armed with.
Unlike the last fight he had been involved in, Akio came out of
this one on top. Against all odds, the young man, though bruised and battered as ever, had left all of the delinquents lying at his feet this time around. If that had been the end of it, all would have been well. If only.
With their pride wounded, the delinquents (after licking their wounds) came back—this time, armed with a few more weapons and a bit more wariness about them. Though Akio had won the second engagement, the tighter margin by which he had done so had left him with a bad premonition. And so he returned to Fumi once more, earnestly asking the upperclassman if she could help continue training him. She obliged.
Fights had become the norm for Akio by this point, and despite what the adults in his life were trying to do to get him to stop, getting wrapped up in brawl after brawl seemed almost inevitable. Juggling academics, training, and fighting was tiring, of course, but it wasn't like he had much of a say in the matter. Though the delinquents that he had first dealt with were no longer a threat, rumors of his purported strength meant that
others were coming to look for him, too.
And so went Akio's
first year of high school. By this point, though, the young man had set his sights on something more than simply shutting up the people picking fights with him—no, with this sort of power in hand, he could do something
meaningful about the Grudges that continued to pop up across the city. An influx in recent years had not slipped past his attention, of course, but the young man was always left wary after what had happened a few years prior, and if he could help resolve or even prevent another incident like that from happening, then there was no reason not to try.
The only matter on that front that remained to be settled, though, was the matter of being Attuned. Using a Weapon had crossed his mind, of course, but the price of one was no small thing; it made much more sense to simply seek a Contract...
And who better to ask than the youkai who had set this whole thing into motion?
His earnest request on the day of Fumi's graduation was met with a conditional 'yes'—so long as he could show growth in mind and body without her, she would consider it. Given everything that he had gone through, though, Akio took this to mean 'handling the delinquent problem once and for all while also keeping up with his studies'. But with a goal in mind, the young man had no reason to shy away from that challenge now; after all, if he
couldn't handle such a thing, what good would he be against Grudges?
Two years and a new reputation as a fighter (and a bunch of people who had decided to tag along for their own reasons taking up his mantle as a vigilante peacekeeping group) later, Akio once again returned to Fumi to ask her to form a Contract with him. Though the results were not
exactly what she had envisioned, the tengu had no real reason to decline.
Other: Has a little sister who
really doesn't care much for the incidental reputation her brother has gained over the last few years. With their father working overseas and mother in a different city, though, the two siblings are surprisingly close despite their apparent butting heads half the time.
