Name:
Akiko Matsubara

Age:
17

Gender:
Female

Personality:
You would expect that a girl to have a sword to be tomboyish and... edgy but nope, Akiko is just like most girls with a steady mind and just has a unique hobby. Having a fun time being a social butterfly and being a tweety bird, she likes to have fun when the times right. Then there are other times when she can be a bit more silent and stern in an eerie way that is intense, which is when you know something is about to go down when the mouth stops blabbering. Yet, that doesn't happen often but she does display her displeasure or irritation openly once a certain point reaches as warnings. Being a very social person, not to mention if not a tad blunt, she doesn't mind outright telling other people that she doesn't like them once they start getting on her nerves.

This more stern and silent part of her personality is more of a 'competitive' piece to her when she wants to win, putting her full attention onto what she is trying to acheive. Having the most fun with other people competing against her in something that she knows that she is good in. Other times this quiet part of her is her rage that has been building up once she has time and time again expressed her progressively blunt signs of her disliking. Once, that thresh hold is broken through she pulls up the sleeves and gets rough and toughfen with her fists as slapping people just don't cut it these days.

Skills:
Akiko looks like a girl who would take a pact with a minor god or use a sacrifice cauldron but instead, she is a very talented swordsman who is trained in the far eastern style of swordsmanship. Using skill and speed instead of weight and brute strength in fighting. Being raised by her family to learn Kendo using first wooden swords to train with others not in the family and using real blades instead when sparring with her family. She unfortunately, stands on top of the Sandan rank due to age restrictions but she clearly shows clear capability on achieving the Kudan rank as she has defeated older practitioners easily until the Rokudan rank who are a decade older than her.

Outside of her swordsmanship, she is fairly lacking in any other amazing and outstanding skills that are unique for a teenager of her age. Being fairly an athletic person due to her hobby of kendo both outside of school and in school, she been into archery for a long while but hasn't done anything recently with it. Along with being quite an acrobat if not a flexible person, as she was one of those girls who liked to do backflips off the hanging bars or walk on top of the monkey bars when she was younger. Outside her athleticism, she is a lazy passion for cooking, she cooks whenever her mother asks her to help around and she does it with... varying success with sometimes the food coming out perfectly good and sometimes a bit too dry on the chicken or a tiny bit too burnt but never straight out failing in cooking something that's not edible.

Academically... she is too lazy to try in class but she does make sure they are all around B average all throughout the school year. With a few A's in those that she barely makes it into, they are just classes she putting a bit of effort into doing the work. The teachers can't really complain as her grades are calculated by her so that she just needs to get this amount of questions correct or finish this paper to even out her laziness. Ensuring that she always keeps herself at a B if not an A no matter what she misses.

Equipment:
(Divine Gear - Nanatsusaya no Tachi)
A katana that is based on the literal nature of the Nanatsusaya no Tachi, or the Seven-Branched sword which is one of the national treasure of Japan. Coming from an early period in time coming from the time period of around 200-400 CE. It takes on the appearance of an oversized katana of 122 cm which is generally too long for any katana to be normally used.

Abilities:
The Divine Gear is a sword which collects the thoughts of its wielder, focusing their mind on what really needs to be done in the moment increasing all of the fives senses, along with the 'sixth sense' as well. Conceptualizing the thought of 'A Sword with Seven Blades' it has the ability of preventing its opponents from recognizing the techniques no matter how many times it was used against them. For it is a sword with a total of seven blades, as the current attack used will simply feel different under this concept from the next swing of her blade in a sense to other swordsmen. Which would eliminate whatever solid ground they are trying to make of Akiko's style of fighting and the feel of her katana as it is always changing, so they must to act within in the moment as well.

However, this is not accounting for the way that Nanatsusaya no Tachi can be used as the original sword itself was said to be able to repel 100 soldiers with the sword, creating six other images of its wielder in the color of jade to fight off 100 soldiers along with the seventh one being the original. Unfortunately, as a Divine Gear based on the sword itself can't create six other warriors but it can however, create the motion of swinging the blade. Being able to create a solid jade green image of Akiko, it will swing its katana in one motion before disappearing up to six times as long as it is within 7 feet. She can also extend the reach of her katana, by swinging her katana and upon doing so it will release a green slash that will travel from the point of her blade until 4 feet have been traversed.

Brief Backstory:
Akiko was born to her family, the Matsubaras who are well known in the competitive scene for kendo as her mother and father being 8th-rank dan along with her siblings following their footsteps as well. Her brothers are also into the sport as well with her youngest brother who is 23, is 5th-dan while her oldest brother who is 29, is in 6th dan. Her older sister who is 27, while isn't interested in Kendo is a competitor in Kyudo and is in the 6th dan as well for it. As such, Akiko herself was raised by her whole entire family to choose a martial arts for her to, before finally having to decide that she would be best suited with Kendo along with her enjoyment in the training. Thus began her rigorous training within kendo by her two older brothers and her parents from a young age to refine her talent, which came naturally despite the thought of her becoming more boyish never did happen, which thankfully was good for her sister to have someone to go do something with.

When time came for her to be given her own personal Divine Gear, one that all of her siblings all gotten before just like she would too on her 8th birthday which her family believed she was ready to handle a real sword. Despite the difficulty of securing one, her parents had their sources literally since they came from a scene with swords everywhere. It was more difficult securing a bow for her sister rather than Akiko's own Divine Gear and her two brother's own. Obtaining her Divine Gear right where home was, she received one based on Japan's National Treasures, the Nanatsusaya no Tachi. The sword would be too long for an 8-year-old so she would have to wait 4 more years until she would wield it unsightly but until then she would begin her training once again. Reaching that 4 years surprisingly fast right in time with the necessary experience to wield her Divine Gear which has been waiting for her.

Thus reaching where Akiko stands today at Otsuki Academy, where once again her butt is training hard to win another tournament yet this time for her school. Since the last time she went into that place, she was sniped from across the field right after the referee said to begin. Well technically it wasn't a snipe... more like a bombardment of lasers which wrecked her as her opponent using a Sacrifice Cauldron with a hefty tribute for that round due to Akiko's reputation. The next time her opponent fought again, she had no hacks to knock down her new opponents who was way inferior than Akiko herself... Hopefully this time, she wouldn't get laser spammed but incase she did, she worked on her laser deflecting skills a lot this time around...