Shin Asakura

**Shin Asakura** (朝倉あさくらシン *Asakura Shin***?**) is one of the deuteragonists in the manga series Sakamoto Days. He is an ex-hitman and an employee at the Sakamoto's Store. Shin is an old partner and former student of Taro Sakamoto. After failing to kill Sakamoto, Shin joins him and his family.

As of the JCC infiltration arc, Shin has become a first-year student at the JCC.

## Appearance

Shin is a slim, young man of medium height. He has blond, medium length hair and black eyes. His first appearance shows Shin in an open leather jacket along with a plain tee, baggy dark pants and bright tennis shoes. He later appears often in his work attire consisting of a collared dress shirt, a pair of slacks, and a green apron. His attire tends to vary as the chapters continue but keep the same basic green apron pattern.

## Personality

Shin is honest, straightforward and collected. He typically remains calm and composed even in serious situations, though this occasionally can be broken by comical bouts of anger, irritation or fear from mundane stimuli. Shin is confident but is not arrogant and remains analytical in fights. He takes pride in his clairvoyance, knowing its strengths, limitations and how to apply them in battle.

Shin has immense determination and willpower. This, coupled with his loyalty, inherently caring nature and value for life allows him to continue fighting against heavily stacked odds. Like many others, Shin respects and looks up to Sakamoto.

## History

Shin is the son of a man named Ando. Ando left Shin under the care of Asakura, a scientist, and researcher at the Okutabi Lab, a covert research institute located in the basement of the Okutabi Science Museum.

Over time, Asakura became a father figure to Shin. At some point in time, Asakura developed a promising chemical. While he was trying to cross-reference it with past data, a half-asleep and thirsty Shin accidentally drank it. Shin later developed his mind-reading power from the liquid and has fun with it by reading and telling(bluntly) the thoughts of Asakura's colleagues. However, they gradually started to avoid Shin. The remorseful Asakura then intends to create a drug to reverse Shin's power, yet he insists that Asakura's research is not stupid. But fed up with the lab's depressing environment, he left.

He then went on to become a hitman and partner of Taro Sakamoto. After Sakamoto retired, Shin was assigned to kill him. After failing, he currently works as a store clerk at Sakamoto's shop.

## Relationships

### Ando

It's unknown on how Shin feels towards his biological father. Shin doesn't appear to have any resentment or harbor negative feelings for him, but this may be because he was very young when he left with Asakura and the researchers of the lab.

### Asakura

Asakura was like an uncle and parent to Shin, and took care of him when he was still a child, until Shin left the lab, Shin met Asakura again while on a mission to save Lu Shaotang, they value each other.

#### Taro Sakamoto

Shin was formerly a partner of legendary hitman, Taro Sakamoto during Sakamoto's hitman days. He now works as an employee, with Sakamoto as his boss, in Sakamoto's shop. The two have fought together with extreme efficiency.

### Hana Sakamoto

Hana Sakamoto is the daughter of Taro Sakamoto and Aoi Sakamoto, Shin is like an older brother to her

#### Lu Shaotang

Lu Shaotang is the daughter of a Triad Family. She currently works alongside Shin as a store clerk at Sakamoto's and can be considered a part of the Sakamoto Family. While the two often bicker, they value each other greatly and can work as an effective team.

#### Heisuke Mashimo

Shin considers Heisuke annoying and dislikes reading his thoughts. However, he still considers Heisuke a valuable companion.

#### Akira Akao

Shin met Akira during the JCC exams. When Shin went to JCC's assassin classes, he ended up bumping into Akira, and they became friends.

**Natsuki Seba**

Shin and Seba met while shin and sakamoto on a mission to save Lu Shaotang, Shin & Heisuke Mashimo vs. Seba the second meeting was during the JCC exams, they fought together and became partner

## Skills & Abilities

**Overall Skill Level**: Though weaker than the average JAA teacher and Sakamoto, Shin is a competent hand-to-hand combatant. They are quite similar to Mr. Sakamoto's skills but not as advanced. Due to being a part of the Sakamoto family, Shin must restrain himself from killing anyone.

**Enhanced Strength**: As a trained assassin, Shin has enhanced strength. In addition to easily being capable of brutalizing ordinary humans, he has held his own against powerful serial killers such as Saw, as well as dealing blows powerful enough to Shinaya that Gaku (who was controlling Shinaya and capable of fighting Order members), decided to take him more seriously. Shin was also able to dive down, retrieve an unconscious Toramaru and swim back to the surface.

**Enhanced Speed and Reflexes**: In addition to his clairvoyance, Shin is naturally fast. He was able to avoid blows from Toramaru and Shinaya, both special-recommendation JAA applicants. During a fight on a rollercoaster track, Shin was able to dodge an incoming cart and evade throwing knives in midair. When Shin was blinded by poison, he read Sakamoto's mind to deduce the enemy's movements and counter them.

**Enhanced Durability**: Shin was able to take blows from Shinaya, who was able to send fellow assassins flying with one hand. After being sent flying across a theme park and crashing onto a stage, Shin got up with no difficulty. Shin was even able to take casual strikes from Sakamoto.

**Clairvoyance**: Shin has the ability to read the minds within a 20-meter radius by tuning into their mind like a radio. He can pick out specific people due to their emotional state. Shin typically uses this to predict enemy movements or deduce what they're thinking. However, Shin's clairvoyance is less beneficial if the person's thoughts are too overwhelming for him to read, or if the opponent is too fast for him to react anyways.

His ability is dependent on electromagnetic waves; Natsuki Seba's hood, which blocks such waves, can prevent Shin from reading his mind.

**Precognition**: By reading a person's motor-readiness potential (i.e., the spike in activity in the brain's motor areas before a muscle movement), Shin can see the future actions of someone. In the manga, this precognition is visualized by a number of juxtapositions of what will happen. However, overusing this ability causes great pain. Granny Miya comments that at Shin should only use his precognition for 5 minutes a day.

**Miscellaneous Hitman Training**: As an assassin, Shin also acquired a number of essential skills such as basic martial arts, gun handling and a degree of poison tolerance.

## Equipment

**Power Glove**: Created by Natsuki Seba, the glove gives Shin access to enhanced strength by turning off the limiter in his brain in order to utilize his own latent potential. When attacking with the glove, there is a delayed reaction which requires Shin to have to look into the future in order to use it properly. The more of a delay there is, the more powerful the attack. Upon receiving the glove initially, the delay is set to 0.5 seconds.

## Battles & Events

* Introduction Arc
	+ Taro Sakamoto vs Shin Asakura
	+ Taro Sakamoto, Shin Asakura & Lu Shaotang vs Son Hee & Bacho
	+ Taro Sakamoto, Shin Asakura & Lu Shaotang vs Son Hee & Bacho
* Assassin Killer Arc
	+ Taro Sakamoto & Shin Asakura vs. Mall shoppers
	+ Taro Sakamoto & Shin Asakura vs. Heisuke Mashimo
* Lab Arc
	+ Taro Sakamoto & Shin Asakura vs. Okutabi Lab Personnel
	+ Taro Sakamoto & Shin Asakura vs. Mad Scientist Horiguchi
* Death Row Prisoners Arc
	+ Shin Asakura & Lu vs Saw
* JCC Transfer Exam Arc
	+ Shin Asakura vs Mafuyu Seba
	+ Shin Asakura vs Nao Toramaru
	+ Shin Asakura, Mafuyu Seba, Nao Toramaru & Joichiro Kaji vs Gaku
* JCC Infiltration Arc
	+ Shin Asakura, Akira Akao & Seba vs Satoda
	+ Shin Asakura, Seba & Amane vs Club Jam

## Etymology

* The name **Shin** is written in katakana (シン), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (真), it could possibly mean "real, genuine".
* Shin's surname **Asakura** means "morning" (朝) (**asa**) and "warehouse, storehouse, barn, treasury, granary, cellar, magazine, godown, depository, elevator, storage place, repository, supply shed, grain elevator, stockpile, arsenal" (倉) (**kura**).

## Trivia

* Shin ranked 1st place in the manga's 1st Character Popularity Poll with 12,738.
* In his first appearance, Shin was a smoker, but he seems have quit smoking since his employment at Sakamoto's.
* Shin likes Cotton Candy.
* Due to being unable to understand his thoughts, Shin is terrified of Wutang.
* Shin likes cute dogs