Post by Tako on Jun 21, 2015 10:32:52 GMT
Name: Tako Kuhrei
Alias: 'Dangerous Anarchist'
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Appearance:
The above, minus the tattoos. Tako is a punky 16-year-old girl with ridiculous rainbow hair, pink contact lenses to disguise her usual brown eyes, and a fondness for fitness clothing/running gear. She is athletic and clearly keeps in good shape, but she's far from being a muscle-bound hulk. She's just about five foot tall - tall for some parts of the world, short for others.
History:
There are many reasons to strive for strength and power; to change the galaxy, to gain revenge, to protect the ones you love... for Tako, it was never about any of these things. She has always striven for one thing and one thing only: to be the best that she can be, out of love for martial arts and the act of competing. For her, all the glory and the fame that others struggle to receive, all of that is utterly pointless. There is only one person in the world she is concerned about beating: and that is herself, ensuring that tomorrow she is stronger than she is today, and that the day after that, she will be stronger than she was then, as well. This guiding principle has catapulted her through her struggles to the state she stands in today.
For Tako, it all began with her father, Zhili.
Her father was an office worker in the Western Capital but he always dreamed of being something more - something greater than he was. His father had always told him that in the ancient past, he came from a line of great and powerful warriors who had mastered many forms of combat. Naturally, Zhili grew up dreaming about these old days and what they might have been. When Tako's grandfather died, she was just a little girl at the time, Zhili was given the job of cleaning out the old man's belongings, and amongst them he found many ancient scrolls which detailed a glorious form of combat that seemed to rely largely on taking blows in non-vital locations and then stabbing the enemy as hard as you possibly could with a sword.
This, Zhili believed, was the ancient art of Kuhrei Combat that his father had spoken of - but he didn't understand why his father had left it unloved and unspoken of. It became, for Zhili, something of an obsession to discover what more could be learned from these old scrolls.
Zhili quit his job as an accountant and took to training full time. He believed that if he could master the secret techniques locked away in the scrolls, he would be able to restore honour and glory to his family name - he wanted to make Kuhrei Combat something that the entire world could believe in, and he took on Tako as his first - and only - student. He used a real sword, of course, but Tako was given a wooden training weapon to make do with until she was ready to use the real thing.
Tako was only a little girl, but she trained day and night with her father - who had absolutely no natural talent with fighting whatsoever. The pair struggled together, fought together, and grew together. Their bond became great, and Tako felt as though she were becoming truly worthy of the ancient teachings those scrolls imparted for her. The style of combat was painful to use - it required constant, unrelenting focus and an unflinching approach to pain which she found difficult to master, but she never gave up and she always gave it her all.
This period defined much of what would mark Tako out for the rest of her life. She learned that she hated styles which were 'deceptive', and preferred to face every challenge head-on and honestly. She had little patience for what she and her father dubbed 'fancy tricks', and instead sought to direct their personalities through their battle style. Unrelenting, uncompromising, and unconcerned with little things like 'nuance' or 'tact', Tako grew into a strident young woman; principled and ready to take on the whole world if she had to. She thought of herself as being brave and courageous; these qualities may well be factually correct. Her opponents often saw her as being stubborn to a fault, and that, too, may well be accurate.
Tako was always more interested in proving to herself what she might become, her father, though, was concerned with the honour and dignity of his style of combat - and he tried to instil those beliefs in his daughter as well. If they were to be recognized as great fighters, he argued, then they would be seen the world over as champions - their family name would go down in history alongside those of the greatest martial arts schools, and they would be redeemed - as he believed the fact the style had fallen from grace was a terrible stain on their collective honour.
Eventually, her father set off on a quest of his own. He promised that he would return after testing his might against the other martial arts schools of the world. Unfortunately, that was to be a promise he could not keep. When his body was returned to the family home, it was not in triumph, it was run through with his own sword - and that was a terrible realization for Tako. The man she had idolized all her life, who she had hoped would one day guide her to being the best that she could be, was struck down and brutally killed for daring to step foot in realms beyond his might.
Tako was fourteen years old at the time. On that day, she placed her father's sword above the mantle in her family home, and she buried him. Other children might have decided to pursue revenge on their father's behalf - some sane ones might have decided that the risk of continuing this method of combat was simply too great. Tako resolved to do neither thing. She decided that if her father's death was to have any meaning, it would be that she could not back down in the face of great power or opposition. She wept, yes, and she mourned... but she realized on that day that she could not hold a grudge; for if her father had been a greater martial artist, he would not have died. It was not the person who struck him down who was at fault, it was he for allowing himself to be struck down.
She continued to study the scrolls, and she began to enter regional martial arts championships. Where her father had directly strode out onto the world proclaiming his intent and his might, she discovered greater joy in the sporting arena. With her bokken, she competed in kendo championships in all four major cities in the world, and she even won a couple of them. Her dedication and focus was forged in the heat of battle, and she resolved that she would never stop this learning. Even when she won, which was rare but did happen, it was never an easy victory for her - she was always reminded, at every turn, of how many stronger people there were in the world, how many there were who were greater than her. The thrill for Tako was not in besting these opponents, but by taking pleasure in the small ways she might surprise them; the times she was able to score a hit against someone whom she had no business competing with at all.
Often, she trained alone, fighting against her shadow and her memory of herself in the previous day. She watched videos of all her fights obsessively, taking notes on areas where she might improve, the moments she had faltered and the ways she could do better. At the age of 16, Tako decided that she should drop out of school and focus on her martial arts full time. Her mother, long-suffering as she was, did not like this plan, but she knew better than to try and stop her daughter. The zeal that she saw in Tako's eyes reminded her so much of Zhili that it hurt. How could she deny her daughter the right to pursue the dreams that she had always hoped would be hers?
More to the point, Tako had been earning money from her championship victories and near-victories, and she now had amassed more than her father had ever managed. Tako was the breadwinner for the house, and if she didn't pursue her career, it seemed as though there was little chance that she'd ever get the opportunity to make the money she'd need later in life. For all her focus and training, Tako was not exactly gifted academically; she wasn't exactly a stupid girl, but she was blunt and to the point, never one to mix her words, and she'd never be able to obtain the qualifications necessary to win her fortune elsewhere in life. With all that in mind, Tako devoted herself even more intently to the study of martial arts. Without the distraction of schooling to hold her back, she trained obsessively - often as much as twenty hours a day - because she knew that the 9th Centurial Conference Tournament was just around the corner. That, she felt, was where she would have her first true opportunity to test her might and discover the calibre of competition throughout the galaxy.
This was to prove true. Unfortunately, it was also to provide her with the second brutal lesson in her young life.
Tako knew she wasn't going to win the tournament; that wasn't really the point of entering. She just wanted to see if her training over the years had paid off and test herself against some great fighters. Her mother was confident that her daughter would be able to reach the semi-finals at the very least - in fact, many people had bet on her to do very well in the tournament, having followed her career through the junior championships. Despite her young age, she was tipped by many bookies to be a decent competitor, and all of these facts combined to give her a swollen ego that was to prove to be her undoing.
When she stepped up against her first opponent - a namekian - she was ready to give it her all, and then... in literally the opening seconds of the match, the enemy fighter used his stretchy limbs to grab her by the shoulders and fling her out of the ring, resulting in an instantaneous ring out and disgrace.
Tako's confidence was shattered by the experience, and she ran from the arena in tears - which would have been a second disqualification if such a thing were even needed.
She climbed the tallest mountain she could find, far from her family and her friends, and there she tried to get over her failures. It was a brutal, horrible experience. She missed the disruption at the tournament, she missed the formation of the Blue Banner Army, she missed, in fact, an awful lot of things - all because she spent months fighting with herself and her warring heart to try and come to terms with the fact that she had failed.
It wasn't even the fact that she had been beaten which had done such damage to her self-esteem, it was the manner of her defeat. She had been outfought - but she had also been outmanoeuvred; she hadn't had the opportunity to demonstrate her skills, because she'd foolishly allowed herself to be dealt with in the easiest and simplest manner possible. A ring-out. Her father must have been spinning in his grave to think that the daughter he raised could be so easily outmatched.
Amongst the mountains and the wilderness, Tako struggled with herself on a daily basis. Her pride had been mortally wounded, and it took her a long time to come to terms with the fact that she was more arrogant than she had let herself believe. Alone, without the scrolls of her ancestors or the weight of any expectations upon her shoulders, she began to find a kind of peace in her existence. For the first time in her life, she felt as though she were learning what it was to be herself, rather than being what her father had wanted her to be. She didn't want to be an ambassador for her family's style; she wanted to be herself, to see how well she could fight, and what the limits of her power might be.
The epiphany she had up on that mountain top did not come quickly, but when it did come, she knew she could never go back to the way things had been before. She had wept when she fled the stadium because she felt she had let her father down; now, in her heart, she had cut that tie loose. She knew that she could no more let him down than she could raise him up; he was dead and gone, there was no point living her life in order to try and appease a ghost. Or, indeed, to appease anyone else. The only important thing in life was meeting her full potential, and that meant striving ever to better herself - to be the best that she could be, to strike harder, run faster, jump higher, to attain complete physical perfection - because that was what she wanted to do, and living life by anyone else's rules was not a way to find fulfilment.
On the top of the mountain, Tako broke her bokken and swore that she would find her own path - her own strength. She didn't return from that peak until she no longer needed to wield anything but her bare hands, and she could still break the largest rocks and fell the tallest trees with little more than a motion.
When she descended from the mountain, she was a changed young woman. She realized out there, with no distractions and nobody else to guide her or influence her, that the most important thing in life was freedom. Not, as she had thought, some ideal of power or competition; of proving oneself against the world, because if you were truly confident in yourself and who you were, there was no need to do any of that. The important thing, she realized, was having the ability to act as you wanted - and the strength of will not to base what you did on what others might expect you to do.
Her mother was pleased to see her, but even that wasn't to be for long; the world had turned in her absence, and new powers were on the rise. She had underestimated just how much the world could change in a few short months, and the extent of her own changes. Before, she might not have cared about any of it - now, she saw everywhere opportunities to better herself. She still felt that she had so far to go before she reached her goal, and the world seemed to provide endless opportunities for adventure.
Tako had never been one to care much about politics - and she still wasn't - but she resented the very idea of the Blue Banner Army and its rise to prominence. It seemed to her that the Blue Banner was more interested in crushing dissent and stifling expression than it was about any true notions of 'democracy' or freedom. Tako was disturbed by how quickly and efficiently the Army and its robotic overlord had been able to spread out and neutralize all opposition - not to mention that she quickly identified several of the shadier elements she had seen during her days in the fighting circuit had now been absorbed, along with their criminal enterprises, into the umbrella of the Blue Banner itself.
Tako stayed with her mother for a few weeks after her return from the mountaintop in order to discuss what had happened and what might yet happen. She wanted to return to the world of fighting; of martial arts, where she had always felt most at home... but at the same time, she was worried that if she pursued this path, it would inevitably bring her into conflict with people who wanted to use her strength for her own ends. The events of the 9th Centennial Conference had hammered home to her that it was not possible to be strong without also being involved, willingly or not, in the world's troubles - and it also seemed to her that the world was full of many troubles that the average person was only just beginning to understand.
Where there was power, there were those who would seek to use that power - and the idea of becoming some sort of figurehead or weapon for someone else's ends disturbed Tako greatly. She didn't want her mother to be used against her, either. All she really wanted was to complete her training - she still felt as though there was a great deal of power within her that went untapped and unrealized. That thought excited her. She wanted to see how great she might become; but she wanted to do it on her own terms, and owe nothing to anybody else. That was why she again set off on the road - when she was certain that her mother was financially stable, there was no reason to stay any longer. The world was a vast and wonderful place, and there was no way that the Blue Banner Army - or anyone else for that matter - would be able to find her out there.
Of course, this didn't turn out to be true, exactly. After all, there weren't that many people as strong as Tako - whose time in the wilderness had given her new insight into how to control her own focus - and after just a few days on the road she began to encounter people drawn to that strength.
Her first encounter was with a Blue Banner Army force trying to intimidate some locals in a small village into giving up their hereditary treasure. She didn't kill them, but she did beat them, badly, and her decision to allow them to escape was one that would turn out to be one of her greatest mistakes - the report they gave put her squarely on the map for the Blue Banner, and her absurdly uncompromising attitude towards their 'authority' meant that their forces were soon briefed on this 'dangerous anarchist' who was running around the world.
Only time will tell whether that 'dangerous anarchist' winds up leaving any mark at all - or whether she may discover that all she amounts to, in the grand scheme of things, is not so very much after all.
Starting Planet: Earth
Techniques (As a warning, some linked music may include naughty words)
Offensive
N1 Smash It Up - Tako's style of high-velocity martial arts is her pride and joy; the main thing she practices obsessively every day. She incorporates high-speed flight into a wide array of traditional strikes and throws in order to create a dazzlingly fast and graceful style of combat. When she chooses to concentrate, she can deal 33% of her PL in damage for each round spent preparing to strike.
UP2 Helter Skelter - A particular martial arts combination Tako is very fond of - Helter Skelter sees Tako kick her opponent into the air, then spiral up after them, beating her own punted opponent to deliver a vicious heel kick to the back of the head - you better watch out, because she's coming down fast! This attack deals 66% of her PL in damage for each round spent preparing the move.
MP3 Blitzkrieg Bop - When Tako really goes all out with her attacks, the result is terrifying - and usually pretty damaging to the surrounding terrain. In a matter of seconds, Tako can throw out dozens of powerful punches and kicks - the impacts of which are so intense that the earth shakes and buildings don't fair much better. This attack deals 100% of her PL in damage for each round spent charging.
N1 Immovable - The signature technique of Kuhrei combat, Immovable is an energy barrier technique which forms an invisible armour around the skin - although it can still be sensed. When an attack hits the barrier, there is a bright flash of green light which ripples across the skin as the energy absorbs the incoming damage. Immovable absorbs 33% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is charged prior to use.
UP2 Unbreakable - An improvement on Immovable, Unbreakable focuses more power, more quickly than its predecessor. At this level, the user is visibly surrounded by a shimmering heatwave effect even before an attack hits. When it does, the barrier becomes visible as a bright yellow surge across the user's body. Unbreakable absorbs 66% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is charged prior to use.
MP3 Invincible - Tako's ultimate refinement of the principles of Kuhrei combat. Invincible is the final level of the energy barrier chain. At this level, the user is covered in a skin-tight pale red barrier of energy even before an attack hits. When an attack makes contact with the energy layer around them, the user's power surges out in an angry red crackle of power which aims to completely negate any incoming damage. Invincible absorbs 100% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is charged prior to use.
N1 Glorious Dawn - A relatively simple technique. Tako gathers bright yellow energy which travels across her arm, turning a mottled orange, until it is released from her palm as a bright orb about the size of a beach ball and shoots towards the opponent. As an N1 technique, this attack does 33% of her PL in damage for each round it is charged before being released.
UP2 Nova - A more advanced version of Glorious Dawn, Tako gathers far more power - most of it a shimmering white shade - which she releases in an unstable, flaring sphere of energy which detonates with a large explosion when it connects with anything. Nova is a technique which inflicts 66% of her PL in damage for each round it is charged before being released.
MP3 Supernova - Supernova is the final level of the Glorious Dawn line of attacks. Tako actually skips the preparation of gathering energy with control and just puts as much into her outstretched palm as possible. The result is an enormous ball of energy - reminiscent of a new sun, and with all the flaring, crackling power that implies. The supernova will continue to grow until Tako releases it, at which point it will carry on until it hits something and then explode with a mushroom cloud and immense pressure wave - unless it is completely counteracted of course. Supernova inflicts 100% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is allowed to grow in her palm.
UP2 Purple Rain - By splitting the Glorious Dawn as she unleashes it, Tako is able to blast a large number of energy spheres at one or multiple opponents. For some reason unknown to Tako, splitting the sphere before it is ready causes the energy blasts to turn bright purple. Each ball individually is weak, but taken together they would combine to make 66% of her PL in total for each round she charged the attack.
MP3 Purple Haze - An upgraded version of Purple Rain, the principle remains the same, but Tako uses both hands in order to create a truly astonishing number of energy balls. The Purple Haze usually leaves a faint, shimmering purple mist in its wake after the expenditure of such a vast amount of energy. There is no maximum number to the amount of energy balls Tako can theoretically unleash, but in total they can't add up to more than 100% of her PL for each round spent charging.
Support
Flight - You can fly like a bird, soar like an eagle, and zip through the air under your own power. Flight is a single-tier technique which increases its speed along with your PL.
Ki Sense - Tako can sense power levels. For her, she experiences the sensation as a kind of 'pressure' which tells her the strength of people and energy attacks relative to herself in general terms.
Items: 1000 Zenni
One-Use Pod
Techniques marked with a * are yet to have been learned.
Alias: 'Dangerous Anarchist'
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Appearance:
The above, minus the tattoos. Tako is a punky 16-year-old girl with ridiculous rainbow hair, pink contact lenses to disguise her usual brown eyes, and a fondness for fitness clothing/running gear. She is athletic and clearly keeps in good shape, but she's far from being a muscle-bound hulk. She's just about five foot tall - tall for some parts of the world, short for others.
History:
There are many reasons to strive for strength and power; to change the galaxy, to gain revenge, to protect the ones you love... for Tako, it was never about any of these things. She has always striven for one thing and one thing only: to be the best that she can be, out of love for martial arts and the act of competing. For her, all the glory and the fame that others struggle to receive, all of that is utterly pointless. There is only one person in the world she is concerned about beating: and that is herself, ensuring that tomorrow she is stronger than she is today, and that the day after that, she will be stronger than she was then, as well. This guiding principle has catapulted her through her struggles to the state she stands in today.
For Tako, it all began with her father, Zhili.
Her father was an office worker in the Western Capital but he always dreamed of being something more - something greater than he was. His father had always told him that in the ancient past, he came from a line of great and powerful warriors who had mastered many forms of combat. Naturally, Zhili grew up dreaming about these old days and what they might have been. When Tako's grandfather died, she was just a little girl at the time, Zhili was given the job of cleaning out the old man's belongings, and amongst them he found many ancient scrolls which detailed a glorious form of combat that seemed to rely largely on taking blows in non-vital locations and then stabbing the enemy as hard as you possibly could with a sword.
This, Zhili believed, was the ancient art of Kuhrei Combat that his father had spoken of - but he didn't understand why his father had left it unloved and unspoken of. It became, for Zhili, something of an obsession to discover what more could be learned from these old scrolls.
Zhili quit his job as an accountant and took to training full time. He believed that if he could master the secret techniques locked away in the scrolls, he would be able to restore honour and glory to his family name - he wanted to make Kuhrei Combat something that the entire world could believe in, and he took on Tako as his first - and only - student. He used a real sword, of course, but Tako was given a wooden training weapon to make do with until she was ready to use the real thing.
Tako was only a little girl, but she trained day and night with her father - who had absolutely no natural talent with fighting whatsoever. The pair struggled together, fought together, and grew together. Their bond became great, and Tako felt as though she were becoming truly worthy of the ancient teachings those scrolls imparted for her. The style of combat was painful to use - it required constant, unrelenting focus and an unflinching approach to pain which she found difficult to master, but she never gave up and she always gave it her all.
This period defined much of what would mark Tako out for the rest of her life. She learned that she hated styles which were 'deceptive', and preferred to face every challenge head-on and honestly. She had little patience for what she and her father dubbed 'fancy tricks', and instead sought to direct their personalities through their battle style. Unrelenting, uncompromising, and unconcerned with little things like 'nuance' or 'tact', Tako grew into a strident young woman; principled and ready to take on the whole world if she had to. She thought of herself as being brave and courageous; these qualities may well be factually correct. Her opponents often saw her as being stubborn to a fault, and that, too, may well be accurate.
Tako was always more interested in proving to herself what she might become, her father, though, was concerned with the honour and dignity of his style of combat - and he tried to instil those beliefs in his daughter as well. If they were to be recognized as great fighters, he argued, then they would be seen the world over as champions - their family name would go down in history alongside those of the greatest martial arts schools, and they would be redeemed - as he believed the fact the style had fallen from grace was a terrible stain on their collective honour.
Eventually, her father set off on a quest of his own. He promised that he would return after testing his might against the other martial arts schools of the world. Unfortunately, that was to be a promise he could not keep. When his body was returned to the family home, it was not in triumph, it was run through with his own sword - and that was a terrible realization for Tako. The man she had idolized all her life, who she had hoped would one day guide her to being the best that she could be, was struck down and brutally killed for daring to step foot in realms beyond his might.
Tako was fourteen years old at the time. On that day, she placed her father's sword above the mantle in her family home, and she buried him. Other children might have decided to pursue revenge on their father's behalf - some sane ones might have decided that the risk of continuing this method of combat was simply too great. Tako resolved to do neither thing. She decided that if her father's death was to have any meaning, it would be that she could not back down in the face of great power or opposition. She wept, yes, and she mourned... but she realized on that day that she could not hold a grudge; for if her father had been a greater martial artist, he would not have died. It was not the person who struck him down who was at fault, it was he for allowing himself to be struck down.
She continued to study the scrolls, and she began to enter regional martial arts championships. Where her father had directly strode out onto the world proclaiming his intent and his might, she discovered greater joy in the sporting arena. With her bokken, she competed in kendo championships in all four major cities in the world, and she even won a couple of them. Her dedication and focus was forged in the heat of battle, and she resolved that she would never stop this learning. Even when she won, which was rare but did happen, it was never an easy victory for her - she was always reminded, at every turn, of how many stronger people there were in the world, how many there were who were greater than her. The thrill for Tako was not in besting these opponents, but by taking pleasure in the small ways she might surprise them; the times she was able to score a hit against someone whom she had no business competing with at all.
Often, she trained alone, fighting against her shadow and her memory of herself in the previous day. She watched videos of all her fights obsessively, taking notes on areas where she might improve, the moments she had faltered and the ways she could do better. At the age of 16, Tako decided that she should drop out of school and focus on her martial arts full time. Her mother, long-suffering as she was, did not like this plan, but she knew better than to try and stop her daughter. The zeal that she saw in Tako's eyes reminded her so much of Zhili that it hurt. How could she deny her daughter the right to pursue the dreams that she had always hoped would be hers?
More to the point, Tako had been earning money from her championship victories and near-victories, and she now had amassed more than her father had ever managed. Tako was the breadwinner for the house, and if she didn't pursue her career, it seemed as though there was little chance that she'd ever get the opportunity to make the money she'd need later in life. For all her focus and training, Tako was not exactly gifted academically; she wasn't exactly a stupid girl, but she was blunt and to the point, never one to mix her words, and she'd never be able to obtain the qualifications necessary to win her fortune elsewhere in life. With all that in mind, Tako devoted herself even more intently to the study of martial arts. Without the distraction of schooling to hold her back, she trained obsessively - often as much as twenty hours a day - because she knew that the 9th Centurial Conference Tournament was just around the corner. That, she felt, was where she would have her first true opportunity to test her might and discover the calibre of competition throughout the galaxy.
This was to prove true. Unfortunately, it was also to provide her with the second brutal lesson in her young life.
Tako knew she wasn't going to win the tournament; that wasn't really the point of entering. She just wanted to see if her training over the years had paid off and test herself against some great fighters. Her mother was confident that her daughter would be able to reach the semi-finals at the very least - in fact, many people had bet on her to do very well in the tournament, having followed her career through the junior championships. Despite her young age, she was tipped by many bookies to be a decent competitor, and all of these facts combined to give her a swollen ego that was to prove to be her undoing.
When she stepped up against her first opponent - a namekian - she was ready to give it her all, and then... in literally the opening seconds of the match, the enemy fighter used his stretchy limbs to grab her by the shoulders and fling her out of the ring, resulting in an instantaneous ring out and disgrace.
Tako's confidence was shattered by the experience, and she ran from the arena in tears - which would have been a second disqualification if such a thing were even needed.
She climbed the tallest mountain she could find, far from her family and her friends, and there she tried to get over her failures. It was a brutal, horrible experience. She missed the disruption at the tournament, she missed the formation of the Blue Banner Army, she missed, in fact, an awful lot of things - all because she spent months fighting with herself and her warring heart to try and come to terms with the fact that she had failed.
It wasn't even the fact that she had been beaten which had done such damage to her self-esteem, it was the manner of her defeat. She had been outfought - but she had also been outmanoeuvred; she hadn't had the opportunity to demonstrate her skills, because she'd foolishly allowed herself to be dealt with in the easiest and simplest manner possible. A ring-out. Her father must have been spinning in his grave to think that the daughter he raised could be so easily outmatched.
Amongst the mountains and the wilderness, Tako struggled with herself on a daily basis. Her pride had been mortally wounded, and it took her a long time to come to terms with the fact that she was more arrogant than she had let herself believe. Alone, without the scrolls of her ancestors or the weight of any expectations upon her shoulders, she began to find a kind of peace in her existence. For the first time in her life, she felt as though she were learning what it was to be herself, rather than being what her father had wanted her to be. She didn't want to be an ambassador for her family's style; she wanted to be herself, to see how well she could fight, and what the limits of her power might be.
The epiphany she had up on that mountain top did not come quickly, but when it did come, she knew she could never go back to the way things had been before. She had wept when she fled the stadium because she felt she had let her father down; now, in her heart, she had cut that tie loose. She knew that she could no more let him down than she could raise him up; he was dead and gone, there was no point living her life in order to try and appease a ghost. Or, indeed, to appease anyone else. The only important thing in life was meeting her full potential, and that meant striving ever to better herself - to be the best that she could be, to strike harder, run faster, jump higher, to attain complete physical perfection - because that was what she wanted to do, and living life by anyone else's rules was not a way to find fulfilment.
On the top of the mountain, Tako broke her bokken and swore that she would find her own path - her own strength. She didn't return from that peak until she no longer needed to wield anything but her bare hands, and she could still break the largest rocks and fell the tallest trees with little more than a motion.
When she descended from the mountain, she was a changed young woman. She realized out there, with no distractions and nobody else to guide her or influence her, that the most important thing in life was freedom. Not, as she had thought, some ideal of power or competition; of proving oneself against the world, because if you were truly confident in yourself and who you were, there was no need to do any of that. The important thing, she realized, was having the ability to act as you wanted - and the strength of will not to base what you did on what others might expect you to do.
Her mother was pleased to see her, but even that wasn't to be for long; the world had turned in her absence, and new powers were on the rise. She had underestimated just how much the world could change in a few short months, and the extent of her own changes. Before, she might not have cared about any of it - now, she saw everywhere opportunities to better herself. She still felt that she had so far to go before she reached her goal, and the world seemed to provide endless opportunities for adventure.
Tako had never been one to care much about politics - and she still wasn't - but she resented the very idea of the Blue Banner Army and its rise to prominence. It seemed to her that the Blue Banner was more interested in crushing dissent and stifling expression than it was about any true notions of 'democracy' or freedom. Tako was disturbed by how quickly and efficiently the Army and its robotic overlord had been able to spread out and neutralize all opposition - not to mention that she quickly identified several of the shadier elements she had seen during her days in the fighting circuit had now been absorbed, along with their criminal enterprises, into the umbrella of the Blue Banner itself.
Tako stayed with her mother for a few weeks after her return from the mountaintop in order to discuss what had happened and what might yet happen. She wanted to return to the world of fighting; of martial arts, where she had always felt most at home... but at the same time, she was worried that if she pursued this path, it would inevitably bring her into conflict with people who wanted to use her strength for her own ends. The events of the 9th Centennial Conference had hammered home to her that it was not possible to be strong without also being involved, willingly or not, in the world's troubles - and it also seemed to her that the world was full of many troubles that the average person was only just beginning to understand.
Where there was power, there were those who would seek to use that power - and the idea of becoming some sort of figurehead or weapon for someone else's ends disturbed Tako greatly. She didn't want her mother to be used against her, either. All she really wanted was to complete her training - she still felt as though there was a great deal of power within her that went untapped and unrealized. That thought excited her. She wanted to see how great she might become; but she wanted to do it on her own terms, and owe nothing to anybody else. That was why she again set off on the road - when she was certain that her mother was financially stable, there was no reason to stay any longer. The world was a vast and wonderful place, and there was no way that the Blue Banner Army - or anyone else for that matter - would be able to find her out there.
Of course, this didn't turn out to be true, exactly. After all, there weren't that many people as strong as Tako - whose time in the wilderness had given her new insight into how to control her own focus - and after just a few days on the road she began to encounter people drawn to that strength.
Her first encounter was with a Blue Banner Army force trying to intimidate some locals in a small village into giving up their hereditary treasure. She didn't kill them, but she did beat them, badly, and her decision to allow them to escape was one that would turn out to be one of her greatest mistakes - the report they gave put her squarely on the map for the Blue Banner, and her absurdly uncompromising attitude towards their 'authority' meant that their forces were soon briefed on this 'dangerous anarchist' who was running around the world.
Only time will tell whether that 'dangerous anarchist' winds up leaving any mark at all - or whether she may discover that all she amounts to, in the grand scheme of things, is not so very much after all.
Starting Planet: Earth
Techniques (As a warning, some linked music may include naughty words)
Offensive
N1 Smash It Up - Tako's style of high-velocity martial arts is her pride and joy; the main thing she practices obsessively every day. She incorporates high-speed flight into a wide array of traditional strikes and throws in order to create a dazzlingly fast and graceful style of combat. When she chooses to concentrate, she can deal 33% of her PL in damage for each round spent preparing to strike.
UP2 Helter Skelter - A particular martial arts combination Tako is very fond of - Helter Skelter sees Tako kick her opponent into the air, then spiral up after them, beating her own punted opponent to deliver a vicious heel kick to the back of the head - you better watch out, because she's coming down fast! This attack deals 66% of her PL in damage for each round spent preparing the move.
MP3 Blitzkrieg Bop - When Tako really goes all out with her attacks, the result is terrifying - and usually pretty damaging to the surrounding terrain. In a matter of seconds, Tako can throw out dozens of powerful punches and kicks - the impacts of which are so intense that the earth shakes and buildings don't fair much better. This attack deals 100% of her PL in damage for each round spent charging.
N1 Immovable - The signature technique of Kuhrei combat, Immovable is an energy barrier technique which forms an invisible armour around the skin - although it can still be sensed. When an attack hits the barrier, there is a bright flash of green light which ripples across the skin as the energy absorbs the incoming damage. Immovable absorbs 33% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is charged prior to use.
UP2 Unbreakable - An improvement on Immovable, Unbreakable focuses more power, more quickly than its predecessor. At this level, the user is visibly surrounded by a shimmering heatwave effect even before an attack hits. When it does, the barrier becomes visible as a bright yellow surge across the user's body. Unbreakable absorbs 66% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is charged prior to use.
MP3 Invincible - Tako's ultimate refinement of the principles of Kuhrei combat. Invincible is the final level of the energy barrier chain. At this level, the user is covered in a skin-tight pale red barrier of energy even before an attack hits. When an attack makes contact with the energy layer around them, the user's power surges out in an angry red crackle of power which aims to completely negate any incoming damage. Invincible absorbs 100% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is charged prior to use.
N1 Glorious Dawn - A relatively simple technique. Tako gathers bright yellow energy which travels across her arm, turning a mottled orange, until it is released from her palm as a bright orb about the size of a beach ball and shoots towards the opponent. As an N1 technique, this attack does 33% of her PL in damage for each round it is charged before being released.
UP2 Nova - A more advanced version of Glorious Dawn, Tako gathers far more power - most of it a shimmering white shade - which she releases in an unstable, flaring sphere of energy which detonates with a large explosion when it connects with anything. Nova is a technique which inflicts 66% of her PL in damage for each round it is charged before being released.
MP3 Supernova - Supernova is the final level of the Glorious Dawn line of attacks. Tako actually skips the preparation of gathering energy with control and just puts as much into her outstretched palm as possible. The result is an enormous ball of energy - reminiscent of a new sun, and with all the flaring, crackling power that implies. The supernova will continue to grow until Tako releases it, at which point it will carry on until it hits something and then explode with a mushroom cloud and immense pressure wave - unless it is completely counteracted of course. Supernova inflicts 100% of Tako's PL in damage for each round it is allowed to grow in her palm.
UP2 Purple Rain - By splitting the Glorious Dawn as she unleashes it, Tako is able to blast a large number of energy spheres at one or multiple opponents. For some reason unknown to Tako, splitting the sphere before it is ready causes the energy blasts to turn bright purple. Each ball individually is weak, but taken together they would combine to make 66% of her PL in total for each round she charged the attack.
MP3 Purple Haze - An upgraded version of Purple Rain, the principle remains the same, but Tako uses both hands in order to create a truly astonishing number of energy balls. The Purple Haze usually leaves a faint, shimmering purple mist in its wake after the expenditure of such a vast amount of energy. There is no maximum number to the amount of energy balls Tako can theoretically unleash, but in total they can't add up to more than 100% of her PL for each round spent charging.
Support
Flight - You can fly like a bird, soar like an eagle, and zip through the air under your own power. Flight is a single-tier technique which increases its speed along with your PL.
Ki Sense - Tako can sense power levels. For her, she experiences the sensation as a kind of 'pressure' which tells her the strength of people and energy attacks relative to herself in general terms.
Items: 1000 Zenni
One-Use Pod
Techniques marked with a * are yet to have been learned.