Sakura Sakazaki

Sakura Sakazaki (坂崎 さくら Sakazaki Sakura) is a MYverse character who's a contestant of the BeatDown. She is a Japanese girl with an intense fixation on Ryo, her karate coach. Most of the time, she practices after school, and some days, she stays the night in Ryo's Dojo. Despite not having perfect techniques like Ryo does, Sakura is willing to do everything and listen to him, and is considered as Ryo's "golden child" in the dojo.

## Biography

### Personality

Sakura is very energetic, outgoing, and respectful and also she has a hard-working attitude that leads her to being focused in combat. Despite appearing to be brash and confrontational because of her Kansai dialect and haughty persona, she actually has a noble spirit and a very determined attitude, either in studies or in martial arts training. She sees Ryo as an idol and teacher, rather than an opponent. Apart from that, she has a big crush on Ryo, but Ryo does not see her as someone who's in love with her, but instead, as a proud student of his.

### Appeareance

Sakura's most recognizable trait is her hair, which is usually done in double French braids. When she was a teenager, Sakura used to go to BeatDown fights wearing her school uniform with a pair of black Converse shoes and fingerless MMA gloves. And now, she has a change of attire after she graduated high school. Sakura now wears a school-uniform like getup, but instead of a sailor uniform, she wears a blouse, an argyle sweater and a black pleated skirt equipped with black knee-high socks and a pair of Air Force Ones as her ring gear.

## Story

### Background

Sakura has been a tomboy ever since she was young. Her mother enrolled her in several different fields of sports, such as swimming and baseball, but Sakura never seem to have an interest in swimming, however, she loved baseball. She has been a baseball player for over 5 years, and she is part of the high school baseball team during her teenage years. And then, she pursued martial arts at the age of 5 after her parents got into an attack with the Yakuza. Her father enrolled her into the Yoshizawa clan's dojo and is taught by Ryo for the whole time. Ryo seems to be so profound of her, and eventually, she became the dojo's favorite due to her perfect attendance, passion and good manners.

## Abilities and Powers

Sakura can do karate, and she was taught by Ryo since childhood. However, her technique isn't perfect like her master. However, her fighting style is quite unique because she often uses her baseball background for attacks, such as a "running" Shoryuu-dan and a smaller Chikouken.

Since she currently decided to stay in the dojo longer before entering college, she trains and works harder in order to prove herself that she is now a much stronger and mature fighter and a perfect contender of the BeatDown. Ryo is her primary source of motivation, and is willing to do anything for him.

## Character Relationships

### Ryo

Ryo is her karate master since childhood, however, she developed a crush on Ryo when she was 15 years old, because they grew closer. When she was a flustering teenager, she sees Ryo as someone who is incomparable to the boys in her school. Because of Ryo, she never took a liking in boys her age, both in school, or outside of school. Rumors keep flying around about her dating Ryo, even to the fact where she got bullied by students making accusations of her selling herself for older men like Ryo, and participating in enjō kosai. However, the relationship is not even romantic due to the big age gap the two have.

Most of the time where she was still studying in school, she doesn't have much time to practice. However, she sometimes practice until late-night and sleeps over in the guests' bedroom of the Yoshizawa house, which is also the location of Ryo's dojo. Nowadays, since she has more time to train, she decides to focus more on her training and eventually making plans for her to move in to the Yoshizawa household, where she can both train and live in with the Yoshizawa family.

### Ken

Ken is her closest friend in the BeatDown, apart from Ryo. The three also hang out and train together outside the tournament.

### Enemies & Feuds

#### Mr. Karate

Mr. Karate is Ryo and Sakura's biggest nightmare. Upon the spirit taking over Ryo, Sakura and her master fought each other before he was redeemed when he gets knocked out.

#### Nikolai Scherbakov

Nikolai used her to obtain information about the Karate Gene. Nikolai pretended to get close to her and be her lover while doing all this, but when he reveals the deep truth about himself, Sakura ran away and fought him. A redeemed Ryo joins the fight as well.