Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Oh! no. It's Ono.

By S.Burns

I am Shinzo Oritomo and I was born in 2048 in a small village outside Tokyo. Born to a Japanese mother and father I was raised with the traditional beliefs of our ancestors, the samurai, believing in their honour and rules.

From an early age, I have been told 3 but I was too young to accurately remember, I was trained in the old ways. My father was an old Sensei of various styles including Kobudo and Jiu-Jitsu and knew all of the martial techniques that would get me through life, training me for 8 hours a day on both unarmed and armed combat and spiritual techniques to improve my mind and body. After father had finished mother would take over for a further 8 hours schooling me in mathematics and calligraphy, and also English which had become the language of the world, “Without knowledge there is no power” she use to say.

Every day my father would stress to me that “even though someone appears to be the bad guy, they are the good guy to someone”. At first I did not understand what was meant by that, it seemed ridiculous, bad guys are bad and good guys are good but I found out later in life that my father was right all along.

My childhood did not hold much time for me to play and as such I was born with more of a sense of purpose in life, to protect those I loved and those whom I owed a debt. I was training to be one of the defenders of the town, a group known as the “Dragon’s Talons” people prepared to give their lives to maintain the village in the way it was and the way it had been for centuries.

Some time in my early to mid teens, I can’t quite remember when, I changed. I became a Troll and I thought my life was going to end. Looking back it must have been funny for everyone, me changing in looks on a day to day basis, although the pain was more than I could bear at times. Only the Techniques my father taught me kept the pain at bay and allowed me to live a next to normal life for the period of my change.

Not long after this I was asked to join the Dragon’s Talons, My father was their Sensei and Nagesoma Tanaka, their Daimyo which is an old title meaning Feudal Lord, had seen me training one day when my father over-ran with the training. It turned out later that he had done it on purpose so that Nagesoma would see my abilities.

The other members of the Dragon’s Talons believed I had only been invited to join because of my father’s status and as such made it as difficult for me as possible during training. At first I was annoyed as my father did nothing to stop them, but now I am glad he did not, it made me realise that all obstacles that fall before us are for us to deal with alone. This is what makes us strong.

Every training session I would enter the grounds and the others would say “Oh no here comes Shinzo”. As I was home taught they did not realise I could speak English and they had said it in English to try to hide it from me. I thought about it and adopted Ono as my name it seemed right for some reason which I could not explain, I suppose it was because it was close to Oni which is the Japanese for Demon, and also it is a type of battle axe. Either way I liked it and it became my call sign.

Training every day was a part of my life for years, training and learning and putting into practice the strictures of being a Samurai, I was given a set of armour and my father passed me the family sword, it was an over long 36” blade Katana with a Di-coated cutting edge. The sword was intricately decorated with jade and gold and the tsuka was in the shape of two dragons attacking each other.

A couple of years ago my life changed though. Big business caught site of our village and decided it would make a good site for a theme park, they didn’t care about the traditions being upheld or the people that lived their, all they cared for was money. These “Law abiding” people wrecked the lives of thousands of people a day and were allowed to get away with it. What my father had said before was true “even though someone appears to be the bad guy, they are the good guy to someone” and it appeared that these business men were the good guys to the banks and the law.

My village was wiped out by Earth movers and diggers in one day, I remember it as clear as if it were happening now.

I had fought through a number of enemies and in the process had come across a Troll in security armour working for Kanetaka corporation, the battle that ensued caught the attention of all of the other fighters as I had my sword still sheathed and was standing still while the other troll circled me. After a number of circles the Corp Troll lunged forward and I sidestepped, drawing My blade and slicing in a downward arc. The blade struck deep but did not kill, and I sheathed it again in one fluid movement. I had always been taught that the blade should not be exposed unless you intend to kill with it.

“Leave and you can live” I told the other Troll who was holding the deep cut across his abdomen. With Fury building in his eyes he lunged forward again and aimed his sword right at my throat. I realised that he was going to have to kill this Troll and I was sorry for the waste of life, especially as I knew he was only following the words of another, but I knew that it must be done. As the blade of the Corp troll reached me, I side stepped, spun around drawing my blade and struck across the back of his neck. The blade cut through the armour and removed the trolls head from his shoulders.

When the corporate boss, a man called Toshahiro Kanetaka, saw his men being beaten back he ordered the machines to move in. the village was crushed under the machines and many of my friends perished including my parents.

I slumped into a terrible state for a number of months but finally had a vision in one of my restless dreams. My father and mother spoke to me and told me that I should not be running from life, this was one of the obstacles that I must overcome and that I must do it alone. As they faded I remember the last phrase was “even though someone appears to be the bad guy, they are the good guy to someone”

I looked into this Toshahiro Kanetaka and found that he had moved to the U.S. I had to avenge my family and friends but I did not know where to start. My fathers words reverberated in my mind and I realised that there were a section of society that were known as shadow runners, these people were all over the place and were seen by most as common criminals. “Although someone appears to be the bad guy, they are the good guy to someone” Shadow runners would not have jobs if it were not for people seeing them as the good guys.

I caught a flight out to America, San Francisco to be precise. It was the last place that HE had been spotted and it seemed like a good place to start working. It took me a while to find contacts that pointed me in the right direction but there were a few people who listened to my plight and tried to help in any way possible.

Jobs started coming in but I kept my traditional values, making sure that I washed after every fight to keep the un-clean blood off my clothing, never touching the dead and praying for the spirits of the departed.
My moral code is long but I think it has secured me a few jobs in the past, it is better to have someone with a strict moral code than someone who has none…



Ono’s Description.

Facial

Ono’s facial features are Still distinctively Japanese. His eyebrows and nose have greatly expanded and his brow has become a lot harder and more pronounced but beneath it all there is still the traditional fine lines of a Japanese face.

Eyes: Black
Hair: Blue/Black
Complexion: Pale/Yellow

Body

Ono’s Body is hugely muscled, he is toned and he has started growing hair from his chest, this is a result of the Trollification as he never used to hair chest hair. Toned by years of training and meditation, there is not an ounce of Fat on Ono’s body giving him a very “ripped” appearance. Ono’s body stat’s are as follows;

Height: 3.1 Metres (in his socks)
Weight: 26 Stone (364Lbs or 165.5Kg)
Waist: 38 Inch
Chest: 64 Inch
Shoes: Size 18
Ring: Size Z (Ring finger on both hands)
Wrist: 8 Inches

Clothing

Ono is mostly at home in traditional Japanese clothing such as Hakima and kimono, however he realises that this is impractical for street use. During his time on the streets he has learnt how the average “joe” dresses but even so he is never far from his roots. His clothing is of western construction but in the Eastern style, a blend of both worlds which work surprisingly well. On a couple of occasions he has been complimented on his clothing. His normal clothing consists of:

· Lined coat (black with a shiny black dragon talon on the back. The dragon talon only shows in either ultraviolet light or when the light catches it right
· Linen shirt (Cream with Japanese characters written on the back saying “loyalty” down one side and “honour” down the other)
· Linen Trousers (black modified Hakima which fit inside Ono’s Boot. The bottom of the trousers have a silvered Dragon climbing the right leg)
· Bikers Boots (Slightly modified so that the clasps on the boots are in the shape of Dragons Talons. A dragon has been crafted into the sole which is left behind in Snow, mud or other Viscose substances

Sword

Ono’s Sword is an ancestral blade. The metal of the blade was folded a total of 56 times, which makes the sword one of the finest ever crafted in the old style. Newer blades are as deadly but they do not have the “Soul folds” where the spirits of their ancestors lay within the blade.

Blade has been made from folded steel which gives off a strange blue tint as though it was blued steel that was used. There is no blood groove which is so common in swords of modern times as this sword was made in the 1500’s
The hand guard and pommel is covered in fine gold leaf and has been lacquered so that the gold leaf will never wear, the gold and lacquer combination gives of a sparkle beyond belief. The design of the Tsuka or hand guard is that of two dragons locked in mortal combat.
The handle is bound in silk rope over two charms in the handle. The charms, made of gold depict the craftsman and the original owner of the sword, one on either side
The scabbard is coloured with a unique dragon design and written along the scabbard are the words “wind” and “Fury”

Ono, also has the matching Wakasashi which was the original sword of the Samurai, this is always kept crossing the Katana on Ono’s Quick draw rig which he designed himself

Crossbow

Ono’s crossbow is much the same as any other heavy crossbow although the stock is shaped like a dragon.

Ono’s Honour code.

Must not do’s

1. Never use firearms, they are not the way of Bushido
2. Never attack a person from behind, show them the honour of seeing their end coming.
3. Never hurt an Unarmed person unless they pose a threat
4. Never touch the bodies of the dead, they are unclean and should only be touched by those shown how to do so.
5. Never draw my weapon unless I am going to use it. It is the soul of my ancestors and not a display piece.


Must do’s

1. Assist my friends even if it means I am injured or captured
2. Always Meditate for 1 hour each night
3. Always ritually bathe after a battle, blood is unclean and shall be removed as soon as possible.
4. Always take care of my Armour and weapons. They are what keeps me alive
5. Put the value of life above money at ALL times
6. Always answer the call of those I owe a debt even if I am in the middle of something else. If more than one person I owe a debt, needs me at one time help the one who’s debt is greater first.
7. protect the integrity of my Sensei at all times
8. Maintain my countries traditional heritage in all that I do,Never bring shame on my family name

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most excellent dude - I knew you could pull it off ;o)

Owain said...

The team is coming together nicely, all we need to do is convince Trev that he wants to be a mage and we are laughing.

Owain said...

Stu has sent me some new stuff for his character whixh I have retro-added to his character background to keep it all together.

Anonymous said...

That was my old description mate, not much changed just the names of the parts of the sword etc. Any chance the up to date one could be added?

Owain said...

what I have posted is the latest version I thought I had. If you do want anything changing you will have to send me another email as I have since deleted it.

Apologies if I have not posted the correct version.