Name: Toki Yamato
Nicknames: The Bastard of Yamato, Dishonest Mutt
Age: 32
Gender: male
Rank: Assassin
Specializations: Firearms, ambushes
Appearance: Toki stands at 5'7, He seems almost scrawny, but it's clear he is quite fit even despite his looks. His cheeks are a bit gaunt and his nose has broken at least twice. Toki keeps his hair cut short in the style of the foreigners and has decided to go for a mostly shaven look - leaving his thin mustache however. Under his haori he wears foreign clothes - black pants, a thick belt with a sort of bandolier for the shells of his coach gun, riding boots and an officer's coat - he had to pay quite a price for the coat and it is now one of his most prized possessions. He openly carries his foreign weapons on his hip - the coach gun having it's own specially made holster.
Personality: Despite his seeming dishonesty and other less savory antics Toki is quite jovial - lacking the traditional training of etiquette due to his illegitimacy he has no trouble conversing with people from all around the society - from the lowliest peasant to the highest of nobles, or the foreigners for that matter.
Biography: Toki is the youngest - and illegitimate - son of the Yamato Clan - a little clan formerly from the north of Shikoku, now fallen on hard times. He was never quite interested in the 'traditional arts', preferring sake dens and gunsmiths over calligraphy and swordsmanship. He got interested in firearms at a young age - quickly devouring every piece of information about them, the more technical the better! When the black ship arrived he began associating as much as possible with the foreigners - becoming quite adept in their language in the process and managing to make few contacts - contacts he would later use to outfit a squad of men with if not the most modern tools of killing at least with something that would get the job done.
For a while the group Toki gathered were little more than glorified bandits, skirting on the edge of the law and more or less causing trouble and being more a nuisance than any kind of a threat to the Imperial - and by extension to the Shogunates - forces. A change to this came when they openly disrespected an officer - an imperial captain. The captain challenged the crew into a duel on the spot, something Toki felt was plainly idiotic. It was 5 against one and the 5 were armed with coach guns and swords whereas the captain was only armed with his sword. Still, a 'duel' they had. It ended in less than 3 seconds with the captain's body riddled with shot. This action hardly gained them any love from the imperial forces and the men quickly found themselves having to flee their home province.
Now more more or less criminals in the eyes of the imperial forces Toki threw his lot in with the Shogunate properly. The crew 'enlisted' to the Shogunate cause and managed to prove their worth to at least few of the commanders - even though the proper samurai leading them still saw the men as little more than crass and dishonorable fools, their use of tactics more fitting to a peasant rather than samurai was still proving to be very effective. Thus Toki and his little group had gotten - if not an outright pardon, then at least a stay of execution.
When the Shinsengumi was formed Toki managed to get himself aquainted with the group - mostly by cashing in a favour from one of the samurai he had served under, with the caveat that he literally never ask any favours from the fellow ever again. His dishonest and dishonourable creed of 'quick victory, at any cost' may not have made him many friends, but it has made his 'crew'- as he calls the little group of four compatriots he hangs around with, the group he armed before joining the Shinsengumi - a quite effective fighting force.
Fighting Style: Toki's fighting style is quite... Dishonorable to say the least. He never fights alone if he can avoid it and utilizes his squads marksmanship ability as much as possible. If he has to fight alone he will take full advantage of every dishonest trick in the book - be it sand in the eyes or just blasting his opponent from close range with his revolver or coach gun. His defenses consist of him staying quick on his feet and remaining out of sword reach as much as possible, or just simply legging it - often to goad his enemies in to following him to a prepared ambush.
Preferred Weapon(s): Colt Army Model 1860 revolver, a short barreled coach gun without the stock and modified to empty both barrels with the pull of only one trigger, wakizashi for close combat
