Daren Blackshire

> *Sound... Blast!*
>
>
> — **Daren Blackshire, while wielding convenient military-grade sound projection gloves in a snowball fight against Hana Katsuro, Veli Batsu, and Maki Itokawa**
>
>

**Daren Blackshire** (ブラックシャイヤ, ダレン, *Blackshire Daren*), is an American male ghoul residing in Tokyo.

Currently, he goes by the notorious moniker **Soundwave** (音波, *Onpa*), and is largely associated with audio and sound. He is affiliated with Aogiri Tree, serving as its second-in-command. He has former ties with the Inquisitors, Rogues, and Anteiku.

Formerly, he was widely known by his last name **Blackshire** (黒シャイア, *Kuroshaia*), a revengeful and scornful ghoul who led a pro-ghoul organization called Discord to fight the GSA and take over a small city in the state of California. The group was eventually defeated and destroyed, with Blackshire fleeing and disappearing, leading the GSA and the nation as a whole to question his fate.

## Appearance

Daren is a dark-skinned man of above-average height, and slim to well-toned build. He has very short black hair, styled in a buzzed cut. His eyes are light brown, although his blank expression seems to give them a darker shade of color. His neck is also strong in appearance, with the Adam's apple being well developed.

In the past he wore a slim, a deep black battle suit, in the style of an orchestra conductor's uniform, as well as his signature mask.

After the events of Platinum, Daren's overall appearance changed somewhat. He now has longer hair, styled in an undercut with dreadlocks flowing down the right side of his face. He has also developed a full beard and moustache. He has abandoned his original ghoul attire and mask completely, favoring a black cloak and dark clothes underneath, as well as a dark partial mask.

## Personality

Daren has a very polite way of speaking and seems to be friendly towards most people he encounters. Although his expression almost never changes, he's capable of being silly and possesses a good sense of humor. He is highly attentive to sound and associates his own voice as beautiful, while others tend to be annoying until they are reduced to gurgles. Additionally, he constantly seems to be searching for something he describes as the "perfect sound", which he has only heard once. As part of his music, he likes to record the screams and noises of his victims, suggesting that he is also fairly apathetic about what he does.

He is not shown to be without mercy, however, as many times he has finished off those he deems pitiful. Moreover, during the training arc for the Inquisitors, he took initiative and attempted to kill the girl whom Sierra Gray was ordered to finish off despite her clear reluctance, making it so that she would not have to do the deed herself. He also did not want to kill the children whom Shidu told the group to get rid of, though he complied without audible protest. Formerly as the days moved along in Tokyo, he was seemingly changing into a better person behind as time passed. But after the death of his girlfriend Veli Batsu, he underwent a mental transition and has since then returned to his old savage ways. Albeit becoming more harsh, sadistic, and unforgiving than before. Additionally, his cannibalistic acts have worsened and as a result his sanity began to greatly deteriorate. He has since then stopped feasting on other ghouls, and appears to be stabilizing as he copes with past losses and trauma.

As the Senior Executive of Aogiri Tree, he is shown to have zero tolerance for foolishness and failure from those who work under him, and will often reprimand his subordinates violently or even kill them in cases of disobedience. He isn't totally cold and ruthless to them however, and will often give them useful advice for improvement in their skills. This is nothing short of an act however, to show case a hard exterior, as he doesn't truly care for leading another ghoul organization and only truly wants to support his friend, Maki Itokawa.

## Early Life

Daren was raised in the port city of Oakland and happily lived with his small family that consisted of his fairly young mother, father, and himself. His two parents were musicians and naturally, they possessed the same passion for music as he did. While he loved both of his guardians equally, Daren took after his compassionate mother and had a somewhat better relationship with her than his father, even inheriting his mother's ukaku kagune, rather than his father's rinkaku.

Around the time Daren was merely months old, there had been a major food shortage for ghouls who hunted or scavenged in the city. Due to heavy suppression operations commenced by the GSA and an evening curfew Oakland's mayor had issued upon all human residents. In response to this, many ghouls took to initiating nightly home invasions in order to get their rations for the month, only to be found by field agents and killed the next day.

As weeks passed, Daren's parents eventually ran out of human meat that was stored in their fridge and deeply lamented the fact that there were little to no sources left for more in the city to feed their hungry newborn son. Left with no other clear option or choice, the two fed their child pieces of their own flesh and binged on each other in order to get by through a new age of starvation. This solution lasted only for a short while before realizing that if they continued, their son would lose his mind and possibly become a kakuja too early on in his life.

Knowing the danger of this, Daren's parents took matters into their own hands and set out into the city to acquire the proper food for themselves and their child through ambushes on small groups of field agents, taking them all out with exceptional teamwork and execution. Among this, they also raided several warehouses and factories belonging to ghoul gangs who stored food inside. These were heinous and dangerous acts they committed, but the two cared little for that and only thought of their son's well-being, shedding no tears over the lives they took in order to keep him healthy and alive.

*To be continued at a later date.*

## Plot

### Newcomers

Daren was one of the new recruits present at the Inquisitors' initiation and arrived late to the shady and secretive event. There he met one of the mercenary leaders Shidu, who instructed him and the other newcomers torture a politician held captive under a photo shoot while photographers took snapshots to send to the contractor from whom they were hired by.

When his turn came, Daren began by impaling the man's lower abdomen to rip out his left kidney, which he nonchalantly discarded to Shidu. He continued on with his turn, but was almost sent into a berserk-like state during so due the snapping sound the photographers' cameras made, which he found to be heavily annoying to his ears.

He later killed one of the children who were caught eavesdropping by Ran on Shidu's order, and showed internal reluctance and regret for doing so. When Sierra Gray was pressured by Shidu to kill the child she was sent after and hesitated, he took the initiative and killed the little girl himself in a neck snap. When questioned by Sierra in an emotional rage, he merely told the woman that he killed the child for her sake before departing on Shidu's command.

### Raiding the Railroad

Daren was shown present at the outside gathering between Aogiri Tree and We've Gone Rogue members and their respective leaders at the time. He gazed up at the sky and thought about something briefly, but noticed someone watching him from afar. Once the raid on the train begins, Daren didn't participate and departed elsewhere.

### Corpse Collector

After the Inquisitors' large assignment to collect corpses, in which he did not participate, Daren spoke with Shidu in private and discussed the overall performance the hired ghouls. While Shidu gave him her harsh opinion of the overall results of the operation, he reminisced about the day he himself was a new recruit and shared his thoughts aloud with her in a playful manner. Shidu disapproved of Daren's merciful nature he showed towards Madi, whom he saved from being killed by Shidu herself. He told her that if he killed the child, it would have been a boring outcome and that letting her live was sure to bring about a more interesting factor.

The two continued to talk before Daren was dismissed by the female mercenary leader.

### Wintertide

Daren attended the assembly held by the leaders of Aogiri Tree and the Rogues; the No-Eyed King and the Ender. It was explained by the two that both organizations would work together to raid a hospital in the 3rd ward for the sole purpose of obtaining RC suppressants for Kana and her disease. Daren expressed negativity about the idea, irritated that the No-Eyed King could not go obtain the suppressants she desperately desired herself with her own vast power.

He was later present at a meeting called by Shidu with the topic being Sierra Gray and Anteiku. As she explained the details of Sierra's predicament and the assignment, Daren was sympathetic for the former inquisitor, and worried for her well-being.

Later, days before the raid on the hospital, Daren made an anonymous tip to the CCG and purposely misinformed them that a 'small group' of ghouls would raid a hospital located in the 3rd ward two days before the present time. He then suggested that a certain number of investigators be placed near the entrance before the call was ended.

Once the hospital raid began, Daren entered the building through a first floor window which led to one of the many labs located within the sanatorium. He slaughtered the scientists found within and journeyed out into the hallways where he then encountered a ghoul who went by the moniker of Mad Jack. He very briefly chatted with the other ghoul, before both were discovered by CCG investigators Shuya Yagi and Andrei Fukov, whom Daren and Mad Jack combated immediately. Near the end after the fight, he retreats from the hospital after buying enough time for Storyteller and a gravely injured Mad Jack to escape from a large group of doves.

Later, a few days after the Hospital Raid, Daren travels to the 20th Ward with Ayano Morino and Serafina Baxter accompanying him to Anteiku on orders from Shidu to kidnap Xeno Akizaki. The group were successful in their mission and hauled the unconscious Corpse Thief back to Yuureien.

## Powers and Abilities

As an Ukaku ghoul, Daren is immensely fast and agile. He is able to outpace his opponents with relative ease. He is intelligent, strategic, and tactical, often taking an analytic approach to combat. To a small degree, he is also a decent strategist, having sufficient enough knowledge to lead Discord into successfully conquering his hometown.

Daren was once well-versed in hand-to-hand combat, but through experiences and rigor training sessions with Veli Batsu, he has since then obtained a near mastery in bare fisted fighting and is equipped with a powerful variety of abilities and physical attributes.

He has a heightened sense of hearing, better than most ghouls, and is able to deduce who enemies are and how the battle flows based on solely sound vibrations.

Although not particularly large in muscle mass, Daren has also displayed a high amount of physical strength, seemingly able to snap the necks of both humans and ghouls with relative ease or obliterate concrete with his limbs.

### Physical Abilities

**Immense Strength:** Having been born as a ghoul, Daren is naturally seven times stronger than humans and possesses superhuman strength. However due to his refined body, he is also shown to be much stronger than most ghouls, and can rend them apart with his bare hands as easily as humans.

**Immense Speed & Reflexes:** Daren has displayed amazing speed. He is able quickly dodge the vast amount of ukaku shards being fired at him from close range by Kane Heyma, as well as evade extremely powerful and fast quinque attacks from Torabashi Kotetsu. His agility eventually becomes high enough to where he appears as a thin dark
streak when he runs.

**Immense Endurance & Stamina:** Though not having much resistance to pain, Daren is able to continue fighting in an unfazed manner even with severe injuries that would normally cripple or completely incapacitate another ghoul. Daren can continue to face foe after foe, even taking on numerous investigators from the CCG all at once. There's still a limit to his stamina however, as he began to grow fatigue while trying to defeat Torabashi Kotetsu. Despite his exhaustion, he still managed to escape at high speeds from the powerful investigator.

**Inhuman Regeneration:** After a period of time, Daren was able to recover from critical wounds inflicted on him by numerous ccharacters in the roleplay. His mending speed has since become much faster, though it remains slower than a rinkaku's regenerating prowess.

### Kagune

**Ukaku:** Daren has been shown using a pair of vermilion ukaku wings in combat. Slightly larger than others of his rate, each wing possesses great dexterity and durability. Aware of how weak ukaku ghouls are in close range combat, Daren often uses his kagune wings as melee weapons at short distances, as a way to negate this weakness. Additionally, projectiles shot from his wings are capable of severely damaging or even destroying koukaku kagunes/quinques around and under his rating, as a testament to his strength as a S rated ghoul.

**Ukaku Blade:** As he progressed in strength and power, Daren eventually gained enough control over his kagune to shape it into a blade that encases either of his arms. Though it hasn't been shown much in combat, it can be assumed that the youth is experienced in using it against his foes.

**Ukaku Kakuja:** TBA

## Gallery

Daren's old battle suit drawn by a unknown evil that will remain anonymous.Daren's old battle suit colored by /u/we7887Banner Daren made by /u/JokersMazeDaren's Trump Card.
## T R I V I A

* His favorite parts of the body (to eat) are the vocal cords.
* His favorite animal is a gray wolf, due to its howl.
* He dislikes sounds that are bad to his ears, often becoming irritated after hearing one.
* Some examples of this are bells and broken records.
* His favorite music genre is Electronic Rock, and his favorite musician to listen to is Celldweller.