PERSONA
Name: Akira Shimada
Age: Nineteen | November 12th, X768
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Bi-curious
Ethnicity, Father: Joyan
Ethnicity, Mother: Joyan
Class: Sorcerer
Race: Human
Rank: S-Rank
Faction: Rune Knights
Tattoo: Right scapula and in black (If I ever leave RK)
Face: Shiki Ryougi - Kara No Kyoukai
PHYSIQUE
Height: 5' 2'' (1.58 m)
Weight: 45 Kgs (99.208 lb)
Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Grey (almost black)
Overall: Akira is a lithe petite figure; she is slinky almost like she could disappear into the shadows. Her hair is short and splintered in dark strands across her pixie-ish face. If one peers into her large dark eyes, they’d be left wondering… Framed by her spikey lashes, the two windows to her soul are the only places which occasionally betray an innocent spark of brightness. She wears her darkness with abandon, almost flaunting it, like she’s surrendered to it and made it her own, from dark nail-paint to lip stains, to the collar around her neck, for the most part her appearance screams ‘stay the hell away from me.’
Extra: She had a lotus tattoo, but she had it removed.
PERSONALITY
Personality: They say curiosity killed the cat and it’s a bit like that with Akira's lighter self... When younger, she was earnest and fun-loving, she was very true to her own feelings, and she was transparent, even in her confusion and in her anger. She assumed the world was going to return the favour, but it was much to the contrary. Not only were people not keen on being true to themselves, they didn’t appreciate her candour either… Especially given the nature of her magic, most couldn’t separate her from what she was capable of, till she and her magic were virtually the same.
The world needed people who could wrap themselves in neat little hypocrisies for the sake of politeness and acceptance. It is as though things function only when everyone can adhere to a certain average. The more knowledge she gleaned, the more she could verify that most idols had clay feet. She grew wary and picky, to the point that she no longer could fight it; she embraced her magic and let it define her.
Akira is a tricky being. She flaunts her dark-toned rebellion as a defence mechanism. Her younger boisterous go-getting personality has simmered into a jaded carelessness, but she still has goals. The girl has just realized, that people love categories, boxes to stow away everyone they meet. It is easier to stick to one facet of yourself that is most recognized and seems logical. So she embraced the rag-tag demeanour of someone who faced a setback, a failure, the weird one, the one you should keep your distance from… Most people start off on her wrong side and then crawl their way to her right if they're cleared. Once they do, make it to her good side though, she will do anything for them.
Her experiences didn't immediately improve after she managed to snag a place amidst the Rune Knights, but she did find a few people who firmly made it to her good side. Over time, despite dealing with several dangerous and potentially life threatening situations she learned to trust again. Particularly in the one she spent the most time with, her designated partner, who stuck along far longer than she had expected, Hatsuharu Akimoto. His contrasting instincts, patience and resilience with her, taught her a lot. Her experiences with the few that she grew close to, or had the luck of instantly connecting with, helped her find her optimism, curiosity and her light again. Although the people around her attributed that to the affect of the light that she found within her, or rather, had been forced to adopt... She stubbornly believes it has nothing to do with the elements of her magic.
Lately, she's developed her dryer demeanour again mingled with a dangerous sort of impatience. Akira has been nurturing the tendency to take matters into her own hand but while she's quick to indulging the satisfaction of making a snap decision, she suffers a lot of guilt over it later. At the same time, she seeks to justify her actions because she does fear failure on her account which she has been faced with in different garbs through the years of her service with the faction. Akira now struggles to find balance in terms of how far she can go with the gift of her magic, when and whether taking lives in the line of duty without explicit orders can be condoned and when not. Especially because she is less concerned with abiding the law, which she thinks is a tool employed by those in power and is truly governed by her own moral instincts.
Likes:
- Honesty: Even if it is the worst thing someone has ever said to her, if it’s true she’d appreciate it.
- Silence: Some god-damn peace and quiet is nice sometimes. Away from the constant yammering of people around her… Solitary walks, early mornings and late nights…
- Writing: Usually happy with her own company, Akira likes to document her thoughts and ideas. While also keeping track of her progress. She relies on stories, with ideal characters… and occasionally… even happy endings.
Dislikes:
- Peas: The texture and flavour of those tiny, yucky green balls just make her want to gag.
- Hypocrites: Saying one thing and conveniently doing another, gets her really annoyed.
- Attention-Seekers : People that would virtually do anything just to get noticed by someone else, that kind of spineless behaviour just annoys Akira to no end.
Motivations:
- Pride and Sustenance: One needs to do something to survive, so why not work? She couldn't stand relying on others for her survival.
- Duty and Curiosity: Given that she's been able to harness so much of her power in such little time, she feels driven to put it to some good use. While also using the opportunity to find out how far she can push herself.
- Balance and Justice: The forces of good and evil drive everything forward, if evil doesn’t exist; the good will have no reason to strive and flourish. If evil gains absolute control, there will be no advance… so it’s imperative to keep the wheel turning, but in a way that the general population isn't ground to dust under this wheel...
Fears:
- Betrayal: he girl doesn’t trust easily and once she does, it is absolute and the same is expected in return. Betrayal will break her, since she is already so cautious.
- Loss of Control: Sometimes she feels urges that would lead to terrible things, if she gave into them. She fears acting on them and doing things that she’d regret.
- Repetition: While she initially seemed to have settled into some sort of mediocrity, it soon became apparent that she hadn’t. She seeks to keep it that way.
MAGICA
Magic Name: Lunar Magic
Magic Element: Darkness, Light
Magic Description: Lunar Magic is a magic which allows its user to utilize spells from two different elemental trees. The user is capable of using Darkness-type spells and Light-type spells. Whenever the magic is utilized, a crest lights up on the forehead of the user. Users who have been using the magic for a long period of time will have the crest permanently on their forehead as long as they have the magic. While it does not light up when it is permanent on the forehead, it still lights up when the user engages into battle.
HISTORIA
- X768 - X784:
Akira is the product of a failed marriage. The first five years of her life, she witnessed much discord between her parents. Her father was incapable of performing any magic and was a very conservative Joyan man. As opposed to her mother, a half-Joyan, half-Fiorian free-spirit who could harness magic and employ it. Since patriarchy lilted in this secluded village in Joya, that discrepancy chipped away at their harmony and gave birth to violent oppression. Akira, three-parts Joyan and one-part Fiorian, strived to be the light in a household that seemed to be getting consumed by darkness. Finally when the girl was about five, her mother decided it was best to part with her spouse and leave for Marigold, Fiore where Akira's maternal grandfather was from. It was not easy being a single mother, so Akira watched the woman dwindle between being a pillar of strength and being swallowed by loneliness and depression...
The new place was a gigantic respite, despite her mother’s periodic plummet into the depths of despair. Akira blossomed, she was proud of her mother for making the break and standing on her own two feet. Additionally, she had the support of her grandparents. But, soon things were not all hunky-dory. Akira’s latent power seemed to be brewing inside her and occasionally, she’d get a dark aura around her, which was rather intimidating for the young kids around her. It prevented her from making friends. It also attracted undue attention to the broken family… People whispered things about them; how Akira was cursed with some strange demonic power and that it was the mother’s fault for taking away the security of a family from her child.
As she got quieter and quieter, initially people were happy to blame it on the trauma of the separation again. But that wasn’t her problem, a choice her parents made, suddenly defined her. It made things a little strained between the mother and daughter, as the young child fell into the traps of what people said and began blaming her mother… A frustration brewed inside her… Till it burst, it made her aggressive, argumentative… and largely annoyed through a lot of her pre-teens. What Akira truly hated, was when people would have the gall to pretend to be nice, assuming their snickering went by unnoticed. The condescension and pity had chipped away at Akira’s natural brightness, slowly. Despite her household keeping her largely sheltered and hoping to provide her with the foundation she needed.
Finally, she started to call people out for their hypocrisy; at such times, her dark aura would only flair darker… Creeping people out and giving her words a much more sinister edge than she intended. It drew people away from her and in turn made her despise her power for making things even worse. The mother and daughter remedied their relationship and she turned her frustration towards her absentee father. Guilt engulfed her, for making things more difficult for the people who attempted understanding her, in this world, her mother and her grandparents.
In attempt to make amends, Akira thought it’d be safer if she isolated herself even more. At least she was blessed with one thing, intelligence and a pretty sharp memory, which made anything she studied easy… So while people could complain about her attitude, they could say little about her abilities. As she went through her teens, the she couldn’t quite shake the label of a troubled trouble child. During that time, her grandparents had to move to Caelum for a bit to live with their son, her mother's brother. With just the two of them in the house, her mother tried her best to provide everything for her daughter. But eventually due to unforseen circumstances the woman plummeted into the depths of her worse depression and Akira stopped talking all together. Unfortunately, people took her silence as a challenge, and attempting goading her into conversations and into retaliation. Somehow, she held fast.
Noticing her daughter, more in her reservation than in her boisterous complaining, the mother managed to bounce up from rock bottom. But it seemed that it was already too late for Akira… Who seemed consumed by a certain melancholy. In attempt to ensure her daughter doesn’t face the same wrath of the world as she had, the mother decided to work it out, to attempt aiding Akira in harnessing whatever plagued her, into something that would help her in being an independent young woman. It was but a piece of magic, to be wielded by the user, just as so many others… Despite its less appealing appearance.
So Akira trained, not too hard, but just enough to get her power under control, some how, sure that it would be enough. She set her eyes on a new goal, with renewed purpose, her magic already seemed more compliant, which seemed to be enough of a victory and a license to dream big. So she decided to attempt joining one of the famous guilds. The most favoured choice had been Blue Pegasuses, given how close it was to Marigold, but Akira sought to see more of Fiore and decided to first try for Fairy Tail.
Weeks passed and soon, she it was time for her to pay a visit to the guild. Already wracked with nervousness, on her way, she ran into a rather bitter stranger. He eyed her from under his wide brimmed hat, scanning her form and scoffing. ‘You’re wasting your time, they’d never accept someone like you, I’ve worked with them before, and you’re not what they’re looking for...’ With that he walked away, but she’d been so wound up, that’s all she needed to unravel.
Akira took this assumed failure hard for some time, it affected her quite intensely. She lost her purpose once again and dove into uncertainty and confusion. Eventually, she decided to wear her failure, to make it her identity, she aided people in assuming she was good for nothing... Just a rebellious troubled, weird teen... Her mother was the only one who could see past her garb, the only one who knew she never puffed the cigarette she held between her teeth. Instead of attempting the flashy guilds again, she settled on working for the Rune Knights.
- X785 - X787:
After going through so many things in the span of only a year, her adventures came to a bitter end. When she confessed to her partner about her part in the death of the Vampyre (which after some explanation he managed to justify) and the mercy-killing of the daemonic-demon-slayer. The latter left him puzzled and he accused her of being rash and violent.
She tried several ways to pacify his anger. She attempted a justification that relied on the discrepancy between their knowledge regarding races and magics. She claimed that she knew what could happen if the daemonic side took over and that it could've lead to catastrophes in the festival. When that didn't work she tried to draw out his empathy by logically explaining that she knew first hand what that struggle could be like and that it would've been a million times worse for the woman. Tsuru turned that argument on its head and reminded her that she survived. Only to add that perhaps she shouldn't have. The argument escalated into a full-blown fight, one which they'd never quite had before and he went as far as to blame his own temper on her snap judgement. Walking away after basically offering her the gift of life, only to contrast it heavily against her choice to offer the gift of death.
Having lost her best ally, she couldn't help but feel the return of her melancholy. The interaction left her aching with guilt yet again Forcing her to question her choices and enter a tumultuous state of self-doubt and often warily seeking a way to absolve herself. After a few months off, she continued working as a Lieutenant, in an attempt to find solace by helping those who needed it. She noticed her tasks getting more and more difficult as well as more demanding in terms of their profile. It seemed she was being repeatedly tested. She'd still not been assigned a captain and was merely getting orders from various different sources.
It went on for a little less than a year like this. The lack of structure was slowly getting to her and she did find herself feeling more and more determined to get an audience with the council. Especially because in her state of bitterness she'd also lost the fear of authority and was very tempted to confront the ones who had decided to send her and her fellow Rune Knights to something akin to a suicide mission against the Phantom Lords, among other decisions she didn't agree with. Perhaps her demeanour changed significantly enough for those around her to realise. As per the usual pattern when possible cause of conflict was detected, they offered her a rank-up as a pacifier. At least that's what she saw it as anyways. Although, in retrospect, she had garnered a considerably long list of achievements within the Knights, in a relatively short span of time.
She got her chance to perhaps meet with the council, when she was offered a mission to gather intelligence on a suspected adversary of King Reign. It was fair to assume that upon succeeding, she could demand to meet someone. The new king's rule had been just a little longer than the break Akira took. In fact him having earned that position, was one of the rays of hope she needed to return to her work. Given that she had worked with him intimately just before she and Tsuru split ways and that she believed that he was worth protecting. On this rare occasion, she had no qualms about her task.
Unfortunately for her, the mission took a turn for the sour. She noticed that the adversary of the king was trying to cater to the population that was rather rankled by the changes in terms of equality amidst races and people. In fact he went as far as to promise the people that he'd reinstate slavery. As long as those were empty words, Akira didn't really care and she dutifully relayed the information she gathered back to the council But then she found out that the man had used his influence and stashes of wealth to illegally acquire and transport a whole hosts of slaves, that he intended on offering to those willing to support him in his attempted coup. Bribery of this sort was in itself repulsive and the fact that he used human lives for it made Akira quite thirsty for blood.
She had never intended on harming the man intentionally, however she went off course and took it upon herself to free the slaves. Unfortunately without adequate reinforcements, she was forced into making a split second decision. The slick man had the temerity to threaten the lives of all the slaves, instead of freeing them when he was confronted. So she made a choice and killed him instead. Of course, in that moment she didn't consider the outcry that it would cause against the Rune Knights.
The council and she were blamed for assassinating people without plausible cause and evidence simply because they voiced opinions that differed from the crowned king. She had never intended on creating problems and this earned her a formal hearing. Little did she know among the member she had a secret ally, who wasn't as appalled at her actions as some of the others. She was informed that the vote to dismiss her, or to not was at a stalemate, but there was a way she could salvage her reputation and that of the Rune Knights.
A careful plan was laid out by Adragna, who offered to take Akira under her wing. It was decided that the Shimada would be publicly reprimanded and will make the choice to step down. However her records as a Rune Knight will simply be sealed and be kept with the council. Basically, in the eye of the public, she had stepped down, but the intent was to have her merely work undercover, since she had never officially been dismissed. The arrangement left Akira with access to the information she needed though most of her communication happened undercover and through Adragna. In essence Akira was her own Captain-Commander for the time being. Additionally, while she had to hand in a few of her old equipment, Adragna replaced them with items that would better suit the endeavour she was to embark upon.
Tensions between the two Knight factions had been running high for a while now. With time, this was no secret. The Rune Knights had hoped to find a way to send a spokesperson to the Holy Knights, but they were well aware that the candidate would never have access to information that they truly sought. Especially, given the general distrust between the factions. So Akira's dismissal served as a ruse and gave her the option to realign herself with the Holy Knights, given enough time had passed and her loyalty was not going to be questioned as much. Plus, she had the option of pretentiously playing up her bitterness at having been forced to resign.
While they waited for the appropriate time frame Akira was slowly trained in the art of deception by Adragna, given the sensitivity of the assignment the Shimada had to prepare for several eventualities and situations that she would have to overcome. The council members while wary were willing to take the risk, although it was evident that some of them would not seek to extricate her if something went wrong, that seemed to fall upon Adragna and anyone else she could convince.
As she grew more and more ready for her venture, she was forced to take a break from the training. Her granddad passed away seemingly of natural causes. Her mother and grandmother decided to move back to Joya following the tragedy, while Akira chose to stick around and do her duty. She'd been downplaying the perils of her mission to ensure that her family does not get in the way and try and stop her. So in a way she was glad that fate had forced them into safety. Her grandfather's dying wish was that she serve the people and protect them to her best ability, which made the impending trial less formidable and served to give her a new purpose.
Reference: Hatsuharu |
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