Ruki Ishizaki

'...'

## Personality and Behaviour

Ruki is a well-mannered and soft spoken young man, at times appearing wise beyond his age, or so he has been told.

## Occupational Details

Ruki currently serves as Yamato's Second-In-Command of the Toukiden, and is a more than capable Oni-slayer himself.

## Likes/Hobbies/Interests

### **Training Sessions**

It could be argued that Ruki is the most devoted of the Toukiden to his training, often practicing and improving his skills to a religious point.

When not on a mission or travelling, Ruki will spend most of his waking hours training, refusing to let his skills rust or slip. He is extremely dedicated to his craft, and as such maintains the healthiest lifestyle he can in order to keep atop his strict schedule.

### **Zen Meditation**

When not training, Ruki spends time meditating, to improve his focus and his spiritual connection with the world around him. In a world filled with strife and an occupation that promises danger in evey encounter, meditation gives him moments of clarity among the chaos.

### **Playing the Flute**

A pastime of Ruki's and a great enjoyment in his life is playing the flute, both recreationally and alongside friends such as Akemi during her dance performances. Like meditation, Ruki finds that playing the flute helps to quiet his mind, and even if momentarily, take him away from the state of the world he lives in.

### **Visiting Tea Shops**

A regular visitor to the tea shop in Utakata, Ruki also likes to visit and explore tea shops throughout the region on his travels, sampling new and unique teas and other delicacies.

## Dislikes/Fears/Phobias

### **Snakes**

A Toukiden is scared of little, but snakes have always unnerved Ruki, a particularly damaging factor if he even has to battle a snake-like Oni, such as a Nure-Onna.

## Ambitions

Ruki is already noted as one of the finest members of the Toukiden, but wishes to cement his worth, owing his debt to Yamato. Not a man of ambition in particular, he wishes only to serve and protect those around him from the Oni menace.

## Appearance

Ruki's most striking features are his silver-grey hair and his light blue eyes, extremely uncommon for a man of Japanese heritage. He is most often seen wearing his long hair in a ponytail held at the back of his head, while his hair forms into two distinct bangs at his forehead, a larger right one and smaller left one. His face is strong but pleasantly well-rounded, with his nose being slim while slightly bolbous, and a slight natural curve in his lips, giving him a warm and friendly first impression. Unlike Yamato or several of his colleagues, he prefers to go clean shaven, finding a beard to feel irritating on his skin.

His body is well muscled, while maintaing a lean build, clear results of his often intense training regime. Several scars and scratches adorn different limbs and his torso, but his most prominent mark howver, is a deep and clear scar upon his right pectoral, a three clawed gash received from a battle with an Ogress. Aside from that, the only other notable mark on his body is that of his Toukiden Brand Tattoo, placed upon his upper left bicep.

## Physical Skills

### **Peak Human Conditon**

Having started his gruelling training from the minute he was taken in by Yamato, Ruki possesses the peak human conditioning of a male in his prime. Therefore, his strength, speed, stamina, senses, agility, reflexes, accuracy, longevity, durability, intelligence, healing time, flexibility and combat skills are heightened to a point above most regular humans. Ruki is strong enough to punch an individual through a wooden/thin metal door, lift several times his own body weight and run fast enough to catch up with most running animals. He can exert himself to peak capacity; therefore, eliminating build-up fatigue chemicals, producing top-endurance and lung capacity; agile enough to execute basic flips and somersaults with relative ease; reflexive enough to quickly dodge incoming attacks and react better to fast motions, accurate enough to achieve multiple small and further distant targets, durable enough to withstand normal and enhanced physical/projectile attacks, intelligent enough to understand complex problems more so than the average man, flexible enough to co-ordinate his limbs perfectly and his combat skills are advanced enough to defeat large groups of enemies.

### **Katana Mastery**

While Ruki cannot claim to be the foremost expert in the known world with the katana, and would not wish to do so, his skill with the blade is matched by few. He has spent years upon years honing his craft, first picking up the weapon when he was a child and joined the Toukiden. A devout practitioner of Iaijutsu, Ruki is able to position himself, draw his blade and slice through an opponent in the near blink of an eye, and often before the other party even notices, before Ruki removes the blood from the blade and scabbards it, with the opponent only then succumbing to the blow and falling.

### **Fire Onmyo**

Ruki can utilise and control fire onmyo to an extent, though not having the grasp on it of a true practitioner. While he can send out blasts of fire, he prefers to use the ability to set his sword aflame, and to increase his own resistance against fire, and little else, focusing on mainly his skill with the katana in battle.

## Intellectual Skills

### **Strategical Mindset**

A key aspect of Ruki's education was the study of strategy and cunning. Knowing that his heir apparent would grow to fight and lead men into battle, Yamato ensured Ruki was taught how to analyse an opponent's every move, as well as how to manipulate the battlefield to his favour. As well as martial lessons, a large part of the training involved regular games of strategy such as Shogi and Mahjong.

### **Anatomical Knowledge**

Taught that he must know everything about his opponents, Ruki was heavily taught in the structure of both monsters and his fellow man, everything from the skeletal system to major muscle and artery locations. As a result Ruki knows exactly where to attack his attack his target, depending on whether his purpose is to disable, injure or even ill. It has also taught him the vital parts of his own body to defend as a priority.

### **Pitch Detection**

Having an appreciation for music, but also as part of his strict training, Ruki was taught to finely tune his ears to listen out for change in pitch, whether he is tracking a target, listening to their breath pattern in combat or identifying an animal nearby.

## Clothing Style

When not in his armour, Ruki favours sets of more loose fitting clothes, such as kimono and hakama sets, with a preference for darker colour schemes such as reds and blacks, particularly to offset his silver hair.

## Weapon/s

### **Jinran-Maru**

The Jinran-Maru is the katana passed down to Ruki by Yamato, as is customary for the head of the Toukiden to pass down the sword to their heir. The sword was intended for Yamato's own son, but following the loss of his son and wife, and estrangement of his daughter, Yamato began to see Ruki as his eventual succesor and the future Captain of the Toukiden. Comprised of folded steel, treated with boiling and freezing water to balance the metal, the blade can cut through flesh and bone with ease, as well as the toughest woods like bamboo. The blade is also blessed, making it deadly to Oni and able to vanquish them for good.
With Yamato's blessing, Yuki made his own advancements to the weapon, aided by Yoshida. While the sword in its initial form still looks very much like a single-bladed katana, another blade runs directly alongside the first now, that at Ruki's command, can be slid down into the hilt and through an opening, creating a dual-bladed katana.

## Armour

A comination of black, red and gold adorns Ruki's armour. A light iron cuirass protects the majority of his torso, shoulders and upper arms, while covered with a dark kimono top, embellished with golden patterns. A black hakama covers his legs to the knee, with two plates of iron covering each side. His gloves and boots are made of a blackened leather, with gauntlets and greaves respectively covering both, the gauntlet and greaves alike decorated with black and gold.

To finish the look off, Ruki wears a short shoulder cape on his left side, a deep red in colour with similar golden embellishments to his kimono top, and a golden string reaching from one end to another, wrapped around his chest to secure the cape.