Masaru Shibata

Masaru after clearing a warehouse owned by the Four Kings.

> *"The Cannibal is near. He won't catch me off my guard this time."*
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**Masaru Shibata** otherwise known as **Kong** or mistakenly identified as **Miles Baker** by criminals in rumors is a vigilante doing work in Neo New York and is Miles Baker's successor. Unlike his mentor, he has no intention to harm innocent people and uses his powerful mantle against criminals who have wronged the peoples of Neo New York. Currently, he is working with Rasmus Clypeus to hunt down Resurgent members who can lead them to the Revenant.

## Personality

Without the Red Death on, he is a calm individual with an overall kind personality. He is rather protective of his belongings, especially his car, and shows great pride in his mechanical skill. He is rather talented in vehicle engineering and piloting, as he was almost invited to the Alliance's engineering program, but the Alliance's downfall would get in the way of that. He has been said to be rather excitable, and generally ignores social cues, leading to some awkward situations.

When the Red Death is put on, his personality takes a dramatic shift. He is now cold and calculating. He becomes more aggressive, and even shows anger towards his allies should he have any on the given mission. Miles predicts it is Masaru's method of coping with murder, but the real reason for this switch in personality is unknown.

## Appearance

When in casual clothing, he usually dons some sort of leather jacket over an undershirt with matching jeans and boots. His hair, black with hints of white detail in it, is styled in a manner reminiscent of a greaser. He is of athletic build.

When donning **"The Red Death"**, Kong usually follows with wearing a light combat suit that can allow for maneuverability as to not slow him down when in combat. The Red Death is a red ballistic mask capable of deflecting gunfire from even high caliber rifles. It is the most durable piece of equipment he has on when fighting. The mouthpiece on the mask clamp down on objects when directed to, allowing for a very damaging bite. It can also be directed to drool blood, which is used as a scare tactic against opponents.

## Background

Masaru Shibata comes from a generation of Void Walkers active in Tokyo, Japan, which was where he was born. He grew up trained in the ways of the Shibata Clan, and learned how to bend the energies of the Void to his will, taking complete advantage of his link to the Void. By the time he was a young man, he was active as one of his clan's greatest enforcers, and allowed for his clan to become one of the most feared across the prefecture, and then eventually, the entirety of Japan. His actions as an agent and his achievements in the engineering field went as far as to turn heads within the Alliance, but that was all he would get. The war between Alliance loyalists and seperatists would destroy all chances he would have of being an Alliance operative, and then eventually the following Spellplague event would result in catastrophe for him and his clan.

Masaru would watch in horror as his clan fell before his very eyes, the entirety of his clan engulfed by the Void. Seconds later, Masaru would find himself in a peculiar state of being, his physical being constantly switching between the Void, Earth-1, and eventually all realities. In a sense, he was a "glitch" in the system that is all realities, and a rare one at that. As he was randomly transported across the vast expanse of Deus' creation, he would use what time he had to put his engineering prowess to use to develop a device that would allow him to stay locked into the reality and dimension of his choosing. This was no easy task, especially for one man, but with certain assistance from other worldly entities, he would finally complete the construction of such a device. After six years of shifting across realities (1 1/2 Earth-1 years when taking into account time dilation) and training under his unidentified friend, he was finally able to go back home. Except for Masaru, there was no home to go back to. His clan had died. He had no reason to return, but he did anyway, albeit he refused to return to Japan. Instead he ventured off into Neo New York, where he would eventually find work as an enforcer under the infamous Miles Baker.

Now he acts in the shadows of Neo New York, this phantom from across the cosmos. A Void Walker at it's finest.

## Equipment

**The Red Death** - His signature ballistic mask, The Red Death is used as a form of protection, a disguise, and a scare tactic all in one. Masaru designed the mask using materials from the Black Forge, an abandoned weapons factory on the dead city of Amber found in Saturn.

**The Voidway** - A device using similar designs found in Visarian battleship Void Drives, the Voidway locks Masaru into the reality of his choice and allows him to switch between realities. Should this device be destroyed, Masaru would be caught in the hell that is reality instability. The Voidway also controls how much physical presence Masaru holds in his chosen reality, allowing him to act as a ghost and phase through structures. The device is powerful enough to even be able to launch Masaru *back* in time should he overload the device. This will result in the device's deactivation for around 10 minutes, but allows for changes to be made should an ally commit a fatal mistake. He has only used this ability once, and it resulted in severe damage across his body that took 4 months to fully recover from after accidentally sending himself a month into the past. The device is reliant on energy Masaru draws from the void. The Voidway can also allow several other entities to travel with him, like allies or vehicles. He can pull certain objects out of the Voidway as well.

**Chibi** - A small combat knife made of Amberstone, a metal from the dead city of Amber. The metal is toxic when subjected to blood.

**Kyodai** - A larger oriental style blade made of a regenerative metal known as Kee'ranos, this blade is literally not of this world. It was obtained by Masaru when he found himself in a marketplace of a Keeper planet.

> ***What the fuck did I make: The pinnacle of modern engineering.***
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> *"What happens when you give an engineer 2 bottles of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey, a criminally owned auto shop, a nice car, and alien technology? The WTF\_DIM-1. The DIM-1 is essentially a car that has been fined tuned and upgraded to be fast and maneuverable while also being able to remain bullet proof. Did I mention I put a Void-drive in the car? Can't run for longer than a minute, but it works. I also have a mini fridge in the back."* - Masaru Shibata
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No one knows what else he has put in his car. It can't be any good.

## Powers and Abilities

**(Passive) Massive Voidic Presence** - The Void is continuously pouring an excess amount of Voidic energy into Masaru, which is what resulted in his reality instability. In fact, the influx of voidic energy running through him is so high, he technically should not be alive. This excess of energy can react to Masaru's S-genes, so Masaru has allowed the Voidway to filtrate how much energy he processes into his body.

**Super Strength** - A permanent ability of Kong's high voidic presence, he has the same level of strength regardless of energy intake. It is unknown how strong Kong really is, as he has had near to no allies aside from Miles Baker. Until now.

**Invisibility** - This ability actually has nothing to do with his voidic energy, and instead relies on a device hidden underneath The Red Death. It allows Masaru nearly complete invisibility for stealth operations. The device is reliant on electricity.

Kong also maintains a wide arsenal of twisted magic attributed to Void Walkers, but is highly potent thanks to the amount of voidic energy flowing through him.

## Significant Traits

**Expert Hand-To-Hand Combat** - Training from an unidentified higher being, Miles Baker, and his Clan before their downfall has made him a very dangerous person when fighting in close quarters.

**Knowledge of Magical Entities/Deities** - Like Kid, he has gained a lot of knowledge on how Deus' multiverse actually works and the beings that make up this infinite sandbox.

**Immortality by Healing Factor** - Probably why Masaru was able to survive being an anomaly for so long, he shares this trait with many other stable Void Walkers. There is nothing stopping someone from destroying his Voidway, effectively knocking him out of a fight until he has the time to put on a spare or repair the one that is damaged.

**Shadow Sight** - Like kid, he can pinpoint the presence of other Void Walkers or Void based entities. Unlike Kid, he himself cannot be directly pinpointed, though his presence will surely be felt.

**Asian's aren't bad drivers!** - Masaru is an exceptionally talented driver, and has made it a habit of purposefully getting police to chase him so that he may simply outrun them.

**The things I've seen...** - Masaru pushes his guilt over murders and crimes deep down, along with the horrors he has seen on many alien battlefields or dead planets (such as Amber).

## Trivia

* His mother was Chinese and his father was Japanese, but he has revoked his Chinese citizenship in favor of an American one.
* Masaru describes his resurrection process as "disorienting", as he is met with visuals of travelling through the stars at speeds faster than the speed of light. This believed-to-be "hallucination" always ends with him crashing down onto his newly regenerated body. He wakes up from that point on.
* Masaru is the handler of a giant metal golem known as Dink-Dink.
* Masaru has been the only human to set foot on Amber since it's destruction in 2016.