[OOC] Application
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
*Although Akumetsu both begins and ends with the story of Hazama Shou, another Shou clone, I have chosen to focus on Niikura because it is his backstory and actions that contribute the most to the reasons behind the formation of Akumetsu.
Following the end of World War II, a man, despite his genius, found himself aging and helpless against it. This man was known by many names, but for the sake of space we’ll call him M Gouda - or just M. It became M’s goal to escape death and live on as a superhuman, an ubermensch, in the words of Nietzsche. In his remaining years, he used his extensive criminal network to finance research on human cloning and most importantly, memory transfer, the key to preserving his self and to becoming an ubermensch. M’s plan was to clone himself hundreds of times, have each clone specialize in some skill, and then transfer the memories and abilities of each clone into one single body. By performing this transfer multiple times, M hoped to create a body that would possess the memories of thousands of lifetimes and all the skills known to mankind. His initial transfer succeeded, and the first unified consciousness created was termed “Perfect One”. However, while still completing the entire memory transfer, Perfect One met and fell in love with one of the researchers for M, Sachiko, which caused him to then rebel against M’s intentions for him. Perfect One escaped the cloning facility, returning only to kill M personally once he had wiped out M’s criminal syndicate. By this time, however, M had transferred his mind to a new body. A showdown ensued, and when the smoke finally cleared, M lay dead, defeated by Perfect One. At this point, heavily wounded, Perfect One also died, but not before charging Sachiko with the job of taking care of his clones who were still forming within the complex.
Years passed. The clones grew up and were scattered across Japan, all of them unaware of their origins and of their fellow clones. One of these was Shou Niikura, who settled into life as a normal, goofy teenager attending the nearby high school.
Niikura probably would have otherwise remained a normal student, and Akumetsu would thus have never been born, if not for Keiichi Katsuragi, his best friend. Although intelligent and affluent, Katsuragi despaired of his life and the world around him, and one day showed Shou the man who had “killed him”. Katsuragi’s explanation was thus: since his youth, he had received injections of fibrinogen concentrate, a chemical which supplied him with a protein that allowed his blood to clot properly. However, this concentrate was contaminated with the Hepatitis C virus, a risk which was not revealed to the public until 1988, long after Katsuragi had begun treatments. To make matters worse, as a result, Katsuragi had developed liver cancer which, due to his age, quickly progressed through his body and cut his remaining life span to a few months.
The old man that Katsuragi had shown Shou was Hideki Horikiri, a former big man within Japan’s health system. Horikiri, although responsible for the public welfare, had allowed the contaminated fibrinogen concentrate to be sold without complaint, as its introduction not only provided an easy cure to those suffering from the same disease as Katsuragi (There were only forty-six of them.), but also gave him massive profits. Thus, for the sake of money, Horikiri was guilty of “killing” Katsuragi.
Niikura was outraged by this blatant crime that no one had bothered to ever point out, but he soon realized that saving Katsuragi was more important. Unfortunately, his friend didn’t quite agree with him; shortly after he revealed to Shou the truth of his eventual demise, Katsuragi attempted to kill himself by walking out into the middle of a busy street. Niikura chased after his friend and knocked him out of the way of an oncoming car, taking the hit himself. Although Katsuragi managed to then resuscitate his injured friend, to his shock, Shou took off in his friend’s Countach for a destination unknown.
It wasn’t until the next day that Katsuragi found out the truth behind Shou’s disappearance when another clone, Shou Takasugi, ran into Katsuragi and his girlfriend and, with the excuse of returning Katsuragi’s Countach to him, took him to see Niikura, who had since died. However, as Takasugi explained, there was a possibility of reviving Niikura, thanks to a mask (a prototype, presumably of the Akumetsu mask) which had been wired into Niikura’s brain. This mask allowed Niikura’s memories to be transferred to an awaiting “blank” clone, the product of M Gouda’s project established years ago. All the blank clones were currently kept within a secret cloning facility hidden within Tokyo’s sewer system, maintained by Shou Azuma, a clone who had been raised by Sachiko, the scientist that Perfect One fell in love with. Within the cloning facility also lay the headquarters of the “Shou Conclave”, a gathering of most of the Shou clones from across Japan. As Takasugi explains, the Shou Conclave began when one of the Shou clone stumbled upon another clone somewhere in Japan, prompting the idea of maybe gathering all of their fellows together in one place.
Within the cloning complex, Katsuragi and his girlfriend witness the rebirth of Niikura, the first successful mind transfer for the facility, and Katsuragi realizes what Niikura’s grand plan was all along: use the cloning technology to clone Katsuragi and then transfer his mind into a new, healthy body.
The Shou Conclave jumped eagerly to the task of helping Katsuragi and, to bolster their resolve, all took a pill which granted them limited access to Niikura’s memories, thereby allowing each of them to understand the urgency of their mission. However, as Katsuragi drew closer and closer to death, the clones discovered that their high school education was not enough to override the program written into the cloning technology, and so they decided to bring in an expert in human cloning despite the consequences that would follow the revelation of the Shou Conclave. At this point, however, Katsuragi intervened. Understanding that he could never be cloned, Katsuragi instead told Niikura to use the immense power given to him by the presence of his clones and to live on as the ubermensch that M had always aspired to be.
It is not until Katsuragi’s death, however, that Niikura accepts the mission given to him. He declares to the Shou Conclave that their new objective will be to destroy the evil permeating Japan and responsible for Katsuragi’s death, and that they will do everything in their power as ubermensch to accomplish this. In order to keep their quest to destroy evil separate from simple terrorism, he establishes the doctrine of “one man, one kill”: the Shou Conclave will only kill the person they have established as evil, and in order to pay for the crime of murder, a Shou clone will die along with the evil-doer. It should be noted that this is only possible because of the cloning abilities of Shou, which not only allow him to clone himself, but also replicate and “unify” the memories of various Shou’s who have died. This is all accomplished through the Akumetsu mask, which, once placed on a Shou clone’s face, is locked in thanks to thousands of micro-needles. Once the Akumetsu is killed, the mask explodes, preventing Akumetsu’s true face from being revealed; the instant before this explosion happens, however, a serum is injected through the thousands of micro-needles into the Shou clone which breaks down all of his experiences into data transmitted by the mask to a satellite which beams it down as a signal into a new clone.
Shortly after the establishment of their new mission, the entire Shou Conclave unifies their consciousnesses into a new set of Shou clones, known as Version 2. Upon confirmation that Version 2 carries the same drive to destroy evil as them, the original clones then allow their second version to kill them and take their places within society.
Some time after the creation of Version 2, Shou confronts Japan’s Prime Minister Murase on a roof top. Declaring that the Prime Minister should reform Japan as he promised during his campaign, Shou tells Murase that he will aid him in his reformation by killing the obstacles in Murase’s way, and that if Murase does not successfully implement his reforms within a month, he will consider the Prime Minister an equal evil and kill him. He also tells Murase that this monthlong deadline will also include him, and that by the end of the month, he and his organization will also disappear. This begins Shou’s battle to eliminate evil and also marks the birth of Akumetsu, the name given to the Shou Conclave by Murase himself.
Over the course of the month, Akumetsu kills over one hundred evil-doers within Japan, attacking mostly corrupt politicians and fat-cat retirees while exposing their corrupt dealings to the public through televised showings of their gruesome and brutal murders which, in adhering to “one man, one kill” also show the death of an Akumetsu. The public, equally fed up with the corruption evident in the government but unable to do a thing about it, takes up Akumetsu’s cause, and soon fake Akumetsu agents begin popping up throughout the country. However, only one becomes worthy of note: Niikura’s own homeroom teacher, Mr. Kuronuma. Kuronuma, although a staunch supporter of Akumetsu, botches most of his assassination attempts and ends up killing innocent bystanders, including a Shou clone, thus veering from Akumetsu’s doctrine of “one man, one kill”. Eventually, Niikura confronts him over his activities and forces him to become Akumetsu #2; Kuronuma is then used by Akumetsu to assassinate Takeo Tsuruta, the opposition leader against Murase, and in true Akumetsu-fashion, likewise dies in the process. The gory end of Akumetsu #2 prompts an end to fake Akumetsu’s.
It is also during the Kuronuma incident that Niikura first attracts interest as a suspect in the Akumetsu case. After one of his botched assassination attempts, Kuronuma runs into Niikura’s high school in order to escape, leading to police surrounding the building. As they evacuate the school, one of the police officers, Mamoru Yamada, recognizes Niikura as Akumetsu (In a previous Akumetsu assassination, Yamada had confronted Akumetsu after the latter shot his chief and thus had seen Akumetsu’s face, while masked, up close.). Although the police investigate Niikura’s home, they find no evidence to suggest that he is in fact Akumetsu; however, they continue to keep tabs on him as a suspect.
Meanwhile, certain sections of the government, appalled by the chaos that Japan is descending into thanks to the cleansing of Akumetsu, finally enlist the aid of the yakuza (the Japanese mob) in stopping Akumetsu after the terrorist organization attacks Nagato-Cho (a section of Tokyo containing government buildings) and systematically kill various members of Congress who had opposed Murase’s reforms or had embezzled funds. The yakuza, motivated by “patriotism” (but really seeking to use Akumetsu’s cloning facilities to create a new body for their head), enact a sweeping plan of attack against Akumetsu, and eventually decide to kidnap and interrogate Niikura as he is the only lead to Akumetsu that they have, despite the fact that he appears to be just a normal high school kid.
This decision to go on the offensive against Akumetsu coincides with the placement of Tokyo under martial rule (for the safety of the officials) and a lull in Akumetsu’s activities, leading some to start to question Akumetsu’s objectives, as with the government weakened, corruption can only continue to increase within Japan as the nation reels from the attacks. (In fact, at this time, seeing the state of the government, the yakuza set in motion plans to also lead a coup to overthrow Murase and take over the country.) Niikura is once again questioned by the police, led by Yamada, who ask him why he has stopped his Akumetsu activities and has not pushed for a complete eradication of evil in Japan. Niikura replies by asking what is truly “evil”, and points out that now that Akumetsu has drained some of the evil from Japan, it is the job of the law enforcement to maintain order within Japan and ensure that “clean water fills the empty pond called Nagato-Cho”, as Akumetsu cannot launch a full-scale war against evil in general, having likewise given itself the month-long deadline to reform Japan that it gave Murase.
Some days after his talk with the police, Niikura is finally cornered by the yakuza and, noticing that the detectives keeping tabs on him aren’t stepping in, realizes that the government is now moving to extreme measures against Akumetsu. Although he puts up a heroic fight, Niikura is captured by the yakuza and taken to an abandoned warehouse where he is tortured and questioned by Kitagami. The session is cut short when other Akumetsu attack the yakuza, seeking Niikura’s location, but Kitagami uses the opportunity to plant a bomb within the warehouse and rid Japan of more Shou clones once Akumetsu arrives to save Niikura. Five Akumetsu arrive to retrieve Niikura, and, once they place the mask on him, thereby transferring his memories to them, realize that “we’ve been had”. The bomb set in the warehouse then explodes, killing all inside.
Niikura is reborn into another unified copy of himself, who replaces him within the high school. By this time, however, the yakuza is moving onto stage two of their offensive against Akumetsu, and in the battle that follows, all Akumetsu - including their clone factory- are destroyed, but not before they obliterate the coup army, finally galvanize Murase to real action, and inform the entire world of the origins and purpose of Akumetsu.
All in one month.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
I’m taking Niikura right after his death and before his rebirth. Although Shou is no stranger to death, the situation he was in shortly before his death will put intense pressures on him as he navigates the Institute, as with the Prime Minister’s deadline and the entrance of the yakuza into the fight against Akumetsu, he will be desperate to return to Japan and complete Akumetsu’s mission before it ends pre-maturely.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Outwardly, Shou is quite the jokester. Affable, confident, and laid-back, he seems like someone who can’t quite be taken seriously and who poses no threat at all; in fact, his classmates never realize that he is Akumetsu (despite his striking physical similiarity) on their own because of how carefree and optimistic he seems. However, unassuming though he may seem, Shou is shown capable of extremely sophisticated thought, going as far as explaining the complexities (and flaws) of Japan’s tax system to those running it.
At the same time, Shou is a daredevil; this is a result of both his ‘immortality’ and his multiple lifetimes. With absolutely no fear of death, Shou often goes to extremes to accomplish his goals, and this tends to make him appear inhuman: In a former life as a stunt driver, after pulling off a nearly-impossible stunt, Shou was warned by his boss that most people would view such perfection with suspicion, as the stunt, despite being perfect, lacked the human element of fear in it.
Shou also applies his tendency for risks to mental feats as well, being unafraid to play games with his opponents. In several confrontations with the police, for example, Shou drops numerous hints that he may indeed be Akumetsu, counting solely on his classmates’ perceptions of him to help him escape. He also enjoys catching people off-guard by switching rapidly between a joking and a serious persona, leaving them unable to determine which side is really true.
More broadly, Akumetsu’s reliance on public support as its main shield points to another aspect of Shou: his understanding of the human psyche. As he possesses the memories and experiences of hundreds of clones, Shou is able to easily see others’ true natures; this is shown when he pegs Yamada, a police officer in extreme opposition to Akumetsu, as a man similar to himself, pointing to Yamada’s drive to ensure justice and his motivations for joining the police department. By the same token, Shou, with his superior people skills, is also able to easily evoke empathy to his causes, thereby helping him forge his second greatest weapon: a positive public image.
By this point, it seems likely that Shou, with his daredevil personality and charisma, is the type to take reckless action; however, this runs contrary to how Shou actually operates. Akumetsu, throughout its campaign against evil, displays great knowledge of the statistics, hierarchy, and employee salaries and histories of the institutions they attack, as well as a deep understanding of politics, economics, and Japanese history. This implies years of research, easily accomplished by the cloning capabilities of Akumetsu (as they could gather all the information independently and then unify it all into a single consciousness) and also implies that Shou only takes risks with reason and preparation. Always ready with a backup plan or some form of retaliation, Shou, even in times of crisis, approaches situations as calmly and as logically as possible.
Shou is also shown to have a distinct lack of respect for authority; at one point Akumetsu reprimands Prime Minister Murase and smacks him on the head with a newspaper (while lounging in Murase’s private room, even). He tends to question every supposedly valid point possible as pointedly as possible and treats everyone, regardless of actual stature, as his equal.
Perhaps what defines Shou, however, is the power of his emotions. In fact, Niikura’s capture by the yakuza is a result of him attacking the yakuza in order to save his friends, who he could have abandoned but rather sought to protect as a result of his loyalty to them and his friendship. Both feelings were so strong that he sacrificed his own safety in order to act upon them. Additionally, he notes that, despite the facts which spell out the corruption within Japan, what really drives him is his rage for what happened to Katsuragi, an otherwise small incident in the larger scheme of the country.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Shou is a typical lanky teenager, and his build has been noted as similar to a highly-toned athlete’s. He has gravity-defying hair (think Vash the Stampede) that might as well be called silver in color and crazy eyebrows (that are somehow black) reminiscent of Phoenix Wright. His entire face is sort of angular, giving him a devilish look when he wants one.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Because he is a clone with the memories and abilities of multiple Shou clones, Niikura has a high level of skill in multiple areas ranging from economics to calligraphy to Soviet Russian-era martial arts.
*Although Akumetsu both begins and ends with the story of Hazama Shou, another Shou clone, I have chosen to focus on Niikura because it is his backstory and actions that contribute the most to the reasons behind the formation of Akumetsu.
Following the end of World War II, a man, despite his genius, found himself aging and helpless against it. This man was known by many names, but for the sake of space we’ll call him M Gouda - or just M. It became M’s goal to escape death and live on as a superhuman, an ubermensch, in the words of Nietzsche. In his remaining years, he used his extensive criminal network to finance research on human cloning and most importantly, memory transfer, the key to preserving his self and to becoming an ubermensch. M’s plan was to clone himself hundreds of times, have each clone specialize in some skill, and then transfer the memories and abilities of each clone into one single body. By performing this transfer multiple times, M hoped to create a body that would possess the memories of thousands of lifetimes and all the skills known to mankind. His initial transfer succeeded, and the first unified consciousness created was termed “Perfect One”. However, while still completing the entire memory transfer, Perfect One met and fell in love with one of the researchers for M, Sachiko, which caused him to then rebel against M’s intentions for him. Perfect One escaped the cloning facility, returning only to kill M personally once he had wiped out M’s criminal syndicate. By this time, however, M had transferred his mind to a new body. A showdown ensued, and when the smoke finally cleared, M lay dead, defeated by Perfect One. At this point, heavily wounded, Perfect One also died, but not before charging Sachiko with the job of taking care of his clones who were still forming within the complex.
Years passed. The clones grew up and were scattered across Japan, all of them unaware of their origins and of their fellow clones. One of these was Shou Niikura, who settled into life as a normal, goofy teenager attending the nearby high school.
Niikura probably would have otherwise remained a normal student, and Akumetsu would thus have never been born, if not for Keiichi Katsuragi, his best friend. Although intelligent and affluent, Katsuragi despaired of his life and the world around him, and one day showed Shou the man who had “killed him”. Katsuragi’s explanation was thus: since his youth, he had received injections of fibrinogen concentrate, a chemical which supplied him with a protein that allowed his blood to clot properly. However, this concentrate was contaminated with the Hepatitis C virus, a risk which was not revealed to the public until 1988, long after Katsuragi had begun treatments. To make matters worse, as a result, Katsuragi had developed liver cancer which, due to his age, quickly progressed through his body and cut his remaining life span to a few months.
The old man that Katsuragi had shown Shou was Hideki Horikiri, a former big man within Japan’s health system. Horikiri, although responsible for the public welfare, had allowed the contaminated fibrinogen concentrate to be sold without complaint, as its introduction not only provided an easy cure to those suffering from the same disease as Katsuragi (There were only forty-six of them.), but also gave him massive profits. Thus, for the sake of money, Horikiri was guilty of “killing” Katsuragi.
Niikura was outraged by this blatant crime that no one had bothered to ever point out, but he soon realized that saving Katsuragi was more important. Unfortunately, his friend didn’t quite agree with him; shortly after he revealed to Shou the truth of his eventual demise, Katsuragi attempted to kill himself by walking out into the middle of a busy street. Niikura chased after his friend and knocked him out of the way of an oncoming car, taking the hit himself. Although Katsuragi managed to then resuscitate his injured friend, to his shock, Shou took off in his friend’s Countach for a destination unknown.
It wasn’t until the next day that Katsuragi found out the truth behind Shou’s disappearance when another clone, Shou Takasugi, ran into Katsuragi and his girlfriend and, with the excuse of returning Katsuragi’s Countach to him, took him to see Niikura, who had since died. However, as Takasugi explained, there was a possibility of reviving Niikura, thanks to a mask (a prototype, presumably of the Akumetsu mask) which had been wired into Niikura’s brain. This mask allowed Niikura’s memories to be transferred to an awaiting “blank” clone, the product of M Gouda’s project established years ago. All the blank clones were currently kept within a secret cloning facility hidden within Tokyo’s sewer system, maintained by Shou Azuma, a clone who had been raised by Sachiko, the scientist that Perfect One fell in love with. Within the cloning facility also lay the headquarters of the “Shou Conclave”, a gathering of most of the Shou clones from across Japan. As Takasugi explains, the Shou Conclave began when one of the Shou clone stumbled upon another clone somewhere in Japan, prompting the idea of maybe gathering all of their fellows together in one place.
Within the cloning complex, Katsuragi and his girlfriend witness the rebirth of Niikura, the first successful mind transfer for the facility, and Katsuragi realizes what Niikura’s grand plan was all along: use the cloning technology to clone Katsuragi and then transfer his mind into a new, healthy body.
The Shou Conclave jumped eagerly to the task of helping Katsuragi and, to bolster their resolve, all took a pill which granted them limited access to Niikura’s memories, thereby allowing each of them to understand the urgency of their mission. However, as Katsuragi drew closer and closer to death, the clones discovered that their high school education was not enough to override the program written into the cloning technology, and so they decided to bring in an expert in human cloning despite the consequences that would follow the revelation of the Shou Conclave. At this point, however, Katsuragi intervened. Understanding that he could never be cloned, Katsuragi instead told Niikura to use the immense power given to him by the presence of his clones and to live on as the ubermensch that M had always aspired to be.
It is not until Katsuragi’s death, however, that Niikura accepts the mission given to him. He declares to the Shou Conclave that their new objective will be to destroy the evil permeating Japan and responsible for Katsuragi’s death, and that they will do everything in their power as ubermensch to accomplish this. In order to keep their quest to destroy evil separate from simple terrorism, he establishes the doctrine of “one man, one kill”: the Shou Conclave will only kill the person they have established as evil, and in order to pay for the crime of murder, a Shou clone will die along with the evil-doer. It should be noted that this is only possible because of the cloning abilities of Shou, which not only allow him to clone himself, but also replicate and “unify” the memories of various Shou’s who have died. This is all accomplished through the Akumetsu mask, which, once placed on a Shou clone’s face, is locked in thanks to thousands of micro-needles. Once the Akumetsu is killed, the mask explodes, preventing Akumetsu’s true face from being revealed; the instant before this explosion happens, however, a serum is injected through the thousands of micro-needles into the Shou clone which breaks down all of his experiences into data transmitted by the mask to a satellite which beams it down as a signal into a new clone.
Shortly after the establishment of their new mission, the entire Shou Conclave unifies their consciousnesses into a new set of Shou clones, known as Version 2. Upon confirmation that Version 2 carries the same drive to destroy evil as them, the original clones then allow their second version to kill them and take their places within society.
Some time after the creation of Version 2, Shou confronts Japan’s Prime Minister Murase on a roof top. Declaring that the Prime Minister should reform Japan as he promised during his campaign, Shou tells Murase that he will aid him in his reformation by killing the obstacles in Murase’s way, and that if Murase does not successfully implement his reforms within a month, he will consider the Prime Minister an equal evil and kill him. He also tells Murase that this monthlong deadline will also include him, and that by the end of the month, he and his organization will also disappear. This begins Shou’s battle to eliminate evil and also marks the birth of Akumetsu, the name given to the Shou Conclave by Murase himself.
Over the course of the month, Akumetsu kills over one hundred evil-doers within Japan, attacking mostly corrupt politicians and fat-cat retirees while exposing their corrupt dealings to the public through televised showings of their gruesome and brutal murders which, in adhering to “one man, one kill” also show the death of an Akumetsu. The public, equally fed up with the corruption evident in the government but unable to do a thing about it, takes up Akumetsu’s cause, and soon fake Akumetsu agents begin popping up throughout the country. However, only one becomes worthy of note: Niikura’s own homeroom teacher, Mr. Kuronuma. Kuronuma, although a staunch supporter of Akumetsu, botches most of his assassination attempts and ends up killing innocent bystanders, including a Shou clone, thus veering from Akumetsu’s doctrine of “one man, one kill”. Eventually, Niikura confronts him over his activities and forces him to become Akumetsu #2; Kuronuma is then used by Akumetsu to assassinate Takeo Tsuruta, the opposition leader against Murase, and in true Akumetsu-fashion, likewise dies in the process. The gory end of Akumetsu #2 prompts an end to fake Akumetsu’s.
It is also during the Kuronuma incident that Niikura first attracts interest as a suspect in the Akumetsu case. After one of his botched assassination attempts, Kuronuma runs into Niikura’s high school in order to escape, leading to police surrounding the building. As they evacuate the school, one of the police officers, Mamoru Yamada, recognizes Niikura as Akumetsu (In a previous Akumetsu assassination, Yamada had confronted Akumetsu after the latter shot his chief and thus had seen Akumetsu’s face, while masked, up close.). Although the police investigate Niikura’s home, they find no evidence to suggest that he is in fact Akumetsu; however, they continue to keep tabs on him as a suspect.
Meanwhile, certain sections of the government, appalled by the chaos that Japan is descending into thanks to the cleansing of Akumetsu, finally enlist the aid of the yakuza (the Japanese mob) in stopping Akumetsu after the terrorist organization attacks Nagato-Cho (a section of Tokyo containing government buildings) and systematically kill various members of Congress who had opposed Murase’s reforms or had embezzled funds. The yakuza, motivated by “patriotism” (but really seeking to use Akumetsu’s cloning facilities to create a new body for their head), enact a sweeping plan of attack against Akumetsu, and eventually decide to kidnap and interrogate Niikura as he is the only lead to Akumetsu that they have, despite the fact that he appears to be just a normal high school kid.
This decision to go on the offensive against Akumetsu coincides with the placement of Tokyo under martial rule (for the safety of the officials) and a lull in Akumetsu’s activities, leading some to start to question Akumetsu’s objectives, as with the government weakened, corruption can only continue to increase within Japan as the nation reels from the attacks. (In fact, at this time, seeing the state of the government, the yakuza set in motion plans to also lead a coup to overthrow Murase and take over the country.) Niikura is once again questioned by the police, led by Yamada, who ask him why he has stopped his Akumetsu activities and has not pushed for a complete eradication of evil in Japan. Niikura replies by asking what is truly “evil”, and points out that now that Akumetsu has drained some of the evil from Japan, it is the job of the law enforcement to maintain order within Japan and ensure that “clean water fills the empty pond called Nagato-Cho”, as Akumetsu cannot launch a full-scale war against evil in general, having likewise given itself the month-long deadline to reform Japan that it gave Murase.
Some days after his talk with the police, Niikura is finally cornered by the yakuza and, noticing that the detectives keeping tabs on him aren’t stepping in, realizes that the government is now moving to extreme measures against Akumetsu. Although he puts up a heroic fight, Niikura is captured by the yakuza and taken to an abandoned warehouse where he is tortured and questioned by Kitagami. The session is cut short when other Akumetsu attack the yakuza, seeking Niikura’s location, but Kitagami uses the opportunity to plant a bomb within the warehouse and rid Japan of more Shou clones once Akumetsu arrives to save Niikura. Five Akumetsu arrive to retrieve Niikura, and, once they place the mask on him, thereby transferring his memories to them, realize that “we’ve been had”. The bomb set in the warehouse then explodes, killing all inside.
Niikura is reborn into another unified copy of himself, who replaces him within the high school. By this time, however, the yakuza is moving onto stage two of their offensive against Akumetsu, and in the battle that follows, all Akumetsu - including their clone factory- are destroyed, but not before they obliterate the coup army, finally galvanize Murase to real action, and inform the entire world of the origins and purpose of Akumetsu.
All in one month.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
I’m taking Niikura right after his death and before his rebirth. Although Shou is no stranger to death, the situation he was in shortly before his death will put intense pressures on him as he navigates the Institute, as with the Prime Minister’s deadline and the entrance of the yakuza into the fight against Akumetsu, he will be desperate to return to Japan and complete Akumetsu’s mission before it ends pre-maturely.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Outwardly, Shou is quite the jokester. Affable, confident, and laid-back, he seems like someone who can’t quite be taken seriously and who poses no threat at all; in fact, his classmates never realize that he is Akumetsu (despite his striking physical similiarity) on their own because of how carefree and optimistic he seems. However, unassuming though he may seem, Shou is shown capable of extremely sophisticated thought, going as far as explaining the complexities (and flaws) of Japan’s tax system to those running it.
At the same time, Shou is a daredevil; this is a result of both his ‘immortality’ and his multiple lifetimes. With absolutely no fear of death, Shou often goes to extremes to accomplish his goals, and this tends to make him appear inhuman: In a former life as a stunt driver, after pulling off a nearly-impossible stunt, Shou was warned by his boss that most people would view such perfection with suspicion, as the stunt, despite being perfect, lacked the human element of fear in it.
Shou also applies his tendency for risks to mental feats as well, being unafraid to play games with his opponents. In several confrontations with the police, for example, Shou drops numerous hints that he may indeed be Akumetsu, counting solely on his classmates’ perceptions of him to help him escape. He also enjoys catching people off-guard by switching rapidly between a joking and a serious persona, leaving them unable to determine which side is really true.
More broadly, Akumetsu’s reliance on public support as its main shield points to another aspect of Shou: his understanding of the human psyche. As he possesses the memories and experiences of hundreds of clones, Shou is able to easily see others’ true natures; this is shown when he pegs Yamada, a police officer in extreme opposition to Akumetsu, as a man similar to himself, pointing to Yamada’s drive to ensure justice and his motivations for joining the police department. By the same token, Shou, with his superior people skills, is also able to easily evoke empathy to his causes, thereby helping him forge his second greatest weapon: a positive public image.
By this point, it seems likely that Shou, with his daredevil personality and charisma, is the type to take reckless action; however, this runs contrary to how Shou actually operates. Akumetsu, throughout its campaign against evil, displays great knowledge of the statistics, hierarchy, and employee salaries and histories of the institutions they attack, as well as a deep understanding of politics, economics, and Japanese history. This implies years of research, easily accomplished by the cloning capabilities of Akumetsu (as they could gather all the information independently and then unify it all into a single consciousness) and also implies that Shou only takes risks with reason and preparation. Always ready with a backup plan or some form of retaliation, Shou, even in times of crisis, approaches situations as calmly and as logically as possible.
Shou is also shown to have a distinct lack of respect for authority; at one point Akumetsu reprimands Prime Minister Murase and smacks him on the head with a newspaper (while lounging in Murase’s private room, even). He tends to question every supposedly valid point possible as pointedly as possible and treats everyone, regardless of actual stature, as his equal.
Perhaps what defines Shou, however, is the power of his emotions. In fact, Niikura’s capture by the yakuza is a result of him attacking the yakuza in order to save his friends, who he could have abandoned but rather sought to protect as a result of his loyalty to them and his friendship. Both feelings were so strong that he sacrificed his own safety in order to act upon them. Additionally, he notes that, despite the facts which spell out the corruption within Japan, what really drives him is his rage for what happened to Katsuragi, an otherwise small incident in the larger scheme of the country.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Shou is a typical lanky teenager, and his build has been noted as similar to a highly-toned athlete’s. He has gravity-defying hair (think Vash the Stampede) that might as well be called silver in color and crazy eyebrows (that are somehow black) reminiscent of Phoenix Wright. His entire face is sort of angular, giving him a devilish look when he wants one.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Because he is a clone with the memories and abilities of multiple Shou clones, Niikura has a high level of skill in multiple areas ranging from economics to calligraphy to Soviet Russian-era martial arts.