Basic Information=========
Superhero Name: Mister Budo
Nickname: The Man of Martial Mystery
Civilian Name: Taiga Sato
Origin city/Planet: Hiroshima, Japan
Hometown: Nomadic
Sex: Male
Race: Asian
Height: 6ft1
Weight: 200+ pounds
Age: 24
Birth Date: December 12th
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Appearance:
A clean faced youth with short, well styled black hair typically gelled back and sharp hazel eyes, Taiga Sato is certainly not unattractive but there’s just something unassuming about him on first inspection. Look closer, however, and you might notice that aside from his respectable height he’s actually really quite athletic. Further inspection would reveal a decidedly gifted musculature, built enviably, powerfully wiry, and a shocking array of scars that perfectly match the irezumi tattoos covering his back, pectorals and upper arms in the style of the yakuza.
The clothes, as they say, make the man. His crimefighting getup is a form-fitting
black jumpsuit ironically reminiscent of those worn by old school japanese biker gangs, with forearm-length gauntlets, tall tabi boots with greaves and kneepads styled after japanese armor adding a more warrior-like feel along with a dark red sash around his waist. A matching thigh-length, sleeveless kimono jacket called a jinbaori emblazoned with his icon on the back completes the attire, along with a wide-brimmed hat and eye-concealing domino mask.
Icon:
The kanji for "Kongoh", japanese reading of the mythological vajra.
Personality:There’s no in and out of character for Mister Budo, he very much is who he is and the costume is just a visual fancy. A tremendously competitive and self assured martial artist, adventurous to an often foolhardy degree and outspoken to a fault as befit a master of his craft, the warrior enjoys calling attention to his abilities and cultivating an air of mystique around him, all of which might not sound terribly heroic but really everyone knows the best heroes are flawed and conflicted as it serves to highlight their humanity.
Budo’s personality defects are offset by a perhaps surprisingly amiable, honest, generous and ultimately fairly approachable nature, and especially by his genuine desire to be heroic, to battle threats and help and inspire others even if it’s in his own particular way. Holding himself to high standards because he knows of the value and power heroes hold as symbols, he places great importance in hard work and dedication and firmly believes that anyone has the potential to grow and surpass themselves should they truly strive for it.
Super abilities:Skills:-The Art of Fighting: To say that Mister Budo is first and foremost a top class martial artist would be an understatement, he is a fighter of mythical caliber easily amidst the best in history even counting beings such as amazons. While he specializes in barehanded combat he holds deep knowledge of all manner of fighting forms, including the handling of weapons both ancient and modern, and this lends itself to a particular perspective: Budo understands the use of defined systems but is generally free from the restrictive mentality of "styles", seeing martial arts as an unrestricted, free-flowing application of one's body towards protecting and improving oneself. Having said that, other skilled fighters can potentially identify the tells to his base stylings, heavily influenced of course by japanese martial arts.
His striking holds a strong basis in Japanese Kenpo, particularly schools preserving their link to chinese martial arts, while his grappling is informed by the more comprehensive, old school self defense Judo with traditional Jujutsu influences. Elusive and highly defensive with a straightforward but varied and effective arsenal, Budo prefers to methodically stalk opponents with his striking, breaking them down and forcing opportunities to land counterattacks or direct bursts of offense. His grappling is used to control position and offbalance enemies to further halt their offense, hitting throws, trips, sweeps and the ocassional submission when the opening presents itself. But these are just stylistic building blocks, a base of fundamentals that does not restrict Budo's adaptability or grasp of the unorthodox.
-All around athlete: Fighting unhindered in a clearly defined area is all well and good, but can one truly consider themselves a warrior if they cannot use their skills elsewhere? Aside from the strength, speed, flexibility, explosiveness and stamina demanded in martial arts Mister Budo is an extremely malleable athlete, proficient in acrobatics, climbing, swimming, proper lifting form, rowing, skating, skiing, if it involves the use of his body he can likely do it or learn fast.
-Shadow Warrior: Despite his forward nature deception comes easy to Mister Budo, trained as he is in the ways of the ninja, making him a dangerous infiltrator. Though he’s not much for complex digital systems, limiting him somewhat, his excellence in stealth allows him to tail targets, sneak about and seemingly vanish the second you take your eyes off of him. He’s also a convincing actor capable of hiding tells of dishonesty, passable at forging identities, knows a variety of useful sleight of hand tricks and he can work through locks and the like.
-Improvise: Mister Budo carries no weapons, but if you know what you’re doing almost anything around you can be used as one in a pinch. Of course it’s not the favored approach of someone defined by the worth of his fists, but sometimes reason must come before honor and beaning someone in the head with a rock or choking them with a belt is necessary.
-Odds and ends: A multi-field genius he’s not, but as befit someone made in the mold of the old mystery men he’s got a fairly surprising breadth of knowledge outside of his quite clearly defined specialty. He has a solid education and speaks fluent english, can put together convincing disguises given the means and he makes a passable action driver if you have zero qualms about your safety or that of your vehicle.
Powers:-Martial Mysteries: Mister Budo has no overt manifestations of chi and focuses on the physical part of martial arts, the so-called "external" aspect, but in so doing he manifests self reinforcement of an "internal" sort. Transcending normal human limitations through dedicated, grueling training, he possesses a relatively low level of superhuman physicality and limited heightened control of his own bodily functions. His toughness is particularly noteworthy, making him tremendously resistant to poisons, disease and the like, his force of will is such he can contend with psychic or mental attacks, and he's capable of pitting his body against things that would normally be unaffected by mere brute force.
-Fight IQ: What truly makes the man who he is, Mister Budo understands combat to an intrinsic, instinctive level and has a preternatural ability to read adversaries and the flow of a battle. This makes him outstanding at figuring out matchups, learning and adapting on his feet, and especially at using his own abilities to their fullest extent, maximizing his performance and efficiency. The sum total of his abilities makes him an adversary not be taken lightly even by the world’s heavy hitters, a martial artist of the highest caliber equipped to offset the physical disadvantages he's liable to go against as a superhero through sheer polished application of skill.
-Limitations:
Fight IQ isn't infallible, he can still be surprised, misled or make the wrong choices or predictions even without enemy interference at times, simply out of ignorance of the various factors that go into something as chaotic as any given engagement. For a higher threat level hero, focusing on hand to hand melee combat and willingly foregoing the use of weapons, gear or more overt mystical applications of chi is quite the liability. Add to that that he is likely at a physical disadvantage in most encounters at that level, depending primarily on carefully measured and applied skill, and when it comes to specialists he's less of a hammer and more of a sharp but relatively brittle blade.
Equipment:-The Mask: Small, simple, classical, Mister Budo’s domino mask is a surprisingly functional piece. Much tougher than it looks, it’s designed to comfortably adapt to the wearer’s contours, doesn’t come off unless he wants it to, and the eye-covering lenses automatically adjust to provide good visibility even when dealing with pitch dark, extreme exposure or sudden bright flashes. Does he need the functions? No, not particularly, but they’re nice to have for the job.
-The Tokkofuku: Budo refers to his clothes as a tokkofuku, a “special attack uniform”, and it lives up to the lofty term. Nevermind that it’s really just what bosozoku biker gangs call their uniforms. The costume’s especially made to withstand the wear and tear a professional superhero of his level might find, including insulating the wearer from various adverse conditions, and he has spares just in case.
-The Hat: A mix of style and function, Mister Budo’s hats are especially crafted to be weaponized in a pinch. Sporting a hardy construction with a reinforced brim, though not a sharp one, the headwear can be thrown as an effective bludgeoning chakram and it can be used for trick shots and ricochets if the user is skilled enough. Not a particularly deadly weapon, but still a nasty surprise to have handy.
-The Sash: There are many martial traditions involving the use of simple cloth as a weapon and sometimes you just need something flexible handy. Budo’s red sash is woven from spider silk treated for this particular purpose, the material’s properties long having found military interest, capable of supporting stunning amounts of weight, stretching to impressive lengths without tearing and resisting the bite of most blades.
-Cigarettes and lighter: Old habits die hard and Mister Budo can’t quite bring himself to stop carrying his silvered cigarette case and lighter, though his inhuman resistance to illness says he’s likely not at risk. And like any good ninja he’s found ways to make something useful out of this. Some of his cigarettes are laced with herbal compounds that act as a non-specific antitoxin, stimulant and aid in physical recovery, while the lighter can be set to produce considerable jets of flame at the cost of major fuel consumption.
-The Collection: He doesn't carry any of them with him and prefers not using them but Budo has access to a fairly sizeable collection of excellent weapons in Japan, some mundane and some not quite. So, should he ever be challenged specifically to a swordfight or a six shooter duel or the like, he has a preferred tool he can potentially take with him. His favorite is a
kyu-gunto, a military japanese sword styled after european sabers made between 1875 and 1934, made for one handed or hand and a half use with a wraparound guard. Gunto have a reputation for shoddiness as they were often mass produced in poor quality for soldiers, but Budo's likely belonged to someone important as it is excellently crafted in the traditional manner and almost supernaturally sharp and reliable.
Civilian Occupation:Yes.
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BiographyAn unregistered birth with no family or record of his existence, the boy that would become Mister Budo was one of many raised to become a perfect killing machine by none other than the mysterious, the dreaded, the seemingly immortal Lord Death Man, one of the foremost yakuza oyabun and criminal masterminds of Japan, whose skeletal guise has long stood as perverse mockery of costumed heroes' ideals. Named Taiga so he would never forget his role as a beast to command, the boy distinguished himself through his obvious talent for violence and so the underworld boss spared no expense in shaping him, even bringing in members of the famed League of Assassins to train him.
Enter Mister Unknown. Japan's premier underground vigilante for years and one of the world's greatest detectives, one of few upholding the vision of actor activists and men of mystery even as the people turned their back on them, one of Lord Death Man's staunchest adversaries. Aided by US special agent Thomas Jagger, the final act in his storied crimefighting career was putting an end to this child soldier operation and seemingly sending the skull-faced yakuza lord to an eternal, watery burial. When the smoke cleared and the services took the youngest children, all that remained was the bested but still defiant Taiga. So Mister Unknown took him in.
The kindness and acceptance from one he had been raised to hate as his family's enemy was disarming, and in truth Death Man's mob had long held a strange sort of respect for the man as a worthy rival. Begrudgingly, Taiga admitted he was now without a purpose in life and threw his lot in with the detective, seeing it as the hero's right to hold sway over the vanquished. Mister Unknown, for his part, felt his life's work was now complete and the time to retire had come before time further robbed him of faculties, and so took to rehabilitating the troubled teenager as one last way to further undo his adversary's evil.
Now named Taiga Sato, given a forged identity through a network of contacts and favors, the teen was a stellar pupil and shocked his master with his abilities. Much like Death Man had, both Unknown and his ally Jagger realized the kid was something special, part of the signs of an ever stranger world, and so they redoubled their efforts into his education. Soon he had surpassed them both as fighters, but more importantly he came to see Unknown as a teacher and father figure and sought to make him proud. He was never asked to follow in his footsteps as a vigilante, but the boy felt it was his place in life, a way to use the skills he had for good.
And then suddenly, quietly and known to few, Mister Unknown passed away from the cancer he had been battling for years. The public was not made aware that one of Japan's finest heroes was laid to rest in an unmarked grave, and some still wonder whether he will resurface should the skull-faced menace rear his ugly head once more. The public was not made aware he had left a successor. But the parallels were immediately drawn between the grizzled, western-inspired detective and this boy wonder of similar attire who called himself Mister Budo, whose dazzling martial skill immediately left an impression on the Land of the Rising Sun.
The problem was, Japan was too small. To be sure it had a frankly dense concentration of increasingly bizarre threats, but it saw an almost equal number of heroes spring from within to uphold the peace. How could Mister Budo challenge himself and grow in such a situation? Instead he was drawn towards America, the stomping grounds of the legendary Jade Mantis that had inspired his mentor, the epicenter of the new world and source of current evils. He would undergo musha shugyo, a warrior's pilgrimage, and test himself there.
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Nemesis: None yet
Allies: Mister Unknown (deceased), Special Agent Thomas Jagger
Character theme 
Punished GN