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[taabou]

→ PLAYER INFO

Name: Lance
Age: 21+
Contact: PM
Character(s) in game: N/A
Permissions: here

→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Takayuki Yagami
Age: 38
Canon: Judgment, a spin-off to the Yakuza series
Canon point: After Lost Judgment, specifically after the credits scene
History: Wiki link
Personality:

• Persevering - After giving up on Shinpei Okubo led to even more collateral damage among innocents, Takayuki's made it a point never to give up or in no matter the odds. Other people would call it stubbornness, and he's certainly been in situations where his perseverance has gotten him or those close to him hurt, but for better or for worse he isn't the type to drop anything once he's started it. The last time Takayuki ever ran from anything was when he quit practising law regularly-- since then, he hasn't even dreamt of it. He's said himself that "it's all about follow through, no matter what choice you make", that "not giving up is the most important part". That said, no matter how hard he's knocked down, he'll always get back up.
• Dependable - Tied to his perseverance, once Takayuki believes in something, you know he'll believe in it to the end. He doesn't make promises he can't keep, and he's steadfast and consistent no matter the situation. While he'll do anything for those he cares for (e.g. buy them a crazy expensive anime figurine; sneak into a dangerous ninja school to get information; become adviser to several high school clubs to help kids; settle sensitive yakuza disputes despite being a civilian), he's got a real underdog problem-- come at him with your problems that nobody else can solve, and for the right price (or amount of friendship) he'll help you find a solution for it. He knows what it's like having no-one, having been neglected by his parents and living on the streets of Kamurocho as a teenager, and he doesn't want anyone else to go through what he did.
• Understanding - After being taken in by a yakuza patriarch as an adoptive son and being wronged by the justice system, Takayuki has a unique understanding that a) legal things don't necessarily mean good things; and b) "good" and "evil" are never clean cut to begin with. He's seen people from all walks of life-- Kamurocho especially is full of crazy characters that've sought him out as a detective-- and he's heard all kinds of stories. That said, as long as a tiny shred of goodness exists in anybody, he'll do his best to find it in his heart to understand them, no matter how terrible they are. This is especially proven as the majority of Lost Judgment involves Takayuki believing he could save a serial killer from fully losing themselves. He's not the kind of person to force his morality on anybody, though, and he's no judge or jury. Rather, in his words, "the only thing that can ever truly be fair to someone is the truth". So as long as someone's honest with him, then he'll do his best to understand where they're coming from.
• Self-critical - For all that he may be understanding of others, Takayuki is less forgiving of himself. When he has moments of downtime and when he's alone with his thoughts too long, it's easy for him to go back to all the regrets he has. If he'd never slept over at his friend's place that one night as a teenager, maybe he could have prevented his parents' deaths. If he'd sought the whole truth of Shinpei Okubo's case, maybe Emi Terasawa's murder wouldn't have happened. If he'd only been more careful to keep himself from getting kidnapped, maybe he wouldn't have been too late to save Yoko Sawa from dying. Mistakes like these remind him of why he does what he does, but they're also weights in his chest that haunt him to this day. Loss-- especially death-- hits him hard, and while he's able to function despite it, that doesn't mean he moves on from it, either.
• Inflexible - Takayuki may not force his ways or morals on other people, but he's terrible about changing any of them for himself. It's difficult to get him to change, especially with regards to his personal code. While he may not be completely closed off to suggestions when he makes plans, especially if those suggestions are made for the better, he doesn't like receiving orders or being told what to do by anyone he hasn't given permission to. He likes being in charge and he likes being in control, and while it may not be the end of the world if he isn't, it irritates the hell out of him when anyone tries to take his choices away. He has problems with authority figures, especially when they have egos, and when anyone thinks they're better than him it takes a good amount of self-control not to punch them in the face. Unfortunately, he's not the type to bend or bow, even if it might be easier for him to do so.

Suitability: Dumping Takayuki in a new world without his consent would piss him off a little, but the looming danger of the apocalypse is a good reason to get him to stay. Besides the pure intent of wanting to help others, his own curiosity about the wider mysteries of the universe will get him wanting to investigate, too. It makes it infinitely better that he gets free lodging, water, electric, and food. Takayuki might not trust the ADI for a while, but if there's no way for him to go home, then the pros of working with them vastly outweigh the cons so far.

Powers/Abilities:

Basic Abilities

• Martial arts - Kung-fu (Tiger and Crane), bajiquan, aikido; Takayuki started out with basic formal kung-fu lessons from his father, then ended up self-taught in everything else through brawling in Kamurocho and reading books. He calls his fighting "Kamurocho style"
• Weapons proficiency - melee weapons mostly, as well as "whatever is on hand" (e.g. chairs, beer cases, cinderblocks, bicycles, chopsticks)
• Boxing
• Lock-picking
• Climbing / Parkour
• Skateboarding
• Drone proficiency - Takayuki can control drones and other low level robots with ease, as well as build or modify them with already-existing parts. He doesn't know how to make the parts himself, though
• Video gaming
• Crane machines
• Guitar - but not enough for complex, quick fingerstyling
• Shogi
• Mahjong
• Card games, especially blackjack and poker - he claims he doesn't have a lot of luck, but he's good at reading other people and hiding his own reactions to things
• Dancing - he ended up mentoring a group of high school dancers as well as helping them choreograph and is called "a natural at it"
• Make-up and disguises
• Photography
• Alcohol tolerance - nothing supernatural, but he's got an insane tolerance and can drink most anyone under the table
• "Extreme" motorcycle racing - he's good at manoeuvres and control, as in he can ram his motorcycle against other people, kick them off, and do other violent things without losing his balance or sacrificing his speed

Entity-backed Abilities

Coming from the Yakuza series as one of its protagonists, Takayuki has an innate ability to hit harder, move faster, and withstand more pain than the average person. This manifests as a coloured aura around the parts of his body needed for whatever move he employs: red, blue, green, or gold, depending on what fighting style he's using. He has no control over when this happens for the most part.

The more he hits someone, though, the more "energy" builds up inside him. And if he's built up enough power, he can consciously focus that feeling outward to cause his aura to cover his whole body. This state is called "EX Boost" in game mechanics, but Takayuki himself doesn't have a name for it.

When Takayuki enters EX Boost mode, his speed, strength, and ability to take damage is extremely heightened-- he can even get mortally wounded, but it'll only hurt him as if it were a flesh wound. Its basic duration lasts only thirty seconds, but this can be lengthened to around a minute if he's dealing blows in quick succession, especially since this power is tied to how much pain he inflicts on others. The more pain they suffer by his hand, the more it charges him.

Takayuki's EX Boost can also be charged by taunting or humiliating people, but this method isn't as efficient as just wailing on some poor idiot.

Entity Affinity: Takayuki's Entity is the Slaughter; violence is a part of his life, and has been since he was a young and angry punk in middle school. Sure, he's gotten better at holding his desire to fight in, and for the most part he functions as a normal person with normal thoughts, but there're times where the only thing that keeps him from murder is his own personal code (even then, he once beat on someone with the full intent to kill in Judgment after they murdered plenty of people in a short span of time). Despite his sense of justice, Takayuki himself has claimed he "isn't above torture", whether with instruments or his hands. He's also stated, upon finding a witness that'd been eluding him for long enough, that "first, I'm going to vent on him a bit [...] I don't even care if we find [the suspect] there if I get to kick his ass". In Lost Judgment, an entirely new fighting style is introduced where Takayuki can scare people with his acts of violence and cause them to surrender to him. And in that same game, after an incident where he was tortured to the point of losing his self-control, rage and the desire to see his captors hurt had him beating up an entire warehouse of goons and their chainsaw-wielding leader without mercy. After growing up on the streets of crime-infested Kamurocho, where conflicts were solved through whoever could make the other surrender out of pain first, Takayuki's always one moment of weakness away from unleashing the angry punk in him that never died.

Inventory:

• Wallet + wallet chain
• Smartphone
• Defence attorney's badge
• Yagami Detective Agency key
• A short stack of business cards
• Blue skateboard
• Lockpicking tools
• His drone, Hato/Pigeon, which has a camera built in it and is powered by a rechargeable battery. It has some upgrades to make it fly faster, but no weapons on it. It can also be controlled via his smartphone.
• One gourd and vial which allows him to make one Extract at a time

Samples: One + Two

And because I'm not sure if either of those threads highlight his thought process, I'll also provide a sample from a PSL here if that's okay:

That isn’t good enough, Takayuki wants to say. There’s nothing about a “that’s all” limitation that’s good to him, nothing that keeps him from fearing that the truth is going to be choked once more. The clear show of how damn powerless he is as a lawyer wraps its heavy hand around his throat, but he tries to commit every word Dojima tells him to memory.

Looking at his face, hearing him speak, noticing how he’d stiffened as he admitted his own incapabilities… Takayuki wants to believe Dojima so badly it hurts. Every instinct he has tells him the man is speaking the truth, but Takayuki knows his eyes aren’t much as far as judging’s concerned. There’s more to what he’s saying, even if it might not be Dojima who’s made the effort to hide it. There’s always more, and the legal process’ inherent lack of care to the thoroughness of an investigation tells him nobody else is going to bother trying to look past what’s already laid out.

So Takayuki leans forward, elbows on his thighs as he rolls this information around in his head. His hands link together, his lips pressed in a line, and despite every feeling he has screaming otherwise, he has to ask–

“You’re telling me the truth, right?”

He can’t stop thinking about Okubo begging him to believe him. He can’t stop thinking about the plea for innocence, can’t stop remembering the way he’d so blindly said if you say you’re innocent, then I believe you. Daigo Dojima is a smart man, and as far as Takayuki knows he’s a good man, but his doubts immolate him wholly and leave him wondering if the smoke fogging his head is from Little Asia or Okubo’s apartment.

“Please don’t think I doubt your character, sir, but I need to know…”

Takayuki’s head lifts, his eyes meet Dojima’s dead on, and whatever is in them– a mix of firmness and fear and the want to believe in him– is sharp as tempered steel.

“If I look into this” – he will look into this – “there’s no chance I’ll find evidence that fire in Little Asia was done with your explicit, willing instruction. Do I have that right, Dojima-san?”