[center][i][b]Ichiyo Okazaki; Akuma[/b][/i][/center]

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[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/msBnj0h.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Name:[/b]
[indent]Ichiyo Okazaki[/indent]

[b]Nickname/Alias:[/b]
[indent]Akuma[/indent]

[b]Gender:[/b]
[indent]Male[/indent]

[b]Age:[/b]
[indent]28[/indent]

[b]Appearance:[/b]
[indent][list]
[*][i]Height:[/i] 6'0[/*]
[*][i]Weight:[/i] 130lb[/*]
[*][i]Build:[/i] Athletic[/*]
[*][i]Hair Colour:[/i] Black[/*]
[*][i]Eye Colour:[/i] Green[/*]
[*][i]General Attire:[/i] Tailored Suits and Shoes[/*]
[/list][/indent]

[b]Metahuman Abilities:[/b]
[indent]N/A[/indent]

[b]Skills and Talents:[/b]
[indent]Akuma's mastery of the sword and the handling of it is quite simply unparalleled. His handiwork with his blade is infamous among worldwide criminal organizations for its efficiency and brutality in equal measure. Akuma does not wield a blade; the blade is an extension of his self, and he dances with the metal, playing an unstoppable harbinger of Death. 

Akuma's talents also lie in stealth. His ability to move without being seen or heard is whispered as if a ghost story, and it seems that Akuma becomes darkness itself, appearing to become invisible and inaudible. He has no footstep, casts no shadow. It is said that should Akuma be hunting you, you will only be aware of his presence after he has already killed you.[/indent]

[b]Biography:[/b] 
[indent]Born into the Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza in Tokyo, Ichiyo spent many years scrapping and sparring and learning how to fight, how not to show pain to your opponent, how to show mercy but offer none. He was an adolescent prodigy, and quickly became the Yamaguchi syndicate's most notorious hitman, able to assassinate even the most secure of targets - his infamy reaching its peak as he managed to infiltrate the personal fortress of a rival Yakuza Oyabun, forcing him to have a dishonourable death by beheading him, and then displaying the Family Boss' head on his sword outside, without any guard seeing or hearing him come or go. 

Naturally, a hitman if his caliber was both a valued commodity and a mortal enemy. Offers were made to buy his loyalty but he refused them all, and eventually a squad of assassins was sent to murder both Ichiyo and his family head instead. He learned of the hit and rushed to his Oyabun's side - but too late. They had already murdered him, slitting his throat and leaving the body to rot. Ichiyo flew into rage and grief as the assassins sprang from the shadows to ambush him, and he murdered them with such ferocity and speed that he barely knew of his actions. In the fray he lost his sword, and in his panic at the mutilation of those who had killed his Yakuza family's father, fled far. 

Days later Ichiyo answered a summons. He was seized immediately and cast in stocks, brought before the first leiutenant, now boss, and his crimes were explained - the Oyabun had been murdered, bodies beating the sigil of the Yamaguchi-gumi family found slain around him, guards seemingly cut down in their duty - and the damning evidence of Ichiyo's sword at the scene, covered in blood. There was no trial. Ichiyo was found guilty, and sentenced. He was to be put to death by immolation. 

Ichiyo did not protest. Instead, he willingly sat, calmly assuming a traditional meditative position as the yakuza thugs splashed him with gasoline and threw a match at him. He burnt for seven minutes without a single movement or sound, and then he was extinguished and his throat was slit. Ichiyo's body was dumped and left for dead.

Somehow, Ichiyo survived, and retreated into the nearby storm drains. Whether from rage, a pure desire for vengeance, or sheer force of will, he refused to let go of his hold on life, and slowly treated himself, gauzing his burns, bandaging his throat. His skin slowly crawled back over his wounds leavings scars and welts in its wake, and Ichiyo became a canvas of disfigured skin, blind in one eye, hair gone, and a thick welt across his neck where it had been slashed. He treated himself, and then began to prepare himself. 

He discovered that the lieutenant who'd judged him and ordered his execution had also orchestrated the hit on the Yakuza boss, in a bid to take over and inherit the wealth and power that the Oyabun had held for himself. The assassins were a neutral party, hired to kill the boss and his right-hand man, Ichiyo - only they failed in the latter part of their task. Panic had forced the lieutenant's hand and hatched a devilish solution - the framing of Ichiyo, and the execution that would be bound to follow. Only that failed as well, and now Ichiyo had risen anew, ferocious, remorseless, and no longer bound by a code of honour or of loyalty. He carved himself a mask in the visage of a traditional Japanese demon, and took up the moniker 'Akuma' ('Demon'), and after careful planning, returned to slaughter the lieutenant-now-boss and his men, employing both physical and psychological tactics to create an impenetrable atmosphere of terror and blind panic before allowing the guilty death by his sword.

After that, Ichiyo left Tokyo and Japan, and left 'Ichiyo' as a man behind with them. Now, Akuma is a hired hitman with no loyalty other than payment and no honour other than completing a job. He works for mafia and thugs alike, his hits always ruthless, always terror-inducing, and always brutally violent. He has no public identity, no psuedonym, no real name. He is Akuma, and he carries the demon's wrath. [/indent]