Aoki Gahara

"*Hey. How's it hanging?*"

**Aoki Gahara** (我 (が) 原 (はら)  青 (あお) 忌 (こ) , *Gahara Aoki*), known by his villain name **Noose**, is a janitor working at The Eternal Summer.

## Appearance

Aoki is a tall man with spiky silver hair that reaches his cheeks, and violet eyes that never seem too focused on one thing for very long. He has a calm determined expression, and only looks happy when he occasionally smirks. He stands with a confident posture, usually with his hands in the side pockets of his dull grey overcoat.

Aoki’s closet is very simple, as his apparel consists mostly of a plain black t-shirts, matching pairs of long black pants and comfortable black sneakers.

Aoki’s villain costume is entirely dark grey, which consists of a face mask that covers his nose and continues down to tightly cover his entire neck. His head is covered by a loose hood, which shadows him in daylight and conceals his face when dark. He also wears a flexible full-body ninja suit with his custom-made *tabi* shoes. His suit has a strap on the back to hold his sickle, two small pouches on the right side of his waist that carries his needles and a larger pouch on his left that holds his lock-picking gear. His whole costume is convertible into rope.

Aoki works as a janitor at The Eternal Summer, where he slips unnoticed into unoccupied bathrooms and cleans it using his quirk with the doors locked. He then leaves as sneakily as he entered. As such, Aoki has no need for a janitor’s uniform.

## Name

His name *Aoki* (青忌) contains the character *ao* (青, clear) and *ki* (忌, the anniversary of one's death). His surname Gahara (我原) contains the characters *ga* (我, me) and *hara* (原, meadow). His name is a reference to the Japanese "suicide forest", Aokigahara, a broad reference to both his quirk and his tendency to show up hanging by his neck, though with no ill effect to him.

## Personality

Aoki is a quiet and reserved person. Aoki personally likes to think that he could silence anyone that crosses him in an instant, and has a habit of keeping a keen eye out for any escape routes that only he could traverse through swiftly. His behaviour and past results in him taking the clean and stealthy approach to danger when he can, killing only when necessary, but only out of knowing that hiding a body is more trouble than it's worth rather than some sort of pacifism. In combat, Aoki is a lone wolf who avoids direct contact with opponents, resorting to flanking tactics, as well as using environmental dangers to distract or disrupt multiple targets. Aoki rarely maintains one position in combat, actively seeking opportunities and different angles where he can observe and attack his opponent, while preventing them from detecting his location.

Aoki perfers to keep to himself, and is rarely one to start a conversation, preferring to chime in whenever a point is missed. He doesn’t actively avoid conversations, as long as it's with someone he doesn’t mind talking to. Like he is in combat, Aoki has a way of sidestepping topics or questions that disinterest or challenges him rather than confronting them, unless he is actively being pressured into replying properly.

Despite Aoki’s stoic expression, he does have a sense of humour, albeit a dark one. He isn’t too bothered by rope puns either, though he declares he has "heard them all at this point". He is annoyed by obvious or intentionally terrible jokes, or jokes or made simply for the sake of being a rope pun. Aoki also finds it amusing when others fall into his traps.

Aoki dislikes children, but does recognise their potential, even in those who appear to have useless quirks. He knows that children who are quirkless will have to learn how to cope with that fact, and find a way to overcome their disadvantage - as such, Aoki doesn’t necessarily have respect for children, but rather a personal rule not to ever significantly harm a child. This is one of the few moral codes Aoki upholds on himself, but he would almost never befriend a child, unless one particularly impressed him.

## Abilities

### Quirk

**Rope** (縄 *Nawa*): Rope allows Aoki to turn any part of his body into rope, as well as anything lightweight and made of fibre-like materials (such as cotton, linen, silk, nylon, or polyester fibres) that the user makes physical contact with into rope, which can be manipulated as an extension of the user’s body. The user alone (without external resources) can form around 50 m of rope.

Rope volume can be increased by converting more (string-based) resources into rope via physical contact. Rope can become thinner and more dense when tightened, to a reasonable extent. The user can return to human form at will, regardless of the form of the rope, at whatever central position the rope was at (or the rope will return to the arm’s position, if only that arm was turned into a rope for example). Injuries can be minimised by absorbing more thread before reverting to human form. Rope can also be quickly unraveled into smaller, though significantly weaker, sub-ropes. The user can revert rope back into stored body parts at will. Remaining rope after returning to human form can be used to restore clothing and/or energy.

Limitations include any regular weakness a rope might have, such as being cut or burnt. The user does feel contact/pain with rope appendages (more pain when more rope damage is afflicted). The user controls the larger portion of rope if cut into separate sections (which can be reformed again with contact). Being reduced to 25 m of rope will cause the user to instantly return to human form, and unable to use their quirk until they are rejuvenated. The user can have minimum rope size of width of a hair, and there is no maximum rope size (provided the user has access to enough resources). The quirk can only convert non-living material (other than the user), so string-like resources such as hair or fur that is attached to another living being cannot be manipulated.

### Other Abilities and Skills

**Close-Combat Skills**: Aoki's preferred weapon is a large sickle head called a *Kusarigama*, which he uses with deadly proficiency. He is also skilled in the usage of other bladed weapons, but prefers his kusarigama head for personal and aesthetic reasons.

**Trapmaking**: Aoki is proficient at trapmaking and laying said traps for the unfortunate victim to spring. Aoki also sports a keen eye when it comes to locating parts of the environment that can be used against opponents, and creating impromptu or improvised traps out of refuse or spare parts.

**Extreme Flexibility**: Perhaps in part due to his quirk, Aoki is extremely lithe, and is able to contort his body around in various ways that human anatomy would not normally allow, though to a logical limit while still in human form. Aoki also claims all of his joints are double-jointed, though the stunts he pulls to display it sufficiently disgust witnesses that they have never asked for him to fully prove this.

**At the Restaurant**: Aoki is the Janitor at The Eternal Summer along with Keisuke Darashima. Aoki is primarily in charge of the cleaning and sanitation of the restaurant, whereas his coworker is more of a maintenance man.

### Stats

Aoki's stats, according to their character reference
## Equipment

* **Needles**: A set of pouches which contains about 3 dozen large sewing needles. Aoki uses needles in combat by holding them all along his rope form and stabbing opponents in close combat.
* **Lock-picking Set**: Aoki has a variety of different lock-picking tools, all of which he has had practice with.
* **Kusarigama Head**: Aoki also has a sickle that he tends to hold onto at the tail end of himself when he is a rope, otherwise in his right hand/rope when he is not entirely rope. Used for a little extra range, or when an opponent is resistant to piercing attacks from Aoki’s needles.

## Philosophy

"*Perhaps if they were a little more observant they could have avoided that. Maybe the next one will have a bit more luck?*"

Aoki has applied a natural selection type of mentality towards how he forms and maintains relationships. He naturally finds all people close to insignificant and unworthy of his attention until they prove their usefulness (or at least show great potential) and show that they deserve his respect.

It’s because of this that Aoki grew up with very few friends, none lasting very long due to the increasing standards Aoki placed, as he himself became more and more skilled in his personal pursuits. This mentality contributes to why Aoki joins The Eternal Summer (apart from it being an excellent career decision) - he had great respect for someone who was able to track him during his most careful attempt to remain hidden in his career.

## Battles and Events

### The Heist

* Aoki and The Organisation vs. Clearview Bank

### The Warehouse

* Aoki and The Organisation vs. Queen Bee and Raiden

### The Station

* Aoki and The Organisation vs. The Agency
* Aoki and The Organisation vs. Rain

## Quotes

* “Call me Noose - and if you waste my time or you’ll be the next one hanging on one.”
* (To *Shino Kitamura)* “I better be on the next mission, I’ve been picking the same lock for an hour.”
* *(To Keiko Ketsueki)* “If you’re gonna make rope puns, at least make them original.”

## Trivia

* In Aoki’s early teens, he used to steal small parts from clothing in stores without compromising their overall design. He thought some things didn’t really need pockets anyway.
* Aoki is a big fan of the philosophy that weapons are simply extensions of our bodies, which is something he likes to take literally when wielding his sickle.