Akio Okazaki [Human] [Urahara Shop Employee]

((Please note, I am unfamiliar with Japanese laws concerning air rifles and similar weapons. Will look into it when I have the time.))

Name: Akio Kobayashi

Nickname: Ginga Bishonen

Age: 16

Gender: Male

Weapon(s): A specially-designed handgun, modelled after a Browning L9A1, a standard issue pistol in the British Army. Instead of bullets, the gun is loaded with a cartridge that absorbs and stores ambient spirit particles, allowing him to fire shots that can harm most low-level Hollows, and are the equivalent of a bee sting to low-power Shinigami.

Depending on the task at hand, Akio will sometimes crack out a sniper rifle with a cartridge of similar design. However, the cartridge in the rifle is specially adapted to it, as it gathers particles in concentrated bursts – as opposed to a steady stream. While it sacrifices the fire rate, this hardly matters, given that it’s a sniper rifle. It allows the next shot to be ready, as soon as he lines it up. This weapon is rarely seen, as h finds it heavy, and highly cumbersome.

He’s also working on a minigun that works off of the same principle, but it’s still nothing more than assorted blueprints, post-it notes and annotated pencil sketches. It’ll probably take him months to even get a working prototype finished.

Personality:
Normally, Akio is a calm young fellow, simply getting on with his job, wearing a smile that gives him an approachable air. He’s not always so calm, but it is his dominant personality trait, and he’ll very rarely raise his voice without good reason. A collected individual as well, Akio is not easily perturbed by many things he witnesses, be they Hollows or the Shinigami that come and go. Even the battles that had constantly raged in, under, or outside of the establishment barely fazed him, what with the occurrences becoming almost daily in their frequency. In a nutshell, he’s suited for his job, in terms of personality at least.

However, when things do get heated, but not with the situation coming to blows, Akio usually has one of two reactions – sometimes both, not in any specific order. One reaction is him attempting to diffuse the situation, by whatever means he deems necessary – but not inflammatory. Whether it’s him having to take a firm tone of voice and raise it so he can be heard, or whether it’s him just making sure each part can make sense of the situation, he’ll do what he can – if he thinks he can be of help. On the other hand, he may just back away slowly, seeing that the situation is out of his control, and hope that it gets resolved quickly. Or that it blows over. Rarely does either happen, but he’s willing to sit things out if he can’t help.

In battle, Akio seems to adopt an entirely different persona, taking on the attitude of a cold-blooded killer. He isn’t one, and despises killing – always believing another way is possible – but as a Shinigami usually comes along to purify any Hollows he fights, he feels he can afford to go all-out on them. He prefers to hang back, letting people with more experience in close-range combat fight, while he uses his skilled marksmanship – with a pistol, no less – back them up. Unless you go out of your way to bypass his personality and mental blocks, Akio will rarely be anything other than placid and entirely focussed when in battle, knowing that his utmost attention is required, if he is to stop himself from shooting his allies.

Physical Appearance:

Easily a few inches taller than the average boy his age, Akio is built more for athleticism than power or endurance. His slender body has muscles toned by his light exercise but due to the fact that he is more inclined to undertake marksman training – instead of hand-to-hand combat, or any form of combat not involving firearms, they aren’t of much use. His skin is a little paler than one would expect, but the amount this is to is pretty much negligible, unless a person is particularly picky about this kind of thing. He hasn’t tried to work on a tan before, and likely won’t start now.

Though it looks unkempt, at first, Akio’s flamboyantly red and spiky hair has actually been styled this way. Why it’s done like that is a mystery to all but himself, given how much attention it attracts, when his tactic is to remain hidden and take potshots at the foe. Whenever he’s asked, the usual answer is a nonchalant shrug, followed by him asking if the person in question is going to buy something or leave. His eyes match his hair, in terms of colour – red, though his eyes have a notably darker colour than his hair. Though their placidity may not reveal much, it actually reveals all that’s needed to be known about him by strangers – that he’s calm and collected, and ready to just get on with his work.

In terms of clothing, Akio tends to try and match his top with his hair and eyes, usually going with a red shirt. Whether it’s a button-up reminiscent of office workers or a slim-fitting longsleeve that makes him look like he shopped in the children’s section, it’s always some shade of red, most likely a crimson shade. Or similar. His trousers are largely the same, ranging from snugly-fitting corduroy trousers to slightly darker corduroy trousers. If he’s feeling daring, he’ll wear white corduroy, but it’d take a lot of convincing for him to do so. In terms of footwear, his black trainers have never let him down in the time he’s had them, and the fact that he’s still wearing them is a testament to their durability. And a reminder that he should probably bung them in the washer sometime soon.

Bio:
Akio was born an only child, the first child of his parents. There were no particularly special events surrounding his birth – he was planned, both parents were married and had been for the best part of six years, he was born in a perfectly respectable hospital in the wee hours of an Autumn morn, and neither of his parents died soon after his birth. However, since both of his parents were spiritually aware, it seemed only natural that he inherited their ability to see and commune with the deceased, further evidenced when he began to walk – not just to his mother and father, but to the ghosts of the dead who happened to be somewhere nearby. It was expected, but the two parents were proud nonetheless.

Growing up, life offered nothing particularly special for the boy, his life pretty much an assortment of grey, vanilla, and vanilla-flavoured grey. When he attended school, he learned things. He made friends, he made enemies, he took an interest in weaponry… Well, maybe his interest in weaponry went a little further than most children’s. When they were still calling every firearm a gun, he was differentiating by type. When they were differentiating by type, he knew a fair few big-name manufacturers. When they knew a few different types of famous firearms, he had already acquired several – rather thick – books on the subject, and was being taught how to use an air rifle. In secret, given his age, but he still showed significant potential as he shot down tin after tin.

Akio’s fairly average life continued to be fairly average, until his parents had to work later and later, up until the point where they were practically only home for dinner. It was a lonely existence, somewhat – Akio didn’t really speak with anyone outside of school, and with neither a sibling nor his parents to be with him the days seemed to get increasingly longer. He didn’t mind loneliness – he ccepted it. Embraced it, even. No, his problem lay in the fact that tedium riddled his life, that nothing ever happened. So, he got a job – nothing particularly glamorous, just a little something at a run-down little store run by an odd man in a hat, whom Akio took an interest in. Not a liking, not a hatred. Just an interest.

Having grown up as a spiritually aware person from the day he was able to toddle away from his parents, Akio had been conditioned to Hollows, and was fazed only when endangered by them. Given that he would likely be in danger if he worked at the Urahara Shop,it was only natural he come into possession of an item to defend himself. One coming from his father, no less. It was never explained how the handgun got there, or why such a thing had not been made public, but neither party complained when Akio managed to put one right between a Hollow’s eyes.

Now a shelf-stacker and general errand boy at the store, Akio takes his job seriously only when he needs to, looking more fed up than anything when Urahara gets up to his usual antics. At this point, nothing the man does seems to surprise him, though Akio’s presence seems to shrink a little when Urahara gets serious about something. He never goes for his weapon, however – more due to the fact that he knows it’ll do nothing at all to save him.

Role-play sample:
The Hollow, while low-level and about as much threat as a walnut, had to be dealt with. Well, it wasn’t particularly threatening to most Shinigami – but Akio was not a Shinigami, nor was he a Visored. In fact, he was just a plain old human, just spiritually aware. And a crack shot with a pistol, but that was beside the point. His handgun, when compared with the capabilities of other people’s weaponry, was pitiful, and seemed to only just function as a self-defence weapon against minor Hollows. And, given that this was a minor Hollow, it would once again be put to the test.
After all, Akio was already late to his job, and didn’t need to further displease his employer by dragging a Hollow with him while he fled.

Dodging the bipedal brute’s right straight, Akio let off a few rounds into the Hollow, noting that the ‘spirit bullets’ managed to lodge themselves in the Hollow, before dissipating. However, the wounds were not deep enough to be anything more than annoying to the lumbering spirit, and only seemed to anger it further. At this range, shots at the mask did nothing at all, though one did manage to scratch it a little. He surmised that he would have to move in closer for his shots to work – however, at that kind of rage, his opponent would also have a clear shot at him, essentially rendering the tactic useless.
Unless something clever was thought up.

And something clever was thought up on the spot. Granted, he’d done it multiple times, so technically it was remembering something clever he’d done before, but that hardly mattered at that point, seeing as if he didn’t just go through with it, he would die a horrible, painful death. Thus, he shot the enemy in the knees, slowing it a little and causing it to stumble, but not doing much else. Other than angering it to its very core. It lumbered towards him, unleashing a guttural roar in his general direction, repeatedly attempting to swing at and crush the teen where he stood. And, despite his physical (in)ability, the blows were sluggish and easy to avoid.

Eventually, the beast grew frustrated, and that was when even its instincts became clouded. It unleashed what could have been a fairly devastating blow, but as it insisted on having a massive wind-up for it, seeing it coming was a task even an infant could do. Dodging it wasn’t actually much harder. What would be, was taking the opportunity he had been given. Akio dodged around the fist thrown at him, and unleashed bullet Hell from the semi-automatic, aiming for the Hollow’s mask. And, at the range he was firing at, he managed to get a good few hits in, evidently smarting enough to leave the Hollow reeling back.

The Hollow was about to punch him, but at this point, one more shot at less than a metre, and the mask would split like an egg. And, despite being shorter, Akio was holding the barrel of his handgun within a metre of his enemy, a hardened look set in his eyes.
“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” he began, “Did he deplete his cartridge, or did he leave some in reserve? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I lost track as well. But, given that this is a standard issue handgun for the British army and would blow your mask clean off at this range, you’ve got to ask yourself one question – do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?”
The Hollow pondered for a moment, but disregarded any inhibitions, in favour of attempting to devour the boy.

At which point, the stalling worked, and a Shinigami passing by split the Hollow down the middle.

Should probably get permission from Salt before making an Urahara shop employee, since he plays Kisuke.

Yeah, I dropped him a line when I was posting this. Got his permission to work there.
On another note, the form's done, and I'll be posting a face claim on Takuto Tsunashi.
Unless someone gets him first.

Good good. You can go ahead and post the claim now.

Approved for MDR-3 with 25 points. Obviously, you would have gotten a higher rank with this sample, but since he's just a spiritually aware human with weapons, that's the appropriate rank for him to have. You probably already know that, though.

Once the points are applied, this will be moved to accepted.

Yeah, I felt like making a character that would become strong in their own right, through hard work, instead of just creating one right off the bat.

Statistics:
Rank/level: MDR-3
Hankou: 4
Reiryoku: 4
Hakudo: 3
Seijuu: 4
Bukijuu: 6
Hoho: 4
Total points: 25

That's an awesome (and rare) thing to see around here. ewe You have my respect.

Moving this to accepted~