Post by Kuma on Mar 28, 2015 19:50:02 GMT
Age: 57
Height: 1.70 mts
Weight: 71 kgs
Alignment: Neutral
Occupation: Mercenary, Hunter, Inazuma Gakuen Class L Head Teacher, Master of the Ten no Ya style of archery.
Backstory
Garo Takayama was born in Sapporo the 4 of May of the year 1961, son to Ryuga Takayama and Hinata Kamiya. His father was the inheritor of his maternal grandfather archery style, the Ten no Ya Ryu. From his youngest years his parent drilled the theory and practice of archery into the young Garo as it was the objective of Ryuga to turn his son into the best archer. The strict upbringing was good, but sometimes excessive. Most of the times his father demands were too much for him; the young Garo vanished into the north of the island and lived from the land, coming back with a new scar each time. His father ignored these escapes as he started to notice that each time Garo withstood more and more, as if the wilderness strengthen the young boy. Garo reached his teenage years and his father was sure he couldn’t teach anything else to his son. He contacted a friend in the mainland and asked him to get Garo a ticket. The young Archer spent 5 years abroad, living from the land and moving through the world like a hitchhiker. He found other places and other archers, learning from them and including their techniques to his own arsenal.
He returned when he was 20 years old and as it was custom of the school he challenged his father to a duel to inherit the secrets of the style. They meet on the sacred training grounds of the dojo and prepared for a duel. That lasted less than 5 seconds… Garo’s father used the Ougi of the school… 12 arrows pierced the young archer’s body and he fell unconscious. Yet he had managed to shoot and scratch his father face, earning him the right to learn the secret technique of the style. The Junishin no Ya (Twelve Godly Arrows) After a whole year of practice the son surpassed the father and Garo inherited the title of Ten no Bo (Heavenly Bow) as the new master of the school. His tenure as master didn’t start easily. As he was just setting the dojo up, while his parents went on a long and overdue holiday, inhabitants of the town he lived in asked him to check the forests as there was some kind of animal attacking people and the police didn’t seem to care. Garo, taught by his parent that the duty of a martial artist is to help and protect while keeping and improving their strength, agreed to check it out.
He tracked the beast for weeks, following a trail of destruction and carnage too big to be from any mundane animal, but Garo never met the Hidden World, thus he thought he was fighting a large bear. He killed the being but was mortally wounded in the process. Garo embraced his death but thankfully he was saved by members of the JHWAB that arrived late to the site. Impressed with his performance they offered him a job in the Sapporo Office, near his house. Thrilled for a new challenge the then young archer took the job and for the next 20 years he served through all Japan, picking up tricks on the way to the top of the Military Branch. Well not exactly the top, but the highest field position as he had never seen himself as a desk drone. When they finally got tired of his negative the JHWAB gave Garo an Ultimatum. Go up or go out. He choose the second option and ended up training students in Inazuma Gakuen, but soon enough that got boring and decided to also moonlight in the weekends as a mercenary and hunter for hire. He is currently estranged from his wife, a member of the Cultural Branch of the JHWAB and his son, the next in line for the title of Master in the Ten no Ya Ryu. Garo resides in the Inazuma Gakuen, but has a handful of safe houses around Japan.
Personality and Appearance
Garo is stern and strict, his work in the field turned him into a very serious and focused individual, but he can inject some humor in the situation with some dry with. He has the utmost respect for anybody older or wiser than him. He tends to keep a professional distance from co-workers and even friends. He dislikes noisy and arrogant people. His Ki reflects his personality, while most Archer-Type of Ki users prefer to shape it like wind, Garo’s aura tends to be hard and sharp, dense as steel and deadly as a sword. He likes Japanese food and sweets and enjoys listening to Enka music. Apart from hunting and bow making his hobbies include collecting biology books (Mudane or Hidden) and making tops, something he learnt when his son was a child.
Garo is a short man, not more than 5’3’’. He is pure lean muscle, his wrinkled skin is brown after weeks under the blazing sun and his short spiky hair is steel grey. He has stubble beard and golden eyes. Three large scars cross his face, evidence of his confrontation against a Bear Deity. He recently lost an eye during a mission in Russia. Garo tends to wear comfortable and utilitarian attire, boots, pants, jackets, all of strong fabric and simple design. He carries a quiver, a harness for his bow, a short sword behind his waist and his trusty bow Ryuyoko. He also has a Japanese style good luck charm hanging from his belts besides a small brush and a block of paper charms, to use in basic Omnyo Magic.
Powers
Garo is an adept Ki-user, capable of using this inner energy to enhance his strength, speed, senses or create a layer of protection over his body. As mentioned earlier his Ki has certain “metallic” aspects, making him especially adept in enhancing his attacks and his defense.
His top stats are singular, meaning he can only reach that level in a single physical attribute at once. He tends to favor speed and durability while defending. During offense he focuses on strength and his senses.
Physical Attributes (Base/Balanced/Peak)
· Str: Peak Human/2 tons/5 tons
· Spd: Peak Human/ X3 Human/ Mach 1
· Dur: Peak Human/ Steel / Titanium
· Sen: X2 Human/ X3 Human/ X10 Human
In Balanced Output he can use 2 Ki Enhancements; in Peak Output he can use 1 Peak and 1 Balanced.
Omnyo Magic
During his time in the JHWAB Garo picked some rudiments of Omnyo Magic, he isn’t able to use it for direct offensive matters, but he learned a couple of utilitarian type of spells and charms he tends to use to improve his performance. He can use one at a time on each target and up to three charms at the same time.
· Tetsu: With this charm he can increase the durability and density of an object, he usually uses it on his arrows to reinforce them so they can pierce armor more effectively, yet he won’t object to using it on his fist to clock an opponent.
· Chinmoku: This charm nullifies sound, allowing Garo to sneak and stalk targets without worrying for the sound he can generate. He also uses them in arrows to make them silent.
· Kazemichi: A short duration spell that increases movement speed, not good for combat as it bends the trajectory of the arrows, but perfect for quick travelling, as it allows automatic evasion of obstacles through the most aerodynamic route.
· Kamigami: Small paper effigies that scout for Garo, allowing him to track his prey or provide Intel. They take the shape of Hawks and each charm can summon up to 10 nearly undetectable summoned creatures.
Skills
Ten no Ya Ryu (Heavenly Arrow Style)
The Ten no Ya Ryu focuses on fast and accurate shots while moving. It’s a style created to hunt, with mobility and accuracy being the most important aspects. The style contains multiple basic techniques, footwork for moving archery, basic trick shots and multi-shots any adept should know.
But the most important techniques, the Oshie (Teachings) are the ones most important. There are 5 main Teachings and a Secret Technique (Ougi)
1. Kami Hohaba (Divine Stride): The highest level of the footwork. Acrobatic movement and proper spatial perception are the main features of this technique. Using this footwork a Master of the Style can shot in basically any position or angle without losing base accuracy.
2. Shuryo-Shin no Me (Eyes of the Hunting God): Secret training helps the practitioners of the style improve their eyesight and the quality of information they acquire from a target. This, being the highest level of technique allows the user to pinpoint weaknesses or structural weak points in objects or individuals
3. Kami no Shomei (Divine Lighting): The one who shoots first is the one who wins, that tends to be the rule on ranged combat. The Ten no Ya Masters of the past found this precept to be partially incorrect when they discovered this teaching to counter fire-arms. What’s important isn’t shooting first, but hitting first. With this technique the practitioner can improve the arrow speed to the point it beats a bullet.
4. Kamigami no Ame (Divine Rain): Multiple shoots fired at the same time tend to be a known trick for archers. The Ten no Ya users take this a step further with lightning-fast consecutive multiple shots. Garo tends to use this technique as last resort, combining it with his Omnyo Charm to great effect.
5. Aragami no Yari (Battle God’s Spear): A single arrow launched with the most power possible with pinpoint accuracy can do wonders. When a Ten no Ya Master does it, it can accomplish Miracles. A slow and methodical shot with a spin added to the arrow to triplicate its piercing power. It’s the longest range shot of a Ten no Ya Master able to fly for more than a km without losing speed or direction.
6. OUGI – Junishin no Ya: (Twelve Godly Arrows): The final technique of the style, using the 5 previous teachings in tandem, the user of this Ougi shots 12 simultaneous arrows with curved trajectory, pinpoint accuracy, blinding speed, armor piercing power that attack every vital point in the body. This attack is a sure kill if 50% of the arrows reach the target.
Hand to Hand Combat
Garo has trained for years to compliment his ranged specialty with some good old martial arts. He holds belts in Aikido, Judo and Karate, mostly focused on defensive maneuvers. He also is able to fight with combat knives and with his bow.
Tracking
Possibly one of the best 10 trackers in the World, Garo is capable of finding trails and clues of almost any Hidden World creature and for any mundane animal. He can follow their tracks through any weather and is a world class survivalist.
Bow Making and Arrow Making
Garo knows every technique in the art of bow crafting and the creation of arrows, still he prefers simple weapons instead of extravagant arrows. He respects traditions.
Equipment
Ryuyoko (Dragon Wing)
Garo’s weapon of choice is a mixture between composite longbow with modern elements and kyudo sensibilities. It can withstand attacks from swords or even getting run over by a truck. It’s made with the best materials available and it’s perfectly balanced.
Arrows
Garo carries titanium tipped arrows with enchantments. He also tends to equip his quiver with Cold Iron, Silver and Holy water soaked projectiles to deal with particular threats. The only two weird arrows he carries are a tracing arrow, that leaks paint and a GPS arrow, that implants a endodermic chip on the target to track him.