Itsuki Reo

Itsuki initiates his private training sessions with Hope.

**Itsuki Reo** is a Cosmos Academy student, class representative, Junior Ranger in training, and the deuteragonist of Interstellar Ranger Commence. He serves as a rival and unlikely mentor to Hope Griffin.

Itsuki Reo is voiced by Mauricio Velazco, the creator of Interstellar Ranger Commence.

## Description

### Personality

Itsuki Reo is a studious, preppy, and intelligent student raised by the infamous General Reo. Itsuki has been training vigorously to become a top tier Interstellar Ranger all of his life and has been appointed the representative of the 95th class. His father has pushed him far beyond to be the number one student in his class and to one day obtain the Azul Force. Though he often publicly displays a stern and professional demeanor, Itsuki is desperately afraid of failure because of his father's pressure and he resents his father to a degree for primarily treating him an extension of his own ambitions rather than as his own person.

Because of this, Itsuki has little time for friends and social interaction, something exacerbated by his tangential fame due to being General Reo’s son and father’s isolating attempts to accommodate him, such as giving him a private room rather than allowing him to dorm with his classmates. When not in contact with his adoptive sister, Koromi, and or spending time with his girlfriend, Carmen Avilas, he's either studying for classes or working himself to the bone at the Academy gymnasium. However, outside of his duties and trailing, Itsuki enjoys cooking and taking trips to the beach. He is also a caring brother to Koromi, whom he cares for deeply, and boyfriend too Carmen, going out of his way to be generous towards her, giving her a box of chocolates as gift after the two were separated due General Reo sending Itsuki to train their before the school year began.

As the class representative, he strives to make sure each and every one of his peers succeed, especially Hope Griffin, whom he finds to be lazy, childish, irritable, and unworthy of the academy scholarship. He and his girlfriend strongly believe the position should have been earned by their friend Alicia. However, the closer he gets to Hope, the more his view of her evolves, as he eventually learns of their shared devotion to their fathers and how Hope’s initial purpose was based around her own father’s desire to join the Interstellar Force instead of out of her own initiative.

He simultaneously sympathizes with Hope’s identity crisis, to the point of ending a training session after unwittingly causing Hope to become distraught over her her lack of individual purpose, while also criticizing her molding her identity around her father’s dream, as his father molded Itsuki’s identity around his own. The two would even share a brief moment of amusement after successfully avoiding getting into trouble with campus security, only to resume hostilities when Itsuki refused to soften his harsh treatment of her, which earned him being berated over his hypocritical judgement of her and projecting his insecurities onto her, as well as his failure to be an effective leader due to his social awkwardness, all despite his father’s training, making them both “disappointments”.

## Attributes

### Abilities

* **Athletic Expertise**: Due to extensive training and conditioning, Itsuki possesses advanced physical attributes and athletic capabilities. However, as a result of his father's harsh training methods, which were brutal enough to have left visible scars on his body, Itsuki is far better suited for physical activity than most and has a far stricter regimen, often training at dawn apart from the other cadet. Having noticeably prominent strength and endurance, he was able to easily run two miles with his class without exhaustion and later fight evenly in a sparring match with the brutish Arthur Stepanov. While sparring with Hope Griffin during their personal training sessions, Itsuki caught Hope's punch with his face without being staggered or reacting with anything but amusement before easily shoving her to the ground. During another sparring match, he managed to knock her out of the air as she was lunging up towards with single punch. While Hope would be left exhausted to the point of falling asleep in class, Itsuki continued his day as if fully rested, being far more used to continuous and intense physical exertion.
* **Combat Expertise**: As a cadet at Cosmos Academy, Itsuki specializes in both armed and unarmed combat. He is a highly proficient martial artist, enough to be able to train Hope Griffin and successfully help her improve her combat skills. While the two would repeatedly spar over the course of several days, Itsuki would still manage to overpower or outlast Hope, despite her best efforts.
* **Marksmanship Proficiency**: Being prepared for security and military threats, Itsuki is skilled in the use of ranged weapons, particularly pistols such as the Interstellar Force’s standard issue handles. After successfully finding a sniping position during a training exercise that devolved into a skirmish, Itsuki managed to shoot and stun Chris Myrthil, Sebastian Rojas and Jeff Williams in quick succession, as well as Hope Griffen as she was distracted protecting Alex Stepanov from his brother, Arthur.
* **Strategic Proficiency**: Owing to both his father's tutelage and his own analytical mind, Itsuki is skilled in organization and planning. Being military and media trained, he is as prepared for combat as he is for press meeting and live interviews. Before his school year even began, General Reo had Itsuki memorize Cosmos Academy's curriculum "front, backwards and sideways", which he succeeded in doing well enough to be able to teach it to Hope Griffin while tutoring her. Upon the arrival of new recruits, he took the time to passively observe them from a distance, wanting to know what kind of people he would be dealing with. After being convinced by Carmen Avilas to start personal training sessions with Hope with the intent of coercing her into leaving Cosmos Academy and getting permission to do so by Parth Strong, Itsuki managed to get Hope to participate by insulting her complacency and poor academic performance before targeting her pride by implying her complacency and incompetence would harm her peers, which successfully motivating her to prove him wrong. During a training session between two teams that devolved into a skirmish, Itsuki, his team's designated captain, while able to share a plan against the enemy team with his team, ultimately failed to control the group after Arthur recklessly initiated a skirmish. He proceeded to adapt to the changing circumstances by finding a cover position to shoot and stun the opposing team's members while they were distracted, effectively using his own teammates as bait. His ruthless tactics earned him the ire of several of his classmates and being scolded by Professor Strong. After catching Hope Griffin falling from the vents of the boys locker room, he quickly caught her attempts to lie about her purpose there before spotting Jazz Owens and Maria Long sneaking away from the weapons's room area with a duffle bag, correctly surmising that Owen's overt fascination with weapons technology and her briefly mentioned desire to tinker with her handle had lead her to infiltrate the weapons room to obtain a number to satisfy her curiosity, though he elected not to report the theft out of a desire to do something nice for his classmates.
* **Survival Aptitude**: In preparation for missions across space and on various planets, Itsuki is trained in operating in and adapting to a variety of environments and conditions.
* **Stealth Proficiency**: Aside from his combat skills, Itsuki demonstrates notable skills in stealth, having used the chaos of a skirmish between his team and an opposing team during a training exercise in order to find suitable cover to shoot and stun the majority of the enemy squad after they managed to surround two of his squad members, Jazz Owens and Kayleen Huo. Despite his team having ultimately won the skirmish, Itsuki was reprimanded by Professor Strong for abandoning his team instead of leading them.
* **Education Aptitude**: After starting personal training sessions with Hope, Itsuki proves to be a capable teacher for her and helps her improve her skill, all despite his explicit frustration and contempt for her. She manages to even replicate some of his combat skills, specifically a high kick he used against her in a sparring match, while being attacked by Carmen during a training exercise.
* **Culinary Aptitude**: Itsuki is stated to have a love for cooking.
* **Multilingualism**: Itsuki fluent in both English and Japanese, muttering an light insult under his breath in Japanese directed at Hope Griffin after the two had a brief confrontation during his initial introduction to the rest of his class as their representative.

### Weaknesses

* **Post Tramatic Stress Disorder**: Due to the traumatic nature of his brutal training under his father as a child, Itsuki occasionally has flashes of these events and instances of head pain when reminded to explicitly of them. Itsuki additionally has a habit of covering his mouth when one of these episodes or when in situations that may induce them, appearing particularly triggered in moments of seeing Hope Griffen preparing to fight him or attempting to continue to fight during their sparring matches.
* **Insecurity**: Despite his apparent confidence in his worthiness to be at Cosmos Academy and insistence he has earned his position, Itsuki silently suffers from the extent of his father's influence on his identity, having been forged into an extension of his father's ambitions, indirectly preventing him from making a goal or identity of his own. Itsuki is initially determined to fulfill his duties as class representative and earn his way to becoming a Interstellar Ranger on his own merit despite his resentment of his father's harsh training methods and insistence of Itsuki's worthiness to succeed and be treated as special simply for being his son. His girlfriend, Carmen, while able to connect with him to their shared experience of being children influential figures, only ever attempted to sooth Itsuki's ego rather than help him connect the root of his misgivings about his purpose of being at Cosmos Academy or becoming an Ranger. However, he would become more aware of his insecurities as his tutoring sessions with Hope Griffin continued after learning her goals and identity were similarly built around her dead father's dream of being a ranger rather than her own, something he was able to sympathize with but simultaneously found frustrating, as Hope's father wasn't even alive to witness Hope accomplish his dream and she would never truly be able to make him proud by doing so, while General Reo was still able to mold his son's path. Itsuki's belief in his abilities and purpose would tested during a failed training exercise, during which he sacrificed his own team after encounter the inconvenience of a rogue team member in Arthur, securing victory but becoming further disliked by many of his peers, with whom he was already alienated from due to aversion towards social interaction and a large majority of them disliking how he treated their friend, Hope. Only Carmen would dismiss his failure, satisfied Hope was beaten in the fight. After his failure, Itsuki found himself scolded by Professor Strong for his ruthlessness and angrily confronted by Arthur for his selfishness, while Alex implied Itsuki was unworthy of being selected by the Orb due to his cruelty towards Hope and correctly assuming he has been projecting his insecurities and doubts about his purpose onto her, a conversation during which Itsuki admitted to feeling alone as Alex offered to talk to him if he needed it, something Itsuki declined out of shame. Lastly, Hope would retaliate for his many abuses and refusal to be kinder to her by forcing him to confront his various imperfections, including his poor leadership skills, concluding that his father's fame and influence was responsible for Itsuki's status rather than his own merits while Itsuki himself lacked a goal of his own just like Hope herself, making him hypocritical for judging her, as they were both "disappointments". Being faced with an identity crisis, the normally snarky and condescending Itsuki became distraught as Hope left him alone in disgust.
* **Introvertism**: Due to spending much of his life being trained by his father and being treated as more significant to others, Itsuki is used to being isolated from others, with General Reo even going so far as to order him a separate apartment from other cadets. As a result, he tends to struggle during situations he hasn't previously prepared for, which has often prevents him from having the initiative to socialize or properly familiarize himself with his peers, apart from his sister, Koromi, and his girlfriend, Carmen, whose father, Ambassador Jorge Avilas, is a colleague of General Reo. Ironically, despite General Reo intending him to become a leader in the Interstellar Force like himself, Itsuki's lack of social skills would prove a prominent hinderance in his ability to lead others during a training exercise that became a skirmish when an impulsive Arthur charged out with the intent on ambushing the opposing squad while assuming his teammates, led by Itsuki would provided cover fire, which only served to interrupt Itsuki's attempts at conveying a strategy and exposed their team. Instead of issuing further commands to his remaining squad members, such as a tactical retreat to establish a proper ambush point, he resorted to abandoning his squad and shooting down opposing squad members from a sniping position, which earned his team victory. For this act, Itsuki was reprimanded by Professor Strong for failing to factor his team into his strategy and Arthur for using him and their other teammates as bait. Upon later finding himself in a situation of wanting to cover for Jazz and Maria's raiding of the weapons vault when a security guard came to investigate the area and suspected he and Hope were the unidentified culprits, Itsuki nervously struggled to convincingly lie, ironically having called Hope terrible at lying moments earlier before he deduced Jazz's actions and Hope's part in the her scheme. Fortunately, they managed to avoid getting into trouble with a combination of the far more socially apt Hope helping him sell the lie, the guard's assumption the two were a couple and Itsuki's promising the guard a phone call with his father after he realized Itsuki was General Reo's son.

## Paraphernalia

### Equipment

* **School Uniform**: A dress shirt, pants and shoes worn during class hours.
* **Ranger Uniform**: Standard issue for Interstellar Force personnel, these durable yet flexible environmental bodysuits are designed with systems that regulate their wearer's body temperature, as indicated by small screens on their sleeves. Official Interstellar Rangers are indicated by two strips on the chest area of their suits.
* **Cellphone**: A personal mobile device carried by most civilians, complete with a camera and touchscreen. Itsuki's phone is additionally able to project three-dimensional holographic images, which he uses for video calls with his sister and father.
* **Computer Tablet**: A portable, interactive computer screen, complete with a stylus pen, that are used by students and staff for both classes and leisure. These tablets are installed with digital textbooks before being issued out.

### Weapons

* **Handle**: As a cadet, Itsuki has access to a handle during training exercises and on field missions.

### Transportation

* **Shuttle**: An interplanetary craft able to make routine trips from Earth to Cosmos Academy and Interstellar Force Headquarters in space.

## Facilities

* **Interstellar Force Headquarters**: Itsuki is currently stationed at Interstellar Force Headquarters.
	+ **Cosmos Academy**: Itsuki's current residence is an apartment at Cosmos Academy ordered by his father, General Reo.

## Relationships

### Family

* General Reo - Father, Superior and Abuser
* Koromi Reo - Adoptive Sister

### Allies

* Carmen Avilas - Classmate and Girlfriend
* Alex Stepanov - Classmate and Potential Friend
* Jazz Owens - Classmate
* Amai Higashi - Classmate
* Maria Long - Classmate
* Sebastian Rojas - Classmate
* Jeff Williams - Classmate
* Kayleen Huo - Classmate
* Chris Myrthil - Classmate
* Hope Griffin - Classmate, Reluctant Student, Bully Victim and Rival
* Arthur Stepanov - Classmate
* Professor Parth Strong - Teacher and Superior
* Doctor Dola Amber - Superior
* Professor Maya Kimball - Teacher and Superior
* Counselor Alam - Superior
* Director Principle - Superior
* Ranger Diskin - Superior
* Ambassador Jorge Avilas - School Ambassador and Superior
* General Reo - Superior
* Unnamed Security Officer - Superior and Contact