Shizen Tota

### Augmentations

Synaptic Boosters/Wired Reflexes, Cybernetic Eyes, Cybernetic Arms, Retractable Arm Blades, Cybernetic Legs, Hydraulic Jacks, Hardened Exoskin, Grafted Torso Plating

## Overview

A cybernetic killer groomed from a young age, the man known as Shizen Tota was once a part of a ruthless clan of assassins with twisted ideals. Believing that only those of strong wills would inherit the earth, they sought to purge weakness and make humanity stronger through their targeted executions. Despite how brutal and idealistic they were, the Shinjiketo still took contract work and were content with killing anyone from thugs to high-profile businessmen and government operatives. This persisted until after a string of deliberate attacks against UNNA officers and staff, for the organization then fell victim to countless raids and then dissolved in a cruel twist of fate. Many members of the assassin clan were executed while others were imprisoned for life. Shizen was one of the luckier ones, left to rot in permanent isolation within a high security prison for the rest of his days. Yet he was given a chance to contribute to society instead of actively work to dismantle it, a position offered to him on the high-mortality rate Hounds combat unit. The man could not rightly refuse, as he still had so much more to prove.

## History

There exist a great number of gangs in Los Angeles that can simply be known for their particular brands of cruelty and ruthlessness alone, and then there was the Shinjikēto crime syndicate. Quite literally translating to the word 'syndicate' itself, they saw claim to that simplistic moniker to assert that they were more efficient and powerful than any other gang on the streets. Comprised of lines of ex-Japanese military, strategists, and even doctors the gang perpetuated itself on the belief that the only way to improve humanity and themselves is through prolonged conflict. To master the art of war is to master life, and the battlefield is where history is decided and weakness is obliterated.

To that end the gang specialized in urban warfare and assassination. If you wanted someone dead, you would go to the Shinjikēto and they would provide you with a hit man so well-trained that there would not be a scrap of evidence left behind. These offers extended to other gangs, civilians, even government officials if the pay was high enough, showing that there was no honor among thieves even to other Japanese gangs as they were all too happy to dispatch them as well.

Yurnero Shimada was raised in a refined household, his parents quite wealthy and he and his younger brother had never truly known wanting for the majority of their lives. Despite being American he and his family were deeply rooted in Japanese tradition and beliefs, a strict upbringing that saw both boys being sharp yet kind-hearted souls. Only a year older than his brother Haruto, Yurnero saw himself as a bit of a leader and guardian to his somewhat naïve and gentle sibling. Things changed when he became fourteen, and his brother thirteen.

Considered men at that age, their father took both boys to one of the numerous safehouses the Shinjikēto operated in, explaining to both boys the true nature of their wealth as well as explaining the doctrine of the syndicate. He was a killer who did wetwork and stole to provide for his family, and he would have his sons follow in his footsteps and strengthen the syndicate further. From that day forward both brothers would undergo ruthless training to shape them into the unflinching murderers that the gang would value most.

The training was brutal, both young teenagers ending many days battered and bleeding from the martial arts drills, kendo, and weapons training they would go through for seemingly endless hours of the day. Their father pulled them from their public schools, all of this being under the guise of home schooling so that they could leave their once-peaceful lives behind in something greater. Physical training aside, both brothers would be forced to see things the way the Shinjikēto, valuing strength and technique over kindness and compassion - for there would be no luxuries in battle. While Haruto was apprehensive, Yurnero began to apply himself and work hard as he always did for the approval of his peers, slipping into the belief structure that nature only allowed the strong to survive and rule.

Haruto was not fully convinced, and for choosing to be ethical and following his moral compass he found that he was lagging behind Yurnero in training. Failure would not be an option for either of them, and Yurnero and his father would keep telling Haruto that he had no choice but to train himself to be worthy of the Shinjikēto. Try as he might, he could not bring himself to be detached from his morality and emotions. Things came to a head when Yurnero turned 16 and his brother was 15. The training grew more intense by the day, both of them considered masters of their martial arts even at these ages yet still pushed harder and harder to improve. For his outspoken distaste for the syndicate's methods and his perceived 'weakness', the boys' father arranged for a duel to the death between his two sons.

Too far gone to see that that the brother he once cared for may have been right about their illegal crime family, Yurnero was invigorated to defend the syndicate and his father's honor, ultimately indifferent to killing his own brother. Though the battle was intense, Yurnero was ultimately the victor. Driving his katana through his brother's midsection, he felt no pain or remorse for what he had done - his first real kill had left him feeling hollow, and it was not something he would understand until many years layer. Shame was not something he had the capacity to feel, and many more kills would continue to stain his future.

Years passed, cybernetics were forcibly implanted on the skilled warrior to make him even more deadly than he had been. His training combined with the sophisticated hardware meant that he was quickly becoming an adversary to be feared, and his reputation inside and out of the Shinjikēto would soon be known. By the time he was twenty he adopted the name 'Shizen Tota', meaning "nature"; his own way of communicating the flash-Darwinist mindset of the syndicate. He was a hunter and his targets were mere prey, their only chance of survival through being stronger or more cunning than he was.

With a new generation of members such as Shizen in their employ the Shinjikēto grew increasingly bolder, showing their peers that their mindset was not all just talk. Hits became more high profile and elaborate, whole shipments of military weapons would be stolen and taken by the syndicate overnight to be used in what could only be described as covert warfare. When the NLAPD stepped in to take control of a situation, they and the government itself became a target of the Shinjikēto as well. This proved to be the death knell of the crime group, as despite their resources and strategy they were no match for the might of the UNNA. The military saw to the dismantling of the syndicate, assassination attempts thwarted for the first time in decades as operators were caught and executed without remorse. In a cruel twist of irony, it had appeared that the Shinjikēto were right about the nature of the world after all.

Through a stroke of luck Shizen was not killed by the military, his cybernetics were placed on a forced lock despite their built-in countermeasures which lead to his incapacitation and capture. Hoping to gain more information on the Shinjikēto they kept him as a prisoner for interrogation, though despite the torture and horrors they put him through he would not break. For years he withered away in a cell as the justice system was content to let him wait out the deaths of his people, the time to reflect on his actions only slightly sobering the ruthless killer. Despite all of the time he had been incarcerated, he still hungered for a new battle and chance to redeem himself where his clan had failed. When he was selected for the Hounds program, Shizen saw it as a new calling. A new way to make history.