ETSUGI AICHI
Name: Etsugi Aichi
Nickname/Alias: Ronin
Appearance:
Gender: Male
Age: 53
Build: 5'11 (180.3cm) and 200 lbs (90.7kg)
Faction: Department M
Power Classification: Genetic/Artifical
Description of Powers: Combat Evolved: Etsugi is the epitome of a warrior
Etsugi possesses immense combat skills, both offensive and defensive, that far surpasses that of many others. Etsugi's skills are innate but honed over a lifetime of bloodshed.
This encompasses speed, strength, precision, reflexes, technique, analysis, control, adaptation and all aspects of practical fighting are greatly enhanced. This is specialized towards specific types of weaponry such as melee weapons and small arms, and he wields them with surreal efficiency. Most observers are simply incapable to understand what's happening, with only someone versed in combat techniques being able to gauge the skill displayed by Etsugi.
On the scales of strength, Etsugi can lift up to three tons.
His agility is superior to Olympic-level athletes and other highly trained professionals in the field of gymnastics and acrobatics possessing perfect flexibility, balance, and bodily coordination. He possess enhanced durability, able to take significant and numerous blows before being damaged. His dexterity is supernatural making him immensely better at controlling his limbs, muscles, and digits than a regular human. He has high speed reflexes, allowing him to react and respond at an enhanced level.
Weaknesses: Ranged attacks invariably work best against Etsugi as closing the distance with him will be suicide for most character. He is also susceptible to elemental or magical attacks, particularly ones focused on lightning or electricity manipulation. While the parts of him that are cybernetic possess a thin layer of shielding against electromagnetic interference, they are still weak to them. Additionally, a lifetime of combat is beginning to show it's age. He's over fifty and not near as strong or as fast as he used to be, recovers just a little bit slower. He knows this will result in him soon dying. Instead of fearing the end, he welcomes it.
Equipment: Merely his two swords; his wakizashi and katana. Each sword is made of battle-steel, capable of slicing through armor like butter. The only ranged weapon his possesses is his custom built revolver firing .450 antimeta rounds and chambered to hold eight rounds.
Alignment: True Neutral
Nationality: Japanese
Hometown: Kyoto, Japan
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Personality: Since his near destruction at the hands of the Swarm in '06, the quiet, taciturn Etsugi has only become more tight lipped. Despite that, he is civil and formal when dealing with his peers and even with his enemies. In the face of adversity, he is stoic and unflinching. Despite that, he is a thoughtful, imaginative man, most often found water coloring the scenery in the mountains of North Korea in the very rare times he has free time outside of missions and training. The paintings he makes he gifts them to his peers on holidays or birthdays, often followed by bewildered looks from the peers he gives these to. To say there is a world of deep feeling and emotions behind the cold, cold eyes of Etsugi would be scoffed at by anyone that knew him. But sadly, very few take the time to know him.
Ultimately, it's a metahuman getting old and knowing he has nothing but the next mission to look forward to. He has nothing to survive him, no legacy, no family. And he will die on the battlefield locked only in the arms of his killer. It is a sad realization that the people in your life that you have been the most intimate with are the ones you kill. He regrets the decisions he's made, and he hates the Institute for what they took from him. A younger Etsugi might have sought revenge, especially for the callous disregard the Institute showed him after his extensive injuries, but the fires of revenge have dimmed.
Instead, he dreams of retirement and a small home in the mountains, left to his painting and memories. However, he always wakes to a world at war, destined to find his death on the field of battle.
Motivation: Etsugi lacks any clear motivations beyond completing the next mission. A secret dream is to retire but he knows he will never be able to.
Biography: Born in 1971 in Kyoto, Japan, at a young age Etsugi showed a physical capability beyond that of a normal child, showing a desire to be trained. At only four, he began training in martial arts, particularly in kendo, judo, and juijitsu. By age ten, he was winning in multiple city tournaments and was quickly becoming recognized on the national level. However, by the time of his majority came around, he shocked his family when he joined the Japanese Self Defense Forces in 1989. Within a year of joining, he was a close combat instructor.
Despite what he might have thought, he was noticed.
On a clear summer night in 91', he was closing up shop at a local dojo he trained at. As he was leaving, a team of special operators closed in on him. Something gave their positions away. Before they could incapacitate him, Etsugi with no weapons and completely surprised, was able to kill three men with his bare hands. Why he had been renditioned from his home was made all too clear when he was dropped at an Hawk Institute black site. Why he was there was made all too clear. He was to be studied, to be indoctrinated, and to become capable of more than what he was already able to accomplish.
From 91' to 1996, Etsugi was methodically broken over and over through a series of tests, training, and ritual torture. By the time it was over finally, Etsugi was considered a success, one of the first of the Institute. The physical enhancements, always lurking beneath the surface, were unlocked by the Institute. The training and torture had honed him to a razor edge. On the eve of 1997, he began operating as an agent of Hawk, often specializing in search and destroy missions where the fullest skills of the one known as Ronin could be unleashed on the enemy. He was highly skilled in successfully inserting himself in enemy territory and waiting for weeks at a time for the perfect opportunity to strike at the enemy.
Things would change at the beginning of the Swarm War. During a reconnaissance mission in Japan, the Hawk team he was part of was ambushed by the Swarm. Every single metahuman with Etsugi was killed in a matter of minutes, only Etsugi being able to close with the enemy before the hyper-edge blades of the Swarm removed his arms, the lower half of his face, and the bottoms of his legs. He was left for dead, but somehow he was left clinging to life. When he was found, he was barely alive but he was taken back to the Institute. He spent 2006 to 2009 in an Institute hospital where he was steadily built back, his missing limbs replaced with cybernetic ones, and where he had to learn to use them again. However, so much time had passed that by the time he was declared operationally ready, he was looked at as a bit of a tarnished gem, rather than showing that he had come out of his near death at a higher combat capability than before he had been injured.
Disillusioned with the way he was being treated by the Institute, he left their services and spent 2011 to 2016 operating as an independent contractor. Eventually, he was noticed by Department M while operating in Tibet. He was aggressively sought after by the North Koreans, and entered their services in the spring of 2017. Since that time, he has been an important member of Department M for the last seven years, operating exceptionally well and showing no compunctions to work against his former peers. Despite that, he has begun to show his age and he thinks more and more of retiring.
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