You can't possibly stand the injustices of this world

Tracking Post

2011-01-26T08:05:29Z

Day 47
- Wakes up in Landel's shortly after dying
- Short lunch with Mele/"Anri"
- Quasi-trolls Brainy in the Sun Room
- Meets his roommate, Edward!

[Bulletin Board]
Was Akumetsu Successful?: Attempt No. 1

- Begins his first nighttime adventure and ends up running into Mello. Gets into his first SC fight with Usopp...and eventually runs away to the Gardener's Shed to find treasure! But no luck...

Day 48
- Breakfast with a sedated Mello, what fun!
- Finds out - gasp! - that Usopp was a patient...in the showers wtf how awkward
- Talks with Raphael in the Courtyard

[Bulletin Board]
Brief exchange w/ Ange about the screwy time continuum

Day 49/Doyleton Trip
- [Main Street] Chats with Naruto
- [Main Street] Latches onto Abe Sapien for some exploring!

- After some sort of fruitless exploring, resolves to find a weapon and ...wanders into the women's block and runs into Hokuto [Akumetsu Successful?: Attempt No. 2]

Day 50
- Another breakfast with Mello
- ...and then a meeting with Mello's 'friend' in the library

- [Tower of Babel Night] THE FATEFUL MEETING (aka The Beginning of Akumetsu Gaiden) which leads to ENGRISH NOOOO! yet somehow our heroes carry on and make it into the FOREST OF DOOM AND DISCOVER A CREEPY ALTAR...!

Day 51
- Quiet breakfast with occasional Howl
- [Tsundere Girl I] Finally meets Mele for real...and promptly breaks her brain.
- [Akumetsu Gaiden] Lunch with Gant: Brain Break Part I (+indirectly getting Snow sedated on the side!)

- Heads out with the intention of exploring the forest again and enlists the help of Leela! They are sidetracked by an interesting intercom broadcast, though, and head out to the rec field to find...JU-ON NOOOOOOOO

Day 52
- Check-in/Trollin' with Leela
- [Adventures with Clone Buddies/Tsundere Girl II] Introduced to X-23
- Meets Izaya during lunch
- Second conversation with the roommate, although wtf Edward take better care of yourself :|

[Bulletin Board]
First brush with the Yatagarasu: Niikura Has His Doubts
Trolls Gant

- [Sentient Shadow Night] Heads out solo AGAIN only to stumble upon Kiba destroying private property! Somehow they bond, and Niikura invites himself along to Patient Possessions (fake Akumetsu mask get!) and SENTIENT SHADOWS NOOOOO

Day 53
- [Otaku Fun/Tsundere Girl III] Meets TOMOE FROM RK WHOAAAAAA except wow she's tsundere
- Welcomes Mike to Landel's in the Sun Room
- [Akumetsu Gaiden] Ruins Gant's Lunch Again: Brain Break Part II
- Enjoys the fail band with Mele in the Music Room

- [Akumetsu Gaiden...sort of] Solo again for the night...jk trolls Badd like a mutha the whole night

Day 54
- [Akumetsu Gaiden: CONCLUSION] IT SHOULD BE EVIL!!!! : Gant Edition (In Which Niikura Gets Sedated For the First Time Ever)
- Lunch ~~with a stormtroopah, yo TK!~~...by himself, it looks like
- Practices his welcoming committee act on Dr. Facilier
- Fills Edward in on The Sun Room Incident over dinner

- [The Food is Spiked! Night] Runs into Mike again. Paranoia looms. They fall to discussing Landel's dismissal, and Niikura directs them to the Entry Room where everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

[Bulletin Board]
Trolls Prussia
Post-Endgame with Gant
Giving Wally the 411 on the Forest

Day 55
- Shift 1 and 2 skipped due to backthread and mun slowness
- "Enjoys" his first meal of nutritious pink slop with Franziska
- [Akumetsu Gaiden: Denouement...Sort Of] Clears up some more business with Gant as scheduled

- Round 2 with Mike (now with bonus Phoenix!) [+ 1 star monster pin]

[Bulletin Board]
Rare apology to Mike
Reassuring Ippo re: the ~~lack of~~ sanity of those around him
Another pleasant chat about dying with [anon] Zack

Day 56
- Bus ride w/ Mele
- [Main Street] Friendly morning chat with ~~the Yatagarasu~~ Byrne Faraday
- [Lil' Tyke Toys] Second run-in with Badd; in which Niikura attempts to convince himself that Badd is not a creeper
- [Troll Alert] [Main Street --> Tasty Burger] Scams Ippo out of a free drink to go with his burger
- Meets Lana Skye on the bus trip back

- Meets Phoenix (now + Edgeworth) in Attempt #1 to Get a Proper Weapon

[Bulletin Board]
Calling Phoenix out

Day 57
- Getting to know Edgeworth
- Shift 2 skipped
- BRAIN HORRENDOUSLY BROKEN BY "KATSURA KEI": In Which Niikura Finally Turns to the Dark Side and Renounces "One Man, One Kill"
- SENTIMENTAL ME w/ Ippo

- Arrives at Mike's room only to find him missing
- [Main Hall, 1-West] Crashes into Sesshoumaru en route to the Disciplinary Therapy rooms
- [Disciplinary Therapy Corridor] Arrives and runs into a turtlefied Mike (assumed)

[Bulletin Board]
Fanboy Moment w/ Goku
I Spy With My Little Eye Two Spiders and a Troll
More chats about dying w/ Dr. Facilier (HELLO AGAIN FRIEND)
Schedules a meeting w/ Mike

Day 58
- Follow-up w/ Mike
- Meets Shiina for the first time in the flesh. In which Niikura begins having Identity Issues.
- Suffers through Meekins during lunch
- [Akumetsu Gaiden: Epilogue] THE LAST MEETING: In which Gant spills the beans on Badd

- Heads out to meet his posse for the night, picks up Shiina from her room as promised, and discovers that Mike is out of commission ~~again~~. He and Shiina continue on nevertheless, only to find out that SC!Badd is in the rec field.

[Bulletin Board]
Discovers that Ippo was indeed the sheep from NS 57
Takes Gant's bait
Attempts to counsel Sesshoumaru
Responds to Gumshoe's inquiry about P/E
Gets Shiina's room number

Day 59
- Fact-checking w/ Byrne
- THE CONFRONTATION / In Which Niikura Once Again Decides to Be a Snide Jerkface
- Pwns Ippo at CHILDREN'S GAMES

- [Powers Event/Monster Jubilee] Second try at collecting the posse, but not before picking up Utena's spare sword. Picks up Shiina and then heads back to pick up Mike. They escape a horde of cockroaches, brave a winter storm, and finally make it to the activities shed. The three decide to head back to the institute and do some more exploring, but end up attracting an aquila in the rec field.

[Bulletin Board]
Calling Badd out/Checking in w/ Mike
Replies to Utena re: her extra sword/Talks to Shiina about possible sword training
Meets a fellow otaku (Japan)

Day 60
- Breakfast with some blond jerkface (Aidou)
- Meets a FAMOUS HISTORICAL FIGURE!!11!!! (Hijikata)

[Bulletin Board]
Kind of accidentally trolls Byrne; ends up talking to Badd about Super Sentai
Asks about the basement

[OOC] Application

2010-01-23T07:35:07Z

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.