Baku (Kaestal)

"*Here's how our day is going to pan out. You and I are going to go around the city and you're going to act like nothing is wrong. If you call for assistance, I will detonate. If you retaliate against or use your Quirk on me, I will detonate. If you refuse any of my commands, I will detonate. If you do everything just right, no one has to die and we'll part ways after three hours. Sounds good, right?*"
— Baku to his victims

## Portrayal

### Japanese VA

Milo Ventimiglia

The man known only as **Baku** is a villain with the ability to detonate himself without harm.

He has claimed the name Baku isn't his real one, and there is no record of someone with self-detonation powers matching his description to prove him wrong or right.

## Appearance

Baku's most notable feature is that he has bushy, grayish hair.

He wears a primarily black suit.

## Personality

Baku is, above all else, a sadist and a terrorist. He enjoys the fear that his power can lord over the civilian population, but even above that, he enjoys forcing heroes to concede to his demands out of fear that he will detonate himself.

When preparing to toy with a hero, Baku will stalk them for a very long time to learn their Quirk and its drawbacks and strengths. He then sends them photos in the mail, then a phone, calling them and saying that if they don't play his game he will destroy a populated area.

Demonstrated best when he toyed with Shiki, Baku will make a grand display of taking a deep breath at random moments to keep the heroes on edge, wondering if they did something to anger him. He will take them around the city, acting like they're just having a good time and force the hero to perform any task that comes to mind.

Sometimes, he will tell them to do something demeaning or immoral, then act surprised and ask if they thought he would detonate if they hadn't have done that task, or act like they thought the hero would be less into it.

Baku has no concept of mercy or guilt, and if the heroes don't play his game he will slaughter any amount of people and make them know it's their fault he did it.

He took great pleasure in carving a permanent scar into Shiki Nomura's face when toying with the teen. The fact that the experience haunted him for two years pleased Baku every day.

## Biography

Baku's past is unknown, but it is known that when he was roughly 22 he began his reign of terror. The Pro-Heroes have encountered him in the past but been unable to secure him and forced to let him go lest he make good on his threats.

When he was 27, Baku learned of a new prospective target at U.A High, Shiki Nomura, through his web of spies.

Biding his time, Baku learned everything he could about Shiki's power and limits before making his move later that year.

Sending several letters addressed to Shiki by name, Baku informed the 15-year-old that if he did not do exactly as he said, Baku would destroy a city block and continue until his demands were met.

Instructing Baku that if he informed the other heroes he'd know and detonate, Baku told him to arrive at a bench in a city park by 3 P.M.

Just after 3, Baku sat down next to Shiki and laid out the rules of their little game, saying that if Shiki followed them he would make it out just fine and no civilians would have to die. He also explained what his Quirk was and how it worked, mainly that it is activated by taking a deep breath and willing the explosion to happen.

For three hours, Baku forced Shiki to be his play-date, walking around the city and forcing Shiki to do whatever he wanted. When they encountered a homeless man, Baku ordered the hero-in-training to beat him until he said stop. Fearing what Baku would do if he didn't, Shiki did so and broke at least his nose before Baku told him to stop.

Baku taunted the teen about his actions, saying he was really into that beating he gave the poor man and how he didn't expect Shiki to give him more than one hit, asking if he thought Baku would've detonated himself if he didn't.

At the end of the three hours, Baku instructed Shiki to give him his Switch-Blade and used it to carve a line from just beneath Shiki's left eye to his ear. He told Shiki to not seek out a hero to heal the wound, and to stitch it with either help from his parents or by himself.

The final part of their game was that Shiki wasn't to speak a word of this "play date" to anyone for three days. Baku left the 15-year-old in an alley and went about his life.

Three days later, Baku sent the teen a letter which said, "Thank you for the day, I really had a fun time."

## Quirk & Abilities

### Quirk

**"Self-Detonation"** - Baku's Quirk is the ability to cause himself to detonate, wiping out large areas without any harm to himself.

### Abilities

* **Information Gathering** - One of the most frightening things about Baku is how he can gain information on others, allowing himself to not only remain ahead of the Hero and Police investigations into his whereabouts but collect information to torment new heroes with.
* **Acting** - Baku can fool those around him into believing he is a kindly, unassuming man with ease. He can also fake distress extremely well. When on his "playdates", Baku makes no overt implications that it is anything other than just two friends having a fun time together.
* **Manipulation** - Admittedly, Baku doesn't have an actual overarching goal. However, he is second to none when it comes to manipulating those around him through either charisma or inspiring fear. He created a spy network through charming offers and terrifying threats.
* **Terror Tactics** - Baku has mastered the art of inspiring fear in others, stalking heroes to find their strengths, their weaknesses, and their families. He has managed to stay ahead of the heroes partly because they're afraid of what he'd do when cornered. He uses this fear to even mutilate heroes, and heroes-in-training, without retaliation as shown with Shiki Nomura.

### Intelligence

Baku is frightfully intelligent, able to outsmart the heroes and police or put them in a position with highly damaging or embarrassing results for them, at every turn. His ability to gather information results from an in-depth spy network he set up and all attempts to track him go awry. Baku is considered such an incredibly dangerous villain partly because of his intellect. During his "play date" with Shiki, Baku ensured no DNA samples of his could be collected after the fact and knew how to disrupt surveillance cameras.

The below stats are based on Police Speculation, taking into account his personality, contact range, and M.O.

Baku's stats, according to the creator.

## Equipment

* **Gloves** - Baku wears a pair of leather gloves during his "playdates" with heroes. He has never left fingerprints because of this.

## Conflicts

* **Baku VS Several Heroes**
* **Baku VS The Police (Ongoing)**
* **Baku VS Shiki Nomura: Part 1**

## Relationships

* **Shiki Nomura** - Baku loves Shiki like a cat loves a mouse, amusing himself while tormenting Shiki. He is the one that gave Shiki his scar, using the Student's own knife to slowly carve him from the eye to his ear, all while reminding him that any retaliation would result in the deaths of innocents and to stitch it up himself or with his parent's help. Baku considers Shiki his favorite play date since he started.

## Trivia

Baku was created as a sort of hard counter to Shiki.

I imagine Baku's voice to be the Golem's from the live action Gotham show.