Aki Shizuko

Aki Shizuko

**Aki Shizuko** is the **Jito** of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region. Virtually born into the ranks of the Battotai, the former Kansai Shugo, Akuma-sensei is her grandfather who drove her education in swordsmanship from an early age to hopefully one day inherit the role of Kansai Shugo from Misao Yamada, the current Kansai Shugo. Serving as an official member of the Battotai in Nara Prefecture since the age of 14, Aki quickly gained combat experience against Oni with her given training, achieving consecutive victories throughout the prefecture underneath the previous Nara Jito. Since this age, her reputation as a swordswoman only grew exponentially with her skill, earning widespread recognition for her abilities and successful missions. Descended from **Clan Shizuko**, Aki was also an heiress to a wealthy estate that would come to be known as the **Nara Ryokan**, using her own family home as the training grounds and residency for the Nara Battotai with permission of her grandfather.

Her parents were killed independently of each other in separate missions — both of them being members of the Battotai — when she was in her early childhood. One could infer that these deaths had a major impact on Aki's growth, acting as a powerful catalyst in her training and approach towards mentoring students and caring for orphans. Alongside her powerful swordsmanship skills, her reputation for being a charitable Jito to local communities has also been noted. Her caring nature has also drawn a sizable population of minor kami to inhabit her home, including Kinoko-sensei and Gensei-sama, to name a few.

In 2015, three years before the present day of Shinto, Aki was a participant in the widespread onslaught of Oni during the winter solstice. Despite grievous casualties to the Battotai, her actions and decisive leadership earned her the title *The Sword of Yoshino* for her ferocity and seemingly invincible battle prowess in the nearby city of **Yoshino**. In the battle, she defeated a corrupted Tengu known as **Saizhen** in single combat over a prolonged duel.

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### Physical Description

For many, Aki has been described as a beautiful and benevolent young woman whose athletic body is one of her most defining traits. Having a preference for red ribbons to tie her hair, she is also known for wearing her signature *jingasa* hat, an unsuspecting family heirloom that she holds with great esteem. With armguards as her only form of armor, she has a preference for loose or light clothing to ensure maximum speed and maneuverability in battle. At her side, a katana is her standard weapon for battle. For prolonged battles and missions, she can be seen with a basket on her back with a special Tamahagane lantern inside of it.

### Personality

Aki's personality has been noted to be gentle, motherly, and even shy to some extent from a slight lack of confidence in her abilities as a **Jito** and thus, a mentor for her students. Since Aki is not a stranger to death, the losses of her parents, comrades, and students have had a tremendous but internalized effect on her self-esteem. Despite these challenges, active encouragement from the kami of the Nara Ryokan and the accomplishments of the **Third Generation** have been effective counterbalances to such struggles. As a **Jito**, she has immense personal experience that can be drawn upon for her training exercises. Despite the absence of her parents, her students describe her as an elder sister or even a motherly figure. In battle, her lack of words should not be taken as docile submission — instead, she prefers to allow action to take precedence. In such conflicts, hesitation is absent from her mental space as she fights Oni with immense discipline and precision.

### Abilities

**Tengoku of Takemikazuchi** | As a Tengoku of Takemikazuchi, her greatest ability would be her extraordinary swordsmanship skills which have been described as near-godlike, and potentially able to reach the level of Misao Yamada. Despite her relatively young age, she demonstrates a capacity for swordsmanship that has exceeded the level of her former mentors and many other master swordsmen in Japan, though with only a katana. Her peak speeds have been compared to near-teleportation, and her ability to apply the fundamental concepts of *kenjutsu* has allowed her to decimate powerful Oni and Tengu in battle.