Riku Aoi

Riku Aoi, known to her patrons as "Lady Blue", was a mysterious young Japanese magi, kunoichi, bounty hunter and current head of the Aoi Clan, she was the founder of the Nighstalkers for the Tengu Society and current boss of the Guild's Club Blue in Miami.

### **History**

Riku's past is stooped in half-truths and stories encompassing growing up as a member of Japan's enigmatic Aoi Clan, known for their strong magi heritage and assassin trade linked wit the Tengu Society, Riku was trained, from a very early age to be as kind and sympathetic as she was deadly.

With Clan Aoi supposedly being "The Last Shinobi Clan" of Japan, her family's dealings with both the Japanese Government and major crime syndicates such as the Yakuza relied on staying neutral with all parties concerned, and the only true loyalty any Aoi should truly be concerned with, was to their own clan as a unit and to Tengu out of deep honour and respect to her ancestors.

Riku was born the daughter of Tetsuko Aoi, with the Aoi's main business in the 20th century actually being in Host Clubs, bars and venues in Tokyo, the biggest and most profitable was the Sky Club (Kurabu Sora) that also acts as a Guild Lodge. During the 80's the Sky Club attracted Yakuza factions whose bosses mostly used the Aoi as their own personal killers and bullies and for many years. During her training Riku fumed at how the family were pushed around by gangsters and government alike, often the Aoi would take the fall for any conflicts between organised crime bosses and corrupt police who wanted one or the other eliminated; a tug of war between these sides fractured the family in 1994, many Aoi Clan members quit the Tengu Society, or worse became themselves Yazuka loyalists, including Tetsuko's brother Genkei who wanted to destroy Tengu from the inside out.

Tetsuko was the first to discover links to a much bigger organisation of global gangsters known to Tengu as SHADO that were working their way into governments by conglomerating their crime syndicates into a vast array of companies across the world, mostly through the Yakuza boss Itsuki Hatsu. Tetsuko began training her daughter to secretly fight against these elements from within the clan and began teaching her long-forgotten and forbidden magi artes that the family had not used for a long time. To do this she sent Riku to America out of the reach of any potential enemies of the family whilst sending her to university to study medicine in 1996 where she would act as an extension to the Tengu Society in the States.

Riku met Jane Summer in California after sensing each other's tuning potential and links to The Guild and soon Riku became a powerfully respected member in Miami.

But after the incident with Darq and SHADO, to which a huge majority of Yakuza were loyal, Riku rallied Tengu to stand up to the Yakuza in such a big way that they would never bother the clan again.

Their power, however, attracted attention from magi organisations such as the Hashimoto family, who allied with them briefly to hunt for mezzite shards (known as hahan) from the bigger, original Dōbutsushō, and discovered an organisation of Chinese-Mongolian Magi-Triads known as Luushén who wished to reform Dōbutsushō, believing the spirit that lived within was of an ancient dragon.

Aoi led some of the Hashimoto with her Nightstalkers on an attack on a Luushén hideout near the city of Wakkanai on Hokkaido in 2006, however the warehouse was seemingly empty, and turned out to be a trap; nevertheless the Nightstalkers and Hashimotos fought off the Luushén and Darq found evidence that the Luushén were in league with Dawnshadow to find the key to immortality.

### **Appearance**

Riku was a tall, extremely attractive young-faced Japanese woman in her 30s, with dark eyes and pale skin, often dressing in blue clothing and later dying her hair blue to mach her clan's namesake. She was often the interest of multiple men who referred to her as being "like a man-o-war" , beautiful, elegant but painful and potentially deadly. Riku liked to adorn her wrists and neck with small amounts of expensive jewellery.

### **Personality**

Riku was a calm and kind woman face-to-face, she was both highly intelligent and superbly social, naturally gifted with an understanding of people from a young age, she rarely ever raised her voice and was never seen particularly angry, even in the depths of an argument. She was a confident and naturally empathic and analytical of people; her mother often commented that she was able to discern truth from lies just by looking someone in the eye, even without the use of her tuning potential.

### **Powers and Skills**

#### **Powers**

**Magic:** Riku was one of a handful of humans with the ability to 'tune' that let her sense and ultimately manipulate magical 'mana' to cast spells and incantations; Riku combined her magic with ancient fighting techniques employed by her shinobi ancestors of the Aoi clan; something that her family have excelled at. As such Riku's clan has developed a series of unique magic artes themselves which are a closely guarded secret, even within the magic community:

**Shōchō no Miburi-Kyōka**: Riku, like her mother and father, is a practitioner of a unique class of martial arts-enhanced magic that uses magic focused through traditional Kuji-kiri hand-gesturing techniques to impart elemental capabilities into her weapons or fighting skills; as such her magic ability to tune is highly synchronised with her marital arts, her mental concentration and her physicality in ways many other magic users are not; in particular the Aoi's magic requires next-to-no sustained incantation unless they are casting a specific spell. This type of magic use is so unique to the Aoi clan that it is thought that they were behind the myth of all ninjas possessing magic; something popularised in modern culture and media later on.

* **Odayaka Kyoku:** A breathing technique enhanced with mana to allow her a temporary supernatural sense of concentration, senses, reactions and speed, to the point where more advanced versions of it let her later run on water or even up near-vertical surfaces for a short period. The spell can only be used a few times a day but she can sustain it for up to an hour.
* **Henkan:** A form of transmutation, through the use of hand gestures whilst holding or before touching said object, she can transform matter from one state to another, breaking it down into a white, powder-like cloud that glows subtly blue from within, before it reforms into the desired object. While she has to incantate "henkan" and then the name of the object she is transforming it into, she only needs to whisper, when using her foci she only needs to use hand-gestures. Her mother's use of the technique is particularly advanced, she she no longer needs to incantate and can transform objects as large as cars, although the effect only lasts 10 minutes at maximum, it's often long enough to hide objects or confuse opponent.
	+ **Henkan Mizusora:** A spell that lets her transform her specialised katana foci, Sukairibā, into other weapons and forms, usually twin, chain-linked kunai, staves, a kanabō, a bullet-proof shield, shorter swords such as wakizachi or tanto, in fact because of Sukairibā's use as a focus, she can permanently transform the weapon into other forms, this lets her keep the weapon stored on her person, out-of-sight. The skill also allows her to quickly transform the weapon mid-battle, or use it's glowing powder-like transition state in some form, often opening tightly-sealed objects by passing the cloud into any gaps and reforming it.
	+ **Henkan Yoroi:** Transforms her clothes into a 'battle form", where she is more protected and agile; She can also use a variation of this technique to repair her clothing and the clothing and armour of others. According to Riku, her parents can even use this technique to give other's clothing supernaturally protective or repellent properties though she hasn't quite mastered such spells yet as they require some practice and incantation.
	+ **Henkan Fukusha:** A mixed-spell that allows her to transform any object into animate, realistic facsimiles of herself that do her bidding; the spell is actually quite complex and requires her to impart a copy of her intent onto each clone, it is easier if she uses bigger objects to transform, and using a gas such as air takes much longer to both concentrate and sustain; often she uses dense metal kunai or balls that she pre-casts, allowing her to throw them as they transform into her copies. These clones only last five minutes but can give her a massive edge in battle. If she is using her kunai she must collect them again.
	+ **Henkan Honō:** Transforms the air into explosive blue flames, she usually channels and directs these around her weapons, but can also use her hands; in which instance she protects herself with magic, usually invisible tattoos of butterflies on the reverse of her palm and seems to have other makings up her arm that are likely to also be tattoos. These flames have qualities that are harmful to spirits and disruptive to other forms of dark magic.
		- ***Henkan Honō: Shōheki:*** A barrier of cerulean flame, either between her an an opponent or around an enemy.
		- ***Henkan Honō: Bakuha:*** A blast of blue flame, either from her palms from the edge of her sword in arc-like slashes.
	+ **Henkan Mizutaki:** Transforms air into water which she can use for various attacks and defensive measures.
		- ***Henkan Mizutaki: Neru:*** Binds an opponent with tendrils of water that wrap around them tightly for several minutes.
		- ***Henkan Mizutaki: Awa:*** A protective bubble water forms around herself or others for a short period.
		- ***Henkan Mizutaki: Myakuhaku:*** An explosion of water from the air that can have seriously powerful concussive force.

* **Shōchō no Chiyu:** Riku can heal using mana from her surroundings, aiding in the recovery of both herself and others and can also use this to sooth pain and calm people.
* **Makijutsu**: She knows some traditional scroll magic artes including:
	+ ***Meisai:*** An arte of camouflage that she can use to hide herself or objects at will based on her surroundings using a scroll passed into an ofuda bracelet that she focuses mana into, more advanced scrolls allow her to remain camouflaged whilst moving or appear as someone else or an object.
	+ ***Nerumaki***: A spell that causes specially made, small scroll-ribbons known as "nerucho" to bind an opponent where they cannot move and are unable to use any magic or special powers so long as they are bound. These mini-scroll ribbons have to be pre-made and then stored on her person, usually up her sleeves and about her clothing.

#### **Skills**

**Expert Assassin:** Even without the use of her magic, she has extremely honed assassination skills that her and her family have trained for all their lives.

**Melee Expert:** She is highly skilled in various sword-fighting and close-range weapons techniques, not just kenjutsu and kendo but other types of weapon styles from around the world.

**Hand-to-Hand Combat Master:** She has mastered multiple hand-to-hand fighting styles and close-quarters combat.

**Expert Tracker:** She has become a very competent and detail-orientated tracker of people and objects during her time working as an assassin and bounty hunter.

**Expert Tactician:** Her skills among her clan a brilliant strategist are next to none and often leads the Nightstalkers on missions, easily able to command teams and units.

**Published Writer:** She has written several books, from magic studies to books on barkeeping, management and battle tactics.

**Barkeeping and Drink Mixing:** She has managed Club Blue for years and often likes to get involved with making drinks and even the more mundane aspects of behind-the-scenes barwork.

### **Weapons and Equipment**

**Sukairibā:** A specially-designed katana that allows her to focus her magic, it let her practice using her Henkan techniques with very little need to concentrate and allows her to transform the sword into different weapons or act as a channel for elemental magic.

**Kunai:** Metal throwing knives that she can impart with elemental charges or transform them into clones of herself.

**Udewa Ofuda:** A bracelet with a protection ward or 'ofuda' scroll within it that protect her from anomalous magic and elemental damage and helps ward or weaken entities that try to attack her. It also has a slot underneath into which she can insert scrolls for various magic effects including invisibility/camouflage and appearing as someone or something else.

### **Limitations and Weaknesses**

Riku can be overconfident at times, she can be too selfless and use all of her power to protect others whilst leaving herself vulnerable or open to attack. She has a habit of wearing herself out often and while many see her as perfect, admits she still has trouble managing her mana, as the complex nature of her magic requires a lot of concentration, sustainment and multitasking, reducing her mental effort.

Riku's connection to various Yakuza, while not herself a member of any Yakuza clan, can sometimes make her a target.