...screw it. Here we go. Soldiers of Light Interest/Sign-Up Thread

[Krylo]

Well you can't have Alastor without Nanako, so I guess I'll play team good this time.

Name: Aherne Nanako
Side: Good
Race: Human
Age: 16
Appearance: An athletic, albeit somewhat slight, teenage girl with sun darkened skin, green eyes, and red hair cut in a cute half-bob. She normally wears a thick, partially armored, and sleveless short qi-pao modified for mobility (cut up both sides to the waist) with a tight open stomach sleevless 'ninja' top underneath (normally not visible) and matching leggings that provide her some degree of modesty.
Weapons: Weapons are for the weak.
Special Skill:
-Supernatural Martial Artist: Nanako has trained since childhood in martial arts, and trained hard. Extremely hard, resulting in superhuman agility and dexterity, but more than that she was naturally gifted with a force of personality and inner power that has driven her onward through it all, and which she uses in perfect concert with her own physical ability. Or in more direct terms: She uses her ki to augment her attacks instinctively, indeed she isn't even very physically strong but she fights with a spirit that can shatter stone, turn away blades with bare hands, and augment her physical abilities in a jiffy.

-Avatar of Hope: Nanako always looks on the bright side, always sees the best, and always strives to do what is right, but it is more than that. Her aura of hope radiates from her and inspires people around her. It's very difficult for those around her to be discouraged or lose their faith, and they tend to listen when she speaks. In addition, it seems to grant small abilities beyond even that which enhanced morale should, both to herself and those around her (mostly they're a little more likely to not die, but not any less likely to be grievously injured or knocked out)

History: Nanako's parents were happy once. Probably. They were foreign merchants who managed to secure a place in a bustling port town, which quickly made them rich from exotic exports and imports. But then they had a child. A beautiful daughter, and, well okay, they were probably happy for awhile there.

However she was an energetic child, but also gaijin, outcast, and not allowed to play the reindeer games, and so, after much insistence and struggles to pull her down from the bookshelves, her parents finally taught her to READ the damned things instead of climb them, and for awhile she did.

Now, normally, you would think this is where she becomes a great scholar or master of science, but you'd be wrong.

It turns out that all reading fantasy novels about heroes and demons and great martial artists does for energetic children is make them want to be a hero. And so Nanako did two things simultaneously--practiced fighting the bookshelves, and begged her parents to let her learn martial arts. At first, they refused, but by the time she was eight, and were running out of furniture without child fist/foot sized holes in it, they finally gave in.

After a fashion, anyway. They didn't really want her being a martial artist. She was supposed to carry on the family business. And so they went and found the harshest of masters they could and paid him a great deal of money to teach the young girl that the martial arts were not for her. Her master, being an old asian man, was both misogynistic AND racist, and so was all too happy to comply when it became obvious they didn't want him to ACTUALLY pass on the art to her.

And so he began demandin the impossible from her. Tasks he would reserve for his most advanced students. Meditate under this waterfall for two days, slap all the water from these thirty bowls, catch these thrown rocks while blindfolded.

She was beaten, bruised, and worked until her hands, and most places hit by rocks, bled, but she refused to stop, even as he told her to give up, that she would never master it. She shook her head, and refused. Insisted on one more attempt.

And. . . her master was not only harsh, but also a very skilled martial artist himself, and in time he saw that he could not break her. That she really could become fantastic, and so he began to teach her how to actually fight, though her hellish training never ended. A part of him did it only to see how far she could go, to see if she would surpass him, and by how much, until there came a day when he could no longer teach her anything more.

It was not that she knew all that he knew, but that she had reached a point where simple drills and instructions, even sparring, would not improve her ability. Perhaps with years they might increase her reaction times a fraction of a second, or improve her form ever so slightly, but such things were pointless. At best they would make her a copy of her master, at worst they would stagnate her skill.

For her to truly advance she would need to fight opponents of different schools, learn to incorporate new martial arts into her style, and learn to fight against those who meant to kill her. To discover her own style forged in the heat of battle.

And with this, he sent her off. Her parents hate it.

Extra: Loves fighting. Like a lot. Sees it almost as a game, and part of her training. It's a bit of a character flaw. Also has a thing for pure paladin of light/knight in shining armor type guys, but that's just a child hood crush deal from all those fantasy novels. She's really just more into whomever can give her a good brawl.