Age: 13
Physical Description: Standing 5’3’’ (160 cm) and with a weight of around 110 pounds (50 kg), Take doesn’t actually live up to his name as some tall, beastly sculpture made from the hands of gods. An average height for a boy his age, his slim body donning bright, pale skin and minor signs of developed musculature. His hair, however, is long and majestic – it reaches down to his waist and carries a deep, red-brown chromos to it. It’s a bit wild and protrudes fiery bangs out on its way down. His eyes contain dark-brown irises and are soft to look at, rarely tightening in focus outside of combat.
His usual choice of clothes is a black-and-violet haori, accompanied by a pair of black leggings and held together with a white, wavy cloth functioning as a belt. His feet are sheltered by typical sandals befitting of shinobi in the field, and he carries a single, wide pocket on his back right above the rear. Some smaller items are kept in pockets hidden under his long sleeves.
Mental Description: Take likes silence, and he prefers doing things silently. There’s a certain beauty in the tranquility of silence, and he’s realized that he yearns to hone and mold his skills after this trait. However, it often makes him a ‘fly on the wall’ when meeting up with many people; it’s not a thing he dislikes, but he often ends up listening more than talking. Subconsciously, he sees it as a detriment that he needs to work on, but besides that…
Rarely, he breaks out a smile on his face. A soft lift of his lips to nice things such as a pair of squirrels running up a tree, the magnificent after-taste of dango and daifuku, arare, dorayaki, manju, monaka, senbei, yatsuhashi, yokan… oh, yeah, when it comes to sweets, he’s far from picky.
History: Take’s birth was a celebratory one. Born in Maple Town to two shinobi, it was noticed from the get go that this infant with pale skin and echoing cries would become a great shinobi one day. His parents thanked the heavens for his arrival and, one day, brought the little infant to the top of the stone faces where he was showcased to the horizon. They named him Ōtakemaru, the Great Mountain Peak, the peak of power that they aspired him to reach one day. He was to inherit his mother’s skills with the blade and his father’s experience with Ninjutsu, so that he would eclipse them both in the far future…
The case was, however, that Take – the short nickname given to him overtime by his family – was somewhat of a slow learner. It was strange to expect the world from a 10-year old, but it was perhaps this dissatisfied attitude from them both which turned Take into the silent fly that he is today. A child’s psyche is heavily influenced by the way their parents treat them, and while he was never physically abused or ever harmed with a fist, his parents’ expectations of him gradually shrinking and shrinking into nothingness… was about to break him. It was about to throw him into a black hole, if not for the fated day that came…
While keeping it a secret from his parents, Take’s skills suddenly skyrocketed. From the span of mere days, he was able to catch up to his parents’ previous wishes regarding his combat skill and Ninja Arts, and he began to learn and utilize some small Fire-Style Ninjutsu mid-melee combat while the previous him could barely perform the right hand seals in quick time, standing still! It was enough of a change in him to warrant curiosity in his mother and father, but due to his closed mouth and silent character, they had no way of knowing about the strange tourist from Crater City whose origins not even Take himself knew about. This stranger had met Take on his way to the Academy, promising to train him out of ‘the betterment of his heart’, luring the boy in with the promise that the techniques this man knew were high-level enough to tip the scales of war, rise the tides and carve one’s name deep into the clouds above…
Bloodline/Core ability: Nanjirou
Take’s mother, Nanjirou Raikō, hails from an ancient clan of revered samurai simply known as the Nanjirou. This clan has housed some of the most noteworthy and legendarily skilled sword-wielders in the history of shinobi and mankind overall, and the secret techniques - turning any person adept with a blade into stuff of legend - have been passed down from generation to generation. Now, his mother too possessed the skills that their clan held high, along with the clan’s most revered ability to evoke the spirits of their ancestors, awakening the lost genetic prowess in one’s own cells and draw from your predecessors’ strengths to aid you in combat.
And Take’s blood is just as blessed with this as his mother’s – although he hasn’t shown the ability to draw out his ancestors’ strengths prior to his meeting with Ibaraki, the self-proclaimed Guru from parts unknown (as in Crater City, surprise). The reason behind this Ibaraki dude being more successful with drawing out Take’s potential and the blood of a true, Nanjirou swordsman was left imaginable; Take thought that it was due to his Mentor’s dedication and trust in him, having forgotten the small weight of trust given to him by his parents that was weighed under hills of sighs, inner regrets and disinterest.
Take saw hope in Ibaraki’s training, and he saw the immediate results drawing to his favor. By now, he can swing a katana well enough to combat people and defend himself, and he begins to show an affinity for the sword pointing at his destiny. That was why, despite the oddness of his Mentor overall, he continued training under him… for now…
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